smalljaw67

I have to say that the Rapala DT-6 is my favorite but I also like the Bomber Model 7A and the Bomber Fat Free Shad Jr. almost as much. If I had to only choose one then it would be a DT-6 and the color would be Smash with a first runner up being blue back Herring , and the second runner up would be old school. These questions are tough for me as I have so many that I use at different depths and different bodies of water or conditions, but again, I use the 6 more than any other.

From all the back and forth that I've read and from all the rods I've used (I love fishing jerkbaits), here is what I can tell you. Those who like a medium power, fast action rod tend to like the shorter rods and will sacrifice a little fish fighting ability in order to gain lure control. The other side who like moderate action rods tend to favor longer rod and they will sacrifice a little lure control for fish fighting ability, and the truth is that there is no wrong or right way. The extra fast action for jerkbaits are the ones that have a really soft tip rather than the stiffness we normally see on an extra fast action rod. If I was looking for a new jerkbait stick I'd take a serious look at the Lews Custom Speed Stick 6'7" M-moderate fast, I know you want the fast action but this rod is jerkbait specific and those tend to be a little stiffer. I'll bet it works similar to a fast but bends a little further down the blank, and the other thing is that the rod is rated to 3/4oz so if you throw larger jerkbaits like I do, you'll like that as you have your medium power stick that can throw larger jerkbaits with.

Everyone always likes the craw colored warts and I do like the brown craw, very simple but productive. For me though, my favorite color is the new version Tennessee Shad and I'm thinking of adding the Phantom green blue craw. I find the love of the old pre Rapala wiggle wart interesting because that was my first craw colored crank that I caught fish with. Anyway, I sold those old wiggle warts to a friend for $10 each, I really needed the money otherwise I would have sold them for 5 bucks. I heard the new ones weren't any good and all the chatter and then Rapala said they were bringing back the original and so 4 years ago I grabbed a few in brown craw and Tennessee shad. Now I'm not fishing Table Rock where this new vs. old really takes place but I can tell you that in the waters I fish, the new ones work and work well, the brown craw is killer on the deeper rock flats and the shad pattern works for me on mid depth points.

I know it may be too much detail but what kind of cranks are we talking about, deep cranking, or shallow/mid depth? There aren't any combos I'd recommend in that price range but rods, there are actually quite a few. For deep cranking I don't think you can do better than an Abu Garcia Veritas 2.0 Winch in a 7'6" MH-M or if you are in to the really big deep divers, the 7'11" XH-M . For regular shallow to medium depth cranks I like the Fenwick HMG 7'2" M-MF, and the reason I like that is because it is a medium power rod with a little extra power in the mid section that allows you to use lures up to 1oz so it will help when you're on the line of needing a medium or MH.

I just purchased an RCBS Pro Melt Furnace, they are on sale at Midway USA for $326.99 and with the $13.24 shipping charge it comes to $340.23. Here is the deal part, RCBS has a rebate that if you spend $300 you get back $75 making the final cost $265.23 to your door. I'm not 100% sure but I never saw these under $290 new, so if you ever thought about getting one now might be the time. The rebate goes on the whole year but the price on the furnace is a sale price, Amazon sells it for the same thing with free shipping but if you are like me and live in a state where they have a warehouse, you pay sales tax which in my case is more than the shipping cost. So there you go, if you don't already have one and thought about getting one, now is a perfect time and with income tax refunds coming back the timing couldn't be better!!

The knot will pass but it may take a little out of your cast because even the smallest knots hit micro guides.

Very nice!!!! Most anglers will cite the natural action of buck tail but you believe as I do, it is more about the profile of that material as it looks just like a minnow when in the water. The articulated version is getting popular, not all know of it but it is being used a lot now because it is getting harder and harder to find super long buck tail for the preacher style jigs. So what some jig makers are doing is tying an articulated like you have done so that they use normal size buck tail but because it is in two different body parts or segments, it creates the same effect and a lot of anglers I spoke with that use it believe it gives it a different action which works better during warmer water conditions. I know Nichols lures is mass producing that design and I believe Hog Farmer lures is now making articulated hair jigs by request. I'll say this, I like how seamless your articulated jig looks, that shows the level of talent as it isn't easy to pull off, that alone is impressive. I don't get to do many of that type because we don't have those deep clear water impoundments that have deep structure which is where these type of jigs work well, but I do make a heavybuck tail swim jig, but I tie it in a manner that gives it the minnow profile but the action comes from a grub that I use as a trailer, otherwise most of my creations are 1/4oz and under but I do love the look of those jigs and the tying is top notch to say the least.

