Kodiak Zach

Matt, can you post a pic of the lure he is talking about so I can see what it looks like?

Been absolutely wearin' the fish out on my 2 new favorite artificial baits. Landed about 20 bass in the last 2 days on them. Never really been a fan of Zoom products and didn't think I ever would be. However, I decided to give a couple of the more popular ones a try this week and I am glad I did. So here are 2 new favorite baits: Zoom Baby Brush Hog Zoom Super Fluke: And a few of the many bass I've landed over the last couple days with these 2 baits. The 2 bass on the ground next to my reel are both about 4 to 5-lb range. Also tried a Rapala Sub Walk and caught some fish with it but didn't find it to be as effective with all the Bass a couple feet from the shoreline on their beds. So aside from their worms, what other Zoom baits do I need to try next?

Prior to the recent re-design of Shimano's spinning line up, my wife told me to go buy whatever reel I wanted. I looked at them from the Sahara up to the Stella. I ended up buying yet another Sahara (7 in total) because the quality/weight/price performance could not be beat. Now that they have re-designed their lineup, it's different. I am thinking I might actually go get a Stella now. I have one of the new Stradics and love it, but there are a couple probs with the drag clicker breaking on the spools and bails not opening all the way. All problems I never had with the Sahara. If $60 is your price range, you won't find a better $60 spinning reel than the Sahara.

- 7.5 inch and 10 inch Motor Oil and Tequila colored Cuplrit ribbon tail worms. - 5 inch Senko in Green/Pumpkin with Red or Gold flakes. - My new fav, Green/Pumpkin Zoom Baby Brush Hog. Worms I usually fish rigged weightless on a 5/O Mustad Ultra Point Impact Hook typically or 1/16oz bullet screw weight on a 5/0 lazer sharp hook. Storm 3 inch Wild Eye Swim Shads in the shad color.

Any other rebates or coupons you know of please post. Thinking of picking up a new Shimano reel.

Went out this evening at sunset and fished for about 30 mins with the Brush Hog. Landed 7 Bass in the 3 acre pond behind my house. The one thing I noticed is those things get tore up really easy. Went thru 3 of them on 7 fish. In all fairness, the fish were all pretty decent size like this: Only made it halfway around the pond too before I ran out of Brush Hogs, the skeeters were eating me alive, and it was too dark to even tie a knot. I think I've found my new favorite lure of the month ;D

Too bad you didn't find a new camera phone LOL J/K

Went out with the Baby Brush Hog again today. Landed 4 in the 2 to 3-lb range. Also missed my biggest Bass ever, what surely would have finally got me to the 10+ lb mark :'( She wacked the hog as I pulled in close to a grass mat and promptly headed for open water. She was stripping drag off my Stradic like nobody's business and as I raised he rod tip I heard a "tink" as my 8-lb Floro snapped right where it was tied (line to line) to my 10-lb PowerPro running line :-/

Yeah, I sat there in the store and debated between the normal size brush hog and the baby size. The baby was still quite chunky where I felt the full size might be spooking the fish as it hit the water.

The fish in my 3 acre pond behind my house and the 55 acre lake across the street are extremely pressured (by me ;D ) and weary to hit anything cuz I fish them so much. I am constantly having to try new lures I've never used before to get them to strike. So I happened into Sports Authority today and bought 2 lures that I've never used before: - Rapala SubWalk - Zoom Baby Brush Hog The verdict is in, 2 thumbs up on both. Caught fish on both... so I guess I will use them until the fish catch on in a day or two. Anyone else used the SubWalks by Rapala yet? The one I got is a WalkTheDog SubWalk. I think they are referred to as Wake Baits this season. I'm curious how you normally work them for success? I was popping them along the shoreline. The brush hogs I was pitching into beds and getting strikes.

Wow, now that you mention it, I've had the opening the bail problem too, although rare and certainly not a show stopper like a hosed drag.

