BARON49_Northern NY

I have some of the original Allstar rods from back in the 80's Anyone remember the Stanley Jig rods they made...the Stanley jig 1 and Stanley jig 2? Plus I still use an original 7'6'' BPS cranking stick from that same 80's era. My wife still uses my XLT Plus Abu Garcia reels and the oldest one I still use is an Abu Garcia 6000C that doubles for both Muskies and Stripers. Works as good today as it did back when i bought it in the late 70's.

I hope everyone gives up on chatterbait! I love'em and use them in place of a spinnerbait most of the time now. Last year in Florida if I did not catch Bass on them I at least got the bass of come out and show themselves and threw back with some kind of plastic. Here in NY I have learned to slow roll them along the outside edge of deep weeds with a good deal of success. Have more luck slow rolling then jigging or some of the other ways I have read others use them.

Very well done video!

You left out Strike King's King Shad. Have caught some really big fish on this lure in the past few years.

I throw a lot of big lures for Muskies here on the St. Lawrence River and I have had some really small bass hit some really big Musky lures over the years. When a bass wants to eat he will hit most anything!

When I had my garage built I had the carpenter build me a closet to be able to store rod tubes along the sides, shelves for all kinds of boxes full of baits, plastics and lures. The top shelf was designed to hold the spare electic motors and extra gator mounts. Like anything else as big as it is with the double doors and wide deep depth it is getting smaller as time goes on.

I live up here in the frozen North and don't have anything to do with fishing through the ice! Too cold for me...heading South for fun in the sun in a little over a month.

I find that most who feel that way about a Revo reel have never developed an "educated thumb." Good thing there are lots of reels out there for those who need the extra help. ;D

It is a little hard to compare floating frogs like the SnagProof and Spro to buzzfrogs like Rage, Ribbit, and horney toads. All have a purpose and a time to fish them. Spro frogs seem to skip the best for me under docks and trees. I don't like the way the hook lays away from the plastic, but for open water it seems to work OK. Snagpoof frogs work just about anywhere for anything. Calling up hogs out of the slop, worked over weed beds, or walk the dog along cover. The plastic is a little on the soft side so they don't seem as easy to skip, but they are very durable and hold up well. Rage toads are a buzz frog that makes a racket. Caught the big smallmouth in my avatar with one this summer. To be effective buzz frogs for the most part need to be moving unlike floating frogs and just sitting with attract fish. Ribbits are the light weights of the buzz frogs, but for their size they do make a lot of noise with their little paddle feet and do work well even with a chop on the water. Horny toad the oldest of the buzz frogs is a staple in most frogging arsenals. Rigged on a EWG hook and run over just about any cover you can name draw strikes from anything with fins. One thing to notice is the noise a Horny toad makes is more of a pitter-pat and early in the morning or on calm water makes a nice subtle top water presentation that draws big fish.

Norman's DD22 is an excellent deep water crankbait and I understand that Rapala now has a DT 20 out.

All I use is braid for spinning and found BPS Pro Qualifer Wide Spool spinning reels to work great. Two years worth of fishing in all kinds of conditions and heavy use.....not a single problem yet.

I tried using a 6'6'' MH spinning rod with a BPS Pro Qualifier 4000 wide spool spinning reel a little last year and it worked well for pitching 4.5" soft swimbait into tight places and around boat docks. Used 14 and 20 lb Fireline and had no problem with the hooksets. Don't know if I would want to go to a much smaller reel as I had some big Smallmouths nail this small soft bait and take off on a dead run with it.

Been using Quantum PT's for cranking for many years.....however I did buy a couple Revo Winchs to see hwo they work.

Have been using Avids for years and upgraded to the Legends some time back and feel they are excellent rods. The Legends have been dependable, sensitive, and light weight. However I feel I need to make a plug for American Rodsmiths....it is a shame they were left out of this as they make outstanding rods too!

Like the idea of the clam shell and if you look really close at the avitar picture of mine there is a Rage Tail sticking out of the mouth of that 6 lb 15 oz Smallmouth I caught last Summer.

Just ordered some of the markers and hope they are not as messy as the bottles.

For some reason several forums are reporting that both Rapala DT and the DD22 lips are coming loose of the body. Checked all mine and not one bad one in the bunch. Not sure what is happening.

You might want to give a soft swimbait a try like the Shadalious or the Money Minnow.

I have all my rods and reels as well as tackle boxes spread all over the pool table room floor. Cleaning reels and getting everything ready for my annual trip to Florida. Keeps me busy and out of trouble for a little while. Watching TV fishing shows while cleaning reels and doing matainence on tackle breaking up the time spent between snowblowing the driveway.

Watching his show right now and he is fishing plastic worms.

Interesting...I did not know that!

For years I have been using Lemon Pledge on my rods and then give the reels a quick wipe down with it as well.

I ended up with several bottle of Reel Magic and can't say I am all that impressed with it. I don't use that much mono anymore and due to the fact it will not be absorbed by fluoro have a bunch of it still left. Tried spraying it on braid and did not see where it did a thing there either.

Hard to beat Chrome with black or blue back for ratttletraps Citrus Shad for crankbaits with Sexy Shad close behind

For all but the biggest of worms I prefer Gamakatsu 2/0 or 3/0 offset hooks. These are thin wire but very strong and sharp. Most worms do not have enough bulk to need an EWG. I find the offset hooks give a firm hookup most of the time in the top of the mouth or the corner of the mouth if the fish picked the worm up and started to swim away. For the big 10 in+ worms Eagle Claw's offset hook gets the nod. These are bigger hooks, more metal, and stronger to handle big fish. A 3/0 or 4/0 works well. I have tried EWG's in Berkley's 10 inch Power worm and they seemed to work well when C-rigging. For comparison.....a 3/0 offset Gamakatsu is just about the same size and length as a 2/0 Eagle Claw.