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If you're not using gear grease on the drag, what are you using? I use the same Hot Sauce grease on the gears as I do on the drag washers. Am I missing something?

A lipless crank is going to be very light w/o the rattles I think. I wonder how they balance and if they're still effective with the new action.

Why the short topwater and why spinning on the jerkbait I like a short topwater rod because I rarely feel I need long casts with a topwater lure, aside from buzzbaits. Short, precise casts seem to works better. Most times the action of topwater lure is best when you keep the rod at the 4-5 o' clock position when you twitch it, which keeps the line on the water and straight instead of in the air, flopping and blowing around. I like to use a spinning rod when I toss jerkbaits because they are generally lighter lures, ranging from 3/16 to 5/8 oz. I don't fish them in heavy cover. Mostly over deep rock piles and weeds, gravel bars, suspended fish, etc. Casting distance and covering water is important with jerkbaits IMO, so a spinning rod helps you toss the light ones easily.

I strip it completely, clean the main body and parts parts with degreaser soap and hot water, and dry with a towel and some compressed air. Then I lightly grease the gears with my fingertip, reassemble and give each bearing a shot of oil, spin the gears and collect the excess grease that squeezed out with a Q-Tip. I'm going to try J Francho's idea of using a trimmed paintbrush to spread the grease next time.

Cranks: 6' 6" and 7' casting Topwater: 6' 6" casting Jerkbaits: 6' 6" spinning

6' MF would be a good choice for fishing 1/16 to 1/4 oz tubejigs in relatively light weed cover, rocks and around edges. I rig it with 15 lb braid and a 8-10 lb fluoro leader. If you plan on sometimes fishing heavier cover, light pitching with Texas rigs or throwing tubes 3/16 and up, then I'd go with a 7' MHF rigged with 20 lb braid and a 10-12 lb fluoro leader. I fish tubes often and I use both combos about equally. They're both about as versatile as they get and can handle many lures.

St. Croix Avid would be my pick. They are a terrific rod and the best value of any rod I've owned in that price range.

Good to know J Francho. I was skeptical of that anyway, but it never really influenced me because I never figured I'd need that much resistance. I picked up a couple Curado 201E7 this week. They fit my hand a little better around the index finger when I grip it tight for a hard hookset.

None, but there have been some very close calls where I almost kicked them in the lake.

Yep. Easy to tie, but it's not small.

Do you think that the Avid would be to whipy for bottom bouncing baits? I am thinking about the hook set on a med. light 7 footer. Would there be too much rod bending before you get to the meat of the hook-set? I was close to getting Avid 6'9" mlxf and considered a 7' ml myself but backed off because of the whipyness. I could see these rods for reaction baits (less sensitivity needed), but for bottom bouncing plastics (more sensitivity needed)? No, there's plenty of backbone to deliver a good hookset on smaller, finesse soft plastics, like jigworms, tubes and small Tex rigs. I have the 7' MLF in the Premier series. It's a great multi-purpose rod, a good setup for finesse plastics, 1/8 oz spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, and light crankbaits and stickbaits like the Rapala Floater. If you're looking to throw 7" worms with 4/0 hooks and jigs with the fiber brushguard, then you're going to want to step it up to a notch or two because this rod will not be powerful enough. Have you looked into the Avid 7' MHF spinning rod? Thats a killer rod for 3/16 and 1/4 oz Tex rigs, light bass jigs, and Senkos. It has a nice, soft tip to propel the bait but a wicked backbone to cross the fishes eyes on the hookset. It's a very useful multipurpose rod as well, due to the combo of soft tip and stiff backbone. I use it as my primary Senko rod, and it works great for skipping a Senko or finesse jig up under docks.

I did check these out because I was looking for a another, lesser expensive frogging rod. They had both HF rods, both the 1 piece rated for 1/2 - 1 1/2 oz and the 2 piece rated for 3/8 oz to 2 1/4 oz. I didn't really like the feel of the two piece. It felt stiffer at the tip without really having much more backbone in the mid section and base of the rod. The lure weights on those two rods are a bit misleading, IMO. Of the two, the 1 piece would be the way to go as they usually are. I personally like using a 7' 6" MHF flipping stick for trolling and casting spoons and bucktails under 1.25 oz.

