Spankey

I feel all the pattern variations I throw of Pop R’s work equally as well. Low light conditions (AM hours) but not in pitch dark.

Alex I’m not sure of your age. I’m sure I’m older than you but hope I’m not ancient. When I was a lot younger and started to fish with better quality rods I became a St. Croix fan boy. No regrets on that. I feel it helped turned the page to my fishing (I’m no expert, just saying my results go better in part to fishing St. Croix rods). I’m a river rat since a kid. My heart is there. Smallies are always swimming around in my head all the time. I fish the lake quite a bit these days. Mother Nature beat the river up the last handful of years. But it’s rebounding. Anyway, my favorite crankbait rods are the first two that I bought. St. Croix Premiere Series Crankbait Rods. Med. Lite and Medium power with soft tips. Best cb rod I’ve felt and cb fished with (my opinion only). St. Croix has long stopped making them. Not sure why. Maybe the never caught on. They were not a bank breaker. Have them paired with older Curados. Never go to the river without them. Wish I had 10 cents for every smallie I caught with them.

I have not fished the baits you have mentioned. BUT I have a long time addiction to crankbaits.

I say to each his own. The “Winch” Rods are a favorite of mine. Funny how what doesn’t work for one guy, works for another. Only my opinion but I feel they are one of the few true moderate actions out there. Can appreciate the time and effort you put into the rod opinions.

Rods are a to each his own type thing. Some guys are brand loyal. Certain brand for casting, certain brand for spinning. Probably the same for their reels. I’m not brand loyal but the rod has to feel right and would never buy one untouched. I was going through your pound for pound list. I think I know what you are referring to. I would have to agree with you 110% on the Abu Garcia Veritas Rods that are out there. I stumbled upon them a few years back by touching some crankbait rods. Walked out with the Veritas rod. Fish a few of them now. I think they are fantastic. But they might not be for the next guy.

Came home from the lake this AM to some homemade blueberry biscuits. Good stuff. Along side with some vanilla ice cream and a glass of home brew iced tea. Wish she made them more often. I dropped a hint about them earlier in the week. Didn’t want to over push the idea. Great way to end the week. We are in a heat wave with a bit higher water levels and heavy stain from recent storms. I’m getting hard heavy hits in 9-13 ft. of water on soft plastics but having a tough time with hookups. Today and Thursday I was catching some small 1 - 1 1/2 pounders off of the bank and edges of flooded bushes. Just tossing crankbaits at the bank, bushes, pads and laydowns. Hookups in 3 to 4 ft. of water. Just glad to be catching. Been a tough bite on the river and lake with rains the last month. But nice healthy fish with a bit of spunk to them. I’ll take them.

I’d rather eat a bowl of cereal for dinner than go to many/all chain joints around here. Like using my grills 365 days if possible. I don’t live on top of the city (Philly) greater Philly. We got some good pizza and cheesesteaks out here.

Medium - Fast Med. Lite - Fast Don’t know if X-Fast is really necessary.

That blows. We could accrue our personal time. There was a limit but don’t remember what it was. But if you retired or quit you could not take that with you. Vacation time was paid out to you when you left. Those hours/weeks were capped also. When I pretty much had my mind made up that I was retiring and when, I started using up all that personal time. Personal time you could take it in hours, 1/2 day or whole days. My last two years I got my share of fish, hunt and clays time in. But was able to to that in ways that I didn’t hamper production for anyone. My last two years I hit them hard for overtime on my working days. I can appreciate and envy the fact you have your own business. Good luck and success with that. Have a bit of experience with water treatment equipment and process. Kick myself in the butt sometimes for not going into business for myself some days. Should have thought about that harder when I was 30 years old.

I’m one year retired. When I was working (electro mechanical heavy industrial equipment repair) my fish and hunt time was my time. My job was demanding and I done an exceptional job at it. When I wanted a mental health day(s) I took them. I’d never call out sick if a guys production was gonna go down the toilet or if guys were gonna get sent home because I wasn’t working or didn’t want to show up. I never caught any flack, we had an understanding. Countless times I’ve been called at 1, 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning troubleshooting something or asked to go in. Worked what seems like a lifetime of Saturdays and Sundays. Equipment repairs and pm’s are common on holidays. Never worked a Christmas Day. I’m not complaining, the ca$h was good. Got my family time in, got my fish and hunt time in.

The dog days and heading into fall I do get those clearer water conditions. Not sure when it will arrive, we have been getting swamped with rain. I throw a lot of crankbaits on the river all season but in those clearer situation I’m definitely throwing more of a natural color. Gizzard Shad’s, Tenn. Shad, chromes w/ blue black or green backs, olive and dark green, browns and purple. Gold w/ black back is a fave. I lay off of some brighter or hi-viz stuff. But chart. w/ black or blue back and versions of firetiger will work all season. Spring craw will work all season. I don’t change anything with my soft plastics.

