smalljaw67

I have reels from all the manufactures except Shimano, a bad experience a long time ago got me to not spend my money there but it doesn't mean they make a bad product. The reels I like now are lightweight casting reels, after buying my 2nd generation Revo Premier and then the Quantum Smoke 150, and a Lews TP I can say that reels that weight over 7oz have ended up on my back burner. The last reel I got was a Pflueger Supreme XT 7.1:1 casting reel, it is my second one of the exact same model, that reel right now is my favorite reel. I have a few Daiwas, I really liked Daiwa but after they introduced the Steez it was like all the other reels under $300 were after thoughts, they just couldn't compete with other companies offerings. Abu Garcia came out with the Revos and improved on them for the 2nd generation but then they started getting to far up for me, I set my limit at $250 but even that is hard to do when I get a reel like the Pflueger Supreme XT, for $150 the reel performs incredibly well, great casting distance, it is easy to adjust and just works and is light, Daiwa right now can't seem to make reel under $270 that weighs less than 7oz but every other brand can, I don't know why that is but at least they are making reels that have better performance now under the $300. Sorry for the rant there but I have no brand loyalty, I have reels that are good from each manufacturer including Quantum, my Smoke 150 continues to perform even after being used hard every year but right now my favorites are the Pfluegers and if my second XT is as good as my first, I may end up with a bunch of those and even a Patriarch or 2 because they over a high level of performance with a solid build at a price that I can live with.

I fish tubes for river smallmouth and I use mono and I know exactly what was happening to you and yes, it was the line. The fluorocarbon sinks and when the wind was blowing both of you had your baits messed up on the drift but his bait was on, or closer to, the bottom. There is a fix without changing lines, it is weight, when using line that floats when the wind is blowing you need to use a little more weight. I my rivers it means going from 1/8oz to 3/16 or 1/4oz but I'm talking 6' depth so apply that to your water and you'll be fine. My buddy would do the same and tell me it was because they were seeing my line and I told him that was not the problem, so when I went up in weight guess what? I started getting more bites and it just because the sinking line allowed his bait to reach bottom and I believe the same is going on in your waters.

I'll echo Bluebasser but I'm going to ask you a question, what kind of set up are you going to use with your NED rig? I'm asking because most of the heads that are used for that technique have a light wire or Aberdeen style hook and if you are one of those who insist on using 30# braid with 12 fluorocarbon leader and a medium power casting rod, well you'll need a different head because you'll bend the hooks out. BTW, I use the mold Bluebasser has in the 2nd link, the double barb worm nose mold with the same hooks he has linked and I don't have problem with the hooks as I use a medium power spinning rod with 6lb line.

The Aetos, the Elite Tech Smallmouth rods were fantastic and since they are gone the Aetos get the nod.

Megabass 110s DO NOT SUSPEND, they are listed as slow risers or Hi-Float. The original Vision 110 suspending was, and I believe, still is a Japanese only lure. I also find it funny that people say you have to switch the hooks out on the Luck-E-Strike STX but you don't have to on the Megabass Vision 110, the reason is both feature the same gauge hooks made by the same company. Yes, the Katsuage outbarb hooks on the Megabass Vision 110 are made by VMC, the RC STX uses a VMC 8540 light wire treble hook because it is a copy of the 110 and the 110 was designed to be used with a spinning rod with 6lb line. The RC STX did have a bad batch of split rings a couple of years back and they have fixed that issue and I use the stock hooks with 10lb line and I do have to replace them out. The baits that suspend really well out of the package need to have the original VMC 8540 hooks put back on, any additional weight will cause them to sink, I have several that I switched out to Owner ST-36 hooks and it made them sink. The ones that rise up just a little faster than the suspending ones are good for St-36 and that is the hook I think you are better off using. Sorry for the rant but there are a lot of myths out there regarding the 110 from Megabass and being a jerkbait fanatic I have several of the Megabass baits in the slow rising and the hi-float and I paid a lot of money for a suspending model because it had to be purchased directly from Japan as they weren't, or aren't available in the U.S.

