smalljaw67

I took a dremel to my Quantum Tour Edition frog rod, I thinned the trigger down and took off some length as well and it is better but I still prefer not to have them at all. It is a big reason the new Fenwick rods appealed to me, the previous HMG was too heavy as were most of their rods with the exception of the Tenchna -AV but it just wasn't right. The reel seats on the smallmouth series ended up being perfect and the short grip on the casting rods felt like it was made just for me, the way I hold the rod when I cast is probably why the ECS bothers me as much. The ASC reel seat was great but the SK2 is as good as it gets for me, I pick up the rods and it is like putting on an old worn shirt, it feels like every aspect of the rod was made to suit my needs, something you don't find everyday. I have a plethora of rods with a nice stable of high end and I know there are a lot better rods but so far none of them have the entire package, if the blank is awesome it usually has the ECS on it, if it is cheap it has a reel seat I like but is heavy and dead and even a lot of the JDM rods seem heavy to me, like the Oorochi XX rods, I got to fish them and I don't think they are great, the KLX would be the ultimate rod if they didn't use that reel seat but to get a custom then I blow out my budget so I am limited. Ever since I had cancer, the neuropathy in my hands has magnified the pain level of the wrong reel seat to the point of just holding it distracts from feeling anything else, so comfort is a premium for me and to find comfort with a decent blank with nice actions work for me.

I hate the Fuji ECS because the trigger is too wide and long and after a full day of fishing my hand would be swollen, it hurt to fish 2 day tournaments because of it. My customs I had done were made with Batson Forecast reel seats, and it wasn't to go cheap but the forecast had a slightly thinner trigger. The ACS was a Godsend to me, the trigger was straighter, shorter, and thinner, it was great but the new SK2 reel seats are the bomb, but I even like the Pac Bay minima also. A big problem with Kistler rods for me is they never use anything other than that thick outdated ECS and I will try me best to avoid any rod made with them. Surprisingly I have a few rods with that reel seat that are seldom used anymore but kept around for nostalgia sake, like my older IMX and my Jerkbait series rod, they are really good rods but my hands would pay a prices, especially if I had a day with a good spinnerbait or crankbait bit going to the point I used the rods all day in that fashion, dragging T-rigs or jigs wasn't too bad but moving baits with that reel seat is just painful for me.

I can help you here, Eye Surrender, I have 2 pair now, 1 with a copper lens and 1 with a green lens, awesome sunglasses that I actually forget are on my face they are that light. I had a good pair of Maui Jims that I really liked and the fell to the depths by accident and I swore I'd never buy an expensive pair again. I looked at all kinds of sunglasses from $30 to $80 and I didn't care for most and by stupid luck a friend new an off the wall vendor and told me the glasses are great for $49.99 and $59.99. I chose the more expensive pair just because the frame size is a little larger but I have to tell you that after the first pair I had to get a second pair, they come with a had case and cloth which I thought was going to mean bad glasses but nope, they are legit, fantasic optical quality, I would tell you the optical quality is better than the Smith Action Optics that I bought which were $119 but I hated how they felt on my face. Go to the website and take a look, they aren't stunning like the Oakly half jackets but they look conservative but super strong and super light with lifetime replacement warranty if the lens gets scratched or if the frame breaks which are, TR-90 I-Flex, try find those frames on cheap glasses. Trust me, you'll like them.

