smalljaw67

You hit on a lot of things here and I agree for the most part. One thing that is very powerful is POS or the power of suggestion, a lot of companies will take a rod that should retail for say 50 bucks and sell it for 200 dollars, but in order to do it it needs to be marketed and "increased sensitivity" is one of the ploys. You may buy one of these and actually feel incesed sensitivity, but is it the rod doing it or is it the in your mind you know it is more snsititive and therefore you focus just a little more and you percieve that first light tick and then it is confirmed, the rod is ultra sensitive. I proved it with a lot of products over the years, I made jigs using eagle claw black pearl finish hooks for guys saying they only use gamakatsu as they are sharper and better than any hook on the market, and at the same time told me eagle claw was total junk. After using the jig and being told it was sporting a new gammy hook the feedback I got was incredible, in fact the guy told me it was the best hook he ever used and was totally floored when I told hime it was an eagle claw hook. The same thing happens with rods, it isn't that when you buy an expensive rod you aren't getting your moneys worth, more often than not what you are paying for is better components and a more refined look and feel,sensitivity is perception. I just got a rod cheap and the spinning version of it is sensitive, to me but it is my perception because the grip feels good to me and my hand placement seems very natural and that coincides with the rod as a whole being sensitive. BTW, the jigs I did the experiment with were free, if someone pays for a jig with a gammy hook, they will indeed get a gammy hook, I gave those out a free test models with the only costs was to let me know what the user thought about the jig.

Vendetta would be my choice also. I got one for fishing the river in the small jon boat so if it would get broke I wouldn't be out much and it has turned out to be a wonderful rod. These are powerful rods that are tremendous casters so I don't think you could do much better for a pitching rod. The Reese rods aren't bad but even the fast action rods I've handled have too much flex for my liking.

I've had days using a C-rig were a worm that floats really worked well and I've also had times that if the bait was getting to the bottom it wouldn't get bit so you can try both and see what works. Really though it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference most of the time as the weight being dragged across the bottom is what gets the attention of the fish and then they see the bait lagging behind and eventually bite it. A senko on a C-rig is a perfect exampple, even though they sink, they are very effective on a C-rig and even a sinking bait like the senko will come off the bottom a little bit depending on how far you drag the bait at one time.

I like using 24 to 26 gauge wire, it isn't hard and you don't need a fly tying vise to do it either. If however you feel better using a vise, make sure you get one that can hold the larger hooks as not all vises will hold a jig hooks. UIf you need to know where to get a vise and which one, try www.lurepartsonline.com and get the Supreme Vise, it is only 25 dollars and will hold up to a 5/0 hook securely.

I chose a medium and I'm glad I did but the one I got has the extra fast action and it will throw a 1/8oz weight a long way, and that is the beauty of it that fishing small baits is done with ease but still the rod has a lot of backbone and power so if you happen to hook a giant you'll know you have enough rod to fight it. The thing that was amazing to me with both my spinning rod and now my casting rod is how light they were compared to the power. My neighbor has the Avid 6'9" ML-XF and it compares to my Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'9" M-XF, ever the ratings are close, the Fenwick medium light is rated for 4lb to 10lb and lure weights from 1/16 to 5/8oz. As I said earlier, my neighbor was out with me and he love the Avid spinning and his medium light compared well to my medium and both rods were extra fast action. The St. Croix rods seem to be under rated in terms of power like the medium light being more like a medium power. If you are going to order you can go to Amazon where eyou will find a discounted price or Cabelas, you'll pay full retail but have piece of mind on how it is shipped. I got my casting rod from Reds Gear on Amazon and it was well packed in a heavy cardboard tube but I have heard of some getting rods in a long cardboard box and the rod arrived broke. I just think the discounted price is too hard to pass up. BTW, I forgot to mention, these rods are all backed by a lifetime warranty.