I don't wax my guides, I spray KVD on a microfiber cloth and wipe the guide insert. Mothers car wax is what the rod gets and only a little, it makes it look nice but also keeps dirt and debris from sticking.

It is just marketing lingo for the most part, the same way 30 ton ,40 ton, IM6, IM7 and so on. From what I read somewhere is that the original IM designation came directly from the source of the graphite but since there is no industry standard and companies use different sources for materials, they are pretty much free to say whatever they want.

Zeiners Bass Shop.

A Hydrovawve mini is $110 and a full H2 package is over $400 so there will be those who will buy that. I thought the same thing with the Hydrowave but guys are getting them.

The Zoom Fluke was the bait that put the Slug-O in the back seat. I still remember buying the Slug-O , it was 1987 and I grabbed a bag in the local tackle shop after reading a magazine article about the effectiveness of that bait. So me an my buddy hit the river with these new Slug-O baits, they were new to us anyway as they came out a few years before but we didn't get any until that day. Well we had a monster day, over 100 smallmouth and while it was common to have good days like that, it was uncommon to do it in a short 6.5 hour span. I remember thinking how simple it was but it really did look like a dying baitfish, and for a few more years it was my number 1 soft plastic bait. I still use them from time to time as I look at them as a completely different bait than the Fluke or Super Fluke. The action is similar but different, the Slug-O quickly darts to the side and stops, while the Super Fluke glides to the side and slowly and subtly comes to a stop, and there are times they will favor one over the other so I like having another option.

The 115 is a floating bait and therefore can be more effective during warm water periods. I think if you are looking at using a bait just for spring fishing then you have to go 110 since it is a suspending bait.

That is a Tour KVD, it is a 7'4" E-Glass composite and it is an older discontinued version. They were $159.99 when they came out, some people hate that rod, a lot of others swear buy it. I think it is a good cranking rod, a lot don't like it because it is tip heavy but I actually like a cranking rod to be tip heavy because I'm not keeping the rod up like fishing a jig, my rod is pointed down. The other thing is the cranking rods from Quantum are E-Glass composites, they are a bit heavier than S-Glass composites but what makes E-Glass better for my liking is it is noticeably softer than S-Glass. I would say you made out big time, if I saw that for 10 bucks I would have got one too even though I don't need another cranking rod.

I have a lot of these and I got them after my first one had caught 11 fish, and out of all of them I used I still have yet to get a crack. Now, to be fair he was pushing really hard, his thumbs were white and his hands started to shake right before the thing cracked, squeeze just about any bait with that much pressure for that amount of time and I bet a lot more will crack. I'm not defending Rapala because I'm a fan boy, I like my Rapala baits and if these had a flaw I'd be right there spreading the word but I have never had the desire to apply that kind of pressure to a lure to see if it is indestructible. I have cracked LC Pointers from banging them off rocks and I didn't start crying about a critical fail, I knew that a plastic bait hitting rocks can end up breaking and it did, my own fault and if my Shadow Rap broke and it did so without me hitting it or squeezing it, then I'd be more willing to think this video has something but when you squeeze so hard you begin to shake, well that tells me the bait is hard enough to face whatever it may encounter under the water.

River Rock Baits, they are known for their tubes because they make a tube that I consider the best, and not only me but a lot of others think that way too. A local tackle shop got them in last season and he also sold Snack Daddy along with Gitzit and now he only has River Rock. I asked him why and he told me that when the customers started using the River Rock Tubes that was it, he didn't sell any others so he sold his remaining inventory to another shop. I get the 2.75" and the 3.5" tubes and they have the best colors for smallmouth, nothing like them to be honest.

The Lews has an aluminum frame, the Caenan has a graphite frame, that alone seals the deal, stay away from the Caenan. I'd also point out the Pflueger Supreme as a choice, I have 2 Supreme XT reels, awesome reels but the Lews is the same price with an Aluminum frame but weighs almost a full ounce lighter than most of the other reels and it is less than the graphite framed reels as well, that right there tells me nothing can touch it for the price.

That is the perfect time for those!!!! 52 degrees to 60 degrees are prime temps for square bills.

