smalljaw67

If you have rip rap or chunk rock then you have a place to throw square bills. Another good place is over tops of weed beds, you don't have to be hitting bottom for them to be effective. I love bouncing them off of rip rap but I also like to take a super shallow diver like the Manns 1 minus or the small Sebile Crankster and run them over weed tops. The reason they see a lot of love is because you can throw them up shallow and get them back. The best time to throw them is in what are very good spinnerbait conditions, light wind and /or overcast conditions make for a good square bill bite.

If water is stained almost all the time then the fish adapt but the waters I fish are clear most of the time and when the water gets dirty a swim bait is not good, we tend to use them like jerkbaits, 2' of visibility and more.

It is actually DUCT Tape, Duck Tape is a brand now.

What rod? Is it spinning or casting? To me it sounds as if the thread in the locking nut is damaged, I'm not sure if there is a way to fix it without a total rebuild.

Good deal man, it is always fantastic when you have a good day. I have muskies in my lakes and rivers, I don't target them so I don't do any research or learn how to catch them but every now and again you'll have a flurry of activity with them and it seems to happen in the exact moment you don't want it to happen. In my case it is when I use LC Pointers, I can throw Rattlin Rogues, Storm Twitch sticks and all the less expensive lures and never get a sniff from a musky, the first cast with a Lucky Craft Pointer and a 40"+ fish grabs it and with 12lb mono and no steel leader the fight only lasts 2 minutes and the fish is gone and so is my bait. Don't fret, you'll get a musky landed if you fish in waters that have them, wait until the fall starts, that is when they move shallow and eat, good luck for that future fish!

Raul gave the best answer, Japan has a high cost of living and therefore labor is expensive, the same with the U.S. so anything that is labor intensive to make will be expensive. The other deal is the art, there aren't many people who can make one of these by hand that looks as good and will swim as well and that means there isn't a huge supply so if you want one you will pay. G.Loomis and St. Croix are American made rods and are very good but you wonder why they cost so much, the reason is the amount of labor it takes to make one and the people working there are paid well. If you love having a one of a kind, hand made lure with the utmost attention paid to detail, then $400 is a small price to pay and it puts you in a club of people who own them. Most here have reels that cost more than $75 and rods that cost more than $50, that makes us a minority in the angling world, you wouldn't know it but the next time you see someone sitting on the bank fishing or sitting in an old jon boat, take a look at the tackle, more often than not you are going to see a South Bend or Shakespear rod and possibly a old Mitchell or Shakespear reel. Go to a flea market and take a look at the kinds of tackle people sell that were in their house, you very seldom find anything that was more than $20 when it was new. So as we are the minority who pays more than $100 for rods and reels, so too are the people who pay $400 for a lure, it just depends on the level you're at and if you have enough disposable income, in fact I bet that if most had an income that allowed you to spend that much without hurting your finances, you would all have one.

This^^^^, Any craft store will have these as it is a bead organizer. I use the same thing for spinnerbait spacers and beads, clevis', and swivels.

Remember when 6'6" were considered long and Ugly Sticks were considered good rods. When all the hooks were bronze finished and Mitchell spinning reels were one of the best you could buy. I remember seeing the price on a Fenwick HMG Iron Hawk and thinking I'll never pay anywhere close to that for a fishing rod.

The only time I use an unweighted T-Rig is for Senkos and flukes so I was talking about a weighted T-Rig. To me, I'll use an unweighted T-rig even in the same conditions as I would a weighted T-rig or a jig because I'm using it in different areas.

Rapala flat Rap, Manns baby 1 minus, Cotton Cordell Big-O are the hard baits to use. For plastics, anything will work but 2.75" to 3.5" tubes, 3" Senkos fished on a small 1/16oz to 1/8oz jig head with a size #1 hook, 4" flukes and of course, 4"and 5" Senkos fished wacky or Texas rig weightless.

Water clarity and cover is the biggest thing for me, if I have clear water, 4' visibility of more then I'm using a soft plastic on a T-Rig, the same thing for the rage rig. 2' of visibility I will start with a jig but most likely it will be something in the 3/16oz to 1/4oz variety and let the fish tell me. If I have less than 2' of visibility I'm going jig, the reasons are simply that the jig is bulky and moves more water which makes it easier for fish to find,

I use suspending jerkbaits in cold water and floating jerkbaits in warm water but the X-Rap is different, I'll use it during the summer in certain situations because it has an aggressive action. They are very versatile in that you can fish them slow in cold water, so you can use them year round but it is hard when you get to that point that the waterwarming to the point you need to move the bait a little faster but it still isn't warm enough for a full on aggressive X-Rap slashing retrieve, like 55 degree water, it is hard to move the X-rap fast enough without being too aggressive. X-Raps are good and are well worth their price point but you can find them cheaper.

You don't need a lot of rods to fish but if you pursue a single species on a pretty serious basis and use multiple techniques then you need a few different set ups to handle different things. I often make the golf analogy, "why do you need so many clubs?" , in theory you can hit the ball all over the course with a driver or a putter but it will be hard to putt with a driver and it the ball won't go to far trying to drive it with a putter or pitching wedge. The same thing applies in fishing, if you are using a wide range of baits you aren't going to use 4 or 6 pound line with a light wire hook and an ultra light rod to fish 3/4oz jigs in heavy cover or you aren't going to use a heavy power rod and 50 pound braid to fish 1/16oz hair jigs, but if you are using a 2500 size spinning reel with a medium power rod and 8 or 10 pound line chunking some bait or small lures from the bank and wanting to catch anything that happens by then 1 set up is fine.

