smalljaw67

It depends on the jig size,squirrel and kip tail (calf tail) are too short for jigs that you would use say a 1/0 hook and even a size #1 hook they are a little short. Bucktail is a great material and I use it for most of my jigs as well as rabbit and then combinations of the two. The picture is an example of bucktail on the top jig and rabbit on the bottm jig, the top jig is a 3/32oz with a size #1 hook, if I was using kiptail or squirrel I wouldn't get the coverage plus kip tail doesn't have as much ction as the other two and rabbit and craft hair has the most action.

Cadman is someone you need to listen to as he can and will help you with what you need. I agree with him on the swim jigs but I don't use the poison tail for swimming, I use the grass jig in the smaller sizes and the snootie in the larger sizes. The snootie is probably the most versatile jig you could have, it comes through grass extremely well and makes a great jighead for big hammer swimbaits as well as hollow body swimbaits. I also use it as a flipping jig, it doesn't stand up but I don't want my flipping jigs to stand, I flip or pitch them into cover and hop it once or twice and bring it back and make another flip and no other jig I ever used comes through cover like that that one does and it makes for a great swim jig!

Any of the rods in the series will handle big smallies, even the 6'9" ML, and I'll join the crowd as I know the water you fish and the 6'3" is perfect because it'll let you cast in tighter areas and will be a lot easier to wade with but all the rods in the series are light so no matter what you get there won't be a weight issue.

You got the Smoke 100, the other Smoke was released at the same time and is a different reel, it is the 150. The 100 and 150 refer to the size of the reel so you need to keep that in mind. The 150 is a bigger reel and if you want to know the difference aside from a few cosmetics is the gear ratios, the spool tension knob on the 150 has an audible click and the 100 does not, and the 150 hace the ACS 3 breaking system which I like but I also like the ACS 2 on the 100. The 150 also is more expensive, at full retail the 100 is $199.99 and the 150 is $219.99, now you can find them for less but there will usually be a 20 dollar difference between the two reels so you didn't get ripped off or didn't miss out on a newer model, you just got the 100 size instead of the 150. Keep it, it is the best reel I think Quantum has ever made and I have both.

Most of the time I use 2 tabs.

I don't use them very much as the paint tends to chip easily on them as Cadman as mentioned. When I do use painted blades it almost always for smallies and I like a white blade in clear water and a chartreuse is stained water but I haven't fished a painted blade since last season.

Nice Bluebasser86, what size is that round head? I use the smaller 1/8oz, 3/16oz, and 1/4oz mold for my finesse jigs and I leave the top cropped a little long for the same reason, it works like a minature parachute. I found something that works really good with finess jigs, thin the skirt out a bit, 15 strands, you won't believe how much better the skirt flairs once it hits bottom, I think it is why I'm getting bit on the finesse jig on every trip, give it a try. The chatterbaits look awesome, does the blade hit the sideds of the head on retrieve? I was wondering as I wanted to try my football jig mold to make one but I still have some original hex type blades so it might be different for me.

I think you should go with "Fang series jig" . That way you can have the EWG Fang or when you have it with a rattle it could be the rattle fang, elite fang! You could also add a letter to it like the T-Fang or G-Fang!!! This is going to be fun for you to figure out, good luck!

I'll bet the hooks are pretty weak and dull and the action won't be even close to consistant and the reason is the price. Let us know how they hold up after fishing them for awhile.

The only real advise I can give you is what works better when it comes to reels and gear ratios as they are confusing. High speed reels like any that are 6.6:1 up to 7.3:1 are used for techniques that you use the rod to move the bait most of the time and the reel is there to pick up the slack line. So use those types of reels for jigs and worms mostly but I think you'd be better off with something that is an all purpose type gear ratio and that would be any from 6.2:1 up to 6.6:1, anything in that range is what you want to look for. If you see a reel you like and it has a 6.4:1 gear ratio, that is the one you want, good luck and in time like RW said, you'll get a feel for what you need.

