smalljaw67

I've used Heddon Sonars, Silver Buddies, and Cicadas and they do catch fish in cold water, no doubt about it but I lose so many it isn't funny and I was going to start making my own but I didn't think it would work out since I only use them in winter and only on certain lakes that I don't fish in winter if I can get a good smallmouth bite going on the river.

I tell everyone who wants to begin making lures that you will not save money, at least not for a few years. If you are disciplined enough to get just the amount of stuff you want just for you then maybe in 3 years or so you will benefit from cost saving but if you end up liking it then you'll end up with more molds and then more colors and before you know it you'll be an addict and saving money is no longer even thought about as you'll be constantly eyeing new molds or trying to come up with recipes for new colors. Trust me, you'll spend more than you would just buying baits.

I didn't get the cranking raps because I figured I had square bills covered but I did grab a 1.5 and it is good but others work better for me. I use the Rapala DT Fat 3 and the Flat 3, in the summer and early fall it is the Fat 3 and the spring and the late fall is the flat 3. I've been growing fond of the Xcalibur XCS baits the 200 series, those are good for rip rap and in the river I love the Cotton Cordell Big-O, that bait just makes the smallies made when it is bouncing off the rocks and finally when the others are too large, I'll sneak in the old Bomber Square A, it is 2" and weighs 3/8oz so you can fire it a decent distance but you'd be surprised at how many times we will be banging around rocks with square bills and only get a follow and then switch out to the square A and begin getting bit, I discovered it by accident and now it is a staple.

The Lews Speed Spool hands down and NOT the laser model either. I was with a friend, he got a Tourney Pro and he liked it so much he got his son the Lews Speed Spool for $99. He took me fishing the next day to use the reel some and get it dialed in for his son as they were fishing a club event the next day and so his son wouldn't get chance to use it as he had to work OT so the dad was setting it up. Well, after we put the boat on the trailer, my buddy told me he was going to park the boat and head to Cabelas, he was taking back his Tourney pro and was going to replace it with 2 speed spools, he told me the speed spools performed just as good as the TP and the fact it was heavier made his rod balance better and this guy knows his tackle. So I'd say the Speed spool is what you want to go with but whatever you pick just remember to stay away from Graphite framed reels, look for aluminum frame and go from there.

I watched 2 people at a club tourney complain of broken bills on the DT series, it was a club event I finished 4th and had lunker and I got most of my fish on a DT6 but my big fish came on a DT Thug that I was really grinding in chunk rock. The 2 guys that said the bills broke were fishing 50 yards away at a grass flat and after every cast I'd see them wind up and smack the bait down on the water to clear the weeds off, all I thought when I saw that was I hope they aren't balsa Rapalas or someone is going to scream about broken lips and sure enough at weigh in when I was asked what I got my fish on, the 2 guys I saw doing that were talking about the bills breaking on their baits.. Now, I do know that it does happen legitimately, to this day I won't throw a Lucky Craft Pointer or Megabass 110 around rock, I use those in cold water and they both have come back on me with broken bills, 3 times on a pointer and only once on the 110 but I went online and found that I wasn't the only one so I stopped throwing them near rock but it took me a few Pointers before I realized they have a problem on rock. If my Rapala isn't a year old I simply send them back for replacement, and I only had to do this once so I guess I'm lucky but my Rapal baits have held up.

They work well, I got some to try when they came out and they work as advertised, they're even more durable than I thought, I figured that skinny tail section would get ripped off easily but nope, it does last for a few fish, you should do well with them.

I really wanted to like the GL2, I love the new handle and I like the ACS reel seat but it was heavier and used cheaper guides than most rods from $80 and up and aluminum oxide guides are fine for bass fishing but not on a rod that was almost $200 retail. The GL2 would be a decent rod for $100 but at $150 there are a ton of options and you really can't go wrong with any of them.

The DT6 is probably the most universal crank on the market, in the "Ikes colors" I use "smash" and on the regular colors I use firetiger, bleeding olive shiner, and blue shad. If you watch that video of him he was crushing fish on that DT6, it was so visible that he had to tell everyone what he was using, and there is a video of the G-Man saying he was going to try using a Rapala Shad rap as he doesn't know of any other crank that works as well in cold water. I think what makes that effective is the bait is the perfect size as it appeals to fish of all sizes but he was fishing in an area that was loaded with staging fish, he was catching them every other cast and I'll bet that most mid depth cranks would have scored fish, it was just the perfect storm with the right color bait for the water color and it made it visible to the fish.

