1farmer

Don't say you probably never will we all have fate look our way at times. In February 1976 I caught a 4lb. 9oz. white bass which would have been an Arkansas state record. Didn't realize this till later so was no official verification, even though it was weighed on certified scales. If I'm not mistaken a 4lb. 15oz. was caught out of bull shoals in either May or June that same year.

I have used braid ,fluorocarbon, and mono. The last eight to 10 years it has been mostly fluorocarbon on my spinning reels. I did use nanofil for crappie fishing 4 year ago and fell in love with it for that application. Tried it later that year throwing a shaky head and subsequently went back to the fluorocarbon, my reason for going to fluorocarbon was where I was fishing. This was around jetty rock or rip rap, which fluorocarbon seems to hold up better. The other drawback to braid for me is I don't like it in strong wind. Fluorocarbon has to be managed. Fish with it 3 or 4 times a month, keep it stretched with an occasional drag behind the boat and it will be fine for up to 6 months for me. If I spool it up and leave in rod locker without using much I will usually change the next time I try to use it. I do not use mono on spinning anymore but do know that it will outlast fluorocarbon when only used occasionally. With this being said, Bo has talked me, with his results, into going back to braid. Age has taken my sense of feel from me and the eyes aren't as sharp as they used to be making the fluorocarbon hard to see, so now I'm going to try to train myself to become a line watcher again.

Talked to the winners of a couple of tournaments at that northeast Oklahoma lake with all the smallmouths. They reported catching there fish, which were all largemouths , on a-rigs fished in water 8 ft. or less with the two biggest coming from 3 to 4 foot water. They won saturday by just over 6 lbs. and sunday by over 7 lbs. Said water temp was 43 degree. This is something you folks up there might want to check into. They were touching bottom with the a-rig.

I need to correct myself, 4 hard pulls over the same distance will drive the bait just as deep. Reeling and jerking over the same amount of time will get the bait deeper but at a greater distance traveled.

I was not questioning, as I do this very same thing myself. I also know that 4 hard pulls will drive the bait just as deep as reeling and jerking as I have seen in cement pond. What I was trying to explain was the way jerking and reeling fast will get them interested more often than just getting the bait to depth.

Why does he jerk with violence and malice? Here's my answer to that. The jerks probably don't increase depth but the one thing they do is create interest. No one can jerk fast enough to keep a little amount of slack from occuring at the end of each jerk therefore the bait turns some after each jerk. If you reel the bait down it basically goes to it's maximum depth at a fairly constant rate and very little action and most bass aren't going to swim 20 feet or more to try to catch it. The turns created by the jerks get there attention, they are watching the bait and it suddenly stops, curiosity then gets the better of them they swim over to investigate it, it suddenly moves a little and now they remember how fast it was moving earlier so they eat it before it gets away.

Could you not put a static plate on for a higher transom?

To quote and old saying, This tread (has gone to he-l in a hand basket) now.

PLEASE don't explain it to me.

There have been many different opinions mentioned here, each has there on way of doing things. Non of them should be considered wrong. That is the magic of the jerk bait, and what leads it to become an obsession for some of us. So now to further add to the confusion of which way to turn, I'm going to list for me the five jerk bait seasons and the size line I use for each. 1) mid december thru febuary 8# or 10# carbon 8# mono 2)march thru april 10# carbon 10# mono 15# mono (used for floating jerk bait around beds ) 3) may thru june 10# carbon 12# to 15# mono 4) july thru mid september 10# 0r 12# carbon 10# mono 5) mid september thru mid december 10# carbon 8# or 10# mono When it comes to weighting the bait, there are many ways to do this. I'm going to explain how I do it, maybe this will help someone. First thing most people throw a jerk bait in water 55 degree or less, so therefore I want my bait to suspend somewhere in this range of water temp. The first step is to put the bait in a deep sink with cold water, remember were looking for a close proximity to the temperature range, Her we want the bait to suspend as close to neutral buoyancy as we can get it without sinking. Start by changing to heavier or lighter hooks, most usually staying in the same size range, occasionally you may have to use the next size smaller which I don"t like to do. These hooks can be weighted as Bill Babler said earlier and in my opinion is the best route to go. Now it's time to go to the cement pond, here we want to see what action the bait has as we jerk, twitch, and pull on it, and by this we can tell the different characteristics of each bait. Almost forgot this needs to be done with different types and sizes of line, as they can make from minimal to massive differences on certain lures.Now we get to go fishing, be sure to take some weighted hooks, hooks of different sizes, suspend strips or dots(which I don't really care for and rarely use), and different sizes of split rings. Here's where you get to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You should already have the bait tied to your favorite jerkin rod(let's change this I'm going to do it my way.) I'm at my starting spot , I take my favorite jerkin rod and drop the bait in the water and push it down, then I observe how it sits(here if I've weighted it at about the same temperature and used the proper line, it should sit there in one spot or slowly rise) if it rises I then take one of the splits rings mentioned before and hang it on the middle hook push back into water. When I get the proper weight where it sits like I want then I put the split ring on the existing hook hanger. With this method most baits can achieve neutral buoyancy in a very minimal amount of time. If your unfortunate and have a bait that sinks to fast and smaller hooks aren't available my suggestion is to find another bait and start over at step one. This is something you can do to keep yourself occupied on those cabin fever days that you don't have housework to do. I may voice my opinions on different baits at a later date, so get your guns ready.

