.ghoti.

I used to sharpen my plastics hooks all the time until I realized this was a lose-lose situation. I could get them scary sharp, but if you consider the time versus the cost of a new hook, I'm losing. Factor in that I've weakened the hook a bit and I'm losing again. I only tied a couple of times to sharpen treble hooks. Gave up on the pretty quickly. I swap out treble hook for good ones once I've determined that a crank is worth it. We all know that cranks are not created equal. If you buy four identical cranks, you might just get lucky and find one that has that extra, special action that works better than the rest. When I find one of those, it gets good hooks. I'll cut it off the line, leaving an inch of line attached to the lure. This identifies which cranks are the special ones. Over the winter I'll sort out those few "good" cranks, put on new hooks, and put them in a separate box. If you do this regularly, in a few years you'll have a couple of boxes of cranks that you have confidence in. Spinnerbaits, buzzbaits and jigs are about all I sharpen these days. I use a very fine diamond hone so I remove as little metal as posible, and I don't do it out on the water. Cheers, GK

GYCB Creatures and Berkley Power hawgs

That is insane!!

Last year was my year to be stuck in a rut. I used three baits almost all year. Senkos, Fat Ikas and X-Raps were pretty much all I used. This year I've been better. It's not good to get stuck. Unless you're catching fish with the same thing all the time. It's hard to argue with success. That was me last year. I caught fish all year on the same three baits. I'm still throwing those three, but I've added more baits back into the mix this year. Cheers, GK

Let's see if I can keep it to ten. 1. 5" GYCB Senko 2. GYCB Fat Ika 3. GYCB Big Kahuna worm 4. Berkley Power worm 10" 5. Berkley Power worm 7" 6. Zoom tube 7. Zoom Super Fluke 8. Zoom Trick worm 9. Berkley Power tube 10. Berkley Power hawg Nope, can't keep it to ten; that's ten plastics I don't leave home without. 1. Shad Rap 2. X-Rap 3. Bandit 100 4. Norman Little N 5. Original Floating Rapala 6. Mann's Minus-1 7. Bomber A 8. Bomber Flat A 9. Rapala DT's 10. Berkley Frenzy floating minnow ( my wife's favorite hard bait ) That's ten cranks I don't leave home without. 1. spinnerbaits 2. buzzbaits 3. Spook 4. Skitter Pop 5. chatterbait 6. Horny Toad 7. 4" GYCB Senko ( my wife's favorite soft bait ) 8. finesse jigs 9. Road runners 10. Torpedo That's ten more I don't leave home without. Now let's see if I can knock it down to ten must haves, to keep within the original idea of the thread, now that I've completely went out of bounds. 1. 5" Senko, red shad color 2. Fat Ika, blue with light blue tentacles 3. Kahuna worm, junebug color 4. Shad Rap, shad color 5. X-Rap, gold color 6. Super Flukes, baby bass color 7. Zoom Tube, smoke color 8. Spinnerbait, 1/4oz Terminator single willow white 9. Rapala DT, bluegill color 10. buzzbait, 3/8oz terminator white OK, there's ten, just don't hold me to it. The selection would change as conditions and waters change. Cheers, GK