Thats a great deal at $50. I was looking through the racks at Cabelas the other day, wishing they had a 7' ULF rod for casting ice fishing jigs tipped with waxworms for bluegills. Light power is the lightest they go.

Help me out. I do pretty good with a spinner bait, but don't use my lipless cranks very much... there is dust on them. I would like to catch some fish with a lipless. How would you use a lipess crank in a deep water lake? I mostly fish long points. Thanks. Your first problem is you have to get them suckers wet! I would start by throwing a lipless crank in the same places you throw & under the same conditions as a spinner bait. Don't be fooled into thinking a lipless crank baits are only deep water tools, I throw one in 18-24" of water by simply hold my rod tip high while continuing a steady retrieve. Exactly. I fish lipless cranks in shallow water all the time and rip them free when they snag on weeds. Along with a jig, these may be the 3 most versatile lures in my tackle boxes.

Are the guides big enough that a knot can pass thru them on the cast if you were using braid with a fluoro leader?

I've put 8, 10, and 12# Trilene 100% Fluoro on 2500 spinning reels, and the only way I could get by with the 12# is when I soaked it with line conditioner twice a trip. I'm sticking with 8 and 10#, or better yet 15-20# braid and a fluoro leader.

I'm thinking it was a little bruise or defect. I don't know how many times I've done that little test without snapping a rod.

FWIW, I have both Avid and Crucial 7' MHF casting rods. The Crucial is lighter and a bit faster with a hair more backbone. I use it for Senkos and larger T-Rigs. The Avid is clearly the more sensitive rod, and has a slightly more parabolic action making it the better choice for reaction lures. This is my heavy spinnerbait rod and it gets a lot of use.

I used to fish live craws all the time for SMB. I personally wouldn't eat them from a local creek though. It may be filled with street runoff, who knows? I would sometimes remove both claws, and hook them thru the tail, upside down. But I believe I caught better fish on average with a craw with claws. The clawless craws seemed to attract more dinks. I'm sure the smaller profile affected that, or maybe dinks are scared of claws. Just like a minnow rigged upside down, the craw will basically freak out trying to right itself. The usually get hit before they reach the bottom. Usually I would leave the claws on and just hook them thru the tail with a circle hook. Yes, they'll snag you up if if let them roam, but if you keep twitching them they won't be able to find a hole to crawl into. Nose hooking hooks well too, but the craws are more likely to fly off during the cast if you do that.

Rapala Shad Rap in chrome or gold.

I think they're decent rods, but if you're paying MSRP, you're not quite getting your money's worth. At a discount? You could do a lot worse with $75-90. That said, I won't be buying any more Mojos. They're the first rod series from St. Croix that I own that that I'm disappointed with.

It makes sense to me that having cork around the rod blank just ahead of where you hold the rod would deaden the vibrations before you can feel them, am I right? I'm pretty new to both the no-foregrip and split-grip rods. Up until last Summer I had only owned rods with the standard handles and grips

Thanks guy, I'm leaning toward the Curado. I have it on the rod now and it feels great. I like the lower profile and the wide spool, which is about 3/16" wider than the STX. Another thing I'm considering, I have long term experience with Shimano Curados and less than a year with my Revo STXs.

Baby wipes! The Maxxum Pro trolling motor didn't hurt either.

I grew up fishing tubes for SMB and still fish tubes quite a bit for LMB when the bite is slow or fish are suspended above the weeds. I generally use 2.5 - 3.5" finesse tubes rigged with 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 oz light wire jigs and swim them like I would a curly tail grub, letting them contact the weed tops and gently ripping them free. Sometimes I rig the larger tubes with 1/2 and 3/4 oz tube jigs and snap-jig them, with hard 2 to 5 foot snaps followed by that deadly spiral that you get from tubes. Thats a Great Lakes smallie tactic that I started doing last year for LMB. Killer! Subtle colors like smoke with red or purple flake and watermelonseed seem to work best when I swim them, but a bright white tube with some red highlight is what I use for snap-jigging.