backcast88

Yea. Just not sure I'll be able to get the rod in time for a rig use since I have a tournament in less than a week. Drug my feet and didnt know if I was going to fish since I pulled a muscle in my back. But I'm healed and ready to fish. Might hold out and get the ALX anyway and make due with my 7' H unless something else gets recommended.

The past year or so I have been throwing my A rig's and 5"-6" soft swimbaits on a 7'H ALX rod and it has performed ok at its task. It's mainly a big jig/carolina rig/lite flipping rod and performs best at those tasks. For this year I'm looking to get a rod to use that will be more suited for a rigs in the winter and 5-6" soft swimbaits (keitech 4.8/5.8, zoom 5" swimmer, and gambler big ez) on 1/2oz-3/4oz heads. I would also like to use the rod for some heavier flipping. Not puching in the Cal Delta, but looking to flip into some heavier laydowns and such. Wanting to keep the rod $130 or less and looking 7'6"-7'11" could be a hair shorter if needed. What is some advice you all can give me? Thanks.

Thanks for the input. I'm off Wednesday so I'll probably hit the lake and give a couple different baits a try. Probably try: fluke trick worm baby paca craw

Anybody used a wobble head (biffle hard head) in the winter time? I've done decent with them in the summer time but never gave them a try in the winter. I've used a football jig with a lot of success in the colder water and figured I could use a fluke on the wobble head and drag it around rock and see how it goes.

Thanks for the info. I'll grab a pack of 4's and 2's and see how they turn out.

I fish jigs and soft plastics mostly but want to start throwing more cranks this summer so sorry if this question is stupid. The lakes I fish have a lot of grass and wood so I don't want to be fighting getting hung a lot. I have several squarebills that need new hooks. I'm wanting to try EWG Short Shank Gamakatsu's. My question is, do I have to up size the hooks (#4 stock, so go up to #2) or can I stick with the same size? Or would I be better off going with EWG trebles that aren't a short shank?

It mostly depends on the water clarity. Where I fish the water color tends to be rather clear. If its bright and sunny I use watermelon but if its cloudy I'll use green pumpkin. The lakes that I fish that are dirty I use mostly plum, purple, and some black/blue. If I had to pick one 1 cover most situations I'd go with green pumpkin.

Agreed 100%.

I've used Sniper exclusively for 3 years now. I really like the performance of the line. It doesn't have a bunch of memory and has pretty good abrasion resistance. I use 14lb for jigs and worms, 12lb for crankbaits, and 8lb for dropshots/shakey heads. I've been playing around with 20lb Assassin. So far it's not bad. It has a little more memory than Sniper but is pretty equal in most other categories.

I bought a Mojo 6'8" mxf. It is the older version but it was on clearance so I only paid $60 for it. It's way better than the old crankbait rod I was using. I don't have a ton of confidence in a jerkbait but I've manage to catch more fish on a jerkbait this year and haven't lost any fish or feel at a disadvantage with the xf tip.

I'm not really a braid fan, unless it's on a spinning reel. For all of those applications I'd use fluoro.

Trokar, Eagle Claw, and VMC hooks are also on sale during the SFC. I'd look at those hooks before I purchased BPS hooks.

Why does something have to be wrong for me to have failures with InvizX? Maybe I got a bad spool or something else happened but either way, Seaguar will not go back on my reels. I used 8lb and spooled it up on my Symetry 2500 and Duckett Ghost. 3rd cast of the day with a shakey head I got bit. Set the hook and the line broke. I was using a san diego jam knot and never had a single problem with this knot or the reel with sniper 8lb or XPS 8lb. The line was not damaged either. The abundance of stretch, lack of abrasion resistance, and overall issues I had with InvizX makes it one of the few lines I avoid. I also had problems with their mono. I put 8lb Seaguar mono on my mom's sahara 2500 and after 2 trips over the course of a week I could hold the line between my hands and break it with no effort. Not acceptable.

You can throw just about any soft plastic on a Carolina rig. Just depends on what your comfortable with. I usually mix it up but here's what I tend to throw: Trick worm Brush hog/ D Stroyer (or any other creature bait) Lizard Ol'Monster/ Big Dead Ringer

I'm a Sunline Sniper fan. I have 8lb on my spinning reel, 12lb on my jerkbait rod and my open water spinnerbait rod, and 14lb on my main jig rod. It handles well, has good abrasion resistance, and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. I've been experimenting with 20lb Assassin and have been pleased with the results. 25 extra yards, a couple $ cheaper, and seems to perform very close to Sniper. I need more time on the water with it to give it a total passing grade. I also use 12 lb Sunline mono for crankbaits will good performance. The only fluoro that will NEVER go on my reels again is Seaguar. I've had nothing but trouble with all of their fluoro's and will never use them again. Far too many breakoffs and not worth the headaches.