River Rat316

There is alot of benefit to light wire hooks, you don't always need the heaviest hook you can find. Lightwire hooks require less power on the hookset, when using lighter tackle this equates to better hookups. The problem in this scenario was not the light wire hook, the problem was as J Francho put it, the ZERO stretch in braid. If the original poster was using 4-6lb test, like I am sure the rod was rated for, the hook wouldn't have bent out, there would have been give in the rod and the stretch of the mono or flouro, and a properly adjusted drag, would have absorbed any runs the fish would have taken. I have landed my fair share of large smallies in current with light wire hooks, when you have your equipment matched to the task at hand it becomes alot easier. 6'6" St Croix Triumph light action 6lb Floro and very light wire hooks in 1/16oz hair jigs, and never any issues of landing or overplaying the fish.

NorthStar Custom Baits will be having a Memorial Day Sale! I haven't ironed out the specifics but there will be a percentage off entire orders from Friday the 27th until Monday night the 30th! In the past I have been hesitant to do a Memorial Day sale because it is also our Bass Opener, which in itself is like a National Holiday for me But this year I will make the commitment to get orders out, and fish when I catch up! We will also have the Aurora Shads up on the site for the sale, and a couple other NEW soft plastics I am very excited to offer!

try the 32724, its a great swim jig hook, I use it for all of my swim jigs, including those that I throw in pads and rarely have a problem, sometimes the hook teaks a little when you haul a fatty out of pads or heavy cover but it can be bent back and still catches fish. Nice looking jigs btw

Awesome, gotta love the last cast!!!

No George it don't work, it definitely doesn't work on largemouth in pads, and certainly won't work on the smallies when they are hanging in the wood on your favorite river

Ok I was going to stay out of this but this topic is bugging me, the sponsors of this site are what keep the site going, all of us feel we need to get the most out of our money and we are going to do promotion, period! If you have noticed at all, I and other members of my pro staff have tried to stay away from best jig threads and that sort of thing, I know there is such a thing as over promotion and the last thing I want to do is turn people off. Nick specifically did not mention my jigs in the beginning of this thread, someone asked him what he caught it on, and he told them, this is not considered spam, if you want examples of spam I can show you my junk folder of my email account there is about 800 emails a week that I get that go in there. On a side note if you are continually hearing about a product or company maybe you should try and figure out why it is talked about over and over, JJ's, Rage Tail,TW, BTD, Doctor Spinnerbait, and Yes NorthStar all seem like companies that get alot of publicity on this site. Instead of complaining when people mention them check the company out and you will figure out why they all get talked about!

It would generally be the other way around, the spinnerbait/ chatterbait is considered a search bait, you can cover water and look for active fish, once you find them slow down in the area with the senko and work it a little more thoroughly, you might also want to add jigs and larger texas rigged plastics like beavers and such, they generally draw bigger bites than a senko type bait (for me anyway)

I would be interested also, lots of good lakes in central MN and WI!

My wife's best friend moved down there this winter and she says the same thing, I can't wait until they get their own place.... then I have a place to crash if I can get down there in the spring to fish!!

As with just about everything that would be illegal in Minnesota

Nothing is going to come clean through snot grass, its just the way it is, but one thing to think about here is the angle of the hook/ weedguard, find a jig with a 30 degree eye and a swept back weed guard and it is about as good as it gets, the weedless jig design could definitely be improved upon, and will be shortly but for now this is as good as it gets!

If you are just trying out swim jigs I would go with a 5/16oz in any of your local bait fish colors. The reason for the 5/16 is it is light enough to still fish reasonably shallow and heavy enough to cover down to the 8-10' range if you have to. Once you get more comfortable with the technique and figure out if it suits your style go ahead and get 1/4-1/2oz sizes in colors that match your local bait fish!

GSP and Sheilds is going to be a leg humping fest, GSP needs to go back to finishing fights, right now I can't stand watching him fight, he has no desire to finish he is just fighting to not lose, he needs to fight to win.

They work on a carolina rig, jig trailer, flipping bait, top water. Really not much you can't do with a frog

Yep as far as jigs and spinnerbaits it is the amount of lead used in the head, it also varies from jig to jig and company to company, since the size is actually figured at pure lead and almost no one pours pure lead just for the reason it is to soft and paint chips so bad on that soft of a head.

Thats usually not a true statement, its not charging higher prices because people will pay them, its charging higher prices because their is more labor involved and higher price components. I am positive the higher price companies have the same or less profit margin then the bigger cheap companies (excluding JDM products)

Good Lord, if that was my first smallie of the year I would have to golf or something the rest of the summer! It doesn't get any better than that! Nice

Have not heard anything good about the Carrot Sticks, Veritas feels good in the hand, but haven't fished with one.

Dan got your message, thank you! Also forgot to add that brass willow blades are now available in the drop down menu, they are double polished brass, and look very nice (not as nice as the gold blades but for 1/2 the price it means pricing stays around the same on the spinnerbaits!)

Forgot about this one, my New Gill is now available in spinnerbait version!

I finally got caught up enough that I didn't feel horrible for getting away from the tying desk! Aaron worked hard on taking new photos of all my spinnerbaits recently and some new colors of jigs, so I figured I better get them up! Some of the new stuff was seen at the sale but not all of it. All the new colors are at the top of their respective pages but here's a little teaser until you visit the site! Bruise (new premier jig color) Natural Shad (new Swim Jig color) Ozark Craw (new Pro jig color)

I see no reason that couldn't be poured, looks like one of the easier hand pours.

Jig, and sometimes a t-rigged tube for a changeup!

Replace the double tail grub with a regular 3" or 4" grub, or a baby fluke to and it is even more deadly on river smallies, my first smallie over 20" came on a modified beetle spin.

Forgot to add I would position my boat right along the break and make quartering casts into shallow water to cover all depths until I figure out what exactly is going on!