smalljaw67

No comparison, the Lews is a much better reel. The first thing is it is almost a full ounce lighter in weight, I don't know how much of a factor that is to you but it is a big issue with me since I started using lighter weight casting reels. The drag is stronger on the Lews and the brakes are easier to adjust, to be fair the Tatula CT is an improvement over the original and it will perform but for $10 more you'll get more reel from the Lews.

I always said color matters when it matters but not when talking smallmouth. I've been fortunate enough to fish enough that I've witnessed not one, but many days in which color was a big factor but this I've experienced a lot more with smallmouth than I've had with largemouth.

I haven't had any break and the shadow rap has been one of my better producing jerkbaits. As for the shad, I haven't had much chance to use them other than a few casts to see how they run, but the regular shadow rap has produced every time I've used it.

I have said this before, the river anglers in my area used to call Shimano spinning reels "Shimbindo" because the very second they got any water on them from rain or an accidental dunk, which will happen when wading in fast current, the reel would bind up and was useless until it dried out. I'm not sure if that happens anymore but it wasn't long after that when the friction rings became a problem and would cause a lot of guys to lose lures when the bail would slam shut for seemingly no reason at all.

That bait dives fast and it is a very tight action compared to a pointer. I use it for deeper fish as I now have a respect for slow sinking baits as the Rapala Shadow Rap has been one of the best jerkbaits to come around in a long time. If you want to use a deeper running jerkbait the Lightning Pointer is worth having, it dives fast and moves quick but the tight action works well, I use it when the fish are beyond the my Shadow Rap deep version, the Lightning pointer on 10lb mono will hit 6' and almost 7' on 8lb, if you use fluorocarbon add another 6" to 1' to those numbers and sink rate is slow so you can pause it for 5 or 6 seconds without it sinking more than a few inches.

The "Laser" models are graphite framed reels and in my opinion upgrading bearings would be throwing money away. I say that with all honesty, put the extra money toward an aluminum framed reel and then upgrade the bearings. If you upgrade the bearings in the graphite framed reel and you get a small amount of flex, it will throw the gears slightly out of alignment and the reel will be junk with good bearings. Leave it be and when buying your next reel go for one with an aluminum frame.

The Bucoo is a nice rod and is lighter than the HM85 and if you are throwing moving baits it would be my choice. If you intend to use it as an all-purpose rod or fish bottom contact I'd go with the HM85. I have both, I got the HM85 last year and what impressed me the most was the level of sensitivity, I thought it would be a good rod for flukes but it became my tube rod due to the amount of feel it has. Of course it is all a mute point without knowing which model and what type of baits you are throwing but as I said, if you want an all-purpose or a bottom contact then the HM85 is the better choice.

It depends on the type of football jig you throw. The regular football jig consist of a heavy head with a medium or light wire hook designed to be fished deep on 10lb to 12lb mono or fluorocarbon over a rocky bottom. The "new" football jigs are similar only they use a heavy weed guard with a heavy hook designed to be fished on a rocky bottom with heavier cover and are normally used in stained to dirty water using braided line. So those are two different types of rods, both can be covered with a MH-F but for the regular type you are looking for something a little stiffer, extra fast actions work well, while the heavier type is often used with a moderate fast tip section if using heavy braid.

There are 2 reason they won't crimp, the first is a slightly harder lead and the second is the design. If you look at regular weights to crimp on a line, the two sides come together in a "V" but the weights you have are more of a "U" shape, it is that way so the shaft of the hook sits flush, the weights aren't designed to be crimped shut on a line, they are designed specifically for hooks.

This is an easy decision for me, I will use the walking bait first and if the are swiping at it or they boil under the bait without committing to it, that is when I go with a wake bait. It is usually cut and dry, you'll get hook ups on the walking bait but they will be barely hooked and you'll miss and lose more than you land, that is a perfect time for a wake bait.

It depends on the bottom you are fishing. I got a Quantum Tour Edition 6'10" H-F Biffle Bug rod for those after using a variety of different rods. I discovered that if you are on a bottom with decent size chunk rock, and a lot of it, the heavy power rod with very little flex works because the head hits the rock and gets hung and then pops free and that is when most of my strikes occur. When I use the MH rod what happens is the rod loads up and the pause between the rod loading up and the head breaking free seems to generate a lot less strikes, it really is night and day. Now, one body of water I fish has more pea gravel and just some scattered small chunk rock, I can get away with a MH rod on that lake but not the others.

