IndianaFinesse

The magnum pop-r is a little heavier than the standard size, and is very inexpensive. It was my top producing topwater last year besides frogs. The pop max is another good option if you as willing to spend that much, I have the smaller version of it (the pop x) and is it is a super versatile bait. You can pop it, walk it, make it spit, it is like having three lures in one.

I'd go with bright yellow or fluorescent orange instead of red for the added visibility, the fish could care less which color your line is.

I prefer to cast parallel to the bank because it makes it easier to maintain the correct depth, and my bait is in the strike zone for the entire cast.

Its similar to a nose hooked fluke/finesse worm popular a while back, putting the hook back through the worm should increase the durability though. Could be used near the surface as "floating" (they don't really float but that's what they're called) worm. BTW, if you want a slower falling ned rig, try a 1/32 ounce mushroom head instead of a 1/16. Still doesn't fish as well over submerged vegetation as your weightless worm, but its better in more open areas.

I did some looking around online, and found reports of all stores closing to only half of the stores closing, and everything in between. The only thing everyone agreed on was that camping world bought out gander mountain on Friday (who filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy) and somewhere between 50% and 100% of the stores are closing. My local gander already has a sign advertising closing sales, and that store is listed as on of the stores staying open on twitter, so I suspect that may not be an accurate list.

I have yet to catch a dd bass, but then again fishing in Indiana I have something like a 0.3% chance of catching a dd bass in my lifetime. But I do feel very fortunate to have caught a bass that weighed 8.2 pounds (and it was on the Ned rig to...) in Indiana.

And I catch ten pounders on every cast! Sorry about the fish, man. I have never lost (or hooked) one that big, but I can still remember a couple of bass that looked to be five plus pounds getting loose like it was yesterday. I can vividly remember seeing each one either spit the hook when it jumped, making a last minute run at the boat, or rapping me around a dock post. Thinking of those fish will help get you out fishing on nasty days when you feel like laying around inside instead of fishing, use it as motivation.

I use a rapala electric filet knife (way faster than a regular filet knife, I can clean four fish with electric to one with nonelectric). Base the length of blade on the size (depth) of fish you will be cleaning with it. I use a 7.5 inch blade mostly for crappie, white bass, and occasionally bluegill, catfish under 6-7 pounds, or pike and walleye. The only time I clean catfish is when a guy I know who likes catfish wants to buy some, so I don't have a ton of experience cleaning them. When I do, I usually either use a pair of tile snips, which are almost identical to commercial catfish skinners, or just skin them with a knife.

They're still keeping quite a few stores open, despite going into chapter 11 bankruptcy. Not sure how that works, but here's a link to a list of stores staying open. https://mobile.twitter.com/GanderMtn

I just keep mine in plano boxes, but I dry them out first by swinging them around in circles when still tied to my rod a dozen times or so until they at dry. The other purpose it serves is to straighten out the hair, so it doesn't get stuck together. I like the little ziplock bag idea though, it would eliminate the problem of hair tangling with the hooks. I might try putting them in the bags and then sticking them in there respective plano compartments, so that its easier to keep them organized.

...Enough cash to buy a whole bunch of other baits. Kidding aside, I would put in a popping pad crasher, a junior pad crasher, some zinkerzs to put on some 1/16 ounce mushroom heads, some senkos and 3/0 ewg hooks and gamakatsu wacky hooks, zoom 4.5 inch trick worm and full size trick worm, some 1/8 ounce owner shaky heads, a bandit 100, a pop x and pop-r, a buzzbait or whopper plopper, a junior super spook, a #5, #7 and #8 shad raps, a deep little n, a 3/8 and 1/2 ounce arky style dirty jig, a 3/16 ounce baby boo jig with zoom super chunk junior as a trailer, a vision 110, a silver Buddy, a 1/8 ounce inline spinner, a chatterbait, and that's all.