10 post minimum :-X

Yes, it's Lake Forest. That lake is freakin' loaded with 5 to 10 lb bass. Luckily it's across the street from my house.

I have a $110 Shimano Teramar 7' I bought for $99 for inshore saltwater. I prefer it over my much more expensive St. Croix Avid for Bass fishing and I constantly fish worms in Florida and land over 5-lb Bass with it. You really can't go wrong with a Teramar, which is about the only Shimano spinning rod that's worth a crap.

You got it man. Got home from work and the wifey has being a B_*_* so I grabbed the dog and my pole and walked across the street to catch the bite as the sun went down. Didn't have that swim shad in the water longer than 20 secs before that ol' girl came up.

Here are a couple chunkers I landed on Storm Swim Shads in November out of the pond in my back yard and lake across the street:

Not to sound cliche', but I'd also take a Stella 3000FD on a 7'1 M GLX. I mean for a little over $1k, how could you possibly be any happier?

Well I have had it since Xmas and landed probably 10 Bass in the 5 to 9-lb range on it, probably 30 Bass in the 2 to 5-lb range, and 5 or 6 Black Drum in the 15-lb range on it. My former favorite reel (Shimano Sahara) handled about 10 times the quantity of fish and never had a problem. I hope this isn't indicative of a problem going forward. Best of luck having this problem and landing some big fish though ;D

If you ever wonder if it's worth it, try this test; Submerge a strand of 10-lb test Floro line in water. Right next to it, Submerge a strand of 10-lb test Mono line in water. Which one can you see? After performing that test, I haven't ever felt compelled to use Mono again. P.S. I used Vanish for 3 years but got sick of it breaking so easily. Finally switched to Trilene floro this year and it's about 2x to 3x stronger.

I am a longtime Shimano guy and have stuck with their spinning reels from the time I bought my first Sahara. Sahara's used to be the best priced reel for what you got in combination with weight. I never upgraded to Stradics because of the weight. That is until the new Stradic FI's came out and finally they were lighter than the Sahara's so I got a 3000 FI and love it. They do have a noted problem though with drag clickers breaking in the bottom of the spool after landing some big fish that tug hard. I have fished with Symetre's that my friends owned and never really got to like them.

I have an Avid rod and it's very sensitive. Almost too sensitive. IM9, IM10, etc.. are the graphite amounts (parts per million) I believe. I prefer for a lot cheaper spinning rod, the Shimano Teramar for $110. I originally bought it for inshore saltwater, but now my Avid sits on the rack as I reach for my 7' Teramar more and more often.

A couple weeks ago after I got done hauling in a 9-lb Bass which stripped drag for a couple minutes, I noticed that the drag ripping out sound was no longer working on my Shimano Stradic 3000 FI spinning reel. I was kinda ticked off too since I paid $160 for it and I love everything about this reel so far. Well I switched out the spool and put the extra spool that came with it on and the drag sound was back. I looked at the bottom of the spool that was broken and noticed a small tab of thin metal (about the size of 4 pin heads) was apparently broken off from where the spring used to be located on the older Stradics. Upon further inspection, it looks like a poor design all the way around mainly due to the metal being so thin. If it would have just happened to me, I would have thought nothing about it. But this weekend, I was talking to one of my buddies at Sunglow who has the 4000 Stradic and it had happened to him too. He had mailed the spool and $6 to Shimano and got the replacement within a week. He said they didn't even ask any questions and that they acted like it was a "known issue". So my question is this: Have any of you brothers or sisters out there had any probs with the new Shimano FI or MgFB Stradics?

I use Powerpro, sometimes Tufline, and hate Spiderwire. I have yet to try Sufix, but think I might give it a shot here soon.

I used 10-lb Vanish floro for 3 years and it wasn't very loopy. I recently switched to 8-lb Trilene floro and while it is a little loopier, the breaking strength seems to be 2x to 3x stronger than the Vanish was. Needless to say, I'll stick with Trilene.