During late August until October in my are is grasshopper time, they are all over the place. 11 years ago I watched my buddy catch 137 river smallmouth on the green grasshopper color, it was the larger one which is only like 3/16oz or something like that. His largest fish was 19" and weighed 3lbs 3oz and he caught a bunch in the 2lb+ range and lost one that was over 4lb. I had always used a yellow one, the smaller version as a very effective brown trout lure but I never thought of bass fishing with them until that day, now I always have the green grasshopper in my box during the late summer and early fall. I never used the Bumble bug but based on how long they have made that lure I'd be willing to bet it works just as well.

In your situation I'd say it isn't worth the money for the type of fishing you do. When it comes to cranks and hard baits in general, you don't pay for how many fish you are going to catch, you pay for what you actually get. When it comes to a Lucky Craft bait, you are getting better finishes as well as better hardware like hooks and split rings and the labor cost which is higher than Chinese made baits. The attention to detail is higher on Lucky Craft baits and the consistency from bait to bait is a lot better than others and those are the kinds of things that give an avid angler confidence and if you have more confidence it leads to catching more fish. Now me personally, the cranks are good but I have used a lot of great ones that are less money, but the jerkbaits have a place in my box, they suspend really well over a wider range of temperatures than most cheaper baits, and I've had days in which the only jerkbait you could get bit on was a Pointer, so to me some are worth the money but I'm an avid angler, I was a more casual angler I'd probably not spend that kind of money on a lure.

I will use Duo-Lock snaps with crankbaits but not a snap swivel. The main reason is they will affect the running of a bait unless you use smaller swivels and then you're inviting trouble. I use snap swivels on 4lb line with in-line spinners for trout only.

There lip will have an affect of how wide the wobble is as well as the shape. A general rule of thumb is a round body bait has a wide wobble and a flat body bait has a tight wobble or shimmy.

Your rod and line are fine for that bait, I see a lot believe you are using the hollow body frog and not the hard walking frog so that is why they mention braid. The bait has a split ring so any knot is fine as long as you tie to the split ring and not a snap which I do not like with topwaters in general. Rolling happens on most walkers and it is a reason we tend to miss fish that slash at them as the hooks are more to the side than directly under the bait. The thing that is good however, is that because of the round shape they don't lose their cadence as easily, Sebile makes the flat belly and Storm makes the top walker with a flat or slightly flat belly to keep the baits from rolling. The walking frog you have does walk well but it needs to be used with short twitches with less slack as I mentioned earlier, the shape along with the line tie position make it give a little spit but with too much slack it will move to far to the side and when you give it another twitch you'll actually pull it over on its side until it faces you again. Just remember to limit your slack as it will keep the bait from going to far to the side so if you want to go a little slower you can but keep the slack down by using short twitches. If you practice with it for an hour or so you'll get it down, so don't give up on it as the profile seems to be one that gets larger fish interested.

I ruined a LEE pot with zinc contaminated lead, and the reason is the lead had a high zinc content. What Outlaw86 told you is true but unless the seller knows the percentage of zinc I'd stay away. I found through my own trial and error in almost 20 years of pouring that if the zinc content is over 5% or 6% it isn't worth it.

Those are what I call "tight walkers", some walking baits kick out far and work best with a slower cadence while others, like the one you have, work better with a quick cadence. If you twitch the rod in short quick twitches the bait will work well but if you let it swing too far out and twitch it again it will roll. It requires practice but it is worth it in the long run.

When I subscribed to F&S I emailed them to ask the same question and what they told me made a lot of sense. They test reels of all price ranges and they use a formula of performance, price, and value for their list as well as how far above price point a reel performs. Everyone expects the best to be expensive but when you have a diverse readership that includes all income spectrums, a list of reels that maybe 1/4 of the readers can afford isn't going to interest a lot of people so they have to add value into the equation.