Guys out west have dealt with severe droughts. I’m sure this will carry over into their day to day. Many of you guys through the south get slammed well beyond anything I can imagine when hurricanes move in. I don’t know what it is to deal with tornadoes. Having your world turned upside down in a split second goes well beyond fishing. Or your lack of being able to go bass fishing. Most flash floods we are getting are serious. But receded quickly, smaller waterway get back to normal. Larger rivers have all the run off to deal withA lot of people don’t understand the power of water. Power of hydraulics. Driving through these rains, people walking through it having no idea where they are stepping and people out living it up in swift water have been some fatalities.

I use that MO. I’ve went through a few over the years. They work great. I’ve used the Cabela’s branded one also. Don’t think there is anything better for touching up straight shank and wide gap worm hooks. Easy to store in your pocket or keep on your boat deck. Or both.

We had heavy hitters just move through today. Was not a fish day for me to get messed up but, doing some backfilling dirt work for new concrete was a waste. I’ve been lucky with no property damage. My immediate areas has missed the severe winds. In the last 10 days we’ve gotten close to 15” of rain. River will be up and mad. The lake will be fishable but no prize. Will be there Thursday hope the higher water level pushes some nicer fish toward the bank. Don’t remember a summer time this.

Real nice. Wacky on the river for me is similar to you. I like to fish 4” & 5” cuttails with a nail weight and light wire mosquito hooks. Nice fish.

I don’t fish that exact rod. I’ve touched it. I do fish the VTS71MF and like. They call it Finesse. The MH I felt was a bit heavy for presentations I’d use it for. I’m mostly throwing 3/16 oz. - 3/8oz. Jigs along with T-Rig worms. But rated up to 5/8 oz. I'm sure the MH will work fine for you. But try to touch it a least before you buy it. My personal opinion of the Victory Medium power rods are that are a bit on the heavy side of medium. I’m fine with it. When I retired last June a few work buddies bought me a Victory VTS73MXF Max Tactical. Took me a while to get use to the Victory Rod, almost sold it. Length of forend was too long, at least for me. Early last fall I had a good day fishing the Lower Chesapeake Bay. Fished the rod almost exclusively. Got use to fishing that longer forend and the hand positioning. Recently had severe weather postpone a trip to that area, will be down there soon, 2 Victory rods to fish this trip.

Got a few hours in yesterday morning. Can’t kick, no size able smallies but caught a nice bunch of them. Few on Pop R’s and Skitter Pops, finesse fishing some Power Worms and RoboWorms and Shad Raps. Had a couple of big slashes at Shad Raps. I’d like to think they were the Smallies I am after but feel they were Musky. Wake seemed larger like that of a smaller Musky. We have real nasty weather coming in today again. Will mess things up again for awhile. This has been all July. Hope things settle down for August. These flash flood suck. Up in my area some property damage has been bad and flooding as caused a few deaths. I’ve been lucky. We all are seeing this. Stay safe.

Once or twice a season I do a bit of a road trip south of me. I spend the night. Easier all the way around. Like you on the first day I’m cutting out from home at 2:00-2:30 AM, get there and put in a full day fishing, that’s a big day. If I can get something decent for dinner and only a few hours of good sleep I’m ready to fish the next morning to just before midday. Leave to come home straight from the ramp. Have a good cooler. It can make or break a day or two of fishing. I recently had weather postpone a trip. I’ll go in August and September. July continues to look crazy on the weather front.

I delayed my start a bit on Friday. Storm was moving the direction I was going. Was on the water by 9:00 AM. Made no sense getting soaking wet and have the boat drenched. Lake conditions were fine after intense downpours. Managed two 1 to 1 1/2 pound greenies. Tough bite. T-rig worms is about all I was throwing at pads. Had to make push to go because we are in flash flood conditions all weekend.

So they’re not too bright.

Own nothing from them. Have touched a few rods and can say they felt good. Never gave any of their stuff an honest look.

When I was younger I’d do all that crazy stuff. I’ll towel down these days to keep cool. It seem like in more recent years I get that duck itch. Not sure what it is called but drives me crazy.

Being delayed this AM. Lightning storms moving from my county to the county I’m going to fish. I’ll let it all pass and delay getting out. Pretty intense. Been fun to watch setting on the porch.

I had a couple of tricks also but the best all around saver for me was the hexagonal shaped slip on accessory and homemade ones that you slipped on the head. Keeps it from rolling when you set it down on something flat. The other light I mentioned above has a great (strength) magnet built into the base. That made some repairs a breeze just from the convenience of being a spotlight. Wish I had that years ago but it is more of a high tech flashlight only been around short time compared to Mag Lite. They make or did make the StreamLight Brand stuff not too far from where I live. Never owned one. Was too cheap to buy one I guess.

I agree with you. I prefer the incandescent one also. The LED type when your battery gets low they have trouble coming on. The incandescent will come on, yes light but you’ll know your batteries are getting low. I believe they still offer both. I beat the heck out of them for years in my work setting.