papajoe222

Looking for a light wire worm hook to use with big, 10in.+, worms. I lost a beauty the other night. My worm came back balled up with only the tip of the hook making it through all the plastic. The nose of the worm didn't slip down the hook, the worm was just in a ball for the first 6in. or so. I was using a 5/0 round bend worm hook that is made of fairly thick gauge wire and I'm convinced that a lighter wire hook would have penetrated all that plastic. In all my years of fishing big worms, I've only had this happen a couple of times, but if I can eliminate the possibility of loosing what could be my next PB when it does happen, I'll sleep a lot easier.

Wiley X offers a few fishing models in that price range and if your patient, you can pick up a pair on sale at one of the sporting goods sites. The lenses are shatter proof, so if your 1/2oz. tungsten jig comes flying back at your face at Mach 1, they'll save your eyesight too. That's provided it hits your sunglasses and not your noggin.

OMG, evo! if they were right hand models, I'd offer to marry you!

It sounds like I may need to change more than one thing, my hookset for one and my drag setting, which I’ve always set on the tight side, along with lengthening the leader to allow a bit more stretch. Except for my jig rod, the majority of my reels with braid are 30lb. My leader choice is either 12lb. Yo-Zuri or 15lb Abrazx. The rods are all MH either fast, or mod/fast action. the main reason I switched to braid/leader was the super clear waters I fish and as I mentioned the problem is with single hook, slow presentations. I’ve tried the Pitzen, SanDiego jam and most recently the Uni. The knot isn’t the culprit, it’s likely a combination of other factors. For now, I’ll be going with 12lb. Big Game on a couple of combos and work on changing up some things.

Line breaking at the knot has been a continual problem that has really frustrated me this season. It only happens with single hook presentations and I know it isn't the knot that is the culprit. It dawned on me (yea, I'm hard headed) that there is next to zero give to a short leader and of course, zero give to braid. Looking back on the season, all of my break offs have happened when my leader has been shortened by repeated lure changes or reties. I've never been a fan of leaders to begin with, but with slow presentations, braid is just too visible to have confidence in, so for years I either went with straight fluoro, or straight mono on my reels. Even though I never had a problem prior to this year, I did start going with a shorter leader, under 3ft. The last break off I had, the leader was well under 2ft. I had always used a leader at least the length of the rod. I learned the lesson the hard way and am passing it along to anyone, for whatever reason, considering going to a short leader for jigs or T-rigs.

Try wrapping the braid around the mono, or fluoro. Doing it this way eliminates stressing the leader when tightening down the knot. I've yet to have that knot break since I began doing it this way.

Luckily, the Lord has blessed me with quick reflexes and they have not abandoned me with age, I'm 73. Maybe it was his way of making up for my color blindness. LOL For whatever reason, my reflexes have never hindered my fishing, but sadly my age has decreased my stamina which has negatively affected my time on the water. A very active life style along with a physically demanding career kept me in great shape well into my 60's. Like many my age, I wish I were ten years younger so I could spend the day on the water rather than three or four hours.

I used circle hooks when first introducing youngsters to plastic worm fishing in order to avoid gut hooked bass. It's worked out so well over the years that I even use them for wacky rigging on occasion. As for barbless hooks, I bend the barbs down on the rear hooks of my Spooks as they tend to catch in the gills of fish during the fight. I've hooked and landed many a bass on that rear, barbless treble. I also fished a number of tournaments back in the day that required their use. Few anglers had difficulty limiting out in the majority of those.

I most likely fish the same lakes you do and honestly, I've caught 6lb. largemouth and 4lb. smallmouth on jigs. In fact I rarely throw any soft plastic with the exception of a drop shot. If you're catching them on soft plastics, I'll bet that the jigs that you're throwing are heavier than the weights you use. We've talked about this here many times; Rate of Fall makes a big difference when jig fishing. Twin Lakes, WI are both shallower lakes and I never throw a jig over 3/8oz. and when I throw one of those, the trailer is a full size RageTail or Paca Craw to slow it down. The other thing you may not have tried is dragging a jig slowly on the bottom. That tactic produced a 6lb. 7oz. largemouth from Powers on the 4th of July week-end.

I'll add that under sunny conditions, switch between an underspin and a plain, weighted hook until the fish tell you which they prefer. Also, experiment with different weights as the speed of your retrieve should increase the heavier the weight and sometimes they want it faster, or slower.

LOL, you'll be getting a bunch of varied responses based on ones individual success. Fisrt thing to consider is which docks to target and those would be the ones closest to deeper water. A dock sitting in 5ft. of water with 15ft. within casting distance of it is an example. As you mentioned, target the shade, be it under or to the side or front of the dock. Depending on your casting skills, there are any number of baits you could get under a dock, but if pitching, or skipping isn't your strong suit, try tuning a crankbait to run left or right (I keep one of each tied on) and run it under the dock. CHECK YOUR LINE OFTEN! and retie frequently.

For those of you familiar with The Knot Wars, the Fishin'Fool Knot was a surprise winner. What many may not know is it's originator also made the Fishin'Fool line of lures prior to his retirement. I knew Rick from a long gone fishing forum and just recently hooked up with him on FaceBook. I also knew of the bait's unique action as a soft plastic jerkbait with a different profile. I've been trying to get him back into making them and if he starts up production again, I'll be sure to give an update.

So was the WoodChopper, but I find that a Spook will catch bass as well as a prop bait in all but windy conditions that catch the line and make working the bait all but impossible. That said, it is likely not my first choice then.

When I switched from mono for bottom contact baits, I also switched to lighter weights. I only use heavier 5/16oz.+ under windy conditions, or when I want a faster fall rate. There are time, even in water under 10ft. deep, when a fast fall rate will produce. I use tungsten in combination with fluoro or braid to increase what I feel. For heavier weights, I use brass for C-rigs and lead for punching.

