Mattlures

I want to come fish with you guys!

Buy an actual name brand Dremmel. I buy a lot of tools from harbor freight and I love most of them. However some tools you just have to buy quality and a Dremmel is one of them. I tried to go cheap and I litteraly went through 3 different cheapo rotery tools in about 1- 1 1/2 years. now I have an actual dremmel and it has lasted for about 3 years and it work as good as new

Bluegill tend to do machine gun bites. I actualy dont have a hard time telling when a gill is messin with me. If I am not sure I swing with full intentions of hooking a bass.

3:16 sells a lot of those baits. Why because they work. Guys that are serious about their swimbaits know its 100x beter to have 10 great baits that cost you $500 then 50 pieces of junk that cost the same. Think about it. If you could trade in all your old and no longer used tackle and get full value in exchange for a few high end things, wouldnt you? I would. There is also an advantage to the fisherman who buys ultra expencive baits. He is not only buying the bait but he is also buying the oportunity to fish baits that most would not even consider because of the cost. In other words he bought an advantage. In most places the fish have rarley or never seen one of those baits. That in itself is worth something. Just so know, I havent bought any baits over $50 But if I couldnt make them I would buy them.

dsaavedra, if you dont know already learn to tie a palomar knot. I can tie foot long baits with a palomar no problem. The big baits take a little practice but it wont take you long. As usual I agree with 4bizz. the general rule is snaps on hardbaits and direct tie to soft baits.

WHOA Fluke 4oz?????? ........you need a new scale!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My baby bass weighs 1.25 oz My Ultimate gill weighes 1.65 oz My original gill weighes 1.75oz. Actualy will you sell me your scale? I want to weigh my fish on it ;D

Congrats Senko your learning from one of the best!

Cool pics. I tell people all the time not to go cheap on hooks and rings. Its bound to happen.

8 in hand poured curly tail cinamon blue. There are several brands that make good versions. That is my #1 daytime worm. my #1 night time worm is a 10in dark colored power worm. if I could only use one it would be the hand pour

Yes good to see you back. I think we all missed you. I totaly aggree with the Bizz. I dont know where the clear water notion came from but swimbaits are trying to imitate fish. Bass especialy big bass are fish eaters. they eat fish in chocolate milk looking water too. My favorite conditions for throwing swimbaits are when its overcast and windy/rainy. The water is usualy very clear but the weather makes it so they dont get a great look at the bait. The bites seem to be more commited also. Its like they dont think about it as much and just eat it.

Love the release pic. Ok litsen up! What happened to you is typical. Big bass with big bait equals a ton of leverage. Big bass jumps or even shakes its head underwater and the bait comes out. This is why we use heavy gear and crank them in. You cant play them or they will find away to get away. We use oversized gear and heavy line and almost no drag and WE control the fish. If you feel the fish rising sweep hard to the side just before it breaks the surface. Many times you can turn their heads towards you and keep them from jumping. dont stop cranking untill the fish is caught. Also use a stinger hook. A QUALITY hook and split ring. I recomend owner hyperwire rings and owner 2x size 4 treble. Imbed one of the trebles into th belly so its not hanging. Lube the bait. I repeat, LUBE THE BAIT!!!!! This will result in much better hook sets and this will also prolong the life of your soft swimbaits. The fish cant get a good grip on a slippery hunk of rubber so its less likely to tare. This also means the bait will move in its mouth and burry the hooks. I recomend Megastrike or Pro cure butters. Thes tips are recomended for all soft swimbaits , not just mine. Congrts on the 5 but man that big one would have been better. At least you know were she lives. Good luck I hope you get another shot at her. I also sent you a PM

The Diawa rod is a decent rod however they grossly overestimate its lure rating. It is horrible with baits near 4oz and above. For smaller baits like mine its not bad but I would still take the Okumas. Now IMO nothing competes with the Okuma for arround $100. You can buy better rods but not in that price range. Their lure ratings are good.