Spinnerbaits and jigs to obvious cover, for searching and feedback as to that is on the bottom you need to use a carolina rig. Square bills and other shallow cranks as well as jerkbaits can be cast to areas around cover also but deep diving cranks are more for throwing to areas that you know fish are on by the use of sonar, in fact I think deep divers aren't something you would want to use without sonar. Also, look to the bank when you're fishing, it will offer clues to what you can expect is on the bottom or how steep the grade is from the bank or where the bottom changes from rock to clay and vice versa. good luck.

The IGFA did verify his scale but it is still the alabama rig so it would have been disallowed. I bet anyone who has read that article will make a mental note that if they catch a fish that maybe a possible record they will not tell them the lure was an a-rig even if it was. A Largemouth record was scratched earlier this year because the guy caught it without a license, imagine that.

I use the Mustad straight shank flipping hooks now but before the straight shank hooks became the norm O would use the Gamakatsu super line hooks and to tell you the truth I never had one bend out on me. For flipping jigs I either use the Mustad 32786 or the Owner 5304, super stout.

Depending on who you deal with seems to make a difference. I try to use Cabelas for somethings and avoid BPS at all costs. A few years back I was getting ready for a spring tourney, the least one until summer and I ordered a Zoom tube kit from BPS, 100 tubes in 4 colors that was perfect well after it didn't show up 2 weeks later I called and was told it was back ordered, well ok. Now this is April, so being that my Tourney was coming up on the weekend I got the tubes from Cabelas, well BPS refunded me my money after I cancelled the order and then in August my credit card statement comes in the mail and I find a charge to BPS for 35 bucks, so I plan on calling them when the UPS truck pulls up and the box I get is from BPS with the tube kit I cancelled. To make the rest of the story short I sent it back and it took them a month to put the money back on to my card, that was the end of them, but I will pick up things in store, just never order online fromt them.

Cabelas has awesome customer service, I'm lucky enough to have both a BPS and a Cabelas close to where I live so I can go to either of them. BPS has more of a selection but Cabelas has better customer service, the prices are about the same on average as BPS will have 1 item a buck or two cheaper while Cabelas with have another item a buck or two cheaper. I give Cabelas an Edge as they often will have blow out prices on items with too much inventory, I recently got a dozen Xcalibur one knocker lipless cranks for $1.99 each, not bad for a bait that normally runs 7 bucks. As for the actual stores, the Dicks and Gander Moutain I have near me have very little in the way of fishing stuff, and Gander mountain is more expensive than the rest and Dicks has the least amout of tackle but thats in PA as the stores are stocked according to local demographics.

I don't have any 3XD cranks but I would think they would use a size #6 treble so if you go with the KVD elite triple grip short shank you could go up to a size #4.

I have 3 rods over 7', then it is a 6'10" rod and a 6'9" rod and the others are all 6'6" with a custom 6' rod I had done for one purpose, to throw 3/8oz and 1/2oz spinnerbaits under overhangs. I got that rod and actually won the first tournament I used it in which paid for the rod but it doesn't do anything else very well. I like my 6'3" rods also, I have a Fenwick Elite Thech smallier rod and a G.Loomis Jerkbait series rod in that length for jerkbaits but the Fenwick is now used for square bills around cover too. The only diadvantage to using the shorter rods is the distance on the cast and if you are using deep divers it makes a big difference which is why I have a 7' glass cranking rod but thats it for me, perhaps a 7'3" cranking rod may be next if I have a need to get below 20' but right now the waters I fish don't call for it so the 7' is good enough.

If you are fishing from shore you'll need to cover water so unless you throw a swim jig you can pretty much count those out. For big fish inm that kind of area you may want to try a 4.5" hollow belly swimbait like a Hollow belly or shadalicious or a Basstrix, use that on a swimbait hook fished slowly and the hook weight should be about 1/8oz but no more than 1/4oz. A 1/2oz spinnerbait is a good option, for dirty water look to have colorado blades or indianas and finally if you find fish be having one follow your baits or one blows up on the surface, the senko is a bait you have to have for that situation.

You said you were using suffix mono, if that is the case what experienced was knot slip, that stuff is slick and I've pulled improved clinch knots out by hand which is why I don't use it anymore. What you need to do is tie a palomar but wet the line before you cinch it down and once you have it cinched hold the lure in one hand and use the other hand to pull on the main line pretty hard and then finally cut the tag but leave about a full 1/8" of tag, that way if you get any slip the tag won't pull out and undo the knot.

