abkeenan

Is wearing one of these during a tournament and "accidentally" falling in the water and electro shocking fish up against tournament rules? If so I will be on a major power pattern. How did you catch'em today? Well lets just say I was cranking (amps) and the day was just electric for me (and the fish).

SPRO has FANTASTIC customer service. I guarantee you that if you call or email them and send the baits back to them they will replace all your broken ones with new ones. I did this with SPRO back when they introduced their McStick jerkbaits and they replaced all the defective baits at no cost (other than cost to ship them back) plus extras.

I am not sure why Rapala is continually missing so badly on the paint schemes they are intending to match. Surely they have about the best R&D team and surely that team knows that fisherman want the classic colors in the worst way. Rapala literally botches every single "classic" color they come out with.The V37 and V38 classic Table Rock colors are both off. Especially the V38 "Green Craw" that should be the V388 "Gold Craw". The SP 90 Missouri Craw they just re-released a few months ago is terrible compared to the original. The V209 Natural Red Craw is not close either. There are just too many to even list. Maybe Rapala has a deal with the Custom Painter's Labor Union or something?

Nice report Bill. I don't have any Rock Crawler and don't really plan to do. Especially after a lot hear claiming of bill breakage. I am a BIG SPRO fan but II will stick to the old standby regular ol' Wiggle Wart. You want a cheaper, more durable Rock Crawler? It's called a Magnum Wiggle Wart and yeah....they work and hit about the exact same depth as the RK.

Pretty much. At least when fishing for muskies you don't realize how much time has passed because you only can tell time by how many Labatt's you've had.

She's a beaut Clark.

Yep. That is the risk/reward, feast/famine, all/nothing that is inherent with committing to the swimbaits. I myself have a very hard time throwing a bait all day to get less than 5 bites or perhaps even zero. This year I AM going to invest more time in throwing them and just see what happens.

If it's out there.....we've seen it.

Nice fish and pics BassBlind. What head are you throwing your Ned on? Probably too heavy with no weed guard? Anything over 1/8oz or 3/16oz is too heavy. It SHOULD be about the least "snaggy" bait you can throw. Like others said get in contact with Dave and will solve whatever "snaggy" issues you are having. It's not uncommon to fish an entire day with the same Ned Head Rig without losing it.

Nedder was full.

Well done and love the hat Cousin Eddie. LOL. Also, you can take the zip ties off the rod/reel seat now. Might be a little more comfortable on the fingers.

Champ nailed this thread. If you are unfamiliar with the lake, are not accustomed to fishing deep (30 feet and beyond I consider deep) or are not adept with sonar/electronics the deep bite is going to be hard to get on. Spooning takes about as much skill as playing checkers but FINDING them is the tough part, real tough. See Bo's (merc1997) posts within the last month. It can be the most productive way to put fish on the boat with a fish every drop at times but finding them like I said is the hard part. Hitting them at the right time when they are active or feeding is also part of the puzzle and they are not always willing to cooperate. Another tried and true bait is just a good old 4" or 5" C-tail grub on a 1/4 darter/jighead and swam along the bottom making contact (aka "scrubbing a grub") or just up off the bottom. You can fish that at any depth if you figure out where they are holding. Very versatile bait that has kind of gone by the wayside since the emergence of the A-Rig. Can also throw a paddle tail swimbait (swing impact fat, swimmin' fluke, skinny dipper, etc) on the same jighead and fish it the same was as a grub. This is another bait and technique that doesn't require a whole lot of skill and is great for novice fisherman or even kids. Just cast it out, count down to depth (or til it hits bottom) and swim it back to the boat. I usually have this tied onto my spinning gear in the cooler water months. Wiggle wart...find chunk rock bank cast at 45 degree angles or even parallel....chuck, wind, repeat. Need to be grinding the bottom to get bit. Lastly, I would have a jerkbait on right now. Requires a little more skill in fishing angles but it's not rocket science either. I like to fish them near cedar trees or over the top of pole timber that sits anywhere from 0-15ish feet below the surface. I work mine maybe quicker than most here on OAF. Some guys here when water temps are in the 30's or low 40's will let them sit/pause for 30 seconds to over a minute between twitches. I never let it go for more than 10-15 seconds and usually only around 3-5 seconds. It's my favorite way to fish and has the potential to stick a good one that is suspended in a tree top and see's a easy meal struggling just above and will crush it. If all that fails, throw Dave's saving grace......the NED RIG.

