Big Al

shaky head with a finesse worm. it looks like it would be sooo delicious for bass but i haven't caught a thing on one.

Bass fishermen are almost a minority up here in Wisconsin. The big shiny Rangers and ProCrafts tend to stay out of the Lunds' way . We're lucky to have excellent walleye, musky, pike, panfish, and trout fisheries up here along with the bass. I fish all of them pretty equally, it keeps me busy.

Smallies I get jealous of you boys down south with your double digit largemouth but it makes me feel better when I remember I've got 5 pound smallies just down the road. A lot of times I won't be targeting either in particular. You definately don't have to see a smallmouth to know you have one on the end of your line.

My favorite dropshot rod is an 6'8" medium extra-fast Avid. Actually it's my favorite for any weightless/finesse plastic too. I haven't fished shimano or loomis but a similar rod from them would be alright too. The ex-fast tip is super sensitive and gives you a quick solid hookset.

http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1233550701 You can add this to the sticky if you want, a video should be coming hopefully when I can get to the high school pool or something.

I also thought it was a good episode, I liked the rod balancing segment and his explanation of torque. I might have to try some RTV molding too because that turned out pretty slick.

This is one of my favorite types of cover to fish. I would most likely use a watermelon or other natural colored 4" tube texas rigged with enough weight to reach the bottom of the weeds. If you don't get bit on the initial drop, twitch it up with your rod tip over the top/through the weeds and let it drop again once you feel it break free from weeds. You may have to give it a little pop if it's stuck. Keep the rod tip high. If it's a pretty big expanse of this cover, work edges of the thickest stuff first and keep searching with long fan casts. When you catch one, get a little closer and beat the area over and over until you know it's empty. A marker buoy or gps point helps. Fish can really stack up in the little tunnels or whatever is under those weeds. This can all be done with a jig or pretty much any texas rigged plastic as well, but I personally have the most confidence in a tube. Also I like a lipless crank along any tall edges and over the the top on choppy days.

Well we've got about 30" of hardwater right now and it's not going anywhere fast... But once that's gone it'll be X-Raps and other jerkbaits.

Topcoat is Devcon 2 Ton. The photo finish turned out nice but I agree that the colors could be brighter (yellow especially, it's kinda drab). I printed the image on white tissue paper (taped onto regular printer paper so it would print nicely) and used a glue stick to put the tissue onto the painted white body. The tissue with image on it was a little translucent so I had to paint the body white so you wouldn't see wood. After the tissue dried I airbrushed white on the belly. The image had to be resized a little and the resolution wasn't great to start with so it's not too detailed. I'm not sure what the next one I do will be, maybe a bluegill or big sucker? Give me some ideas I guess. I will PM you LooksLikeSinbad about the image I choose because your finishes are always nice. What I would do different: -Use a better image -Not get epoxy in the joints during topcoating -Use 3d eyes or glitter? -Put it some 3d detail like gills, fins, etc.

So after looking at all of the swimbaits on here I figured I had to try making one. Decided to do a photo finished perch with three segments. It's built basically the same way as Dave built many of his swimbaits in the sticky. I cut the rough shape out on the bandsaw, sanded it to shape with a belt sander, then did a little smoothing with sandpaper. It's about 7" long and sinks slow. I'll try to get a pic of it in construction on here and eventually a video 'cause she really swims like a mofo. These also aren't the hooks I plan on using, they're just some I stole off a big crank; I'll be gettin some gammies. It was actually pretty fun to make and I'm definately gonna do some more. I think the biggest bass (and muskie/pike) up here will want a piece of it once the ice is gone.

For some reason I can only produce a decent amount of fish on rapala rattlin raps as opposed to other lipless cranks. I'm thinking it comes down to confidence in a certain bait because there's just something about a silver rattlin rap. Also I had an experience last year where the bass would only hit one of my x-raps. They were just hammering it for awhile and it began to take on a little water making it suspend/sink very unnattractively. I figured that I could just put a new bait on, the same exact x-rap, but it didn't work. Exact same size and color but they didn't hit it. I put the waterlogged one back on just for kicks and sure enough I caught em again. I guess that's just what they wanted :-?

I use a 6'8" medium Avid spinning in ex-fast for unweighted plastics and shaky heads. The sensitivity is excellent and the ex-fast tip makes hooksets easy. Plenty of backbone too. After using ex-fast for these types of baits, I doubt I would go back to a standard fast action.

Another Wisconsin guy here; I already got the itch for open water. First open water fishing will be the spring walleye run on the rivers. Gotta wait until May for bass. First thing I throw will definately be suspending jerkbaits with long pauses.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I've found some legit DNR studies as there is no way bassresource.com would cut it as a cited source, even though it is my favorite source. No need to do any more bickering

Thanks everybody, especially Glenn. Lots of good information here. The speech will include selective harvest and regulations, with emphasis on catch and release.