I'll add to stick with what you have confidence in. If it's hard baits, spinnerbaits and lipless cranks can cover the entire water column and run just above weed tops. If it's soft plastics, bring an assortment along with an assortment of weights. If you have any confidence in tubes, you'll be in tube heaven.

I'll approach it in one of two ways; Match the hatch is more important in super clear water or under tough conditions when the fish are holding tight to cover and you need to basically hit them on the head to get a bite. Either way, they'll be getting a good look at it. The second way concerns faster moving baits and or stained water. Either gets something the bass can see from a distance, but something they won't get a good look at until they've already decided to strike. This is where white and chartreuse combinations shine for me. Chrome, or other reflective surfaces on hard baits also excel here. In murky water, vibration is more important to me than color.

As others have said, one turn is one turn and the IPT doesn’t change because the handle length has. That and the fact that the IPT does change throughout the retrieve tells you that the actual number is a reference for determining the actual speed of the reel rather than using the gear ratio. I only used 6.3:1 geared reels for years and just reeled faster or slower adjust the lure’s speed.

I had to tie one to see where mine ends up. It’s on the bottom,not intentionally. If tied correctly, without the lines crossing, as I pull the knot tight, the loop is drawn under the knot. I don’t lube until it’s drawn down to the eye and then I pull on the tag end to eliminate the possibility of weakening the mainline.

I'm a firm believer in keeping things simple and that is most important to me when I'm searching for active fish. Because many of the lakes I fish are shallow, under 20ft., I don't graph a lot of fish. Between the outboard and the ping off my electronics, the fish tend to move away from that small area that the 'cone' covers. The system I use is to key on bassy looking structure or cover to probe for those active fish. To keep things simple, I use a 1-2-3 approach on those spots. In no particular order that involves a deep, mid-depth and shallow presentation and unless I'm zeroed in on a particular part of the water column, I'll repeat that process on the next spot until I find a possible pattern. This approach really shines when fishing standing timber or submerged weed beds. Depending on the type of cover, I'll use a topwater, spinnerbait, or soft plastic swimbait for the upper water column. A crankbait or spinnerbait for the mid-depth and a jig or T-rig for the bottom. To keep things real simple the first bait I throw is a tube with as light a weight as conditions will allow.If I'm lucky, it will get hit on the fall and the depth of the active fish will no longer be unknown. I can then go back over the spot with something that will cover that depth quicker. I'll also throw the tube before leaving that spot. Do you have a system for finding fish other than marking them on your electronics and going back over the area and targeting that depth?

Catching two bass on the same lure happens once in a great while. With the exception of an A-Rig, you're lucky if it happens two or three times in your life. It's an experience few forget, but the actual fight is forgetful. I love topwater (who doesn't?) and for more years than I care to admit, I've been using a little known, or should I say talked about, way of not only catching two bass on the same cast, but enjoying the fight from each of them. That little gem is called a FrontRunner. It's a little, single treble hook, floating lure not much bigger than a quarter that is exactly what its name implies. Attached to your main offering using a short piece of mono, it will dance in front of it. The dog days are the best time that I've found when this combo really shines. Sometimes you'll catch them on that little piece of floating balsa, but most times that main offering gets 'em.. For some reason, during the dog days you'll get one on each and because the two lures are separated, the fish fight independent of each other. The fish will, more often than not, be the same size, but on a 'rare' occasion that main bait will get a big girl with a dink on the FrontRunner. So why settle for two or three doubles in your lifetime when you could get two or three every summer?

I love the hook up ratio of an inline buzzer and the way they come through light vegetation without bringing some of it back to you. MegaChomp offers a single blade, but the heaviest they offer is 3/8oz. Their double bladed one comes in a 1/2oz. and both will give off a ton of noise if you rough up the rivet (it's already crimped). I still throw a Hart and a Cavitron because it gets some awesome blow ups.

Pick a soft plastic bait and mix up the sink rate. As you likely have found out, many bites will happen on the initial fall to whatever depth you're targeting or the bottom itself. ROF can be just as important to weightless plastics as it is to jig/trailer offerings. I keep a variety of trick worms and stick worms that have different ROF's for just that reason, but find a profile the fish like on any given day first, then play around with ROF.

That's great! To add to your new found success, get a topo map of that lake and locate where you had success. Look for other areas in that depth range that look similar, try to find 3 or 4. Mark those on that map. Now next time you go on that lake and mark baitfish at that depth, you have multiple areas to choose from and if you're lucky enough to catch a fish on a certain type of cover, or bottom composition, you can eliminate other spots in that area and move to another of your spots with that same combination at that same depth. You've eliminated a lot more water and saved time in the process and in a tourney, that's a win/win. BTW, when you get to one or another of 'your spots' don't leave if you don't contact fish right away. Change your presentation speed and possibly the actual bait before moving on. Believe it or not, off shore schools can and do prefer things differently than their cousins three hundred yards down that creek channel.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I was out of town for a while. I use good old bass casting weights. https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/bass-pro-shops-bass-casting-sinker Stick them in the tube, line tie first. Texas rig through the opening in the line tie of the sinker, then out the nose and finish as normal. This gives the tube that traditional spiral fall, in a weedless version, without using the stupid tube method. Been rigging 'em weedless like this for years.

I had a similar experience yesterday looking for 2/0 EWG hooks, I use them for internal weighted tubes and I've gone through all but two of mine along with a few bags of tubes. Simm's had free shipping for one day only, so I picked up two packs of hooks, 4 bags of tubes and two, deep diving jerkbaits. It's like any fishing gear store/site. You go looking for one thing and by the time you hit check out it ends up costing you $100.