I like the Pointer 100 DD for what you're facing and Ghost Minnow or any other baitfish patterns would be a good choice but if there are smallies then Nishikii which is Lucky Crafts version of clown. You don't need to get a LC bait though, they are expensive so not everyone will drop the 15 bucks for one but fear not, the Rapala X-Rap XR10 Deep Diver in Glass Ghost or Clown if smallies are present. I found that clown color works on smallies just about everywhere and for some reason they react to it differently than other colors so you need to have it.

X2!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I tried throwing the #5 Shad Rap on casting gear and it could be done if there is no wind and you are using a medium powered rod and light line but it just is so much easier to use it on spinning gear that I don't even try the casting gear with it anymore. As far as square bills and lipless cranks are concerned, I feel more comfortable with casting gear for those baits and one reason is I rarely throw a square bill or lipless crank that is under 3/8oz. Every angle is different and I know a guy that uses spinning gear for everything, he never learned to use a casting reel and has no desire to either.

Right on the money!!! If you notice there aren't any 7'6" heavy casting rods and the 7'4" spinning rod is a design they call the great lakes rod, it is intended for deep water fishing with light line. The spinning and casting both run the gammet with medium light, medium and medium heavy and by todays standards are realatively short. My new 6'10" MH-MF rod is a good example, I was concerned that it was a little too fast to use for square bills, traps, and shallow cranks and it is strange because it is stiff under normal loads which would be consistant with working a bait but when you put some pressure on it it really gives and this is exactly what you would want as often a big smallie will make a big surge and run close to the boat and that is exactly when the rod gives. But make no mistake about it, it is a big bait rod, 3/8oz to 1oz but incredibly light. If you're an angler like my self who owns only 2 rods that are 7' long, then these would be great at crossing over to largemouth because it is mostly marketing along with the rod lengths and actions that make it a smallmouth series.

The best thing to do is keep it small and sell to local anglers. There is a market for small timer, a lot of anglers may want a waorm like a powerbait ribbon tail worm for example, but they may want it to float so it stands up on the bottom under a bullert weight, well you can get a mold that is close and by using stright plastic with no salt the bait will be more bouyant. Believe it of not you coul make a few bucks on the side catering to anglers looking for custom stuff that either don't have the time or space to do it themselves. You'll never get rich but it ill give you plenty to do plus you can make stuff for yourself so you aren't buying from stores. The more you get into it the more molds you'll get and in a few years you find you have a nice little "hobby" serving the weekend tournament anglers looking for something to give them an edge and word gets passed around just by guys talking. If nothing else, it should be fun, as long as it is fun then keep going.

I hope they don't discontinue them either but I don't think you'll see that, as they were hard to get when they first came out, in fact I had to get my first one at retail direct from Fenwick as nobody had them in stock. I think they will be ok as Cabelas is now stocking them, I was lucky to find them on Amazon but it seems only a place called "Reds Gear" on Amazon market place is selling them at discounted prices and they seem to be different every few days. I know some people will tell me I'm full of BS or whatever but I firmly believe that if you stuck a G.Loomis or St. Croix tag on them you'd see them at a much steeper price. My neighbor went fishing with me the first time I had my new spinning rod out on the water, he loves his St. Croix Avids and kept telling me I was wasting my time by getting one of these Elite Techs but now he owns 2 spinning rods, the 6'9" ML-F and the 6'3" M-F and the best part is he sold one of his Avids! Like he said, he sold one Avid and had enough that he bought two Fenwicks for less than one Avid. I know I really like them and with the deals going on at Amazon right now it would be worth a look, especially if you need a rod and are on a budget. JMO.

