smalljaw67

I really like using the 3.5" to 4" soft plastic swim baits on the back of a swim jig, they just incredibly well together. I've had many days in which I couldn't get a sniff when fishing a swim bait on a jig head and then as soon as I put it on a swim jig it ends up getting bit over and over, and awesome deal that Ive been doing for the last 2.5 years. If I was going to use a different trailer it would be a ribbon tail grub or a rage craw.

I think every bait has its place, expensive, high end topwater baits have high detail finishes along with good hooks and different actions. I often think because the cost is high that not many guys use them and the fish don't see these baits so they aren't conditioned and therefore they get bit but there are times when the opposite is true. If you like using a high end bait then do so, I don't see them as a waste as they have good hooks and detailed finishes that are done by hand, you have to pay for that kind of quality.

How about the Falcon original for $99? They call it the Mansfield, it is a 7' medium power and made for the specific size medium diving cranks, this rod is liked by a lot of anglers.

If I'm throwing big jigs in heavy cover I want a stiff weed guard but I make my own and I trim at an angle so the hook gets through quicker but even like that I feel it is a compromise on losing jigs or losing fish. One thing I've done is mess with different combinations and found that on a normal 1/2oz jig I would use a 5/0 heavy wire hook with a heavy weed guard but if I go with a 4/0 hook I can often get away with a medium weed guard and I end up with a better hook up percentage while still able to navigate heavy cover.

I use straight tail worm for shaky heads and most of the time it is a 4.5" worm but I also like a 5" and a 6". The 4.5" is a small company's bait called an SM Killer, the 5" is a Trigger X spade Tail worm and the 6" is the Basstrix Loca-Motion worm. Out of all these worm the Basstrix is the only one that floats and it does well in clear water only, in stained and clear water the 4.5" River Rock Baits SM Killer has worked better and I catch fish on it in extreme heat and cold, the Trigger X spade tail worm is fantastic in dirty water, I think it may have to do with the scent but for some reason fish find it and eat it and as I said, only the Basstrix worm floats so I'd say you don't need a worm that floats. Hits range from a tap-tap to a hard thum and sometimes it just feels like weeds are on your line but most of the time you will get a slight tap-tap. Setting the hook is the same as anything else really, if you get the right head with a light wire hook it only takes a sharp upward pull with your wrist and forearm, not much else and it is what I usually tie on for my wife when she decides she want to fish and she catches fish on it with no problem.

I prefer River Rock Baits 4" Jointed Jerkbait and the 5" Jointed Jerkbait, they have a lot of action but stay down when you work them and that is important right now. I rig them Texas style weightless and for the 4" version I use an Owner Light wire twist lock hook in a 2/0 size and I use the same in a 3/0 for the 5" but with the 5" I'll sometimes go to a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG hook. The one thing with the jointed jerkbait is the joint itself, you can't use more than a 2/0 hook on the 4" version because even a 3/0 will go past the joint and will hurt the action but that if fine with me as even with fluke Jr.s I would only use a 2/0 as to keep all the action.

I love the feel of those reel seats, I wish more companies would use them. Is that the American Tackle Aero comfort seat like what Denali uses on their rods, right?

I have a 6'6" ML-M casting rod, 1/4oz to 1/2oz and it is fantastic, it is a Fenwick Aetos 661MLMC, I caught 17 smallmouth last Friday on a size 8 Rapala Flat Rap in silver that was fished on this rod, 17 fish hooked and landed. So far I've caught 43 fish with the rod on small cranks and not a single lost fish, I've had misses where the fish hit and didn't get hooked but every fish that had the bait for 3 seconds was landed.

My biggest fish didn't come on a jig but day in and day out I'll catch bigger fish on average with a jig. Pitching a jig to shallow cover is my most productive for both numbers and size, and wood cover seems better for me.

Listen to WIGuide, I like to think of them as a finesse spinnerbait. I use them in the same places as a spinnerbait but when the sky is high or if there is a lot of pressure or anytime the fish aren't responding to a spinnerbait.

I don't see anything wrong but I do have one question, why is the best rod in the arsenal for cranking? If I were you I'd get the same rod in a jig and worm set up and get a BPS cranking stick or a different brand if you want a graphite cranking stick. The Mossyback you are paying for a name, grab the Helium or another jig rod, even a GL3, the Mosseyback is a decent rod but way over priced for the stick that it is, as I said, the GL3 is a much better rod but if you can go IMX or better but the Helium will do well for that also.

