The Rooster

Would it be possible to snap the tip off of the rod with a bait twice heavier than the rod will take?? If so, he might not know that.

What colors should I get for jigs?? I'm going to learn jigs for this coming season and I've been buying up a bunch to get me started. So far I have bought colors that resemble crawfish such as browns and greens in different shades, and even a couple of solid black ones. But there's a lot of colors out there so I just wondered which ones you use with success.

What is a stick bait?? Does a senko qualify to be this?? If so, how is that any different than a jerkbait??

I got the Christmas catalog in the mail and it has a $20 off coupon in it if you spend $100 or more. It's only for use online or phone orders though, not in stores.

never would have guessed. Oh...so I need to talk about it even more?? OK, can do!! ;D

For mono I like Stren in the purple box. Used to use Berkley XL in the red box but had too many issues with line breakage when tying knots so I stopped using it. No more issues using Stren.

I added scent to my plastics one year and didn't get into them for a while after that. When I finally did, the box I had them stored in was a nasty soaking wet mess and the plastics seemed to have gotten soft cause some of the worms were mushy. I threw them all out and started over, and vowed to NEVER do that again. Don't remember what kind of scent it was but I don't do that with any scents now. Only apply to fish with it and that's all.

I got one of those sheets in the box with my Extreme reel the other day. Wasn't interested in any of it so I tossed it.

They do. The medium covers down to 1/4 (can't remember it's top end though, 5/8, 3/4??) and the medium heavy covers from 3/8 to 1 oz.

Reminds me of one of the old Plano "over and under" tackleboxes. Nice box, and if it suites your needs then that's all that matters.

Yeah I wouldn't have expected to find the Extreme in nearly new condition after that, even though I'm an Extreme fanatic.

What I really need to know is does an extra fast tip make the rod seem really stiff?? I had a rod like that before. It didn't say if it was fast or extra fast, it was a mid 90's Quantum Renegade that costed me $30 back then. It was a medium heavy "action" (I know that's really power), rated 1/4 - 1 1/2 lure weight (very big range), and it was very hard to cast with cause of how stiff it was. Didn't load well at all. I had constant backlashes with lighter lures even though they were well within the range of the rod. Granted that's when I was new to baitcasting and the reel wasn't that good, but once I switched the reel to a medium action rod I had no more trouble using it. Rod loaded up good and I casted any lure I wanted in the 1/4 oz. range using the same reel on a different rod. I had the rod laying around for nearly 10 years unused anymore and I finally gave it away to get rid of it. I think I only ever caught 2 fish on it. Might have only been one. I don't want to repeat that again. It's kinda hard for me money wise to buy rods that are as expensive as the Compre is gonna be and not be satisfied and then have to sell them for most of my money back and start over. Plus my wife gets aggravated at me when I do stuff like that. : I "think" what I'm used to is a fast tip. But all of my rods are just rated the generic way of calling them medium action, which is actually power, and no mention of what the tip will be like so I'm only guessing. I looked at both tip actions of the Compre in the store and without fishing them I can't tell much difference. I gave them a whip and watched how fast the tip recovered as best I could. Seemed the extra fast tip hardly moved while the fast tip moved a pretty good bit. By the way Bassyak, what would you want for that Compre casting rod?? Shipping and all. And if you don't mind me asking, why do you want to sell it?? The medium with the extra fast isn't really one I was considering. I was mostly thinking of the extra fast for a medium heavy rod. In my head it seems that would make for a pretty stiff rod that might be nice for jigging. But I don't really know much about this which is why I'm asking.

Well I gotta say after 2 seasons mine is holding up nicely. I bagged a lot of fish on it in the last couple of years and it's still a solid feeling reel. It's heading into season 3 coming up and with another one just like it to help share the load this time. Maybe by time season 3 kicks off there will be a whole team of these things playing hard on my boat!!

Alright, here's what I planned to use them for. The medium heavy is mostly for jigs and T-rigs, but also might be used to throw spinnerbaits and buzzbaits too. It's lure weight is 3/8-1 oz. I want a medium for any of those same baits that weigh less than 3/8. 1/4 oz. spinnerbaits for example. And also light weight crankbaits, the Bandit 100 and 200 series, 1/4 oz. Both the medium heavy and medium are available in fast and extra fast tips. I am going to get the Shimano Compre rods and they make them both ways. I sort of thought that the extra fast tip would make for an exceptionally stiff feeling rod and I might like it for the medium heavy with jigs. But the medium I was thinking I wouldn't want it to feel quite as stiff for throwing those lighter lures. But how do I know before I buy it if it's going to feel the way I imagine it to when fishing it??

