smalljaw67

It is indeed a Matzuo Phantom Minnow.

What size hair jigs? I ask because it will make a big difference as to what you use. I make my own hair jigs for the cold water season and the ones I tie are normally 1/16oz up to 3/16oz and they are made on light wire hooks so I use a 7' M-F rod with a 200 size reel and 6lb mono. The rod I use is a medium but it has a very light action and it lets me get a little more distance on my cast. If I'm fishing the river for smallmouth I'm using the same reel and line but my choice is a 6'6" M-F because I'll be casting to wintering holes that are 10' and less in depth and I don't need to make a super long cast to hit the area.

I use a propane torch and for me it is easier and faster but you need to be careful of melting the lead off the hook. For a 1/8oz jig I hold it 1/2" above the flame and count 1-2-3-4 and turn the jig over and count the same 1-2-3-4 and it is down, for 1/4oz jigs I add a few more seconds. The important thing to do is count and remember the number and you'll be good to go.

I like Sweet Beavers, Rage Craws, and Lunker Grubs on a 1/2oz or 3/4oz head depending where I'm fishing them. I almost always throw them on 15lb Big Game line and there are 2 rock flats that I fish these on all the time, one is 4' that has a mild slope that ends up going to 6' and that is where I use the 1/2oz head and the other flat is in 7' that has a sharp drop off into another flat which is 9.5' and for those I use the 3/4oz head.

Yes, I've used them from the bank with success and I did it a lot. The only think you need is the right water, right now with cold water you have to be near an area with quick access to deep water like a flat with a deep drop that is within casting distance. You also have to have somewhat clear water, 2' of visibility at a minimum and if you can get to areas where the fish will spawn, those are the places where the fish will move to as the water warms in spring.

U use an inside tube jig that goes inside the tube and leaves an exposed hook for most of my tube fishing. If I'm fishing it in cover I'll texas rig the bait with a 1/8oz or 3/16oz bullet weight and for a 3" tube you can use a 2/0 Gamakatsu skip gap hook and for a 3.5" tube I use the 3/0 skip gap hook. For tubes you can go with Gitzit or Cabin Creek, both are great tubes and will work. If you want to move up to better tubes and stuff when you get use to them, go with River Rock Baits Tubes, these are the best tubes on the market bar none, they are super soft which makes the tentacles flair out and the fish hold onto them a long time. I think every east coast river smallmouth angler uses River Rock Tubes, no softer hand dipped tube on the market and for those I use the Trokar Tournament tube hook in 2/0, it such a wide bite you don't need to go too big on the hook.

Jigs are the easiest lures to fish but also one of the harest to learn because it isn't a bait that is going to get numbers of fish and you have to catch fish in order to gain confidence. For anglers wanting to learn the jig, like my grandson, I would get them started with either a 1/4oz arky jig or a 3/16oz finesse jig and both would have either a small craw or chunk type trailer. Fish visible cover that you know holds fish in order to get a bite, this will help gain confidence and you'll understand how a bite feels but the confidence is more important. If you have an area that you know has a rock bottom I suggest making a few cast and just close your eyes and feel the vibrations in the rod as you slowly drag the jig across the bottom, learning what the jig feels like is a big deal as strikes will sometimes just be a loss of contact with the bottom or it can feel as just weight on your line as if you snagged some weeds, so learn what it feels like. The reason I say to start with a 3/16oz and 1/4oz jigs is the smaller size appeals to more fish, a large jig will often get ignored by small fish so it may take time to get a bite and to learn a jig you need to catch fish so a jig that will appeal to even small fish is a better choice.

That is a pretty large bait and it is more of a jig than a crankbait. That said, the Yo-Zuri 3DB and 3DS series of baits have been great, a friend of mine had a good day on the 3DB topwater prop so I got a few and that was it, I was sold on them. I have the 3DS popper and I want to add the 3DS and 3DB wake baits to the equation, you also have to understand that the pictures on TW or anywhere for that matter don't do the baits justice. In the pictures it looks as if the colors are really wild and out there but that is just do to lighting, they have a prism center and in the water they have a realistic translucent quality that I believe helps because we hammered fish with that prop bait and not a sniff on any other topwater, I don't know about any other marketing claims but I really like this series from Yo-Zuri so grab some of those when they come out and let us know how they work.

I don't use a tube jig with that weight, if I'm throwing a 3" tube it will be with a 3/16oz jig at the most. If I do use that kind of weight regardless the lure, I'm going to use a casting set up.

