eric1978

Nice pics. Gotta love a big, old white oak. I have one in my backyard that is really cool.

Got a couple Megabass duplicates laying around I'd like to trade for Sammy 85, Pointer 78 SP, Wiggle Warts (certain colors) Megabass Pop-Max Mat Tiger...new, no box This thing is a sweet lure. Megabass Vision 95 (3/8 oz.) Mat Tiger...new, no box (2) Megabass Buzzbaits 3/16 oz....not sure of the colors...new, no boxes Let me know if any of ya'll are interested in these and maybe we can set up a trade. I lost my magic Sammy 85 this summer and I need to replace her. Let me know. This stuff is going on Ebay, but I'll end the listings if you want it. Thanks, Eric And can anybody tell me what this thing is? If you tell me you use these things and say you catch fish with them, I'll just give it to you. All I know is LC makes it. Some guy gave it to me with a box of other Lucky Craft baits I bought.

Dang Chief, you're rollin' with some old school stuff. Just goes to show you don't have to spend a fortune on lures to be a good fisherman. My tackle box looked like that a long time ago, but over the years it's turned more high-end Japanese type stuff. But I bet most of your stuff would go toe to toe with any $20 LC or Megabass lure most days. Sometimes I think the really pretty, expensive lures with fancy paintjobs are more marketing for the fishermen, and not so important to the fish, but I'm a sucker. I never did get into the Rebel Craw crankbaits, but I like the look of all your Warts. Lots of miles on those babies. I like some of the original colors, but mostly buy the Madflash colors now. Gotta love the Warts.

WOW. Some people just have no respect for fishermen or fish. You would think guys that clueless wouldn't even be interested. It's too bad you can't tell who the bad ones are before they know your prices so you could charge them double or triple for being no-good idiots. I can understand people being unskilled buffoons casting lures into trees, but they would have been swimming back to Lilley's from my boat until they paid for the rod they broke. Equipment isn't covered under guide fees. How do you break someone's stuff and not expect to pay for it? Jerks. Guess all you can do is hope their pilfered trout goes bad and it makes them both puke. At least you got to fish today (kind of). A bad day fishing is better than...well, you know the rest.

A comment on all three points: Dammit. I guess I've already screwed myself with my own rules. Oh well. I also want to know how Al modifies Wiggle Warts and I want to know what his homemade "twin spins" and "subwalk" look like, but he's not telling. I've brought it up before and he's got a real sly way of pretending he doesn't notice. I guess he can't give up all his secrets. I second that motion on the Wiggle Wart guy. You can't get a better crankbait for my 5 bucks, and they've been around forever. Can you imagine the millions of fish they've caught?

My problem exactly. I'm surprised to hear hair jigs are category 2. They're pretty much the only jigs I use on clearer streams. Great post, Al.

I like the silicon skirts for LM, but for smallies I prefer the realistic look and finesse of the hair jigs. If the water is murky, I'll throw a bigger silicon skirt jig with a bulkier trailer and a rattle, but I generally don't care for jigs in really murky water anyway. The jerkabaits are in the box. Love the Pointer 78 SPs.

Screw those people at Dick's, it's their job. What's your major? I went to Mizzou and their football team stunk, too when I was there. Good thing I didn't care and was too busy fishing and drinking.

I don't think they'll ship it to you, but I think they'll ship it to the Columbia store for free. GPAs are overrated. Blow it off, that's what I did. (Maybe that's why I didn't finish). You go to U of MO Springfield?

You didn't find them slippery on those softball sized slimy boulders?

The Wenonahs are awesome canoes, but for us poor folk, I think you can get pretty close for a LOT less money. Did you call the St. Peters Dick's store?

That's a great idea to build confidence in a new bait. But what if you catch a fish, switch lures, and catch nothing the rest of the day? Could you make it all day without going back to the original lure? I couldn't. I'd last about two minutes. If something is working, I usually stick with it until it stops working, and that's probably why I use so few lures.