Do you mean you cut the weedguard off completely?? I guess G man makes them without weedguards for you, right?? Ever get any snags that way??

Do you feel this really really helps you get more strikes?? I was actually thinking of buying several jigs just alike but making some of them long stranded skirts and some short. In other words, more than one of the same kind but all different from each other in the way they are modified. And do you use trailers (jig and pig)??

Well I'm wanting to learn to use jigs now and have been buying up a few to get me going. Mostly 1/2 and 3/8 sizes, some with rattles, some without. My bro-in-law showed me how to trim the skirts back like you do and also to trim down the weedguard in 3 steps. The shortest strands being just to the tip of the hook, the longest being right at the barb and the middle in between those. So far I've been doing all of them that way as I buy them but I have yet to use any of them and just wondered how everyone else does it when they get theirs. I'm really looking forward to using these, I've heard they are a big bass lure, and they are cheap to buy too.

With a medium or medium heavy powered rod, how do I know which tip speed I want......fast or extra fast??

Do any of you all modify your jigs out of the package such as trimming skirt length or trimming the weed guard before fishing them??

Tru-tungsten Ike Spike rigged with a Zoom finesse worm. I watched my bro-in-law boat 15 or more fish on this lure alone. That was convincing enough to me to not look anymore or try to make my own.

That's a good video to watch!! I didn't know there were such things out there!!

Yes the Extreme baitcaster is my favorite reel!!!!

Recently someone PM'ed me and asked for a picture of a T-rig already set up so they could better comprehend how to do it. So I made this to help them out and also thought it might be of some use to others who may have questions on how to do this. If the pictures are too large then I can resize them through photobucket.com where I hosted them at. Current size is 640 x 480 and I didn't see any suggested size in the forum guidelines sticky topic (any suggestions??). Anyway, to the subject.......... To rig a Texas rig up, you need the following materials. Note in the picture above that there is a top and bottom to the worm. Also, I show two different hooks in this picture so you can see the differences in them but you only use one or the other. See how the offset extra wide gap hook resembles a G in shape and the straight shank looks like a J instead?? The straight shank hook is not offset either, the eye is straight inline with the shaft, but the EWG hook is offset in that the eye part is bent instead of being inline with the shaft. Anyway, to start rigging you take that bullet weight in the picture and slide it onto your line nose first. After that you tie on the hook. Once you have the hook tied on then you line up the tip with the nose of the bait and insert it in about 1/4 inch or so. If the worm you are using is segmented then it's fairly easy to see how far down to go. I usually run the tip in about 2 to 3 segments and then back out the bottom again. Then after bringing the hook point out the bottom of the head I then slide the worm up the shank of the hook towards the eye and rotate it around so that the hook point is towards the belly of the worm again. Then slide the head of the worm up and around the eye of the hook so that the line knot is inside the plastic of the worm. The plastic will provide a cushion for the knot so the sinker does not bang repeatedly into it to weaken it. The worm's head should be completely up around the offset portion of the hook, not on the main shank anymore. Then you are ready to put the hook tip into the body of the worm. But I don't just run it through anywhere. First I'll line up the hook point beside the worm body to see where's a good place to bring it through at so that the worm still looks natural on the hook.....as if there's no hook in it at all even though there is. Once I figure out where I want the hook to come through at (and that's easier using the segments again) then I run the hook point straight through from belly to back. Not at an angle, but straight across through. That's important so that the hook lays good and flat on the other side when you're finished. Then after it's through I will adjust the worm on it so that the hook point lays flat against the back of the worm. After that the rigging is finished. The hook point is completely exposed but still fairly weedless cause of how low on the worm's back it lays. If that's not enough then you can grasp the body of the worm in front of the hook point and push it forward, then let it come back and embed the hook tip in the plastic some to hide it. That's called skin hooking. It's completely weedless then but still will tear through on impact of setting the hook so you don't miss fish. This picture here shows how much hook you will see above the body of the worm if rigged right. It's also skin hooked in this picture. When you are finished rigging the lure, the worm will look natural, not stretched on the hook or sagging in the middle either. It should look just like there's no hook in it at all. This picture shows how the sinker will rest against the head of the bait with a Texas rig (Carolina rig has the sinker away from the bait when finished). The knot is safely cushioned inside the head of the worm away from the sinker inpacting it as it slides around on the line. This method of hooking a plastic bait is not just for the Texas rig. It also works for Carolina rigs and also for rigging a plastic weightless with no sinker at all. And that's the long and the short of it!!

EXTREME!!!! Nuff said

I heard that rumor too but I didn't believe it. ;D 8-) Seriously though, I'm sure there are some nicer reels than the Extreme, but I'll never know about them as long as they keep making these!! What an awesome reel for way WAY under $100.