Let me ask you a question, what is the highest end rod you ever used? That will help with a lot because the rods you are looking into are in the $100 to $120 range. If you never experienced a rod in the $250 to $300+ then any of those rods will work for you. Remember, you have to take reviews with a grain of salt as everyone is different, for example the Kistler KLX gets a ton of love because the blanks that are used are made by Gary Loomis' NFC company, I got to fish with one for 3 days and I don't like it, I hate the reel seat and the blank doesn't feel different than most other rods in the price range. That said, most would grab based on the fact Gary Loomis made a blank even though is does have a heavy fiberglass scrim, the rod is light but it doesn't feel crisp, sort of blunt would be the best way to put it but that could be because I hate the reel seat so bad. My advice would be to get a rod in the price range you want and don't concentrate too hard on reviews, if you approach a new rod with an open mind you will be free to develop your own opinion of it. Get the rod you like and then fish it, try the rod for 2 weeks and if you don't like it send it back if you ordered it or take it back to the store if you don't like it, Cabelas and Bass pro shops are nice as they will take the rod back but they both have a habit of having a large amount of their store brand rods in stock and not a big selection of the other brands. There is another route, BPS or Cabelas, the XML is on sale now and it a killer rod for the sale price or how about a BPS carbonlite, a lot of good reviews for that if you need that to feel better.

It is no secret here that I love the new Fenwick offerings, it started with the ET smallmouth rods and then the Aetos really made my day so when they came out with the new HMG I had to take a look. I got to play with them at Cabelas, I really had a hard time not buying one but I was saving for my 3rd Aetos. Anyway, they made the blanks a lot thinner and you can really feel it, and that is where I tell some anglers that if you don't like a thin grip then you won't like the HMG. I got to use a friend's HMG when he got one at the end of April, 6'9" ML-F 1-piece spinning rod, I only got to throw it for 30 minutes using a 1/8oz hair jig but I was impressed at how it felt compared to the old model. The action is crisp, it actually was more like my 6'9" Medium power ET smallmouth rod as it had the same power and once again, very good sensitivity, it is something I noticed with all the rods that I have used from them, the graphite seems to be very good. I also like the up-locking Fuji reel seat, I have a G.Loomis SJR in a GL3, I bought it over the IMX because I like that reel seat better when it is up locking but some don't care for it. It is much lighter than the previous rod but the crisp action and sensitivity for a rod that price is just awesome, I think you'll like it.

I've done this for years and years, it is why I'll make 4 brown jigs and each one will have a different shade of brown. I also tend to believe in color a little more than some but I have 2 friends that would agree with me. A few years back we discovered bass can see very slight shade differences, we were fishing Yum craw bugs for smallies, we both had green pumpkin tied on and we weren't doing to good. I went to change colors but all I had was green pumpkin but one bag was older and you could see the green pumpkin color was different, it was a shade or two off what we had been using. Well 3 hours later we had 21 smallmouth, when the last craw bug was gone we went back to the newer bag that was a little darker and the bite was done, they just wouldn't hit the new shade of GP. I had a lot of this happen, tubes, for some reason smallmouth will get funny with tubes and only hit a certain color and I'd be lying if I said it always matters because there are times when the color doesn't matter a bit and I think that is true most times but I've had my share of times when it mattered a lot. Flake,or glitter, whatever you call it, sometimes you wonder if it makes a difference or not, well I had a day in which black neon (black with red glitter) tubes would get hit every cast and a solid black tube didn't get a sniff and we were fishing a large pool in the early winter, the fish were stacked up on a big rock pile. My and my friend were fishing 2.75" tubes as the water was 49 in most places but the pool we found had water temps that were in the low 50s and when one followed a jerkbait and didn't respond again, we knew we had to slow down. I had a black neon tube right from the start and it got bit, I got my 2nd fish in and my friend switched to an all black tube, he didn't have black neon, well after I released my 5th fish I gave him a black neon tube and his first cast he got bit and landed a fish. I knew of black neon working for me before which is one of my favorite colors but these instances aren't the norm, we all know stuff happens you just can't explain when fishing but I know that there are times when color matters. BTW, this happens more in smallmouth than it does with largemouth, I had days where it had to be either a dark brown or dark green pumpkin to get bit when fishing largemouth but they would hit a black bait or anything light colored but not as specific, the same think for wild colors, smallies tend to hit those more than the largemouth do also.

