smalljaw67

I'm a Bagley fan and I use the deeper running Sunny B cranks with a lot of success. The deeper version will run about 6' on 12lb line and I use them in clearer water instead of a DT-6. They work as well as the DT-6 and even in cooler water like the DT-6, and while I haven't used the shallow version I can tell you that smallmouth seem to be favoring the Sunny B action over the DT-6. Another new bait from Bagley that you may want to try is the Rattlin' Killer B, it is a square bill but it is plastic instead of balsa, the thing that I like about them is they seem to have the same fast floatation of balsa so they deflect fantastic, last summer there was 2 square bills that out produced every other for me, the Mann's baby X and the Bagley Rattlin' Killer B, the killer B did better with size as the larger fish seem to really like it. So give that bait a chance, as I said before, I don't have the shallow version but I can't imagine it would be much different, and if that is the case it should produce very well, especially within the next few weeks.

I'd say it depends on the jig size and how you are going to use them. If I'm throwing a 3/8oz or 1/2oz jig with a chunk in heavy cover, I use the larger one so I can thread the body up the hook shank. If I'm using the same jig in light cover or boat docks I will use a smaller chunk and hang it off the hook bend but I put a toothpick in the pad of the chunk so my hook won't pull through on a hook set or hang up.

If you use braid to fish spinnerbaits and chatterbaits then it will have plenty of backbone to drive a single hook home. If you use fluorocarbon or mono then you have a nice crank and lipless crank rod but it depends on the rod, some moderate fast rods are stiff and are closer in action to fast, while others are softer and are closer to moderate.

Speedbead gave you the reason Ott used a treble. The fish were swiping at his bait and he was missing fish because of it. Anyone who has ever fished a soft plastic jerkbait in summer for river smallmouth will know immediately what that feels like, you get a hard hit and then nothing, a lot of times you don't even get to set the hook. The fact that the swimbait slides up the line does help, and it is essential for keeping fish hooked when using larger, heavier swimbaits but in Ott's case it was done to hook fish that were swiping rather than eating.

I have more success with a shaky head in dirty water than any other finesse tactic. I like using black colored soft plastics but if it is a blue bird day with high sun I'll use black neon, black with blue flake or red shad, those colors seem to do better in bright sun than straight black.

For the past couple seasons I have been using Spider Wire Ultimate Mono, not EZ mono but Ultimate Mono. The 8lb is .009 diameter so it is thin but the knot strength and abrasion resistance is fantastic and it has very little stretch, if it didn't float I'd think it was fluorocarbon. The only draw back is that it isn't as limp as some monofilaments but it still handles way better than fluorocarbon and it holds up. I normally try new line every year, I'll pick a line diameter and give it a full season but ever since trying the Spider Wire Ultimate Mono, I'm pretty much done trying other lines as I'll stay with it as long as it is being made. That said, I find that 2 spritzes of KVD Line and Lure conditioner makes it handle fantastic and it is a small price to pay for a line this strong. If you don't want to try that, the Suffix Pro Mix is another I like, it has the strength of Trilene XT, which I also like, but it handles more like XL but to me the Spider Wire is tough to beat.

With a lot of anglers using straight braid for jigs, some rod manufacturers have started making rods with slower tapers for techniques normally used with faster tapers. With fluorocarbon or mono you will get line stretch on a hook set so having a rod with a fast or extra fast taper with a lot of backbone helps counter the line stretch. Braid has zero stretch and a big hook set can actually pull a hook out of the fish so having a rod with a little more give helps keep that from happening. For frogs I don't know if I want a mod fast action but jigs or punching with straight braid, it will actually help.

I prefer the Avid X, in fact I contacted St. Croix after using the Avid and Avid X side by side. I could not believe it was the same blank but it is, the X is more responsive and has a lighter feel and it is due to the split grip and micro guides. Now, if you are using braid with a leader I'd go regular Avid simply because I don't like how leader knots flow through micros but if using straight fluorocarbon or mono the X wins hands down.

As someone who fishes for both river and lake smallmouth I can tell you there is a big difference between just those two not to mention largemouth as well. River smallmouth are shallower and they tend to really feed mostly by site and are very sensitive to color and flash more so than their lake dwelling kin. Lake smallmouth tend to hold deeper on average and prefer hard cover more than largemouth which gravitate toward areas with vegetation but as Bluebasser stated, there are always exception to the rule. For baits for each one, again I agree with Bluebasser in that minnow shaped baits out produce shad imitators a majority of the time. If I have clear water in the river I can fish jerkbaits all season long from suspending baits in spring and fall and floating style baits all summer and they will put both numbers of fish and large fish in the boat. Even when throwing crankbaits you see a preference in smallmouth preferring smaller profile cranks like wiggle warts, Big-O's and others like that. When it comes to largemouth, I do better shallower and with bigger body cranks like the Rapala DT Fat, and the KVD 2.5 and while I do catch smallmouth on the larger cranks and largemouth on the smaller ones, it normally isn't consistent and tends to be in areas where both species of fish are feeding.

