smalljaw67

When you fish a muck bottom weight is more important than head style but so are better than others. The best overall is a round head, it has no resistance being pulled out and if you use a weight that doesn't completely buey it you should be able to fish it effectively. I make a finesse jig in a round head and it is excellent on a lake that I fish that has a lot of sediment so if you need a jig choose the round head.

I love Owner and Gamakatsu trebles and recently tried and love the Trokar hooks now also. However, when it comes to lures like spinnerbaits I don't care for them, only trebles and worm hooks. The reason is I used them when I was testing hooks out a few years ago because some guys wanted Gamakatsu and still others wanted Owner so I made them for myself and I found on a spinnerbait they are the worst possible hooks to use which I why I won't even give a Trokar a shot as it is the same technology basically. What I'm talking about is the cutting point, the cutting point on those hooks are fantastic to go through plastic or bury a small treble in the jaw of a fish but spinnerbaits and jigs it isn't the same, the bigger hook makes a bigger hole and a lot of times the hook just falls out, I can't tell you how many fish I lost of got to the boat and the hook just came out. For my money I use the Mustad Ultra Point or the VMC cone cut bklack nickel. Worm and treble hooks Owner Trokar and Gamakatsu are great, spinnerbaits and jigs not so great.

Yep, the blue goes on top which is were the weedguard is as the weedguard is on the top of the jig. I know exactly what you were doing, I still do it as I'll be painting spinnerbaits and then go and do some jigs and mess it up as I do them upside down. I think it does look good however, the flake is a nice touch and I don't think the colors being flipped will make a difference as it is a swim jig that will be moving so as long as it has the basic color it will work and it is a very nice paint job, I'd feel good using it that is for sure.

Denali Jadewood series and Falcon BuCoo, bother very good rods.

That is the problem, that mold uses aberdeen style hooks which don't have a wide gap at all. I use a 60 degree mold that I can use flat eye hooks or normal eye hooks and it is fantastic. There is nothing wrong with the mold you have but you sound like you more of a flipping style hook but believe me, even though those hooks don't have a wide gap, they are very good at penetrating a fishes mouth with very little effort, try it and try not to compare to other jigs, you may be surprised at what you discover.

First off don't beat yourself up, we all struggle with wind and waves, but how you go about fishing in it is the key. When using a texas rig in wind learn to use the 3/4oz and 10z worm weights, the weight isn't only to get your bait down but it is also a tool that helps you maintain contact with the bait in wind since it will move your bait as well as your boat. When you find a spot to fish use visual triangulation to keep on or near your spot, you do this by lining up points on the shore in conjunction of where you are positioned at. Find an odd looking tree on one part of the shore and maybe a rock further down the bank and make a mental note of where those things are from where you are, and begin to fish, then take a look after a csat and see if those spots are still lining up, it isn't hard but you do need to make adjustments, in the wind it is constant adjustment. When looking for deep structure and cover you can start at obvious places like points, cruise over them at different angles and watch the screen on the fish finder, if you have a color finder you can tell if a big object is weeds or wood pretty much by the color, before color was available you would use gray scale to determine the hardness of an object.

copolymer is mono plain and simple but some are better than others. I found a copoly line that has more charateristics of flouro than mono but it is mono. Cajun clear lightning gets a bad rep because it is cheap but also because people that don't read the label and use it due to price don't realize it is meant exclusivly for baitcasting reels. It is clear like flouro, impurities are removed and I believe it as it is clearer than most mono line, it is extremely abrasion resistant and has the least amount of stretch I ever saw in a mono but it doesn't handle well which is why you don't use it on spinning reels. Another good one and my favorite for spinning and casting is Silver Thread AN40, this is very soft supple line that does not have much memory and is very tough, it has about the same stretch and abrasion resistance of Trilene XL but I would say it holds up better over a longer period than the trilene. I consider copolymer a better grade of mono, it is still nylon so you call it mono but it doesn't matter because I use the stuff every day.

What you need is confidence and the way to get it is by catching fish on it. When you get a day on the water and you are getting bit try finding a laydown or a weedbed and use a normal casting jig, 1/4oz I say to use as it appeals to a lot moe sizes of fish. Make a cast as close to the cover as you can get and watch your line, feel the jig and slowly work it, maybe a hop or perhaps a lift and drop like a texas rigged worm but once you catch a few fish, which you will, you'll become confident and be able to use it more often. I think a jig is one of the easiest lures to fish and the hardest to learn, the action is up to you in the way you use it and the trailer you pair with it. It isn't a bait to cover water with, it is a target bait and when you find cover that may hold fish a jig is a good bait to try.

