abkeenan

Nice pics Dave. Even more impressive catch being that you lost your left arm in battle. What is up with that pic? lol.

^-----This also. I forgot to mention the docks as a good places to try. Also water with color seems to do better than the super clear areas of the lake.

Jason, I am also an Owner fan as they are just the best hooks you can buy IMO. But its not like you are downgrading all the bad by switching to Gammy's. For Jika's Rigs I love the Owners but the Gammy Super Line hooks have a bigger eye thus you don't have the split ring rubbing on the inside of the eye and getting all caught up. Should solve the problem although I wish Owner had a bigger eyelet on their 4/0 and 5/0 EWG hooks.

River Arms and Creek Arms are your best bet. I would go 4lb test if I were you for castability reasons and use jigs and/or swimming minnows near brush piles and wood. Dam area for one reason or another is just not a good crappie location like ten coach has already stated. Good luck.

Update: I tested my "modified" red fins and they all failed. The angle was just too steep and ruined the action. I wouldn't recommend using a bic lighter at all as that will burn the bait and ruin it. I used a blow dryer and just reheated the bills for a 2nd time and put the original angle on them. A few I left just slightly more of an angle than the original. Will see how it goes.

Wow. Fish of a lifetime. Awesome Bill. Area of the lake?

That is a shame on your Curado E's RPS. Mine has been just an absolute joy and built like a tank and wouldn't trade it for anything. Maybe you just wore them out with all that nutty walleye trolling you do? You walleye guys just don't know how to treat your equipment like us bass guys....hahaha. I thought about giving Okuma a shot a year or two ago but decided against it and my fleet now consists of mostly Lew's.

^----THIS. Well said. I know Shimano is probably regretting their decision big time on the G series Curados. They aren't selling well and it is well known how they "cheapened" the reel with parts/bearings/etc. Wouldn't surprise me if they scrapped the G's after just a year or two on the market and went back to something more like the E's.

Hahaha. Hey now. Trust me MIZZOU has made me want to switch sides MANY times. Especially with their last 2 early exits in the NCAA March Madness tournaments and maybe more so the way they choke in big games in football. If you are a betting man take whoever MU is playing in a bowl game cause they just fold like lawn chairs. I have been this close to becoming a life long Longhorns fan sooooo many times. For once it would just be nice to root for a winner. I guess now I know what it means to be a lifer Cubs fan.

Love my Lew's and you can't go wrong with them. That being said I love my Curado 200E7 a little more.

x 2 on this. I usually get out on the lake around 5AM and fish til around 9-10ish when the Lake Gnats come out on the water and the fishing usually starts to dwindle on bites anyways. After that it is time to join the Lake Gnats with the family on the pontoon and whatnot. Then will go back out around 7-8pm'ish after dinner and fish into the night.

Good to hear the 34 Belly Option on 2 on 2..... is working. Will be down there next Friday evening til Sunday afternoon. If they are on the jig they should be on the Jika as well. Will be using some of those green pumpkin heads you gave me Dave. Been dying to bust them out paired up with my watermelon green w/ orange flake brush hogs.

Bill, Shimano and G-Loomis is not part of the 25% off deal at BTD and yes their product selection is somewhat limited especially compared to Tackle Warehouse who has just about EVERYTHING under the sun. I just know that Dobyns, St. Croix, Abu Garcia and Lew's are very popular brands used by a lot of people and thought I would share a good discount for guys wanting those brands. I know you are a Lew's, Shimano, Falcon and Steez man so not a whole lot to interest you there other than the Lew's maybe. Things that are on sales on BTD will have a on sale in red below their product with the 25% already taken off on the price towards the bottom. Some good deals to be had on Lucky Craft, Spro and other items as well but some like Megabass and others are not in on the 25% off.

C- Rigging the big worm?

Phil, Have been using full size Beavers on a 75/0 hook and slaying the big girls on them. Not easy to skip docks with but they go right through wood no problems. Throwing them on 320# Power Pro on extra heavy deep sea gear. Might be able to get by on Lake Trout gear if you just are using the yearling beavers. Paddle tail has great action on them. A steel leader isn't a bad idea either cause they have a tendency to want to gnaw through the braid.

