smalljaw67

Chartreuse black back is great for stained water, chartreuse blue back is a good stained water bait also but it is one of the few bright color combos I use in clear water as well. The other one I would have is chrome black back, it is proven and just works well but I know sexy shad also works so it really depends on what you prefer in your waters.

Get the regular speed spool for $99.00, it has an aluminum frame and performs just like the higher end Lews models but it weighs 8oz, that is the major difference. Reels like the laser Lews, or the Shimano Caenan have graphite frames, good for a few seasons but if you use braid with heavy tactics like swim baits of flipping, you'll run the risk of flexing the frame and you'll know when it happens as the gears will never line up straight again and they will grind, it takes very little movement for that to occur. Get the aluminum framed reel, it will server you well.

One thing I found is if you have the right bait you'll quickly know if the fish are keying on color. I no longer fish alone, so if conditions are right for a fluke, me and my buddy will go with different colors and see if there is a preference. If you are by yourself and you're catching fish but also missing a few and getting follows, that is prime indicator to change colors or size, I start with color and it only takes a few cast to know. The same deal with hard baits, if I'm throwing a jerkbait and the fish are following or they are just getting the rear treble, then I know something isn't right and before I change size I'll change color, if the color works the fish will be hooked better and you'll get hits instead of follows. If the color doesn't work it is size but that if another discussion.

I've lost a few Lucky Craft Pointer 100s due to toothy critters, yep, fished a Rattlin' Rogue for 2 hours and was catching good smallies and the bite tapered off. So after 40 minutes without a hit I decided to go with the Pointer, it is a different look that often works and it did work, I caught one smallmouth and the next cast I hook into a Musky that was well over 40", of course it cut me off and the worse thing about that is an hour later the exact same thing happened again. That was the worst though, I've lost 4 Pointers to Muskies but 2 in one day was it, 30 bucks plus the gas for the truck and boat and it cost me over $100 for 1 day on the water.

If you have a rip rap bank in the waters you fish now is the perfect time to learn to use them! Make a cast parallel to the bank and start cranking, I use a 6.4:1 gear ratio reel that lets me work the bait fast while just cranking at a moderate pace. You want to be banging the rocks on rip rap and normally the strike will come immediately after hitting a rock, rip rap is good to learn that lure because there are usually fish holding on it as it attracts a lot of baitfish. You also won't get hung up as much as you will around brush and you'll get fish and that is why I love cranking rip rap with square bills.

Fenwick said there was a few rods like that, but the issue was supposed to be taken care of, and perhaps the rod you have may have been one of those which is why it was on clearance. I also measured the threads on both my casting rods and both were 1.75" so that leads me to believe the space between the both sides is what is causing the problem, I believe they spaced the threads too far forward on the rod you have. I know it is a pain but I would take it back to the store and take the reel along and show them.

There are rods that get nicked and will break at the weak spot, we all know this and it happens, but when one person continues to break rods then that person either has the worst luck or it is user error. I probably said this before, but I have a friend that was breaking high end rod like they were going out of style, he complained and with some luck another friend went with him and got to video his rod breaking, every rod broke the exact same way, he got a solid 4lb fish and he tried to just lift it over the side of the boat using a standard MH rod while holding it by the handle and the area of the fore grip. I also witnessed a guy break a rod while using a net and he insist nothing he did was wrong, but when you watched it he held the rod at the 1 o'clock position while it was under load, he nets the fish but instead of lifting the net to take pressure off the rod he lifts both the net and the rod so the rod is still under load in the same position and then with the rod still under load he moves the net toward his body and the tip snapped. To visualize this, if the rod tip didn't snap, the tip top of the rod would have been facing the 4th guide, it did get to the point of it being straight down and held but it was that extra 2 or 3 degrees that did the rod in but the problem is the guy it happened to saw the video and still can't understand why it broke, he believed it to be a defect when he was committing a classic error, the "high stick" and I believe most of rod breakage problems are caused by some user error. How do you know if it is error or a true breakage problem? Well take the Kistler Helium LTA and the 1st generation Dobyns rods, Kistler built a good name and was selling a lot of rods but he decided to use a new source for his blanks that cost less, it didn't take long before the phone was ringing off the hook with guys who had broken rods, same story with the Dobyns, so a couple broken rod reports I take with a grain of salt, if I see more than 5 on one site in a short amount of time then you know there is a problem.

