smalljaw67

"Fred Garvin....Male prostitute" !!! I love the avatar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A lot of good information in the link that Glenn posted but I'll give you my take on it. This is a clear water bait only, the only way it works in dirty water is if you hit the fish in the head with it. It is very subtle and I would recommend using it to search for fish either, the fun part and the one I hated the most was using spinning tackle because the bait weighs like 3/8oz but fishing it on anything more than 6# line really hurts the little action is has and since it requires light line I would use a spinning set up for it. If you have clear water and you are on fish it will draw strikes but it is a one dimensional bait, same deal as a jerkbait but the jerkbait can draw fish in with sound and erratic action, this is very subtle so the fish need to see it for distance.

Ice out is normally a jerkbait for me unless the water is dirty with low visibility, if that is the case I use a lipless crank or flat side crank. The flat sides I like are the Rapala Shad Rap and the DT Flat 7 and Flat 3, dirty water means red craw in the DT Flat and red crawdad in the Shad Rap. If it is seriously cold, then the hair jig comes out.

I haven't had the chance to check out the tactical series but they don't look bad, but the first $99.00 version kind of had me stumped, the blank was ok but they used a cheap non-blank exposed reel seat kind of what you see on a glass rod and they were cheap, they were not Fuji guides or reel seats, I think if they would have use the Fuji, or Pac Bay reel seat they wouldn't have been bad. I heard a lot of anglers actually like the drop shot rods in the tactical series but everyone has things they like and dislike, it is why there are so many brands selling rods, just start a favorite rod thread and you'll notice how many there are.

I like a small swim bait as a swim jig trailer but I love the fluke as chatterbait trailer, I use River Rock Baits 4" Jointed jerkbait, it has more movement than the fluke ibut same type of bait.

If you were going to the Aetos, the only one would be the 6'6" M-F. There are a ton of rods available but not many casting rods that can fish the smaller topwaters yet still have the ability to handle larger ones with no trouble in the price range you are looking at, that is why I lean toward that rod. I got 1 Fenwick Elite Tech spinning rod and I was sold immediately, these rods work for me, but like everything else there are personal preferences, some like chocolate and others vanilla and the same thing applies with rods. Good luck with your search, I hope you get the right rod for you.

You won't have a problem in the weeds, what you hear when guys talk about that is slop, heavy pads, and that sort of issue, for wanting to throw small size skitter pops up to super spook juniors then I can't think of anything that will handle that range so well, like I said, I really don't fish smaller stuff on a casting rod, but I so hate throwing the Rapala Shad Rap on spinning rods that I want to grab this rod for myself, the problem is I also want a new Aetos medium cranking rod and I can't have both unless I come across an amazing deal but have no fear, that rod will work for you.

The only reels I have heard of wobbling or moving are the Shimano reels, if you have one of those then I think maybe I'd check something else. I have put a Quantum Smoke, a Lews Tournament Pro and an Abu Garcia Revo Premier 2nd generation on mine and it holds, in fact the reel seat works extremely well for me, it is why I bought a spinning rod and then procedded to add several casting rods, I have no problem. A lot of folks like theold Fuji ESC reel seats, for me the ECS is horrible for moving baits, the trigger is too wide and after a day of fishing spinnerbaits or lipless cranks, my hand would be swollen between my middle and ring finger, so I prefer what Fenwick is using. I also like the Fuji ACS and the new SK2 reel seats as the triggers aren't as wide as the dinosaur known as the ECS. Bootytrain, would you like to sell your rod? I don't have the 6'10" M-F, I've used it more than enough but I always grabbed a different one but that one and the 6'3" M-MF is another I would love to pick up, if you are selling I would like to buy it.

I tried this out a long time ago and I'll give you my take on it. I love shaky heads but I thought, why not use heavy hooks and fish it in place of the Texas rig, well, that just didn't work. The big difference was the head versus the weight, the profile makes it tough to bring through heavier cover, even light weights and too light of a weight didn't always work, especially in tress with limbs as the line would hit a limb and the weight wasn't heavy enough to pull the line over the limb. I can walk a T-rigged worm with a 3/16oz worm weight pegged through most any tree limbs or grass and brush you can think of, the shaky head not so much, the shaky head is much better with light wire hooks and thin worms fished in open water.

