smalljaw67

It looks to have the X-Rap lip, the Flat Rap profile and the BX-Minnow finish with the length of a Maxx Rap. I already like it!!!

I think it depends on the size of the baits you are going to throw. I have a few different rods for jerkbaits and topwaters because of the size range, I have a G.Loomis JBR 752C jerkbait rod, awesome rod but when you get to baits that are 1/2oz it struggles and then I have my moderate action Aetos, it is a 6'6" Medium light rated to 1/2oz, it handles 1/2oz medium and shallow diving baits just fine but for jerkbaits it is too soft for the larger ones but is great for the smaller jerks and it is awesome with the smaller poppers but a 3/8oz or larger popper it is too soft. So you need to find a rod that meets your required specs while covering the lure range you intend on using, you may have to sacrifice something like casting distance, or a certain lure size may not work but look to what baits you want to throw first then look for the rod. A really good rod that might be hard to find right now is the Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'3" medium, moderate fast action casting rod, it handles a 1/2oz super spook Jr. really well and is also right at home with most jerkbaits in the 1/2oz size and it is also a nice option for poppers and smaller square bills and it fits your price range.

Go to Tackle Underground, they have a soft baits section with all the information you can want, the guys there will get you started.

Bass are opportunistic feeders and ambush feeders, if it can fit it in its mouth it will try to eat it, plain and simple. Matching the hatch has more to do with percentages, especially when fishing gets tough when the fish is in a negative or neutral mode. There are times when fish will key in on a certain type of forage and leave everything else alone, I've witnessed it in smallmouths that were feeding on a specific kind of darter and if you weren't close to that color you didn't get bit. Those times happen but 7 out of 10 times they will react to noise, action, flash, or all of the above.

For me it is about the jig, my heavy cover jigs in 3/8oz and heavier will get pitched most of the time but a 1/4oz and sometimes 3/8oz jig I'll make a full cast. I like casting finesse jigs more than pitching because I feel that is where the finesse jig shines, getting dragged over a rock flat makes it appear as a craw that was dislodged from cover and is scurrying back, it works great during the summer and late spring. I don't like bomb casting a jig or T-rig, I'm usually casting a decent distance but not what I would call long distance and I have rods just for casting jigs and worms, they are 6'6" MH-F action rods like a good spinnerbait rod, it allows me to make a good cast with accuracy and then work the bait, trying to scoot a finesse jig along the bottom without it losing contact is tough to do with a 7' rod but 6'6" is perfect. It isn't a lost art but it isn't new or exciting to talk about so it doesn't get much attention.

Not many like Quantum reels and to me brand doesn't matter too much but one thing I can tell you is that I really like my Smoke reels, both the 100 and 150 and if I was going to do 1 I'd go with the 150. I've had mine for 4 years and all is well, and I've had other but to me the smoke is the best reel they ever made.

I like using a boot tail swim bait on a swim jig but on a chatterbait I find a super fluke Jr. is much better.

I have exactly 15 of these, 9 of them are the 4.5" and 6 of them the 3.75" and what I find amazing is they are all consistent in running depth and suspending qualities. As Bluebasser86 has already mentioned, these aren't about a hard darting side to side erratic action, instead they roll and flash and have a tight movement which is what makes them so effective. The same action is what makes the Megabass Vision 110 so good, it will get the really lethargic fish to hit when they won't hit any other bait. I don't look at a Pointer as a super erratic bait, to me the most erratic is the X-Rap, the Pointer is a little slower but it does dart wider to the side than the STX but don't be fooled, the STX will catch fish.

You can use cornstarch if you don't have unscented talc and it doesn't have to be a lot, maybe a teaspoon in a small bag with 4 jigs or so. The reason for this is it absorbs moisture and keeps the rubber strands from sticking together. I would have it happen to spinnerbaits and buzzbaits as well and when silicone came out I never looked back, but I will use a few rubber strands for certain things every now and again but those get stored in a separate bag.

