IndianaFinesse

A ten foot gator erupting on poor little hermit sure would be surprising to say in the least.

Try using a large circle hook from a quality brand like gamakatsu instead, I think you will find that it ups your hooking percentage quite a bit. Another thing is that I usually hook the heads through the lips so that the bait doesn't roll over onto the point preventing a good hook set. Are you sure they aren't just bullheads? They will often pick up a big bait and just swim off with it without getting the hook in there mouth. A good way to tell if they are bullheads is to tie a small circle hook on a thread a nightcrawler or small piece of bluegill meat and if they are in the area it will only take a few minutes to find out.

And I was fishing a tournament this morning at six a.m. Blasting off in thirty degree temps in the middle of May when it should be warm is just plain wrong (and cold).

So, because you don't like the name of the rod and who it was designed for, you don't like the rod???

So I fished in this morning's tournament, we caught 76 fish but only three were over fifteen inches. We still managed to get third place out of eight boats, but kind of disappointing that second place beat us by seven pounds. We caught tons of little 13-14 inch "cookie cutter" bass up shallow on the trd, so we moved out deeper and fish jigs and swimbaits. The only difference is that we caught less bass, but the size didn't increase at all. We threw everything but the kitchen sink at them, wacky rigs, Topwaters, jigs, shallow cranks, swimbaits, trd, kaharaba jigs but nothing but the trd did much good. And the three good fish were up shallow mixed in with the rest of the dinks, so we didn't have much of a pattern to work off of. Do you guys have any ideas of what I should have done better?

Oops

Well, then set up your own tests. He did as well as he could with out fancy equipment, but you are right in saying that it is impossible to actually test it in real life circumstances but he got about as close as realistically possible.

Almost as useless and as much of a waste of money as the dnr attempting to eradicate the shad in the U.S.

Do you have any suggestions on how to do it better, or are you just going to complain about its supposed lack of accuracy?

Don't use them. Maybe I just got a bad one three times, but the ones I had had dull, bronze hooks, the paint chipped easily, and the elastic skirt collar fell apart. Spend a few extra bucks and get the kaharaba jig with a razor sharp hook and a high quality skirt and skirt collar.

Throw the Ned rig or a weedless wacky rigged senko for bass moving out of the coves toward the points. And if the shad are spawning there like they are here, a wacky rig, swimbait, or a spinnerbait of similar size of the shad might work. Shad spawn on rip rap banks on the sides of points, but only during the first couple hours in the morning. After that the spawn shuts down for the rest of the day and the shad leave till the next day. Just look for shad flicking the surface and occasionally jumping right next to the rip rap shorelines. The majority of fish are still in the coves, but in the front half of the coves for the most part with a few stragglers still spawning. The other thing bass are feeding on right now is bluegill, and for some reason they like a weightless wacky rigged senko when feeding on b-gill. But if I had to pick two baits, it would be a Ned rig for the more open areas and a weightless wacky rigged senko for everywhere else and jigs coming in at third place.

Is there a list of unmentionable sites so people know what not to try to post? It would be nice to know what not to post before actually posting it.

Thanks for all of the advice! I ended up getting the savage gear line thru trout in the slow sink hitch color. First time out with it for only about an hour, and I already lost a big bass at boat side on it! So I am extremely excited about this bait, can't wait to try it out in a gravel pit. Do you guys rig the hook on the top or the bottom, and would rigging up a trailer hook kill the action? I was wondering because I missed four other bites.

If my neighbor did that, I would be sooooo mad. we would have a bit of a heated "talk", plus I would be pretty dedicated to making his life miserable. And I would be having some fried chicken.

I almost solely use green pumpkin, but if I am fishing in clear water a translucent color tends to work better. I also occasionally throw bubble gum when no one is looking.

That is an open ended question, but without knowing anything more about what you are asking for help about, you can never fish a jig to slowly.

I don't unless I am in a tournament, and even then it is just so my partner casts there incase of a school of fish.

I almost only fish the Ned rig or the kahara micro jig (as far as finesse style baits), and just change the baits I use on the Ned to match the conditions. The action on the neko rig looks amazing from the video, so I might just have to try it out though. It also looks like it would be killer for spawning bass as eyedabassman mentioned.

What is a neko rig?

An extremely interesting and amusing first post.

So, I have figured out how and where to catch a quick limit of 15"+ bass, but I have been having problems with one area that I know is a good spot. It has clear (3-5') visibility with abundant weeds. most of the weeds only go to a few feet from the surface, and it is about four to seven feet deep. I know there are some good bass in there, but I am not sure how to catch them. I was thinking maybe a jig or senko fished in the weeds and a square-bill crank over top? Or would something else or a different area be better for a couple kickers?

Those are some great looking zander!

Yep, that is a green sunfish. They sure are a pretty fish, if not the brightest.

Thanks for the update, which lake do you fish in, unless it is some secret spot. Sorry, I won't be giving any more reports until next Sunday after the tournament just in case some of the other tourney guys are reading them. I will say that I have been doing extremely well over the weekend.

How does it do in clearer (3-5') visibility?