I have a couple of Pointer 100s and 3 Megabass Vision 110s and they are expensive and they work well but they aren't magic and you don't have to have them. The thing with the Lucky Craft Pointer is the suspending ability right out of the box, that is why I spent a lot for them and I use them only if the bite is tough. The Vision 110 is another bait that has an action different than the rest, it just has a distinct flash and I believe that is why they are good but here are good domestic baits. I don't have any yet but I have heard a lot of good things about the new Luck E Strike RC STX, so that would be one to get at 8 bucks, my personal favorite and one that works in cold and warm water is the X-Rap in both the XR08 and the XR10 . Another favorite that does extremely well that a lot of anglers forgot about is the Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue, I have the suspending rogues and the floating rogues and in the summer the floating rogues are fish killers. The Rapala Flat Rap is one I used a lot last year, the smaller 1/4oz with a chrome finish is a fish magnet in warm water when you see bass chasing minnows. I can't help you with Kentucky waters when it comes to colors but I can give you some tips that may help with color selection. If you don't know where to start try pearl or white of some kind, this color is what I call universal as it works everywhere, and if you have smallies then clown is a must. After those two I suggest you find something that comes close to the regular forage species found in the waters you are using them in.

I had a 1436 and used for river fishing quite a bit, but standing up was a no no, you could do it but it will feel as if you are standing on jello especially at your size, I'm 6'2" and at the time I had my jon I was 270lbs. so it should give you an idea.

I think your biggest problem is the way you're fishing it. What you are doing is basically fishing your T-rigged worm like a carolina rig and it doesn't work in weeds. What you need is a good medium heavy, fast action rod, a good rod with a good amount of sensitivity so you'll feel when your bait makes contact with weeds which you will then pop the weeds off before your bait gets totally bogged down. Once you got the right rod and you're fishing the same type of cover, try using a lift and drop approach to present the worm rather than the slow retrieve or drag, what you are doing works but it is better to do in when fishing a sand or gravel type bottom instead of muck and weeds. Remember also that as you begin to lift the bait and feel weeds, you can give the rod a few shakes and get it to come free of the weeds or you can give the rod a "pop", and sort of rip it off the weeds, a lot of times ripping it off of weeds will result in a strike so remain alert when doing this!

I think most angler have had a look at the new series that Fenwick released the end of last year. I got on board right away as I needed a new spinning rod, so I gave the new Fenwick a shot, I purchased the 6'9" medium power, extra fast action spinning model and I can tell you I was very impressed with the feel of the rod. I got the rod to use for shaky heads and light jigs and tubes but I got a bonus as it really was great to use with small soft jerkbaits like the super fluke Jr and baby slug-o. It has more than enough strength and backbone to throw normal 5" and 6" soft jerkbait and senkos but it really threw the small ones which impressed me the most. I could feel the bottom and light bites in 26' of water on a shaky head using 8# mono, it is without a doubt the most sensitive rod in its price range that I ever used and what make it nice is the reel seat is not only comfotable to hold, but simply extending your index finger puts it right on the blank, this is a plus and looks to be very well thought out. Well I liked that so much I ordered, and just recieved, my new Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth casting rod. It is 6'10" medium heavy power, moderate fast action, the line rating is 12# to 20# and the lure rating is 3/8oz to 1oz. The first thing you notice when you pick it up is how light it is and when you feel how much power the rod has the weight is even more incredible, especially in its price range. I can't get out on the water just yet but I was able to mount a reel and tie off the line to a post and apply some pressure to check the action and it was more than I expected. When I first manually pulled the rod tip it felt kind of stiff, more like a fast action rod but once I tied the line to a post and began putting pressure on it you could see the blank begin to distribute the weight all the way through the mid section of the rod instead of just the top half as a fast action rod does. The reel seat is outstanding in terms of comfort and depending how you palm a reel, a simple extension of the index finger may be all that is needed in order to have direct access to the blank. That is my one and only complaint at all with the reel seat, the lack of blank exposure isn't there like you have on a normal fuji exposed blank reel seat but for this rod it really isn't needed as the rods intened purpose is square bills, large shallow cranks, traps, and it may even see jerkbait duty as it has enough tip for me to control the jerkbait yet has enough flex to fight the fish without pulling the trebe hooks free. I never liked traditional style cranking rods with jerkbaits, I just never felt in control of the lure with them but it isn't the case with this new rod. BTW, I got this rod on Amazon for $77.49 with free shipping!!!! So, if you're in the market for a new rod and perhaps on a budget, you may want to give these Fenwicks a try, I liked my spinning rod so much I gave my grandson my old rod, a G.Loomis SJR722 GL3.

