Bluebasser86

Well I just got a new deep cranking rig (Mojo 7' 8" Big Crankster rod with a 5.2 Pro Qualifier). Hadn't had a chance to use it at all because I've been working 12 hour days all week so I left for a work about 20 minutes early and stopped by Olathe and made a couple casts off the dam. Couldn't fish a deep runner because I was on the bank so I put a big Strike King 4S squarebill on it. Rod and reel both felt nice and I even managed to catch a skinny 16 incher while I was there Think I'm really going to like it and hopefully it will help me get better at fishing deep crankbaits.

Never hunting with a store bought crossbow but we did make our own and tried to use it for bowfishing, didn't go so great. I love sitting in the tree on a cold winter day and watching the woods come alive as the sun comes over the trees....ahh who am I kidding, I like hazy, overcast days and watching big bucks chasing hot does around

Well I stopped by a local lake on my way to work today around 3, had about 20 minutes to make a couple casts to see how I liked the combo. I was on the bank so instead of a deep diver I fished a big squarebill along the dam riprap, a SK 4S in rootbeer color to be exact. The long handle threw me off on my first couple casts, kept hitting myself in the stomach when I switched hands after the casts. Once I remembered to pass the rod out further it casts very well and handled what I consider to be a big bodied crankbait with ease. Rod was very sensitive, could really feel my bait hitting rocks and climbing over logs. Wasn't hoping for much because of the extreme heat and drought we've been having on top of this lake always being tough but as my bait popped off of a big rock it got crushed by a 16 incher. Rod handled it easily and I really liked how solid the hookup felt. Dang thing was pretty skinny and had more holes in it's face than a goth highschooler but I was happy to catch it

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Send it to a professional for a good cleaning and get it supertuned if you want it to really perform well. Some companies pack their reels bearings in tons of grease in the factory and they need to be flushed and regreased when you buy them to get them to perform better. The other unfortunate truth may be that lower end equipment is usually aimed at people who aren't going to use it often. A 50 dollar reel may last for years for someone who fishes twice a year but if you're fishing every week during the summer months it may not make it through the summer. I've never owned a promax but a friend of mine that works at Cabela's in KC told me they are constantly getting returned because they aren't functioning right.

Big lakes are tough from the bank, no way around that. They have lots more room to spread out and are often much more heavily pressured. My best advice would be to read some of the articles on the website to give you an idea where to start.

The symetre is a solid reel and well priced. I played with the C14 when I was on the market for a higher end spinning reel but I didn't like the feel of it at all, ended up getting a Pfluegar Supreme XT and loved that reel. As for baitcasters get on Ebay and find some of the old E's or even the B's if you can get a good deal on them. The Citica is also a pretty good reel if you want something a little cheaper.

Well I had made up my mind to get the Revo but when I got to BPS they were all sold out and didn't know if they were going to get any of the older models back in or not so I ended up getting a 5.2 Pro Qualifier. That along with a spool of 12lb C-21 and a pop put me at $74 out the door so hopefully it will work out for me. Thanks fellas!

I also use a M/XF 6' 2" St. Croix Avid with a Curado 50E. It's a great jerkbait, popper and small walking topwater rod, or light spinnerbaits. I can really make my jerkbait come to life and make my poppers walk and move like I can't with other rods.

I fish a black frog 99% of the time and always on moss green braid. If I fished them in open water I might be a little more concerned about color but i thick moss and weeds I'm just looking for a good silouette for the fish to hone in on.

I've got some all black crank, all black is about the only color frog or buzzbait I ever fish.

Really cool on video, couldn't imagine seeing it in reel life! http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34253/massive+mako+shark+stuns+anglers+as+it+leaps+repeatedly/

That lake stumps me almost every time I go down there. I have a couple things I'd like to try down there that I think would work that work well on Melvern most everytime. I don't ever fish it anytime other than during the winter so that may have something to do with it though. Make sure to check the forecasted wind speed and add about 5-7mph to whatever they say it's going to be. If they say anything over 10mph I don't bother going because they'll probably page you off before the end of the day. Plus you have to wear your life jacket the entire time you're on the water so make sure you have an inflatable or it gets pretty uncomfortable pretty fast. I know there's good smallmouth in there but I could count all of them I've caught from my 6-8 trips on two hands and nothing bigger than 2 pounds.

