Bluebasser86

Depends if you want to throw hard baits with trebles or soft baits with a jig hook. You need a softer rod with the trebles and a stouter rod to drive the jig hook with the soft baits. I use a Dobyn's 795 and Curado 300E for a lot of my swimbaits.

I liked the full sized. I was pumped to hear they were making a Jr. I still wish they'd get rid of the Trokars though. I stole the hooks out of my regular Pad Crashers and put it in my Toadrunners. Better hook ups and didn't slice my frog up.

I've made some pretty thick mop jigs. Use fine cut skirt to make lots of strands but still able to move well. This one is almost all fine cut round rubber.

Welcome!

I throw swimbaits all the time from shore. Only ones I've ever lost have been while in my boat lol.

Yep, I've argued that point many times about my swimbaits. Guys have no problem forking over 4-6 bucks a pack for plastics knowing they're going to lose them. A lot of plastics are done after 2-3 fish. I pay 25-70 bucks for a swimbait that I'm going to fish on heavy line and rods. I could potentially never lose that bait and catch hundreds if not thousands of fish through it's life, making the cost per fish way cheaper than a "cheap" bag of plastics in the long run. It's an odds game though, I cast off an $80 bait after catching about 10 fish on it, those fish were pretty expensive.

Our high today isn't supposed to be that high...

I'd go double strand for those weights and hook lengths. The wire is going to need to be longer and is going to flex more because of it.

-4 here tonight. Windchill -12 and it snowed a few inches yesterday with winds whipping 25mph blowing snow everywhere. The next 2 days are the last 2 days in the forecast below 40 and only 4 more days this month forecast below 50. I can see light at the end of the tunnel ?

Welcome!

Welcome!

Exactly. It sucks, I've been there, but you have to replace them or risk losing the fish of a lifetime because you wanted to save a couple bucks.

Don't get into swimbaiting, I've had single baits that cost 2 bills ? I've downgraded recently though, my expensive baits are only 60-80 dollar range each now.

If you're using a traditional weighted Ned head (3/32oz or lighter), a single wire strand should be plenty. I use a single weedguard fiber on my 1/8oz micro jigs and it works just fine.

It's a great bait that walks nicely and has a good clack, clack sound when walked. There's a reason the bone color is always sold out on TW. I've had good success with them for smallmouth, largemouth, and spots as well as white bass and wipers. They come with good quality hardware too, which is a nice bonus. I'd also echo that the 3DB prop is a great bait worth checking out too.

KastKing spools seem to spin really fast to me, so I set them a little tighter starting out until I get comfortable with them, and then back them off a little. Centrifugal brakes I go every other one, spool tension set so the bait drops slowly and the spool stops immediately when the bait touches the ground.

I use both XF and F rods for jerkbaits. I think the F is probably better for an all around jerkbait rod. I wouldn't use the same rod for both topwater and jerkbaits because I like mono for jerkbaits and braid with no leader for topwaters.

I'm not sure if it's a 2 speed baitcaster, or if it's available in 2 speeds? Kind of unclear from what I heard in the video. Honestly, I spent most of it trying to see what brand bladed jig he was throwing. Brent isn't, or at least historically hasn't been a fan of bladed jigs. Last time I saw him I gave him a handful of my baits, including a black and blue, which was the color he was using in the video and it appears to be a bait that the blade is connected by a split ring like mine, made me wonder.

partially yes.

I'm using wire forms, both open and closed eye. I'm using both a powder paint gun and tapping the paint on, mostly the latter. I wouldn't want to make a lot of them but for the specific ones I want they're working very well and I'm very happy with my decision to make them.

I actually caught my first Ned rig bass I ever caught at LOZ in February several years ago. They'll eat it for sure, just a question of what kind of quality you're going to get on it. It catches a lot of those 10" spots anytime I'm using it down there. They'll still sit relatively shallow, even in those cold temps. I'd be targeting less than 20' to start with and only go deeper if you're not finding anything.

Yes, as long as everyone can behave themselves. Hopefully the spammers/prostaffers don't come back and it doesn't have to change back.

Never heard of a rod making "cracking", sounds or "clumpy", line? Also not sure how a tension knob can be so loose that you have to constantly check it? It shouldn't need to be set that loose to begin with. I've got probably a dozen KK reels now, a few rods, and a bunch of spools of their braided line. Only issue I've had was a Sharky III that had kind of a weak bail spring. At any rate, an email to their CS department and I had it swapped out with a brand new one in a week. Some things are bound to get through the cracks in any mass produced products, but for a company offering more budget minded products, I think they actually have really good QC.