dwtaylor

I basically fish it similar to a jerkbait/fluke where I give it a jerk jerk pause to let it sink. like a jerkbait, I play with the amount and aggressiveness of the jerks as well as the amount of time of pause. This also correlates to the size weight too, but generally deeper is heavier weight. I don't like to go above 1/8oz but I am also primarily fishing in less than 6fow. #1 vmc hybrid short shank treble hooks are my go to for 19/20mm urchins like hags. Weights are more complicated. I use jewel baits freak-o rigs in 3/32 or 1/8 and very shallow or high weeds 1/16 oz tungsten 6th sense nail weight. I also use neko weights from lurepartsonline as well in the same sizes too, and those are easier to insert into the bait. The only downside is it rocks a little different but I haven't thrown them with that configuration to see a difference in bites. LPO link: https://www.lurepartsonline.com/Neko-Sinkers Keepers, I use a 4mm silicone worm band as a keeper on the hook point going through the bait or even a section of the plastic packaging the urchins come in. I basically rig kind of like a spinner/buzzbait trailer hook stop. Band link: https://arsenalfishing.com/product/stealth-silicone-tube-shields-50pk/ Hookup and land ratio is maybe 1 shy of 100% for largemouth and all are above 2lbs. I don't think small fish (except scrappy bluegill or green sunfish) hit this size of bait. Smallies are different as their mouths are smaller and I think the bait and the treble is slightly too big so my hookup/land ratio is less but still over 50%. I am going to try something else for them when I can, but ideally id like 13 or 17mm urchins for this.

I have a lmb 19/20mm urchin presentation down. I have 25mm fullcast sized ones on the way ill play with for kicker largemouth. I can see this approaching glide bait territory in size/bite frequency though. I need to get some 14-17mm urchins for smallmouth. 19/20s with a treble are a little big so id like something a little smaller for their mouths.

I am sold on urchins. However, fish don't jump into the boat either. Its a bigger fish bait. I havent caught a bass under 2lbs with it and most of my big fish this year are with them. I fish it with the most success around laydowns, docks, seawalls, and heavy grasslines. Docks especially and I need slightly cleaner water for the lake to get them to work and draw fish. A small jerk jerk pause with some sinking almost like a jerkbait or fluke presentation meeting a wacky senko. Honestly, its fished like a fast wacky rig for me. I have been rigging 19/20mm urchins with a #1 vmc hybrid short shank and a small 4mm silicone tube keeper like used for small neko rigged worms as a hook keeper. I weight then with a mushroom shape neko weight or a jewel baits freak'o rig. Weights between 1/16 for shallow and around snags/grass up to 1/8 for a little deeper fish. 3/32 is my most used.

I guess I should sell all my old curado, citica, and chronarch reels with standard spools and centrifugal cast control because I can't cast 1/8 oz spinners on my heavy power rod. FWIW, I have no problem casting weightless flukes on a standard spool curado 200e7 on a medium heavy rod. Skipping baits, yes I have problems. Skipping horny toads on 30lb braid on a polished spool shaft and ceramic bearing curado 200e7 thats a different story. I can bomb cast bandits on a 7'm crank rod and 3/4oz traps on the same rod and reel. Its the caster, not the reel provided its a quality reel.

I use two: an old 7'H wright & mcgill rick clunn cranking rod with a citica 200e and 30lb braid to a 20lb fc leader. This gets used around sparseish grass to cover flats. a 7'1" mh st croix victory with a chronarch 200e7 and 15lb copoly and is the jack of all trades rod. This is for target casts around docks, laydowns, etc. I also have a dobyns 734c that I will sometimes throw a bladed jig on with 30lb braid if the grass is thick and I need to pop the bait free easy, but I typically throw a swim jig in this scenario over a bladed jig.

Sorry for resurrecting an old thread (don't come by often). I do like CA products. I know the owner and several of the guys that help so I do have some bias, but they are great products so I do recommend them. They are very similar to other brand tubes as far as softness/durability goes and offer size/colors that you can't find other places. They have a 2.25" tube and jig offerings with smaller hooks that are really nice in cold water or post frontal conditions or a crawdad spawn/hatch. Even bug hatches like mayflies they can be deadly. The 2.75" is the king of their lineup that makes them shine over competition due to color selection and their plastic, imo. It is my go to size for open hook tube fishing for smallmouth. The 3.5"+ is basically like all the other tubes but available in bulk packs. Some unique colors too. I don't like their bigger tubes for flipping as they are the traditional hard tube plastic instead of softer plastic like the big bite baits craw or ringed tubes. The team at CA fish tubes and their jigs a lot. Before they got big, they were using gammy hooks for stupid tube jigs and they switched to vmc if I recall. They fish them a lot in the same river I like to fish and have a lot of success with them, even with VMC. I personally use the Eagle Claw 111BP in my stupid jigs and they still work great. CA has a new small sized cover buster head which can be rigged stupid style in the small 2-3/4" tubes which is unique right now.

Nailed it! My best deals are from the guys with low viewer #s and are typically selling older or discontinued baits. Funny I thought $35 was expensive for an OG coike, but they are easily selling 17mm for 100+ and 200+ for fullcasts. I am happy with my cheap urchins now, but even those temu resellers are trying to get near hags/hideup pricing on their $2 urchins that have their arms all bent to heck.