I've been messing with these since Basstrix created a craze with the original hollow paddle tail swimbait and never could do any good. I've tried several and after the Berkley Hollow Belly didn't work I was ready to pack it in until I discovered the Luck-E-Strike Bass Magic 3.5" and 4.5", now I'm hooked on them. I thought maybe I was fishing them wrong but I found them to be a nich bait here in the water I fish. I can thow them in spring and catch nothing and the same in early summer but late summer seems to be the ticket. The funny thing is you would expect to get your arm broke like the way a smallie hits a spinnerbait but it just isn't so, instead I find it to be more like a deep crankbait hit, the rod just sort of loads up, a lot of times I just feel weight and set the hook but I do have a time and place they work so I'm looking to build on that knowledge and find the right conditions for them to work at other times of the year. So, which ones do you like and how and when do you fish them? Basically for me a slow steady retrieve with a weighted hook is what works, but I want to know what everyone else is doing, perhaps I can find something new the fish aren't conditioned to that will work.

You have a little bit of a problem, any of those rods will make a great all purpose rod but it sounds as if you are going to use cranks a little more than occasionally and there is the problem. You can get a rod that will fish cranks, topwaters, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits just fine but it is not going to be very good for jigs or soft plastics. So the Powell 705CB is out as it would be the worst of the bunch as it is a glass rod and there isn't much if any sensitivity to it. In all honesty I think you need to go with a medium powered rod, I'm leaning to the Vendetta because I have one and I'm familar with how it performs. I have the VTC66-5, it is a 6'6" medium power and fast action but it feels like a medium heavy. The nice thing about it is I use it for jerkbaits at times and right now it is my topwater rod, if you take your time fighting a fish you can probably get away with using cranks with it. It will fish jigs and soft plastics pretty well, it isn't the most sensitive rod but it is pretty good, more like a rod twice its price. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits will be a joy to fish with it and the casting ability of the rod is amazing. You can probably go with a 7' rod but I think the 6'6" has the right blend of power and flex, it fishes jigs and worms like a medium heavy as it does have a lot of power but enough tip to let you get away with fishing a crank. I'd go that route and then save some money up for that powell 705 CB, for a dedicated crankbait set up, I don't like glass but you have to admit the action is perfect for cranks and the powell is a price that is hard to ignore.

Here is a pic of what I like for cold water in spring, the craw has blue claws with a green pumpkin body and the skirt is a medium green pumpkin along with a little bit of rootbeer with red and green flake. For a summer craw I like a craw in brown with burnt orange claws with a brown and dark green pumpkin skirt and in fall I like the craw with the same burnt orange claws but with a natural pumpkin body with a pumkin and brown skirt with a few strands of orange.

You really need to grind it up and do so until it gets to a powder state otherwise it will create heavy spots and the jigs won't look good not to mention when you hang them to cure the excess paint will run a little bit causing the paint to form a nipple on it. Get some new paint and be done with it, also you don't need to use the pro-tec, if you are using basic colors harbor freight has their own and it is cheaper than the pro-tec. Are you using a fluid bed or just dipping jigs into a jar of paint? I ask because if you smash up the powder enough to be useable, when you put it in a fluid bed the bigger clumps will not fluidize and you can actually use the fluid bed to sort out what is good paint from the stuff you need to crush more.

When you use those tubes you'll see how well they perform. I buy them by the 100ct. in the 3" and 3.5" size, the 3" I use just on the river for smallies rigged with a jig head with a 2/0 hook, the 3.5" I use on the river with a jig head with a 3/0 hook and on the local lakes texas rigged with an EZ tube insert weight and a 2/0 EWG hook, it is one of the best presentation for skipping docks.

Rage craws are a different animal than the Jakes craw, I use it for finesse jigs where I want a trailer that adds some bulk but not too much plus it gives it a more realistic profile and fall with a subtle action. Finesse jigs are different in that you want to give the fish a smaller more subtle presentation and the Jakes craw is perfect, the rage craws which I use on my swim jigs and flipping jigs add too much bulk and have an exaggerated action for a finesse jig. Trust me, the Jakes craw on a finesse jig or a plain 1/8oz jig head is a fantastic bait when the fish become finicky.

I use a 6.3:1 which is 25 or 26 IPT (inches per turn) for most of my cranking, the onlt time I use a 5.4:1 is for deep cranking. For jigs and plastics I use a 7.1:1, or any bait that I'm using the rod to move the bait, the high speed makes it easier to pick up slack in the line after you move the bait with the rod. I do like to use the high speed reel for spinnerbait too when I'm burning them, I can really get the bait moving and keep it near the top without fatigue.

If you must touch them up try the Quick coat lure markers, they are actually paint markers that use real paint, they come with six different tips and it makes it quick and easy to touch up lures plus it dries fast and last longer than using a sharpie or dye.

With you being in Virgina I'm surprised you aren't using River Rock Baits, they are hands down the best tube you'll ever fish and the Jakes Craw is now my main trailer for finesse jigs, super soft with a lot more durability than I ever imagined.

Do you have to have a 7' micro? The reason I ask is a friend of mine who fishes the Susquehanna river like I do found my Fenwick Elite Tech smallmouth to his liking and got the 6'9" MH-F casting rod pretty much for slinging 3/8oz and 1/2oz blades and he loves it, he said the tip is perfect and the backbone is incredible which I can attest to as I have a 6'10" MH-MF casting rod which I think would work also. The Falcon lowrider is another good one.