Well, only one response. I'm guessing not many people have tried one of these. I pulled the trigger on one anyway. I just couldn't pass up a deal. Bought a spinnerbait model. It came down to a choice between a 7' MH and the 6'6" M. Since I thought that this would also make a decent jerkbait rod, I opted for the shorter version. About 2" of the difference is in the handle. I like a shorter handle for jerkbaits. It's rated for 1/8 to 5/8 oz baits, and 8-15lb test line. I been out with it three times for short trips after work. Here's what I think about it. The rod has a very soft tip section that transitions into backbone fairly quickly. Whne handling it in the shop, it felt like a fast action rod. In use, I wouldn't call this a fast action; more like moderate-fast. It almost feels like a fiberglass tip section mated to a graphite power section, but not quite, because the transition from the soft tip into the power is smooth. Very strange, but nice. The rod is very, very light. It's a split rear grip, no foregrip design. The rear grip has a slight swell to it. This is symetrical, not like the BPS power hump design, more like the Avid series handles. It's quite comfortable. It has Forecast guides, not Fuji's. They seem to be well made; it looks like the rings are set in the frames such that they will not come out easily. Time only will tell how well they hold up to line wear and other abuse. The reel seat also looks to be other than Fuji. It looks similar, and holds the reels I tried in it very securely. Every thing is well fitted. The guide wraps and finish are neat and even. The blank itself is unfinished. The only complaint I have, at this time, is about the hook keeper. It's mounted on the side of the rod opposite the reel handle. I don't like that; it's in the wrong place, as far as I'm concerned. A minor issue is the threads on the reels seat. They protrude farther forward than I'd like, but it would be hard to do otherwise on a rack rod. The maker's will have no idea what reel will be used, so the threads are more than long enough to accommodate any reel. So far, so good. It appears to be very well constructed. I put on Quantum Energy PT reel, 6.3:1 with 12lb test Trilene. I like a faster reel for spinnerbaits. First bait was a 3/8 oz tandem spinnerbait. This rod loads very, very easily, so the short "roll-the-wrist" spinnerbait cast was easy and accurate. I found I could toss a low trajectory cast to wherever I wanted. The short handle helps. It does not get in the way at all. The feel was good. I could easily feel the blades, and easily feel whatever I ran the bait into. I then tied on an 1/8oz wolliow blade spinnerbait. The rod loaded nicely with this small bait. The feel was the same as with the bigger bait. Again, so far, so good. Then I tried the biggest spinnerbait I use. A 5/8oz model with a large single colorado blade. This was really too much bait for this rod. Cranking it through the water put a distinct bend in the rod. The rod is rated for up to 5/8oz baits, but I'm not buying it. I just don't like the way this rod feels with the larger spinnerbaits. A 1/2oz version was right on the edge of being too much bait for the rod. With that much bend in the rod, I don't feel in control of the bait the way I want to be. I then put on one of my Daiwa Millionaire's spooled with 10lb test Sufix Elite. This is my main crankbait reel. Tied on an X-rap, because, in the shop, I thought this would be a good jerkbait setup. So much for thoughtin". Too much bait for the rod. For jerkbaits, i want a rod that will snap that bait. This rod bends too much in the tip section to do that. I then tried a series of crankbaits. For the smaller, shallow baits, this is an excellent rod. It even loaded enough to cast a small #5 Shad Rap a considerable distance. With larger, deeper diving cranks, I got the same, too much bend, not enough feeling of being in control, that I got when using the larger spinnerbaits. I also tried using this rod for tubes and flukes. I T-rig tubes, using light internal weighting. The rod did well with these light weight baits. I rig Super Flukes on an Owner 3/0 wide gap plus hook, and the rod was also good for these. With the lightly weighted and unweighted plastics the rod delivered more feel than I expected, after the tests with the cranks and spinnerbaits. I was pleasantly surprised. I haven't caught a large fish with this rod so I don't know how it performs under a serious load. I got several 1 - 1 1/2 pounders and it had no problems with them. I got one 3 pounder on the little Shad Rap, and the rod whipped him easily. I think that once you get beyong the soft tip, the rod has enough backbone to handle anything I'm going to tangle with in my waters. So, the bottom line. I was looking for a dedicated spinnerbait rod. I did not get that. What I got is a versatile rod for light weight baits. I use small cranks a lot, and this is great rod for those. I also got a very good rod for Flukes and lightly weighted tubes. The rod is pretty good for smaller spinnerbaits, so I have a rod that will go with me most of the time. And I got it for 90 bucks under list price, so I'm happy with it. If you're in the market for a dedicated spinnerbait rod, you may want to look elsewhere. Perhaps the medium-heavy model would be better. At these prices, I may just get one of those to try. My wife isn't ready to shoot me yet about my tackle addiction, so who knows. If I get one, I'll put up a report. Cheers, GK

In the last 6 weeks, I've had 4 skin cancers removed from my face. Three were fairly small, and the procedure, and discomfort were minor. The other one required a bit more. The doctors removed a divot from my forehead about the size of a penny, all the way down to the bone. I took 12 internal and 14 external stitches to close this, after they cut it out into a football shaped hole. I have a picture of the hole before stitching. it's not a pretty sight, or site. After the anesthetic wore off, this thing hurt like hell. And continued to hurt for a couple of days. What fun! I'm 55, and when I was younger, sunblock was not a part of the vocabulary. It is now. The damage is cumulative. One sunburn will likely not cause skin cancer. A few decades of fishing without sunblock will. A hat is not the cure. So, what am I saying here? Get some freaking sunblock and use it. Every #%*&^ time you go out. Cheers, GK

