smalljaw67

I fish rivers with jerkbaits and they are awesome in moving water. As Scott F pointed out, when you have cold water you need to focus on deep holes with slow moving current, these are wintering holes and the fish will stack up.

Nobody ever said the Ned rig doesn't catch big fish. What is said is that the majority of fish you'll catch will be of the smaller variety. Beautiful fish by the way!!!! If you take a 1/2oz jig and compare the average size of fish you catch on that in a season versus the Ned rig I wouldn't be afraid to bet the jig produces larger fish on average, but it is meant to do that because the rig is more of a numbers type presentation. Now, you can do exactly what you are doing, and that is using it at a time of year where the numbers of fish caught go down but the average size goes up, or you can use larger baits which also helps but day in and day out you'll catch small to average size fish most of the time. The beauty of the Ned rig is that it will catch so many fish that it is inevitable that you'll eventually get a big fish and it is because it appeals to every size fish unlike a large jig or big crankbait. Another neat thing is watching the masters of the Ned rig, if you saw the In-Fisherman article by Ned Kehde, he talks about a guy from W. Virginia that takes a 1/20oz 'Shroomz head and files down the head to make it 1/32oz and he uses only baits from 2.5" to 3", and that guy catches large fish as well.

As Mike L. mentioned, you FLIP with a reel that is already engaged so you can't backlash when flipping. What you are doing is PITCHING, this is where you can get backlashes. It can be done with a spinning reel if in lighter cover with lighter baits but anything in a 3/8oz and up or in heavy cover and it has to be casting.

Living rubber is round rubber, and it comes in fine and regular. Flat rubber is just that, it is flat and it was the primary skirt material back in the 70s and even into the 80s. The difference is in the action, a lot of anglers get confused on all the varying types of materials. Round rubber and silicone have the same action, the difference is round rubber separates and flares faster than silicone, so if hopping a jig along the bottom you'll have more movement going on with rubber. Flat rubber moves a lot of water and creates more bulk with less material, it tends to have more pulsing action when used on a moving bait like a spinnerbait or buzzbait but old time jig anglers liked it because of the bulk. There is also rubber call old time square rubber, it is as wide as round rubber but the strands are square instead of round, this is used just like round rubber, it has slightly more bulk than round rubber with a similar action, perhaps it flares a little slower but not much, it comes down to what you have confidence using. Remember, rubber can and will stick to itself and get out of shape and even melt a bit when tied on a jig. If you don't store them properly you can end up with useless skirts, that is what lead to silicones skirting. If my jigs with rubber are going to be out of use for more than 3 weeks, I'll put them in a bag with some unscented talcum powder and give it a shake or 2 to get a fine coat on the rubber, this will keep the rubber from sticking to itself which is when it begins to melt and deform.

The shape, wobble, and how fast they get down to depth are all different. I had the pro series 1 before they came out with the KVD 1.5 and I would consider the pro series 1 to be more of a finesse square bill. A lot of anglers still use that bait which is why it is easy to find, it has good deflecting qualities but it doesn't have a real aggressive kick out the 1.5 is known for but it is still effective.

There is a pull pin that sits in the mold and the lead forms around it. When you pour you immediately pull the pin and it leaves a hollow core.

That video is awesome!!!!!!

I use the plain jig when I need a more finesse approach like gin clear water. If I'm fishing brush or grass then I'll be using the skirted swim jig but there are exceptions. You may not like the answer but it really is trial and error, I've had days where the fish wouldn't hit the swim bait on a jig head and just slash at the tail but when put on a swim jig they were hammering it, and it has happened more than once. I've also had days in which the swim jig wouldn't get a follow but they would just eat the swim bait on a plain ball head jig. I will use the swim jig first in almost every situation with 2 exceptions, gin clear water or post frontal conditions and then I'll see how the fish react but I rather the swim jig as it really does increase the average size of the fish that I catch on it.

I have a Hagen's wire former and what I do is make the first loop then I add the beads, clevis and blade and then the body. Once the body is done I make a bend, add the hook and then finish the loop so the spinner is basically done at that point. Then I put the spinner in my vise, I have the jaws gripping the loop and I use a small rubber band to hold the treble hook back by looping it over one of the points and looping the other end over the thumb screw on the vise but any anchor point will work. I also forgot to mention that the spinner in in the vise at a slight downward angle so the body slide up leaving bare wire exposed to tie on, and then I simply begin wrapping the hackle feather around and tie it off. A little secret, take a tooth pick and dip the end in some super glue and apply it to the wire only where the thread is going to be tied, that way your thread base you make before you begin to tie will not slide on you. I use a tooth pick instead of the brush because the wood will absorb some of the excess glue so you don't get any runs, it will only be where you put it.

