smalljaw67

Bluebasser86 is obviously a master of this and I agree with him 100%. 25 years ago we fished a rig similar in the Susquehanna and Juniata rivers, it was a 1/16oz ball head jig with a small light wire hook with either a 3" Kalins grub with most of the tail cut off or 1/2 of a 5" Senko. We used it when the fish were really off and it would be the best way to pick up fish but it is a slow way to fish. The NED rig is a better version as it is more refined than what we did but when I hear guys saying they are bending hooks out, well you are hurting yourself because the tackle you are using is too heavy. It is just like guys wanting a head with a weed guard, if your head is digging into weeds and bottom hard enough for a weed guard, you aren't fishing a NED rig but more like a jig worm and there is a difference. I had a person tell me they needed a super stout hook to bring a fish in fast because he was fishing tournaments, well the NED rig isn't what I would call a tournament technique, it falls through the water column slow, almost suspending slow, and when it hits the bottom you move it slow, anything faster than a slow crawl and the jig gets too high in the water. So for me, the anything with a heavy hook or any jig over 1/8oz is basically a jig worm or shaky head, and after trying a few different presentations I can honestly say, the lighter the better. I use a 1/8oz head only if I'm in water that is deeper than 15' and then it is only when there is enough wind that it keeps a 3/32oz from ever reaching the bottom. All you need to do is put a heavy hook jig in a worm and watch how it falls and then use the same weight with a light wire hook and you'll notice how much of a difference there is in the fall rate and with the light wire hook you will get a small amount of tail movement, nothing with a heavy wire hook or with a hook that is too long, it is a very specific type of rig.

I tie a lot of smallmouth jigs in 1/16oz up to 1/4oz but the 1/16oz and 3/32oz with a #2 hook are my best producers in cold water. Last week the water temps dropped to 49 degrees, a 1/8oz black and purple bucktail with a tiny paca chunk was a killer.

I think spinning would be the best bet, and for your price point I'd look at Cabela's right now. You can get a Pflueger President LE for $50 and a Berkley Lightning rod for $40 for a grand total of $90 plus shipping if you have to order it online. I say the regular lightning rod over the shock simply because it sounds as if you are going to use mono, the shock is a great rod but has a really soft tip section for fishing braided line and setting the hook with that rod with mono is going to require a harder hook set. Now if you are using braid or braid and a short leader, then the shock will be fine but remember, that rod was made for a no stretch line and therefore has a lot of bend to it, a little more than you would want especially with a Texas rig and mono where you would have to drive the hook through plastic and the mouth of the fish.

I would look at a regular Lightning rod, the shock models are very moderate which is great for braid but I'm guessing you are going to use mono. Trying to set the hook with the shock series with mono isn't going to be great, may as well stick with the ugly stick. If you could swing $80 or wait for black Friday sales the Abu Garcia Vendetta 6'9" ML-F would be great for the application. I think a 6'9" is a little more versatile since you got enough length for good casting distance but it is still short enough to make it easier for fishing close quarters, but that is just my preference.

Congrats!!!!!! This is the time of year for big ones!!!!

First of all the baits you listed are two different rods altogether. Buzzbaits are single hook lures with larger diameter wire, so you can get away using a MH - F rod, the other baits have smaller treble hooks and work better with a rod with a softer tip section. For those baits look for a rod with a length you're comfortable working a bait with, for me a shorter rod works better, anything from 6'3" up to 6'9". I'd look at something in a medium power with a fast or even a mod-fast action but that price point is going to really limit your options. The new Berkley Series One has a rod that is perfect for topwater, 6'6" medium power with a mod-fast action rated to 3/4oz but it is slightly more than you want to spend but that is the type of rod you should be looking at.

Daiwa has nothing close the Supreme or the XT version for the money. If you go Daiwa you get high end but the BG sells same price as the Supreme yet is a full 2 ounces heavier on the 2500 and 3000 size and doesn't have more features that make it a better buy. Solid reel for sure but it just doesn't measure up, and I'm not knocking Daiwa, they make the best high end reels you can get but they don't do much in the under $300 segment.