You discovered the drag problem that walking baits have, I have tried that on full size spooks and super spook jrs. and it limits the movement, on the puppy it more than likely crippled it to barely moving to the side. The Zara puppy is one of those baits like a chug bug in that you have to be careful of the hooks you switch to because if they are just a tad bit heavier then it will sit to low in the water and the same thing will happen. The chug bug walks, it was the first popper I used that walked on its own naturally and it had a mylar (Krystal flash) dressing, throw a feather or two on it and it ruined the side to side movement. The replacement hooks I recommend are Mustad Triple grip in the original size that is on the bait, a lot will tell you to use Owner Stingers which are awesome hooks but they are beefy and weigh too much, you would have to go down a size to use them. That is about it, in reality the bait needs nothing, it is a finesse topwater that will work when the fish are feeding on bugs like dragon flies or damsel flies, good luck.

Good deal, when you find a rod that works for you it is awesome and sometimes it is a rod that isn't all that expensive. I have used and own a fair amout of higher end rods, including a G.Loomis GL3, 2 G. Loomis IMXs, a G.Loomis Jerkbait series rod, and a G.Loomis CR series GLX along with 2 custom rods and a St, Croix Avid. I also owned and sold 2 G.Loomis cranking rods, a Kistler Helium LTA and a St. Croix Legend Elite and all were good rods but it was the Fenwick ET smallmouth rods and the Aetos that really did it for me. What I mean by "it" is they have the sensitivity I like, the comfort, action and even the look, it is a rod that really had everything I wanted at a price that was, what I feel, is incredible affordable for what I was getting. Everyone has their own "it" and it can come at any price point, and it is awesome you found "it", congrats on finding your favorite rod.

The blank feel similar to an Abu Garcia Vendetta, but the rod has Fuji alconite guides, for $60 it is a deal. I actually think they used the Vendetta blank since Fenwick is under the pure fishing banner. I like the ACS reel seat and if you don't mind that you can pick up a decent rod for a good price, I never saw a $60 dollar rod with alconite guides.

I don't use a punch rig just because of what the OP described, the water I fish have large leaf pads that are thick with large stems and what happens is when you get the bait down and give it a shake or two the line almost always ends up in the "V" of the lily pad. In sparse pads it can be done but so can a heavy T-rig and grass jigs, and the other problem is the broad leaf lilies tend to grow out of the water as well so it is almost impossible to see the holes in which to fish. I have been able to successfully punch matter coontail and spatterdock but heavy, thick pad fields are tough even with 65# braid, the best thing to do is fish the spots with what is effective and the punch rig isn't always going to be the best choice.

For $1.50 I would have bought all they had!!! The puppy I find harder to walk, well not really harder but different because of the smaller size. If you never worked a spook then you will have an easy time learning it because it takes a lighter touch to make walk rather than my heavy handed way. You work it almost like a jerkbait, you want to make small "pops" with the rod on slack line, this will make the bait move to the side, another pop on slack line with make it move to the other side, once you get that down you can speed it up and you'll be walking the dog like a pro.

The Eagle rods from Fenwick have Stainless steel inserts, in fact the only rods I've seen with hard chrome inserts since 1985 are the new Dcukett Ghost. The stainless inserts aren't the best but they will work, the same for chrome but the problems with grooving happen with braided line and it is due to debris sticking to the braid. The Recoil guides are Titanium with no insert, with mono or fluorocarbon they are perfect but because braid grabs dirt and debris, they too will groove. In short, if you use braid, try to get a rod with at least Aluminum oxide guide inserts, if you aren't using braid then don't worry about it.

