Willzx225

If the water is 64Degrees in the spring I would fish a square billed bait first but then I would switch to a senko fairly quickly since there could be a ton of spawners at the base of the trees/ on the cypress knees. I would fish it slowly as if I were blind sight fishing for spawners.

I love the craws and chunks. Especially when BPS has their Spring Baitmonkey Special Sale and the chunks are 1.58/ bag. BPS had some chunks before I got a hold of them! ;D Love their products and can't wait to try the finesse worms and other baits!

A 20 year old Bomber Speed Shad. I unfortunately had my boat burn completely up a few years ago and lost almost everything I had. I swore that if I could have one bait back it would be that one. I used it to catch my limit in the first BFL I fished as a boater ( 1 of 9 limits caught by the 400 fishermen that day!) and have caught a few 6's on it as well. Its one of those "special" lures that will out perform the seemingly identical bait every time on the water.

Chatterbait... Guess they don't catch much when they don't get wet though I will let one swim this next weekend at the Big G though!

I would say that I wouldn't put my name on a product I didn't use and like. Its all about integrity and the fishing industry is relatively small so I wouldn't like to put my name on xyz product and prefer abc product. Murphy's law would kick in and ABC would want to talk about a deal. I have always heard that it looks really bad to keep switching like companies year after year. Therefore, unless they are offering a large amount of baitmonkey food ;D, I will only put my name on products I know and use.

I think he is still "associated" with Brian but I don't know how much monetary support he gets from Brian. Brian is a very small company ( one guy show I believe). I know that some of the pros will only give word of mouth promotion unless they get "x" amount of compensation. I guess it really wouldn't be fair to a larger sponsor who maybe paying a whole lot more than the other guy to get almost the same amount of Shirt Space. JMO

I absolutely love this post, Raul! Thanks for pointing out that it was started so long ago. I think everyone can take something away from post from the newbies to the veterans as well. I feel that I am pretty good at taking in my surroundings but I may have been getting lazy in the last year or two. This is just the ticket to make me analyze everything in more depth. Thanks again Raul and BR!

No matter how well you catch them in practice, come tournament day they don't bite nearly as well if at all. x2 on the women thing! Also, The day that you think you have all the tackle you need, you will realize that you need about 500-1000 dollars worth of stuff that you HAVE to have. ;D Oh the primate we know all to well strikes again.

The best all around spinnerbait rod I have used (IMO that is) is a 6'10" MH Shimano V-Rod. It has more of a parabolic action but still has a good amount of backbone to move big fish away from docks and brush. Awesome rod but they don't make them anymore :'(

I too saw it at the Classic and figured it would be around the price of the STX. Guessed wrong! I won't be buying one at the $280 mark. Sorry Abu! Love the STX and SX's though.

Sensation is hands down the best mono I have used! Ike used Sensation and Vanish exclusively when he won AOY. I have even found that I can go down a line size on my spinning rods and not see a noticable difference in number of breakoffs. I am now using 6lb on dropshots and shakey heads. I feel like I get more bites with it and can feel better than with other mono. On numerous occasions I have tried to break off when I get hung up and end up pulling my boat instead of breaking the 6lb line. ( I have a 20' Skeeter so its a boat with a little weight). All in All, it is a very good line.

When I am trying to get depth from a crankbait I use 10lb Berkley Sensation but when I am combat fishing in heavy cover or throughing a flat side or RC 1.5 I use 12 -15lb Big Game.

I have had this same dream a few times. I am fishing in the same boat as KVD and we are fishing a tournament against each other, similiar to the old Red Man trail set up where you share the front. We are going fish for fish and it is getting towards the end of the tournament and he is looking nervous. I never make it to the weigh in because I guess I get so excited I wake myself up. I guess it is nice to dream haha ;D

I fished it years ago and if I am remembering correctly, there is a small part of the lake in Florida (Possibly one creek -heard its very good for sight fishing though). I did hear the same thing about tickets in that one area though. Lake Wylie is the same here in NC/SC. They do not reciprocate like VA and NC does on Buggs Island. I do not like the rule for reasons I will not say haha :-[

I fished the BASS Weekend Series Championship there the first year they had it. I am from North Carolina and just saw Toho ( not knowing at that time there was a difference) and thought we were in luck. I fished 4 days and caught fish 2 of those days. On the boater side it took 12lbs for 2 days to make the cut to the top 12 ( I had 0 the first day and just under 10 the second) and Jeff Coble won it with like 27lbs for 3 days!! Pretty bad when a championship in Florida takes a 9lb average over 3 days to win. Good memories but a tough place to fish!

