dwtaylor

Based on the balance of the rod...you are probably right! lol

I bought a couple at the Onalaska, WI Gander Mountain store when the Elite Series was in town for their tournament. They were 30% off so I thought why not. Anyways, the next morning when I was marshaling, I noticed that my pro had one tied on. He said that it was an awesome color and had 10 spares just to keep from running out due to pike. He never actually fished shallow grass and wood like the rest of the field seemed to have done. I have tried mine out and had a couple hits, but nothing big yet. It looks like a good open water frog to me. I can't seem to put down the natural green color, I have too much confidence in it. I will be sure to try it out as soon as this heat wave passes. Its getting ridiculous.

Especially this time of year, fight the fish as quickly as possible. Mortality rates on fatigued fish in hot weather like this can be at or near 100%. If the fish are small, it doesn't make a difference because your equipment can handle it. However, if you hook a good 5-6lb fish on an ultralight, you will most likely wear it out and kill it now.

In my experience, no. However, it may happen. I leave spros on the dashboard in my car for a couple of hours in the summer to soften them up....it helps. As for the leak in the kvd frog, I would try a dab of caulking material. However, the scent idea sounds great and I might try that tomorrow.

It looks like its between pumpkin and green pumpkin. What I have found that is great to soak green pumpkin trailers in water until they turn lighter. That will probably make the trailer more realistic like.

I have the 7' mh and I love mine. I will probably get more too in the future when the funds are allowing.

I have some left handed baitcasters, but the majority of my baitcasters are right handed. I currently have left handed reels on my frog rod, flippin stick, and spook rod. All of those techniques require more rod movement than other rods and I can work the rod better with my right arm than my left. However, I feel that reeling in on the left side makes me feel like I have less leverage than reeling in with my right hand. BTW, I use the handle on the left side with my spinning rods. It feels more natural when the reel is under the rod to reel like that I guess.

From my experience working at a tackle shop, there is often vast amounts of back stock line that is stored in less than ideal conditions. I would talk to the people where you got the line from because it can be a storage issue. Also, by returning it to the store, the manager probably does a defective merchandise claim that also helps the company of the line trace issues with the line so they can adjust quality control as needed. For instance, when nanofil just came out, the line on the bulk spools was inconsistent to say the least. Anyways, that was due to a chemical reaction between the line and the spool that caused the line to degrade. It did not happen with the small spools, just the very large commercial bulk spools.

There have been reports of 10lb smallies sampled in Chequamegon Bay near Ashland, WI. However, I know of people catching 10lb bass in southeast Iowa quite regularly this spring. I am going to be Doubting Thomas on this one and say that it will be nearly impossible to do within a reasonable driving distance. That is why I am saving my pennies for a trip down to Falcon Lake next March for spring break (and possibly South Padre too).

I like to use the grubs as swim jigs trailers too, but sometimes a 4-5" grub on a 1/4 ounce jighead absolutely kills them. As far as colors go, smoke is a really good color for baitfish imitations. As far as a floating worm, try the strike king elaztech worms. Their tail sticks straight up on a jighead, no matter what. However, keep the worms in their original package because the elaztech has a tendency to disintegrate when mixed with normal plastic baits. Also, they are very hard to get on screwlock jigheads too. However, I usually buy the shakey heads molded from a do-it mold made by a guy I know. They seem to work pretty well with each other, as I have caught plenty of fish on that combo.

Most all of the time I am using a 3/16th sinker. I see no need to go up heavier than 1/2 oz unless you are fishing heavy current as you will get a lot of snags and you will lose a lot of sinkers. However, 1/4th ounce is a pretty good all around size.

I have also had issues with their warranty. I had a rod break a couple years ago and they tried to make me pay half of the rods retail for a new one. The rod was not broken on a hard hookset or a car door. I took a closer look at the rod, and it had broken underneath the guide wraps on the rod (it was also a perfect perpendicular break to the length of the rod), a place that would be impossible for me to scratch. I kept really good care of the rod, never stepped on it, boat lifted fish, high sticked a fish, and I always stored it in a rod tube during travel or in its rod sock. They insisted it was my fault, and soon after trying to reason with them they discontinued the rod. This is truly the only rod that I had break without my fault, and with the customer service I had received, I will never by Kistler again or will I ever encourage someone to do so. Also, the stick was a magnesium ts and it was not very sensitive at all compared to an allstar rod of same length and action for half the price. I would give the company a solid two thumbs down, but then again it is my own opinion and I know of others that beg to differ.

Personally, I would look at buying a used reel here on the flea market forum. You can find reels that normally retail much more at a good discount. For the money, I believe a used Curado B would be your best bet. People still swear by them today. Also, keep a look out for those citica E reels too, they are great reels for the money. PS...I am a revo guy myself, but my collection does include a couple curado e, a curado b, and a citica e.