I throw a pointer probably as often as any jerk bait I have. Most of my better catches have come on this bait. Through reading all of these jerk bait threads you surely have seen Bill Babler mention just turn the head, which I'm guessing means, a subtle twitch that doesn't move the bait forward but turns just the head of the bait. When this is done with a pointer the head doesn't turn as much but the whole bait tilts or rolls on its side without moving forward. The reason I am so captivated by jerk baits is that each brand has its own characteristics. I can spend the rest of my days that the lord has allocated me trying to figure out these subtle differences in the baits.Lucky Craft built a Stacey King model a few years ago that has the wildest action of any jerk bait I have thrown.

It will tell him whether the bait suspends level or nose down, so don"t tell me it won"t tell him crap.

Did the 6XD bite the ned? x

In agreement on the tail down. I am almost as much of a purist as some of those fly fishers when it comes to a jerkbait. It took a rc stick jr to show me the error of my ways. My jerkbaits had to either sit level or slightly nose down or the stayed at home. I was out playing with the bass one nice crisp January afternoon and was doing fairly well on a pointer 78 when it lodged in some fishing line and had to break it off. The only other small jerk bait I had with me was the rc stick jr still in the package. After catching numerous fish on the bait I noticed that it was suspending tail down. Now I don't care how it sits in the water as long as it suspends. I do prefer that the baits that I want to get deeper suspend nose down as I feel this helps get just a little more depth.

First of all, if your catching fish on the bait, then you probably will not want to alter the bait. If the bait has a split ring on the front this can be moved to the back hook hanger to balance the lure. A loop knot will be used to tie the lure to your line. I doubt the line is causing the lure to sit nose down (my apologies Champ). Take the lure, which I'm guessing is a megabass, put in sink full of water and see how it sits.

I will say that the newer rods are stiffer than the black ones in the crank bait rod. It doesn't cast the 1/4 ounce and less crank baits as good as the older model, but will handle everything up to a 6Xd very well.

The only moderate action rod in the carbonlite line is the JCT70MTM 7 ft medium moderate action.I have used this rod 3 or 4 years, it has a real good feel and enough give to keep the fish on the hooks.

I have used the carbonlite rods for the last ten years, this is both the black earlier ones and the recent white ones. Part of these were micro guide rods, And like most micro guides the guides are kinda flimsy. Sensitivity is about average. As far as breakage, I have broken four of these rods in the last ten years, non of these breaks were the fault of the rod if you know what I mean.

Are these farm tags for additional deer harvested after the yearly limit?

Check out owner phantom tube hook.

Try garden hackle, they'll bite it anywhere.

Ham, sorry for your loss. My dad passed away (28 year ago this February) and like you I know now that I lost my best friend. He was always there for me, even if he didn't always agree he always supported me. As I look back now , I realize the many times he did for others instead of himself. We don't always remember how lucky we are to have someone like that in our life. I'm so thankful that the good lord blessed me, not only with dad but also with Teresa. He was there for 32 years and she has put up with me for 35. I think that God made them from the same mold (except from gender) their only faults were they never put themselves first. Here are my numbers: 32 trips, which is about 150 less than most years. The farm got in the way and as Teresa said your just not into it. 14 tournaments, 8 of which were prior commitments. 6 different pools of water, in two states. 12 different partners. 16 different species. 5 crappie for the year. 3 second place and one third place finish, pretty sure winnings didn't cover entry fee. The one thing I did learn from this year make that two things. 1)Something dad told me along time ago, and Teresa brought it to my attention when she said your just not into it. IF YOUR GOING TO DO SOMETHING ALWAYS GIVE IT YOUR BEST, and this is something I didn't do in the tournaments, as Teresa said I just went through the motions. 2) If you have committed to something and not prepared to give it your all, it is better for all parties involved if you just back out and let go.

Don't get him started..

A duck flies south for two reasons, water and food. There is more food available to the north with the inception of no till. As long as they have food they can get to and water they won't come to visit us. This year with the prolonged harvest and wet weather they have millions of acres to feed on to the north.

I see 1 or 2 golden eagles around here almost every year and have for at least the last six year. I know where 4 bald eagle nests are within 3 miles of the house. The coolest site I have seen was a group of hawks in a field I was plowing. It was in winter of 2014 -2015. There were over 100 of them in the group. When I got home I looked them up and found that they spend their summers in northern Canada and normally winter just below the great lakes. Tell me why the were this far south.