All you need to do is tie a normal collar, the zonker isn't going to float off the hook, in fact they don't float, what you see in the video is a jig hitting the bottom and the zonker is straight up and down but it is only that way for a very short time, once in hits bottom it starts to slowly sink. If you tied it half way down the hook shank you wouldn't get much movement out of it.

Yep, smallies react violently to vivd colors like that and I never thought about using that color on a jig> Great job!!

I fish in a river that 20 years ago was a numbers fishery, you could catch 100 smallies a day and 30 was a bad day but there were a ton of 10" and 12" fish and the occasional 17" or even 18" fish that would go about 2.5lbs maybe close to 3 depending what time of the year it was and a 4lb fish was one that you caught maybe 1 or 2 a season but that is it. Now the river has a declining population due to bad recruitment because of man made and natural things that hurt the spawn but with a large amount of forage and a lot less competition for food it has turned into a true trophy river. I was fishing a spot a few years ago that was a perfect summer holding area, it was a 3' deep depression surrounded by water that was just a little over a foot deep, current was flowing into the depression which itself had water willow and a laydowns that had ended up there when high water in spring uprooted the trees and were they fell created sort of a pool. Anyway, in the small stretch that was less than a hundred yards we caught 14 smallies, 3 were small 16" fish, we had 7 that were all between 17" and 19" and 4 giants that were over 20" with the smallest weighing 4lbs 11oz. and the biggest one weighing 5lbs 4oz and my personal best. Last season a tournament was held and a 6lb. 2oz smallie wasn't the lunker but was taken by a 6lb 10oz giant, this, in a river that you could catch a lot of fish but were lucky to get a 4lb smallie 20 years ago. Even the length to weight ratio is different, as someone said, a 20" lake smallies might be around 5-6lbs but in the river it maybe was a little over 4lbs but now,it is the opposite, my grandson caught his first ever river smallie on a spinnerbait he helped me make just for him and it was a beautiful 17.5" fish that weighed an enormus 3lb. 2oz., it don't sound like much but a 17" fish over 3lbs in a river is unheard of. Anyway I think 7lbs is the mark I'd like to hit but the average of most smallies outside the great lakes and certain California fisheries, 6lbs would be a bonafide trophy, even TN were they produce huge smallies 6lb is nothing to sneeze at.

They do have a lot of action but you don't want that much movement in cold water. I don't use the rabbit fur but I use Zonker strips, what I do is tie a normal hair jig using bucktail , I leave the back of the jig a little light with hair and insead tie on 1 or 2 zonker strips, these work well as trailers. For a warm water hair jig I will use 2 zonker strips because as I lift and drop the jig I want a lot of action and those strip moving will attract the fish and then when it is stopped, they slowly begin to fall and you'll find that you get a lot of bites a few seconds after the jig has hit the bottom. For cold water I will use only a single zonker strip but not on all my jigs, I only will tie one on when it it is going to be used in a lake, and the single zonker will still provide that movement but with a smaller profile that is sometimes needed in colder water. In rivers were there is current the zonker strips in my opinion create too much movement, you want the fish to think they are going to get an easy meal, not something super lively they may have to chase, and so far it seems to work as I have tried jigs with and without the strips and without have out produced the other by a wide margin. To tie them simply tie them like you would bucktail but you need to cinch down pretty good, I also tend to use a few extra wraps of thread when I use the rabbit zonkers but nothing special.