I'm with Scott F, when I fish lipless I like using a 6.3:1 or higher and in the warm water period I'll use 7.1:1 for them. What you have will work for open water, but the rod might be a little soft if you plan on ripping a lipless crank off of grass or weeds, in that case you'll need a rod with more backbone but really any spinnerbait set up will work for that. The best way to see if it works is to try it out, you'll know if the reel is too slow after a few cast but it should be fine for everything except ripping the bait free from grass.

I've had a bill come off of a DT Fat 3 once and they told me to send it back and so I did and they replaced it, not too bad. I always liked the Rapala baits but I really started to like them when Lucky Craft came on the scene and they became extremely attractive when the other high end Japanese baits came out. I don't know about the deep version but I know of some stump flats that I think the shallow might work well, the problem is I have square bills that work, the DT Fat 3 is incredible and if they don't want that size bait I would follow up with a Bomber square A and it hasn't failed to produce so I don't know if I need it but the tackle junkie in me says that I have to get one....Or 6.

What is a "spinner head"?? You won't get much help here as most are using open face spinning reels or baitcasting reels but it sounds as if a gear tooth has been sheared off or damaged, I don't think those have bearings but I may be wrong, and at that price just get a new one.

If the hooks are dull I'll change them but very seldom do I change out split rings. The only bait I switched out the split rings was the Luck-E-Strike RC STX and it wasn't due to performance, it was due to a larger number than normal said the split rings were failing and after see a lot of that and noticing the bait does use light split rings I decided to be safe than sorry. I have never had a split ring fail but I've had hooks bend out and have dull hooks and most of the time I switch them out with Mustad Triple Grips in bronze, I tried the Owner stingers but when I put them on a scale they weigh just a tad more so they get saved for mid depth cranks as the little extra weight doesn't seem to do anything to the action of those like it does with shallow cranks or jerkbaits.

Cadman, being you are use to the Revo Premier I'd say if you are going with the Tatula, go with the type R, Daiwa still hasn't figured out how to make a mid tier reel that isn't under 8oz and the frames are wider, to bulky for me and I was hoping to get one but too heavy for my liking. I have a Premier, 2nd generation along with 2 Smoke reels and a Lews tournament pro, after using all of them and liking them, 8oz reels now feel like tanks, it doesn't bother me with spinning reels as the grip and the reel hanging down doesn't seem to bother me but casting reels, that is another story. So if you are used to those I would think the Curado would be a better choice, BTW, where are these $99 Curado Gs at?

Jigging spoons and jigging lipless cranks along with blade baits like the silver buddy or the Heddon Sonar, those are what I would and I would vertical jig. Truth be told, I would probably look elsewhere on the lake, the reason being is when you see fish suspended in the middle of the water column they aren't active and often will not bite, I find that fish that are suspended 10' or so off the bottom in deep water can be caught with the drop shot and vertical jigging but the middle is tough. The other thing to try is a count down minnow, they will sometimes work on suspended fish like that but they are hard to make bite and I won't use an umbrella rig but that may help you in that situation.

Yep, nose hooking works and on a 4.5" soft jerkbait a 3/0 is great but the 4" super fluke Jr. I opt for a 2/0 offset "J" style round bend worm hook, the Trokar TK-100 HD worm hook works really well for me but any brand will be fine. The EWG style for a 4" senko T-rigged in a 2/0 as well, the 2/0 leaves a little more tail free for action on the fluke and senko yet it is still large enough to get a solid hook up. The reason I like the "J" style hooks in the flukes are because they tend to slide down the shank of the EWG a lot but not so much on the "J" hook so other than soft plastic jerkbaits I will use the EWG style hooks.

The coffin shaped blades at LPO or pro lures online are MUSKY size and really big. I had 500 that I got from Barlows when they first sold them, I got a cease and desist letter from Z-Man not long after, I assume Barlows had to provide them the names of everyone who bought bulk and I agree, those blades vibrate harder than the rounded ones. My suggestion is to buy a chatterbait, take the blade off and look online for companies that do laser cutting, you will have to get a minimum number but if you can get a bunch of people on a group buy it may be something to look at.

The Zis a heavy reel, I think if you would have grabbed like a 7'6" up to 8' heavy power then you'd have a massive flipping stick and a great swim bait set up. What you have now would be good for jigs, worms, spinnerbaits and basically any single hook presentation there is, I just would have gone in a different direction with the reel choice. The reel is great but it is big and heavy and after using reels from 7.5oz down to 6.2oz exclusively for the last few years it would make that unusable to me but since you are new to bass fishing you might not worry about it. If it were possible I'd cancel that reel and get something like a Zillion, it is no light weight but much better suited to bass fishing techniques with a med-hvy rod than the Z is.

