When I was 14 I fished Table Rock for the first time, I grew very fond of the lake over the years, mainly because of the smallmouth. I just can't get over 40 years later and no state record smallmouth. With all of the thousands of tourneys over the last 40 years, you would think someone would catch one over 7 pounds. I would rather fish a river for smallmouth. I just can't get jazzed about that lake anymore.
Yea, when I try to go to a specific page in a thread, or just advance to the next page, it just keeps spinning the hourglass, never gets there. But this only seems to be a problem with my iPhone, not my PC. I'm wondering if my phone is blocking the advertising spam or something
Rattles are on almost all crankbaits, and they consistantly catch fish. Even solid wooden cranks still have hooks and split rings that make a little noise. So now you are dealing with how much noise versus how little noise. Jigs banging on rocks is the same scenario. I personally think the rattles will help, especially on a more aggressive fish that's in the feeding mode.
Although I hardly ever use them, because they interfere with either the bite of the hook or the plastic, I still think they work in some situations. Just shake a live crawfish sometime, you will hear the rattle. It might make a fish travel a little extra distance to find them in stained water. It might also anger the fish into biting.
Colors are pretty much irrelevant anymore. If you don't like the color just have someone re-paint them. Those old pre Rap wiggle wart colors were pretty juvenile anyway
Will never forget my lab retrieving doves, his mouth looked like he was carrying a mouth full of cotton balls, a great memory for me. He would rather chase a wounded goose though. On the ground he hit them at about 20 mph, poor goose
Had to be a huge smallmouth. Saw an old grizzled guy once at the boat ramp on the Gasconade. He swore the best way to catch a big smallmouth was on a crappie jig. Said back in the seventies he caught one 7 lbs while fishing for crappie. Tell your dad sorry
now you won't believe this....I forgot my water bottles in my car and survived off of 2 or 3 gulps Al's water. BTW, this was the first time in my life that I've caught a bass when the line tie on the lure was actually touching the last guide in my rod. In other words, I had zero line out! Also wanted to thank Al for paddling my butt down the river for 14 miles! He didn't even want me to paddle (smart thing on his part, he's seen me paddle ?). He did all of the work! But he plays basketball a couple of times a week and is in better shape than me!