smalljaw67

I use various places to buy, Barlows Tackle being one of them. I purchase from LPO, Janns Netcraft, Lure Craft, and Crazy Angler Tackle. If you look around and take a few hours, you can assess which products to buy from which place.

What kind of finesse, what kind of weight, are you going to use a lot of finesse techniques with it or just a few? Some anglers will opt for a medium power spinning rod as an all purpose finesse rod, others use medium light for drop shot fishing and a medium for shaky heads, others only drop shot as a finesse technique so you have to be a little more specific. It would also help if you put a budget out there, you may want something from $100 to $150 or perhaps you want a high end rod, something in the $300+ range but until you give us a direction the replies will be all over the place.

Where did you find an Avid X new for $170???? I'll get a second one if I could find that price, most sales exclude St. Croix.

I say this in all sincerity, fishing a jig is the easiest thing to do but the hardest to learn. When I was teaching my grandson how to fish a jig, we started with small jigs, I suggest something like the Strike King Bitsy Bug with the bitsy craw trailer. The reason they are hard to learn is that they aren't a numbers bait, they tend to get bit by larger fish on average and during a tough bite smaller fish that would bite a worm will often pass a jig by without as much as looking at it. Bites are going to be one of 3 distinct ways, the first is the "thump", that is the one we all like, there is no mistake on whether it was a bite as it just about rips the rod from your hands, these are the ones you get the least. The second type of bite is the "tap-tap" this is one you get most of the time and there is no mistake, you will know when you get this type of bite. The 3rd type, and the one that is the hardest to detect, is the "extra weight" or "weeds" bite, you'll often get this type of strike when dead sticking (letting it sit still for a minute or so) a jig, you begin to move the jig slowly and it feels like it is bogged down with weeds of something else that feels "mushy", these are missed by the novice jig fisherman but once you catch that first fish on a jig, that is when it gets much easier. I remember when I started fishing a jig, it was with a 1/2oz Arkiy style jig and I remember thinking that the fish in my waters won't eat that since it is so big. I fished with it for a full day and nothing so the next day I decided to only make a few casts and then forget about it, and on my second cast I felt the "tap-tap" and I set the hook and it was my first largemouth on a jig and we didn't have hand held scales back then but we did have a tape measure and it was my first bass that was over 17", the fish went 20" and I was a jig fishing fool since, that was 1981 or 82.

It is a visual presentation, I've had success with them in 2' of water clarity but they really shine in clear water with 3' or more visibility. You will run into guys that have had success in dirty water, but very few will have that success on a consistent basis, it is usually when you happen to be on fish rather than searching. In water with about 1' to 1.5' visibility I was using an X-Rap in clown color and working the bait aggressively, the water temp was 54 degrees and I was hammering big smallmouth but out of the dozens of times I've tried it, I can honestly say that there were 3 times in which I had what I would call good results.

It use to be the old, discontinued Heddon Dying Flutter and the colors were baby bass for stained water, clear for clear water, and coach dog for dirty water. Now my favorite is the Yo-Zuri 3DB Prop and my favorite color is the Prism silver black for clear water and bone for dirty or stained water.

This is something that gets discussed a lot and the truth of the matter is that there are several types of hair jigs but they all work in warm water. For bass fishing there are 3 main types, there is the micro hair jig and sometimes called the black hair, it is 1/32oz to 3/32oz and is usually tied with marabou but also buck tail and other materials as well and fished in early spring, water temps from mid 30s up to 50 degrees. Then there is the regular hair jig, 1/8oz to 1/4oz, these are for cold water mostly and can work in warm waters, they are tied with a bunch of different material but usually buck tail or craft fur and these are good from the upper 30s and up but when the water hits the upper 50s or low 60s, the fish's metabolism begins to speed up and baits with more action seem to work better but on a slow bite a hair jig can work. Then you have the final 2 categories, the first is the 3/8oz to 1/2oz flipping hair jigs, these typically have a lot of buck tail and often include silicone or rubber strands and are usually dark in color. The last one are the big ledge hair jigs that go from 1/2oz up to an ounce or more, these are tied with buck tail and sometimes synthetic materials along with saddle hackle feathers and they are made to fish deep clear water where fish are schooled up waiting for baitfish, these last 2 categories are the ones most commonly used in warm water. The reason they are used more in cold water is because hair remains soft and pliable in cold water, the new plastics work as well but in the early 80s until the late 90s, the soft plastics would get very stiff in cold water and didn't work so well and because of this a lot of anglers felt hair worked better. The one reason hair works well when it is cold is because here in the Northeast where I fish, the bass don't have craws to eat when the winter comes and the water is cold so they tend to key on minnow forage. When they do that, grubs and small swim baits work but a good a small buck tail has very subtle movement, just like the baitfish at this time, and the profile of buck tail when wet is a spot on imitation of a minnow. The smaller marabou jigs work better in the cold because the fish has a slow metabolism and will often only take something small, and marabou compresses when wet and mimics the profile of a small minnow as well and just slowly reeling it as it falls through the water column where fish often are during the cold water period makes for the perfect presentation. I hope this makes sense to you, and there is no rules, a good bait to use in warm water when the bite is tough is a 3" Senko or a Ned rig, these tend to do better than hair in warm water but there are always exceptions but there is no harm in trying a hair jig when nothing else is working, I've done it a lot and I find that hair does better for me in cold water but that is me so you may want to try it in your water.

