Spankey

My (2) favorite are a bit old school and I’ve had the for probably 14 years maybe a hair more. 12 years maybe but anyway. St. Croix Premier Series Crankbait Rods. (1) 6’6” Med. Moderate, (1) 7’ Med. Moderate, personally I feel they feel more like a Med. Lt., I’m fine with that. I have Shimano Curado Bantams on them. 8 lb. test. I realize a bit old school compared to now. But I have a lot of good memories fishing these, still do. I have other ways to fish Shad Raps also.

Up here in the Northeast my PB is only gonna be but so big compared to others areas of the country. So I try to keep it real. Biggest LM is at 6lb. Biggest Smallie at 5 lb. I lost a fish bigger than my 6 lb. PB last season. I will start out where I left off last season in search of the one that got away. I feel it was a solid 7 lb. fish. For PA a LM 7 lb. or over I feel this is getting into a very very exceptional bass range. Hunt for big fish. My PB category is biggest LM, biggest Smallie. I’ve never had an out of state guide try to put me on a double digit bass.

Nice looking. Never heard of that mfg.

Real nice.

Light tackle purchases this winter for me. Few new baits coming. Wanted a few spares of a couple harder used crankbaits. They are trickling in now. Scored on a couple of decent gift cards for TW and BPS but in no rush. Been obsessing all winter about going home to the river and see if the Smallie fishing is starting to turn around some. The lake has been my new home for a few years, been doing pretty well there. Just preparing mentally to do what I have to do. I’ll get on the river as early as I can.

I don’t fish large baits too often. Jigs, buzzbaits, spinnerbaits are on the smaller side. Micro size I guess. I sort of fall in line with the guys posting with tipping with a grub. But I use a Zoom 4” Curly Tail Worm, sort of a finesse worm with a high action longer ribbon tail to it. I Bite the body length down to what I need.

I wouldn’t mind having (2) 1/4 oz. versions to try on river Smallies. And I’ll probably give it a shot somewhere along the line but I don’t see them much differently than a boot tail grub. I would probably be a lot hotter for it if I fished where there were gobies. Sort of some resemblance.

Trilene XL is decent line. My line of choice, last few seasons, few spinning setup I use the hardest, has been SUNLINE SuperMono. Best mono line I stumbled upon. For the most part have only used Trilene and Stren my whole life. I don’t buy my line by the packs. Buy it by the bulk spools. Having a hard time it in the bulk spools. I’ve been using some McCoy copolymer also with good results.

I have a similar set up but chose the shorter M 6’9” Mojo. Seemed to balance better with a Nasci 3000. Personal feel preference. I use this set up for heavier plastics and stick baits. I fish a SC 6’10” ML w/2000 for lighter stuff. Grubs, NED, Trigs, worms and craws. If you can get a good balance with the 7 footer go for it.

Dude, how are you? Where have you been? I’d keep checking water temps. Creek Smallies split from where they have been all summer. If you get out days now find some deep wintering holes and fish the norm for you, it is live bait anyway. You might make out well. Maybe you can find a dam spillway and fish that. It is generally deeper. Maybe a hair jig with a pork trailer. Go small size on the jig and pork. Others will probably say bigger. I think smaller. But we both might be right. Pop and hop a grub or tube around in those holes. Something 2 3/4” - 3”. Just be careful in that water. Very dang cold right now.

Out my way there are a couple of dealers that give a decent discount when a model Phases out or changes. Then there is this one dude out here that has some of the first generation of the Mojo’s out with the original mark on them. They do put out a good product though.

Real nice. I can picture a Zoom fluke on it in Baby Bass.

I’m not touching the red part of things. Reds and I can’t seem to get on the same page. Jerkbaits Shad Raps Rat-L-Traps

Very fair and true observation.

You are most likely right. I don’t think they want you to by online to the SC store. They probably wish you buy from dealer. I have my share of SC Rods and have never bought from factory online.

Running depth ?. All good we understand.

Was just on SC site to read up on their news in general. Went through some of their rods and majority of not all of their rods are sold out. I’m sure that means factory stock. The dealer situation is what it it is. Pretty odd. Never seen it to that point before. Could be a Covid-19 thing. Maybe they have not been working. Who knows. Don’t want to read anything more into it than what I see.

I’m still waiting on some Rapala spares, a few of a new Rapala version and some Strike King spares. Have plenty of time before I’ll be using them but heck it’s killing me to see y’all new stuff. Patience is a virtue. BS.

I’ll order a couple of those H2O’s and try them. I can’t go to an academy because I don’t know of any. I read through the treble post and all but in all honesty with Rapala, Strike King and older Bandits that I’ve had for years I can’t say that I’ve ever experienced much if any major treble hook problems. Im not gonna lie and never say I lost a fish I had hooked on a crankbait. But fishing crankbaits with a moderate action does help. I do believe some of the fish I lost on crankbaits over the years was because my rod was not soft enough. Just my thoughts on my problems I’ve experienced.

Are they a shorter shank treble?

The only reason I fish watermelon in clearer water is because that’s the rumor to fish it in clearer water. I never go into a study about it. I find myself throwing GP way more often. But in my experience Green pumpkin is not the end all or do all of soft plastics. A few others top that in my situation. A great productive color it is.

Crankbait fishing is a big part of my fishing. In and around heavy vegetation there are other way around it. I have no plans on changing anything have just learned to deal with over the years.

I think you can get a good overall idea the condition by just pulling some off the spool and feeling it. If it has an excessive memory to it than just throw it away.

This is not bull. Back some weeks ago I was catching Zona or maybe MLF on a Saturday. The old lady was around and she was half heartedly watching and talking about stuff that I can’t even remember what it was. Most likely about the kids but anyway........... She saw this Plano commercial showing the Edge Box that was a crankbait box and thought how that was cool how they held themselves in place. She thought it was great. She thought I may of had one. No I don’t. Never gave them much thought. Told her to buy me one and I’d put it to good use. She says” I don’t want to buy the wrong one”, “maybe you should pick one out”. I don’t own any but she sure left the door wide open to getting one or some. She makes some off the wall comments about fishing my stuff. But there is no war about it in our house. It would be nothing for her to come home one night from work to find 3 set up laying across the love seat. She knows that most likely I’ll be having her hold line spools. She long gets it by now.

This isn’t so much about hype, more of a fact on color. Pumpkin Seed is a color that is sort of falling off the face of the earth. Nowhere near has the availability it had years ago. Everything came in that. Now it’s like there is no need to manufacturer it because no one wants it. Not sure what the story is behind this. Not totally gone, but not what it was.