The water temperature was up to 70 here last week and the bass were on the beds big time, but now that the water temperature is 56 and falling they seem to have temporarily moved off of the beds but are staying nearby. Look for small coves without a feeder creek (they are bring in a lot of cold, muddy water right now), and try to we establish a pattern. Here they are sitting tight to the edges of docks that also have a large rock or a transition of bottom types or something. They are also stacked up on small amounts of water coming in threw drain pipes or something in the back of said coves, caught five bass in five casts from a two square foot area in front of one last night. I would recccomend the Ned rig, small shallow running cranks (bandit 100), smaller shatterbaits fished slow, slow rolled spinnerbaits, and a finesse jig. Remember to fish slow, the huge cold front and all of the cold rain has slowed them down considerably.

I wouldn't bother with the protective clear coat, but then again I love a beat up bait covered in scrapes and scratches from fish. Every scratch tells a story and brings back a memory.

Senko, your already throwing the best.

I'm sure these will work just as well, just found it interesting and was wondering if they had changed it on purpose.

Thanks for the reply's, I must have just got a batch that didn't have as much salt as normal, cause the amount of salt is definitely a lot lower. I tested the sink rates to and they mostly floated right out of the package or barely sank, instead of sinking fairly fast.

I've had fish jump into trees before, but i managed to get them all out. I once had a bullhead jump clear out of the water to grab my stinkbait, I was shore fishing and got the line major tangled in a bush on the shoreline and while untangling the fish jumped up and ate it. Another time I accidentally casted across a dock, and while reeling in to get over the dock I hooked a bass. Which would have been fine, but while reeling the small bass over top of the dock the hook so somehow got snagged in the wood planking. I would have simply gone over and retrieved it, but there was a large rottweiler on the dock that was interested/confused as to why a fish was flopping on his dock. He couldn't figure out what to do with it, the dog kept darting towards it while barking and quickly biting it until the bass flopped, at which it would run away from it for a few seconds. So I had to wait till the dog finally lost interest and left to retrieve the now dead fish. Funniest thing ever to watch, a big rottweiler somewhat afraid of yet curious in a twelve inch bass.

Been fishing in the rain on Monday and Tuesday, caught 14 in an hour on Monday with all but bone being keepers and 13 with 11 being keepers in an hour and a half on Tuesday. They've mostly moved off of the beds since the cold front and all of the rain, but are sitting tight to docks and other cover neareby. They have been very predictable, if there's an edge of a dock and another transition such as a ladder or a change from rip rap to sea wall. Put two or three together and there was a garrunteed fish on it, it was so predictable I started calling my shots and was right most of the time. Most fish were caught on zinkerzs, but some were also on a finesse jig and shallow crank.

I haven't tried them on a Carolina rig yet, partially because I can't stand throwing one. Would much rather drag a football jig or something instead. Have you noticed any difference in the salt content of zinkerzs recently?

I really like how each rod as a hole, that way they aren't banging into each other. Never seen a rod locker rigged up that way, but I like it.

Yep, tried them wacky rigged, t-rigged, and on a shaky head but I prefer other baits for those techniques. I still probably go through 12+ packs a year even though they don't tear, thanks to unseen snags underneath docks in deeper water than I would like to swim in.

My motor breaking down after driving two and a half hours to prefish for a tournament, and then the day before the tournament due to that part taking a few other parts with it, after paying crazy overnight shipping to get the parts on time. Now that problem caused another that may keep us out of this weekends tournament, which would ruin us from a aoy point standpoint. That and the day my villain broke will trying to unsnag my fifth snagged lc pointer of the day, after losing my nice rubber net in an attempt to unsnag it also. Luckily I only paid fifty bucks for the villain, but losing a total of 200$ worth of gear that day really, really hurt.

Using an extremely expensive bait casting comb to throw lite baits that should really be on a spinning rod.

They are still the softest stick bait I have ever felt, but they aren't as soft as my other packages have been. The more salt there is in the bait originally, the more holes in the soft plastic once the salt dissolves, which makes them softer.

I just got three packs of zinkerzs in the mail today, and when I opened them up and stretched the salt out i noticed that there seems to be a much lower salt content. All of the packs were this way, they all had substantially less salt in them than my other bags. Does anyone know if zman changed the salt content in the zinkerz? I hope I just got a bad batch, they were softer before.