Do any of you actualy burn buzzbaits and consistantly catch fish? the reason I ask is, I always see fast reels assosiated with buzzbaits. IMO a fast reel is the WORST chioce for a BB. I think a 5.1 is just about right for them. I have caught 100's of buzzbait bass. It is one of my top 5 techniques and evrybody I know that are good with the buzzer uses a sloooow retreive. So I am sincerly curious if you guys have "heard" that fast reels are best for buzzers or do you actualy preferr them?

the TT is a good bait dont give up on it. The problem is guys see the pics of the huge fish we catch and dont realize that we get dinks also. Usualy not as small as yours but plenty of 3-6lbers. You have to remember we use thes baits to fool the biggest oldest smartes bass in the lakes. A small bass will get fooled just the same. That liitle guy you caught had some moxy! Keep slinging away, if anything that should have givven you a little confidence since you caught one so quickly.

Randall you are scarry good. I only know of a couple guys out here that catch as many big fish as you do. You really need to enter into one of the HBC tourny's. The next one is in Texas on Amistad. The Cali boys are going to invade that state and I think you would be a great rep for GA.

Ha Ha I bought the Hydro lures. I didnt expect them to work but I wanted to see how they swam. I found some on ebay for about $3 They werent even worth the 3 bucks. Realy bad.

Mrs. Matstone I havent tried the Rage tail tods or frogs. I meant that I like thier shad better then regular hollow frog baits and all the other toad baits. I wouldnt be suprised if the other rage baits are also good. Thanks for posting your reports. I always enjoy them.

Soory I took so long to congratulate you. I was out of town. Heck of a fish you got there. Catching it now is that much more impresive. I only catch big summer time bass at night , Never in the day time. Awsome fish!!!

They won the award for best terminal tackle. A rocket launching fishing rod thing also won an award at Icast. If anybody was that interested in trying a rock weight it would be to easy to just go make your own. I could see them working for catfish or carp but with their large size I see no advantage. The only upside I can see is that they "clean" I dont think its a bad idea but I dont see it being succesful. Way to easy to make your own.

Thanks guys. Low budget you assume wrong!!! In that body stlye there will be bass of different species.. Now who knows maybe I will make a seperate body style for a yellow perch hmmmmmmm I am just getting started. Its fun again!!

uuum I didnt see any bad pics in there!!!!!! You could make a carp look good!! Those shad are cool! I like them betrter then frogs and toads.

Yeah I was looking for you to. I wasnt sharring a booth. I hate sitting in booths selling. I am not a salesman. I was just walking around talking with everybody. The Trophy tech guys were showcasing my rods for me. It like a big reunion every time I go to one of those. Its fun. I doubt I will go to the next one. its going to be in FL. Thats a long ways away from me. Maybe the the one after that

Ebby you need to be worried about landing the fish. A swimbait rod has 2 functions. #1 it has to be able to handle the bait. This is easy. It just has to have enough backbone. #2 it has to be able to muscle in big fish and yet still have a soft enough tip to fight the fish. The reason you will lose big bass on an under powered rod is you cant "play" a swimbait bass. they will get away. They are bigger and smarter then average fish. They dive for cover and they know how to jump. The biggest difference is the size and weight of a swimbait creates a ton of leverage for the bass. When a bass jums with a plastic worm stuck in its mouth with a 1/8th ounce weight, it rarley throws the bait. When a bass jumps with a 1.5-80z swimbait flopping back and forth, the hooks tare out and the bait goes flying. You have to hit them hard and keep reeling all the way to the net. This is not the time for playing a fish. Do that while dropshotting. At a minimum I would recomend a hvy flipping stick, but idealy a medhvy swimbait rod is the best choice. Will your MH flipping stick work? Yes it will but its not ideal. Just remember to use at least 17lb test and crank them in. You controll the fish and try and keep them from jumping. Just ask RoadWarrior he knows.

When can I get some. I am a big fan of the Rage tails and I would use several of them. When will the colors schemes be ready ?

You guys rule! Thanks for all the kind words. I wont give any details (disrespectful) on availability and price etc. on here. However I will say that I have been having fun working on new projects. Designing rods aint as easy as I thought it would be and took a lot more work then I expected, but I am very pleased with the results. The hard baits have been brewing for a while I just never had enough time to get to them. I have a bunch of different species and sizes and different variations. Some have multiple joints, different joint styles, different bills etc. I just showed that one bait as a little teaser. Who knows that particular version may never get released. But I assure you a bait made from that (my) origanal carving will be and fairly soon. Icast was a blast. I got to meet a bunch of people and see some cool stuff. Unfortunatley I did not run into Glenn. I looked for him but never found him. I am not suprised as the place is huge and there were a lot of people in there. I am sure Glenn will have some cool stuff to show you.