How does one "boat-flip" up a 20' wall? What you do is totally different and when I say boat flipping a 4lb fish I'm not talking a heavy power flipping stick, I'm talking a normall all purpose 7' MH-F with a lure rating 1/4oz to 3/4oz or a 4 power rod. Those are the rods I've watched my friend break and I watch the pros do the same thing. They hold rod straight out and get the fish close and rather than get down to lip it they grab the blank about half way up and lift the fish in the boat, it is still wrong but much better than guys that hold the rod at the handle and do it and it does happen. I got to talk to some very knowledgeable people from St. Croix and I asked them is we hit the maximum for weight meaning that rods can't get any lighter and I'm talking medium to medium heavy bass rods. They told me they can make them a good bit lighter but they would get double the amount of returns as guys still insist using medium rods to boat flip 3lb and 4lb fish, in fact boat flipping is the number one reason for rod breakage and high sticking is a distant second, at least that is there theory.

I had a friend that was breaking high end sticks like they were going out of style, he insisted he was using them correctly. He got a new Irod Air series and he was going with another friend but this guy had a camera with him and when I talked to him the next day he had broke his new rod and my other friend sent me the video by email and how did the rod break?? He tried boat flipping a 4lb fish and when I told him it was his fault he told me he watches the pros do it on T.V. all the time and their rods don't break. How do you tell someone they're wrong when they see guys who make a living fishing and they are boat flipping fish? Someone here didn't think they did anything wrong and they even acknowledged the rod was under load when he netted the fish while holding a rod under load straight up in the air, the tips bent beyond 90 degrees and snapped but it was done dozens of times before with no ill affects, so how do you explain that to people? I told my friend, he may get away with it a dozen time, maybe even 100 times but boat flipping big fish will result in a broken rod eventually and he still insist the rod had a problem and it could have but when you break every single high end rod you ever owned, you have to be doing something wrong.

Don't worry about it, it happens even in a lake but usually deeper water will hold it for a bit. For flipping jigs I use a wedge head that is never going to stand up but I don't want it to, I want it to fall though cover and hit the bottom and then I'll jig it up and down a few times and pull it out and go to the next spot. Bass hit these baits on the fall most of the time, and even when dead sticking the fish will inhale that bait, so it isn't hard for them to get it off the bottom. I use a finesse worm on a shaky head that is loaded with salt and I do very well with it, I think the upright position you see in fish tanks is overhyped and while it looks good to us we really don't know what looks good to the fish. I have fished stand up heads with floating style worms and I found I do no better than I do with sinking models and the same can be said with beaver style baits, I catch fish on them when they hit bottom right after the fall or during the fall so standing up on bottom isn't necessary so don't worry about it.

I've tried a lot of monofilament lines, in fact I try a new one every year and sometimes 2 so I know if there is anything I may be missing. If you are talking casting reels, Cajun Red Lightning or Cajun Clear Lightning has very little stretch, the clear lightning is very close to fluorocarbon and if it wasn't for the fact that it floated I'd think I was using fluorocarbon. That line gets a bad rap for being cheap and because people put it on spinning reels when it says on the package that it is for round or low pro casting reels but it is in small print. I also like the Berkley Big Game in that the stretch isn't like a rubber band and the knot strength is fantastic. Silver Thread Excalibur is super strong with low stretch and amazing abrasion resistance but it is tough to control and it does have low memory but the memory gets worse over time so I found myself switching it out after 2 months on a spinning reel and a little longer on a casting set up. Right now I'm really impressed with Berkley Trilene XL Armor Coated, I only got the XT in 6lb and 8lb but decided to try the XL and I'm amazed, I got it is 6lb line and have fought 3lb smallies in heavy grass and won, on 6lb line but I have yet to try it in larger diameters but I'm going to this week. I can tell you it has stretch but not as bad as I thought it would but the abrasion resistance along with knot strength had me sold. The last line I'd go with is the McCoy Mean Green, low stretch but you will encounter memory but KVD line conditioner will compensate for that.

I think they take into account that there will 40 to 50 yards of mono on the spool as backing. As far as the rod is concerned, line specs are generalizations for what is normally associated with that length and power of rod and in you case it is way under powered for catfish and carp, a medium heavy at least. nothing less.

Zorn is the main one just about all big manufacturers use but if you go to the Tackle Underground Classifieds there is one for sale with a set of swim bait molds for 14K.

If you want to use a 1/4oz size bait but you want it to sink faster you can either buy a 1/2oz hidden weight type spinnerbait. The bait has a profile of a 1/4oz bait as most of the weight is hidden on the hook shank, or you can go to a tackle store and buy a 1/4oz rubber core sinker and simply take the rubber core out and put it over the hook shank and pinch it closed with a needle nose pliers. The onlt problem with that is a lot of 1/4oz spinnerbaits use small hooks and you might not have enough hook shank to fit the rubber core sinker on it.

Are you saying your budget is $150 for just the rod or the rod and reel? Your title says rod but then you say you are treating yourself to a nice rod and reel with a budget of $150. If the rod budget is $150 there really isn't a way to go wrong at the price range so what you do is go to Tackle Warehouse and take a look at the rods and see what model has the look you want and go from there. I'm sure you already know what power and action as well as length you want.

