fin

Good point. That makes sense. I hadn't considered that, but in my experience, when they bite a fluke they aren't messing around - they really chomp down on it or they just don't touch it at all. That Lunker City lure has a lot to bite through though, I can see how it might be a problem. I'm ahead of you on the tips, I've been using fingernail polish and sharpies for a long time, and also making my own weighted hooks.

A torpedo is too small/light. It's perfectly balanced off the shelf. If you start messing with it, it only goes downhill from there. Adding a split ring is enough to degrade the performance. As far as hookups go, my ratio with torpedoes is very high. I'm experimenting with a Whopper Plopper 90. I've put a VMC 1/0 (which is tiny and light) on the tail with split ring. The WP90 was designed too heavy to begin with - it won't even float horizontal with no hooks at all. Put a decent size treble on the tail and it almost sinks. I won't know about the hookup ratio on it until we get some decent weather.

Those things are pretty fat in both dimensions. They look good, the color choices aren't so great though.

I skimmed right by that, I guess.

Yeah, I've tried that several times but never was really happy with the setup. It works better on the Magnum Super Fluke. I was looking at that earlier. It looks good. Do you know if it has a split belly?

I totally agree about a fish's reasoning ability, but I also think the more natural looking the better. I've caught lots with an exposed weighted hook, but it's just something I've always wondered about. And like the way a lipless crankbait has a flutter motion, it seems like a taller fluke would have even more action. And a taller fluke would look more realistic, like a gizzard shad. So it's those things combined, not just hiding the hook. I'm guessing the problem has got to either be a molding problem or swim problem, or somebody would have done it by now. That's pretty much exactly what I'm talking about, minus the price!

If you fish a Fluke with a weighted EWG hook, it swims great, but the hook and weight are highly visible hanging out the bottom. The only thing close that I’ve seen is a Big Bite Bait product that looks like their 4” Shad, but the pictures I see online don’t look like it has a split belly. I'd also prefer to have something without the paddle tail. Why doesn’t anyone make something like that? Would it not swim right being that tall? It seems like it would look more like a real shad than a fluke does. Big Bite Bait 4” Shad

It seems like soft-bottom shoes are better at being non-slip, but being soft, the tread wears off quick. I bought some Brazo's waterproof work boots for fishing the banks. They had a deep tread and had great traction and non-slip, but the tread has worn off in just a few months, and that's in the dirt and grass, not on pavement or hard surfaces. Fortunately I only paid like $25, they're now like $50.

This is the answer. You lose a second or two switching hands, and in some rare cases, it can make a difference. Mainly topwater. I fish just like OP. I started with a baitcaster and then learned spinning reels and I've tried several times to reel left handed, but I can't do it.

I ordered a two-piece 7' rod from them last month, and it came in a 5' heavy duty tube. Excellent packaging. Maybe they got the message, or maybe I just got lucky. The main problem with ordering from Amazon to me is that so many people are doing it. They've already put a boatload of local dealers out of business. They don't even have to offer lower prices now, people order from them just for the convenience. The day will come when you can't go somewhere local and put your hands on a rod to check it out before buying it. I'm guilty of buying from them, but I try to keep it to a minimum.

Sick Fish? I've got a pack of those in the back of a drawer somewhere. Never had much luck rigging them to look real myself.

Thanks for teaching me what a Carolina Keeper is. I think the rig I described is still worth trying and I already have everything I would need. If it fails, I will try your method.

Now that you mention it, the swivel is unnecessary. Scrap the swivel, peg the bead. A bullet-shaped bead would be nice. I could just make one out of a piece of wood dowel. I don't know what a Carolina Keep is. Maybe I'm not picturing the right kind of slip shot rig or mojo cylinder weight? The mojo sinkers I see have small holes, or drop-shot line clips. Also an unnecessary expense. A break-away leader using a cheap weight that just clips onto the line with a duo-lock snap sounds better to me. It provides no resistance and is super simple to replace. You could even have a few pre-rigged, and just clip on as needed.

But none of those have as much "give", do they? I guess it would depend on the inside diameter of your sinkers, a larger diameter providing more give. I could see this being very useful fishing worms weightless in a rocky river, allowing you to cast to one spot and then letting your worm drift downstream for several yards, retrieve back to sinker, then drift again, repeat. I think even more give would be better. Something like this Mackeral rig: There's no need for long leaders. 12" for each would be enough, and less likely to tangle. Type of sinker would be irrelevant, something cheap as possible with a very light weight leader. I will definitely be trying this out if it ever warms up again.

