papajoe222

The lakes I fish are clear by anyone's standard, and I do well with them until the bass are on the beds. Later, in the summer, I'll break out a red crank, and get it down to where it's kicking up bottom on a slow retrieve. I don't believe the color matters as much then, but the red is much darker than most of the cranks I throw then.

Yearly, IL,WI, IN. I do occasionally fish in MI and IA, but when I do, it's just for the period when I'm there.

If it's a topwater blow up, I'll just let it sit where it landed and give it a twitch or two after. If she doesn't come back, I'll follow up with a senko. If it's a moving bait, I'll adjust the speed and then the angle. My next move is to either change the size or the color of that type of bait. I don't follow up a missed bottom contact lure. I just cuss myself out and toss it back.

As my passion for reels revolves around older Daiwas, it's used for me. The last one I picked up was an Alphas in mint condition. Now I'm on the look-out for a Zillion, but I gotta get the $$$ first.

I was only off by six days as I scored my first, and only, bass today. Nothing to brag about, but it sure felt good. The boat still has its winter cover on and new carpeting is on order. I figure around April 14th she should be good to go.

My top three are a hair jig, blade bait and a suspending jerkbait. If I stretch it out to five, I'd add a paddletail swimbait and a Colorado bladded spinerbait.

Last year was a grind here, too. My most productive lure was a 1/8oz. hand tied, deer hair jig and I likely boated as many on a nose hooked senko, but crankbaits took the big fish trophy away from skirted jigs for the first time in many years.

I'd be back in '65 crappie fishing with my dad (he passed not long after) off the Buckhorn bridge on CastleRock lake. We'd fish for walleye during the day and crappie at night. Some nights we'd limit out on big crappie and be up until midnight cleaning them and putting them on ice. Heck I'd still do it if we didn't catch a thing. Currently, I'd love to fish Bcacarac with Andy and Jeff.

I had jumped on the ceramic bearing wagon a number of years back. My TDAs and Sols all got them and CarbonTex washers. The noise never bothered me, until I got my hearing aids. Only one reel still has the ceramics and it won't have them after I clean it.

Where'd you get that printed up?

Although not my biggest, the first one to come to mind was about 49yrs. ago on my first trip to Table Rock. I had been doing good the two previous days, but hadn't boated any over 3lb, so I headed out of the tributary we were camped on and down the main channel about three miles. I spotted just off fish breaking where the channel swung close to shore. I'd read about targeting fish below the feeding frenzy, so I cast a 1/2oz. jig with a single tail grub and counted it down. When I got to 19, I lost contact with the jig. I began reeling as fast as I could to recover the slack in my line and set the hook on a solid 5lb. bass. She was the first of seven bass I boated before the feeding frenzy ended. They were all in the 20in. range. I didn't bother to waste time weighing them. I've been back to Table Rock many times since then, but never experienced that again. That first fish ignited my passion for fishing deeper water.

For our area of the country, in natural lakes, I stick to colors that mimic the natural forage. Basically bluegill, craw and some minnow colors. For spinnerbaits, I'd skip the craw colors and if you're looking to limit the number of each lure type, don't go overboard on having a bunch of different colors. IMO, color is near the bottom of my list. Variety in lure sizes and retrieve speeds comes first.

I recently purchased my first bladed jigs. Yea, I'm slow getting to the table. I never bought into the need for something that does basically, IMO, what a spinnerbait does. I was proven wrong last season and decided to pull up a chair. I'm more interested in their application. I assume it's similar to a spinnerbait, or stroking a jig and I would lean toward using the same trailers I do for them, especially seeing as I have a ton of them.

I'm confused. What's the problem? The bait monkey? Phasing out spinnerbaits for a better lure? Or is it your wallet getting too light? I only have one spinnerbait rod. I have five cranking sticks. I don't want to know how many cranks I own, but I just saw a custom painted Little Jon that I gotta have.

This is something that many members here are familiar with: Fishing History, which means approaching things the way it worked last time, or in your case a presentation that always worked during that time frame. There are so many variables in bass fishing that attempting to figure them all out will cause you both frustration and fishless days. I'm not saying don't start out your day with something that worked before, but don't force feed it to the bass in an attempt to get the same response you did previously. If you keep two things in mind you'll be 'successful' more times than not. Cover the water column until you locate fish (top, middle, bottom) and determine the activity level of the fish. figuring out those two things quickly, you can still have those days you had with a jerkbait and you never know, you may start out your day and never switch anything because you'll be catching them from the get go.

Thanks all. I was using the Z-Rust strips, but didn't know they would only last one season. Lesson learned. I tried the silicon packets, but with the same result. I'm going to combine drying and using new strips every season. Thanks again

I have the majority of my gear organized for the upcoming season. I'm down to replacing and sharpening hooks. I have boxes for willow blade spinnerbaits, Colorado and Indiana blade spinnerbaits, in-line spinners and buzzbaits. You guessed it, rusted hooks in every box! I know what I'll be doing for storing them next winter as the rust preventative I've been using has failed on more than one occasion. I just wish Plano would come out with something like Flambeau has. Their factory is less than an hour drive and I can purchase them below retail price. Flambeau boxes are pricey.

I live within an hour's drive of two states. If I win all three states, what do I get? Is there a special classification for entering the winning score in all three categories for one state? If I hook a fish in one state, but land it in another, can I enter it for both states. So many unanswered questions. BTW, I'm only 1hr 15min. from Michigan, so I know of someone that should be shaking in his boots as soon as he reads this!!

If I hit the power plant lakes, I'll say March 12th. If I wait for ice-out on my home lake, I'll say April 19th.

You'll still end up with a negative number. Not because of the equation, but because you and math are like oil and water. Wait, I'm supposed to insult Andy. Sorry, my bad.

I'm guessing you had a supplier of bone colored tubes and your stockpile is drying up. If you still have a couple left, I'm sure anyone that pours tubes could match them. If not, a white tube and a colored Sharpie may do the job with a little experimentation.

If by snag proof you mean picking up vegetation, I can see why you ask and I can't offer anything. If you're talking about snagging on laydowns, standing timber, docks or rip rap, IMO you're giving up a big percentage of hookups. You may as well avoid the cover because that's where cranks do their best.

Mine is forgetting my game plan the instant my foot hits the front deck and I revert to my thought process as a teenager. It's kind of like what happens when you head into a room to do something and as soon as you pass through the doorway to that room, you forget why you were going in there (anyone over 50 can relate). In my case, I research the body of water, the weather for the previous few days as well as the current trend, put together a plan and a back up in case I'm way off base, etc. l go over the plan in my head as I drive to the lake, to the point that I visualize putting it in action, launch the boat, park and untie from the dock and the second my foot hits the deck...................................

I'm liking that knot because of the double line through the eye. It may become the replacement for my favorite double Pitzen, AKA the Jimmy Houston knot.

When I first started using fluorocarbon lines, I had this exact same problem. The line would break on the cast. I'd loose the lure and sometimes 15yrds of line. I figured out that it was my fault as I often times would kink the line when adding slack, only to reel over that kink. That is what may be happening with you. Once I figured this out, I only had to deal with knots breaking and I eliminated that problem by never using fluoro as a main line for single hook presentations (jigs, T-rigs spinnerbaits).