IndianaFinesse

Everyone always has to blame the coach for not having the right players to work with.

I almost did, but I loved it so much I ended up replacing it, and I am sure glad I did.

I Have never heard of the certificate awards for big fish, where do you find it and how does it work? I looked around on the IDNR site and couldn't find it. Edit: I looked through the 2015 fish of the year awards and saw your name in there, so that must be what you're talking about. So never mind.

I lost my megabass vision 110 on it's second trip out...

Fishing isn't over till lures start bouncing off the water. The ned rig, small bucktails, blade baits, jigs, and suspending jerkbaits (if the clarity holds up) are about all you need during the late fall/winter. Target steep dropping shorelines and points where the channel cuts in close to the bank.

Or stepping on Lego's! Those things feel like they've been sharpened when I step on them.

Dicks Sporting goods now has 20% off nearly everything, in addition to the free shipping no minimum.

I've caught catfish on just about everything. Crankbaits seem to catch the most for some reason, probably because the catfish hone in on the vibrations like you were thinking.

Yep, if I tried to open the split rings that I typically replace the stock split rings with my finger nails, I would most likely be short at least part of my thumb nail!

Dicks also has free shipping no minimum, but i'm gonna wait and see if there's any good deals on black Friday/syber Monday.

Needle nose pliers.

Man, that sounds fun! I would love to try topwater fishing for tuna, that sounds like it would be even more of an adrenaline rush than frog fishing for bass!

Fixed that for you.

As everyone else said, I use a palomer knot for everything. The only thing I do different with straight braid is wrap the braid around the eye twice before starting the knot, don't know if it helps or not but I figured it might help prevent slippage.

I did not, I kept expecting to hear from them so I waited. I guess it means I'm in the market for another frog rod... again lol. I will be looking for some deals on cyber Monday and online on black Friday. I'll post back here once I buy a rod and have used it a few times.

Well, I found out why it took nearly five months. When I finally got a hold of the the right person said that my rod got dropped off across the street from the customer service center and sat there for a few months, until someone that worked there must have tossed it thinking it was empty or something. They decided to just refund the purchase price. So it finally turned out ok, I guess it's mostly fed-x's fault and they were nice enough to give me a refund, so although it took a while they still do have pretty good customer service over all.

I use braid for all of my topwater fishing, some with a leader and some with straight braid. I only use a leader for walking baits and poppers with everything else typically tied on to straight braid, and I would use straight braid for those too but braid tends to get tangled around the treble hooks.

Suspending jerkbaits, the ned rig, blade baits, and small 1/8 ounce bucktail jigs will cover just about every situation you are likely to face in the winter.

Gp sexy shad, it's the perfect combination of semi-transparent, some blue on top, white belly, and a faint chartruse stripe along the side.

Not necessarily, shorter rods are easier to use from the shore, but the drawback is that it will also shorten your casting distance and therefore how long the crankbait is at it's maximum diving depth.

You should try what @Bluebasser86 calls "bass fishing for catfish". It's basically retrieving a piece of cutbait in a similar way as you would a texas rig, just a little bit slower. It's a lot more exciting than simply waiting for a catfish to find you bait, and it often catches more fish because you are covering water faster.

Like @LikeDaBass said, one of the three main reasons is that it is easier to glue the bait onto a mushroom head jig because of the increased surface area. Also another reason is that a mushroom jig has a slightly slower fall than a ball head jig, its not a lot but it does make a difference. And finally, it snags less than ball head jigs because it is less apt to fall into small crevices in rocks where the ned rig is often fished. While i'm sure that rig catches plenty of bass, I would highly recommend giving half of a zinker-z on a 1/15 or 1/20 ounce shroom-z jig head a chance. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at how many more bass it catches than your current rig, elaz-tech is much softer and more boyant than plastisol so it has a shimmy in the water like no other plastic. You will also find that you have to replace the bait much less frequently than with regular plastics, I average roughly 50-75 bass per half of a zinker-z and my record is 108 bass on a single 2.5 inch piece of a zinker.

This. The original "ned rig" was half of a Zinkerz or half of a Zero (they are the same bait, both are made by z-man but the zero is sold by strike king) on either a 1/32 ounce mushroom jig with a #6 hook, a 1/16 ounce mushroom head on a #4 hook, or occasionally a 3/32 ounce mushroom head on a #2 hook. Many of the new comers to Ned rigging are now using a trd instead of half of a zinkerz, but I still almost exclusively use zinkerz's because they are much softer and have a better wiggle than a TRD. You also get twelve half's of zinkerz's for the same price as eight trd's, so they are also cheaper in addition to being more effective.

I fish for white bass a lot during the spring and fall, the lake I live on has two feeder creeks, but both of them have an overflow type dam preventing the fish to go upstream. Some of the white bass go right up next to the dams to spawn, but the majority actually seemed to spawn on steep dropping rip-rap banks so that is something you might want to try next spring. I have not personally fished it, but I have heard that raccoon lake has a good white bass bite that go upstream there. They aren't to picky when it comes to lures, almost anything small and whiteish will get eaten. My favorite is an 1/8 ounce white inline spinner from blue fox or a roostertail, but another popular choice is a two inch curly tail grub. If you don't want to wait till spring to get on some white bass, they are hitting pretty good right now on small spinners. The conditions to look for right now is a few days in a row with steady wind going toward points, especially points with rip-rap on them. They feed close to the shore where the shad are getting blown into, so it's a good time to target them from shore if you don't have a boat. If they aren't on wind blown points and you have a boat, a good fall back is trolling spinners around, and if you find an area where you are consistently getting fish you can go back and cast at the school if the school is somewhat stationary. White bass often move around quickly following shad schools, so move around often and don't give any area long if it doesn't produce fish within a few minutes.

I am first and foremost a bass fisherman, however I always fish for whatever is biting best, I don't care if it's crappie, bass, white bass, catfish, trout, pike, walleye, big bluegill, or even carp (they're actually one of my favorites because of their size), anything as long as it keeps my rod bent. There's a little less options for us hoosiers than the guys up north, but we've still got quite a few. If you always fish for the best bite going, you can usually switch from species to species and keep on o hot bite, especially during the spring. In the spring my fishing schedule during the spring usually looks like: 35-45 degrees mostly bass fishing, but also some white bass and bluegill. 45-55 degrees most of my time is spent fishing for white bass as they feed up for the spawn and spawn in steep dropping rip-rap and in inlet creeks, but I also spend a fair amount of time bass fishing because this the temperature range that I usually catch my biggest bass of the year in. 55-65 degrees is primarily focused on bass fishing, with the exception of the two week period when the crappie spawn. 65-75 degrees is a little of everything, a little crappie, some bass, bluegill, and channel catfish. 75-85 degrees is spent entirely on catfishing and carp fishing. It really comes down to personal preference, but I think everyone should try at least one season of multi-species fishing. I think many more people would see the virtues of fishing for the best bite going if they gave it a chance.