abkeenan

Look good Josh!

I think RPS meant this in 3.5" Swing Impact http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Keitech_Swing_Impact/descpage-KSI.html

http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Daiichi_Death_Trap_Round_Treble_Hook/descpage-DAIDTHK.html

Nice videos Phil. Thanks for sharing. Jason is fishing a good spot in that video there at the wake breakers at the State Park. Fish always gathered up around those breakers and cables.

Josh, Giving up your secret bait and color! What are you nuts!

I have had the Mustads and don't care for them as much as the Xcaliber T3's and the Owner dressed trebles. Just IMO.

Good to hear. That person is lucky that a good person found it and not some shmoe that would never even think about finding the rightful owner. Nice work Josh.

Not drinking the kool-aid on BPS gear. J/K. Interesting on nose hooking the fluke. Thanks for sharing.

Nice video. Love to see other peoples take on stuff and coming up with their own ideas. Thanks for sharing.

Likewise. Just hate to see a fish small or large not make it but it is the nature of the beast and casualties will happen. If you get most or all the plastic out and just leave them with the hook they are most often times just fine. When they are bleeding from the gills that usually spells trouble but I have had plenty of fish that bleed and I get them back in the water and they swim off just fine. Maybe they don't make it in the end but they look fine when they swim off and that is all you can hope for in a situation like that. This has been posted before and with all the new comers to the site might as well post it again and it is good info. Started using this gut hooked removal method when I can and it works TREMENDOUSLY. Get your bait back and fish is just fine. In the diagram it shows the person using his/her fingers to grab the hook/line with their fingers. Instead I use a thin pair of surgeons clamp pliers to pull the line through as to make minimal contact with the gills then go in through the mouth and extract the hook with regular needle nose. http://www.electric-bass.org/throughTheGill.htm

I will also mention I have had no issues with them throwing the bait and losing fish. This was posted in another thread and thought I would post it again as the water tank test jika vs t-rig gives some perspective as to the different actions on the bait. Just skip to about 2 minutes into the video:

Might think about giving it to the Cape Fair Marina. If I had lost my tackle bag I would call the last place I saw it to see if anyone turned it in. Maybe the owner of that tackle will do the same. Good man for posting here and trying to get it back to the rightful owner. Kudos Josh.

Jason, The point of the rig is not to standup. Like Quill said the bait floats and moves in a more natural fashion. Secondly, I feel that it comes through cover and rocks better than the good old t-rig. I am sold on it and don't know if I will go back to t-rigging ever again. I never pegged my t-rigs in the past so maybe that is why I favor the Jika. I also think it casts better than a t-rig.

Hate it when you think you have a pretty good one and it turns out to be a little 14" smallie that thinks he/she is really something. There has been more than one occasion that I have called for the net and to be disappointed when that brown and bronze comes up from digging in the depths and you realize you have a borderline dink. Big white bass when you aren't fishing for them also like to play tricks on me.

Good info right here. Hard not to catch something on the ned rigs. Its not just for 12" inchers either, you will catch some good ones. Last weekend had to bite off a few heads after I pulled the plastics off them and let the fish swim off with my heads. Better to keep them alive than to try to get back your jighead and possibly injure or kill them. The hook with either rust out or they will cough it up on their own and be just fine.

Indeed Champ. If my uncle does muster the courage to go out at night he has a HUGE light now on the back of the boat. Like twice as tall as the standard and carries more lights in the boat if he see's one that might be getting to close gives them a shine with it. Glad I wasn't in the boat with him when it happened. Not only for fear of injury but once on land maybe inflicting some injury on the driver after the fact...or passenger in this case. Things than can be so easily avoided and end up tragic piss me off to no end. Like you said common sense is just not common anymore.

Good tip Champ. Be sure to have your lights on if you are out there especially on the main lake and out on a point. My 60 year old uncle got ran over at night straight out from the Old 86 point about 3 years ago. The a$$hole was letting his 14 or 15 year old drive his bass boat at night and completely went over the top of my uncle and his boat doing around 30MPH. Good time to let someone learn how to drive a boat when you are that age...night time. Uncle now doesn't like to fish at night at all. Scared him that bad. Had to get the whole top cap of his Triton fixed by the factory and had to get a new engine. Ended up costing HIM about 2-3K. So be careful at night if you go.

If that is the bank just south of the State Park its a good one. Always holds some nice largemouths.

Puke tubes and turd worms.........both highly productive on TR.

The orange color of the craw's in table rock is somewhat minimal. Just little accents on the claws, ridges of the shell and around the eyes. The majority of the craw is made up or green/browns and black. When you see a pic of Dave has in the 2nd post on this thread that is a craw that is half digested at which point they start to turn orange....just as if you boiled them in a pot...they turn completely orange.

Jimmy, They are the lovable losers at this point. Rivalry has for sure lost its luster for at least the last 5+ seasons as the Cubbies are just terrible. Hopefully Epstein can get them pointed in the right direction soon as it is much more fun going to Wrigley or Busch and having that animosity in the air. Now its just like watching Mike Tyson beat on a 90 year old woman in a fight. Miss the days when they had Carlos Zambrano and the two teams genuinely hated each other. That spot right there is a good one. Love when I see people launch at Moonshine and just pass it right on by all the time. Don't know what they are missing. Its a heck of a jerkbait spot too headed north in the other direction when the time is right in the spring and late late fall. Especially if you have some wind on it.

Only 2.75". A little too short for my liking. Make a 4" and 5" and I would be on board with them.

Nice report. The KY's this year really do seem to have some shoulders on them don't they?

Binoculars and a fast boat

Friday - Brother, Wife and I got into Blue Eye Friday afternoon and fished from 8PM-midnight. Did best right up in the flooded bushes and the big 10" worm was out fishing both the jig w/ trailer and brush hog on a jika. Best bite was in between docks right up in those bushes in 1-5ft of water. Sat - Hit the water before 5AM and started on the pea gravel banks/points on the west side of the dam main lake across from the Branson Belle and only had 1 fish on topwater and quickly switched to jika brush hog/big 10" worm. Caught fish in about 5-15 FOW mostly SM and KY. Bounced around the area and caught a few fish here and a few there. Knew topwater wouldn't be all that great as there wasn't many if any clouds as soon as the sun was coming over the tree line. Not much of a drop shot guy and back in to the dock around 10am. Bite REALLY drops off after 9ish. GET OUT EARLY. Sunday - Hit water around 430ish and hit the flat adjacent to old 86 to the north which usually always has topwater action early. NADA. Caught 2 KYs on jig/jika out in 30 FOW and decided to leave after about 20 min of a slow bite and not much surface activity. Moved to the bluff end point that transitions into a flat right in front of Chateau on the Lake and stayed there for 3+ hours and really just caught the fire out of them. Mix of KY, SM and LM. Fish came on the jig with brush hog trailer and 5" Dinger on a standup head. Dinger was getting more bites or maybe I am just a better fisherman than my brother who is a jig guy. Moral of the story....big worm at night, dinger/jig/brushhog during the day and get out before 5AM. Probably best to shut it down after 9 or 10AM as the bite slows down big time plus the boats/jet ski's are coming out as well. If you are a dropshotter you can probably do pretty well for much longer out in 35ft but I hate drop shotting. Good luck out there.