As someone who lives and fishes in the Northeast I can say that you have everything covered. The one thing I'd do though it I'd use the T-rig rod as your regular worm rod as well and invest in a shallow cranking rod for smaller cranks. I started using a "finesse" cranking rod a few years ago and my fishing improved, it allowed me to fish small cranks effectively without overpowering them and I got more bites and landed more fish. The reason for this is there are times here when fish will key on smaller baitfish and also a lot of the waters get pressured and the smaller cranks are often the best bait to use but are difficult to fish effectively on a regular medium power cranking rod.

Wacky is one you should use for sure!! Ned rig is the best when fish are scattered and roaming but when the fish are tucked up tight to cover the wacky rig becomes your best bet.

I love the Bomber A series and I believe they all use a size 6 treble hook.

What rod model and what reel? The Aetos locks down and every reel I put on it there are no threads left in the gap, even the 200 size reel I have on my jig rod. The new Crucials also have a down locking reel seat so I'm guessing you run into the same problem as my buddy has exposed threads in the front with his Shimano reel and exposed threads behind, like you are experiencing now, with a Daiwa reel.

Fenwick Aetos 7' Medium power, fast action spinning, it has a softer tip than most other medium power rods, in fact it is closer to medium light in the tip section but has the backbone of a medium which helps if you end up with a big fish. The nicest thing is the tip is soft enough to really fish a drop shot well but not so soft that it can be used for other finesse techniques.

The 7' medium is perfect for your applications. The rod has a soft tip which works for drop shot fishing but it isn't so soft that it can't handle a shaky head or other finesse techniques.

The Lews is lighter and is a full size reel, the Curado is a smaller framed reel. It doesn't sound like much but look at the line capacity, the Curado is never going to have more than 12lb fluorocarbon or mono and if you use braid there is very little room for any backing. The Lews on the other hand has a higher line capacity and it is a larger frame so it has versatility, you can do anything from flip and pitch to cranking. Now there are other things to consider, like what the intended purpose is, but if you want a reel that is versatile look at the Lews simply because size matters.

Stanley Spinnerbaits are one of the best but seldom talked about. I make my own but if I was buying it would be a Stanley Wedge Plus!!!

If I was only going to have one color or pattern it would be a shad pattern either just a white with dark black back or a sexy shad type color. The reason is that those types of patterns are visible in dirty water yet still are natural to work well in clear water.

Rapala DT 6 in pearl grey shiner.

Fine cut silicone is different from fine cut rubber. Fine cut rubber the strands are smaller so a typical 1" wide piece would yield 30 to 40 strands on normal size while the fine cut may have 60 strands on the same 1" wide piece. Silicone on the other hand is thinner in thickness of the tab itself, so a fine cut tab will still have 20-22 strands as the width will be the same as the standard but the thickness will be thinner. What the rubber will do when you use fine cut is have more movement as it takes even less motion to create movement, but that tends to be work better on bottom contact baits versus moving baits, at least for me. I like the standard cut silicone and rubber for bulk and for moving baits as the larger surface area produces more water displacement. The larger material also produces more bulk and slows the fall of a bottom bait, and because of that I only use fine cut in with larger material, never by itself. By incorporating fine cut strands with regular you get some added movement but only a little bit and you still have the bulk from the standard but there are guys that like using just fine cut and using more strands, this has a dramatic effect as there is a lot of movement and can work well but I'm pretty set in how I use the stuff so experiment and see what works better.

The reviewer probably heard that the World Class uses the 3M Powerlux Resin system in the blank, the same resin system used in the first production run of the NRX and the St. Croix Legend Extreme and Elite. Pure Fishing owns Fenwick and Abu Garcia and they have purchased the rights to the 3M Powerlux Resin so other manufacturers had to develop their own nano resin to make the blanks but trust me, I'm a Fenwick fan and the blank on the World Class is good but it isn't the same as the NRX, not even close.

I like good tackle and I try to make sure my casting set ups are decent but I hate spending money on spinning, especially the reels. So, having used a lot of spinning reels here is what I can tell you. Pflueger will give you the best bang for the buck, I never recommend someone get a reel with a graphite frame but the Pflueger President is tried and proven to not only work well out of the box but it also seems to last and is reliable for a reasonable price. If you want to go to the $100 mark, well the Supreme, which is my favorite spinning reel right now, is a winner, you won't find a spinning reel that light made of magnesium for that price anywhere else and the drag is butter smooth plus it is a sealed drag so no worry about it getting dropped in water. Okuma has some nice reels in the lower end of the price spectrum, the new Inspira is one I'd try, I have the older discontinued Inspira which was $40 more and was built like a tank and performs excellent so I don't imagine Okuma using that name on a reel if it was junk. Then you could always save a little more to get a Stradic or a Ci4+ if you like Shimano, I don't like anything under the Stradic as I believe you can get better for less but when you get to the Stradic line they really are great reels.

For me it is hair jigs, I have caught fish on them in warm water but for me they truly shine in water under 60 degrees. Another is the underspin or fish head spin, I know they work for suspended fish in warm water but I only have been able to catch a few fish on them then, however in sub 60 degree water they have produced really well for me.

I have a Hagen's and if you were going to do multiple sizes with multiple sizes of wire then that is what I'd recommend. Since you are only making the smaller type I'd go for a Twistech wire former, easy to use and a little less expensive.

I would say the 6'8" MH-F, that rod will be very versatile as the length will allow for light worms as well as topwater and even jerkbaits in a pinch.