smalljaw67

I pour my own heads and paint and tie the skirts and I also pour spinnerbait heads as well as bend the wire, paint and tie on a skirt and I can tell you that unless you lose 100 jigs a season, it will take years to get back the initial investment. You can save money by using a small cast iron pot on a coleman camp stove to melt the lead but it isn't the best way and it causes frustration when things don't go right. To buy a good lead pot, a mold, good hooks and skirt material, not counting lead, it will run around $200 or so depending on the hooks and skirt material you use, I have a bunch of molds and with my pouring equipment, paint and skirt material along with hook inventory, wire, clevis', beads and tolls not to mention buck tails and thread and all that stuff, I'm in about $9,000 or so. If you wanted to make a jig with a good hook in a few colors you could put in the initial investment and if you stick to making a few for you and some friends, you can save money after 5 to 7 years, it depends on how many jigs you go through in a season. If you want a hobby, I say go for it, very rewarding hobby and fun, especially if you live in an area that has winter with hard water, it really helps with cabin fever!! For pure cost, stick with buying them.

The 7'3" H is the only one under the 7'11" that is a fast action, all the rest are moderate or moderate fast. When these were released I had the pleasure of talking to a representative from Okuma about the line. I was told that I wasn't alone and there was a lot of shops in the northern areas that were looking for faster actions as well.

I actually like a medium power, fast action rod for square bills, well at least the ones that are 1/4oz to 3/8oz. The reason is I like fishing them in stump flats and rip rap, the rip rap is ok for a cranking rod but the stump flats I fish all have grass and pulling a square bill through sparse grass is a chore with a cranking style rod. For line, 12# mono is what I like, it is strong enough to pull a big fish out but still supple enough for good casting distance.

The 15 years comes straight from St. Croix, and a tackle shop Owner I know said that all the SClll blanks will feature 15 year warranties.

I thought I was the only one that didn't care for the Fuji ECS reel seat, well at least I'm not alone. I'm happy to see they integrated the foregrip and locking nut to hide those reel seat threads.

Stick with basic colors, GP, Black, and watermelon and varieties of the sort like watermelon red flake, or watermelon candy and so on. I do well fishing them Texas style weightless and I almost never add weight except for the times I use them on a shaky head. I was blown away when a friend put a Senko on a shaky head, I said it was a waste of time, the action is on the fall and by rigging it in a shaky head you ruin the action. Guess what? Yeah, it was great on a shaky head and while it is, there have to be certain conditions to do it. 3" Senkos are killer on a small 1/16oz or 1/8oz ball head jig with a #1 hook, it is an ultra finesse tactic that really works anywhere, last week we were fishing for river smallies, we caught them using lipless cranks a few days later but the trip prior the only thing that got bit was a black neon 3" Senko on a ball head jig.

I buy all my soft plastics from a small manufacturer in Virginia, it is called River Rock Baits. I found them by accident, a tackle shop had some soft plastic jerkbaits I never heard of so I got a bag and I was instantly hooked on them. I looked them up on the internet and decided to try out some more stuff and now their stick worms (senkos) are all I use, they fall very close to an original and it is the first non Yamamoto I ever used that has such a sink rate and movement. I alsu use the beaver baits and the tubes are the softest you'll get, yes, I'm a fan and I'm not involved with them at all, I just really like what they make, a better grade of plastic makes for livelier baits.

I live in NE PA and I wouldn't use the lipless crank unless you are fishing the Susquehanna, or Juniata Rivers. I got my best smallmouth of the day on Monday on a Cotton Cordell Super Spot, black back with a chrome body. The reason I used it was because the smallmouth will position themselves in the riffles to feed this time of year and the water was stained because of all the rain and T-Storms. The frog will work if you are on a lake with emergent grass or pads as long as the pads aren't 2' high in the lake or water you'll be fishing. Right now I'm using regular jigs in 3/8oz and 1/2oz tight to cover close to the bank because most lakes have high water right now, if that doesn't work I'll go with a finesse jig and if I'm not on fish shallow I'll move out to the first break and fish a shaky head. If you have any rip rap a square bill will produce early, it will work the whole day if it is overcast but I find that bite tends to slow down when the sun gets up.

