Spankey

Will start at 10:00 their time. Not Midnight their time. I want a rod from them so I called and asked.

I have more than my needed share of tackle and equipment but for a long time now I don't impulse buy. I really have to feel it before I buy it these days. If i buy a new spinnerbait or crank bait I'll generally do pretty good with it. For the most part have a size, shape and color pattern in mind.

My season unfortunately is not year round. But a 4 1/2" finesse worm rig of some type. Fishing a grub would also be there as a very close second. I take it that you are referring to using a soft plastic or style that will produce all season, not necessarily that its your preferred way to fish all season.

My family call an intervention with me once. I fell off the wagon by the end of the week.

I'm a river rat and always have some type of current to deal with.But that's smallie fishing. I couldn't tell you the last time I used live bait for bass, maybe 30-35 years ago. Maybe longer. My season is probably over for this year. Had a great year. Bettered my personal best smallie this fall. I would say that the lures I throw are pretty bass specific but they will catch other stuff. By accident or unexpectedly have caught white bass, white perch, bluegill, yellow perch, musky, channel cats, flatheads, and crappies while bass fishing with lures.

Buy it, fish it and enjoy it. I still have some of my stuff from growing up during the 60's and 70's. I don't use it any more but I won't part with it either. Go with your gut feeling.

i fish a few Saharas. Love them but nothing in that series. 2000/2500/3000 is about the slot i spin fish.

I have an addiction. But, it doesn't mean buying mass quantities. I've been doing this a long time so it revolves around playing around with a color. Finesse worm fishing is an addiction. I have my share of crankbaits and than some. But I like picking up new variations of productive patterns. For years I would never pick up reds and fish them, would never think they would/could be productive colors. I got the chance to talk with Ish Monroe on this a few years ago and he gave me some insight on this. Now I fish this with confidence in some situations. So I pick up some red patterns on occasions.

All great comments. The way I fish also. I'm throwing alot of 6# test. I use a lot of it during a season. forever changing my line out but I'm not complaining. Good luck with your purchase.

I agree with the crankbaits being a reaction bait and color not fitting in to well. I fish a lot of soft plastics. I've changed my style of fishing around them over the years. Learned a lot about plastics and the ways you can fish them. To me throwback is more like going to a brand and type of worm, tube etc. that you have not fished in a long while. Just recentlyon a day with slow bite I fished some 4" Power Worms that I have not fished in a long long time. Broke out a bag of black,black with chart. tail, pumpkin, pumpkin with chart. tail. Had a blast catching a bunch of dinks and runts.

I'm a Rapala freak. They work well on river smallies. I could not agree more with some of the replies you have gotten. I've never had a lip break. They are thin for sure but in my experience the hold up good. I'm in rock and stone. They stopped installing the sure set hooks on them. They are easy enough to get from Tackle Warehouse. I believe in that sure set hook. I'm sure others have different opinions on these hook. I use the Thugs and can only recommend it also. I'm not gonna get into the colors too much because everyone will have their on list of favorites. Can say that any color that I bought has caught fish. I bought a few DT's and Shad Raps in the real image patterns. They are not real productive. Not on my hit parade. Real image Bluegill having been the most productive. But, the original Bluegill (non-image) is a lot better producer. I'm sure on a day that I need to throw something a bit different one of these real image will come through. Shop around for a decent price. I think BPS prices are high on them, don't buy much from them anymore. Try Tackle Warehouse or Susquehanna Tackle.

Can't really say that anyone has riffled through my stuff ever. Been doing this a long time. Not sure how I would react to that. Don't know what you guys mean by guys who demand information. Demand info?? They are gonna make you tell them something? I wouldn't tell them s___. Never heard of anything like that. I never leave much on my deck. If rods are strapped down, my soft plastic rods I don't have baits on them. And the majority of the time my crankbaits rods will have those bait wrappers on them. That's not to be secretive but to avoid tangles. They work well at that. I like the one posters idea to have a few of those .96 cent crankbaits and have a few old rubber worms and senkos that are broken/bitten off sun faded and petrified laying on the deck. I use the term that I only caught dinks and runts. Down by the bridge. There are only 2 or 3 guys tops at the ramp that I talk serious fish to at most anyways. These guys I've know for years and we've helped each other out over the years.

I'll be out on Wednesday. Mid Atlantic winds were strong enough yesterday to to bag it. I love this time of year for river smallies. Have my routine planned from topwaters, crank baits, jerk baits, to plastics. Feel real good about a nice one.

I'm a St. Croix fan. Check out some Premier Series and Mojo Series rods. You've heard of these. A lot of spinning version options. The Avids are great sticks. But not really necessary. I like the Avid series but don't want to spend your money. If all you've ever fished with were ugly sticks and off wall stuff you will like the Premiers. I'm not dissing ugly sticks and off the wall stuff. I'm sure bigger fish than I've caught were caught with them. You'll feel the difference. Have fun with your search.

Blue, nice fish. Love the gut on that pig.

I found that I like to store and label my plano boxes to the type of lures in them. I use the same size boxes to make them store easier.

The pic of that DT in sunfish is a great lure. Don't overlook the bluegill version of that lure also. Rapala has (2) versions of the bluegill pattern I like the original pattern better than the new real image. I'm catching fish on some of the real image Rapalas but at a lower ratio. This has been a big year for me with more natural presentations due to the lack of rain. Firetigers, chart. patterns have not been fished too much.

I'm pretty much a river rat. I'm happy to see this well deserved rain. Over the last few weeks the conditions forced me to the lake. Not worth the chance of engine damage. Gives me a chance to change my approach and do some largemouth fishing, and I've done pretty well. I'm having a great season this year and want to finish up on the river well. This year has been one that has been basically all natural colors early on that have worked for me. No complaints. Just have not had a lot of stained water to fish.

Pretty cool your new color worked out like that for you. For me this season its been the same with some Lucky Shads. I'm pretty much a Shad Rap die-hard. Doing a bit of a comparison between baits. Had a couple on first cast catch smallies. Has been a natural color year for me this season. Hope they add a couple more colors to their products. Like the lure not real thrilled with SK hooks. Easy to correct that.

Just came across some Garcia Vendetta rods at walmart for $20.00. Bought the 6'9" ML ex-fast. Will use it for some split shotting or a loaner rod. May go back and get the 7' med. fast that is there. Thee are foam handles. I'm more into cork handles. These rods are nice and not banged up. Blanks are straight and not hooked. Check it out if you have a Walmart nearby. Clearance item.

Just my opinion and I'm partial to my St. Croix rods. If you are setting up something for soft plastics the Mojo in ML or M in XF action is a great rod. 6'8"-6'9" in length. The Avids are nice but the Mojos are easy on your wallet. They stand behind their stuff that why I like S/C..

Having not touched or felt the rod I would most likely would use it on 1/2 oz. and 5/8 oz. crankbaits. 7 foot is a nice length.

I'm PA river rat and I see them take on different colors during the course of the year. It seem they are in a red shade for a short time. Have only found this out recently over the last few years. Have only been using reds over the last couple years, with success. have passed on this color for many many years. My loss.

I've caught many smallies over the years on crankbaits and spinnerbaits with them having bream/bluegill half way down their throats. Smallies are aggressive feeders.

Rapalas, Bandits and Bombers. 1, 2 and 3.