I do a lot of river smallmouth fishing in a shallow and extremely rocky river and the rocks slice braid up and I hate fluorocarbon plus it sinks and makes for a tough to work a jig in a drift. Anyway, because of those thing we use mono, and for a long time I liked Silver Thread AN40 but I do try different line now and again and I saw a local tackle shop had the Berkley Trilene XL Armor Coated for sale in the 6lb test I was needing so I decided to try 2 spools, 1 in low-vis green and the other clear. Well after a dozen trips so far I can say without regret that at the 6lb mark it is one of the best lines I ever used. I use XT in 8lb for flukes and tubes and Big Game and Triple Fish on my casting set ups in 12lb to 17lb but the 6lb was so good I'm going to give 8lb a shot next. To fish the river you need good abrasion resistance, that is the most important with strength coming in a close second and I never got the XL for river fishing as it is very limp but it doesn't have the abrasion resistance needed for the river but the XL Armor coated was said to be manageable just like normal XL but have even better abrasion resistance than XT. Well the first thing I noticed after a few casts with a 1/16oz jig head with a 3" *** worm on the line was that it did indeed allow for some great distance, noticeable difference from the previous line I had on. On my 3rd trip with the line I realized that I wasn't developing loops and the line wasn't twisting really bad, this was due to the fact the line memory is just about zero, even a week in between trips and the line doesn't come off the spool in loops, that is really nice. Well the line handles good and no tangles or spool memory but what about strength? Well it has it in spades along with the abrasion resistance, not once did I have a fish break off and there were plenty of times that I think they should have either got off or broke me off. The last 2 trips we've been finding the bigger fish in slow current with large grass beds everywhere, you either fish topwater or fish the small pockets that are like a 10' diameter hole in the grass. I was wondering if I should even try to throw that light line in a pocket but I was testing it out so I dropped a finesse worm on a 1/16oz jig head into the pocket and it got hit immediately, and the fish took drag and ran into the heart of not one or two but four big patches of heavy grass, it iwas so thick it clogged the jet motor that is on the boat. After a 5 minute fight of pulling the smallmouth out of that grass I landed a solid 15.5" smallmouth that just tipped the scale at 2lbs, not big but solid, but I wasn't done, I repeated this pattern for the remainder of the day and last week was the same deal. With all the fish I caught and no break offs and being very manageable I would say the line is pretty good, but just the amount of grass I was pulling solid fish from along with a 19" 3lb 4oz pig , I have to tell you that I'm really sold on the line, well at least the 6lb test. If the 8lb performs as well as the 6lb I may just use it for all my stuff, I even went a full day without retying after I caught fish in cover which I normally do, and not a single failure. I never bother doing a review on line but this stuff made me, it really is that good for mono, heck, it is good line period and as far as stretch goes, it was actually a little less than my previous line so everything is good with 6lb, off to get some in 8lb and see if it too works as well as this line did.

Great rod for larger jerkbaits, square bills, topwaters, and lipless cranks along with spinnerbaits.

This is where I get confused, the football jigs I fish have standard wire hooks and a lot are made with light wire. The reason is so you can fish them deep on 10lb to 14lb line and not have a problem with hook penetration. I got caught up in using big rods and I was using my flipping stick and now I use the rod I pitch with, a 7'2" MH-XF and it is a powerful rod but I didn't need to pick up all the line and when I made the switch my hook up percentage went through the roof. Try using Football heads with light hooks instead of the flipping hooks, not only does the hook up percentage change but you can downsize tackle without any negative affects. You hear guys saying to reel set when you get a bite to keep from blowing the jig out of the fish's mouth but with the lighter rods, a 4 power has enough power if you have a jig with a standard or light wire hook, you don't get that problem as much.

I haven't used this bait a lot yet but I did get to catch a dozen fish on it and not a single one lost, but I was catching smallmouth and not largemouth so that may be different. I have a River2Sea Crawler that has #10 Daiichi hooks and that bait has hooked both largemouth and smallmouth and it absolutely sticks them, the little hooks are super sharp and get stuck in the flesh so good they are hard to get out. You don't always need big hooks and my guess is the bait has a high front that tapers quickly and it is very compact so bigger hooks would probably tangle but they seem good to me so far.

They do work but as others said, they get dull fast. If they made these with a black nickel finish with a chemically sharpened point I'd buy them again.

They did it for sales purposes, the problem with the line is there are some many rods that are as good or better at the price point, they could have done something else to stand out. The other thing is the people who will look at that rod aren't spending time on fishing forums, they are someone who wants to get into bass fishing but doesn't know a lot so they can buy a good brand of rod in a lower line and see what performance feels like without paying too much.