ww2farmer

A jig is tool, at certain times it's a go to bait, and I always have one tied on. They catch fish...........period. If you can't catch a bass on a jig, it's not the jigs fault.

I use braid for alot of my jig/worm fishing, but about 95% of the time I am fishing thick weeds. One of the situations I switch to fluorocarbon is when it is really windy.

I normaly fish square bills in heavy cover with at least 1x strong hooks. Grass, docks, laydowns, it's no place for light line and wimpy rods. 30lb braid or 15lb fluorocarbon, and a 6'8" MH power, fast action rod do the trick for me. If you have a good spinnerbait set up, it's a safe bet it will be a good square bill rod as well.

Consumed............ready for more.

If Bluegills are what your after, my personal favorite is a Northland Bro's series "Gill getter". I like #14 size in water less than 10', #12 in water deeper than 10'. Lady bug is my go to color, and when the bite slows down on that, i switch to "grasshopper" and that seems to get them going again. Tip it with a wax worm, and fish it on 2lb test line. If there are gills around you'll catch loads of them. I get perch and the occasional crappie if they are mixed in with the gills too.

Big largemouth are regularly caught through the ice here on 10" baitfish under a tip up meant for a pike, and micro size jigs meant for bluegills, and lots of stuff in-between. They are still opportunistic feeders, put what you have confidence in in-front of them and see what happens.

Tubes, and 3" Gulp......often time it matters not what style/color, as long as it's Gulp.

I speak from experience here..............you go putting perch and crappie in that pond and your problems with stunted bass will get worse. Fatheads are more or less a snack, they will do no harm, don't expect much growth on the bass from them, they will get consumed fast, and you'll go broke trying to keep up with how much the bass can eat. I have no experience with crayfish stocking. I would plant brush before I added any vegetation, Milfoil can get out of hand real fast, and then you'll have a mess. Removing bass is a simple and easy way to start and try to turn things around, less bass=more food for the ones that are there=bigger bass. Is it fail proof.........no, but nothing is. Adding more fish to an already lean food chain is a recipe for disaster.

If your by yourself, and the limit is 5, you best cull when you have caught the 6th. If you put a 6th fish in the livewell and keep fishing your over the limit. Simple as that. I have fished team tournaments with a partner where we have had more than 5, but no more than 10 (5 fish limit for each man in the boat) and culled down to our best 5 combined, but this was within the rules.

Alot of rods are using that seat now.............and I hate it as well. St Croix Legend Elites, and Extremes use it, Fenwick HMG's, Quantum KVD cranking rods, are the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

Ok, bought me a pack of the Baby Rage Craw, Ill try one tomorrow. Green Pumpkin by the way. well you got the color right.

There are situations where I use a rattle, water clarity has little to do with it, I have caught them in dirty water with no rattle just fine, usually they are really tight to cover when the water is dirty, and flipping or pitching right into there face will get you bit rattle or not. When I like a rattle is in heavy grass , and when there is alot of cloud cover and wind. I find that they are more active in these conditions, moving around in the grass and the rattle gets there attention better, when it's bright and calm I take the rattle off. I don't like the rattle pods that seem to come standard on most jigs now, I use a big 7mm single BB glass rattle meant to fit in a tube, on a home made rattle holder. Does it make a difference........who knows, but i have confidence in my system and that what matters.

I'm not saying don't get the Argon, they are great rods, and at the prices they are beeing blown out at you can't beat them. I just wanted the OP to know they were discontinued just "in case". The are going cheap enough now you could buy them 2 at a time if you can afford it and keep one as a back up, which is what I did.

I don't have that problem with a 7' rod, what cone angle is your transducer? I admit that on Noels boat I have to stand more in the middle of the front deck to see mine on his graph, but on mine I have always been able to see it right on the bow. 20 degree transducer. Now after saying that, I could see how a short rod would be very handy if thats the way you DS most of the time (for me it's not) I probably only DS like that a handfull of times a year.

People bring this up all the time. If the rods handle the duties asked of them, who cares if they can't be replaced by the same make/model? I look at it as a perfect time to try something else should something happen. ;D Admittedly I've never broken a rod yet. (Hope I didn't just jinx myself! > ) I care..........because if I become comfortable with a certain rod, and it breaks and I can't get an exact replacement for it, then I have to get a feel of a new different rod, and that matters to me, and it might to the OP as well.

Insert tube jig heads for deepwater "dragging", and bed fishing, usually 3/8's oz. Flipping/pitching t-rigged with EWG hook, weight pegged, 1/4 oz - 1oz depending on.............well alot of stuff.

All I use for shaky heads are Strike Kings, both the round and football. Hooks are VERY sharp. I switched to them from spot removers, not because spot removers are bad, but the SK's fit me better. The spot removers are not shaky heads, they are stand up heads, and I don't like jig heads with the wire keepers either. Thats why I went to the SK. I have had good success with the 1/8 football head on a zoom green pumpkin finesse worm under docks, and the 3/8 head with the same worm on deeper stuff.

I have a couple Argons, they are great rods. The only reason I don't recomend them is that Kistler discontinued the Argon series, so If you need to have one replaced you won't be able to get the same rod.

I use 4 sizes, but find 1/4 oz to be the most versitile.

I have a couple Revo S's, and Citica's, I also HAD...............note the word HAD, a Tierra. I didn't care for it.

Simmons sporting goods on e-bay has Kistler Mag TS rods on sale for $68, get the 6'9" MH "all purpose special". I have a citica mounted on one, great set up. It will fish spinnerbaits, topwaters, shallow and lipless cranks, buzzbaits, and jig/t-rigs in moderate cover great.

I was thinking about a 2000 for dropshotting. What size rod do you have that on and how do you like that setup? How does such a small reel handle fluorocarbon, is the spool wide enough? I have it on a 7' ML power, fast action St Croix Avid. It's just about my favorite set up. I use 6lb Trilene flouro on one spool, and 10 lb Power Pro on another. I usually just use the straight fluoro for DS'ing, handles it as good as any other spinning reel with flouro I have or have used.

Bluegills are enough. The probelm is probably too many bass. I would remove bass first, before I introduced a new species to a pond........I have seen that not work too well.

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I have used $40-$175 dollar spinning reels in the past. I have now settled on one, and have been using them exclusivly for the last couple years. The Daiwa Exceler. Other than the air bail it's, IMHO, as good as any other Daiwa I have had (Capricorn, Advantage) better than any Shimano I had ( Sedona,Sahara, Stradic) or Pflueger I had (Trion, President, Supreme). Line twist seems to be a little less with the Daiwa's then the Shimano's, and a lot less then the Pfluegers. The Exceler is an all aluminum reel, and come with a spare spool. I wouldn't even consider a Shimano spinning reel any more since the quit giving spare spool with the reel, and charge $20+ for one when you buy it seperate. Like I said the Exceler comes with one, and if you need/want more they are $9 from Daiwa. The spare spool is important to me, I am changing them out for different situations all the time. I only carry 3 spinning rods and that makes them more versitile for me. I have the 3000 size on my dock skipping rod, the 2500 on my all purpose rod, and the 2000 on my drop shot rod.