March Tackle Grab & Braidwood Round 2

OH YEAH! Lookin stylish with a little piggy.

Out on Braidwood again today with 2 buddys, we managed 4 bass, a handful cat's and a bluegill.  We launched at 7:30 this morning and made a run to the spillway.  The wind was a little too tough for my boat with all of the weight to stay, so we headed for calmer water.

I was throwing a 1/2 oz football jig head with a Rage Craw, and managed to get a nice size bass in the 3# range to the surface, but she only had a mouth full of plastic and no hook.  After rounding the corner, I landed a keeper pretty much in the same exact spot that the 2 last week came from.  I also caught a short later in the day on a Berkley Crazy Legs Chigger Craw on a 3/16 Zipper Head football jig.

One of my buddy's pulled a small one off of a point in the area on a squarebill later in the afternoon.  Also between the two of them, they probably caught 10 small cats, all coming on orange craw pattern cranks.

Yesterday, my tackle grab box showed up!

Here is the haul this month:

Tacke Grab Box - March 2013

• Hawg Wild Lure Co. - Wacky Craw (http://shop.hawgwildlures.com/4-Wacky-Craw-WKYCRW.htm)
• Gambler - Bacon Rind (http://www.gambler-lures.com/category_s/216.htm)
• Bassinova - Chatterbait (http://bassinovabaits.com/?page_id=50)
• Reaction Strike - XW-70 (http://reactionstrike.com/crankbaits/xw-70-90-110.html)

The Hawg Wild Wacky Craw, not for wacky rigging though, is a bait that I have been looking for that found me!  It is a 4" realistic hollow craw body and pincers with meaty ringed worm tail section to hold the hook.  This bait should work in all of your craw imitation applications, and I am looking forward to catching some fish with it!

 I was also pretty happy to see the Gambler Bacon Rind in the box.  I am a huge fan of hawg style baits and this one looks great!  It has a single ribbon type tail instead of the usual two thinner tails.  It also has wings similar to the Havoc Hawk Hawg compared to other baits that have "legs".  They sent a half green pumpkin half junebug color that does look pretty killer.  I just wish they had sent more than 3 pieces, especially since they sell a 40 pack for $9.99.

Looking at the Bassinova chatterbait, the blade has two holes in it, which I am assuming will reduce the drag when retrieving. The blade also looks to be of solid construction, but the lead and paint are run of the mill.  The silicone skirt is a little bulkier and has a little higher quality compared to most of the chatterbaits I have come across.  Chatterbaits are a good follow up to a spinnerbait, that will put a few extra fish in the boat when re-working an area.  And that is exactly why this bait will be in my tacklebox this spring.

The last bait in the box is a Reaction Strike XW-70, a topwater walking bait.  I am not too familiar with this class of baits, as I have only used them a few times.  To be fair, I think I should hold off on any commentary until I try the bait out. Anyone have any rod/reel/line recommendations for working one this size (3 inces)?  

Do you subscribe to a monthly tackle program?  Do you find value/quality in them?  Or do you think they are a promotional sham?  Leave your thoughts and comments below. 

Until next time, tight lines.

A Few Fish and Building A Lure Drying Wheel | March 18 - 24 Recap

Another good fish from a pond.

I have been a little busy to do individual posts, but I did get out twice.  I took another trip to the pond from last week and got another good one, better actually.  This one was in the 4.5# range; I need to remember to biring my scale.  She was caught using the same pattern from last week.

I also got the boat out for the first time for the year and spent a few hours on Braidwood.  Weapons of choice included a 1/2 oz spinnerbait, 1.5 square bill crankbait, and a Zoom Super Hog on a 1/4 oz football jig head (no skirt).  The temperature gauge on my Lowrance was reading 98 degree water temp, but I guesstimate the temperature to be around 65 after sticking my hand in the water.

I was fishing a cut back on the hotside, a small flat area 4-6 foot depth around the corner from a bank that quickly reached 15 feet deep.  Throwing the bait close to the bank and slowly working it back, I managed two fish within a few casts of each other.  The bites were light, and came about 10 feet off of the bank in 6 foot depth.

The larger of the two fish, being 16 inches or so.
Braidwood has a 1 fish,  18" minumum
(for tournament purposes, catch and release only.

Both came on the Super Hog, that I modified by biting off the rounded 'arms' on the body of the bait to create smaller craw like legs.  I also only split the claws at the bottom most connection to keep them from spreading out too much. This will move a tiny bit more water, and give the claws a subtler action, and keep s the profile of the bait just a hair smaller. 

A few months ago, I started making my own lures as a hobby.  I have made a few PoP (plaster of paris) molds of different plastics, have not done much pouring because of ventilation reasons.

I also bought some balsa to carve some crankbaits, an airbrush to paint them, and some blanks to custom paint and tinker with modifications on them.

For sealing the baits, I use Dev Con 2 ton epoxy, which is a little thick but will still run before it cures.  After a doing some research online, I built a drying wheel that will rotate the baits as the epoxy cures preventing the buildup/uneven-ness when hung to cure.

