Nibbles

Megabass's Z-Crank X's. The particular coffin lip shape and buoyancy allowed them to continue to swim relatively well even when the lip got partially fouled up with grass/scum. Made it much easier for me to rip them through grass, as the strike would often come right as I yanked them out of the grass edge, as long as the crank still ran true and swam/wiggled. They also just deflected off cover really well.

Yeah killer deals on the Berkley PB Agents and Nessies I've been meaning to try out 😅 I really shouldn't spend any more on tackle this year though...

Keitech mono guard tungsten jigs with either 1.5 tabs of wire tied skirt material or a hyper spider. I usually go with their 3/32 or 1/8 oz with a #1 or 1/0 hook. If skirted I'll use a missile baits ned bomb or a rage ned craw cut to size. Thrown on a Major Craft TT-722PE/LX w/ 10# braid

I dont have a 125, but tbh I've got no complaints about the 105's casting distance. Can easily get it where it needs to go.

Normally don't fish a lot of topwaters, but the Evergreen SB-105 has produced some quality fish for me this year Keitech Paddlin Beaver has produced a lot for me too.

I use a 6'7" ML/Fast rated for 1/16- 5/8oz lures. I usually fish weightless and 1/10 oz belly weighted (nail weight) flukes on it. Also works well for the 1/10 and 1/8 oz 2/0 EWG ned heads from Siebert Outdoors. I usually have a 3.5" keitech paddlin beaver, 4" maxscent flatworm or jeff kriet squirrel tail worm on em.

Turns out you can stack Keitech's affiliate program discount with their discontinued colors discount. I couldn't not stock up at those prices... The paddlin beaver is deadly on a 2/0 shakyhead or cover shot hook w/ a 1/8 - 3/16 bullet weight (or a 1/16 free rig weight if you need to slow down ROF). That tail wiggles more than a paddletail when fished like a swim jig.

SZ731MHXB and SZ731MHRB incoming from TW due to them not being excluded from their 15% off mailing list sale. Now to figure out whether to dig out old reels to put on em or look for new ones... 🙈

Bait monkey got me again with the TW mailing list 15% sale. Surprising number of high end items weren't excluded from the sale 😬 💸

I saw you finally started tying jigs with tungsten heads. Good call. I've been buying all my tungsten skirted jigs directly from Keitech up until now whenever I put together an order of plastics from them because I get an affiliate discount. However, your pricing is competitive with their's even after the discount so I'm going to have to grab a few the next time I order from you to try em out! Man, if you ever manage to put out a weedless tungsten swim jig like their Model III, I'd be all over those. Gimmicky looking with the skirted screwlock pin, but I've been using the same one all season without getting hung up, and that's _never_ happened before with other kinds of swim jigs. Much more compact than an EWG type swim jig too.

must be gone now, seems like im getting full price when I add a rod to my cart there

Finally got a rod with the right color scheme and pedigree to go with this reel. Time to spool it up and take it out this weekend, I think.

I have 2 spinning (SG681MLXS, LG6101MLFS) and 4 casting (SG701MHXB, SG721HFB, LG731MLF, SG671L/ML+FB) IMO they're essentially somewhere in between a Zillion and a Steez.

Funny, I also tend to do better up north when fishing in MN when I downsize my jigs. My most productive jighead up there is the 3/32 oz Keitech Super Round with a #2 or #1 hook. Usually hand tie finesse-cut jig skirts onto them w/ 26 gauge wire and pair with a Keitech 2.5" swing impact, 2.5" twin tail grub, or 3" Kalins Scrub (twin paddletail creature) Pike seem to love them too. They don't look like much, but they work for me!

Caught this one over in Homer Lake a couple weeks ago in ~3 feet of water on a LC Moonsault 100. Saw what seemed to be a large fish creating swirls in the water near some branches by shore, thought maybe could've been carp but I crept up and figured I'd try my luck. Threw the crank about 10 feet past all the commotion and slow-rolled it back, all of a sudden I thought I got hung up on the submerged branch before I felt that sharp tug and the fight was on. First 6 lber in IL for me, pretty happy about it. Lost that same crank a week later at the same spot to someone else's cut-off line in the water, but that's life haha