piscicidal

Went to MM41 with my son Sunday. He caught 108 fish on his new favorite bait (a tiny tube). I caught eleven (flipping). I'm pretty sure my eleven fish outweighed his 108, but we're not going to go there. We both had a great time.

If the smoke has an aluminum drag/cast control, I can strip/anodize it to match the orange on our handles. For mor einfo, send me an email at: support@hawgtech.com

I had to go to titanium spinner baits when snakehead fishing....they thrash around bending up the wire. I might break 2-3 spinnerbaits a day on snakeheads before going to the titanium... The bass don't fight as hard or as ferociously, but the principle is the same. Over time, the wire is going to be bent back and forth, eventually it will yield and break. I've had good luck with the war eagles on bass, but when the paint starts getting chipped up and the hook starts getting a little dull, I know it's time to throw it away. I'm not going to risk losing a monster bass to a compromised wire.

Captain Shane is on em' good. I can testify with my own personal eyewitness account. George is right, now is a great time to bring the kids out there. First cast Sunday, my son caught two on his little jerkbait. Caught a couple hundred with the kids both days. I got a couple 5lbers, flipping around some of the bedding areas.

A few Shimano Chronarchs with custom anodizing (thanks Captain Shane!). We have six stock colors that we currently carry and are introducing a seventh very shortly (violet). https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=627932590575980&set=a.400118190024089.76626.400113070024601&type=1&theater

I had been using the older Quantum Accurist reels for flipping. I'm not a huge Quantum fan, but the ergonomics of Quantum's flipping switch is the best in the business, IMO. Simply let up the thumb bar and the spool is instantly engaged. This feature has undoubtedly put fish in the boat for me that I would have missed with reels that require two handed engagement of the spool. 1-piece aluminum frame, ceramic brake system with 16lbs drag, 7.0:1 gear ratio. Those reels have been bullet proof for me...my mat punching rod has well over 100 fish over 5lbs in 2013 alone. The down side to those reels has been weight and size. But recently, I started changing out all those old Accurists to this new Quantum Energy reel. It has the same specs and the same awesome flipping switch of the old Accurists. But this reel is much smaller, easier to palm, and much lighter (6.9oz). I might regret saying this (because the price might now go up), but I've been getting them brand new on EBAY for less than $100. We will have to see whether these reels hold up as well as my 10year old Accurists (which still work perfectly). But for someone looking at a flipping reel, I would definitely recommend giving this one a look.

Lou, I don't think you necessarily need big baits...All the typical bed baits appear to work. The main thing is location and presentation. It is very difficult to target/catch these canal spawners...if you can see them, they can see you and they won't bite.

There are many fish that spawn in the canal system as well. They are not as easy to catch IMO as the flats spawners but they can be had. Leo and I won the KOTG club tournament two weeks ago targeting canal spawners. Last Sunday we had a +20lb bag on our canal fish, but we lost two +5lbers (caught 1). Big fish can be caught right now in the canals. Actually it is one of the better times for them. You have to target them though and commit to it. If you throw a fluke on the outside of the pads you'll catch dozens but you're not going to get those big ones.

The big girls are ALWAYS available. It just so happens right now most of them are way back in the swamp where most anglers can't/won't go em. The guy who won it (Hank) has a boat with six batteries. He plows back through stuff that 99% of the population wouldn't even think about going into. It's a lot of work and he and his partner Skip have dedicated a lot of their time/effort toward perfecting their flats techniques. I had no doubt that one of our King of The Glades anglers was going to win Crowder's tourney. 4 of the top 5 finishers were KOTG anglers. I don't think any of the FLW pros finished in the top ten.

Leo and I had 12 and a half at KOTG yesterday. We knew we were at a disadvantage not going in the flats, but we were around some spawning fish and felt we could get a couple of them to bite. Had three big bites and only got one in the boat (5lbs). The two we missed were in the 5-6 pound range.

Sorry, only right handed available right now. We are building up inventory, though...

Jon G, On reels with an aluminum frame it is possible. I am not offering this service right now, though. The anodizing process does create very small dimensional changes in the part and I am not comfortable doing it on precision items such as frames/spools. For external cosmetic items (star drag/cast control cap) the tiny dimensional change causes no issues. Thanks, Mike

PSN81, aprw1 is correct, the star drag from a Curado E series will fit on the Curado G. I actually have some Curado E series drag stars/cast control knobs anodized already...I have dark gold, blue, red and green available, right now. Send me a message at support@hawgtech.com if you would like to purchase one. Thanks, Mike

Grant, thanks for the order. You're gonna love the parts, I'm sure.

aprw1, Yes, we will consider doing nuts/retainers if they are, in fact, aluminum. Many of those nuts, however, are stainless which we cannot anodize.

I'm fishing Crowders. Probably don't have a chance as we're staying in the canal. $200 prefishing day for KOTG. LOL

xxx, I have some gold star drags and cast control knobs available. And of course we have the gold handles. Send me a message if you are interested.

Hey guys...I appreciate all the questions. For now, we are just doing the exterior cosmetic parts. We will likely expand the scope of the anodizing in the coming months. But in the mean time please keep the requests coming. We can and will adjust our plans based on your demand.

Grant, Sure! If you want to send me your parts, the cost is $15 each to strip/anodize. On the new parts we will be carrying, the approximate part cost will be $40 for star drag and $25 for cast control knob...this is basically the cost of the new parts + shipping/handling/tax (from supplier) + $15.

My "finesse" bait cast combo. Use this for light worm fish, jerkbaits, senkos, etc. This one has the custom anodized star drag and cast control knobs from a Curado 200E7. Blue anodizing matches the accents on the Dobyns Champion rod (704C) very well.

Slonezp, Sorry...that's too big for my anodizing bath.

We have just recently started doing some custom anodizing of cosmetic reel parts to match the accents on our handles. We are rolling this out as an additional service to our customers. You can send us your star drag/cast control knob and we will strip/anodize it to match the color of your handle accents. We have done this for several customers and the response has been extremely positive. For now we are doing this customization as a value-added service for people who buy our handles. But soon, you will be able to buy custom colored accent parts directly from our website. We are in the process of building inventory now and hope to have these parts available for sale by mid February. These are brand new, factory parts which we strip/anodize to match one of our seven standard colors (silver, light gold, dark gold, blue, green, red, orange). Have a color that you don't see here? We may be able to help you out with that too.

My jig set up. Not a huge Quantum Fan but their flipping switch is (ergonomically) the best in the business, IMO. This setup is very light but very powerful. Orange accents on the handle and reel match the accents on the Dobyns Extreme rod (745DX).

My trap/spook rod. Love the action on this Powell Max rod...it has the perfect action for working spooks. Red theme.