ChrisAW

Yes, flipping and pitching in most peoples mind is always paired with heavy cover, texas rigs and jigs. But its pretty much just a casting technique.

Flipping and/or pitching are both basically casting techniques. Thats all it is really. You can flip or pitch any bait. I pitch crankbaits when trying to get under docks and such.

I bought some and spooled it on a frog rod. Water is hard here so I've not put it to any use yet. But just from casting in the yard, it is quiet and smooth. Casts very well. Until I get to fish it, thats all I have to say.

A few thing people mentioned already. I don't own anything Storm, because they are junk baits. I will not buy anything Mann's ever again because of the SUE SUE SUE mentality they had going, and their baits didn't produce for me. Next is ZOOM. Not only do they have poor quality plastics that constantly come out with divots in them and air bubbles, I just can't buy a bite on anything I use from them. They are also a sue happy company. Right now even they are trying to sue a man who uses a pretty big name mold companies stuff, because they have a copyright on their Super Chunk, and the bait they are going after that man for looks NOTHING like it! A big middle finger to those jerks. I've melted down anything I had of ZOOM baits to pour my own. As far as techniques, I'll try it all and see where it goes from there. I do find some things boring but if its working, I can't complain.

I know I've posted this before, but I'll do it again. 7' ML CS Wild with an Okuma Trio High Speed that I swapped gears on to make it a low speed. I'm not one to really "match" colors, but these were both clearanced and I was able to get a discount of top of that for them both. Couldn't pass it up.

Not like no one here hasn't seen nearly every other pro do the same thing at some point. All these big name sponsors have baits that work or don't at times, and most of them know that. As long as they don't push another brand, they don't care.

No, he was throwing a chatterbait. He was just pushing his sponsor in the Lessons show. He had a silver bladed black and blue chatterbait with a Zoom craw of some sort.

Feel free to send any that you don't want my way. Max Raps worked out very well for me. Its my top producing jerk bait.

Stopped into one of my local Wally's today and did happen to find some Trokar 3/0 offset round bends on clearance for $3 per pack. Bought 4. No good baits on sale though, from what I seen. Its sad the state that my local stores leave their stock. I found two KVD rods with tips broken off and one of the new Vendetta 2's with a crushed guide. Not to mention they are all falling over out of their racks and so mixed up, you can't even pull one out to look at it.

I dont have a favorite swim jig itself yet, but so far I haven't had a problem with any of them. I've used anything from some cheap Gander Mountain swim jigs, to a local guys custom jigs that were about 8 dollars a pop, and even my own. But so far, the ones I have the most at this point in time are the Strike King swim jigs. Not too expensive and decent quality. I have not had to repair or sharpen a single one since I've started using them. The hooks are somewhat thin, but I've come to like a thinner hook. Takes less effort for the hook to sink in. From what I've seen, I've lost fewer fish because of that. Trailers have been changing in the last year. I loved the Swimmin' Senkos. Still do. But, they are expensive as heck and I'm tired of repairing an entire bag of them when I get home from the lake. I've started trying other things, and so far I really like the new Havoc Subwoofer from Berkley, and I'm very eager to try Trigger-X's new swim bait called the Slop Hopper.

Both the full size pad crasher I bought had the weight fall out of the within the first ten minutes of use, and not even a bite. Thats enough for me to never buy one again. Have NEVER had that problem with any other frog, countless fish on a few of them.

8lb Yo-Zuri at the moment. Pulled in a 31" pike with it on my last trip out and didn't lose my Max Rap, so I'm happy with it so far.

A couple molds to pour my own baits, and the Trigger X Goo Bug and Slop Hopper.

I believe they knock a zone out every time its fished. I don't remember any of them fishing the same zone twice last season.

SX being a magnetic brake alone, I'm not a huge fan of it for casting techniques. But I love it for flipping/pitching. The last time I used one for casting techniques was when I had it on a crankbait rod. I could cast a mile but that's mainly just from practice without using any brakes at all, any of the Revo's would be just as well suited for that. STX is a great real, but if you don't feel you can spend that much there is nothing wrong with the S.

Ahh, then yes. Different story. That I will let others chime in on.

The cork grip is one thing, but also the guides seem to be the better design. I own a 7' ML E21 CS Wild, and I like how it feels. But the type of guides they used are not a good design. The location and type of first guide causes a lot of line slap and doesn't help casting distance. They changed the guides on the black series to a more traditional spinning rod style, and seems to follow suit to the better design that prevents a lot of choking and line slap. But.. reports of breakage with the black is also not helping me to tell you to spend the extra 30 either. I'd probably go with a whole different brand in all honesty. The only reason I bought the Wild I have is because it was on clearance for $60 and I had a discount on top of that.

Nevermind, watched it again. Ike's bait was a chatterbait with a Zoom speed craw. Looked different the first time I seen it up close.

Original Chatterbait, with what looked like a Bears Molds Crazy Craw on the back of it.

Ish was throwing the Missle Baits D-Bomb behind that weight.

XDS. Thats all I have to say in here.

But I doubt they get the same amount as the people paying for the extended coverage. And it is basicly just what you said. Don emailed me back saying Outdoor channel is their main sponsor and is a 50% partner of Major League Fishing. So they have them by the balls and are treating the people who dont have Outdoor like freeloaders, even though we're paying MLF directly. There should be NO delay.

It is. But a lot of their customers do not have Outdoor Channel. (Like me) Why not allow the people who are willing to pay for it able to watch it just as soon as the people who are watching it free on TV? Why make us wait a week?

Right now I'm a little upset with these guys. Last year they made each episode available to paying customers online before they aired on TV. But they also didn't make earlier episodes available to people who paid half way through the series. I paid the fee to watch all the episodes just to find I would have still had to pay for the episodes that were already released, I would only be able to watch the ones released after I had paid. They promptly fixed that, but it seems this year they are making us wait. The first episode was available the day after it aired on TV. The second episode is not going to be available until MONDAY. After they are done airing the second episode on TV. I'm sorry but that is some BS. I could understand the day after, but making the PAYING customers wait a WEEK? Either they'll air it after enough people email them or I'm getting my money back. Both years they've tried to screw the people who are paying to watch their show, and its not going to keep going like this or they will start to lose a lot of customers. People are already making complaints on their Facebook page. I already emailed them... anyone who feels the same way should do so as well.

Ike's my favorite angler, but I'd say Gerald Swindle is probably the best skip caster out there. I'd love to see him on this series, or to just expand in general so its not just these three elimination rounds and such.