I know I'll try one when they make them in faster actions. I actually spoke to Okuma about this and they said a faster series may be coming. For us that don't use braid the rods are too slow, all but the 7'11" are moderate fast actions, if you use braid all the time then you like the rods for sure.

For maximum flash you want a smooth blade, the hammered blade reflects small amounts of light in various directions, think of it like the kick off for the superbowl and in the stands you see all those flash bulbs going off, same principle with a hammered blade. I use a smooth blade 99% of the time, I've done a lot of fishing with blades and a lot of testing because I make my own and the smooth blade is what I feel more confident using.

I have a shallow cranking rod that I like to use but a decent medium power fast action rod works well for these. Any rod in the 6'6" to 7' range medium power fast or moderate if you aren't going to be in cover. Right now I'm looking at getting a Fenwick Aetos 6'6" ML-M rated 1/4oz to 1/2oz for my river cranking rod, I normally use a 1 minus, a Storm Sub Wart, and a Mid 1 Minus and they all fall right in that range.

I make my own heads and tie the jigs and there are a bunch of different ones I use. In the winter and early spring I tie small 1/16oz to 1/4oz buck tails on a round head, a football head and on a walleye head depending on whether I'm fishing them on a lake or river. Right now I'm using 3/8oz wedge head jigs with a 60 degree round bend heavy wire hook tied with buck tail and hackle feathers to slowly swim along the river bottom for big smallmouth, I tie on hackle feathers to add a little different action because these will not be used with a trailer. I also have the same heads in 5/8oz that are tied with buck tail and I use a 4" Manns Manipulator grub on the back as a trailer and they will be bottom bounced for largemouth in 10' to 20' of water.

I hope they bring back the sub-wart, those were awesome shallow cranks and I only have 1 left.

I won't make fun of you or bash you but you said something that threw me a bit and when I tell you what I have to tell you, it is going to make you really think. You said you don't like the jig skirts as the Dirty jigs skirts have more action????? I know from this statement you aren't aware that every company uses the same silicone skirting as everyone else, there are subtle differences that you can fix easily, like how many strands are in the skirt, the length of the skirt, and how it is attached, is it tied with wire or does it use a band? I'm familiar with both brands and if you want the SK jig skirts to be more lively, simply cut 1/2" off the length and tie the skirt with some braid or a zip tie and then you will have a lively skirt but the material is all the same.

I was told that they are good reels by a guy that is an authorized warranty repair for Daiwa in my area and he was the one who told me they discontinued them earlier than what was expected due to a high percentage of problems. Yes, you got 4 good ones and no problems, every brand has lemons and while I have only experienced 1 brand that failed on me (Shimano Symetre) I thought it was worth telling New2BC4Bass what an authorized repair shop told me and that was there are a high percentage of reels with problems in this particular line. I was also told that on normal production you expect less than 3% return due to material or workmanship defects, on higher end models like the Steez or the T# it is supposed to be less than 1% but the T3 have more than tripled the return rate of the Steez. It is just like guys saying the Quantum Smoke is junk and theirs fell apart, I have 2 that are better than my Revo Premier 2nd generation, well actually the 150 is better, the 100 is as good as my premier. It wasn't meant for you to take exception, it was meant that some of these have a problem, I'm happy you got good stuff.

Man, I'm sorry about that but the problem with the T3 is why they are getting discontinued. They work well but they also had an incredible amount of problems for a $400+ reel, and while there are lemons with every brand of reel the T3 had much more than you would expect. I've heard some tackle repair guys say that the reel was rushed, not just to production but through production as reels have been coming in with all kinds of problems. I wanted to get one and I was told by a local repair guy to save my money, he said it is a great reel but there is such a large percentage with problems that I may not be lucky enough to avoid and with my luck, I'll pass.

