throttleplate

i make my own out of 80 lb seaguer, I tie a clip on one end and a swivel on the other using a simple 2 wrap clinch knot and then use a soldering gun to melt the tag end to leave a small nub in case of slip that has never happeped. You can use the 2 wrap clinch on line that is 60 lb or more and i pre make a bunch of these leaders by putting a big hook in a vise and using it as a tool jig to draw down the line while wearing a glove as i pull it tight. My main line is braid and i have a snap on it because i change out lures quite often during the day and of course the leader gets nicked to bad i toss it aside and clip on another one no muss no fuss. There are 2 lakes that are just swamped with good sized bass and i got bit off on a new square bill crank bait and finally had enough and made all these leaders. I throw big top waters and jerks and the 80 lb doesnt bother my retrieve at all. The 1.5 square bills no problem also my pad crasher frogs get the leader as the pike chew on them like bubblegum. watch this guy make a leader.

i use 80 LB floru for a leader in minnesota on my cranks, jerks, top waters,chatters, frogs, poppers, spinners because they became a big problem and every other fish was a pike. I actually like catching them for the fight and i am now not sure if i will stop using the 80 lb next year.

my change will be to bring a better lunch with me, more sandwiches less cookies. Use both arms more to cast,reel,jerk so as to save my joints as it only takes me 15 seconds to switch handle to other side of spining reel. Buy a mosquito net type covering for my head-face to wear when the 8pm minnesota skeeters come out in force and use mosquito spray on my clothes as we usually fish till 10pm in the summer. Buy 2 way radio to clip onto my waders so when around a corner my wife can contact me and stop worrying that i drown.

well said, this pertains to all baits. I would say for myself the first time i used a jig just for the heck of it i put on as a trailer a broke off piece of a stick bait that was so short it had no movement and threw it out and caught a bass. Well darn this is easy and it works so i continued. After working the jig for an hour i felt like a pro as i not knowing really anything about jig fishing worked it in many different ways and probably without knowing it did all the techniques known to man. I caught my biggest bass this year with the jig using a rageking craw while bank fishing. I was using top waters to start with and then i wasnt having any more success with that so i sat down and said well today i promised myself i would throw the greenpumpkin jig with a craw before we left to hit another lake. I wrote down on a piece of paper that morning and put it in my bank bag a list of the lures i was going to use that day and had them separated out so i wanted to squeeze in the jig before we left. Threw it out from the bank and slowly dragged it over sunken tree parts feeling the weeds and most importantly i was looking at the fall scenery kinda daydreaming thinking on what lake to hit next not expecting to catch a fish then wham it hit and i set and reeled her in and had me a nice 6 pounder. Without even thinking about it my technique was just automatic not stressing myself if i will catch a fish or not but it was just my mind working with my hands all the while i wasnt really 100% focused on catching a fish. So to all the fishing guys stop panicking, stressing, feeling like if you dont give 100% you are a failure and wont ever catch a fish, relax have fun and good things happen when you least expect it.

came across this fella in Bangkok Thailand

wade fishing my reel ends up getting dunked at least 1 time per outing as i go deep as my chest waders allow. Putting on a different lure while holding rod/reel under your arm it gets away from me and goes under or to save myself from falling into the water reel gets a dunk. When bank fishing on rocky boulder bank i fell a couple times and the reel gets let go to save myself, sure it gets scuffed up but i dont baby it one bit. If it was to break than i grab my spare both pflueger supremes but so far its intact and working fine. All i do is when i get home i take the spool off, handle, and spray it down with rem-oil into all crevices, bail...... Now that the season is over for me i will Not tear it down but i will put grease on the shaft .

A little nerve racking when wading and big snapping turtles come up to me and sit in front a foot away watching me and i them. Wife caught one last year as it went for her bait and got hooked. Beavers sit as close as 10 feet from me when i am wading and they also chase my top water lures causing me to reel in as fast as i can. They just sit in the shallow or shoreline and munch away on vegetation.

looks 2.6 lbs 14 inch

one more thing to the OP, my response will probably be the last to appear on this thread as it appears not many on here care for the uglystick carbon or are ashamed to admit they own one.?

i bought the 6-6 ugly stick carbon this summer, medium-fast and i use it for frogs, jerk, cranks, topwater, heck i use it for everything i dont need a long cast for. For me its very light and so makes it easy to use the lures mentioned especially when wading in water up to my chest where the rod is held hi to keep from submerging the reel. Next spring i will buy the 7 ft carbon for longer casts and eliminate the need to wade up to my chest.

minnesota just went back to a 4 week shutdown on many businesses. There was a big deal made of north dakotans being stopped at the border and not allowed in but that didnt take. Hope this next year gets better as i do 99.99999% of my fishing in minnesota.

