smalljaw67

The Xcs square bills are top notch and the hooks are good so I don't have to buy the bait and a pack of hooks like you do with the KVD square bills.

Jerkbaits!!! That is the perfect temp, try a few different kind and remember, vary the amount of time you pause the bait, let the fish tell you how long you need to let it sit, a good starting point for those temps would be about 5 or 6 seconds. Find slack water and current seams, this is where you'll find the fish, and if the jerkbaits aren't producing then go to a hair jig or tube, one of these should get you bit, good luck!

If you're just getting into it I would go with the basics first as it will give you a good understanding of how to fish other types of plastics. you will get a lot of good advise but you may also get dizzy by the responses so I'll lay out a plan for you that will get you started in the right direction. First and formost you need hooks, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 wide gap offset worm hooks, these are the sizes you need to start with so get a pack or 2 of each. Weights, bullet style worm weights from any company that makes them, you can often get a kit from BPS or Cabelas but get a variety from 1/16oz up to 3/4oz. There is a lot more but right now stick to the basics, once you have the terminal tackle you need to types of worms, the first is a basic Culprit or Berkley Power worm, these are 7.5" ribbon tail worms that you will use on a texas rig and the other is a Senko or Yum Dinger, these are stick worms that you are going to use texas rigged weightless or wacky rigged weightless at first. When fishing the ribbon tail worm you need to use the lightest weight you possibly can to make your bait fall to the bottom, the fish will dictate but for a general rule of thumb a 1/8oz weight is good for depths of 3' to 5', line size is also going to factor in some. If you use mono you'll want 8# line up to 17# line, cover and weight will be the determining factors, once you learn the texas rig and what it feels like to get a strike on a worm the rest is easy as the texas rig is the starting point for a lot of different baits.

What makes me pick a particular blades size is the size of the bait which relates to the size of the forage I'm attempting to mimic most of the time but there are times I'll choose a bigger or smaller blade to change the running speed of depth of the bait. Same thing with blade type, most of the time water clarity is what is going to determine blade type but just as it is when choosing a blade size, the choice of blade type can be made to have an affect on lure speed and depth as well.

I've been fishing spinnerbaits for 30 years, it is my favorite bait and I like it so much that I've been making my own for over 15 years. Over that time I've found little things sometimes make a huge difference, everyone knows the easy changes like blade type, or blade size but there are other things that can make a difference of getting bit or getting skunked with the spinnerbait. Things like blade spacing, and wire angle, these are things that not many people think about but it is a big reason that one day your buddy is killing them on a Strike King spinnerbait while you only manage a few fish on a terminator and the next day just the opposite happens. If you use the right spinnerbait for the right purpose it is a lure that is really effective in just about every situation.

If you look at the rods you want in person you would be better off, St. Croix rods are a premium brand and have a good reputation but it seems they build qulaity isn't consistant and the main complaint from a lot of different sources is the guides are all over the place and most aren't close to lining up. The micro magic rods are different, a lot of guys really like them but they have had breakage issues so if you are going to go that route you need to make sure you're buying from a dealer that sells a lot of them so you don't end up with one of the first one and sadly there isn't any way to tell.

The reason I stay away from them is simple, do a search on the rods they made in the last 5 to 7 years and see how many of them have different components, different blanks, and the discontinued rods after a short production period. Get a magnesium from 3 different years and you get basically 3 different rods as none have the same blank or components.

Where did you see the white ice rods?? I ask because no one has laid eyes on them since ICAST and I didn't see any of the Dukett Pros sporting these rods yet. I think you may want to look at different brands or different rods from these two, as I said, the white ice rods aren't around yet and the Rage series hasn't got many good reviews. Most of what I get from talking to those with experience when it comes to the rage rods are that the build quilty is really sub par for Croix and just about any other rod in the $150 range. Even if yo could find a white ice you may want to wait a year or so, when the micro magic hit the shelves there was a ton of breakage issues but it seems they have taken care of that.

Black and blue is what I call the universal color and so is white a universal color. Both are great choices in clear or muddy water. Jigs, plastics, a slow rolled spinnerbait and a flat sided crankbait will all work at that water temp. Colors would be either dark or bright, look for black, dark blue, dark watermelon or green pumpkin or browns. Also the bright colors like chartreuse, white, orange, lime green and combinations of those colors.

I've been sold on the Fenwick Elite Tech smallmouth rods since I got my first one direct from Fenwick. The Powell to me is a gamble with zero warranty and the Crucial is a good rod and has a lifetime warranty the same as the Fenwick. I will say to go with the Fenwick simply because it is a more veratile rod, it is very sensitive, light and great for finesse like you want but it is also stout enough that you could use it for tubes and soft jerkbaits. I don't own the Crucial, but the new ones are really nice and feel good too but I really love how the Fenwick feels in hand, I never fished with a more comfotable rod, I don't think you could go wrong with either of them but I prefer the Fenwick and after fishing the spinning rod I got a casting model and since the casting model purchase I now want at least 2 more if not 3, I'm sold on these rods.