It's hard to find good bass shoes.

Apparently the change in the law was approved in 2016, to become effective August 2018. The change requires a new kind of labeling, and if the manufacturer doesn't supply the labeling, the retailer is responsible for it. Academy has a note on their site saying they hope to resume shipments in early 2019. They should have known it was coming for two years, but apparently did nothing about it and lost sales to California for several months. Lots of lost money. Somebody probably lost their job over that. The new labels have to have the ! triangle and state what type of hazard they pose: There may be more changes besides that, I dunno. All that legalese gives me a headache.

I went to a different Academy location today and they had the same type set up in the back of the store, but the prices and selection were a little different. They had a bunch of the same type items for $1.98 like the other store, but they didn't have all the lower price stuff. So it looks like it varies by location and maybe by time too. It looks like it's set up to be gradually marked down further.

It's just the opposite for me - getting to DSG is a pain. I may go back to Academy again today to see if there's anything left. The thing is, I don't normally use a lot of the stuff that was marked down, like Senkos and Ochos, but I couldn't pass on the deals. Now I need to learn how to fish them.

My local Academy marked down a lot of stuff and I think I happened to walk in the same day. They set up a clearance area in the back of the store, not in the fishing department. I would have totally missed it if one of the employees had not mentioned it to me. At the time I felt like I was buying too much, but now I wish I had bought more. There were guys next to me literally filling baskets.

I usually fish with only one rod myself, walking the banks, but sometimes I will bring as many as 5 rods loaded up with different lures. I’m just not very mobile with that many. I’ve accumulated about 20 rods total, but some of them are junk, and most are not sensitive enough. I understand first hand how someone ends up with a lot of rods, and having different types of rods for specific things, but I can’t imagine it being necessary to have like 10 rods at $150 each unless you’re fishing serious tournaments where you don’t want to waste valuable seconds changing lures.

I've got a buddy that fishes a popping cork, which is kind of the same, kind of the opposite. Sometimes they hit the cork. You can use flies, flukes, whatever. He occasionally catches some.

I can understand spending a lot of money on certain things, but I’m a little puzzled by the high-end rods. I think maybe a lot of us might not know what we’re missing, like a person who has only fished with slow rods might not realize that they’re not feeling a lot of bites. For me, a rod has to be sensitive enough to feel a tap and strong enough that it won’t break when I catch a fish. The reel needs to stay attached in the seat and not wobble around, and the guides need to not chew up the line or fall off. I don’t know what else I need. It’s not like I’m yearning for something that I’m unwilling to spend money on. I also don’t understand people needing a different type of rod for each type of bait. If a rod is good for worms, I can use it for anything. A slower rod would feel better with spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, etc., but it’s not necessary as far as I can tell. How much money someone spends on their hobby is none of my business. I wouldn’t accuse them of wasting their money. I’m saying I don’t understand why some people spend so much. It doesn’t bother me they’re spending so much, it bothers me that I might be missing learning something that might help me catch more/bigger fish. What do those high-end rods do that the cheap rods don’t do?

I've bought a lot of their hard baits, and the only problem I've ever had was with the Shad 03 color flaking off. Other than that color, I recommend anything. Excellent question. I love a good puzzle. They're all pretty obvious until they combine them: S- SMALL PROFILE OR SHALLOW RUNNING CR- CRANKBAIT L- LIPLESS M- MEDIUM RUNNING TW- TOPWATER P- POPPER NR- NO RATTLE D- DEEP DIVER UL- ULTRALIGHT W- WAKEBAIT But I can’t figure out these two: NCRD - A deep crankbait, but I don’t know what the N stands for. SCSFW - This is a small wake bait, so that explains one S and the W, but I don’t know about the rest. It’s always bugged me why they have two different prices for lipless crankbaits. I can’t tell what the difference is. One has the LCR designation and the other is called “Rattlin' T”, but they both have rattles.

'Snake Oil' would be a good name for line conditioner.

Some salamanders excrete foul tasting substances through their tail, some even excrete toxic substances. There may be something in particular about your pond that is different than the others nearby. http://nyfalls.com/wildlife/reptiles-amphibians/salamanders-newts/