smalljaw67

In my waters the best is the hollow bodied baits in a 5", if you use the big hudds or the BBZ-1 or anything like that then you'll end up with muskies for the most part. You will get a few bass but very few because the natural forage base doesn't get that large and even the bigger bass seem to ignore bluegill when the hit a certain size.

I take a 2" piece of wire and I bend it in half making a "U" shape, I put the "U" over the jig and pull both ends at the same time so they cross and I leave it like that so it is loose enough to put my skirt tabs in. Once I have the skirt in position I grab the ends of the wire with pliers, 2 pair, one for each wire end and I pull tight and then wrap both ends around the jig just like the first wrap, again I pull the ends tight at the same time and then I make two twist by hand and this next part is how you tighten it up. After your two twist, grab the wire with the pliers at the bottom of the twist and then begin to twist, if everything is right you'll notice the wire getting very tight, if you keep twisting you will either break the wire of cut the silicone so when you get it tight just check to see if you can move the skirt, if it is tight and the skirt doesn't move then trim the twist ends of wire so there is only a small piece sticking up and then use your pliers to fold it over and it is done, it is easier than what it sounds like but there should be a video on you tube. Good luck.

I like the Trokar flipping hook over the Gammy simply because it is sharper but the Gammy has a bad bait keeper that keeps getting pulled down on hooksets. I like the HD worm hook from Trokar for fishing fluke style baits, they are a round bend and that style hook works better for fluke baits as they don't slide down the hook like the EWG hooks but you need a shap hook to use that style on fluke baits and Trokars are shaper. All 3, Owner, Gamakatsu, and Trokar are good premium hooks and all 3 have cutting points that will tear a larger hole in a fish's mouth if you hook them in the corner of the mouth, I tried them all and for heavy plastics like flukes or creatures then you need a premium hook but other baits the VMC, Mustad, and Eagle Claw Laser Sharps all have needle points, VMC calls theirs "cone cut, Mustad calls theirs "ultra point", and Laser Sharp calls theirs "needle point", what that does is allows for quick penetration by way of a puncture, it does take slightly more pressure to set the hook with these hooks but when I say slightly I mean slightly, the points are just as sharp as the premium hooks but they don't have a cutting edge and they do offer a distinct advantage and that is once they penetrate they usually stay in and even light hooked fish are landed more often as the hooks of this type don't cut like the other. The disadvantage is with heavier plastics as they push through rather than cut through, going through a thick creature bait into a fish's mouth take considerably much more force to get through than it does for the cutting point hooks. On jigs and spinnerbaits you want the ultra point hooks, on cranks both work well with an edge to the cutting points when it comes to the smaller trebles, and heavy plastics you want the cutting edge as well.

Anytime you use a fast action rod for treble hooked lures it should be a medium power and the reason for it is because the lower power is more forgiving so it won't pull the hooks free from the fish as quickly as a MH would. I was using the medium power fast action rods for jerkbaits and shallow cranks for awhile until I found medium heavy that was true moderate fast action, the tip is fast but apply pressure and the flex moves futher down the blank making it not quite parabolic but more forgiving than the normal fast action rod. I would think that the MBR 782 would be fine for smaller square bills like the KVD 1.5, Bomber square A, or RC series 2, the larger models will be too much but if you stick to the medium and small square bills then I think you have a great rod for those.

No disrespect meant, I do a lot of river angling and I have used tubes since the early '80s, I don't do well with an insider jighead for largemouth but on smallies the percentage of hook up to land ratio has to be in the high 90s as we very seldom lose fish on them, around here t-rigs are tough because the rocks eat bullet weights, so the internal tube weight has become a staple for larger tubes. Confidence make a head called the draggin head, it is more like a weighted hook than a jig head but they are pretty snag resistant and you can make them yourself if you have a dremel. The Do-it swim jig mold is what condifence baits uses, they cut the mold to accept a Mustad 91768 hook as the mold is designed for small Aberdeen hooks, Around the waters I fish, you won't find many tubes that have the solid tips in tackle shops, even the local Bass pro shops and Cabelas don't have them in store, you have to order them here as most guys that use tubes use them for the river smallies, not many use them in the lakes here.