I would make sure that your line is tight when setting the hook and fighting the fish. Sometimes when a fish hits a bait hard, it puts slack in the line and when you set, you only remove the slack. I had a big problem with landing fish this summer because of this. I would also lose fish while fighting them because of a little slack in the line. Try to learn to reel set jigs, it will help you land those fish.

Some of my bigger bass have come off of ultralight rods while fishing for bluegill or crappie. It is very difficult to reel fish in with 2-4 lb line (whatever is left over from ice season) but it can be done. My biggest on an ultralight is somewhere around 5 lbs caught on a crappie jig with a bit of a crawler on it. Its huge stress reliever fighting a smallie on ultralights too. The sound of a screaming drag always brings a smile to my face!

I am for sure getting the blackfin frames, but I am kind of confused about lens color. I am primarily using these for sight fishing, and I want an amber lens for that. I have noticed that the green mirror is an amber base with a green mirror finish and offered in the 580G, while the amber is only offered up to 580P. Should I go with the green mirror with the 580G's or maybe look at the copper 580G's? Thanks! Sorry admins if I put this in the wrong forum. I have no idea where it would fit.

I totally argue the point here that fish are not line shy by tying straight braid. After taking a summer worth of statistics, I found that I would get more bites with a lure tied to fluorocarbon. I have experimented with the leaders and I like them for the most part. I, however, would not recommend nanofil. That stuff slips so easily that I don't think its worth the extra casting distance and manageability. I will spool up with powerpro or spiderwire and tie 7ft leaders from now on. The braid will last longer on a reel and won't develop memory like straight fluoro will. Also, 50lb braid is tough to break, so adding a lighter leader helps save your rods and reels for another day.

+1 on Ashland, WI. There are some absolute MONSTERS in there. The Wisconsin DNR has claimed that samples of 10 lb smallies have been seen. . I would like to go to Falcon sometime myself, my grandparents winter down in that area so I could combine it in a trip down there sometime. Maybe during spring break...

I don't see any problem with making a "how to make it" video, as it is granted in our Constitution (1st Amendment). I do understand why they are doing it, but it is kind of like kleenex. Everyone uses the term incorrectly, but no one really cares. If I were to make a how to make it video and named the title "how to make a castable umbrella rig" and they (Manns) thought it was against their copyright and threatened me in a lawsuit, couldn't I sue them? I mean if they did not have a copyright on castable umbrella rig, they do no own rights to the name, so I would be good right?

I do this technique a lot during the summer. I fish a really clear lake around here and the longer I can keep a bait still and in their face, sometimes the better. I use 3/8-1/2 oz casting sinkers because I snag them a lot and drop shot sinkers are too expensive sometimes. I personally dictate my hook style on the bait. If it is a straight/curltail worm, I use a straight shanked offset hook, much like the trokar hd offset hook. If I am using a thicker bait like a tube, I will use a wide gap offset hook. Big worms are absolutely deadly with this technique. I really want to try the new YUM F2 Mightee Worm for it this summer. It looks like a great bait.

Eakins jigs. I found them for sale at wal mart for $1.50 for two jigs and I don't think I will use another. Quite literally I probably won't use another because I bought out all of the local wal marts here in central Iowa and I have about 3 sacks full. I like to use a zoom superchunk jr or crazy legs chigger craws as trailers. I like netbait trailers too because of the colors, but I find that they tear way too easily. Especially the pincers.

Here are the two color selections at JAX. I don't know how long they are, but they weigh 1/4 oz. The price on them is $4.95 and only the two colors, silver and gold, are in stock.

Jax outdoor gear here in Ames, IA has them. It is were I work. I could get pictures and prices to you, and maybe I could ship them to you. I couldn't tell you what colors we have, but I know I have seen them. I will try to post the pictures of them after I get off tonight.

I would go with the veritas as well. The mojo series of rods are way too tip heavy for my preference, and actually the 6'6" mh model they have was more tip heavy than the 7'6" mh veritas I now own. I am making the slow transition to making nearly all of my rods veritas rods. For 100 bucks, you can't beat them.

X2 on the Strike King elaztech finesse worm. I also use 4.5" roboworms too, but they do not last long...unfortunately. Two of my favorite drop shot baits are a 4" wacky rigged senko and a YUM 2.5" crawbug. Any of these plastics are great on a drop shot, and I guarantee you will catch fish on them. Strike King colors: green pumpkin, dirt, watermelon seed roboworms: morning dawn, aarons magic, oxblood red flake senko: white with silver flake, green pumpkin black flake, watermelon red flake. crawbug: crawdad, green pumpkin, watermelon red flake, pumpkinseed