You're better off with the loctite but the Devcon 2 Ton epoxy is great and it is what I use on all my jigs that are going to get a coat of epoxy on anyway. If I'm making a jig that isn't getting the epoxy coat I'll use the gel, and remember not to use normal super glue, the reason is it wicks up the fibers of the weedguard and it dries to a white film that requires extra time to get off if you can get it off.

The Senko is effective so many ways, most people now use them wacky style as they discovered the ends of the worm move on the fall even when rigged this way. And of course my favorite way, the weightless Texas rig, the fact that it falls horizontally is a big reason why it is effective but the little side to side shimmy it does will entice any fish to hit it. Shaky heads and carolina rigs, I used to think that adding a weight to a Senko was destroying the action of the bait and turning it into a regular worm, that was until I tried it on a shaky head, while it isn't my first choice I will use it when fish are biting a shaky head but getting a lot of small fish, for some reason bigger fish like it on a shaky head and when getting those small, sub keeper fish on a finesse worm, I'd say 99% of the time switching out to a Senko will result in bigger fish almost immediately. And now we see it being rigged with a small colorado spinner in the end, prepare for an avalanch of knock offs made with the spinner imbedded and it will be willows, colorados indianas and even french spinners but they'll be coming soon. This is most likely a dirty water presentation and with more than a few other competitors throwing a stick worm this was different and probably helped put fish in the boat that had watched normal rigged stick baits go by sometime during the tournament.

1. Ribbon worm (Power worm) 2. Stick worm (Senko) 3. Tube (River Rock Baits T.D Tube) 4. Craw ( Rage Craw)

The Lews speed spool, but this is hard if you aren't into fishing equipment due to the similarity of their reels names but this reel retails for $89 or $99. I also give a big thumbs up to the Quantum Kinetic, not the new one for $99 but the older silver model. Cabelas has them on sale right now for $69.99, this reel was $119.99 when I got it and I have mine foe 3 years of hard use. If I didn't need some other stuff right now I'd buy 3 or 4 of them, a good reel in my book.

No harm in giving it a try, you can use it to work on casting or trying a new bait or lure and you even get a fish, it is hard to say. If it isn't far you can go check it out and may be even discover a new way to catch fish in those conditions but if it requires anything other than normal travel or driving distance then you are probably better off waiting.

Fishing from the shore in cold muddy water is difficult because the fish in a river are in deeper wintering holoes that ae typically far from normal casting distance. If you can access a lot of open bank you may be able to find a deeper slack water area that may hold fish but it is tough in muddy water. My suggestion is to wait until the water clears up or the temp rises to the mid to upper 40's. This will start to get fish moving and suspending in the water so you will have a beeter chance of reaching them and it also opens up more areas that will hold fish, that is when you can incorpoate lipless cranks and jerkbaits and have a good chance of hooking up.

Swimming Senko, this is basically a finesse swimbait presentation but better. What makes these baits so effective is you can cover water quickly and if you found fish you can slow it down and fish the same bait just like a normal worm.

Yep, they are fast and offer great service but River Rar316 is spot on, anyone who makes and sells custom lures will tell you the end of January through April is an extremely busy time of the year so give them an extra day or so. You have guys in some parts of the country who are on the water fishing prespawn and other parts cabin fever has set in and now that spring is right around the bend so the stocking up on tackle has begun.

Those are Bagley B2's you can tell by the cut in the bait for the lip, Bandit baits don't use as wide of a lip. The eyes are also slightly different, I may be wrong but I don't think so. They are killer baits.

Wobblehead jigs have been around, a friend uses them for walleyes and I tried them in a 1/4oz size for river smallies with a 4" Kalins grub on it and it caught fish better than the ball head, it really made the grub dance. You could use them to deliver live bait or just about any plastic you want.

They are some super sharp hooks that perform well but as webertime has mentioned, they rust and do so pretty quick. I used to have the Xcalibur rotating trebles on my rogue jerkbaits years ago and when you hooked a fish they stayed hooked, an extremely good design but because they rusted so quick it got to be a pain of changing out hooks on a regular basis but they do perform.

None of my X-Raps have the Sure set hooks, but I do have a few that do have them and I like them just not on a jerkbait.

Yes, you can use them around wood cover the same as you would a square bill. I fish the Rapala DT Flat 3 as sort of a finesse square bill, I use it in the same plases but it has a tighter wobbole to it and is more subtle overall and it has a coffin lip and it bounces off stumps really well.

Not really bad as they have a little weight to them but a long overhand distance cast might make it helicopter but I'm not sure, that is a target bait for me.

I'd never even attempt using a crankbait with that rod, it might make a decent jerkbait rod and spinnerbaits/buzzbaits, jigs and worms will all be good choices but if you wanted a rod for cranks this isn't it.