The reason there are tubes made that don't have the solid 1/2" part at the head is because river smallie anglers that use inside weights don't like the solid head tubes. The reason is the inside tube jig doesn't reach the tip so you end up having to use a head with a smaller hook, the other reason is the guys fishing rocky river that texas rig their tubes usually use an ez tube weight or other nternal weight system, you can't rig the internal weights up with a solid tube head.

The line wt. on that was 8-17lb, the lure weight was 1/4 - 3/4, and it was a fact action rod. The reason I know is I had one and it is more than a decade old, I believe it was around '92 to '94 when I had that rod. I have a brand new 1992 Quantum e-glass cranking rod, it is a tour USA edition that had a blank made by Lamiglas, I got it a few years back when someone had it for sale, taga were still on it and even the cork handles still had the plastic wrapped around them with the original bar code from Bass Pro Shops, I paid $23 dollars for it and originally it was $149. Quantum was a made in the U.S.A. product up until the late 90's, maybe 2000 but the blanks were all made by Lamiglas at one time including the graphite series and they were pretty good for that time.

I make my own spinnerbaits and I make them specific to what I want them to do. I very seldom use trailers, I believe they produce short strikes but every now and again I will use a grub or split tail trailer. I like burning them so I have a bait that I have bent the wire at steeper angles and used smaller blades to allow me to fish the bait at high speed without rolling over, I make another bait that is for river fishing and the wire angles and blade sizes are different that what you would find on a shelf in a store as they are what I call "all purpose" spinnerbaits. The river model has the same steep angles as my burner but it uses slightly larger blades with extra spacing between them, this lets the bait come through current with maximum flash with little to no roll. Spinnerbaits aren't hard to figure out, you just need to know what you want before you buy, if you are going to be in dingy water, well you are going to need vibration, if you are in stained water you will want a lot of flash, in clear water you will want some flash but more impotantly you will want your colors to be translucent and natural, the fish will let you know what works and what doesn't.

Cadman, I think you'd do good with the Carbolite, the Pac-Bay guides are pretty good as the insert used is more than hard enough, the JM signature uses the K series with alconite rings, superior to the pac-bay one used on the carbonlite but, the k series really benefits you is you use braid, if you use flouro, mono, or copoly then the k series guides are just good guides. I don't use braid except for heavy cover frogging so I'm not concerned as much with the tangle free guides. It appears the blank is very similar, the Carbolite for other lines, the k series for braid.

Whatever you are using to take the picture, it is way too small to tell but judging from the look and your remembering "top secret" I would have to say it is a terminator top secret jig.

Will Weline, you can get it in ready made skirts or you can just buy the tabs like I do, and make your own. I really like it and it works great when used by itself or in conjunction with silicone. I go through a lot of the green pumpkin which is in the electric colors, I used a 60 strand skirt on a flipping jig and it seperates and floats up as soon as it hits the water, that material gives you the best of both worlds.

Duckett has had breakage problems with every new release, the micro magic rods were breaking at first and then they seemed to get a little better and then the White ice rods were delayed a year as the prototypes the pro staff had were experiencing breakage issues. With all that I would wait until they are on the market for at least 6 months, that's about how long they need to be out before you begin to see real reviews done on them.

Are you sure it is hook flex that is causing the lost fish? I want to know because that normally only happens to flipping jigs, football heads normally use standard wire hooks because they are usually fished deep or on tackle such as what you were using, the standard wire hook makes for easier hook sets with lighter line which is why they use that type of hook.

I have my own suggestions but out of your 3 I'd go with the Avid, the reason being is the Saavy is a good rod but over priced for the rod, lots of rods that are just as good and even better at lower price point than the Saavy. The *** Blak has been getting a lot of great reviews and I would say this is the way to go but it is a new reel seat that a fair amount of anglers have complained about so you are taking a chance. To me, the Avid has the best warranty and the performance matches the price but I would go with a MH-F, the St. Croix rods are a little under rated as their MH is a 1/2 power beefier than most other manufacturers MH. The Kistler KLX is receiving a lot of attention, the downside is you have to order factory direct and the kistler warranty is pretty tough, but they use a good blank and good guides but if you happen to get a lemon, well lets just say Kistler lost a ton of customers by not standing behind the rods and the one year warranty is really all you need but it is pro rated meaning if you take it out and a defect in the blank causes it to break it will cost you more than half the original cost to get it replaced, too many horror stories for those guys but it is also the reason for the low price point of the KLX, they needed a stepping stone to get old customers back or acquire new ones. Sorry for the rant but a good friend of mine had nothing but nightmares and basically had over $600 thrown into the garbage with bad Kistler rods that he failed to warranty well within the stated time frame, good rod as I said but you need to understand you may get burned if you get a bad one.