Same as the scrounger heads as was already mentioned but before that and before the chatterbait there was the "Eaker Shaker", it was a metal blade that made any bait fished behind it work more erratically.

Smallie beaver in the Violator color!!!!

For an all purpose set up fluorocarbon is not what you want to go with but if you choose to use it stick with high end stuff. I don't like fluorocarbon but I remember trying it and it had stretch, in fact the one brand, Seaguar carbon pro had more stretch than Trilene big game, the difference is fluorocarbon doesn't completely stretch back as does mono for the most part. I think that rod you have is perfect for jerkbaits and light 1/4oz and 3/8oz spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, and light texas rigs, and I also would put topwaters in there with jerkbaits, those are the baits your rod will fish exceptionally well.

It depends on what they are used for, people mistake Owner, Gamakatsu, and Trokar as being sharper than VMC and Mustad and it isn't true, the truth is they are different types of points. The Owner, along with Gammy and Trokar, have cutting points while the VMC and Mustad hooks use needle points, Mustad calls their ultra point and VMC has the cone cut. Cutting points,cut through the flesh while the needle point puncture, I like Owner hooks on flipping jigs, the 5304 is my favorite but on swim jigs I prefer Mustad and VMC and the same thing for spinnerbaits. When it comes to worm hooks, well I likoe Owners for thick plastics like creature baits but for standard wire hooks in light cover that are exposed or in smaller plastics I like the Mustad and VMC hooks.

If you are going to sell some rods, I was wondering if you would consider selling me your 6'10" M-F Elite Tech Smallmouth rod, I still don't have it but I do like it very much and I have my sights set on a different rod but if that rod suddenly comes up for sale somewhere I know I'll be on it.

I go to Wacky Worm, you can't be that far from me. While many dislike Quantum, the Smoke rod is one I call a sleeper, not really talked about but they are legit. I have a 7'MH-F that I got for my spinnerbait set up and so far I've fished jigs, and T-rigged worms and senkos and it has good sensitivity and deceptive power for a rod that light and I have no clue if it is the micro guides as right now it is the only rod with micro guides that I own but it is a decent rod.

Those are decent cranking rods and like most other e-glass composites, they have a large diameter butt section. I'd use that for most cranking applications but they are way too soft for spinnerbaits, that is just me as I like to throw spinnerbaits into cover, through grass and a soft rod makes it tough to pull the bait from the cover.

The new Berkley No-see-um !!

How do you maintain the temp at 650 degrees? I've been using a LEE precision melter that is only 4lbs, I used it to make 1lb ingots of wheel weight lead but my immersion probe gives me a temp of 714 degrees and the zinc melted, well it made all of the lead gooey. The next batch I turned the thermostat back and could even get the lead ingots to melt let alone the wheel weights, so I made a small adjustment and waited for 15 minutes, nothing, made another small adjustment and the lead melted, threw in the wheel weights and as they melted I checked the temp to keep it low to see what happened to my lead that is became bad. The temp was at 708 and I threw in some wheel weights and bingo, gooey mess so I turned it up and got it to 900 degrees, same thing, totally ruined lead. I talked to some people and did some research and found it was likely zinc contamination but how did that happen if I never got it to 750 degrees? I totally believe you, I know you use a dutch oven but what is the heating source, I'm thinking the LEE pots I'm using on a small scale may just be getting it too hot to melt, like I said, it seems it either isn't melting at all or it is 700 degrees, and it may be melting the zince part way which is why it gets gooey, I don't know but I'm interested in this dutch oven method. I do this same thing though with the slag, I will remelt slag and see what I get out of it and I normally can get another pound of lead out of 5lbs of slag but after the remelt is get discarded at the scrap yard.