Do you have the 5" and 6" buck tail? I tie a lot of hair jigs as well as silicone/rubber jigs and while I have been able to find the long hackle, I have not found the long buck tail required for preacher type jigs. I did tie a few by using Yak fur which is a synthetic similar to craft fur but it is very long, I would use that and then incorporate regular buck tail with long hackle, that would give me a jig with the profile of a minnow but it alitte extra action from the Yak Fur but most want full buck tail and I don't blame them. The buck tail has less action but you don't want a lot of movement, the profile is what you need and buck tail gives you that.

Do you have the buck tail and hackle? I pour heads and while I don't have the mold you are looking at I would have no problem getting one if I could find the material. Years ago I made a 5/8oz hair jig for a guy with a 6/0 heavy wire hook and I got my buck tail from a place that specialized in extra long buck tails and the hair was 5" to 6" long but they are no longer in business. I've had a lot of request to make these and the only way I'd be able to is by using synthetic material for the body and everyone want buck tail. So I'm asking you, if you have a source for the long buck tail and long 6" to 7" hackle (I can get that but still not easy) then I'll invest in the mold which is a heavy hook model tear drop and I'll make some for you.

Very nice for the first go around!!! Using pliers to bend wire is a good way to learn the basics but there is no substitute for a good wire bender. For a long time I used a Little Blue Bender to bend wire forms for spinnerbaits, and I still do but I got a Hagens pro former and that makes creating in-line spinners a breeze. You can have a lot of fun with it, take the treble hooks you want to use and tie some hackle or marabou of them and you'll have your own dressed baits. I pour jigs so I got a lure body mold to pour and now I can make Rooster Tail spinners and they work really well too. Good luck with making those, you are off to a good start and if you can make them like that with pliers, I can only imagine how nice they would be with a good wire former.

The Winn grips are really nice, they make the rod very comfortable.

It is a no frills rod, it will do the job you want it to do and it will do it well. It is a composite rod, that is a glass/graphite mix so it will be a little heavier than a graphite rod but lighter than a full glass rod. I have a friend who is into high end rods and for cranking he uses that very same Lews David Fritts perfect crank speed stick and he likes it enough that he has 2 of them and one if for square bills and the other for deep cranking so I imagine it is decent.

The reel he got is lighter than the Lews of the same price and the Citica, in fact it is a full ounce lighter than the Citica, how do you explain that???

Ok, I got you, you build your own, not make you own, it sounds like it isn't much of a difference but there is. You have no control of wire choice or placement or hook choice or anything like that. I got into making my own because I was buying blades and skirt material and I still had to buy spinnerbaits so if I was buying all that stuff, why not just go right from scratch and pour my own heads and bend my own wire and get it exactly the way I want, but building them is what led to me making them, like I said before, it sounds close but in reality building and making are 2 different things.

I have a Hammer, it is a 6'9" Heavy and I'm going to get more. Kickerfish1 explained it perfectly, it isn't an NRX but at the price point it is very impressive. The action is slower, reminds me of the JDM style tapers but the rods aren't sloppy like the Halo rods, in fact I thought myy rod was close to a fast action until I hooked into my first decent fish with it, that is when you understand, it is like a mod-fast taper, similar to the Fitzgerald rods. What got me is the blank is American made, I really wasn't expecting much with an American made rod at that price point but when I got it I was quite surprised. The build quality is excellent, guides are perfect, epoxy work is perfect and it has the raw carbon look I like. There is nothing flashy or fancy, it is a straight up fishing rod, nothing more or nothing less, but the blank is really nice as are the grips which are Winn grips, Fuji ECS reel seat, and Fuji micro guides with aluminum oxide inserts. I got my rod for big topwaters like full size zara spooks and super spooks but it turned out to be an incredible spinnerbait/chatterbait rod, in fact my first 3 fish with it came on a chatterbait and not a single lost fish so far, I like a little more every time I use it. The one thing that is really strange to me is the feel, I'm not use to a rod like this that feels like it is a bottom contact rod that flexes like a moving bait rod, but the sensitivity is nice, and it is nice to the point that I keep getting tempted to throw a jig with it, but if I do that I'll be ruined if I end up liking it so for now it is moving baits and as I said, I'll be adding more in the future and you can bet on it, they really are good rods.

