13owhunter

I used to flatline a medium sized shad rap over deep water and it would very often put a big king in the boat when nothing else would. That said, there are better things to run that will be more consistent. I ran the shad rap when i didnt have a ton of gear and an extra lure in the water was better than nothing. The lures in the picture arent too big but i would be concerned they would run too shallow this time of year. (most productive water is usually more than 40 feet down later summer) The top lure is a good one early in the season then the fish are much shallower.

+1 on the temp monitor for the freezer. I lost everything years ago. Worst part was I found out via the stink as it had been off for several days.. Monitoring equipment is cheap insurance these days. I have a couple of temp monitors. The govee one is about $60 and the app is pretty nice. I also have one that isnt controlled via wifi/app and that is even cheaper. My not save you when you are away from home but it still gives you an idea if something is wrong. More importantly, I can guarantee my beer is ice cold. You'll need lithium batteries in the freezer sensor if using a "dumb" one that isnt rechargeable. They last forever.

We did a bit of jigging today after getting a few in the boat. No bites but it was interesting watching them on the livescope. At one point I had 3 fish following my lure for more than a couple of minutes. Id reel it up slowly 10 feet and then drop it down and they would follow. No bites though. We were only at it for an hour or so. In that hour, I had at least 15+ fish "interested." I was using a moonshine casting spoon and a bucktail jig. A lot of followers on both. I really think that this style of fishing could be very productive if you dialed it in. West coast style mooching could be the ticket. Maybe a heavy bladed jig or alabama rig?

I am going to try some other jigging type lures that I have from my west coast saltwater days. A couple of them are similar to a heavy rattle traps where the line connects in the middle of the lure and they have two treble hooks. (mirrolure mullet????) I think you are much more likely to stick one on the fall with something like this than a typical spoon that rocks back and forth on the fall (with the hook in a bad position 50% of the time) I will report back if I have any luck.

Pretty sure I have lost a fish or two because of this but never bothered getting out the epoxy. Now that Im reading this, there really isnt a reason not to do this. I can probably do the majority of the rigs in my "go box" in just a few minutes...... Not sure how I feel about those FishUSA hooks. Seems like overkill to the point that it takes away some of the gap of the hook.....

Excited to give it a go this weekend! Thanks for the intel. This lit a fire under my butt to focus on jigging! These things are a riot on light gear if you can get it done!

This is awesome! I got one jigging early in the season and cant wait to give it another shot. Unfortunately life and lousy weather every time I can get out has gotten in the way of getting after it. Was there any particular technique that you think worked the best? Were they, primarily hitting, it on the fall? FOW? Thank you! With a little luck I hope to get out there next Sunday and will be bringing the jigging rods. (Sandy)

Having a fishhawk helps build intuition about speeds very quickly. Once you have some intuition, it isnt that hard to tell whether you are going too fast or to slow MOST of the time. Id say 80% of the time my GPS speed is between 2.2 and 2.7mph this time of year and I am pretty confident that my gear is running right. I set gear at 2.5. My fish hawk isnt calibrated perfectly but it is a good baseline. Where a fishhawk really shines when you are fishing with or against a stiff current. There have been a few times I have been out there and it amazes me how big of a difference there is between GPS and down speed. That said, your divers will also tell you if you are off quite a bit. Fishhawk gives you better information but you can certainly catch fish without one. I think its also worth nothing that boat and speed control are a big part of this as well. I would rather go without my fish hawk than the throttle control on my kicker.

I'd love the opportunity at some bigger fish. A 15#er on 20#+ gear really isnt much of a match. That said, Im not sure Id trade the current state of things at a chance at some big uns. Last couple of times I have been out this year we caught a lot of nice fish and didnt have to work very hard for them. We didnt do nearly as well "back in the day" but my electronics, gear and knowledge is way ahead of what we had back then. What we really need is lots of really big fish! Really like the idea of putting a few 50#ers out there. Sure be a good excuse when something goes wrong!

Lots of good info on this thread and LOTS of people on here that are willing to help. Next time you go out, share some details (in a new thread) of what you used, how you did etc. The more details the better. This is very technical fishing and there is a learning curve. For me, confidence was a big one my first couple of seasons. I changed things up a lot and tended to overthink things. I now have a pretty good bag of tricks that I am confident in. If you are running 12 foot dipsey leads that should be fine.

Some good advice above. I second the salmon school. Ive done the last two and picked up some good info each time. How long are your leaders on your dipseys? I ran 6 foot leads for a season and they didnt catch fish for me. I switched to very long leaders and it has made a world of difference.

I use an app called Windfinder. It has some cool features but like anything else out there is giving you an estimate for future dates/times. I have found it to be pretty good at giving me an idea of what's going to happen throughout the day. Interested in what other folks have to say on this.

I can see someone running out of fuel due to a faulty gas gauge. My gas gauge is pretty sketchy. It tells me weather Im full or not full. In between that it kinda works if I slosh fuel around but i do not trust it at all. While I agree you shouldnt be out on the lake not knowing your fuel level, its a mistake many smart people have made. (for the record I have not) =0)