Hawgin

I have 3 Pflueger Echelon's that I have been using since the first week they were available. I've had no problems with the frames on them or with them torquing while I've been using them. As long as you take care of your reels I don't think you will have anyproblems with these.

This is the first time I have heard that. I got on Strike Kings website and couldn't find anything about it. If this turns out to be true, me and and the baitmonkey have a little shopping trip on our hands.

1/2 oz black/blue strike king pro model jig, although I am starting to find myself using a sweet beaver/berkley beast (watermelon red flake) in a lot of situations where I usually pitch a jig. Now I have to re-evaluate everything. Dang it!

I like to use floating worms with the shaky head jig, so that the head stays on the bottom, but the tail floats up to immitate a baitfish trying to feed on something on the bottom. I know some people who use the shaky head every time they go out. I like to use it when I am fishing highly pressured waters, or when the bite is really tough and a slower, smaller presentation is working. Anywhere you would consider using a finesse presentation is ideal for a shaky head worm in my opinion.

Sorry about that. I just read the words jerkbait and offered up my advice. I'm unfamiliar with that specific bait, but my instructions were for just jerkbaits in general.

To fish a jerkbait, the most effective way I have found to use it is to cast it out, and give a few(3-4) quick turns of the handle to get it to depth. Let it pause and rest for 10-15 seconds or longer, then with your rod tip give the bait 2 quick jerks, and then let it pause again for 10-15 seconds or longer. Repeat this pattern until the bait is all the way back to you. The most important thing to remember is to vary your cadence(number of jerks, length of jerks), and vary the length of your pauses until you find what pattern the fish are looking for. Most of the time fish will hit this bait on the pause, and usually the colder the water then longer the pause. Jerkbaits are great baits that will work year round, but they are especially effecting in water 50 degrees and colder.

If you are wanting to just stick with mono, I would highly recommend Suffix Siege. If you are willing to use a co-polymer I would use yo-zuri hybrid, and I would recommend using the smoke purple in that line. I don't know why, but experience has been that it has even less memory than the clear. I use both of these in 15#.

Big C, I would recommend a few things to you when you look to buy a higher quality rod. 1.) I would look at a more "name" brand rod than a Cabela's brand. For around a $100, you could pick up a nice St. Croix Premier, a Fenwick HMX, or even an All Star rod which are going to be much nicer rods than the Cabela's. 2.) Unless you can only transport a two piece rod, I would suggest you look at one piece rods. There is some debate over if/how much sensitivity you lose by using a two piece rod, but it has been my experience that a one piece rod will give you a much better feel for what you are doing. 3.) For your question about fishing line, I would recommend some type of braided line if you want to avoid breaking, and you would like to use it for multiple fish species. You can get 50# line like power pro, that only has the diameter of 12# mono. You won't have to worry about as many line break offs, and I think this would work okay for multiple species, but I am no expert on much fishing outside of bass and crappie.

When compared to a St. Croix, the Loomis rods will seem to be less "power" for their rating, but that is because St. Croix's tend to be underrated. A medium St.C will seem more like most rods MH. GLoomis tends to be closer to the actual power rating of most rod makers. I would put it this way. GLoomis ratings are accurate, St. Croix ratings are inacurate. A medium GLoomis is an actual medium rod.

Beavers are a great flipping bait. I usually t-rig them with a pegged 1/4 oz bullet weight on a 4/0 EWG hook. I mainly flip them against logs and laydowns. I also use them on carolina rigs. They are an awsome bait.

Flechero- No I have not actually seen one break, but I would think that they would have made the twitching bar out of something a little more durable than plastic.

If you are planning on getting the viento just for the twitch bar, I will tell you to not waste your money. It's a decent reel, but not really worth the cost. The bad part about the twitch bar is that when using it, it causes the handle to turn so you can only hold the reel with one hand. Not ideal for reeling down to set the hook. Also, the twitch bar is plastic and seems to be prone to breaking. My opinion is that you can get a much better reel for that price.

Muddy, I have 3 Pflueger Echelon's and I have had good luck with them. I treat my reels with care, and as long as you do that you shouldn't have any problems with them. Pretty smooth five bearing reel. It's not a Curado, but a good value for the cost.

I agree with Catt, fishing a jig can be very frustrating at times, and when you are just learning to fish a jig you might as well plan on having some days where you don't hook up with a single fish the whole day, but once you learn to use them they are very rewarding. You may not catch huge numbers of fish once you learn a jig, but the quality of the fish you are catching will be a huge upgrade. It took me a long time to learn to use a jig, but now I fish with it 75% of the time. If you are really serious about using jigs, the best advice I can give you is to take only take 1 or 2 rods with you, and take a very limit tackle arsenal with you and force yourself to use jigs most of the time you are out on the water until you really learn to fish them. Another thing that really helped me was to fish jigs in small ponds where I knew there were a lot of fish that will bite most anything. That really helped me learn what a jig feels like on the end of my line, and what a jig bite feels like.

Chris- I also apologize if I came acrossed as bitter and angry, even though to be honest that is how I am most of the time. I have been using 50 lb power pro for the last few years and I love it for certain applications. I think the positives far outweigh the negatives for braid. I just am not convinced that it is best for every application. If anyone fishes a lot of stained to muddy water, and you want the highest level of sensitivity, then no doubt braid is the best option. I might be willing to give braid a try for some other types of applications, and I will always have it on for fishing jigs. I will say this, if I ever moved to Cali and started throwing the big baits, for the big boys, I would fish nothing but braid or a super heavy floro.