I got so sick of rubber clumping together and melting in my boxes over the winter that I stopped using it. I really liked silicone but it does lack the action of rubber but I found an alternative, lure parts online has bio-silk skirt material, the feel and action of rubber but it is silicone, weird stuff but it does work. I use both the electric colors and the classic, they have no printed patterns so they are like rubber in that aspect, they separate as soon as they hit the water and they are float right up and away from the head of the bait, very lively. I have redone a bunch of Berkley gripper jigs with the bio-silk material, because a lot of anglers liked them but didn't realize you have to dry the rubber before you store it and don't store it in a box for long periods, it need a separate spot with cool dry air or in a bag with unscented talc to keep it from sticking and clumping together. I just thought I would put that out there if you never used rubber skirt material before, as I said, when the gripper jig came out it only took 1 winter for people to start seeing what happens to living rubber that is put away wet or left in a box over for 4 months.

I don't think you can do too much hurt with scent if you want to try those oils I say go ahead and see what happens. I do believe in scent but not as an attractor, I use a product called CB's hawg sauce, I won a bottle years ago and never really used it and one day I was out chasing river smallies, the fish were tight to cover with high sun and no clouds, nothing was working. I pull up on a point that had trees over hanging the bank and oe side was sand bottom while the other was chunk rock with large boulders and deeper water just a cast distance from the bank, this is where the fish should be. I pitched a jig to the bank and it didn't hit bottom before it was bit but I was missing the fish, 3 csts and 3 solid hits but the fish were spitting it as quick as they hit it, I was getting frustrated but then I remembered the scent that I had and figured it couldn't hurt, and it didn't hurt, it saved my day, I ended up getting a 3lb smallie out of the spot and within a 100 yard stretch I boated a dozen more. I don't think the scent attracts the fish but I do believe that scent will keep the fish holding on a bit longer and it has worked for me so I use it on all my jigs and soft plastics but I never use it on moving baits.

Being a certified jerkbait fanatic I have a selection for both warm water and cold water so I 'll let you know what I see in the different baits and give you opinions on which to have. The first thing is the expensive jerkbaits, there are a lot actually but the 2 biggest are Lucky Craft and Megabass, the one reason why I forked out the money for a LC Pointer is the suspending properties, the pointer is a good cold water bait and one I believe should be in your tackle arsenal if you fish in sub 50 degree water. The Megabass 110 is strange to me as I can't put my finger on why it works but it does seem to get bit better when fish are selective, for example I had a day when the smallmouth would just slash at my X-Raps and even changing the color and size didn't do to much, I'd get a few but losing a lot as they weren't eating it. Enter the Vision 110, I tied my bait on and the fish were really eating it, this has happened a good bit and I bought a 110 high float, to this day it is the only floating jerkbait that I caught fish on in cold water without putting weight on to make it suspend. My arsenal for the summer months is the Rattlin Rogue, the ARB 1200 series, I suggest going to lure net for rogues as they sell all the different types and there are a lot, the one I mentioned is a shallow diver that can be worked slow like a topwater bait or worked aggressively at the 1.5' to 2' range, and that is when it works best for me when I'm on smallies. I also have been using with great success the Bagley Bang-O-Lure, both the 4" and 5" sizes have been productive, the rogue gets more bites while the Bang-O-Lure seems to get bigger fish on average. The Rapala Flat Rap, this is awesome because it has a real subtle roll but it responds well to angler input letting me fish it fast but instead of hard darting and slashing, it is more of a side to side walk the dog action, very good for schooling fish or post frontal conditions. For the cold water periods I like the Lucky Craft Pointer as it suspends out of the box really well, I'm also becoming a big fan of the Storm Twitch Stick, these look like a Pointer and even have the same little wobble when paused but the suspend better in the upper 40s to 50 degree range so I prefer the Pointer at low temps. The X-Rap is one I do use year round because it doesn't go deep but it does have a hard slashing action that triggers fish in warm water but it also has a subtle action at slow speeds and it suspends making it a good cold water bait. Next spring I'll be trying the Baker jerkbaits and I'll be looking to find some Erratic shads at a discounted price since the pro who the bait was made for is with a different sponsor. BTW, I like the Xcalibur Erratic shad as well as the Xt3 and Xs4 baits, they are really good so grab some if you find them, I didn't include them on my list because they do come out with great jerkbaits but then they discontinue them and what is bad is they flat out work great, the deep diver Xt3 rund about 7' deep on 12lb line, it is a killer when the fish are staging at the first drop off of a flat, but this is just a short list of all my baits but these are my goto jerkbaits, welcome to the sickness!!!