well if you are going to go up to your knees buy hip waders then you can wade up to your pants pockets. Hip waders are very comfy just add good insoles. I can attest a good pair of frogg togg hip waders are $44.00 non insulated and they are very light both hip and chest waders non insulated. The real good knee high wading boots which probably dont even go up to your knee but a bit under it weigh 3.5 lbs each and if stuck in mud may slip off and walking in them is like wearing cement blocks strapped onto your feet At least the hip waders are strapped to your pants belt loops and wont come off in the mud. Good luck on your choice.

almost every shoe made is using glue, cardboard, thread, and foam and after being soaked and then dried soaked again the soles will eventually peel away from the upper shoe. This has happened to me using expensive new balance hiking shoes and hiking boots. Buy hip waders or chest waders, you will always want to go deeper so what good are wading boots that you will end up filling up with water by taking that one more step to get deeper.

my hands dont shake but i need to wear reading glasses when tying knots or else its blurry.

my wife outfishes me for bass, she is patient and sticks to what works for herself and stays within a boundary while i am out running around in waders walking through thick lilly pands and crawling over downed trees throwing 7 different lures experimenting.

no they are not stocking foot waders, they have the rubber boot with good non slip bottom traction but if you dont put good insoles in them then its like walking on stainless steel truck tire material.

A few years ago I was wading a creek in the philippines in shorts and hiking boots. When we were done for the day we went back to my friends nipa hut and were staning around talking. I put my hand in my pocket to get the sand out and felt a squishy object and thought it was a snickers bar i forgot to eat so i pulled it out and it was a huge leach. I did a shriek and threw the leach to the ground, everybody laughed. I was wading this summer in minnesota lakes in the mid summer heat wearing shorts and old shoes. The problem i encountered was the amount of sand that would get inside my shoes and afterwards theres a thing called swimmers itch and my legs were getting these super itchy raised spots on them after a day in the water. And beware of poison oak,ivy.... So now i wear chest waders, non insulated frogg toggs. I put expensive Soft Soles foot inserts into them or else they would be unbearable to walk in. The soft soles are thick nice arched inserts not the cheap flat inserts at wallmart. I walk alot in them, jump into my car and drive to another lake with them on and no problem hiking through the woods to get to a spot but just beware of the big thorns as they could punch through and dont hook yourself.

i thought you guys wrestled gators for fun down there? ? I was stationed in jacksonville fl and went fishing in gator country in a boat and seen many a gator and snakes so i dont reckon i would be using waders thats for sure.

i fish in the wooded banks alot, fought with many tree limbs,branches,twigs,thorn bushes,burrs.... Caught all types of lures in the branches and spent time breaking branches just to get my lure down to untangle it. Now that i got waders i can slip in through the brush and have more freedom walking the shoreline in heavally overhanging tree areas but still have to beware of some limbs in swing radius.

yeah, looking at the power line pic looks like its an easy cast but in reality the power line from the culvert spot where the deep hole is angles towards the bank and to get under it with the bank being so high sidearm throws are the best way. But to get distanceyou have to throw the lure just under the power line or it isnt going to makei it to the honey hole.

buy chest waders and you will open up a whole new world of fishing. Ido it and its unbelievable the amount of water i cover.

got 1 of my lures this summer. Went from using a 5ft 6in rod to a 7 footer and the change in length messed me up and it bit me, i casted between the lines.

in summer wife and i leave at 10am to noon. Our lakes are 23 miles from home the closest and the rest are 60 miles. We have a easy 100 lakes surrounding us within a 5 to 25 minute drive once we hit our main spot. Its so tempting to pick up and run as we bank fish and wade fish to another lake if the afternoon bite is dead which we do more often than not. For a few hours we will run and gun different lakes and end up back at the first lake for the 7pm bite. I will jump in the car wearing my waders and get to new lake and jump into the water and see how it goes. I am driving all county paved and gravel backroads and using gps with all the lakes programmed in is a lifesaver. We will fish till dark 9.45 pm and then fight the mosquitos while we finish up and get home 11 pm.

i started using a ugly stick CARBON 6-6 medium fast tip rod with a pflueger supreme reel. After trying different reels and rods this combo is so light in my hand i can controll my bait just like a concert conductor with his tiny wand stick can point and controll the bass section of the orchestra, see what i did there haha. Even 1 ounce difference in reel weight makes a big difference to my wrist and elbow fatigue.

i get bored with the texas rig even as it gets me fish. I enjoy fishing when i try different lures and catch one. Its like when i was younger in my dating days before marriage, going out with the same girl was boring, i needed to date different woman with different attitudes which would broden my life and open me up to new things and keep life exciting.