I've got a few, you can get the old ones at Bullseye in Ofallon. They are OK for action but they don't have the same action as a wiggle wart. They still catch fish though. I think the problem was with the line tie wobbling too much and a hole was created which filled up with water. Supposedly the new ones are due out any time.
You can touch up the bottom side of the lip with a file to make it act differently. Be careful though, only a little. If the lip is slightly sharper on the end it will also dive a little deeper.
Actually Cheif I don't want to start a ruckus but if a few unemployed people decided to take a legal creel limit of smallies everyday for a month it could destroy a good creek in no time. So I don't mind taking a few fish now and then but you got to wonder what would happen if the "gotta take something home cuz I love fried fish" mentality didnt exist. There might be a lot more fish to catch and release.
I don't keep any bass except for a few spots. No smallies or LMB. I don't know of anyone that keeps LMB or SMB that I fish with. I will keep stocker trout from the parks.
Agreed, Many lower strecthes of streams produce the biggest smallies, but nobody wants to fish next to the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. But like you said, a few 20 inchers will change their minds!!!!
I'm just really sad after reading about it. He was by all accounts a good father and was doing something noble by taking his kids out to enjoy the Ozarks.
All the links from Gavin and Wrench are good. I would also recommend fishing with an experienced floater and attending some MSA or Bass club meetings. People learn in many different ways. I've always been the type who learned by watching an experienced angler in action. You might pick up the suttle differences that separates them form everyone else. Maybe their method of controlling the boat or canoe, maybe their casting technique, or maybe the way they work a bait. It's hard for me to get those things from a book or article. But that's just me...others might prefer the book.
I was down at Springfield at Tracker Marine this week working and went out to lunch with my old buddy Rick Lapoint from Rick's Chauferred Guide service. Havent seen him in a while, so we went to eat at Buckinghams BBQ restaurant. Just found out that Buckinghams burnt to the ground the night we were there! strange