sorry, I just have gotten tired of all the magnet hype when (in my personal experience, and I have fished with magnets quite a bit and watched many fish with magnets for many types of fish) it is a good bait but far from a great bait.
sorry. It has a place and time, I have seen hatchery trout go crazy over a magnet, but this year, the guys throwing magnets ended up bumming salmon eggs or trying to figure out how to fish a bead head fly with their spinning rod everytime I fished for hatchery trout. In years past I have seen trout go crazy over the magnet, but not this year.

First I am not God's gift to Gill fishing. The Trout Magnet has worked very well for me. I have had so many days of catching well over a hundred I have lost count....heck have probably had days where I caught several hundred. The point is we all use what works for us. Headhunter I am glad you have and are having great success with crickets.....I fished crickets for years and had success with them also. When you have posted your reports I have commented in the positive. I also have many days of catching 100 trout with the TM....and needless to say crappie. I don't think I ever asked you to even try a Trout Magnet. There are thousands and thousands of satisfied TM users. If it don't work for you don't use it....I'm not going to fish with something that doesn't work....so I don't understand the negativity you have about the people who have success with a lure. Forums...IMHO...are knowledge libraries. This forum is one of the best around for that. Now I will finish what I wanted to say about my visit with TK that I didn't say this morning as I was in a hurry to get to Pickwick. TK is a multi specie guy. He has a great knowledge base about.....bass....trout....walleye....Gills....cra ppie and I am sure other specie as well. That was the first time I had really talked fishing with him and I was thinking that he was only a Striper guy....man was I wrong. I saw what I guess to be an 16 foot jigging rod for crappie in his building....two Hawger Poles. He showed me a custom made musky rod...and he loves the Gills. It is a knowledge base I hope to tap into more. TK and wife are going to start fishing for walleyes and Gills next week...I wish them luck. Oh...his wife can talk fishing with the best of us too.....LOL.


Regards

Your being 18 in elementary school had to be an unfair advantage. :D

hahahaha!

But I was in the advanced class, thank you!!!

Roy

The "advanced class" was so elite it only took a short bus to get em all there.

lol!!

Here's my take on the debate (the fishing one). I've never used a trout magnet, but I do have a couple other jigs I've caught many good bluegill with, specifically the Crappie Slider on a 1/32 oz. jig head (favorite) and the Gulp 1" minnow on a 1/64 oz. jig head (second-favorite). In the right situation, I can catch a lot of bluegill on either one of these, probably about as many as a good angler can on the magnet in those situations, especially smaller bluegill, 9" or less.

But day in and day out, pond to lake to river, I can catch four bluegill on live bait to every one on a lure, and this is even more true when it comes to the biggest fish. My most recent guide clients fished with me for two days after two days of fishing Kentucky Lake for bluegill. They caught over 100 bluegill their second day at Kentucky Lake, all on a 1/16 oz. plastic-bodied jig with split-rubber legs; the biggest one was a little over 9", and, according to the anglers, about eight ounces. They did manage to catch a lot of nice bluegill on that same jig on one of the ponds I took them to; however, at my best pond, they caught exactly zero bluegill on lures of any kind (they also tried the Crappie Slider), whereas they caught thirty monstrous bluegill and shellcracker in four hours of fishing with live redworms.

Ok I am going to use the Trout Magnet, tipped with a cricket, and a red worm dangling from the crickets mouth. Better yet I will throw an Alabama rig with a trout magnet, cricket, red worm, and a grasshopper. I am finally figuring out fishing!!

Roy

Roy's Bait !!!
 

Don't forget the crappie slider on that A-rig!

Might be easier just to hit the fish over the head with an anvil...Although Alabama rigs weigh just about as much as an anvil anyway from what I'm told.