Ultra clear water means a a heavy spinnerbait, at least 1/2oz with smaller than normal willow leaf blades, say a size #4 on the swivel and a #3.5 on the clevis. The skirt is going to be a translucent or natural color, even white may be too much, thing clear with silver flake or smoke with a few strands of pearl, something like that and it has to be burned, which happens to be the reason for the smaller blades. In clear water you don't want the fish to get time to look at the bait, you want them to see it and recact so be fast and good things will happen!!

I'm not in that position but when I fish river smallies I am using a jerkbait much more than a crankbait. If I have clear water during the warm months I'll throw floating style jerkbaits before crankbaits but if I'm fishing lakes, it is a lot more cranks but again, clear water will allow me to throw a jerkbait and I will, suspending is water less than 60 degrees and floating over 60 degrees.

It depends on what you are going to use them for, I really like the Daiichi offset shank worm hooks, normal "J" style hook in a light wire configuration and I use them on worms in open water or sparse cover. For the same style hook in a heavier wire for moderate to heavy cover I like the Trokar TK-100 HD worm hook, very sharp and stout. Another hook I really like is the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Z bend worm hook, I like it for thin diameter worms, the bend is slightly rounded so it doesn't tear the thin worms up. Try using a few different kind to see what works best, all hooks are sharp now so it comes down to which ones work for your favorite baits the best.

We've been using that same rig for catfish for a long time, very effective especially in moving water.

Yes, good quality lenses are well worth it and you can really tell the difference between a good lens versus and a cheap one. I lost a pair of Maui Jims and after that I was bummed and I tried less expensive ones and some were ok while others were just bad but I found a compromise that work very well for me. I use Eye Surrender ESM sunglasses, they use the TR-90 I-Flexx frames with awesome lenses, they cost $60 with a lifetime replacement warranty. I'm not going to lie, the optical quality on the Costa Del Mar is better but not by a whole lot, and that is what impressed me most with the Eye Surrender, the optical quality is fantastic and the frames are strong and light, in fact they feel so good on I often forget to take them off in the house and I'm not affiliated with them, I'm just impressed with them as I never had a pair of sunglasses with that kind of optical quality under $100.

I use 1/16oz to 3/16oz with 1/8oz being the most common. You need to look not only at the weight but the length of the hook too for what size worm you intend to use. I started making my own when it was hard to find small weights with long shank hooks and then the exact opposite, the hooks all ended up being long and there wasn't any smaller. For water that is 5' to 10' deep and stained I'll use a 1/8oz head with a 3/0 or 4/0 hook depending on whether the I'm using a 5" or 6" worm. If the fish are in a negative mood and the water is clear I'll use a 1/16oz with a 3/0 hook if I'm using a 4.5" worm and that is a specific worm I found that is killer when the bite is tough but the point I'm making is don't just look at what weights everyone uses but think about the depths you want to fish and the conditions you'll face.

I see some must haves for me!!!!!!

2 trains of thought, medium power fast action rods will allow you to work the bait properly with full control while allowing enough forgiveness for fighting the fish. The downside is that you will lose a few more fish but when you use a cranking style rod you have a slight delay in working the bait as you have to wait on tip recovery and you don't move the bait as far as the rod moves. That gives you a lot less control but you will land the majority of fish hooked due to the moderate action but you may end up getting less strikes, it really is a compromise. I subscribe to the fast action rods, in cold water the cranking rod is an asset because you don't want to move the bait all that much, but when it warms up and they get aggressive, well the fast rod will make the bait dart back and forth and it will generate strikes at a much higher percentage, at least it has for me as I've tried both style for quite sometime. So, yes, you can use a cranking rod for jerkbaits, and by that I mean the suspending kind, I'd never work a floating style bait with a rod that is too soft, a medium heavy with a moderate fast action that has flex but not quite parabolic, that is perfect for floating style baits.

You broke it, you had the fish in the net with a lot of tension, then you moved the net back with the rod still loaded and it pulled the tip back at a 45 degree angle, it happened quick but watch your video, had you taken the load off before bringing the net back you would have been fine. What happened is called high sticking and most of us have done it and sometimes you get away with it but not always.