I have a friend that was breaking high end rods like they were going out of style, he told me the expensive rods he used were all junk so he was heading out with a new replacement he got and he was going with a friend of mine and I asked the other friend to video him using his rod. Well he broke another rod and the exact same place as all the others, guess what he did? He would get the fish next to the boat and just dead lift it with the rod while all he held was the rod handle, always broke on big fish and now I knew and told him. When we finally went together I explained to him and showed him that the rod, while it may be able to do that, isn't designed to do it, once that tip goes beyond 90 degrees, the result is entirely your fault. I'm not saying it is your fault but I seldom see rod breakage, even in $50 dollar rods, that are due to a rod being poorly built or a blank defect. I've had a couple bad blanks but out of all the rods I've used it is extremely rare for it to happen, and of the ones I've watched others break, it is usually from swinging a fish in the boat, or high sticking, which is holding to rod straight up and down while the fish is next to the boat which causes the tip to be bent in an extreme angle and it create a lot of stress at that one spot and it often results in failure. Rods breaking a couple inches from the tip, down to the first guide is normally what happens when you high stick because it isolates that section of the rod, when they break on a hook set, a fast action rod will usually break at 4" to 6" from the top, right where the backbone kicks in. It is possibly you had 2 rods in a row with defects in the same spot but that is very rare and I highly doubt that you would end up with 3 in a row, if you do then you have super horrible luck.

It depends on what kind of lures you want to make, for example you can get into making soft plastic baits by getting a starter kit that will only set you back $100 or so and it will let you make a few bait to see if you want to move further. For hard baits like cranks, you can go to a place like Barlows Tackle or Lure Parts online and buy wodden blanks that you need to sand, seal, paint and assemble. If you want to make jigs and spinnerbaits you can get some unpainted pre-made heads and do the rest and decide if you want to take it to the next level and pour. I've been making spinnerbaits and jigs since 1998, I bend my own wire, I pour my own heads and you really have to like doing it because it can set you back and depending how much you fish, it can take years to recoup your investment. I know there are some guys that make soft plastic baits to save money and they do but they only make a few colors and have 2 to 4 molds, they make the specific baits in specific colors and that is it but if you end up liking it what usually happens is you end up buying dozens of molds, tons of colors and glitters and other things and you end up spending a lot. If you go to Tackle Underground you can find a lot of information for whatever you are interested in.

You'll be ok with the rod for wacky rigging but there isn't a lot more you can do, for that I would have got a medium light fast action rod because drop shot specific rods have such a limber tip that you really can only use certain hooks, basically small light wire super sharp hooks.

The other guys are right, you need a MH fast rod, the medium power, fast action rod is ok if a bait has light wire hooks but the Storm swimbaits don't, they have a pretty stout hook. I use a MH-F with the 3" and 4" versions, in fact they are pretty heavy, the 3" weighs a little more than a 1/4oz and the 4" is like 1/2oz or close to it. Use the heavier power rod and you'll be fine.

Daiwa Procyon 7'6" heavy, the blanks on them are very good for the price, I received a spinning rod as a Christmas present 2 years ago and I was going to send it back and apply it to a different rod but I tried it out and I decided to keep it, not a bad rod at all and a 5 year warranty for a rod under $100 is unheard of.

Crankbaits are tools like all other lures, some days they just won't take a crank, that has a lot to do with it. When you get chasers the very next cast slow down or speed up, if you get another follow you need to either change color or change the size of the bait. Since you are fishing from the bank you are constantly searching for fish so you need a crankbait that is a serch type deal, deep diving crankbaits are for fishing fish, if you are marking fish deep you can try cranking but not so much searching. Good searching type crankbaits are square bills, lipless cranks, and wake baits as well as other shallow divers, these are designed to be fished through shallows where a depth finder isn't exactly marking fish. If you really want to get good with a crankbait and learn areas that hold fish and how to fine tune your presentation with them, I suggest getting a Bomber Square "A", they are inexpensive and small, the larger one is still small but weighs 3/8oz so it cast well. Get Foxy shad, Oxbow, and Foxy mama, those 3 colors will cover the conditions that you will face, they are inexpensive as I said but they are really productive, the small size will entice strikes from small fish as well as big ones but it is more appealing to all fish which will get you bites and that will give you confidence and you will learn. I normally wouldn't recommend a specific bait but being a shore angler, you don't have a graph to find fish, you need to search them and this little bait comes through cover very well, it is very affordable and the fish eat it, I have fished flasts with a couple different square bills and didn't even get a follow only to tie on the Square "A" and end up catching seven or eight nice bass from a spot I thought had zero fish, that is what you need and a lipless crank of some kind. Good luck and don't give up on cranks.

