Seth

Dad has taken moose. Grizzly bear, elk, caribou and a pile of deer with his Browning Abolt 7mm mag. i purchased my own Abolt this past fall and thought I wanted the 7mm, but ended up stickng with a .270. A 130gr .270 round worls great on deer and coyotes.

Trick worms, eakins jigs, tube and a jerkbait will let me catch fish all year long. I think the type of water you fish has more to do with which species you will catch. Slacker water produces more largemouth and areas with current hold more smallies. Kentuckies seem to be everywhere.

3/32oz sculpin orange jig from Phil's shop

I seen a good one by KOA this past October when we were down there. He wouldn't pay any attention to my white jig or jerkbait though. He was a solid 5-6 pounder. My mouth was watering just watching him swim around.....

Good report. I caught a couple nice crappie on jerkbaits on the Osage the weekend before last. Of course once I put crappie jigs on and actually targetted them all I could catch was stinkin kentuckies! Funny how that works.

Please don't tar and feather me. I've been too specific about fishing reports in the past and received a similar punishment. Btw, have you been out any yet? I'm hoping to get out and chase some smallies at least a few times once xmas break starts.

I've been blocking all ad's with the Ad Block Plus extension for Firefox. I just disabled it for the forum so they start showing up again. I'm sure that probably helps you out anyways.

I've made two trips to the Gasconade and managed three smallmouth between 17-19". Not a lot of fish, but good quality. I tried the Osage last weekend and caught several small green bass, couple crappie and a walleye on jerkbaits.

By golly I want to make it this year! I've yet to make a single one so far! Are you bringing the Gator along?

You hate deer more than me! I have taken five and that is enough deer cleaning for me for the year. 3-4 are all we eat anyways. I gave my rifle buck to some relatives needing the meat. I'm in fishing mode, but do plan on trying to fill my archery turkey tags. I think every farm we hunt has a big flock of birds on it right now. It's been a few years since I've taken one with the bow.

I thought you just meant in general. I'm not sure when it comes to fly fishing, but it is very lroductive for conventional tackle. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

You're missing out! Winter/early spring smallmouth fishing beats the crap out of summer fishing once you find some decent wintering areas. The size is usually much better during the winter too.

While I do catch a lot of fish on bottom with a jig in the winter, there are some days they want a jerkbait and I'm maybe half way down the water column. If the water is gin clear, those fish will be able to see anything overhead with ease. I really don't see why you couldn't catch them on a baitfish patterned streamer in clear water but that's just a guess. It may not work at all.

We were at first but it was chocolate milk. All we caught down there was a couple drum.

Caught four whites between island and dam but the paddlefish were so thick, you couldnt hardly throw a crankbait without snagging one.

Caught a bunch of dink kentuckies and largemouth on the Osage today. An 18" walleye decided he couldn't resist my jerkbait either. He will make a tasty meal tomorrow. We threw herringbone chartreuse and pro blue colors. Pro blue never produced a fish but they liked the herringbone chartreuse color. I switched from my skeet reese crankbait rod to my spinnerbait/worm rod, which is a medium/fast, and decided I like it much better for jerkbaiting. It didnt wear me out nearly as bad. The only thing I wish is that it was a 6'6" instead of a 7'. I hit the boat and water every now and then if I wasn't paying attention to my jerk angle. I'm right at 6' tall.

All this jerkbait talk has me fired up for some fishing this weekend! Gonna hit the osage for some spots and largemouth this Saturday with some buddies.

I pretty well only bass fish rivers, which is another reason I don't throw very expensive baits. Treble hooked baits usually don't make it more than a few trips before they get snagged and broke off it seems. My buddy snagged up and had to break off a 110 the other and It just about me sick to my stomach! He uses GLX or Steez rods paired up with Quantum exos so money isn't much of an issue to him though.

I guess I've talked myself in to second guessing my equipment after hearing a few guys on here reiterate what I've already read by other random people on the internet. If the RC STX end up costing me a good fish do to a split ring or hook malfunction, I will be on here promptly to stick my foot in my mouth.

You guys got me worried now even though I've never had a problem. Let's say I do decide I want to change my split rings and hooks out, which ones do you recommend?

I'm with fishinwrench. Heck I am constantly bending the jig hooks when trout fishing because I am too lazy to grab the fish and remove it by hand. I just hold the jighead and shake the hook till the fish comes off. Those light wire hooks are usually all bent up after that so I just bend it back in place. I've caught some awful nice bass on little fine wire crappie hooks and didn't have any issues with them bending. Surely the hooks on my jerkbaits will hold up better than a little ol jighead?

When I get home from work, I will double check the one I have on my rod right now. It tangled with a scrappy 17" smallmouth and a few dinks this past weekend. As hard as that fish pulled, something should have gave. My jerkbait rod is a medium/moderate soo maybe that absorbs a lot of the shock and helps preserve the split rings and hooks?

What is the issue with the split rings and hooks? I've never replaced any and haven't ever had an issue. In fact, I've never replaced a split ring or hook on any bait I've ever purchased and can't think of ever having an issue on any bait that had them. The hooks seem super sharp and I haven't any any issues with fish bending them. Is there some other hook issue?

The RC STX has yet to give me any issues with the split rings or hooks like I've heard so much about. I would rather take my chances on an $8 lure first and see how it performs versus dropping $25 on a lure that I've read countless stories about how the bill broke off. I'll just keep catching fish on my cheap knock offs and you can have fun calling them junk to justify paying $25 for an identical bait. It really doesn't hurt my feelings and the fish don't care either. They produce enough fish for me to be satisfied. Based on recent trips, the fish sure didn't seem to care or notice that my buddies bait costs 3 times the price of mine.

This is Elegy Bone for the megabass 110 This is Herringbone Chartreuse for the Luck E Strike RC STX. Very similar.