IndianaFinesse

Has anyone tried the Huddleston deluxe weedless shad swimbait? It looks great for eight bucks but I was worried about the hooking percentage.

I still use the Ned in muddy water, but I switch to the coppertruse color with a red or chartreuse painted jig. Another good trick for muddy water is to insert one of those cheap crappie glass rattles into the bait to give it a little noise. A bulky black and blue jig or a spinnerbait with an oversized Colorado blade sometimes works better in muddy water though, and I have been doing well with a jig lately anyway. Problem is the muddy water is going to make it impossible to see the bass on there beds.. I'm not sure how the muddy water will effect the white bass bite, but I would just use a little bigger, brighter and noisier bait like a 1/6 ounce yellow roostertail and reel it slow and steady as they have a tendency to miss an erratically moving bait in muddy water. I was catching tons of white bass on roostertails a few weeks ago when they were running here.

I use the basspro shops backpack and love it. It is a lot easier to carry fifty to sixty pounds of tackle on two shoulders rather than one. I also sometimes use a giant tackle box from flambeo that I won in the infisherman master angler program.

^^This. Those baits definitely call for two separate rods, just get two cheaper ones or buy one and save up for the other. I would recommend getting a fast action rod for the chatterbaits and spinnerbaits and a moderate for treble hook baits. And check out FFO, that way you can get two 200$ rods for 150 or less.

Sorry, I can't help you as I haven't ever fished on your side of town. I live an hour and a half westish of Indianapolis. Hopefully someone else here can help you. I bass fished this afternoon for three hours. They are up shallow in full spawning mode, so I was basically sight fishing in the backs of coves. Twenty one fish were caught with the biggest weighing 4.2 on the jig, most on the Ned but also five or six bigger ones on a jig. I caught the majority of the fish on a half of a zinkerz with a 1/16 ounce jig and a small treble in the back of it to catch the fish that just pick the tail up. Tons of crappie fisherman out today, and it looked like the crappie bite was just as good as yesterday. Unfortunately it is supposed to rain for the rest of the forecast, it won't keep me off the water but it will turn the water color to chocolate milk.

I ment company and style of skirt, ie thin cut skirt, etc.

What is everyone's favorite jig skirt?

What is your favorite jig trailer for arkie style, grass, and football heads? I already have a small collection of jig trailers, but the bait monkey was screaming at me to buy some more, plus I only have a few.

Which color do you prefer? Most of the crawfish in the lake I fish in are dark green/brown with an orange belly and the tips of there claws are also orange, so I was thinking maybe green pumpkin orange?

I have never tried these before, but thought they would be awesome as a jig trailer cause there claws stand straight up. Has anyone had any experience with the turbo crawz as a jig trailer and what color do you prefer? I was guessing green pumpkin (always a good choice) or green pumpkin orange belly would be good.

Decided to do something different and crappie fish at the home lake today. I limited out in under an hour, although my home lake only has a ten crappie limit, and then kept on catching them for another three hours. I don't know how many crappie I caught, but I am guessing fourty or fifty good ones between nine and fourteen inches. The crappie were up shallow in three to six feet of water underneath docks. The fish were sitting tight to the support poles so I used my fourteen foot crappie pole to dip minnows next to the supports. They were mostly caught at about a foot and a half under water. A few white bass and bull bluegill were also mixed in. Although most of the crappie weren't spawning yet, I expect them to start in the next week or so.

Fished this afternoon for about five hours. The bass are up extremely shallow in six inches to four feet of water for the most part. The majority are on there spawning beds preparing to spawn for the most part, with a few still under deeper docks on points. The total numbers was fifty-three bass, with the sizes being everywhere between under a pound and a chunky 4.1. Most of the bass were caught on the Ned rig, but about a quarter of them ate a 3/8 ounce black blue jig with a black zoom super chunk trailer. The jig was dragged along the bottom over spawning beds and the Ned rig was skipped under dock and dragged slowly across the bottom. It was just an all around fun day with the bass biting so well and the warm weather to boot. I should be able to get out fishing tomorrow afternoon. Several of the fish I caught coughed up crawdads, and one had a large shad tail sticking out it's mouth. I am surprised the bass ate the big shad, the bass was about fourteen inches and the shad was at least seven inches long. After breaking a trd off in a bush on the shoreline and watching it fall out of the Bush into the water, I retied and and went back to fishing. A minute or so later, I caught a small bass in the same area that was badly hooked in the gills so I had to rip it out. I kept the bass as it was legal and would have died anyways, and later when cleaning it I found my trd in the basses stomach! It must have been mine, since the jig head had the wire keeper that I make. I have never before caught a bass with a lure in it's stomach, let alone my own.

I absolutely love FFO. Since I found the website I haven't purchased a rod or reel from anywhere else, I don't see why anyone would pay retail when you could get it or a similar rod or reel for 40% -60% off.

Thank you all for the helpful replies. I have braid or gliss on every other setup except for crankbaits and love it, but when I started using baitcasters a few years back I only used mono on my casting reel so that it didn't cost much to cut out the backlashes. I just wasn't sure if braid would dig into the spool on baitcaster equipment and if most people liked it better.

Is the member map working yet, and if it is, how do you bring it up?

You might as well glue another tip on. You can get a three pack of Fuji rod tips and rod tip glue from wally's for less than ten bucks. It will be a little stiffer and slower than before, but it will still work fine.

I have been fishing jig for a few years now, I have been using 15# big game on my jig rod but am thinking about switching to braid. Do you guys think it would be beneficial for the extra sensitivity and hook setting power, and if so, what pound test braid would you use?

Green pumpkin is the best color for nearly any condition. Aside from occasionally black blue in very muddy water, green pumpkin is the only color I use.

Fished for an hour tonight. The bass are now extremely shallow in less than four feet of water holding tight to cover. Caught fifteen fish up to about three and a half pounds. Started out with the Ned rig fishing where they were a couple days ago, but only caught one. Then I moved into the coves and found the majority in the very backs of them holding in brush, weeds, and the edges of docks. All of the fish were caught on a brown 3/8 ounce jig with a four inch purple/green/brownish Berkley pit boss as the trailer. Sometimes I just flipped or pitched the jig, but most of the time I casted and gave it a couple short drags until it bumped into something. Then I let it sit for a few seconds before giving it two short twitches getting it over the rock or limb and making it look like a panicked crawfish. I actually saw two female bass getting ready to bed today, good sized ones about three and a half pounds, and both readily bit my jig.

Nice fish! They say a bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work, and that was a good day of fishing.

If you're not using it, I could take it off your hands.

I am looking to buy a baitcasting rod/reel for jigs, preferably from abu Garcia, pfluegar, Berkley, or fenwick because those are the brands FFO carrys. My budget for the combo is 80-100 dollars. Any suggestions?

Check out the latest article on BIB on line designed for leaders vs. mainline. It just happened to be written the day after this thread started.

Got out fishing yesterday afternoon for a hour and a half. The bass are moving up on the shorelines throughout the coves. Caught twenty six bass, but most were only about a pound. The fish were scattered, so I covered water with a fast swim glide and shake retrieve with the ned and pitched a jig to any shoreline brush I passed. Most of them were in one to five feet of water.

I think if you use an ultra lite, you won't be able to set the hook very easily. The rod that I and most other Midwest finese guys including Ned kahde, bluebasser, and team 9 all use is a medium-lite spinning rod. Although a medium lite rod is usually rated for 1/8 to 1/4 ounce lures, it will easily throw the Ned rig and will be much easier to handle when setting hooks.