I like Silver Thread AN40 in smaller line diameters but when it comes to using 15lb or more I like Big Game. I've also got to like the Berkley Trilene XL Armor Coated in 6lb and 8lb test, that took the place of my Silver Thread AN40 but both are good, the Silver Thread has a bit more stretch than the Armor coated or about the same as the normal XL. I'm like you, I hate fluorocarbon and the stuff I tried either stretched more than mono or was like wire and had terrible memory and if it stretches like mono I could care less how sensitive it is, mono is a lot less expensive. Now if I was still tournament fishing all the time it would be different but I only use braid for frogs and heavy flipping and so I've gone through a lot of monofilament line and here are my favorites, which is more sensitive I don't know but dense fluorocarbon is going to be more sensitive but how much so is anyone's guess. Berkley Big Game - 15lb to 20lb for fishing worms and jigs, it does stretch but not bad and the abrasion resistance is excellent. Berkley XL Armor Coated (clear) - Excellent handling and abrasion resistance, great in small for finesse presentations very strong with too much stretch for heavier presentations. Silver Thread AN40 - Same qualities of the Armor coated, excellent handling and abrasion resistance with the same degree of stretch as the Berkley Armor coated. Triple Fish Camoescent - Very strong with good abrasion resistance and limited stretch in heavier line diameters but knot strength seems to be a little off. Cajun Clear Lightning - Very clear, very strong, abrasion resistant with very little stretch, but it handles just like fluorocarbon and may even have less stretch. McCoy Extra Clear - This would be my number one line is it was made more available, Strong, Abrasion resistant with very low stretch, it is close to fluorocarbon in clarity but handles a lot better. The one problem is that it is hard to find in filler spools as I don't always want a mini bulk spool because I don't like having it stored a long time. Big Game is cheap enough that I can buy a mini bulk and change line every couple of trips and what I don't use I recycle. So if you feel you'll use a mini bulk without waste, this is the stuff, a little more money but it is the best mono you can get, I really believe that. I did not like the Sunline Super Natural, the price is very reasonable and it has a thin diameter but I'm not sure if I had a bad batch but I broke off 3 times in a day using the 8lb diameter and all happened on hook set and I retie often and to be fair that was the only diameter line I tried in that brand it left me worried about it to the point I took it off and respooled with the Armor Coated Berkley. I try new lines to see what is out there as not many fish mono like I do so I make it a point to use the best line I can find and you got my list, the Ultra Clear if you can use the mini bulk spool, very strong line.

I thought the Seeker rods that have graphite blanks were imported blanks and the rods are just assembled here? I was wondering where ALX got their blanks from.

I can tell you this, rubber comes flat and round and they aren't the same, I rather silicone than rubber but round rubber will not slow the fall of a jig down unless you tie it very heavy, a flat rubber skirt will slow the fall of a jig down more than silicone of the same amount. You have to store rubber in a bag with non scented talc as rubber will melt, if you leave jigs with rubber on them in a box in a boat or other space where it will get warm or if you put it away wet, it will melt and clump together. There is a silicone material called Bio-silk that acts like, and feels like living rubber, it separates quick and floats up creating a nice flare, and that is what round rubber does, round rubber is liked because it is more buoyant and flares out really well but because it is round the water flows over it better so you have to tie them in heavy patterns to slow the fall down. Flat rubber, often called "tarantula" rubber, create a big profile by moving a lot of water and it slows the fall of a jig pretty good, just remember that rubber will melt so you have to store your jigs made with it properly.

The diameter of the FG-12 weed guard is 5/64", so go here....http://www.speedymetals.com/p-3356-2532-rd-o-1-drill-rod.aspx Order the tool steel rod in 5/64" diameter and when you get it you can cut them into 2" pieces and make your own base hole pin. You don't need to do anything to the mold, simply put the pin in the weed guard slot until it just about touches the hook and close the mold and pour.

The 410 is a 60 degree hook, you can use a Mustad 32786, a Gamakatsu 2014, the Eagle Claw 786 black platinum or BP, the Owner 5304 or the Eagle Claw 111BP. The Gamakatsu 2014 and the Eagle Claw 111BP are EWG style hooks. I almost forgot, the Trokar TK-800 and 835 will fit that mold, there are a ton of options for a 60 degree hook, not much for a 30 degree. All of the hooks I listed are premium quality and while I do like the Eagle Claw Black Platinum, I do not care for the regular 410 hook but the hooks that have a BP next to the number are really good, very similar to Mustad.

RW, Eagle claw came out with a new line of jig hooks about 3 or 4 years ago originally called the black pearl series but then changed it to black platinum series. These aren't your standard bronze Eagle Claw hook, these are actually premium needle point hooks that are as good as, if not batter than, the Mustad hooks I use to use all the time. The Matzuo hooks lacked good QC but when dealing with a small size 1 or 2 hook, the sickle hook is tough to beat and really sticky sharp, they penetrate as well as my 5318 Owner super needle points and that is no lie. The sickle bend is what makes the hook, when you hook a fish on one the only way it gets off is if the line or the hook breaks, the new Eagle Claw Lil nasty seems to use stronger wire and since I haven't had any Matzuo hooks break while fighting fish, I doubt the Eagle Claw would. I do favor Owner hooks for the most part but I buy those in smaller quantities but when you need a hook for a mushroom or tube jig in a small light wire hook, these Eagle Claw 500BP hooks are for real, no joke.

I stand corrected.

