smalljaw67

Be careful the weights are not newer ones, I don't know how to tell the difference but they have a high zinc content and will ruin whatever good lead you have. It is that bad that LEE melting pots now have a large notice with their products telling you not to use wheel weights because of this problem. I used them and would melt them down and pour ingots and mix them with soft lead making my own alloys which were harder than soft lead but the change in manufacturing wheel weights makes it bad for us that like to melt them down to make lures or sinkers. If I were you I'd just get rid of them, you may end up melting them down and have a good pot of lead only to get a few newer ones and end up ruining the whole lot, do yourself a favor and at least research and find out if they are newer, 2008 I'm thinking but that could be wrong but I was told from a guy at a tire shop that in 2008 or around there some time is when they began using the high zinc content and it is even longer with the stick on variety as all of those I encountered were bad.

That Falcon BuCoo is probably the BCC 4-17, it is one very popular crankbait rod, I actually like them as I used a friends rod, I was very close to buying one and if I saw that for $25 I'd be on it. Anyway, there are 2 types of jerkbait guys out there, the first is the anglers who like shorter, fast action rods for more control working the bait, and then there are the longer, softer action rod guys who treat jerkbaits more like a cranking application. I'm in the first category, I want to be able to get the bait down and work it with a very subtle movement sometimes, and others I want to really work the bait and make it dart and dash, that second way is very hard to do with a crankbait style rod because the tip recovery will slow you a bit. For me, that rod is too soft for jerkbaits, even from shore, it is very moderate but it would be fantastic to use for #7 shad raps and DT 6 baits but in the early spring when you want to work the bait slow you can make it work, it is less than ideal but you can use it, good luck and congrats on the great buy.

I see a lot of anglers using bigger hooks than are really necessary for the technique or bait they are using. I like a 3/0 hook on a 7" to 7.5" worm and a 4/0 on a 8" worm and 10" worms, well I used to thing 8/0 was the magic size until I got beat but a guy using a 5/0 hook for the same 10" worm and that was the day I learned about hook size. I fish a 5" Senko with a 3/0 hook, my buddy use a 4/0, not much different but I feel the 4/0 takes away more of the quiver the bait has on the fall. The only exception I have when it comes to using larger hooks is on certain creature baits, specifically Beaver type soft plastics and on the Sweet beaver, I will use a 4/0 Straight shank flipping hook because it is going into cover most of the time and the other reason is I don't hurt the action with the bigger hook on that bait because there isn't a lot of action, it has the flappers on the back and some on the side that are unaffected by the hook size. I guess the best answer for what size hook would fall under what the bait is going to be doing and where it is going to get the size best suited, if I'm using a 4" fluke and I need the bait to have a lot of action to get the fish to strike, well I'll probably use a #1 or 1/0 octopus hook and nose hook the fluke. If I need it to just glide and dart as normal I'll use a 2/0 or 3/0 offset shank hook so using different techniques can play a role as well but in the end personal preference plays a part as some lean to the larger sizes while others lean to the smaller size but in the end if it works then stick with it.

It would all depend on water color for me at that temp, 50 degrees with clear water and I'm using a jerkbait, no ands, ifs, or buts! My others rods would have some back ups rigged, the first of which would be a lipless crankbait, then a flat side crank, shad raps and DT flat 7 and flat 3, the 3 would excel in shallow areas if you have stained water. After those it would be a finesse jig, a bladed swim jig, and lets not forget hollow bodied swim baits, any of those may be a killer and if there is a warming trend with rising water temps throughout the day I'd move the bladed swim jig and the swim bait up further in rotation to like number 3 or 4 in line after the jerkbait and lipless crankbait.