This is spot on, trick worms on casting geat I'm using a medium powered rod. You can get away with a medium heavy but you aren't going to get much in the way of distance but for weightless worms you are usually fishing some form of cover so more accuracy would be needed rather than distance anyway. I use a spinning rod for trick worms weightless unless I'm in cover but I'm only casting 30 feet or so and my custom RX 8 does a good job.

If you are looking to fish cranks with a spinning rod I think you need to look at something else. I do throw a #5 shad rap with mine but that is it and only when it is too windy that I can't use casting gear since it is such a light lure. In fact the Vendetta as well as the Smoke spinning rods are all too stiff to be used as crankinging rods but this is where I can't help since I use casting gear and only use spinning for finesse presentations most of the time. It sounds like you are spinning only and need an all purpose rod which most spinning rods are but when you throw crankbaits into the mix it makes it tough because while you fish cranks with just about any rod, it really isn't great because you end up losing most of the fish you hook simply because the rod has more backbone than flex and that tends to overpower small treble hooks and pull them free from the fish. You need to look for a more moderate action spinning rod, take a look at the new Tourney trail rods from Cabelas, these are now being made with more moderate actions and will work with crankbaits.

93 is red/silver glitter and he was probably using Zoom. Zoom and Gary Yamamoto baits are the two that I know of that have color reference numbers but there are probably others. Go to zooms website and across the top you'll see "colors" , click on it and a color list will appear with the number of the color and description but it is not in any type of order, I couldn't find a 97 but it may be there but I did see 93 and it was red/silver glitter.

I think you're doing the right thing in getting suggestion if you are undecided but I will give you some tips on what to look for and my opion on what to get. First is consider what you are going to fish for with the rod and what kinds of baits and presentations, this will lead you to the power and action of the rod you'll need, you also have to consider the size of the reel. The Smoke comes in the 25 and 30 size , for bass the either will work but the line capacity on the 25 is more than enough. All the suggestions you got were good ones, the Smoke rod would be a good choice and a matched combo but depending on your budget and whether you're buying online of in a store will make a difference as a store may not carry certain rods. My pick would be to go with a new Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth spinning rod, the 6'9" M-XF is a great rod for shaky head fishing, wacky rigs, soft jerkbaits, tubes and light jigs and even has the sensitivity to use for drop shotting. I recommend these rods as I'm highly impressed, I still have no clue as to why they aren't selling for over $200 because it is a high quality and high performance rod. But any of the rods mentioned above are more than capable so it really comes down to a choice, good luck on you new set up.

I often say don't knock the Kinetic until you tried it. I have the original first Kinetic casting reel, it was originally 120 bucks but Cabelas has the older model for 79.99, anyway it is very omparable to the Shimano Citica and I got it over the Citica because it has an aluminum handle side cover with an aluminum frame, the Citica has an aluminum frame with graphite side covers so the Kinetic is built better. I have fished both the Kinetic and the Citica and on a performance level they are almost identical, my wife had to stop me from buy 5 more of them when they went on sale, as for the W&M, I never tried one and while it may be good to beat up on because it is a value priced item I learned not to do that, you'd be surprised at the way some reels perform. Most value reels are made cheap but the Kinetic was originally a mid tier reel at over 100 dollars, that and the Citica fished side by side with a more expensive Revo S would make you wonder since the Citica and Kinetic both outperformed the S. Looking at the specs of the new kinetic it appears the only thing that changed is the color but I have mine for 3 years and it goes on every trip and performs like day 1 and if you aren't into taking your reel apart to lube, it has an external lube port so you can give it a shot of oil at the end of the season, it is a good reel and at the current price is a steal.

Most do-it molds you can either go up or down a size in hook depending on the mold, like I was saying to you when you said a size 2 or 3 hook, that is a lot different than a 2/0 or 3/0, I hate to be anal about things likje that but in the case of hook size there happens to be size 2 and 3 hooks in addition to 2/0 and 3/0. I make a light flipping jig that is 3/8oz, that is light for a flipping jig but I use a 5/0 hook in it even though the mold calls for a 3/0 to 4/0 hook but not all molds can do it and it also depends on the style hook. Most of my molds are modified to use bigger hooks if the mold can't accept them but you need to check the mold and hook size first. Go to tackle underground on the web, the guys there can usually tell you how big or small of a hook you can use in a particular mold and if you find cadman on this site he can help you with hook sizes for molds so you don't have to guess when planning on buying a mold.

There really is no "rule of thumb" when it comes to those type of trailer but I use them in cold water, and I also use them on post frontal days when fish are tight to cover and won't move and I use them when ever there is a distinct water temp drop like the water going from say 64 degrees down to 57 degrees or so, the first time that happens during the fall the fish will often get in a negative mood, it is also the stat of turnover. Anyway, I tend to use these when the fish are lethargic, that is a time when you don't want the bait to have too much action.