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How's your GAS lately?

514K views 1K replies 83 participants last post by  joetrain 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I'm GASin' bad...not even Tums can help. As I mentioned in a previous post, my gear acquisition syndrome has been in full beast mode since late fall and I've acquired everything from a new tackle bag (barn) to a fish finder for the yak and everything in between. Here are some of my spoils...I went feather treble crazy on my hard baits and it's been good to me, especially on the suspending jerkbaits, gives it this realistic action. Also picked up a heavier combo (Lexa 300HS w 7' Mojo Bass HF) to throw larger baits up to 1.5 OZ. It adds to my Mojo/Lexa lineup handsomely =D

... now if it was only spring ...

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#1,080 ·
SmalliesNEyes said:
Should be safe ice this weekend.
With the looks of the long range forecast, I'll be fishing the Lake next week. Maybe sneak down south after Christmas.

Black Friday GAS

Dobyns Champion 735
Gamma Line for my spinning reels
Rhythm Shad in a variety of colors and sizes
Okashira screw heads
Replacement tube jigs and tubes
 
#1,081 ·
Bassin' Ted said:
SmalliesNEyes said:
Should be safe ice this weekend.
With the looks of the long range forecast, I'll be fishing the Lake next week. Maybe sneak down south after Christmas.

Black Friday GAS

Dobyns Champion 735
Gamma Line for my spinning reels
Rhythm Shad in a variety of colors and sizes
Okashira screw heads
Replacement tube jigs and tubes
I caught a few small LM smallies on the Okashira screw heads. I wonder how they'll work on the Dupe? Idk but I'm going to throw them more next year
 
#1,083 ·
Bassin' Ted said:
HEDDONFROG said:
I caught a few small LM smallies on the Okashira screw heads. I wonder how they'll work on the Dupe? Idk but I'm going to throw them more next year
What bait were you using?
I tried both the 3" Hazedong shad, 3" Spark Shad and the 3-1/4" Strike King Rage Swimmer. The Rage Swimmer actually looked the best in the water and it's what I ended up catching my fish on. Probably more because I threw it the most Vs the 2 Megabass shads. I ending up using those 2 on my light A-rig set ups...they kicked ass on that
 
#1,084 ·
HEDDONFROG said:
I tried both the 3" Hazedong shad, 3" Spark Shad and the 3-1/4" Strike King Rage Swimmer. The Rage Swimmer actually looked the best in the water and it's what I ended up catching my fish on. Probably more because I threw it the most Vs the 2 Megabass shads. I ending up using those 2 on my light A-rig set ups...they kicked ass on that
The Megabass baits were out-of-stock so I couldn't order them. In the past you could still order out-of-stock items and they would ship them when they come in. Now, TW holds up the entire order until all the items are in stock. Also, this was the first time TW applied tax to my order. Guess they started doing this earlier in the year.

The Dobyns rod I bought from American Legacy Fishing. It was 20% off and then an extra 20% off if you were a first-time shopper and signed up for their emails. I got the rod for nearly 30% off.
 
#1,085 ·
I've been taking advantage of holiday savings and stocking up on big baits, as well as replacements for some lost baits.

Huddleston 68 deluxe swimbaits
Baitsanity Antidote Glide
Storm Arashi Glide
2-Gan Craft 178 Jointed Claws
MegaBass Kanata
3 MegaBass Vision 110's
MegaBass Mag Slowl
Swim jigs, red eye shads, MegaBass X-80 trick darter and some terminal tackle
 

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#1,087 ·
Think my GAS is done until the Schaumburg Show. Granted I have never really bought much there. Anyways...

Austin City Kayaks
* Anchor Trolly and folding anchor. (made a DIY stake out pole for under $10)
* Rail adaptors bases for my rod holders for my boat. (Planning on doing some trolling with my kids up north next summer)

TW
* Gift Card at 10% off for future purchases
* 2 replacement Dark Sleepers. Caught a lot of fish early last year on them.
* 3" Spark Shad and Hazedong Shad for the Akashira head. Should have bought them at the Black Friday sale and just waited for my order. Oh well.
* 6 packs of Aaron Martens drop shot Gammy hooks. Always used Owner but these were on sale and Tackle Tour rates them very highly.
* Seth Feider Outkast Hair jigs. Maybe this will be the year I catch some good fish on them.
* Trokar EWG tube jigs.
* Free T-shirt
 
#1,088 ·
Got myself the fishing backpack that Dave recommended on FB. The big sell for me was that it was a tackle bag under $100 with rod holders and enough space to carry whatever I wanted. I wanted the rod holders because I intended on doing several Dupage river wades, but in hindsight I'm realizing that might not happen as I'm moving to Aux territory in April/May...oops. Still a great buy and something that'll get used profusely.
 