I can't post picks on this site using photobucket anymore, but I'm not sure what you are saying is possible but I'm not a rod builder so I don't know. I say that because the Fuji SK2 reel seats for spinning and casting are very similar.

I never use weight, the weight kills the gliding action and even a small amount of weight hampers the action. Instead try using a size 6 or 8 crane swivel tied 10" above the fluke, it will add a little weight and keep your line from twisting.

Like everyone else, if I'm in cover I peg my weight using a bobber stop. I use to peg my weights all the time until a friend, who happens to pour soft plastics, gave me a lesson that works incredibly well. Rig up the T-rig as normal with the weight free and then use a highly buoyant worm, my favorite is a custom poured stick worm that has no salt and some kind of micro bubbles or something in it to make it float as it will float a standard wire 4/0 worm hook. Anyway, make you cast as close to cover as you can and after you're on the bottom you can work the bait without it moving from the spot you're on. By simply lowering and lifting the rod, the floating worm will rise up as the line slips through the unpegged weight, by letting the worm move up and down in one spot is just a killer tactic when fish won't hit any thing, I use this method when I can't get bit even on a standard Senko, it is a last ditch effort to salvage a day because it is boring to fish it as it often takes leaving the worm in one spot as long as 10 minutes but it is almost a certainty you'll get bit.

If I use heavy braid it means I'm in real heavy cover with a heavy power flipping stick and for that the straight shank flipping style hooks work fantastic and much better than offset worm hooks. The problem for me is when I'm not in super heavy cover and I'm using 14# to 17# copolymer in moderate cover, even with Gamakatsu, Trokar, and Owner straight shank hooks, my hook up percentage goes down but if I use a offset EWG style hook I don't miss fish, even the Gamakatsu super line hooks with the copolymer work better for me than straight shank and it is probably due to the line stretch. Most of the time I use an offset EWG style hook, and if it isn't it will be a light wire Owner twist lock with no weight, there is no better fluke hook made, if you use a soft plastic jerkbait with a hook slot, you owe it to yourself to try these.

That elaztec doesn't work well with screw locks and you have to make a hole with the hook point in order for it to go on.

We have a lake that is electric motor only and in the early spring the water is gin clear, a reaper on a mojo rig was one of the best ways to get bit, other plastics not so much. In mid spring you found why the reapers worked so well, the lake was full of water newts and when they first come out they are very slow and lethargic, in mid spring the reaper bite goes away and a lizard does better but for a solid month nothing will beat a reaper in dirty green pumpkin or oxblood.

I have 3 Aetos rods, they use a Fuji SK2 reel seat that should work with any reel so you have a rod with a defective reel seat, it needs to be returned. Perhaps the store new this and it could be why it was on clearance but if not you can do 2 things, take it back to the store or get warranty replacement from Fenwick. If it were me I'd take it back to the store.

It depends on where you find the fish, what depth and what season. In the summer I'm using 1/2oz most of the time because the natural lakes I fish have very little oxygen deep so I'm normally fishing 20' and less. That said, my favorite place to use the football jig is on points, I'll have to boat in deep water and cast toward the shore, most points I fish are tapering so I'll be in 5' of water and I'll slowly drag the jig back. I'll do this for 4 or 5 cast and then work angles, making around 30 casts for each point and I'll start with a dragging retrieve followed by hopping it. If I see active fish or I'm marking fish just off the bottom I'll stroke the football jig and that is my favorite way to fish it. This is done with a 1/2oz being the smallest with 3/4oz and 1oz being the main weapons for this tactic, it is meant to get a reaction strike. Make a long cast and let it fall to the bottom and then "stroke" it off the bottom quickly and let it free fall back to the bottom. There are videos on you tube that demonstrate the technique and it is easier to see it done that to try and explain it but I like it because it is an active way of fishing and it is a good way to get big fish. The thing is you can use it as a search tool for an area, I was out with no electronics and me and my buddy figured we would fish shallow and when nothing was happening we decided to stroke some football jigs and we had a blast, we would rip the jig off the bottom and as the jig was falling back you'd see the line jump before it even got close to the bottom, that is why a high speed reel is very important when doing it.

I use to use a fluke for this but the Senko is now the go to because it sinks faster and I found that little faster sink gets them to react better.

What you got will work fine.