I love catching river smallies on a spinnerbait, nothing like burning a 1/2oz spinnerbait just below the surface enough that you can see the bait and then out of nowhere the bait makes an abrupt move to the side and the rod bends so hard and it feels as the fish is trying to pull the rod from your hands! spinnerbaits for smallies actually got me making my own since I couldn't find one that worked like I wanted it too. I make one specifically for the river so I can reel it fast in current without it rolling over, most of the spinnerbaits I bought in the 90's would roll over if you reeled them faster than a moderate pace and trying to get smallies that are in gin clear shallow water to hit a spinnerbait required a high speed approach and so here we are over a decade later and my spinnerbaits are still catching smallies!

You need to read the description carefully as some hooks use the 1X and 2X as a strength gauge, the Triple Grips have a 1X and 2X short shank. I'm happy with normal Triple Grip hooks but the KVDs are a really good hook with some minor differences for me the differences didn't matter enough for me to get them. If you want a better price for hooks go to Captain Hooks Warehouse, they have all kinds of hooks at great prices but you need to buy in 100 counts, you can only get 25 and 50 counts of the ultra expensive hooks.

I haven't seen anyone looking for that one but I have seen request from anglers looking for the old Berkley Series One. If you never laid eyes on one check ebay for it, they were made in the 80's and one of the first production rods with a split grip.

I use my equipment pretty hard and I only clean the reels once a year and lube twice a year. Unless you drop your reels in mud or something this schedule keeps your reels in good order and they also last a long time. Anytime you use a low viscosity reel oil like hot sauce or reel butter it is best to use small amounts and relube every 6 months, gears get grease and bearings get oil, you can also use acetone to flush out the bearings once a year too.

A one piece is going to be more sensitive than a two piece but there are some good 2 piece rods available but they do cost a lot. If you're not hampared by space to the point you don't need the 2 piece then get a one piece rod.

There are a lot of different head designs and skirt materials for both smallmouth and largemouth. First you need to decide how deep into it you want to go, for exampple you can buy unpainted jigheads and then paint and put skirts on them, you can also make your own skirts or buy those already made also. I pour, paint and make my own skirts, I have a lot of different molds to use and I make spinnerbaits and bladed jigs in addition to bass jigs. I also tie hair jigs so when you say you want to make jigs you need to be a little more specific. If you want to make your own skirts, and pour the heads you'll need a mold, a melting pot, a small file to smooth the sprue, lead, hooks, paint, skirt material, a skirt tool and some hot mill gloves as well as safety glasses. To make 50 jigs you're looking at around 200 to 300 dollars for start up costs so if you are planning on saving money, this isn't what you want to do. There is a website called, tackle underground, you can go there and learn the basics as well as places to get your materials from, good luck and if you have any questions I'll be more than happy to help you.

Years ago I would say yes, by all means, have the same reels on the same rods but todays rods are all light, most are in that 3.6 to 4.6 ounce range were years ago some rods were 5 ounces while others were closer to 4 ounces and still others were over 5. When the rods were over an ounce different between each other then going from a heavy rod to a light rod could really screw you up as far as casting accuracy and setting the hook. Todays quality rods, those rods in the $100 to $300+ range are all withing an ounce so picking one up after using another isn't as bad as it once was. I have 3 rods of the same brand, actually identical and then 2 of another brand and then 3 of another, so yes, I have multiple rods from a single manufacturer but if I say switch from throwing a spinnerbait on my Quantum Super light to Throwing a crankbait on my Fenwick Smallmouth rod, I really don't feel any weight difference to cause my casting to be off, in fact both of those rods have a Smoke 150 reel, one is a burner and the other is a cranking gear ratio and the rods are very cloes in weight. If it was 10 years ago, KVD is spot on, the differences in rod from one to another were vast but with such an emphasis on every piece of equipment being light weight, as long as the rods are all with in the same price range and within 3 years of each other then it isn't too important. JMO.