They make a hand dipped tube that is soft, because of that the action is much better and the fish don't spit them. I can honestly say I was a cabin creek guy but the plastic started getting harder with every bag and the fish were spitting them on a regular basis. So after discovering River Rock's Jointed Jerkbait, I decided to go with some tubes and that was it, I've never used another tube since, in fact a lot of guides on the Susquehanna use them when the bite is tough. They now make a flipping tube too that is called an "elite tube", it is injected and comes in side by side laminates and it has a solid head to securely hold a screw lock or hook for Texas rigging, I bought 4 packs to try and it is what I use to pitch with but it has really worked well on smallmouth, but they don't slam it, they just grab and run, every one I caught on that big tube ate it the same way.

As was previously mentioned, the rooster tails use hackle and it isn't tied to the hook but it is tied to the wire. For your beads the hollow are better unless you want to add weight, and instead of stacking the beads they make brass bodies that look like stacked beads. You want to make sure you have enough movement on the wire so your blade can spin free and stay within your size range. I'll post of picture of the spinners I make, I have a mold where I pour my own lure bodies and I leave enough wire to tie hackle above the hook as I too like rooster tail spinners.

Weightless T-rigged Senko, ever since I tried that worm it just made sense to use it as a follow up. The best part is that it works, and works well!!!!

I hear you on that!!! The river I fish is extremely rocky and shallow so that is why I'm using a 1/16oz head to fish plastics most of the time and I still lose baits even on the boat as not every place you can get to. I have had weightless baits get snagged by getting wedged in between the cracks in the rocks and even going over the snag with the boat I've been unable to get some which makes me wonder how it got like that in the first place...LOL.

Their baits aren't very durable because they're soft, and I mean Yamamoto soft. That said, I throw the Helgripede on a 1/16oz or 3/32oz flick shake style head rigged wacky style with a small O-ring. I've caught 9 fish on 1 bait rigged with the O-ring but if you are looking for durability that isn't the bait for you. I use them for tough conditions, when they absolutely won't bite anything, that is when the Helgripede shines.

I focus on colors that work in both clear and stained water so they are darker but still natural. If you get the pro tubes, I recommend black melon flash and K-custom, those are my main colors with RT-custom and dark melon candy being close seconds.

I have a first generation Abu Garcia Vendetta, I got a 6'6" Medium power, Fast action as a cheap "all purpose" stick for fishing the river. I needed a rod that I could take on the small boat that would be able to do multiple things and that rod works, it is a little stiffer than a traditional medium but it works great for larger jerkbaits as well as spinnerbaits and believe it or not, the sensitivity is good enough for me to use with jigs and soft plastics. My main use for that stick was spinnerbaits but it had enough feel for me to throw 5" Senkos on it, and I'm sure the new versions are as good if not better. If that stick is in your price range I'd think about that, the performance of my older model is well above the price point.

I like the material selection, Schlappen works well with marabou!!!!! You also are going to cost me money, that laser dub looks like a killer to mimic scale flash, very nice and I use the same hook for a finesse football jig.

Here is the problem, a lot of guys will break rods through user error and then complain on forums and then others, who never touched the rod will parrot the same thing. The most common mistakes I see are people high sticking or boat flipping bass and boat flipping a 2lb to 4lb fish and then complaining the rod is junk because it broke is like complaining you topped off your gas tank with water and now the engine won't run right. There are cases like from 2005 to 2007 when Kistler started using overseas blanks in their Helium LTA rods and anglers began having breakage issues but it was easy to spot because every message board at that time had 10+ pages of guys screaming about rods breaking and warranties not being honored. That kind of thing is easy to spot and truth be told I haven't heard of any other rods having such an issue ever since. No matter which manufacturer, you will always hear a bad review or someone who wasn't treated right, like for me it is Shimano, they make great reels but I had 2 bad Symetre reels and their customer service told me I should have bought a better reel from them??? Well that doesn't happen to everyone and perhaps I got a rep who was having a bad day but it does stick with me to the point of me never buying Shimano again and this is the kind of thing you need to watch for. My advise to you is to pick a manufacturer who has the rods you like the look of and has the right models you want at the right price point and go from there because we all have brands we like and you'll probably get a few up votes as well as down votes no matter which one you choose and one last word, choose a rod based on your preference, it may sound funny but if you are looking for durability then stay away from high end graphite rods and instead choose something like a store brand rod either Cabelas or Bass pro shops as they will take returns on their products with little to no hassle and they are decent for the price as well as the lower end models have lower grade graphite which will take a little more abuse if you are hard on equipment and some anglers are so find what your priorities are and go from there.