My LTB 7' 3" c-rig rod is telescoping, works just like it should and is one of the shortest rods I have once it's collapsed down.

I guess I should have mentioned that about the deepest bait I fish regularly is 5XD or the second biggest Fat Free Shad. I'll probably try to fish the DD22's and 6XD's I have a little more now that I'll have a setup just for it. I've heard the Revo has so much power that cranking a big bait isn't much harder than fishing a mid depth bait on normal gear. I already have a St.Croix Pro Glass cranking rod with a Curado E5 for my shallower stuff but it's a workout fishing deeper baits with it. I've been using a 7' M/F Premier with a Curado 200 BSF. It works alright but I just can't feel my bait as well as I'd like to and it's really not much less work fishing them on that.

I use a 6' 10" LTB "shakeyhead" model. I like the longer rod to cast and set the hook from a distance.

KVD 1.5 green gizzard shad LC 1.5 copper bream Luck e strike series 3 reel shad SK silent series 5 green gizzard shad or sexy herring Xcaliber XR50 or XRk50 in ghost or red craw

Yum Wooley Bug has been really good to me. Cajun neon is my favorite color in those. Not sure if a Havoc Pit Boss is a true beaver style bait but they're similar and I've got a ton of them. Summer craw, Texas craw, Okechobee craw, Purple-green passion, GP/orange flake, black/blue, they all catch fish for me.

They're 4" and probably 3/8-1/2 oz. They don't work though, don't even bother buying any. If you do buy some once you're throughly disappointed you can send them to me for disposal Seriously one of the best small swimbaits I've ever fished. Make sure to sturdy the bait up a bit before you start fishing it or it may only last a fish or two.

Yeah a chatterbait is a bladed swim jig basically. One of my homemade black and blue jigs has been great for me at night. We have some strip pits down south that we've tried to night fish and honestly never had much luck on them for some reason. Usually normal night fishing techniques that work other places just don't work there and we end up fishing the same stuff we fish during the day to catch fish (swimbaits and shakeyheads) I know of a couple lakes that just don't have a good nightfishing bite, they all have lots of forage in them and I think that might have something to do with it.

During the winter months if there's open water I'll idle along the shorelines in the local lakes and look for baits hung in the trees that were hidden by leaves during the summer months. One of the lakes with the heaviest pressure that has lots of trees along the shoreline gave me over 30 baits in one day one of the first times I went out there, crankbaits, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and topwaters that were either floating along the bank where the water willow is thick during the summer months or hanging in the trees that I used my telescoping lure retriever to get. Had to climb on top of my pedastal seat to reach a couple of them, don't know how people manage to cast that high up in trees.

Frog the top of that stuff and flip a bait into those holes, big or small. As long as that vegetation is alive it will be providing oxygen and fish will be hiding in it.

I know there is a big difference in price here but let me set up my situation here. Trying to learn deep diving crankbaits more than I already know currently. Finally got a dedicated deep cranking rod "7' 8" St. Croix Mojo Big Crankster" and now I need a reel. I was originally thinking the PQ on a BPS cranking stick but the Mojo was literally given to me so I have a little extra money to play with. If I got the Revo it would be the older model, not this years. But, to throw another twist into this my wife works at BPS so I can get the PQ for 40% off and spend the extra on some deep cranks to fish on my new combo. Everything I hear about the Revo has been good and almost the same for the PQ. I'm not fishing lakes that have a great deep cranking bite so this isn't going to be something I'm using constantly but I'm thinking maybe if I had something that fished them better I'd be willing to give them more of a try and learn them better. So what would everyone do in my situation?

Shakeyheads and football jigs for me. Trying to figure this deep cranking stuff out but it's tough when I know I can catch them doing other stuff.

A jig, chatterbait, and buzzbait are what the fish have been crushing at night here. They kill a chatterbait with all the vibration on a steady retrieve helping them to hone in on the bait.