I found the Pflueger Supreme MGX on sale when they discontinued the model. The difference is the regular Supreme wasn't magnesium but instead of having two separate models they just made the Supreme with the magnesium frame and dropped the MGX. Now that the explanation is out of the way, I can honestly say that after 4 seasons with my Supreme, I have no trouble paying the price for them, you are getting a better reel if light weight is your thing. The Supreme I have works fantastic, it hasn't had any issues and my only problem is that I didn't buy 4 or 5 of them as Cabela's were selling them for $64.99, the best spinning reel at that price point in my opinion.

Here is a simple rule of thumb to go by. any bait or lure that you move primarily with the rod you'll want a fast reel to pick up slack line fast, any bait or lure that you are moving primarily with the reel you'll want a slower reel. A pretty good solution is to get a reel in the 6.?:1 ratio, it is fast enough for worms and jigs as well as topwaters and jerkbaits, yet it is still not too fast to fish most types of crankbaits. So for the baits you are talking about, I use 7.1:1 but I'd say anything from a 6 on up will work fine.

Every Company is different with power because there is no industry standard so it depends on what rod you get. I'd get a ML with a fast action because you want to drop shot as well as other finesse techniques and that is the key to it. Drop shot rods normally have a really soft tip, it allows the fish to take your bait without feeling the resistance of the rod and that way you can see the strike with the rod tip and then set the hook, it also allows you to work the bait without moving the weight much like a stiffer rod will. Since I use a drop shot but not a lot I got a rod that works for it while still letting me use other techniques and that is a 7'ML-F, it seems a lot of medium light rods with an extra fast taper are too stiff in the tip section to fish a drop shot effectively but the fast actions are a little softer. I found a St. Croix Avid X in a 7'ML-F that I got for hair jigs, works really well for drop shots in addition to other finesse techniques that I use lighter weights, and by lighter I don't exceed 1/4oz with the rod even though it can handle more.

I'm assuming you are using the small Flicker shad as the larger one should cast well. Since you are using spinning, any medium power rod with a fast action and is longer in length will give you more distance, and there are other things you can do as well. For starters the #5 shad rap is only 3/16oz, I've been using the #5 Bagley Balsa Shad, it is only 1/4" longer than the #5 shad rap and runs the same depth but it weighs 3/8oz so it cast better. You can also look at line diameter depending what line you use for these types of baits, drop down to the next weight line if possible to help give you even more distance. In the end no matter what line or lure, simply getting a longer rod will improve your distance, if 7' is too long then look for something in the 6'6" to 6'9" length as I've found it takes about 6" of length before you get a real noticeable difference in casting distance.

I was 9 or 10 when I got my first bass on a hard bait. My friend "borrowed" his Dad's tackle box and when he opened it I spied a brand new Jitterbug I had to try. It was a Chipmunk pattern and on the second cast with it I caught a solid bass, it was 16" or 17" if I remember right but I can still remember the bait and the strike because I was about bass fishing after that.

I counted all my Bomber models A cranks which include 4A, 5A, 6A, 7A and the Deep Flat A and I have 74 total. All of my Bomber model A cranks came with a bronze TX3 hook, they last a season and then need to be replaced but they are as sharp as you will find and with a cranking rod the hooks seldom will bend out. Those hooks have a little bend that Excalibur use to call the rotating treble and trust me, those hooks need pliers to remove almost 100% of the time unless you barely hook the fish and manage to land it. Some anglers mistake bronze hooks to mean poor quality or dull, that isn't always the case, Mann's uses an Eagle Claw Laser Sharp hook on the 1 minus series as well as the Baby X, they are bronze but not the ordinary Eagle Claw hooks most think of, the Laser Sharp models in my opinion are better than Mustads, and I like Mustad hooks. So if you have or are going to buy some Bomber cranks and you see they have the rotating trebles in bronze, try them out before thinking they aren't good, you may be surprised.