My favorites in order are: 1. Jerkbaits. 2. Hair jigs. 3. Flat side crankbait. 4.Finesse style swim bait. 5. Shaky head with finesse worm. The swim bait was something I learned from a friend a few years back, it seems they are great for coaxing strikes from cold water and the shaky head works in cold water but the worms that work best are all in the 4.5" to 5" range.

you can use any split ring as long as it isn't a light wire ring. I use Worth split rings and I know others like the Owner hyper wire which are really good but in my opinion they are overkill. If you go to Tackle Warehouse you will see the Danielson split rings, I just got some, last season I watched my fishing partner land a 23lb musky, and countless ball of a Yo-Zuri 3D minnow that was beat up and he replaced the hooks with Gammy round bends and he put new Danielson split rings on and they are just like new. Yes, size 2 but for the line tie you may want the oval tie, and another tid bit, I replace the hooks on my Rattlin' Rogues but I use the original split rings, they aren't bad, in fact the only ones I ever replaced were on the RC STX from Lucky Strike, those are light wire rings.

I make a lot of finesse jigs and for my 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz I use 8lb copolymer, these jigs have thin weed guards and standard wire hooks but when I make the 5/16oz, 3/8oz and 7/16oz Eakins style jigs I'll go to 12lb copolymer around boat docks and moderate cover but if there is a lot of brush I'll go to 16lb but those jigs have a heavier weed guard and standard wire hooks.

I only use them for T-rigging tubes but man, the hook up percentage is incredible, I don't ever recall losing a fish I had hooked on one. Basically they are a kahle style hook with a keeper on the shank, the kahle style is used by serious catfish anglers because of the ability it has to hook the fish when using big chunks of bait. The only thing is resist the urge to go big with them, what I mean is for a 3.5" tube, use the 2/0, and then just rig it like normal and they hold great. I use what I consider the best and softest tube around, the River Rock Baits 3.5" pro model tube and the keeper holds the tube just fine but I do like them over the normal EWG style hooks. If I don't have the tube hooks the only other one I use is the Gamakatsu skip gap hook, those are really good for tubes also, 3/0 on the 3.5" tube.

The action is dictated on 2 things, shape and weight, if you want a wide wobble on a crank you will make it in a somewhat round shape while to make it tight you make the sides flat. Then you have minnow type baits, most have a tight action but to get exaggerated roll and tail kick the weight has to be placed just right. I know some guys that make good crankbaits and they even use different materials for ballast depending on what kind of action they wanted. I suggest you go to Tackle Underground and look at the hard baits section, a lot of good info there.

I use to get roasted by guys because I like my suspending super rogues over the Luck Craft Pointers, and I still think they will out fish a lot of baits. Zara Spooks are incredible and the One knocker lipless baits are superior to most others. When I think about it I may have just as many Pradco baits as I do Rapalas and that is a lot. One of the most under rated topwater baits was the Dying Flutter, I'm glad I still have a bunch and on the Susquehanna river I will bet my house you will find more Baby Torpedoes than you will LC Sammys or Gunfish. The Xt3 Twitch bait, the XS4 and the EEratic shad are all high end jerkbaits, and speaking of river guys, I'll bet most if not all will have one form or another of the Rebel craw, there are an awful lot of great baits made by them and I don't consider any low end. Are they affordable? Yes, but they aren't cheap baits and with all the new tackle we have coming out it still amazes me that the zara spook, Smithwick Rogue and Devils Horse are not only still being made but have had no real change unless you count the super spook, the same can be said of the Pop-R, all iconic and still being purchased and still producing. Sorry for the rant but I happen to like the brands that make up pradco, the Smithwick Rogue is responsible for my PB largemouth and the Zara Spook is what nabbed my PB smallmouth, so to me they are as far from low end as you can get.

If you like the EEratic shad, Cabelas has them for $4.88 in Deadly shad, black back shiner, and blue back shiner, I just grabbed 8 of them.

I would tell you to find someone to pour them for you and then paint and tie skirts on yourself, the reason is because you want to save money, to get set up properly which means safely, for the hooks, mold, skirt material, and the Lee lead melter you are going to spend well over 100 dollars, actually over $200 depending on the hooks, you use and how many colors of paint and skirt material you want. I know you are a young guy but I've been making spinnerbaits and jigs for 17 years and when I hear someone saying they want to get started to save money then I will tell you that it will take you a long time until you actually save any money. If you buy raw jigs from Seibert Outdoors or other jig makers, you can buy paint and skirt material and weed guards along with some epoxy of super glue gel and paint and assemble yourself, that way you may end up saving money in the first year or so. I'm just trying to help you out.