Size # 2 is what is used on 1/4oz up to 3/4oz and some will use it on 1oz as well. I use Worth ball bearing swivels, they aren't cheap but they are better priced than Sampo and they are as good, if not better than Sampo. The best price I found for a 100 count is Barlows because they will let you buy the swivel and split rings separate which saves a good bit but Lure Parts Online has them all ready assembled for a decent price and I believe you can buy them in packs of 10 so you don't have to buy 100.

The Cajun Red Advantage and Red Cast have very little memory, it is on par with my favorite Silver Thread AN40, now the red lightning, that has a lot of memory to it. The thing that gives Red Lightning a bad rap is people putting it on spinning reels, it says on the box for round and low profile casting reels and I liked the line. There is another one for casting reels, it is Cajun Clear Lightning, you have to order it direct as it isn't in stores very much but it is pretty good. What I liked about it is the limited stretch and how clear it was, but the clarity, low stretch, and the basic feel of it reminded me too much of fluorocarbon, it handles almost the same as is close in clarity, the only difference is it floats but it is very strong with great knot strength. Overall the Cajun lines are pretty good and a good value but I'm not sure if the red color helps or not but it surely doesn't hurt.

That is just fantastic!!!! I have had some really good success running an all blue spinnerbait in slightly stained water with 3' of visibility and I bet that will work good even during the day, you have the perfect shade, nice work!!! BTW, I love that head for just normal swim jigs as well, great design.

I will tell you the hardware is better on the Lucky craft and the attention to detail in the finishes is much better but when I put good hooks on the Luck-E-Strike RC2 series 3 square bills, I have to tell you that I really like them and the finish has held up fantastically. Now if you ask me who builds the better bait out of the box I'll agree Lucky Craft is much better but if you change out the hooks on the Luck-E-Strike, well they work well and really catch fish, it is hard for me to find fault but I also have gotten bad ones that others have had so my opinion is based on them working perfectly.

The simple answer is yes, you can be successful with one brand of baits but what is the fun of that? I use all kinds and some waters one shallow crank will be better than another, for example, I have these Sebile SR Cranksters in 1/4oz, they go about a foot deep, in the river I fish I'll get a few smallmouth on them but if I switch to a Mann's Baby 1 minus, it is lights out, I'll get 4 or 5 to 1 on that shallow crank versus any others I throw. Now some may say it is due to more confidence in one over the other but I have confidence in all the baits I use, but for some reason the smallmouth in the river just hammer that Mann's Baby 1 minus. In two lakes I fish, the crankster is the hot ticket, the natural shiner and bluegill colors are big fish catchers, now this is just my waters and if I was going to fish 1 brand I'd go with Rapala and that is because the DT series has been real good for me and that includes the DT Flat and DT Fat, I use them all but sometimes a different medium diving bait works better but it is more fun to try other brands to see what is out there.

One of the least expensive rods I own that I like is a 6'6" M-F Vendetta, it is an all purpose rod I got that I could take in the jon boat and not worry about breaking. I also needed something that I could use for a few different techniques as I don't have the same amount of room like the big boat. I use it for smaller spinnerbaits, topwaters and jerkbaits and sometimes smaller 1/4oz super spots. They also make great rods for flukes.

This is going to sound like a stupid question but which crank were you using and are you in a boat or on shore? Everyone here summed it up, I have a 7' MH glass rod and it will handle a DT-14 but that is where it begins to have trouble. I can throw a DT-16 or a DD22 on it but the resistance makes it too hard to do for more than a few casts and while I normally like rods that are between 6'6" and 7'3", I honestly would use at least a 7'6" MH cranking rod to throw a DT-16 or DT-20 because rods of that length in a MH are designed for deeper diving baits. The other thing is you will feel bites better with a rod designed for deep cranking, the resistance is lower so it makes it a lot easier to detect strikes. I asked if you are fishing from shore because I think that is one place where a deep diving crank really isn't necessary, if there is a channel bend that comes close to the bank and offers deep water I would use a lipless bait to get down or work a jig up the side of the channel bend, trying to grind a deep plug into shallow water is going to be tough no matter what rod. As for bite detection with your current rod, well the rod will have a significant bend in it due to the resistance of the bait but concentrate on that resistance, when a fish takes it you get more resistance, even small fish, it will often feel as the bait got snagged on fishing line, it is something that you will just know once you catch a few fish deep cranking but I suggest you try something shallower or get a set up for deep cranks.