I guess living in the Northeast makes it seem odd but I find that the number of people have trouble with bending hooks on a Ned rig troubling. I have been making my own jigs and spinnerbaits for close to 20 years now, 18 to be exact, and over that time one of my best cold water river smallmouth baits has been a small hair jig. I've landed a bunch of 5lb smallmouths on a 1/16oz hair jig that was made with a size 2 Mustad 32746 and an Eagle Claw 570 and have come close to bending a hook out. My best catch was a 1/32oz marabou jig with a size 4 Mustad 32746, I landed a 4lb 11oz smallmouth that I was sure was going to bend the hook but never did. If you are concerned about a hook bending out, then I have a test for you. Take some line and tie it to the bend of the hook and pull and see if you can straighten the hook out, I'll bet if someone does it they'll be shocked that it isn't just hard, but incredibly hard to even get a small bend. Now tie a line to the point, and you'll see it does bend out rather easily, and that is why you don't cross their eyes when you set the hook. The Aberdeen hooks are designed to bend in order to free snags, but only snags in which the hook point imbeds in a limb or log, if you hook a fish and get full penetration then you should be fine and all it takes is pressure to penetrate, trust me, I dropped an Eagle Claw 500BP Lil Nasty from my work bench and it hit my foot, around 30" or so, and it didn't bounce, it stuck in the top of my foot and it was enough that it hurt pulling it out and it began to bleed, so I think just a slow steady pressure or even a slow sweep would be more than enough to get the hook to fully penetrate.

Rapala DT Flat 7 and DT Flat 3, both are killers as is the Rapala Shad Rap. On my second team I have the Storm Arashi Flat, Yo-Zuri 3DB Flat, and the Bomber Flat A and Flat A deep. I don't include the Koppers Live Target Bluegill crank even though it is a killer, and the reason why is that it seems to really do well when the bass start their spawn and then later when the bluegill spawn, at those two times there isn't a better bait but in cold water the others seem to do better.

Good eyes Allen!!!!! Worth ball bearing swivels have a fixed end and a moving end, I always attach the blade to the moving end. As Munkin has said, it isn't wrong or right but it will not spin quite as easy.

Since you already have a BPS craning stick in a medium, go the finesse route and get a medium light!!!! I'm being serious, I have a deep cranking set up and a mid depth crank set up and 2 years ago I got a 6'6" medium light, moderate action Aetos shallow cranker and it improved my fishing overall. I use to fish baits like a Mann's baby 1 minus and a Bagley Honey B on my medium set up and I thought they worked great, until I began using them on the ML, and it is rated 1/4oz to 1/2oz but it is a hair softer than the medium and those baits I mentioned have more wiggle and wobble to them and they deflect better and I now catch more with them than I did in the past. The outfits you have now have all the bases covered except the small stuff, I can even fish a Rapala #5 Shad Rap with my ML casting rod which I use to use spinning for that bait. BPS has ML cranking sticks which is why I suggested it and it won't break the bank to try one. Now if you don't use the smaller cranks then it is a mute point but I'm just throwing it out there, since most think I'm too specific with 3 cranking set ups.

One good thing about living in a small town is that the mail carriers know you. I got a rod and the cardboard tube was bent. The mail man actually knocked on my door to deliever it and he said the thing was broke when it came in off the truck, he knew it was a rod and he wanted me to open in front of him so he could witness it and get me a refund quicker. Well to my surprise, and his, the rod was unscathed and we looked for a nick or some sort of mark and it was in perfect condition. He told me as the hubs there are certain items like rods, that don't go on conveyors or rollers but some workers are lazy and they just put everything on the rollers and without fail anything shaped like a rod ends up getting caught, if you're luck some sees it before a big box runs into it and breaks it in half, if not it ends up broke and at that point workers don't want to go through the process of returning items that were broke during shipping so they do quick tape jobs and the line keeps moving. The same applies for Fed-Ex and UPS.

That dink is how you start, congrats!!!!! The hardest part of learning a new technique is getting the bugs out and then catching your first fish, no matter what the size. You executed it perfectly!!! You were rigging your bait but felt you weren't doing it exactly right and you asked, you were given some good information and you applied that information to what you were doing and it resulted in a catch, what you did was spot on and now you have another weapon to add to the arsenal, good job all around.

You are probably right Josh, that reel you have is pretty big, perhaps a 4600 would be better. I use to love the Ambassadeur round reels, those are the reels I learned how to use a baitcaster with back in the early 80s.

Quantum messes this up but I believe if that is a tour KVD in the 7' or 7'4" that you should be good to go with 3/4oz and while it can handle 1oz it needs to be done carefully. Those rods are E-Glass composites, they have a good backbone but very soft tip sections, the rod only loads in the front have with a lure on it so you may feel like you can throw a lot more weight than you really can. Stay in that 5/8oz to 3/4oz max and you'll be fine, just adjust the reel to the lure weight and the rod will do the rest for you.

I make my own, from cutting and bending the wire forms to pouring and painting the heads to final assembly, that way I can make them in multiple configurations. If I was to buy a spinnerbait, Stanley wedge is what I would get with War Eagle being a close second. Bigturtle, I always like to find out what my brother tackle makers are using for their baits and so I have to ask. What brand and size wire do you use and do you get it in straight shaft or torsion straightened on a coil? I'm currently looking for other wire brands and types as I'm having trouble with certain wire anymore.

Cold, clear water = suspending jerkbait!!!!