The_Natural

I'm a little frustrated at the moment. I spent a loooong time on this bluegill bait. It consisted of like 6 or 7 different colors fading into each other, and I spent quite a bit of time mixing colors to get the hue I wanted. I've only painted a few baits, but this bait was reaaally coming together. Then I f*cked it all up trying to paint fading stripes . There goes my masterpiece. It's ridiculous how disappointed I am, even though it's just one bait. I've got a couple of others that I first started with that must have 20 coats of paint on them; I kept messing up and then repainting them

Split shot rigs work well, and I'll bust one out every now and again. However, crimping the sinker on the eye of your hook instead of pegging a sinker is beyond me. The first thing that came to mind was that he is crushing his knot. I will say that the jighead is underrated, and a Table Rock Tackle rock walker jighead rigged with a sweet beaver or beaver bug is a go-to of mine.

The Superlites, like all higher-end quantum rods, use an HSX blank which is rolled for them by Lamiglas. Lamiglas started making blanks for Quantum back in the early 90's with the release of the original Quantum Tour Edition rod. Initial thoughts upon handling the rods was that the medium powered 7fter is light and balances well, while the MH is light as well, but a hair tip-heavy without a reel attached. The 6-6 M and MH both are light and balance well. The medium powered sticks are definitely mod-fast, and have proven to be exceptional crankbait rods. The MH is a hair faster, but still not Loomis or St. Croix fast, and I'm using them for blades and large cranks. The MH would probably make someone a good all-around rod, but it's just my preference to have very fast (stiff) rods for jigs and worms. The rods are of good quality; the threads are nicely done and it has some pretty ornate aluminum winding checks. I'll get some closer pics of them up for you.

I know you're just being nice ....if you owned those rods you would use them as tomato stakes . You should snap a pic of your Megabass lineup

I'm not sure where he does, but Janns Netcraft is a good place to get lure parts.

Hey there big M....nice cranks. How are you making yours....wire frame? Are you cutting the bait in half to place it?

You didn't know the degree of my procrastination, did you? I glued on a bunch of bills last night, and white base coats. I finished a couple, bthut I'm debating whether I wanted to keep the paintjob or redo them. I had a few several beers and I messed up a little. So you think I should thin my Createx a little? I've read about the wildlife paints and heard great things, but the Createx was available at my local Hobby Lobby, so that is what I went with for now. I'll be buying more paint, and will give the wildlife colors a shot. Thanks for the imput....

http://www.***.com/descpageRDCQUANTUM-QSCR.html I purchased these to crank with. Two are medium, and two are medium heavy. Tackle Warehouse lists the medium power as a mod/fast, and the medium heavy as a fast....but I feel both are mod/fast, and they make excellent cranking sticks. These rods weren't on my list of rods to buy, but they appeared in the bargain cave at Cabelas and I jumped on them. My man Walt, who runs the bargain cave, always gives me the lowdown of why they are there, and they were used once by someone and then returned. Same with the Steez rods. $90 for the Quantums, and $150 for each of the Steez trio.

After purchasing my airbrush, I went to hobby lobby to buy some paint. I saw the Createx paint that a lot of very good painters recommended, but it was nearly $4 for a little 2oz bottle, and the acrylic hobby paints were only $1. I had read that you can thin the hobby paints with windex and spray them through your airbrush. This is what I did, and after practicing a bit; I painted a couple of baits. They turned out good, but I found out I really got lucky on those. Since using these thinned acrylic hobby paints was the only experience I had at this point, I thought paint sputtering and sometimes clogging of my airbrush were just part of it. Well, last week I bought some Createx on a whim, and ran it through its paces with my airbrush. The difference was pretty dramatic. I instantly got 3x better at painting due to my airbrushes flawless digestion of the paint. The smaller pigments allowed a very fine atomization, and my lines were more accurate. A lot of the Createx paints are 'transparent' as well (to a degree), which allows layering. I just wanted to let some of you know that are wanting to buy an airbrush to spend the money on good paint. FYI... I purchased my airbrush off of ebay (Iwata HPC for $80...NIB), and a 1/5hp compressor with moisture trap, auto regulator, etc. for $120. If you are hand making baits...get an airbrush! Don't labor over making those hand made baits and then put a paint job on them with a rattle can or paint brush. It was super easy to learn, and the results are amazing!. I'm going to post up my baits tomorrow night; I have to let the clearcoat dry on them first.

Very nice. What paints are you using?

I don't fish with braid due to the manageability issues (who ever thought a line could be too limp?!) I've tried it twice, but just couldn't get used to fishing with sewing thread. That said, I can't deny that braid excels in grass. It has the ability to slice through grass like no mono or fluoro can. If I fished heavy grass constantly, I'd probably try heavy fluoro first, and then go with braid if it wasn't handling it. You may love braid....people either seem to love it or hate it. I just happen to be the latter, although I am aware of the benefits. Update us after you have fished it and let us know how it worked out.

I actually did pretty well on the promise to myself that I wouldn't buy a bunch of unneccessary baits; I probably could fit the amount of baits I purchased this year in one 3700. However, the rod bug got me pretty good. I was fascinated with the Zillion rods from the first spy photos. After they were released, I bought five. I not only liked the Zillions, but really liked the foam....I didn't have to use rod wrap like I do on my Loomis rods. So when the opportunity presented itself, I purchased more black foam split grips....and then even a few more. Unfortunately these were all purchased since august . It looks like I spent more money than I did; I got a very good deal on some, and a ridiculous deal on others. I still love my Loomis rods, and think the GLX graphite is still the best on the market almost 20 years later, but I now have a crush on black foam. If I could just get Loomis to make a GLX with with black foam, no foregrip, and aluminum winding checks....I'd be in . I hope this post doesn't seem pompous; I'm just sharing.

I throw all my cranks on a 6.3:1, but I generally power fish cranks. KVD uses a 7:1, but that's even out of my league .

Mg>E7

37 degree water?! We're in the mid 60's here in Texas.

I had a quiver of Compres' before I went higher, and they performed very well. Mine were the old brown blanked rods. I'm sure the newly redesigned black Compres are stellar. Congrats!

The Vision 110 was clearly the bait they had in mind when designing the McStick. I couldn't be more thrilled....Vision's are overpriced (as well as all Megabass baits IMHO), so if it works well it will benefit us all.

Yeah...you can really cross their eyes with that little dude. I find it perfect for jigs 1/4-1oz.

I believe he paid 99.00 total for all three rods. I swear it didn't say 3 in the original post, but I'm definitely glad.

Sweet man....you will like that rod.

Sweet man....you will like that rod.

Yep....there is a long thread about it on tackle tour. We came to the conclusion a while back, and Bantam1 denied it. Now he admits it is going to be replaced...

Did you already pay for the item? The Procyon is a discontinued product, and can be bought pretty cheap. I'm sure it performs close to what the Compre does, so you should be good. I'd use it as a worm/jig/pitchin' rod. A little cheaper here.... http://www.buytackle.com/product_view.cfm?id=11018

That means I'd probably like them . Not durable=super soft plastic, and I like the 'hand poured' feel of really soft baits. I'll probably stick to Senkos though....

Yep....Trilene 100% fluoro is the deal. I quit 'trying' fluoro's after I used the Trilene. I went with the bulk 2000yd spools, but it is lasting even longer than I thought. Since it doesn't turn white, I can't find a reason to change it...not to mention the abrasion resistance seems to be parallel with CXX (did I just say that?!). Seriously....it's close. These bulk spools may last me until 2010.