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

I've never removed the split rings on my LC Pointers and Flash Minnows. The bass and pike up here don't seem to mind. I use Owner snagless snaps.

⌨️? These days working within a cybersecurity dept of a huge corporation In the past implementation domains have spanned across ecommerce, marketing/sales, precision ag, HVAC, live sporting event data processing, and banking I may or may not have undiagnosed ADD...

Hmm... TD-Z 103HL R+ Nice reel, just didn't feel all that different from a standard TD-Z/Zillion and was quickly forgotten about Steez Megatop 6101MXBA-SPX Thing is way too noodly/whippy for me to make accurate pitches/casts with, may as well be a dropshot rod. Is sensitive though.

The problem with 2" ones is the tails are super delicate and keep getting pecked off even by small shiners and sunfish

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Gamakatsu_Offset_Hook_Finesse_Jighead_4pk/descpage-GOHF.html Even has a recessed line tie. Can't get more weedless than that. Only downside is hook size is limited to 1/0, so you're probably limited to 4" regulars and 3.8" fats tops. Siebert also makes a tungsten EWG ned head with larger hook sizes, but those have exposed line ties.

This season has been the opposite for me, have been getting more into deep cranking. Used to fish mostly shallow balsa squarebills when using searchbaits. This is the first season I have caught decent numbers and size on deeper divers such as the Spro Little John MD, DD70, and LC Flat CB DD20. This is also the first season where I had opportunities to hit up lakes around me with points and dropoffs going deeper than ~15'. Probably the first season I've pulled pike and bass off a point with dropoffs deeper than 20' while cranking a 15' diver.

Honestly not sure what I'd want from them anymore after amassing a huge hardbait collection earlier this year as well as some nicer reels and rods. Wish Megabass still made their Z-Crank X crankbaits though. Could use a few more of those. They're basically rat-l-traps with the buoyancy and cover deflection of a balsa squarebill, and the coffin bill shape makes them more weedless than your average squarebill. Been picking off a few here and there on ebay but the color selection just isn't great.

Tried browsing this forum on a simulated older iPad Pro, and based on what you are describing Tom I wonder if you've stumbled upon the same minor accessibility quirk/bug that I did. Which is that if you tap on the slim text box to start a reply, it expands it into a larger text area for convenience but does not bring up the keyboard for you right away. Seems like you gotta tap into it a second time after it expands to bring up your tablet's software-based keyboard. Could that be it?

The Okuma SST's are nice for the money. I use an 8' SST Kokanee Light action casting rod as a BFS casting rod for crappie jigs and ultralight bass lure presentations

Nice facelift, core interactions and flows have not changed and in many cases have been significantly improved, i.e. image uploads. Am expecting to see an uptick in image-driven posts moving forward due to lowered friction