I'm in PA too, so maybe I can help. I'm not sure which part of PA you're fishing but it is probably similar no matter where. I use a 7'6" XH-F for flipping but it gets used very little, most of the water I fish is too clear to flip so I find I pitch most of the time, the last 2 seasons I pitched exclusively. For that I use a 7'2" MH-XF Fenwick Aetos, it is more like a heavy power and I could actually flip with it as well just with a little less range. The reason you want length flipping is that it will extend your range, the same with pitching but I find 7' to 7'4" allows me to pitch a good distance with accuracy, 7'2" seems to be best for me with accuracy. For a reel get a 200 size reel in as fast of a gear ratio you can find, something in the 7 range, I use a Quantum Smoke 150 in a 7.3:1 for pitching and an Okuma V-System 200 in a 6.2:1 but it is an older reel that wasn't available in a 7.

Very nice!!!!! I love the lock loop, that is all I do now. The skirt color on your first one looks like clear blue interference, that color with a small single willow is killer on pressured fish.

The first thing is to learn with the .035" and the .040" diameter wire in the right cavities, going thinner requires you use tape of some kind on the mold in order to keep the wire from sliding down. After a few dozen baits you'll understand how the mold works and the wire positioning. As for hooks, get the largest size for the smallest cavity you'll pour and the largest size for the biggest cavity you'll pour and it will cover all the bases. The Mustad 32606 should work and the 32608 should also work, the latter is a 2X long shank and I prefer the longer shank since I don't like trailer hooks. Good luck.

The trap caster is a 7' MH-MF rod, it works great with lipless cranks like a Rat-L-Trap as the name implies and it is also a great square bill rod as well as chatterbaits and spinnerbaits if you prefer a little extra flex for those baits.

Jigs are the easiest bait to fish but the hardest to learn. The reason is because the casting and flipping jig is not a numbers bait, it typically catches the larger fish and sometimes the fish just won't hit a jig. In order to get confidence you have to catch fish with it, in order to do that you need a jig that will attract more bites versus larger bites. Go with a jig like a Strike King Bitsy Bug or Booyah Pro Boo Bug jig, the Bitsy bug you can get in 3/16oz and 1/4oz and the Booyah in a 3/16oz and a 5/16oz. I've been making jigs for close to 20 years, I recommend those two because they have smaller profiles that draw more strikes and for a trailer I'd use the tiny paca chunk or the Zoom super chunk Jr. size. The tiny paca is the perfect size for the 3/16oz abd the super chunk Jr. is great with a 1/4oz of 5/16oz jig. Use those jigs and fish high percentage areas like laydowns and deadfalls, next to boulders or under overhanging trees, basically some sort of visible cover that you know holds fish or has had fish on it in the past. The easiest way to start is the lift and drop, after you make the cast and you jig hits the bottom, slowly reel until you take the slack out of your line and then lift your rod from 3 o'clock position to the 1 o'clock and as you lower your rod for the next lift, reel in the slack at the same time so you maintain contact with that bait. By doing that you'll learn what the jig feels like as it falls and what it feels like to lift and if you feel anything different you will set the hook. Once you catch a few fish like that you will get confidence to try slow dragging, or hopping your jig but until you get more confidence just focus on the lift and drop like fishing a worm.

First of all, congrats on the record, awesome accomplishment!!! Now, the reel, I'm a long time angler and I use mostly casting gear but I have a love of spinning gear too, but I try to stay in what I call the "work horse" range. JDM reels are great if you have used high end reels here and want more, typically you are paying for benefits you may not even know is a benefit and then it is more like overspending than anything else. Based on the tackle you used and the new rod I think I'd go with a few different reels, you mentioned Cabela's so take a look at the Verano. It is a Diawa model close to a Ballistic on sale right now for $100, probably one of the best you'll get at that price. The Pflueger Supreme in the 30 size, this will not only give you great performance but also light weight and at $100 is going to be hard to beat. If you want a Shimano go with Stradic or Ci4+, those are a little more but have a proven track record. As for Daiwa, you have to buy a Zaion body reel to get a lightweight model and it will cost you, I think the Cabela's Verano isn't light but it isn't a tank and has a good track record so far and Cabela's is great for taking their house brand stuff back should you have a problem or not like it. If it were me, based on performance and value the clear winner would be the Pflueger Supreme, it is very smooth, it has a sealed drag so water and dirt won't get in to mess the system up should the reel fall in mud or have rain wash dirt into it. I can attest to how well it handles and if you never used a light weight spinning reel before, well you're in for a treat, and it isn't feather light but the lightest reel you'll find less than $200 but make no mistake, it isn't a cheap reel, very solid.