Here are options, but they are all bigger options like 3/0 or bigger: https://barlowstackle.com/Mustad-32724NP-BN-Jig-Hook--P405/ https://barlowstackle.com/bkk-9067-np-jig-hooks-sizes-3-0-5-0/ https://barlowstackle.com/victory-10115-bn-jig-hooks-sizes-3-0-5-0/ https://www.captainhookswarehouse.com/products/el2724 I have used all but the Victory option as it is new. I have also purchased some hooks from Lethal Weapon lures that are custom owners that are crazy sticky sharp, but those aren't available anymore. I tried to get some from Brovarney but he wouldn't sell just hooks to me...jig heads sure. They stopped making jigs a couple years ago now though.

dedicated drop shot but I tie generally decently long leaders already so I could tie one up on the lake. Storage wise, I secure the hook in the rod hook keeper and just twist the leader line around the rod/reel handle area to minimize snags.

You would need diamond tooling to cut tungsten because it is so hard. Those tools aren't cheap. Most cutting tools in the machining industry are made of tungsten carbide. These tools are made from these blanks and are usually made via grind from blanks or powdered tungsten carbide pressed into shape and sintered. Most fishing lure applications are likely a variety of sintered tungsten or tungsten carbide. Many say 97% tungsten but I think that might be slightly false as there may be some alloy element that includes tungsten but it is not pure tungsten.

I always keep mine as close as possible to the foregrip and in the same line as the guides (top for casting, bottom for spinning) The angle of the line off the reel to the 1st guide keeps adequate distance and prevents the line from snagging the keeper. I pretty much only use drop shot style keepers anymore as they are more versitile. +1 on the reel being a hook keeper on big baits. Makes a big difference. Same with alabama rigs.

My wife kept suggesting I get the whatnot app for fishing auctions, as she uses it for her hobbies. Against my better judgement, I listened to her this weekend. Ended up over paying on a chop block glide and ended up getting some really good deals on terminator titanium buzzbaits and a baby 1 minus. Kind of crazy to see coikes there go for 35+, but I get it they are popular.

Using heavier jigs you are going to lose a lot more baits. Sometimes they like fast falling or cracking style retrieves. I use 1/16 to 5/16 in my river I fish the most and never use 3/8 or above due to snags. Lighter weights reduce snags, but you need to be heavy enough to get to the bottom. Most years with low river/low flow conditions, I find 1/8 to 3/16 the most used sizes for me. The 1/16 are used with baitfish style colors when I want a very slow sink or a presentation where the current will take it and 5/16 is in deeper holes along bottom. I always view a tube jig as a consumable item as you will lose tackle to snags. I make my own tube jigs, but I do recommend castagaintackle tubes and tube jigs as they sell in bulk packs to help with losing baits.

Swim jigs are very versatile baits, but there are different kinds of swim jigs at play and they each have a use. Northern style swim jigs: -predominately 1/8 oz to 3/8 oz with most using 1/4 oz -light wire hooks -lighter weedguards -sparsely tied skirts oftentimes with krystal flash or mylar flash. Southern/regular swim jigs: -predominately 1/4 oz to 5/8 oz with most using 3/8 to 1/2 oz. -heavy hooks -heavy weedguards -full skirts Northern style swim jigs is what I fish most of the time because the light hook and weedguard keeps hookups great. If the fish bite it, it is coming in the boat and it is very forgiving for a swim jig. Lethal weapon swim jigs are probably the best example of this style of swim jig a guy can find online. I make my own however, it is a relative knockoff of the formerly great Brovarney swim jig. A medium to medium heavy rod with fc line is preferred here and is a tom monsoor style hookset (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdMiu1M0fp0). I still fish it around grass and wood, but if you need to wrench on fish around really heavy stuff, its not the jig for you as you can straighten out hooks if you don't have the right setup. About 90% of the time I use 1/4 oz and the other 10% I am using either 1/8 to 3/16 oz or 3/8 oz, never heavier. Southern/regular swim jigs are basically heavier, more full versions of a northern style jig. The fuller skirt has the bait float higher in the water which helps in in submerged grass and other cover. This kind of bait you can throw on a mh to heavy rod with braid or heavy fc line and is good to wrench fish out. The hookset is a tight and hefty lean set compared to the northern style swim jig. I rarely fish this and really only when around heavy grass where the fish is coming up with a bunch of cabbage. Landing % is less with this jig and as a result, I fish it far less than northern style jigs. This is also the type of swim jigs you will find most commonly available. If I need to keep my bait shallow, 1/4 oz gets the nod. If I need to keep it deeper around submerged grass, I go 3/8 to 1/2 oz. I don't fish swim jigs immediately after ice out. But once water temps get into the upper 40s, it comes out and stays until fall when I put the boat away.

well done! I am in a similar boat with my son being born in may 2024. I haven't painted a crankbait or finished a rod since. One of my early builds was that same mhx blank and I had the same feeling...way too stiff. The sj blanks have a slightly softer tip than the mb blanks, but no where near what I would call a medium power blank in the sj series. A 3 power is a medium heavy in the mb line and I would certainly call it a medium heavy spinning rod blank. With that said, I am using my drop shot rod DS822 a lot more because its lighter tip, but still stiff backbone. It isn't quite heavy enough for consistent stupid tubes, but it does have the lighter tip to load 1/8 to 3/16 oz jigs in 3.5" tubes.