I like silver Thread AN40 in 8# and 12#, Triple Fish Camo-Escent in 16# and before it became hard to find, Cajun Clear Lightning in 17# and 20#. Out of all of them I'd go with the Clear Lightning for casting reels, it gets a bad rap for being cheap and handling bad but it isn't made for spinning reels. What I like about it is the fact it is super clear and has very low stretch and the abrasion resistance is off the chart but it is very hard to find. The Triple Fish I feel is under rated, the 16# I've been using for a few years for jig and worm fishing in moderate cover and it performs, low stretch and extremely good abrasion resistance but I'm not sure if the color is great, if it was as clear as the clear lightning then there would be nothing that could beat it. I will also say that those 2 lines are horrible on spinning reels, that is where the Silver Thread AN40 comes in, that suff is great but in high tests it stretches a little more than the others but it handles better than most also.

I'm left handed and I'm exactly the same, my spinning set up I prefer the handle on the left side and my casting set up I like the handle on the right. It is great for casting as you don't have to switch hands but you do when spinning but I find it surprisingly natural and it is automatic, if it isn't broke, don't fix it!!

That is part of the reel seat, I'll venture that you'll need to use a different reel seat altogether.

River Rock Baits 5.25" Stick in Black Neon or Penn Melon Flash, those are the real deal.

I never used the bumble bug but the cricket hopper is a trout slayer, especially in moving water.

You aren't doing bad but there are some things I've found that make spinnerbait fishing a little better. First deal is 50lb braid with a MH rod, I hope that is a moderate action rod and if it is a fast then you will eventually have problems. The one big problem, even with the drag set, is going to be getting hit right at the boat with very little line out, I've had it happen to me and watched 3 others I fish with go through the same problem, broken rod tips. Now, we were fishing smallmouth but if you get hit and the boat the no stretch line with a stout rod is a disaster. The hardest thing to control is hooks, I make my own and it is a reason I do make them, I have used a bunch of hooks and right now the best are the VMC ,and Mustad round bend hooks. I have used Gamakatsu and the Owner spinnerbait hook and what I noticed is the Gammy and Owner both have a tendency to tear open big holes if you hook them in the membrane are near the corner of the mouth and it happen a lot just because of how they hit the bait. The reason they are super sharp is they have cutting points, the Mustad has what they call and ultra point and VMC has the cone cut, these are penetrating hooks with sharp points while the Owner and Gammy have a sharp barb so when the fish shakes its head the hook point acts like a saw. I spent 2 years using the same spinnerbait type made with each style hook and kept a log book and you can easily see hook up ratios from all 4 hook brands used. Now, there are other reasons you lose fish and I know this which is why I did it over a long time but it is hard to control buying them but most companies use the Ultra point Mustad for their baits. I think you do well and if 50lb braid is what you want then that is it, for me, well I now only use braid for frogging and extremely heavy cover flippin', I learned from experience that I like a fast action rod for spinnerbaits and with that I need a shock absorber so I use 12# to 16# copolymer depending on the cover and my hook up ratio is pretty high but you will never get them all, sometimes they just shake the hook and there isn't much you can do.

You must be pretty young, the soft hollow body frogs have been around for a long time before Spro even existed. The original hollow frog I believe is the Snag Proof frog, I'm not sure if it is the first but it may be the first mass produced frog. It had legs and then they made the Moss Master Tournament Frog with silicone strands for legs like all the other frogs have now. I still use the Moss Master Tournament Frog, to me it is very good and after buying and using the Spro Bronzeye frogs, I sold them to a friend and went back to snag proof, I like that frog better, I seem to get better hooks ups with it but it may just be the way I use it. Well it doesn't matter but I thought I'd give you some information to look up, in fact I have to look it up too as snag proof has been around since I've been bass fishing which began in 1979.