Find Cadman, he does lead free and he may be able to help. I have done Tin/Bismuth alloy and you are correct, powder can be applied but it never really adheres to the head because it can't get hot enough for the paint to bind so even cured at 270 for an hour doesn't lead to a good hard finish. The only reason I used it was to make larger profile jigs with a lighter weight for a slower fall, I wanted the bulk of the larger jig but the fall of a smaller jig. I also discovered you need to use a mold release like Drop Out when using tin alloys as that doesn't shrink when it cools, I learned it the hard way by having to melt my first pour out of the mold. I have only made a handful of jigs with it and I don't intend to use it again for a long time, if ever, it isn't user friendly to work with and in order to paint it I had to use vinyl paint, and I almost quit tackle making because the fumes from vinyl paint, even outside, were giving me headaches and powder coating was the perfect solution.

What really got me into River Rock Baits is that they are geared toward smallmouth. From the types of baits to the colors, they do work well for the others species but everything they do is primarily geared to smallmouth and the smallmouth angler. I can attest to the power of the SM Killer finesse worm on largemouth too, in all my years of angling I've caught smallies in water down to 33 degrees but I never caught largemouth in water under 40 degrees. That was until January 2013, we had a warming trend and decided to give a local lake a try, the air temp was 43 degrees and the water temp was 37 and out of 3 boats and 6 of us fishing I was the only one to catch fish and I landed 3 nice largemouth and lost another 3 that I didn't hook well since they were biting light. They were all caught on the SM Killer in a color called chocolate moss and I was fishing it in 9' of water on a 1/16oz shaky head with a 3/0 hook, everybody else began throwing finesse worms on that kind of set up but I was the only one catching fish and I was getting bites regularly, none of the other guys even had a sniff. That was the moment when I realized it just wasn't the tubes that were so good and now I've purchased just about every bait they make and it all has exceeded my expectation, that company was the best accidental find I ever had.

I discovered River Rock a few years ago and most of my go-to soft plastics come from them. The tubes are by far the best I've ever used, and living around and primarily fishing smallmouth waters all my life I can say that I tried a lot of tubes and the River Rock tubes are second to none. I also use their Striker swim bait, Jakes Craw, and the SM Killer finesse worm is my number 1 shaky head worm. I'm not sure if they make anything I haven't used, but one thing I can tell you is there aren't any tubes made like the way they do it, I'm sure you'll end up like me and what I mean by that is that they are the only tubes I use now and they work so well you'll have to give other baits a try. Hint, a wacky rigged Helgripede will get bites when it is so tough a wacky rigged 4" Senko won't get bit, it happens in my waters by mid July, good luck with the tubes.

Most guys like moderate or mod fast actions for punching. If you would have gone with a heavy power rod with a mod fast action you would have a punching/ A-rig/ Glide bait rod.

The Banana head is a great design for slow rolling and fishing around brush or wood. The deep belly makes it a little tough in grass as it tends to grab more, and it is a reason I prefer a minnow style head. I think it all depends on what properties you are looking for, all head designs work in various conditions but if I was going to slow roll or work around wood for most of my spinnerbait fishing, then the banana head is what I'd use.

No tackle manufacturer is going to put a "no trade" clause in a pro staff contract. The reason being is a guy can get hot for a few seasons and then hit bottom and tackle companies want to move on, a no trade clause works both ways and is no real benefit to a sponsor if a guy isn't performing. Now, as for Al Lindner, I agree the word liar is harsh but hypocrite fits and I'll tell you why. I have a DVD in which he says that "Trigger X soft plastics are by far the best on the market" and I heard him say not long ago that Big Bite baits makes the best plastic an angler could want. Now, I wouldn't call that a lie but a man of God such as himself wouldn't mislead anyone intentionally would he???? I'm sure he is doing only what his sponsors require but at some point doesn't he need to say that "Brand A doesn't sponsor us anymore so we started using Brand B and we found it is just as good" ??? Instead of lying Al uses a thing politicians call "spin", it is when they do one thing but shift words to make it sound like something different, this is so nobody can say you lied but if you are a man of faith and know the difference then isn't that the same as a lie? I don't care one way or another but I just wanted to point out that they have a business to make money and spirituality really does come second because if it didn't, you would never hear how good any product is and it would just be about the fish but that doesn't sell product so spirituality be damned, there is money to be made.

The J-Will head uses a Mustad, and today every major hook manufacturer chemically sharpens their hooks. The biggest difference is normally the hook points when comparing premium hooks from every brand, Mustad Ultra points, VMC Cone Cut, and Eagle Claw Laser Sharp are almost identical in that they use a needle point that has a single shap edge like that of a spear tip. Owner, Gamakatsu, and Trokar use cutting points which are multi-edged points like a broadhead arrow, and both types have pros and cons but if you are fishing a bait with an exposed hook point, you do better with a needle point because it has more strength and since there isn't any plastic in the way it penetrates easily without cutting a large hole in the mouth of the fish.