The next time I fished there I'd throw a Megabass Leviathan in the Triple Illusion color. That's if you got 25 bucks laying around.

Indeed, my rump done been busted. No rubber for me, I'll stick with felt.

I always used to think that the best fishermen have a basically infinite amount of lures they use, but I think I'm changing my mind about that. I'm beginning to think that a small selection of lures, practiced to perfection is much more effective than 50 different lures, rigged 100 different ways in a 1000 different colors. Every time I'd see Bill Dance on TV when I was a kid he'd have some goofy looking new lure. In my younger, more easily influenced days (stupid is a better word for it), I'd go out and buy one in every color. Then the next trendy lure would show up, and I'd be the proud owner of that one times ten. And on and on until one day I realized I had a whole garage full of garbage I never used. Few of them made it out of their packages, even fewer were tied on, and fewer still were ever tossed in the water. So I sold about 99% of all that crap, and whittled my collection down to an "arsenal." I just filled a new, small tackle box for under my canoe seat, and this is all that went in it. What else do I really need? These are the baits I'm proficient using. They are the baits I have confidence in. They cover all levels of the water table, all colors of water, all speeds of water, and all temps of water. If I can't catch 'em on these, I hang up my rods. At any given time, one of these presentations will work, or the fish just aren't interested that day. I think I'm over wasting my time "testing out" new tackle when I could be spending that time practicing new techniques with the tried and true baits. Spinnerbaits: a couple of each size/blade combination in natural and dark colors Jerkbaits: Pointers, XRaps, couple sizes each in natural colors Crankbaits: a couple of each size/depth in natural and dark colors Topwaters: -a couple Sammys, whitish, grayish, silvery translucenty -a couple poppers, greenish, brownish -a few buzzbaits, white, natural, black Plastics: -4" & 5" Flukes in translucent, bright but natural colors. -4" & 5" Senkos in similar colors to the flukes, but opaque, and a couple dark colors. -2.5", 3.5", 4.5" Tubes in browns, olives, black Hair Jigs: several sizes in browns, olives, black with good plastic craw trailers These are the baits that I use consistently and consistently catch fish with. I keep going back to them year after year. This is now my "arsenal" and I will leave home with nothing but these baits from here on out. What does your "arsenal" look like?

If it wasn't a living creature I'd say it was a Megabass Leviathan in the Triple Illusion color. Looks just like it.

I was there about ten days ago. No Vagabond at that time, I looked for one. Lots of Bending Branches, though.

Yeah, it does look a little short and fat. I think it might be a barge to paddle upstream and through slack. 36" wide would be nice, though, if not for that.

Got a question for some of you crankbait vets out there. Whenever choosing a crankbait to throw, I always pick one that will reach the river bottom. If I'm fishing in 2-4 feet of water, I'll throw a shallow runner, 4-8, something a little deeper diving...and so on. I always want it to be bumping off the rocks and other cover. Do any of you guys ever fish shallower running crankbaits in deeper water if you think the fish are suspending or relating to mid-depth cover? Not talking about lipless, I know the answer to that. Wondering about billed cranks.

And you wanna be my latex salesman...

You're pushing your luck little man. I love Seinfeld.

Thanks Partner! Now we just need some dry time so we can go fishing.

Phil, just wanted to tell you that no one minds when you lock the more provacative threads. This forum is a great resource and gathering place for fishermen, and it should remain about fishing. Whenever you lock a thread up you apologize for it, but in reality you are doing us a favor by keeping the peace. As one of the people here that has trouble keeping his mouth shut, I just wanted to tell you thanks for keeping us in check and don't worry about anyone getting upset over it. Right fellas?

You may want to call the one at Mid Rivers Mall in St. Peters. They had one there as of a few weeks ago, and it's not really the season for canoes to be selling like hotcakes. When I was looking for a different color, one of the salespeople told me they could have it shipped from store to store as long it was in the same region or something like that. I haven't seen the Pack at Dick's. I saw one at Cabela's not too long ago. Wayne, the Mohawk Solo looks good and very similar, but I thought they went out of business. No?