I saw Rick Clunn at a show and he was giving a seminar and he used 7' MH-F BPS rods for everything and he didn't believe in crankbait specific rods, he even said when graphite became the norm there was no one more happy than him as graphite was much more superior to glass. Now he says the exact opposite, I used to like Rick Clunn but he is now full of hypocrisy, I remember watching him on a show saying KVD didn't know how to fish a square bill or a spinnerbait the right way, all I could think of is KVD is catching fish and winning tournaments and Rick isn't even making the top 50 cut but KVD doesn't know how to fish those baits? It was only 2 months after I saw that when KVD won the classic on a square bill that he didn't know how to fish, ironic, isn't it. As for the TS line of rods, I like having rods for certain things, the thing you are talking about with St. Croix and their frog rod, well they are on board that using heavy braid means you need a soft rod, want a frog specific rod you will like? Quantums old red Dean Rojas frog rod, even guys that hate Quantum loved the frog rod, it was pretty much a broom stick with a limber tip to work the frog, absorb the shock and drive the hook home, you can still get it in the Tour Tactical series. I also see rods getting higher in quality, companies are trying to stand out in the mid tier $150 to $200 range and the only way to do it is make a rod that is way above price point in performance, take the Tatula rod, Tackle Tour said that if you paid $400+ for an SVF Steez rod and picked up and fished with a $150 Tatula, it would break your heart as they thought the Tatula was really close to the Steez and actually had better sensitivity, maybe it is me but I see the opposite.

Good sharp hooks make a good spinnerbait and should have penetrated. I don't like soft rods for spinnerbaits but in open water they work, are you sure the fish weren't hitting the blades? I've had days were the fish smashed my spinnerbait but they wouldn't hit the hook, just the blades and there isn't a rod that will help, the best cure is a a smaller sized bait, and there is a tip for you, if you get fish hitting the blades of a spinnerbait, it is telling you the bait is too big, downsize and go back at them but you only had 1 bait so you get a pass.

I consider myself very strange as I can't stand drop shots and C-Rigs and I'll never use an A-rig so that doesn't count. What is strange is I use them and have confidence in them but they are like a tool of last resort, in the summer when the fish are scattered I know I'll catch fish on a C-rig but I just hate throwing it. The same thing with a drop shot, we'll make some fish and we won't have much luck and you it was going to work that way as the fish are like just off the bottom so you reluctantly throw a drop shot and catch them but I hate using it even though I know it works and have had a lot od success using it.

That sounds like Ken Penrod...LOL!!! I have to wonder if he was talking in terms of fishing fish or using a bait to find fish because I found I do better with a drop shot when we locate fish, it isn't a good search bait but neither is a tube, in fact a tube would be only slightly better and outfishing someone with a drop shot while he uses a tube, that is to make him feel better. My guess would be he can't use it very well and rather than try to learn it he makes himself feel great by dismissing it as a small fish tool, I'm not sure about his credentials.

I didn't see that but it sounds like the E-Z Tube weight, it is a weight that goes inside the tube like a jig head would and there is a hole on the top and the side of this cylinder shaped weight that allows you to Texas rig the tube with a wide gap hook with an offset shank. I'm probably wrong but that will work in the same way you are describing.

For me cold water doesn't dictate the type of skirt material I'm using on a jig, it tells me what type of trailer to use and cold water means a chunk, a plastic version of the pork frog. The trailer is key as I want the right profile without all the action and silicone works with it no problem Rubber skirts are good but they get a little stiff in cold water so there isn't a ton more movement and I think too much action is the wrong way to go, so I use a jig with silicone skirting and a plastic chunk trailer.

If conditions are dictating a slow presentation I'll start with a jig and most times I'll use a jig, if I'm not getting any action I'll go to a T-rig. The only time I use the T.Rig right away is clear water, the same with picthing, if I have clear water I'll pitch a beaver style bait but if the water has color I'm going with a jig. The biggest advantage the jig has is the fact it will be easy for the fish to find it in stained water as it will have more water displacement and the larger profile often leads to bigger fish but not always. As for which jigs to use where, well that isn't hard as you can fish them anywhere you want but there are some places where one type is better than another. The football jig for me is a deep water bait where ever there is a hard bottom but I'll often fish a light weight football head in 3' to 5' when I have the same hard bottom area with some scattered chunk rock. Arkiy type heads are the all purpose jig, but I tend to use these in brush, around laydowns and on rocks and I'll use lighter weight arky jigs around sparse grass. Cone or wedge shaped heads I use for grass and I'm not dragging or crawling a jig through grass, I'm lifting it and letting it fall through, now there are other specialty jigs out there that I use too but that is just a basic idea of where to use what kind of jig.