A top of the line Legend Elite or Legend extreme isn't going to be beat by Fenwick and I'm a Fenwick guy, I love the feel and actions. I will say this for Fenwick, the Aetos will hold its own against a Legend Tournament, some may disagree but I have a friend that is a St. Croix fan and fishing both side by side, I'd say unless you are going to buy a Legend Elite, I'd go with Fenwick. I love my Fenwick rods and I have fished St. Croix and I will admit that Fenwick has nothing for the Elite or the Extreme but the Aetos is a lighter, stronger, and more sensitive rod than the Legend Tournament so with the exception of the two top tier rods from Croix, I'd take my Fenwick rods all day but that is my opinion.

If it is brand new and you get a store receipt you'll be fine, if you buy from a person who got one and never used it, well that is different, you will want to ask the person for the original receipt, I believe they are like St. Croix in that the warranty is for the original purchaser and not transferrable.

I like the Wild Eye Swim Shads, they do catch fish, and the price is good which makes me use them without worry. I use them in the deeper holes for river smallmouth, the other soft plastic swim baits rigged with a jig head tend to get pushed up in river current but the swim shads don't, the late spring and early fall are when these really shine and then when the water temp gets under 60 it is time to bring out the hard swim baits, at least on my waters.

The write up on those is why I avoided the Duckett rods, the micro magic had breakage problems, that was addressed and then the last two years or so there were a lot of complaints about the guides breaking off, especially on hook sets. It doesn't mean it happens to all of the rods but it happens enough that they had to change components, on another forum it was stated that the new ones had different guides, a completely different manufacturer.

One of my customs I had made in the early 90s is a split grip because I liked them before they became popular. I do a lot of roll casting to targets and the split grips is a lot better for me when doing this but if a rod is really good it doesn't matter as a full grip is fine too.

I've been making my own spinnerbaits for a long time, I use quality swivels that cost almost a dollar by themselves, along with high quality blades and wire. I know that the $1 dollar wally world spinnerbaits work and will work well at times but if you are relying on just those then your missing the boat on spinnerbaits unless your fishing ponds alone. Try fishing clear shallow water with one of those when you need to burn the bait in order to get bit, this tactic will catch big fish but that wally world deal will roll on its side and you'll haul water most of the time. How about slow rolling a thumper blade in dingy water, that wally word bait is going to have to retrieved a little too fast which will make it lift up off the bottom because the swivel isn't free enough for crawling type retrieves. Yes, if you only throw a spinnerbiat at times when the fish are active they will serve you well but try using them on a high pressure lake or a gin clear river, chances are you'll feel different in those situations.

Fishing the Senko is easy, if you are fishing it weightless Texas rig then it is a no brainer. Simply cast it out and let it sink, once it hits bottom count to 10 and then lift it and let it fall and repeat this process. I use mono for this and never had a problem, if you are fishing a senko and you aren't getting bit it is because there are no fish in the area or they aren't going to hit anything, it is the only worm that I use when I can't get bit on anything else, it has saved the day for me many times.

I like a size #1 octopus hook for the 4" models and a 1/0 for the 5" Senkos but I have used regular old 1/0 offset worm hooks and they did a good job.

If you have a few bucks to spare then get a few different models to try out and use different retrieves with each. I say that because I've found that prop baits are all unique in the sound they make and certain times one sound will out produce another. The Devils Horse is a standard, it can be fished aggressive or subtle but aggressive is where this bait shines. For me, my favorite is the Heddon Dying Flutter, it isn't made anymore but you can still find them on ebay, I have quite a few and they are the best prop bait I found for clear calm water. I use this in clear calm water next to bare banks, more aggressive or louder baits work better near weeds, the Dying Flutter is best when fish are in spots that are spooky. The bait is shaped in what I can only describe as an elongated barrel, it is round and tapered at both ends making for a larger middle portion, and because of the shape the bait rids just a bit higher than most and on a short twitch it makes a light sound with very little disturbance, the sound is like that of a match moving along the striker. Go to ebay and try to grab one of these, it is very different than most of them on the market, it is perfect when fish are shallow and spooky.

Use it as a flipping stick, I know a lot of guys like rods close to 8' to flip with and I believe Gary Klein uses an 8' flipping stick. If you aren't going to throw an A-Rig , punch or flip then there really isn't much use for the rod.

Take a 3" Senko and rig it on a small jig head, 1/16oz to maybe 1/8oz at the heaviest with a small size #2 or #1 hook. Cast it to the outside edge of weeds and don't move it much, let it hit the bottom and pick it up and drop it again and repeat this until it gets back to the boat or to the shore. I fish river Smallmouth a lot and the 3" Senko on a small ball head jig is hard to beat when the fish aren't in a feeding mode.

Bluebasser86 has it right!!!!!! Beetle spins are the deal, they catch fish like mad and are easy to use, a fluke needs to be worked with the rod, something I don't think a 5 year old can do on a consistent basis. I like the idea of mepps and rooster tail spinners but I didn't use them with my grandson because of the treble hooks. I also tied small panfish jigs for him to fish under a float, and to this day me and him will grab the ultra light rods and fish for crappie and bluegill with little hair jigs under a float, very fun but use the beetle spin, it is a killer!!