A shaky head is a jig that you use with a worm so any type of jig could be a shaky jig. What makes a jig like the ones you bought "shaky", well they have a long shank hook, most shaky heads range in weight from 1/8oz to 3/8oz and they usually sport a 3/0 to 5/0 hook, this allows you to rig the worm on the jig weedless, basically like a Texas rig only with a jig head. Some have a barb to hold the worm on, others use a screw lock or some other devise that allows you to rig the worm weedless. As far as the worm needing to float, in my opinion it is over hyped, my best shaky worm is one that is loaded with salt so it doesn't float and I have had days with over 100 on those worms, so no, it doesn't need to float. The trick worms you got will work just fine with what you have.

I'd put it away and save some more, get yourself a good rod and good reel and you'll have it a long time and won't have to look to get a new one in 2 years. For a rod, yeah, the same for a reel, you'll find good reels in the $150 class but to get both you'll need to settle for lower end and maybe you get life out of the rod but you will sure end up with a graphite framed reel that will work for a season or two depending how much you fish. I'd say $300 can get you a solid casting rod and casting reel, save and shoot for that, you'll be glad you did. Even $200 as there are some good aluminum framed reels at the $100 price point and rods as well but don't go below that mark.

What you experienced is textbook, you are fishing neutral fish, they aren't actively feeding but they will eat an easy meal should it come within their strike zone. You have better results with the straight tail worm during times when finesse is the way to go, the tail doesn't undulate and displace water, instead it quivers and looks alive but easy prey. The cloudy conditions more than likely had a barometric pressure drop that occurred and the fish were actively feeding, when that happens the strike zone gets bigger and larger offering become good producers but the swimming action and water displacement alerted the fish to its presence and they responded by attacking it. It is a classic example of how less action is better when the fish aren't in a feeding mode and it has happened to everyone who has fished for bass with lures for any length of time. You made a great observation which just added to your "on the water" knowledge, remember it and it will let you make good lure choices in the future.

That is more of a walleye technique, for bass we use a drop shot which isn't the same thing but close and works on a similar principle. There are a few guys who fish live bait for bass but most use lures including myself, I find this to be more challenging and rewarding to fool the fish into biting something that isn't real. Don't get me wrong, I have had the privilege of fishing with some really good live bait guys who had some serious skill in presenting live bait but I prefer to search for active fish and get them on something that I have to impart the action on.

Yep, DT-10 in 8' with 10lb line works very well but to take that and use it at 4 feet is asking for trouble with any balsa bait. The reason is at 4feet deep the bait is no longer banging and bumping along the bottom, it is grinding and balsa doesn't stand up to that for too long, I'd use a plastic bait as even a cedar bait may encounter problems. In 4' of water I like the DT-4 of course but the DT-Thug, the lip on the Thug allows it bang and grind on the bottom without the lip separating from the body because of the design, but it also makes it less effective in open water.

I may have the wrong company but I'm pretty sure it is Megabass that has old Heddon Baits custom painted that Japanese anglers pay big money for. And seeing that makes me think it isn't coincidence as Yuki Ito as mentioned his love of old fishing lures.

I will throw a white swim jig and I also have small white hair jigs I make for certain times during the summer when I stumble onto a mayfly hatch, for some reason they will hit that little jig when a hatch is on.

Raul said it best, color only matters when it matters! Color should not be the first thing to consider when choosing a soft plastic, size and action trump color every time. Now, to give you a direct answer about the multi colored baits and whether they work or not, well the answer is yes, they work but it may not be just the color. Now, the meaning of color only matter when it matters is due to the fact that there are times when fish do favor one over another, I've seen times when just a different shade of a color made a world of difference and even glitter. I was fishing a black neon Yum crawbug many years ago and my buddy was using straight black, I was catching big smallmouths 4 to 1 over my buddy and after an hour I had 16 fish, he had 5, actually 3 but I counted his two dinks. So we decided to see if it was the black neon or if it was something I was doing or my line or some other variable and it didn't take long for my buddy to start catching them and me waiting, so after he gave me my whopping we just shared the bag and proceeded to catch fish. That story is an extreme example, I have had lots of days where color mattered and most every one here who has thrown a lure has had times when a color dominated but far too often it isn't a big deal, so if you feel like a multi-color worm may get more bites then buy some and try them, if not then stick to what works and leave them on the shelf but it doesn't hurt to have a bag or two of off colored soft plastics just to show the fish a change.