If you are losing jerkbaits you need to use ones that don't dive so deep. Also, find slack or slow moving water, the fish will not be in areas of current. Since you're fishing from the bank, try to find eddies about 10' to 20' off the bank but you need to be near areas the fish are moving to and from. Munkin gave you great advice but it doesn't help if you don't know what kind of water temp you have, because right now the water temp is going to be really important to where the fish are and what they are doing.

Mr. Twister Sassy Shad, I find them for $2.00 to $3.00 a bag, no more than that and they are killers. My buddy was using these last year and I told him I remember the sassy shad, he then asked when the last time I used them was, and to be honest, it had to be at least 20 years ago if not more. Well I can say now that these are in my official panic box, when nothing else is working, a sassy shad will get bit and it is crazy cheap, I don't know why I stopped using them.

Yes, I have used the clear and the painted ones but you can still see through them. In clear water they are awesome, almost no vibration and they spin at super slow speeds, but I've only used them in clear water, nothing else.

I will never judge a rod where the tips are breaking, especially if the rod is super light and I'll tell you why. When rods break at the tip, 95% of the time it is user error, the 2 most common type of error are high sticking, and boat flipping and when a rod is made to be light, the tips won't take bending past the 90 degree mark very much. Also, Stores like BPS, Cabela's, Gander Mtn. and other big box stores that have their own brands are usually good about returns so if the felt right to me and an employee told me rods were coming back with broken tip sections, well I'll take my chances, however, the blanks were breaking toward the butt section and there was more than a few, well then I'd listen but not when it comes to tips, I watch pros boat flip 4lb bass on ML casting rods, and that tells me they don't care but when your rods are free you really aren't concerned with breaking it.

Most medium lights on the market, especially at that price range, are going to be rated like 1/8oz to 1/2oz or 5/8z, to me those rods are too much for trout but my idea of trout are the 10" average trout we catch here with the occasional breeder of 17" to 20". Even those large trout won't be much for the rod you are going to use. Will it work, yes, but I think trout and bass, at least for me, is two separate rods, 1 light or ultra light and the other a medium light or medium.

What you heard is the Abu Garcia rods are under rated meaning a medium is more like a medium heavy from other rods but I don't think that is the case. Another thing is don't compare casting rods to spinning rods, most of what you heard deals with casting rods, spinning rods tend to be softer than casting rods in the same power and action. Abu Garcia rods are faster in taper and they aren't soft and because of that a lot of people think they are more powerful but when you fish with one and start slinging lures or hook up with a fish it becomes evident that they are close to the ratings, perhaps a little more powerful but not a full or even a half power over. The Fenwick HMG spinning rods are different, they fish a little heavier because they have a deal called "Carbon Bound" blanks, you hear a lot of rod manufacturers talking about wraping carbon tape in an "X" patter to make the rod stronger in the butt section. Well Fenwick has done the same only they use a carbon thread and they reinforce their blanks with it, on the spinning rods it makes them a little more powerful than their rating so if you want a medium power spinning rod and you are looking at the HMG, opt for the medium light and you'll be fine.

The 2.5" Conquistador finesse pro craw is a killer and one of my favoreites for a small finesse jig I make is a Venom Lures Ron Yurko Finesse chunk, that is a killer small profile trailer. The Culprit DW1 twin tail and the DW2 Chunk are also very good finesse type trailers, any of these will work for you.

It is really hard to say but I'll tell you for me personally, the answer would be no, I would not be as successful. If I could only have 1 color it would be black, and it is because it works in all water clarities but that is it. I would suffer during late fall and mid summer with 1 color and that is because the water get low and clear in the river and the smallmouth get real selective, and during the cold water period you won't get bit unless you have some kind of purple or blue in your bait, smoke purple tubes are hammers during late fall/early winter. So while I will have success with 1 color, it won't be as successful as it is without color restriction.

I too pour my own heads and I tie on a variety of different ones. I think my favorite, which are cold water smallmouth hair jigs that are under 1/4oz, are the ball head and the walleye head.