I spit my coffe all over when I read this!!!! Yesterday me and the wife stopped by Walmart for....CAT LITTER!!! When we got I said, "I'm going to see if they put anything in the rapala discount bin yet.", and so off I went and I took a quick look to see what rods were discounted when I hear..."Don't even think you're going to grab another rod, you have more than enough." . Rods on sale make me weak in the knees and add to it I have got a tackle making addiction so I'm always having hooks or bucktails or spinner blades being sent and God lover her, she doesn't mind the tackle making stuff as much because she is always buying yarn to make blankets and other stuff so she knows which item to fuss about. BTW, that Smoke rod is one I consider under the radar, I have a 7' MH-F and I love it, I got it on a recommendation from a guy that use to fish with me in a bass club and since I wanted to see the deal with micro guides anyway I got it and I'm very pleased with it, very light and the balance is incredible with a light reel, I had a Gen 2 Revo Premier on it and then I settles on my Smoke reel and as a combo it is just fantastic, enjoy it.

I am a big fan of the Elite Tech Smallmouth rods and the Aetos, one thing I can tell you is that the rods are pretty true to the line and lure ratings. That rod would do fine with 3/8oz to 1/2oz spinnerbaits, you can go over that but then you start getting further into the backbone of the rod and it will lose some of the hook setting power. That rod I would say 3/8oz - 7/16ozis probably the sweet spot were you have optimum feel and control while keeping full back bone for setting the hook.

Smithwick Rattlin Rogue, it works everywhere!! I love the new Storm Twitch Stick, don't be fooled by the price, it is a killer. Rapala X-Rap, these work all year and are probably the most versatile jerkbait as they have a super aggressive action with worked fast but they suspend and they have a subtle roll when barely moving them in cold water. The Rogue has models to fill any depth now, the perfect 10 gets down deep, then they have the medium diver and the super rogue which get down around 6' and they have the shallow ones that float that go down to 4' and finally the really shallow floaters that go down to just 2'. I'm a jerkbait fanatic and I have xpensive baits along with cheaper ones and the past spring I did well on 2 baits, the Storm Twict Stick in threadfin shad was the winner for the shallower fish as it worked in the 3' to 5' zone and my Smithwick Super Rogue Jr. in clown, that bait gets down to 6' on 10lb mono and it accounted for the bigger fish this spring.

fluorocarbon is a denser line and will wear harder than mono, if you are using any line other than mono then forget that rod.

I can't tell you if they break or not as I never had one but I can tell you this, if you intend to use any line other than mono then forget it. If you read the description, the rod has chromium guides, those were common a long time ago and when braided line hit the market it was discovered that the Chromium wasn't had enough to handle the grit that sticks to braid and they would groove really quick depending on how much you fish. If the guides aren't aluminum oxide or better then forget using it unless you are going to stick with mono line.

That is too much thinking!!!! On a serious note if you are on shore then just stepping on the ground is causing more vibration that the click of a reel engaging. The bluegill you saw at the spot where the line enters the water is common, I believe the fish is reacting to the surface tension on the line because it is a just a small disturbance of what a small insect would make. I think that theory gets proven as I often have small bluegill that will actually strike at that spot, this normally occurs when fishing a worm or jig very slowly and it occurs a lot when you are bottom fishing with live or cut bait of some type, it is the look, not the sound that get the bluegill interested.

I believe Academy is the exclusive dealer on All-Star rods. The older American made models were pretty good sticks and then they outsourced and were a different rod but they now have the AST series which are pretty good for the money, a guy in our club has a few and a lot of the other guys are liking them too.

That is the sound of a bad spool bearing most likely, if it is less than a year old you can return it, if it is less than 30 days old the retailer may take it back. Believe it or not that happens a fair amount of the time, it isn't common but it isn't extremely rare either. What happened is that reel made it out of the factory with no oil in the bearings and now they are making noise.