That's awesome. If you do take the (paint) job please post pics of that bait. People are crazy. Was watching the news here in STL this morning and they had people lined up to get tickets at midnight last night. They interviewed some guy who had gotten there at midnight and took off working that day (today) so he could see the movie. That is dedication/obsession, but maybe not in the most productive direction.

I am only kidding about the pantywaist Ned riggers. When the bite is tough there isn't anything that will get you more bites than that little rig. I usually have one on the deck. I am also not really a power fisherman. More often than not I am using a jig or slow moving bait. I leave the water churning to Champ.

I can just picture you sitting out in 35 feet of water, little breeze, high skies and just rocking out to this for 10 hours with Ned gear in hand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5PvBzDlZGs

I burn down the bank with the troller on high, batteries smoking, having my brother pour cool water into my spool and gear case as I wind, grinding the bills of a wiggle wart into a nub every 10 minutes all while listening to this song on repeat on full blast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BRv9wGf5pk

Well fishing with a 6'6" light action fairy wand set up throwing a 2.5" do nothing bait makes me feels like I should just use a bobber, 1/4" piece of nightcrawler and Mickey Mouse pole while fishing in a dock slip. There I said it.

Hey now! I own a Duckett Ghost and happen to really like the rod. The white doesn't bother me. I have the 7'3" MH and love the taper, action and everything else about the rod. I think it's one of the best $100 rods on the market.

It was either Duckett with their Micro Magic's or Abu with their Veritas'. Not sure which one came out first.

Very nice with all 3 species I see. Dam area representing! State Park is a great cove and nice retreat for big bass due to the restrictions of fishing those big docks.

It sucks when companies go out and ruin a good thing. I think the reason why they did away with the Pro Qualifier lineup of rods was that they had just too many models within the same price point range. They had the Extreme's and Carbon Lites at 99.99, PQ's and Bionic Blades at like at like 79.99 and then other lower end rods from 39.99 on down. As far the going to a white rod I think that is just trying to get in on the latest fishing "fashion trend" that was made popular by the Veritas and Micro Magics. Also, rods are getting LIGHTER and LIGHTER with increased graphite modulus counts which is great for sensitivity but also comes at the cost of brittleness and durability. IM6 rods you can bend nearly in half and they won't break. Try that with the newer IM10+ or other super high modulus rods....not so much. I have an older BPS Extreme Rod I picked up on sale 7ish years ago and it's been a good rod that can handle a wide variety of baits. I also have the older generation 7'10 Cranking Stick before the newest model and I have no complaints about that either other than being a tad heavy. But when you are flinging deep cranks, 10XD's and 2+ oz swimbaits on it rod weight kind of becomes somewhat irrelevant.

No matter what anyone says about Bass Pro the PQ is a darn fine reel. It's a nice reel at $100, its a great reel at $75 when on sale and is a awesome reel when you do the reel trade in sale to knock it down to $65. Has both centrifugal and magnetic braking and is a no frills workhorse. I have Shimano and Lew's and I am not ashamed to say that I have a couple of the PQ's slapped on my rods and get regular use.

Denjac, Thanks for posting the smoking gun catalog thus substantiating my loose lipped hearsay coming from two fisherman. This forum might explode now since BPS owns Ranger and is now carrying LEW's products. Looks like the Mayan's hit the snooze button for a extra 3 years. I guess I need a bug out bunker for Christmas now.

That's what I'm saying. That is NOT green. It's GOLD.

They had all the newest colors on the shelves at Bass Pro in St. Charles. I looked at all the colors and didn't get any. I had really wanted to get a few of the Ouachita Craw as in the pics it looks like my favorite color combo...green pumpkin and orange. The pics online appeared as that is exactly what that color was.....so in store....the green is friggin GOLD. I am not sure if the guy mixing paint at the Rapala plant is color blind or what but their "green" is WAY off. It's the same "green" that they use on the new run V38 Green Craw wart. Just terrible. Where exactly do you see green on this bait?