3X baits, or cyberflex, or whatever they decide to call them will always have a place in my plastics bags. The one that looks like a fluke ( I think they call it a Zulu ) is one of my favorite topwaters. The Zero is a good bait when you need a slower fall rate. The worms are one the best to put on a jighead. On the rare occasions when I fish a C-rig, a 3X bait is my first choice. They are getting harder to find around here. I just picked up a dozen bags at a local tackle shop for a buck a bag. I think I may just go back and get a bunch more. Talk about cost-effective. It's not uncommon to catch 20 or more fish on one bait. Try that with a senko. It would be rare to catch 20 fish on one bag of senkos. airborne, I think the reason the Zeros start to float after a while is the salt does not stay in the bait. It will pop out when the plastic is stretched. Cheers, GK

All you guys new to the sport, go back and read RoLo's tip again. Nicely put, Roger. Cheers, GK

I think you have to both watch the line and aquire a good feel for what your bait is doing. I watch the line right where it enters the water when using a tight line technique and watch the line laying on top of the water when slack lining. Cheers, GK

A local shop has a whole rack of Setyr rods onsale for 120 - 130 bucks apiece. They were originally marked 210 - 240. There are medium, med-heavy and heavy power rods from 6' to 8' in length. I wouldn't call any of them moderate action. All seem to be fast or extra fast actions. They are very light in weight and feel very crisp to the hand. Most are a split grip design, and all have no fore grip. Anybody have any experience with these rods? I have a Quantum Energy PT I bought from Brad Coovert that needs a new rod to call home. Cheers, GK

Catt, you da man. Do you take American Express?

Thanks, Dan, for the link to the new version. I used to love the Pork-O. Was really disappointed when they went out of production. These were a fine big fish bait. Not many bites, but you know you had a good fish when one hit. Hydrilla, you've probably hit on why they went out of production. I used to buy two jars at a time. They'd last forever, unless the jars leaked and the baits dried out over the winter. And, not many people around here had the patience to use them. I remember buying jars for a buck apiece, on clearance, several times. Just wasn't a big seller. I'll be ordering some of those new ones ASAP. Cheers, GK

RW, that's interesting about crankin' the creature. I gave a couple of packs of Fat Ikas to a buddy of mine, and showed him how to rig them. He came back and said they were one the best baits he'd ever used. I said, yeah, that reverse rigging is deadly. He said, I wasn't using them like that, I rigged them like a tube, put a split-shot ahead of it, and cranked it along slowly. Caught a whole bunch of fish on an outside weed edge. Go figure. Cheers, GK

I hate to hear about this kind of stuff. About 3 weeks ago, I went out to go to work, and found one of my car's windows smashed in. They stole my gadget bag, but left all my fishing tackle. They got a Dell Axim, Pharos GPS, a couple of 2 gig jump drives, some SD cards, tools, knife, multi-tool, etc. About $1600 worth of stuff all together. I'm also out two days of work, that's $500+. And, according to the police, it's been kids around town looking for purses to get money and smokes. They look in car windows until they find a purse, smash and grab. The police have even found a few of the stolen ones dumped in parking lots, alleys and dumpsters. The thieves have left credit cards, driver's licenses, check books, etc. The only thing that seems to be missing is money and smokes. My gadget bag looked enough like a purse that I took a little grief from some of my buddies about carrying a purse around, so I guess the kids thought they'd found one. Anyway, I'm out better than 2 grand, and the kiddies get neither money, nor smokes. I'd like to catch the little scoundrels, but there's not much chance of that. My sympathies, bshaner, I know how bad this sucks. At least they did not get any of my tackle, and I had quite a bit in the back end of the car. GK

I discovered this quite by accident. I was fishing a horny toad in the weeds last week when a young man came by and said "try a white one". He had caught several nice bass in the last couple of weeks, at this pond, using a white horny toad. Well, of course, I had no white horny toads. I did have a pack of Yum Buzzfrogs, in green with a white belly. I said to myself, self, that's close enough, so I put one on. I rig horny toads on a Gammy 5/0 superline hook. This hook is quite a bit bigger than a regular 5/0 EWG. That's the hook I had on, so I rigged the buzzfrog on it. I was still casting and bringing the toad across the weeds, and was still not catching any fish. Whenever I'm fishing toads with slack line like this, I'll make a cast into open water every now and then just to tighten up the line on the reel, so I don't backlash when trying to hit my spots. Well I did this and got a backlash. Pretty good one too. I'd just started cranking it back after clearing the mess when I noticed one more loop, so I stopped and pulled it out. That's when the fish hit it. On the drop. I though maybe this is a hint, so I dropped the frog next to me to see how it looked on the drop. Amazing! It had this sweet side to side wiggle as it fell. I continued to fish this thing like a senko for the rest of the evening, and caught several more fish, the best being a 4 1/2 pounder. I've tried it on two more outings and have proven to myself that the first time wasn't a fluke. I've also discovered that a regular 5/0 hook does not produce that action. It takes the big superline hook. A horny toad does not do it either. The right combination is the Yum Buzzfrog on a Gammy 5/0 EWG Superline hook. It falls slower than a senko, but faster than a fluke. I was fishing it sunday evening in ten feet of water, to great effect. Took about 15 seconds for it to hit the bottom at that depth. If you have the patience, you could fish it deeper. I was pulling it just fast and far enough to get the legs to wiggle, and then letting it drop and sit. Give it a try. This has been too good not to share. Cheers, GK