#1,095 · (Edited by Moderator)
The drive from IL back to FL was mostly nondescript, other than being 6 months later than planned, but there was a little GAS.

Picked up 4 bags of the D.O.A. swimbaits @ BPS in Gainseville on the way back down.
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Brought 2 new packs & a few loose 1's of these with me to WI back in May & the walleyes started cracking swimbaits pretty good about early July. With the aid of most of a bottle of "mend-it", I got those 12+ baits to last til mid Aug before they couldnt hold a hook or jig anymore :lol: Trying out some new hooks to try & find which I like best. The heavier the hook the better these baits swim.

Im not sure if the next 1 technically constitutes GAS as the only thing newly acquired was the end result, I think? Technically, I already owned the jackhammer & it was used-chicken, so....

With chatterbaits Im not too fussy about the trailer. A hunk of just about any plastic can be fashioned into some sort of trailer, but, If I had my druthers I do prefer a "boogie" or split-tail style over an action tail & prefer to leave the vibration/thump factor to the blade, instead. Finding black split-tails has always been tough to find on the fly, though.
Well, after cleaning up an old jackhammer & going to put it away, I kicked a small box of trashed saltwater baits that Ive been meaning to throw out for the last couple years :oops: . 1st thing that caught my eye was a perfectly intact feathered tuna squid with a broken hook. It had a bunch of beautiful 6-7" full-sized black hackle feathers in perfect shape. After stops at 3 different BPS's between Lexington & Gainesville, I failed to find any black split-tails. With this memory fresh in my mind, well..............

And now I present the chattering chicken hammer:
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Tested this out in a pool & was pretty impressed. The feathers add no weight or wind-resistance & really "breathe". The full hackles really make the profile look huge. I may never change a plastic trailer on a spinner or chatterbait again!
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Have spent a total of about 40 minutes throwing the chicken hammer in anything other than a pool & have gotten some encouragement
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#1,096 · (Edited by Moderator)
But, theres more gas (and chicken )

Spending the summer & fall in N. WI was really cool but it had major impacts. The worst of which was the decimation of my hair jig stash! I went thru all of them :shock: So now begins the process of rebuilding my reserves.
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While checking out the fly-tying section @ BPS I found a tattered old cabelas package that had 1 of the nicest patches of bear hair Ive ever seen. Bear hair is 1 of if not my favorite hair to tie jigs with, but its hard to come across a "good" piece of it. Here are some of the bear hair jigs so far. Im fairly confident these will destroy the smalllies!:
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Also picked up little doo-dad designed to rotate tumblers for painting them (wtf? :shock: )off amazon for 20$. Fortunately, it seems to rotate jigs just fine, too, which makes for nice, even finish on the clear-coat!
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Damn, I wish I had bought 1 of those years ago :x

Probably wont make it to Chickamauga or any of the TVA resevoirs anytime soon, but if I do, Im ready to hit the ledges with my version of the preacher jig!
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Occasionally I take a stroll thru Michaels to see if they have anything worthy of tying material. If they do, its often way cheaper than buying the same thing at a fly shop. Came across some kind of a costume accessory of unkown material that looked promising. No clue what spefically its made of, but for 7$, I figure I have enough material to easily make 100 or so of these:
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And, off we go fingers tying & bobbins flying!
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#1,100 · (Edited by Moderator)
Thanks guys.
Preacher-jig pattern in smaller form. 1/4 head & 2/0 Owner light-wire hook. Does that make this the Deacon-jig?
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Been playing around with marabou the last couple days. Kinda hate working with the stuff, but, theres no denying that it has the "it" factor & shouldnt be ignored. Wasted a lot of thread & extra-select grade marabou :x trying to remember how to tie it without destroying it, but its slowly coming back. Sturgeon Bay here, I come!
1/16 on 1/0 Owner light-wires:
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1/8oz 1/0
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& I thought this little 1/4oz football head bucktail turned out kinda cool, think Im going to tinker with this pattern a bit.
 

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