There was a lot of questions about these when the came out, I got a few to try, some of them were used as just regular jig heads and other I tied hair jigs with and I used both a mushroom head as well as a round head and a walleye head. I was done with my testing in mid December but I sent a lot of jigs out to friends to try and I wanted to wait until I got feedback from everyone I made jigs for before I wrote my review. The first thing I can say is these are as sticky sharp as the Matzuo hooks if not sharper and the wire seems to be stronger. I can also tell you that out of 250 hooks, I didn't get a single bad one, with Matzuo I'd have roughly anywhere from 10 to 35 bad ones out of that amount of hooks, the QC has gotten better for them but Eagle Claw has much better but you will pay a little more but still far from expensive. I'm sold on these, what really is impressive is the hook points stay good even after being snagged, it says something about the tempering process, I didn't have any break but it was harder to bend them out, the Matzuo sickles were a little easier to bend but that is how Aberdeen hooks are supposed to be, they are designed to bend straight to free from snags and then bend back without breaking. These will bend out but as I said, they are stronger, now I have only used the Black Platinum finished hooks, the other finishes I can't tell you about but if you're looking for a stick sharp jig hook for tubes or grubs I'd suggest you give these a shot, I'm very happy I tried them and being that my first 250 were so good I went and ordered a thousand in size 1, size 2, 1/0, and 2/0, I know that for all my personal stuff I just found my hook and hopefully they keep making them.

The guides on the HMX are stainless steel framed aluminum oxide inserts, I don't know the supplier but the G.Loomis GL2 uses the same stainless steel guides with aluminum oxide inserts but those are Fuji. They aren't the best but they are plenty good for bass fishing with braid. That said, the HMX is a little heavier than the HMG and lacks the sensitivity level but it isn't a bad rod at all for the price and if you can get the 7' MH-MF you'll be set or the 7' M-F, both will work fine for those types of baits.

Yo-Zuri 3DS Popper. Youzuri 3DB Square Bill. Bagley Balsa Shad. Bagley Rattling Killer B. Bagley Knocker B.

A bullet head or cone shaped head is made for grass, arky heads and other similarly shaped heads are for wood and brush and then you have your round head which is the all purpose head, it works just about anywhere but it isn't the best at anything but functions well in most types of cover and it really a good finesse head. The football head is for rocks or hard bottom in general and often sports a light wire hook to make hook sets easy with lighter lines when fishing deep, there are a bunch of other types out there but this is just a general view of common types of jigs and the best way to use them.

I'm pretty sure that a bait that suspends in 45 degree water would probably sink in 70 degree water, maybe 80 degrees but the cold water is more dense so if a bait slowly rises at 45 degrees, it will rise even slower or maybe suspend at 55 degrees, very hard to tell but the warmer the water the less dense.

Go with a really good jig and worm rod and you won't have to worry about another one like you are now. I don't care for the reel seats or the company but the Kistler KLX and in the higher end range, the Helium 3 are hard to beat for sensitivity in there respective price ranges and even beyond. Everyone has a favorite, it all depends on what you are looking for when it comes to looks and components. I don't like the Kistler rods because they use the Fuji ECS reel seat, a lot of guys love them but I much prefer the new skeleton seats like the Fuji SK2 or the Pac Bay Minima and comfort will make a big difference when it comes to jig fishing. For myself, I only use braid on my flipping stick and my frog rod and other than that the rest is copolymer monofilament so I like stiffer actions for my jig and worm rods. Now you mentioned you would rather have a rod that is fast because extra fast rods are a bit too stiff, that made me think of a rod that you may like, a G.Loomis GL3 MBR 844C, it is rated 1/4oz - 1oz and has the wonderful mag bass taper which is a fast action but it has a little bit more flex than the BCR rods that Loomis is famous for. These aren't modern at all but they are still light and very well balanced with great sensitivity and I always considered the GL3 a better value than the IMX simply because the differences are, at least to me, very small and I have both a GL3 and an IMX and if I was doing it all over I'd go with the GL3. My other advise is to take your time, get exactly the rod you want, and go by what you like and take our opinions and reviews with a grain of salt as we all have our favorites but this will be your rod, you need to be happy with the look, feel, and performance of the rod and if one of those is missing, you'll end up questioning it and eventually regretting your purchase. Good luck.

So you have the Quantum Tour KVD rods, are they the graphite or the composite cranking rods? There are 2 series and both are red, there is the graphite fast action rods and then there is the composite moderate fast action rods, which do you own? The graphite series is way to stiff for cranks, the only one that would remotely work is the spinnerbait rod, 6'10" medium power fast action but it has a soft tip section but you don't have that rod.

I agree with Sam, 6lb mono is fine for a drop shot but not an ultra light rod, medium or medium light in the 6'8" to 7'1" range.

I happen to think that the work you did is great!! I don't think you need a ton of detail, just some great color blending and you will have a great bait and your colors are blended very well with good transition and fading, well done.