RSBreth

You can check out more Ned stuff here :http://www.in-fisherman.com/midwest-finesse/ At it's heart it's nothing more than a "Do nothing" type retrieve with very light and small lures. Since Table Rock has so much timber it's hard to use jgheads without a weedguard, so I use 1/16 or 1/8 weedless head or rig a weedless shaky head instead of an exposed hook point. Another article to read is Ned's coverage of Shin Fukae's win on the FLW tour at Beaver Lake - mostly due to using a slowly swam Yamamoto shad-shaped worm, and inspiring Ned to further refine fishing like that: http://archives.in-fisherman.com/content/meet-shinichi-fukae-wizard-finesse

I've caught Crappies and every other kind of sunfish, plus trout, walleyes, and all three black bass species on the smaller Flat Rap. I haven't messed around with trying to get it to suspend though, as the ones I've used have a faster rise. I really like that I can cast it much further than the original floating Rapala of the same size.

I fished around Beaver Cove last week and did pretty good very early on topwaters. Best was a white Terminator Tiny T buzzbait my son was supposed to be using but slept in. Caught a few decent Spots on it before the bite went deeper as the sun came up.

If you're going to use floats you can just tie your main line (braid) to a swivel, and then tie your light mono or fluoro or whatever to it. This is for Steelhead but the setup is the same:http://www.theoutdoorline.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/low_water_floatfishing_steelhead.jpg Some floats are harder to get to stay in place on really thin braid though.

I don't use live bait very often - mostly for pan-sized Channel Cats, but I do use "enhanced" lures for panfish, trout, and bass. My sons' first fish were caught on PowerBait Nymphs under a float. I've started using circle hooks (mostly the Eagle Claw L702 because it comes in tiny to bigger sizes) and so far it really helps with the biggest problem of live bait - swallowed hooks.

I also have one of the cheap "Fish Grip" grabber - somewhere around here. I couldn't find it last trip but like Wayne said you need a little extra help when the current pushing you around and a fish has a couple or three trebles thrashing around. I like to grab the fish and keep them in the water, then use the long curved locking hemostats as a hook remover - better than any pliers I've found.

Another idea for the in-line spinners is to use a weighted swimbait hook instead of a plain one, and put a good swivel in there at the joint. I like a 1/4 ounce Vibrax style with a 1/8 or 1/4 ounce hook rigged with a fat Kalins grub for Smallmouth. I use a swivel on the front of the lure, too. The front can spin like crazy that way but the hook tracks straight and the hole rig won't twist your line.

Taney is so good I sometimes forget how spoiled us locals are. Good report and nice fish!

Probably a finesse worm on a split shot rig or small 1/16 or 1/8 ounce texas rig. I remember throwing them around docks and stumps and catching tons of Bass that way. Funny that I was using the same thing this past weekend at Beaver Lake and it still works when the bite is tough.

Those Spots make for a fun day when fishing with newbies or kids - but in a tournament it's frustrating when you catch one after another cookie cutter sub-legal Spots. Been there. Sometimes you can just pound a spot long enough to weed through all the small ones and start getting those 16" footballs, but often it's just one 12" or maybe 13" Spot forever.

I love flyfishing, but there are times (like this weekend on Beaver Lake) that conventional gear is what it's gonna take to get them in the boat. BUT - flyfishing for Sunfish or Bass in late summer in shallow water - I've outfished worm slingers with popping bugs. I can't think of a better way to learn to use fly gear than poppers or hoppers for sunfish - and it's just plain fun, too.

I get lots of stuff from Barlows, Janns Netcraft, or Lurepartsonline. The look pretty good - I like bucktail or just a feathered treble on mine though.

Another "done with Shimano spinning reels" guy here - I'll buy Pflueger Presidents until doomsday before another Shimano spinner. Another thing - micro guides and leader knots are not (knot) compatible. If you are straight mono or fluoro or braid they're fine.

Doves at Beaver Lake? - I'll be down there this weekend for a while. On another note - I pulled into my driveway at lunch today and spooked three white-winged doves. There's a few that hang around here.

Maybe it's been a long day in the heat (It has) but all I can think of after reading that is the editor of The Drake, Tom Bie, saying something about most of the contributions to his magazine in the early days - something like "Look, if your gonna plagiarize John Gierach and submit some overly long rambling essay, just copy and paste it and then put your name on it so at least I'll have something good to read for a couple of paragraphs before I recognize it." Of course, I'm just one guy and probably not the be-all end-all barometer of taste around here, so maybe there will be more five star reviews later.

Yeah, I love that picture too - not what most people think of as cast and blast. Most of mine this time of year are scaled down a lot - Doves and Rock Bass.

I get right about .27 of an inch on my micrometer.

I also use 20-pound braid or 6/14 Fireline with 14 to 17-pound Fluoro leader.

I'd do the 50/50 since you want a very smooth retrieve for the Ned Rig. I don't buy very expensive rods or reels anymore - they all seem to lose value and i get new stuff every few years anyway and the 75 to 100-dollar stuff is better than the 200 dollar stuff of just a few years ago.

I still use original Fireline - the main thing about it that you have to have a little 'break in" time with it - cast and reel a couple of dozen time times and it starts to be better than brand new. One great thing about the fused lines like Fireline and NanoFil is that they don't pick up as much water to freeze up your reel in winter. Another thing is I use braid for most superline duties, but when the ultimate casting distance is required it's fused lines all the way.

The marina of a water rat is alway expanding Al - I can't even remember if it's two tandems, a kayak, a solo, ( THE solo) two float tubes, an inflatable kayak, the 17' Bass boat - I think that's it. I think.

Second on the slim Senko's - I like the 4" and 5" - Bass Pro used to sell a copy and I stocked up at the outlet store one day, now I have to buy them from Yamamoto - ouch. Thinking about pouring them but I haven't seen an inexpensive mould. I may have to make a POP mould this winter.

Clinch for fluoro and mono - just make sure it's wet before snugging it down. I use snaps so I don't need loop knots AND you can change lures out quickly. It's pretty common for me to throw a couple of deifferent cranks in a good spot before moving on. For Braid I like the double through the hook eye Uni.

I would try it for sure - growing up in central Kansas we would use live hoppers for Bass and panfish but you would often catch some nice catfish on them, too. What fish wouldn't take a swipe at a live kicking hopper? Throw one near a deep hole under a rootwad early in the day and you may have a monster Brown to deal with just becuase it's something new.

It just takes experience. The more you go the better you get. At least you got to go and fish - that's always a good thing.