Base your color selection on the water conditions instaed of the forage base. Over the years I've bought a gazillion baits in every color I could find just so I could have the "one go to color" that they were biting on that day. What a bunch of hooey! For clear to lightly stained water, I go with something natural looking. The clearer the water, the better look the fish gets at your bait, so it should look reasonably natural. That usually means watermelon, green pumpkin, smoke or shad colors. In stained to dirty water, I go with something dark. It's easier for the fish to see your baits if they offer some contrast against the dingy water. Black, black/blue, reds, anything dark. This has simplified my bait buying and storage considerably. Cheers, GK

They can indeed be amazing. The key is to check out each one to determine just how well it suspends. Not every one will act properly. I use Storm's suspend dots to tweak these baits. It usually takes no more than one or two strategically placed dots to bring the bait into balance. Most of them will rise when paused. If you get one that sinks, send it back, they'll send you a new one, no questions asked. The key to the retrieve is the pauses in the action. Cast it out, crank it down slowly for 5 or 6 turns of the handle to get it down, and then start a cadence. I like a twitch, rip, pause. Vary it up until you find something the fish like. The pause is important. The colder the water, the longer the pause. In warm water, a short pause; one to four seconds, is usually long enough. In very cold water, a minute might be too short. It's much more critical that the bait be balanced to suspend perfecty in very cold water. Also, keep these things away from cover. I use them along outside weed edges and around wood cover, but not in it. They do not deflect off cover at all, and will get hung up easily. I caught a lot of fish with these last year, in both the spring and the fall. There are better baits to use throughout the summer. I did not get in much time on the water this spring, but I'm ready for fall to put the X-Rap back into the mix. Cheers, GK

Just about any of them will work to cover up scents and/or tastes you've added while handling the bait. None of them will function as an attractant. For bass, attractants are motion, sound, vibration, flash, etc; not scent or taste. I do believe that once the fish gets very close, a strong positive scent can sometimes "seal the deal", and a positive taste will help keep the bait in the fish's mouth quite a bit longer. Cheers, GK

Watermelon or smoke for clear water and black/blue for stained water. In muddy water, a tube is not something I even consider. Cheers, GK

Net Bait Paca Craw and the Berkley Power craw, both on an EWG Gammy hook, with weight determined by the conditions. I'd forgotten the Ugly Otter. Thanks for the reminder. Cheers, GK

I'm a line watcher, but I also know what my bait du jour feels like. I think both concepts are important. You sometimes see bites that you don't feel. You sometimes feel bites that you don't see. SOmetimes you both see and feel the bite; this is the rarest case. Concentration is the key. Cheers, GK

I think most of the concept of "be quite, you'll scare the fish" comes from parents who take their kids fishing, and would just like a little peace and quiet. I don't know how many I got told to shut up when I was a big mouthed kid. Talk all you want. But if you drop your pliers in the bottom of your aluminum john boat, you'd best move to another spot. Cheers, GK

Well said, Raul. Here's one more thing to consider. Centrifugal brakes only apply braking force at the beginning, and part of the middle, of the cast. When the spool slows, the brakes apply little, if any, braking force. Magnetic systems apply braking force throughout the cast. If you're a beginner to baitcasting, a reel with magnetic brakes may be easier to master. I know it was for me. My first two baitcasters were a Daiwa, with magnetic brakes, and an ABU with centrifugal brakes. I soon found myself using the Daiwa for almost everything. When you're learning, a reel with externally adjusted braking may be just the ticket. Also, you have to practice. The more you do it, the easier it becomes. Cheers, GK

For 5" and 6" Senkos, I use a 7' MH Johnny Morris Sig Series rod, Quantum Energy PT 7:1 reel, 12lb test Trilene and a 5/0 Gammy EWG hook. For 4" Senkos, it's a 6'9" ML BPS Pro Finesse rod, Johnny Morris 6.3:1 reel, 10lb test Trilene and a 2/0 Gammy EWG hook. Cheers, GK