I'm not trying to make you mad but there are things you aren't including in your assessment. So let us say you are spot on in your 35 cents total cost to make the jig, now you have to figure in electricity by breaking down kilowatt hour, then packaging, unless you get your packaging for free. Then you have advertising, storage, handling, and not to mention the time it takes and the cost of maintaining equipment. all of that stuff adds up and when you aren't a giant corp with deep pockets, you don't get the tax incentives so you don't get to write off as much which leads to high product cost. The Morel jig may be in the 35 cent range for Seibert Outdoors to make it but my own breakdown is around 42 cents but remember, I'm paying 30 cents per hook plus I buy high quality lead from Rotometals, I don't use scrap and I also custom make my own alloy using a percentage of hard lead so my lead cost are higher than what you quoted. Now that is me making for me and a few friends, but if I was back in business I'd be charging at least a dollar per head, and the reason why is there isn't anything that compares to it, there are others that use a heavy wire Mustad but this jig has a thin wire Owner that is sharper and it is just as strong and you get a full penetration hook set with 6lb line and you won't bend it out using 12lb line, you can't say that with any other product. Most people who have never made or sold tackle for a business don't understand how far you have to break down costs in order to make a little money, when it comes down to it I'll bet Seibert Outdoors has to sell a boat load of products just to make enough to pay his bills let alone any extra. I gave up my business when I got sick because in order to compete and make anything I had to keep my costs low and pay myself little which also required me to keep my day job of 20 years, I made less making and selling tackle than I would have working for minimum wage because of anglers that have no problem paying $20 for a mass produced Megabass lure while they questioned every nickel I charged for a bait made to their specs, in a way you post has made me happy I stopped selling tackle. I don't miss anglers asking me why my spinnerbaits were 5 bucks, baits made in any color they wanted with higher quality blades, hooks, and wire than the Booyah bait they purchased for the same price with no questions asked. Thank you for reminding me why I never got back into doing selling custom made tackle, and make no mistake, anglers that wanted better products with attention paid to detail were more than happy with what they got for their money but there was always the few that tried to break down costs and want to claim they can make it cheaper, to you I say well done, have at it and good luck.

Seibert Outdoors is correct, the Mustad 32886 is a 30 degree hook like the Owner Twist Lock open gap but Owner uses their Zo-wire to make the hook as strong as a heavy hook while the wire diameter is a lot thinner. The points are also different, Owner has a cutting point on their Twist Lock hooks, Mustad uses the Ultra point which is a type of needle point, the difference is the cutting point has a point and a cutting edge like a knife blade, the needle point is like a sewing needle, a single sharp point. The cutting points make for easier penetration through plastic baits with the downside being they can cut a large hole in the mouth of the fish which can lead to the hook falling out should any slack get in the line. The needle point doesn't have the problem of a cutting point but a lighter hook set may not get full penetration and you fail to hook the fish, both have advantages and disadvantages.

Where did you find the 5313 in bulk for 3 cents each????? Try 30 cents with the 10% excise tax each. I challenge you to look at every company that mass produces lead based lures and find more than 3 that use Owner hooks and then find me more than 3 wholesale hook distributers that sell Owner hooks, in fact find me 1 wholesale distributer that deals with them. I'll save you some time, as someone who has been making lures for 20 years now, I can tell you that unless you can afford to buy in lots of 10K or more, you'll pay 30 cents per hook for a size #1 5313, you'll pay 36 cents for a 1/0. So give me you name an address and I'll send you not 30 dollars but I'll even give you 40 dollars plus pay for shipping to buy a box of 1000 size 1/0 5313 hooks from you, because the best price I can get with under 10K is $300/1000 which is 30 cents per hook before shipping and that is the price with the 10% excise tax. Think before you speak, this is something I know a lot about. EDIT: I apologize as I didn't read your second reply but I still have a slight problem. I make the same type of head, when I figure in my material price, hooks, paint, wire keepers, and lead, the price is close to 41 cents and that isn't even including time, so based on what Seibert is selling those for I'd say he isn't getting much for his time. I will apologize for the tone I'm setting but it seems that when a custom tackle maker puts out something of high quality, someone always has something to say about price yet Z-Man produces their "Shrooms" head in large volume with an inferior hook to what is used on the Morel jig and they charge $4.99 per 5 pack, which is 99.8 cents per head and nobody blinks and eye, why is that?? Owner is very steadfast in their prices to both consumers and businesses, that is why you don't see a lot of them used except for high end tackle and you pay for it, the same with vendors, I've contacted 9 different places I purchase materials from and they all tell me it doesn't pay them to keep a large inventory of Owner hooks because they don't make much from them as there really isn't a good wholesale price unless you carry such a large inventory that it will take forever and a day to sell. I guess I'm just tired of seeing custom guys getting called out for price on high quality tackle while mass produced items aren't even questioned on price.

