Bluebasser86

The bait falls more horizontal than vertical like it does with a T-rig, looks a lot like a descending craw waiting to be eaten. It also scoots and glides better along the bottom.

I do one very similar to the Watermelon Craw and it has been a killer for me. All of them look great, but I'm a sucker for any jig with purple in it and that Purple Craw looks amazing.

Nothing worse than freezing your dingo.

It works great for smallmouth on one of the lakes I fish with zebra mussels because the bait falls more horizontal and keeps the line out of the rocks better to protect the line and knot. I started using bullet weights and egg sinkers, but lose them every fish or two. Then I tried the casting sinker and it worked great and I lose way fewer of them. I don't do it for largemouth often, but it skips awesome if you're fishing docks.

My dad has a very similar rod from All-Star. 5' 4" L/F but it fishes more like ML/F. He loves it for 1/8oz jigheads for walleye, but it's too much for smaller stuff for panfish. It's a nice rod, just seems like the ratings are way off for it.

Always best to handle in person if possible, but if not, just one more reason this forum is so awesome, chances are that someone has handled the rods you're looking for and can at least give you an idea of what it's like.

My UL Avid does not fish anything but the smallest floats. Anything bigger is too much drag to get a good hookset with it.

No, it's an UL. I use baits down to 1/80th oz with 3.5lb test for bluegill, sunfish, creek chubs, trout, any smaller fish really. It's extremely light and whippy, a lot of fun to catch anything on.

Higher modulus graphite rods do break easier, but there's no reason one should break without being damaged or having a defect that will cause it to break within the first few trips. The length is personal preference. If you're not fishing around a lot of overhanging trees or shoreline obstacles, the shorter rod is nicer for casting, but also limits your ability to steer your retrieve around snags. I have 2 main rods I use for panfish/trout/small fish. One is a 6' Avid, the other is a custom built rod. I have another that is a 5' 6" Daiwa I use messing around our pond sometimes, can't remember the model but it works decent and I only spent $20 on it.

I believe it was Mustad that used to make one that went with the Shaw Grigsby tube hooks but I haven't seen them for a while. Lindy now makes one designed to do the same thing, but it's very finicky about what hooks work with the weights because the hole is in the lead itself. Yamamoto and and a couple other make them too, but they have the same issue with having to have just the exact right hook or they don't work.

A friend of mine used to have one, they are a lot of fun and surprisingly accurate.

I've wanted a nice pellet gun for a long time just because of how much fun and affordable they are. It will be nice to be able to introduce my boys to shooting with something as kid friendly as a pellet gun too.

Got a fun present from my Father-in-Law from Christmas. It's a Benjamin Titan NP .177 pellet gun. We've got a serious problem with grackles and crows robbing our garden and being general nuisances, this should help with that a little. Up to 1,200 fps, it packs some pop for an air gun. I was burning through some pellets to get to that 250 shots that are what they consider broke in when accuracy and consistency is supposed to be best. Had a target tacked to a tree in the front yard, looks like it got shot with a shotgun now. I put a 3x3 piece of sheet metal up by the cedar row in the backgroud and was hitting that even with a stiff crosswind. My wife took a picture of me lining up a shot.

I mainly use the 1/8-1/4 ounce sizes in the Strike King Coffee tube. I would think up to a 3/8oz would probably fit pretty well in a larger tube like the OP is talking about. Hook clearance becomes the biggest issue with the bigger weights if they hang down too far.

10lb KastKing Super Power pink braid to 8lb mono or fluoro leader, if I'm using a leader at all.

Seriously? With all the nutjobs in this world you're thinking about meeting up to "discuss" your differences of opinions with one of them? It's too easy to block people on the internet or just ignore them to get worked up about it. If the dude is making comments you're seriously concerned about then report it to the site admin, you should have all the evidence in writing for them, or take it a step further and call the local PD from where the guy lives to go talk to him if he's making personal threats. I would not, under any circumstances, meet with someone I was having issues with online to try to work out my differences, there is no good that will come of it.

I fish the 127 Slender Pointer which is about 3/4oz pretty often. I use a 6' 10" MH/F and it seems to do very well for me.

I make my own kind of rig with a bass casting sinker with the brass eye. Push the eye up to the top of the tube and when you T-rig the tube, pass the hook through the eye so the weight stays to the top of the tube. Bam, poor man's phantom weight tube rig.

Don't go out in heavy winds, bad weather, or busy traffic days and you should be good provided it's a reasonable sized jon. I've seen them from 8' to 20' and over 6' wide, so as long as you're somewhere in the middle of that size spectrum, you'll be fine.

If it were me, I'd keep it more around 6' for shoreline fishing for panfish and small fish. Longer rods get to be difficult if there's any overhanging trees and casting accuracy is more difficult with longer rods. The Avids are great rods but you don't need to spend that much to get a good rod for smaller sized fish unless you just want to.

I would be rotating between a topwater frog and punching the vegetation with something like Havoc Pitboss or Rage Menace. They either come up and get the frog, or I send the plastic in after them.

I tie some very crude jigs that I use for trout mainly, usually in the 1/80th-1/32oz sizes. I pour the 1/32oz ballheads myself, the rest I buy from online or BPS fly department. The Trout Magnet heads work well also and come in those small sizes. BPS sells the materials also, and I've had really good luck with tying yarn bodies and tails for trout, I'm sure crappie would eat them too.

You can fish the rock wall west of the outlet and catch fish at times, just make sure it's a light wind forecast and don't go on weekends, especially if the weather is nice. You can fish the rock wall west of the outlet and catch fish at times, just make sure it's a light wind forecast and don't go on weekends, especially if the weather is nice.

I have rods from 6' 2" to 7' 11" that are main bass rods. I prefer the longer rods but the shorter ones serve a purpose too.