Go with the Avid, the GL2 is way too high in price for what you get and while the Mossyback is close to the Avid it is also slightly more so getting the Avid would be the way I would go.

All you need for flux is ordinary candle wax, plain unscented candle wax works fine. In a 10lb pot I put a chunk in about the size of a dime around and maybe twice as thick, be prepared as you will have significant flame up. Once the flame subsides you can take a wooden dowel and stir the lead around to get the wax through it and then skim off the slag on top, I usually do this twice and you shoud be good to go then every time you add lead, flux it, you aren't going to hurt the lead and you'll find it pours better also.

Yo-Zuri 3DB Jerkbait, they also make the 3DBminow which is not a suspending lure but the jerkbait is and it runs 1' to 3' max. I also know the Yo-Zuri Jerk-O ran exactly at 3' on 8lb line and about 2.5' on 10lb but they are discontinued but you can still get some on ebay, they didn't sell too well but I loved the action which was basically dart left and dart right and stop dead.

I believe it was the ICON series of "tunable" titanium spinnerbaits and I still have some as well.

I do the same as Cadman, and 1 think I can tell you is you use scrap lead, the best investment is the 4lb precision pot from LEE. I learned the hard way, I decided I didn't want to waste time making ingots so I had some wheel weights that had to be melted so I threw them in and fluxed it but it didn't help, the wheel weights I melted were the new ones made with a lot of zinc, I ruined not only a pot of lead but it came close to ruining the pot. Anymore I buy cleaned and twice fluxed ingots from Roto Metals and when I have scrap (anything other than wheel weights) I melt it in my 4lb pot, clean it and then flux, scrape of the slag and flux it again and when the last of the slag is off I use my LEE ingot mold and make ingots and ever since I started doing this I stopped having my bottom pour clogging up.

I like orange in jigs that I'm fishing in places that have a lot of craws but one of my favorite colors for jigs is red and black.

The laser is a graphite framed reel, it is the lowest end reel Lews makes, I'd avoid it and go with the $99.00 speed spool.

Barlows Tackle, Lure Parts Online, Janns Netcraft, Lure Craft, and even Tackle Warehouse but I'd check the others first.

I fish a 1/4oz swim jig with a 4/0 hook and a 4" swim bait and it is in the 1' to 5' column naturally without trying, if I want to fish deeper of faster then I adjust the size of the head.

I use a medium power for drop shots and shaky heads but that is because I fish shaky heads more and since I only drop shot occasionally I didn't need a dedicated rod so I use my medium power but if I needed a rod just for drop shots it would be a medium light.

That is just excess epoxy, had it been cracked on the thread side well then you return it because there is no warranty on that rod.

When you band skirts it makes it very hard to get the colors exactly where you want them and you then have to watch and make sure they go on with the colors in the right place on the body. For a chartreuse belly you do want the color on the bottom but when you band it you will get a few stragglers and it is going to happen you just need to make the best of it.

Falcon BuCoo, specifically the BCC 4-17 model, it is a 7' medium power, moderate action, that is a very light rod but it tops out at the 1/2oz lure rating but anything in that range it handles really well.

Take it back and if you are going to get a reel that is on the lower end from Bass Pro then get a Pro Qualifier. I don't mind Quantum reels, I love my Smoke 100 and 150 but those KVD reels are not the Tour KVD, those are a Bass Pro Shops exclusive reel made just for them, most reels like that only last a little while, you usually get what you pay for and with reels like the Pro Qualifier and the Lews Speed spool right around the $100 dollar mark, then there is no reason to buy these reels and for the Lews, I'm not talking about the laser speed spool but simply speed spool.