It depends on which Owner Twist lock you are referring too. I use the Twist Lock Light but there is also the Twist Lock Finesse, the twist lock flipping and the twist lock beast hook. I also have quite a few different 30 degree hooks as well as 60 degree for making jigs and I can give you the equivalent hook if I know which twist lock you were talking about since all of them are different.

What type of crank and what kind of rod? Glass rods lack feel and if you are using a MH power with a small crank then it is quite possible you won't feel anything. If that is the case the rod you have is overpowering your crankbait, look at the tip of the rod and see if it is vibrating as you reel your bait.

There are a few crankbait makers that produce baits on par with the WEC models. Phil Hunt makes baits under his PH Custom Lures brand that are known to produce the kind of fish that the WEC has been know for getting. Lee Sisson is still making baits for his Old School Baits brand, and he does some work for Bagley as well, and if you look to East Tennessee you'll find a bevy of excellent flat side crank makers, one of the better known ones is Craig Powers who has his brand of CP Customs baits. I agree that Ed Chambers makes a great lure and it will be a shame when he passes but I think as long as there are tournaments, you'll always have skilled crankbait makers because there really isn't a substitute for that kind of lure, I have my own collection but I rarely use them as I don't tournament fish much anymore. I feel that the baits are unique enough that it just isn't worth taking a chance on losing one when fun fishing, and not to mention there are factory made baits that really do well, almost at a custom level as manufacturing techniques have come a long way since these guys have been making baits.

The number one river crank for the 4' to 6' depth is the Bomber 4A and 5A. The 4A will get down to around 5' with 8lb line and around 4' with 10lb. The 5A is small but it is probably the best craw imitating crank I ever used, it deflects wildly and has a body shape that seems to really appeal to fish, especially smallmouth. Another that I've been liking besides the DT-4 and 6 is the Bagley Sunny B, the deep diver is listed as diving 6' to 7' and on 12' line I just barely tick bottom in 6' of water so if you fish it on 14lb or 15lb line you can make it run in the 4' to 5' zone and so far for me it has worked but I haven't used it long enough to be considered a go to, at least not yet but it may end up there.

I go with 3 types of patterns as S. Sass mentioned above. I go with a shad color bait which is good in both clear and stained water, bluegill which works well in both but it stronger in stained, and a dirty water color which for me is chartreuse with black back.

Split ring pliers make it a lot easier to do this. One word of advice, don't up size hooks on those small cranks, instead use the same size but go with a Daiichi size #10 treble on the 3/16oz crickethopper. I have done well with those for both bass and trout and I did the up size thing and it really killed the action and it was noticeable in a lot less bites. Go with the better hook over the larger hook, from my experience the Daiichi is probably the best treble in a small size, my River2Sea Dragonfly has 1 Daiichi size 10 treble hook on it and I probably land 3 out of every 4 fish I hook on it.

I like the #5 and #7 Rapala Shad Rap, but the #5 is being replaced by the #5 Bagley Balsa Shad, almost identical in size but the Bagley weighs 3/8oz and runs almost a foot deeper, the weight is the main thing as I can fish it on a casting set up. I also like the Rapala DT Flat 7 and the Bandit Flat Maxx.

Old stand by winter baits: 1. Jerkbait - clear water to light stain, 2' visibility minimum. 2. Flat sided crankbait - size depending on water temp. 3. Hair jig - size and type depending on water temp and clarity. 4. Spade tail grub - I like the 3" Mann's Stingray Grub, excellent for dead sticking and slow crawling. Newer baits that are doing well in winter: 1. Fish Head Spin or Under Spin - I've had success in both clear and stained water. 2. Soft plastic swimbait - 3" to 4" max rigged on fish head spin or a jig head.

I'm a Fenwick fan and the elite tech bass line up disappointed me. They are good rods but they added some power to them as well as weight and while far from heavy they lack the feel that the elite tech smallmouth series had. If you would be able to find an elite tech smallmouth is the 6'9" ML-F I'd say go for it, it truly is a rod that I would have been happy to pay a lot more for. I don't know what weights you are going to use or types of baits but if you like a ML power, the St. Croix Avid X 7' ML-F is a wonderful rod, it is perfect for all light finesse applications, soft enough for drop shot fishing but not so soft that you can use it for other techniques as well.