Ealy

Thanks for the replies. Talked to a couple of jig men today and ended up with a couple of pointers. Tonight I put jig in the vise with hook down, took 8in of copper wire and bent it with a "U" shape in bend, laid 2 silicone skirts on jig with middle of skirts resting on barb. pull "U" of wire up from bottom and wrap. Worked well and had no need for rubber collar.

Sorry guys, didn't know where to put this one. I bought some football heads from Fin n Feather today, they're pre-painted with no skirts. I'm wanting to tie some silicone skirts on with copper wire, but having a hard time managing everything...even in the vice. I've tied plenty of round ball heads with rubber material and copper wire for the spider look, and used skirt tool for silicone, but these are a little different. How do you get the "mop" style skirt and is there a trick to holding skirt in place long enough to wrap copper wire? Are two skirts used per jig? Any other tips appreciated.

Hope you get to feeling better James. Sounds like you'll be good to go just in time for the lake to cool off and fishing to heat up!

A friend and I fished last Sat. night (July 31) out of Mill Creek from dark till 1 a.m. Very tough for us, with only 4 fish. I had a 19 inch smallie and 15 inch Ky on a 10 inch worm, Brad boated a smallie that might have kept and a short Ky on a big worm. We fished steep main lake bluff ends and deep timbered points and ridges from Joe Bald to Schooner. Surprisingly only saw 2 bass boats all night Surface temp when we left was 90 degrees.

Here's a couple of pics from today. We were catching deep KYs when we found this spit out on the carpet.

Hey guys, Quicksilver is Mercury oil, just packaged differently. The Mercury oil is meant to be sold at official Mercury dealers whereas Quicksilver is sold in retail stores.

Over here.

I upgraded from Eagle to Lowrance several years ago, On sunny days, duck into a shady boat slip for easier viewing. Seriously by November you should be seeing several. Go into Little Cow back by the ski course and look around. I've seen 'em in there for years.

I took a buddy up today and put in at Cedar Ridge. We started off on main lake points with jigs. We boated a dozen or so in the first 30 minutes. No keeps. Ran up almost to Aldrich and pitched a big worm and shallow cranked. 1 keeper and another dozen or so shorts. Back to the main lake fighting wind with a couple of shorts on various baits. Moved to the non windy side of the lake for some relief. Another dozen or so on a Trick worms and finesse worms with another good keeper. A tough day for keepers, but plenty of action with an all day bite. September generally sucks with October being a close second for me. It was definitely a finesse fishing day with no clouds and a post frontal situation.

We bought crickets at Lakey's and they served us well. "100" crickets for 4 dollars. We took home 75 bluegill, but literally could have caught a couple hundred. The bigger bluegills came on nightcrawlers 20-25 feet deep while fishing for walleye. We also kept a 20 inch range walleye and 2 channel cat.

I did some digging today and found out that Lakey's bait shop up by the old "Master Baiter" opens at 5:30 every morning. Crickets are about 4 bucks for 100.

What side of the boat were you fishing off of? Were the brothers right or left handed? Any bathroom breaks? What'd they have for breakfast?

Anyone know where to buy crickets around Springfield? Going after gills at Stockton and can't find any chirpin' around the house.

Tough day for us. My buddy Russ Collier and I were Lucky Boat 13 today and had high hopes of a big black. We spent the first couple of hours trying to bang a big LM where they've been doing their thing, saw them up flushing shad, but always too far to cast. You move over to 'em and they're gone. You look back and they're where you just were and out of reach. After the fog burned, I had a hankering to run bluff ends, but got a little sidetracked. I've fished conditions like this 2 out of the last 3 years (not last year) in April . Lots of good fish up shallow, mean cold front comes through, fish bite like crazy and then high skies and no wind. Fish pull off the bank (or beds) and for some reason the bluff end bite is the deal. We only fished 2 bluff ends all day and the second one (at 2:30) yielded a keeper black. We weighed in a meager 13.5 with a 4.32 black. I enjoy fishing the way I fish, but the kentuckies and smallmouth I catch on tourney day don't cut it. The last five tournaments I've fished on Table Rock I've weighed in 13.5lbs. I'm starting to see a pattern here. The smallies and ky's that supported tournament weigh ins after the virus just don't hold a candle to the good bags of Largemouth coming from the White, James, and Long Creek arms. I know there are plenty of big blacks swimming around in the clear water, but they're smarter than their cousins uplake. I've had great days from Kimberling to Dam, but the most memorable are always the nastiest days of the year. I'm ready to start taking my chances upriver.

I've been told that the females will rub against pole timber and cedar trees to loosen up their eggs before spawning. That might explain what you're seeing. A buddy of mine caught an 8.5 LM down there Friday that had a small stick stuck up in between her scales from rubbing a tree.

Good job on the weight loss. I'm going the other direction with the "Fat For Life Diet". A strict regimen of McDonald's Sausage Biscuits, Wendy's Chili, and Sonic Cheeseburgers served with french fries and washed down with Dr Pepper.

Did he not fish in Spring Branch? I swear I remember them saying on the Bassmaster coverage that he was fishing in there. He had supposedly been catching them on a wart, but ended up having to throw the shakey head to catch 'em later. I'd rather them say "We don't know where he's fishing" than to lie!

Good to know. I've always jerked it down beside the boat and watched the bait, but never for more than 15 seconds or so. I've got a few confidence baits that always seem to suspend well. I'll have to double check those.

My favorite flipping jig is a Chompers brush jig 3/8 matched with a Netbait Paca Chunk. In the summer I'm usually fishing gravel and my favorite jigs then are the 7/16 Jewel Spider jig and any number of 1/2 to 3/4 oz football jigs with twin tailed grub trailers. For everything in between It's a 5/16 or 7/16 Eakin's type jig with various craw trailers.

I've only fished it a handful of times during jerkbait season. I've had some success with Table Rock Shad colored rogues and Pointer 100's. I also caught several on Pointer 78 deep divers in Bone and Aurora Blue.

I heard the Floating Cafe dock at Indian Point went down.

Wow, try and find out their tourney schedule so I can know which ones to cancel. Those guys know where to find 'em.

I'll let him know. He was offered a free condo to stay in on the island by the dam. He didn't want to mess with using the ferryboat to get back and forth plus the drive to Camdenton everyday was farther than he wanted to commute.

Champ, it's a little known fact that by tying on 2 banjo minnows they often fight each other to the death. This is very much like putting 2 betas in a fishbowl together. This effect is known as "dueling banjos".