Just be carefull with the round rubber, if you leave it in the sun or a hot tacle box with a trailer left on you'll have a gunky mess as it melts. I used to keep my jigs in bags with unscented talc after they were dry and that would keep them from clumping and melting over the winter.

I have 4 and no problems, I have a Kinetic that has been a great workhorse reel for me, a Catalyst that is a solid reel and has been used hard for some time and is still smooth and working like the day I bought it and I have 2 Smokes, a 100 SPT and a 150 HPT, I think the Smoke is the finest reel they ever made. I also have a Revo SXT, a Pflueger Supreme casting reel, and Okuma V system and an Okuma Induron round reel and a Diawa Advantage and a Diawa TD-X 103HVA. The Okumas and the Pflueger have been discontinued but still work and they are both over 5 years old, and the rest of my reels have been great, all of them and the only brand reel I'll never own again is a Shimano as I said before, I got 2 Symetres and both failed within months and Shimano customer service told me too bad I should have got a better reel and while I realize I got lemons It left a bad taste in my mouth. Other than that my Abu Garcia, my Pflueger, my Okumas. Diawas, and my Quantums have all performed remarkably well and I never had a problem and I use my reels hard.

I fish mine pretty much the same way Bluebasse86 does, I like to try and reel just fast enough that the bait stays just at the tops of those weed occasionally ticking the top. I also like to fish them deep on a jig head, now when I say deep I'm talking around 8' to 12'. You can fish them deeper but I prefer other baits but for that 8' foot range I use a 3/8oz jig head and let it slowly fall to the bottom and then reel slowly, just fast enough that the tail goes back and forth. Doing that seems boring and it is until you get a strike because one thing they do is generate violent strikes, you'll be on your third or fourth cast and just reeling slow like you did before and you're expecting to bring the bait back to the boat for another cast and all of a sudden the rod tip goes into a bend and you rear back to drive the hook home and then you realize how much fun it is to use. I have had the most success with one of the cheaper models, the Luck-E-Strike Bass Magic hollow bodied swimbaits in the 3.5" and the 4.5", the smaller version I use strictly with swimbait hooks and the larger one I use both the hooks and jig heads, and when using the swimbait hooks don't go cheap, get the Owner Swimbait hook with the screwlock with centering pin because they don't work if not rigged perfectly straight.

I've been making spinnerbaits for over 15 years and have been fishing them for 25 years and I have spinnerbaits that I design just for moving water and others just for lakes. I'll tell you what I tell everyone just getting started using spinnerbaits, there really isn't one bait to do everything just like there isn't a rod that does everything but if you want to get close here is what you use. A 3/8oz White and Chartreuse spinnerbait with an Indiana blade as the top or main blade and a small colorado as the bottom or secondary blade. That is about as close to universal you can get as it will work in just about all conditions. If I'm burining a bait and can't get bit even when I slow it down the 3/8oz Indiana/Colorado in white and chartreuse is the bait I turn to. I like double willows, but with a colorado main blade I'll use a small indiana blade on the bottom and with an indiana main blade I'll use a small colorado as the bottom but I never use a double indiana or double colorado. If you put in the order then get the all purpose bait, that will catch fish and help you learn the bait and if you like it you can expand on them and learn different ways to ues them like slow rolling or burning but focus on just getting to use it for now.

I think you should do what you want to do, I've head good and bad about them but I've heard the same for just about every other product. I will say this, the reel has a 3 year warrany and from a friend of mines personal experience it looks as if the customer service is pretty good so you will get help if something should happen. One thing you shouldn't do though is try to compare a $150 dollar reel to a $280 dollar reel, when you gert over $250 dollars with a casting reel you get a level of refinement that you don't get in lower priced reels but it doesn't mean it won't work. For example a Quantum Accurist PT for all of the Quantum bashing going on, happens to be one of the $100 dollar priced reels that hold up year after year and work fantastic but it isn't super duper smooth or have 11 ball bearings. Or the Shimano Citica, it too works well with 3 ball bearings but it isn't a calais or Chronarch.

X2!! That summed it up perfect, frogs aren't like spooks or other walking baits as they don't have any built in action so you need to use your rod to provide that action.