Ahh Yes, the Spring Bait Monkey Classic!! ;D I didn't hurt myself too badly but I too spent around 100 bucks. I did vow that for next year I will run lean on my inventory towards the end of the year and stock up at this show. I saved like 20-30 bucks on my total.

I agree with all of the comments but really believe that the soft action rod is the real key. It does two things. First when the fish does bite and you set the hook, it allows the fish to get the bait deeper since the tip gives a little before you actually put pressure on the fish. Secondly, after you have the fish on it allows more give when that fish either jumps or makes a hard surge. I would go with mono in open water applications like flats w/o grass but would go with fluro in grass situations to allow to rip the bait free easier. Some use braid but I seem to always hear them talking about loosing fish more so than mono users.

I get the normal Bassmaster, BassTimes,FLW Outdoors, and BassWest and they are great. BassWest has become my favorite since I really feel that they cater towards the really serious fishermen instead of the whole spectrum of beginner to expert. BassWest is written like I would write my own magazine.

what type of fishing will you be doing? Michigan (I believe atleast) has a lot of Smallmouth fishing with big spinnerbaits, jerkbaits, tubes, drop shots, etc. Correct? Just cater your rod selection to that. If you are going to be fishing deep open water then the 7' spinning rod w/ a light tip would be good for a drop shot and also if you are out fishing large flats with cover baits (Spinnerbaits, crankbaits, etch) then you might do well with a 7' rod just so you can make longer casts and cover more water while being able to get a good hook set. All in All, it seems like you have a good start on the rods you will need.

Shimano Crucial - I have 10 Crucials at this time and love everyone of them. They are light and extremely sensitive. The Drop Shot Rod is very very nice with the exposed finger in the foregrip. I have not had any experience with St. Croix's so I can't say good or bad but if you go with a Crucial you will not be disappointed!

If I am understanding you correctly, it seems as if you want to present your baits (ie. drop shot, spoon, etch) vertically and wonder how shallow you can get before the fish become aware of your presence. It seems as if you are talking about dropping your bait instead of casting it. I personally have been doing some drop shotting in water with 5-7' visability and do not feel like I get as many bites when vertical fishing depths less than about 15-18'. With the visability being less in your body of water I would feel comfortable to as shallow as probably 15'. Must shallower than 15' and I really feel that you need to be casting instead of vertical fishing. JMHO

I have a buddy who killed them the other night on Lake Wylie in NC/SC at night. He had about 5 for 24-25lbs. had 3 over 5lbs including a 7.5. Caught them fishing lights

Skipping baits on baitcast gear is just something that you have to do and practice. I grew up on the same body of water as FiveBass and it has a TON of docks. I learned at an early age that if you can not skip a jig way back under the docks you won't catch as many fish. I have been skipping baits on baitcast gear for over 10 years now and it is like second nature to me. Matter of fact, I can't skip baits as well on spinning gear as I can Baitcast gear just because I have used the casting gear to get baits under docks more than spinning rods. I guess what I am trying to say is that the more you do it, the more it will become second nature. I will offer some advice on how best to learn though. Take a bait like a senko or a Fluke and learn. Put it on 15lb line with a heavy hook. I feel that you need some weight to it in order to keep the spool spinning once the bait hits the water the first time. You also will need to learn how to "feather" the reel so when it hits you don't get the backlash but in the same sense you don't stop the bait. And on the contrary to what somebody said earlier: You can learn this technique away from the water if you need to. All you need is a driveway or some other area with level concrete (simulates flat water) and a chair or something that you can use to simulate a dock or overhang. Take an old jig and stand on a step or something to elevate you like you were on the deck of the boat and start skipping.

Bandits are by far my most consistant producing crankbaits. If I could only have one bait to through in 6-8' or less it would be a 200 bandit chart/ blue back. I have caught fish everywhere I have been on that one bait and at the price you pay for them it is well worth it! I have caught more fish on that bait than any of my other baits; LC's and WEC's included. Rapala's are a very good bait but I almost consider them on the low end of the higher priced baits. DT6's are trying hard to replace the bandit 200 though.

A couple of you beat me to the Ish Monroe statement, but also Andre is a pretty big name on the FLW side himself. I mean he has won multiple times on Beaver Lake (Could have been an inpiration for the naming of the Sweet Beaver, but I doubt it. haha). I just pulled their website and the Pro Staff has some pretty heavy hitters on it including Matt Heren, JT Kenney, and Fred Roumbanis just to name a few. They aren't KVD or Ike but they all have won tournaments and have promising careers or already established careers. Bottom line is that they are innovative baits that catch a ton of fish. I mean Zoom probably hated when the Sweet Beaver came out because if it hadn't we would all be throughing the Brush Hog still.