The materials used:
1 rotisserie motor I bought on ebay for $15
3 x 10" rounds of wood, 1/8 in. thick.
1 5/16 in diameter, 3 inch long machine screw
2 washers, 1 fit the screw
1 nut, to fit the screw
19 wood screws
19 aligator clips
Epoxy
Wood Glue
Super Glue
Small pieces of paper towel.

*note, I only have pictures of the finished product below.

How I made it.
I glued the 3 10" rounds together to get the a good thickness/ strength to hold the baits.  Any wood could do, but I used pre-cut wood out of convenience and it was light to keep strain off of the motor.

I put the 19 screws around the outside that will be where the baits are fixed.  Make sure the shank of the screw will fit inside the aligator clip.  Put some super glue in the hole on the clips, and put on the screw with the operating side of the clip on the outside edge of the wood. (see pics)  The bill of the baits are easily clip in and won't fall out when rotating.

Then, I drilled a hole in the middle of the 10" round and put a washer on either side when I put the machine screw though.  I tightened everything up to stay in place with the nut.

I used a 5/16" screw b/c that was the largest size that would fit in the rotisserie spit slot.  There was a hole that ran all the way through the slot so if packed the bottom of it with paper towel before filling it 1/2 way with epoxy.  Then I set screw into the epoxy, and after it cured I topped the remaining space off with super glue just for added security.

Now I have an in expansive drying wheel that works absolutely awesome, and even clear coat on all of my baits!

Side view

Front view

Back of the wheel,  and screw into the motor. 

An Eazy Shad 2.5 with an awesome clear coat.

First Bass of 2013 - Happy St. Patty's

First fish of the year, caught on a spinnerbait.

I finally made it out to one of my favorite ponds today to check it out and see what has changed over the winter.  Last year, we had a scorching hot summer, and the water levels suffered further due to extreme drought.

These factors caused this pond to become overgrown to say the least.  It was pretty much a solid weed mat making it impossible to fish anything but T-rigged soft plastics and topwater frogs.

We, also, for the most part had a pretty mild winter.  Ponds, river, lakes, and every angler was thankful for every inch of snow, and happier at the time it took to disappear.  The late snow storms helped bring the low water levels closer to full pool.

My usual M.O. at ice out is to find whatever healthy weeds you can and the fish will be there.  Today I found that all of the weeds were still in pretty good shape, and there were an abundance of them.

I started out throwing my usual ice out lures:

• Suspending Jerkbait
• Redeye Shad
• 3/16oz football head / shaky head with a finesse worm/craw
• 1/8oz hair jig
• 1/2oz Spinnerbait

I started throwing a Lucky Craft pointer 76 sp, but even on 17# flouro I couldn't get a good presentation b/c it was digging into healthy green weeds.  

The Redeye Shad was better; keeping the bait close to the bottom, rips out of weeds cleanly easier, and can cover water fast.  Still no bites on the red eye shad.  I should mention at this point that I was fan casting these baits looking for the deepest water I could reach fishing from the bank.

Reaction baits weren't working, so I got out the spinning rod and try to coax a bass to bite using the same strategy as before.  No Dice.

Running short on time, I wanted to cover a lot of water and get more of an idea of what was going on in the pond.  So I threw on a half oz spinnerbait.  

Still casting out towards the middle of the pond, letting it sink to the bottom and slow roll it back. The water couldn't be much more than 37 degrees, if it was even that warm...  I made a cast to my left at about a 45 degree angle and as my bait approached the bank I spooked a bluegill that swam right up to my boots.  

The gears started churning in my head.. REALLY? A bluegill  was that close to the shore?  Bear in mind that this was pretty much your average pond bank with a fairly shallow gradual slope.  So, I figure if the food is shallow, bass follow the food and adjust my casts from greater than 45 degrees to less than 45.  A little further down the bank there is a small trench  about 15 feet in from the shoreline and 15-20 yards long. 

Another shot, without my ugly mug in the photo.

I make a little cast to just the other side of the trench and slowly reel the spinner back. As it gets close, I see a black shadow behind my bait.  The fish's nose is ON THE END OF THE SKIRT, as the bait approaches the shore and the fish STOPS....(ugh).  Turns, and swims up the bank..The bass didn't look like much until it turned sideways and I got a good look at it,  she got a good look at me!.  It might have been... oh 3.5 - 4#-ish. 

I throw a few casts in the opposite direction in which the fish swam to let her settle down.  4 casts later i throw it to the far side of the trench and a third of the way back the line starts swimming sideways on it's way back to me.  I set the hook, its on!   

She may or may not have been the fish that followed my bait in a few casts prior.  First fish of the season, on a new rod, and a new reel (which wasn't even remotely close to dialed in.. drag was set way loose -- surprised I even got the hook it in her lip).

This is just another example of how staying observant of what is going on around you and in the water and adjusting your presentation can help you put more fish in the boat (or on shore!).  Or maybe I just had a little luck of the irish today!