Bass will spit the jig out faster than any other bait I've ever used. Once they pick the jig up you only have a fraction of time to set the hook. One thing for me that seems to help them hold on to the jig for at least a fraction longer is if you dip/spray/coat the jig in some type of scent/flavor spray or gel. My personal favorite is smelly jelly, but it's entirely up to what is available to you. Any type of crawfish, baitfish, or garlic scent would work.

"Okay, I guess the next logical question to any of you who don't like, or won't use braid is, "Why do you suppose so many of you have had so many problems with braid.... Yet these problems rarely, if ever, affect me ?" "Again, the only thing I could ask you is, why do you suppose braided line causes "you" this long list of problems, but provides nearly nothing but great benefits for me ? " Wow Fish Chris, while I am certainly impressed by your pictures of the big stipers you catch, and I will gladly admit you have more fishing knowledge than I do, but don't you think you're getting a little full of yourself? I live in KC not Cali. The majority of the bass lakes around here have 4-6 lbers in them, and as much as I like using braid I'm not best served using for all applications. I'm glad you like braided line, and it works for you, but don't treat the rest of us like idiots just because we don't prefer your type of fishing and your set ups.

Chris- I love braided line for all the things that you mentioned, and I use it on two of my set ups. I use braid for all of my flipping/pitching appliactions, and I use it for all of my top waters because of it's tendency to float. However, I don't use it for all applications. I think it has it's place in everyone's arsenal for fishing heavy cover, and it's great in stained to muddy water, however I think other types of line have their place as well. There are definitely situations in which I like mono, especially when using moving baits (i.e. cranks, spinnerbaits). Above all else, I am starting to really develop an affinitiy for Florocarbon, and co-polymer lines. I like their sensitivity. They have a better breaking strength than mono, and I like the "visibility" advantage it gives you in clearer water. I think there is a time and a place for all types of line, and I don't think one line is the cure all for all situations, just like I don't think that there is one bait, one rod, on technique for fishing all situations.

RW, I currently have three Fenwicks. A 7' MHF Techna AV, a 7' MF Techna Av, and a 6'6" MHM Eagle GT. I know that my dad already bought a 6'10" Team All Star Big Boy flipping stick for me for Christmas(it was a ridiculously clearance priced at BPS), and I have the two St. Croix's, but anything in the future I purchase will be Fenwick, and probably Techna AV's. They are the best rods I have used for the price. I think they are on par with Loomis for sensitivity, but just a little heavier than the IMX/GLX's.

Avid- I agree with you 100%. I bought one of the Triumphs thinking that any rod made by St. Croix had to be decent, and I was thrilled about the price. What a waste of money that turned out to be. That thing has almost no sensitivity, and I only use it now for topwaters and spinnerbaits where a lot of "feel" isn't required. As far as the Premiers, they are nice rods. Light, tough, and a good amount of sensitivity. I have a 6'6" Medium power, fast action spinning rod that I use for all of my finesse techniques. I am switching all of my other rods over to Fenwicks, but I will definitely hold on to my Premier spinning rod.

Well, when I was in college we used to always crack on guys who were chasing after the bigger girls, saying that they were going hawgin. I thought that translated well into bass fishing, since most of us are out there chasing the big girls.

The reason I started shortening mine is because I heard numerous times from guys like Denny Brauer, KVD, Swindle, etc. that is one of the first things you should do. The explanation I remember standing out to me is that if you leave the weed guard longer, when the fish takes the jig you can miss the hookset because the extra 1/4 inch of guard can cover the hook point, and cause it to slide out of the fishes mouth. By shortening it, when you hold the jig in your hand and push the weed guard back to the hook you can see how the hook point immediately becomes exposed so it penetrates the fishes mouth. A longer weed guard can affect the hookset, so that's why I trim mine. I don't believe the length has any effect on the "firmness", only the thickness of the weedguard affects that.

I always trim the weed guard on my jigs so that it just covers the hook point. If you think the weed guard is to thick, you can also cut out a few of the bristles, but if you plan on fishing heavy cover, or around laydowns (trees, brushpiles, etc.) I would leave the thickness alone. As for how to fish them, I'm sure you can find dozens of articles and discussions on here about the proper techniques. However, here is a quick run down: Cast, pitch, flip the jig as tight to the cover you want to fish, and allow it to fall to the bottom on semi slack line(on tight line the jig will pendelum back to you away from the cover). Be sure to watch your line as the jig falls for any "bump", "ticks", or unusual movement. Most of the time bass hit the jig on the initial fall. Remember if any movement seems strange, hooksets are free. Once the jig has settled to the bottom let it set for a few seconds, and then you can either hop the jig of the bottom with a quick movement of your rod tip, or you can slowly drag it a few feet along the bottom to imitate a crawfish moving along the bottom. After you move it a few feet let it sit for a few seconds and repeat. After you have moved a distance away from the cover reel the jig in, and repeat the entire process. Good luck to you, and remember jig fishing is tough at first, but once you get it down it can be very exciting, and will help you land some nice hawgs.

You can fish lizards pretty much any way you would fish a soft plastic. I like to use them a lot on Carolina Rigs. I also will use them T-rigged with a 1/8 or 1/4 bullet sinker. I also will pitch lizards during the spawn and drag them right through the middle of the beds. They are a pretty versatile bait, and are a good alternative to worms/senkos when fishing a highly pressured area because they are just something different.

rods: Fenwick reels: Pflueger line: Power Pro and Suffix Cranks: Rapala Jigs/Spinners: Strike King Plastics: Berkley and Yum Hooks: Gammys