What size Twitch Stick? I have 5 or 6 now and I really like the 4" size and they actually suspend pretty well out of the box, the smaller size 8 doesn't suspened at all but it only takes 1 to 1.5 suspend dots to fix it. I guess the size 8 is like 3.25" and the 10 is 4" and the 4" model is now a staple in my jerkbait arsenal.

Balsa.

Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'10"MH-MF casting rod, it is THE most versatile reaction bait rod I ever used period! I use mine for jerkbaits, lipless crankbaits, square bills, and I have used it for spinnerbaits and chatterbaits and even some mid depth crankbaits and it is awesome for all of it. What is nice is that it is medium heavy with a fast tip so you can rip the bait free from grass and bang a square bill around pretty good but when you hook up, the rod displays an entire different side as you fight the fish, the more the fish surges, the more the rod will give it really is the best of both worlds as most rods I used for square bills and lipless are either too fast or too moderate.

One of my favorite cranks, I love throwing it around rip rap and shallow points with hard bottom. They have the diving depth listed as 4' to 8', I use 12# mono and throw to shallow rip rap areas, basically anywhere you would throw a DT 6. The thing with the Thug is it gets down quick, like 45 degree banks are awesome to fish and I tyook 14 off of one bank last year with the red crawdad color. The reason is it on the bottom in the first 5 feet so you can bang it down the bank until you hit like the 6' depth, with 12# mono I get it to about 5' or so. Anyway, it is one of those bait that the fish seem to really want to kill it, I never get bites on it where the rod just loads up, it is usually a good smack, and it is remarably durably, the bills on my are scratched up terrible but that is it. For colrs, you only need two but I have 9 baits, 3 each of 3 different colors, pearl gray shiner when the water is clear, red crawdad when the water is stained, and bleeding olive shiner when the water is stained but there is still 3' of visibility.

The Smithwick Ralttlin' Rogue, be careful which one you get as there are a bunch of different models so make sure you get a suspending model. Rapala X-Rap and the Husky Jerk, I love the X-Rap and the Husky jerk is a proven fish catcher. Last in the group of less expensive baits that work, is the Storm Twitch Stick, normally these are anywhere from $5.50 at a high price and $3.88 at the low end sale price but Tackle Warehouse has them for $4.99. The Storm Twitch Stick is decent at suspending in the 10 size which is 4" long, the smaller 3.25" size 8 needs a suspend dot and sometimes 1.5 to suspend properly but they work and the reason is they have a characteristic that up until they came out, only Lucky Craft Pointers had. That characteristic is a free moving ball inside that causes the bait to wobble or vibrate when it comes to a dead stop, that little bit of movement is a killer when the fish won't commit to other baits, it is the best deal in jerkbaits at the moment.

If you have clear water then I'm on board with the jerkbait but if they are deeper or you have stained water, then I'm with Hogsticker, shad rap!!! Crawdad, Brown craw and red craw if you have stained water, perch, shad, blue or silver will work in clear water.

Side plates aren't a seal breaker but a frame is. I have 2 Smoke reels, I also have a Lews Tournament pro, I got the Lews after both Smoke reels because I was really worried about the both side plates on the Lews being graphite but it hasn't been a problem. Frames are out, I was in the same boat as a friend of my while he was using his Shimano Caenan, he had 30# braid on and we were jig fishing and all was well when he reared back on a big hook set straight into a log and the reel let out this noise that I thought was the drag, it turns out it was something else. We go over and manage to get the jig loose and move up the bank to the next point and he makes a bad cast and then when he tries to reel it back you could actually hear the grinding and he said it was so rough it was toast, after we were done he went and had a guy we know that fixes reel on the side look at it and he told him the frame probably flexed enough that everything was out of alignment. I found out that it will flex but the tolerances are poor in reels like that to compensate for the added flex of the frame, the problem is under a heavy load it can flex to a point it doesn't flex back, now the force to do that is not normally going to happen but I saw it happen and I know graphite frames for me are a no no but not so much side plates any more.