Its the summer pattern, 99% of the fish in Table Rock have now congregated in Aunts Creek for their annual migration and they can only be caught on drop shot rigs now. Nothing to see here....move along..

Just a heads up guys that http://www.basstackledepot.com/ is having a Father's Day sale with 25% off most of their gear and tackle. I have ZERO affiliation to this website. Just want to pass on the savings to any of you guys looking to maybe stock up on some tackle or maybe someone who has been wanting to get a new rod and reel combo waiting for a good time to buy. 25% off a Dobyns or St. Croix rod and Lews Speel Spool or Abu Garcia Revo is a nice chunk of change to be saving. Will also mention Tackle Warehouse is having a 15% off their giftcards for Father's Day so another option there as well.

Made a stop in there on my way down last time in May. Nice shop and if they don't have it you probably don't need it. Good selection of GYCB too if that's your cup of tea. I have bought 4 Lews Speed Spools within the last year and a half or so and just brought the reel boxes with me to see if they would give me the promotion of free shirts and apparel that they advertise. They were super nice and gave me 2 Lews tee shirts and a hat. Will be back in there if I ever need to pick up anything again on the way down. Nice store and nice guys. Plus love me some Lew's.

Good deal on a nice rod. If I were a flipper and a pitcher I'd be all over this. My wife would kill me also. Hahaha. Good luck with your sale, should have no problem selling this.

That was a good deal for a nice little setup for someone.

I just bought some over the winter from lurepartsonline.com as a project plus cost of spoons is outrageous buying them from Strike King, Lake Fork, etc. They are a chunk of metal with a hook for crying out loud. I bought 3 different sizes (1 jigging and 2 casting). I put all of them together (split rings, hooks, etc) myself and painted some of them white (Krylon spray paint then clear coat with fingernail polish, simple and effective). The jigging spoons were so darn cheap I got 20 of them for like 5 bucks. The 3.5" 3/4oz where also dirt cheap and bought 20 of them as well, left 10 nickel and then painted 10 white. Then I bought 5" 1oz BIG flutter spoons which is what I am assuming you are really wanting. I haven't used them yet other than the 4" ones I painted white just as a trial run and did hook up with 1 short fat Kentucky off the end of a dock suspended around 20 ft out in 70-80 FOW. This was back about a month ago and the fish were not in the docks yet. All said and done with components (split rings, hooks) plus the actual spoons I paid around $80.00 bucks. The ones in the link below are basically identical to Strike King's Sexy Spoon version and these come painted if you want them (I got 5 nickel and 5 pearl white). If you were to buy these in a tackle shop you'd probably pay in the neighborhood of $300 bucks for all that I got. Great savings for the cheap @ss like me. These lures inherently lend themselves to getting snagged and you will lose quite a few in tree tops and dock cables so paying a lot less doesn't sting so bad when you lose a couple here and there. Looking at their prices now they have gone up since I bought mine but they are still a lot cheaper than buying them in the pack. Listed at 3.5" which is closer to 4" and weights 3/4 oz: http://lurepartsonline.com/Shop-By-Category/Casting-Spoons/Steel-Casting-Spoons-Nickel.html Listed at 4" which is closer to 5" and weights 1oz: http://lurepartsonline.com/Shop-By-Category/Casting-Spoons/Fingerling-Casting-Spoons.html Jigging Spoon in 1/2oz: http://lurepartsonline.com/Shop-By-Category/Jigging-Spoons/Lead-Jig-Spoons-Unpainted.html These are the cheapest spoons I could find anywhere online and I looked at Jannsnetcraft as well as Barlows. Maybe A LOT more info than you asked for but figured I'd share. As far as actually using them I will have to get back to you after a few trips out this summer hitting the docks and bluff ends/ledges with them. I was throwing mine on a 7' MH Diawa T-Rod with a Lews Speed Spool on 17lb Seaguar InvisX and it was just fine. Was strong enough to pull snags off when need be and then some. -Brett Here is a pic with some scale if you're interested (bottom 2 are the ones I painted):

Ya. Boy do I hate not being able to see my line at night. What makes it worse is when my mom and sister try to get in the boat at night with me also when I am trying to fish. Hahahahaha.

Dave, Give the jika a go at all? Or are they on the ned rig too good where why mess with it?

Very nice gesture.

Guilty as charged.