The water temp has a lot to do with it but even really good suspending baits will rise slowly. Luck Craft Pointers were worth the premium price to me when they came out because they suspended well out of the box in a wide range of water temps, and even those will come up about a foot per minute. If you have a 5 gallon bucket or an old fish tank you can fill it with water and see how your baits suspend and then add some ice and use a thermometer and take notice on how the baits suspend in colder water. I know I'll get beat up for this but one of the better suspending baits I found is the Luck-E-Strike RC STX baits, they will get down to depth and stay there in 52 to 45 degree water with just an ever so slow rise, they are really worth their price tag and anytime there is a sale on them I grab some.

I think you did well but you 'll need some backing as it is only 100 yards, most of my reels hold over 100 of 12# line so if you use some backing then you got a steal!!!

Yep!!!! It was H&H not R, but I remember the red and white logo and I remember throwing my last one away as the leg had melted to the box and it pulled off but they did work and what is funny is the hook-up ratio with them were pretty good.

I really wanted to like these rods but they are one dimensional in my opinion. I believe that Scott Martin had a big influence in the design of these rods as they are geared toward those using braid exclusively and it make sense if you fish grass lakes like you have in Florida. If you use heavy braid for your fishing or for the techniques you'll use the rod for then it may be a good deal for you. All but 2 rods in the line up are moderate/moderate fast actions, when I checked them out I found them to have more flex than I care for as I don't use braid except for flipping and frog fishing as I live in an area where I'm not going to be punching or fishing super heavy grass. Basically the moderate actions are to compensate for the lack of stretch in braid but they look to be really nice and if you like that sort of action for jig fishing or just about everything then you may like them.

I have several jerkbait rods as I found that 1 rod doesn't cover all the baits I use. I have a G.Loomis jerkbait rod, it is 6'3" and is a medium power with a fast action but the tip is soft so it has some good flex, the drawback is it stuggles with the larger baits I like throwing. I have a Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'10" MH-MF, it is really good and about the longest rod I'd use for jerkbaits, the drawback is itcan over power smaller jerkbaits . Then there is my finesse cranking rod, it is a Fenwick Aetos 6'6" ML-M, it handles similar weight range as the Loomis but is awesome when it comes to fishing things like the X-Rap size 8 or the Pointer 78, for those baits I found that I like the moderate action over the fast, the slower action allows you to really work the bait without overpowering it, fast action rod with a soft tip tend to pull these too much even on slack line so the smaller 1/4oz jerkbaits seem to work better on a moderate action rod. I never liked a full blown cranking rod for jerkbaits but I never tried one on the smaller jerkbaits before, and coincidentally, I hated using the smaller baits before because they were overpowered to easily but since using the moderate action rod with them I've been using them more and liking it. So you see there are a number of rods you can use, it all depends on how you work the bait but I'll break it down in terms of each type of angler. Some anglers, myself included, use a hard rip straight down, I'm 6'2" and I will hit the water with anything over 6'6" but I learned to shorten up to use a 6'10" length. Anyway, the anglers that use that hard aggressive way of working a jerkbait prefer shorter, fast action rods, the upside is you have full control of the bait and are able to really make it dart and dance as there isn't a tip recovery that you have to wait for, the downside is you don't have a ton of flex so with the small treble hooks you will lose some fish but we feel you also get more strikes. The other anglers tend to use more of a sideways motion, they prefer longer, more moderate actions as they think of it more like cranking. The upside to this is the fact they will lose fewer fish and can make longer cast, the downside is they can only work the bait as fast and as erratic as the rod will allow as the rod is flexing as much as, or more than, what the lure does so when fish are active it may or may not reduce the amount of strikes, it all depends on how you look at it.

I had a few of the super frogs but they were made by H&R at the time, and marketed as the H&R super frog.

Casting rods with a trigger are not meant to have spinning reels on them. I imagine you could put a spinning reel on a casting rod but you'll either be fishing with the rod upside down with the trigger sticking up or the reel upside down and reeling backwards. Please don't do that, if you have a spinning rod get an Elite Tech spinning rod, no need to buy a casting rod when they make a spinning rod in the same series.

As you already head, the swinging jig is used to fish a soft plastic like a crankbait most of the time and from peope doing it a lot it seems that the best time to use that technique is when you have one of those dead calm days when the water is like glass.

You can do well with worms in dirty water, the only difference in casting versus pitching and flipping is the distance, you normally pitch and flip in dirty water because you can get closer to the fish without spooking them. Use dark worms and worms that move a lot of water, one of my better dirty water worms is a 5.5" Stanley Sidewinder, there is a pocket in the tail for a rattle but you can leave it empty so the tail will float up off the bottom.