Great information!!!! I've been eyeing these up since they were introduced and I really like how you compared them to the DT series, which happens to be my favorites as well. I was going to get the Wild Thang first but after seeing your video I think I'll grab the Digger cranks first, they will give me a loud rattling version of the DT and I need that, sometimes we get spring rains that dirty the water up and the DT-6 becomes less effective, the Digger will provide that sound element while still staying in that same depth zone.

I only just got some and was mainly due to my buddy catch 3 nice ones in 3 cast while we caught nothing. The other thing was that every fish he has caught with that crank has been hooked really well, he told me out of the 30 or so fish he caught on it in the month he had it, that he hasn't lost a single fish, and the ones I saw him catch were no different, they were hooked solid, so I got 2 of them for this year. I got the chartreuse shiner pattern and the stump knocker pattern, I don't think I need a clear water option as I don't see that bait being used in anything but stained and dirty warer because it has a really wide and fast wobble and it is loud just like the traps.

It was April 1998, I was fishing smallmouth with a friend who now happens to be a guide. He was, and still is, a good stick, we were after smallmouth but a spring cold front came through and the bite was off. So my friend tells me to fish a smoke grub but take the tail off, and so I did and I got 2 fish in short order but that was it for the next hour. As I'm struggling, my friend is doing well, one after the other, the score is 11 to 2 and I'm using the same bait, or at least I thought I was, but then I caught a glimpse of it as he brought it in and I asked him to see it. He reluctantly showed me what the difference was, he took an upholstery needle that he kept with him and put a few strands of skirt material through the grub body just like you did with those small stick worms, 4 strands total, two at the top and two at the bottom and so I made him fix my bait and that was all I needed, I started getting bit every cast just like he was. He still beat me but only by 5 and I didn't care since I ended the day with 18 which was great for bad conditions. He told me that when the cold front comes through in spring when the water temp is still on the cool side, the grub tail has too much action but sometimes they need a little bit more movement to make them bit and sometimes the profile alone isn't enough so that is where the skirt material comes in. He learned that little trick from a guide in Wisconsin, he said they would use Mann's Stingray Grubs in cold water and when they weren't hitting them, the guide would put rubber strands through the grub and it would usually work. Those sticks are probably killers I bet, nice job.

Ice out for me means 3 different baits, the jerkbait, shad rap or balsa shad, and the hair jig. The order in which I use them depends on conditions. If the ice melts due to a quick warming trend, it could easily hit 40 to 45 degrees within short order and that is when I'll begin with a shad rap or as it was last yearm, the balsa shad. The fish will get surprisingly aggressive when that happens and that lure will find them fast and active fish will get on it. If it is a cold spring and the ice slowly leaves, temps can be in the mid to upper 30s for a long time, I'll almost always go right to the jerkbait and give it a go first and see how the fish respond. Of course, those are the two baits I'm hoping get bit, but if they fail then I have the perfect back up, the hair jig, and it will be either buck tail, rabbit, or marabou depending on the fish.

Most reviews of those rods are positive, I haven't heard of anyone not liking it. I think you should consider Cabela's return policy and buy it, because if you try it and don't like it you can always return it for something else.

When you see a crankbait specific rod that is listed as a "Fast" action, it is due to the rod being either fiberglass or a composite of glass and graphite. A rep from Lamiglas explained it to me as the rod being fast for a glass rod, he said when S-Glass came on the scenbe it was faster in action than E-glass but it is still softer than a fast action graphite rod, it just tends to bend more on the upper end than other glass rods.

What size are those? I really like the use of hackle, I've been using feathers a lot more on my buck tail jigs, it is amazing how many extra bites I get just from that little extra movement. Well done and the collars are very uniform, excellent quality without a doubt, Bravo!!!!!!

Price of hooks has been going up, especially quality hooks. The other thing is silicone, that went from being 6 to 8 cents per tab to 20 cents per tab and intricate pattern skirts cost as much as 27 cents. Large companies will get a price break but a lot of the good jigs are made by smaller places that don't have the buying power of a Strike King so you see higher prices.

WRB makes a great point and it is how I go about the decision. Look at the cover, that is first and foremost, then it is water clarity, and then water temp, season and wind, if any, all it will help determine what to throw. There are also times when they all come into play but I do have specific times for each one. To make it simple I would say, stained water with 1' to 2' visibility, square bill if the sun is out, spinnerbait if there is wind and if it overcast go with the chatterbait. Dirty water less than a foot visibility means I'm throwing the chatterbait first, square bill second but only if cover allows it. For clear water I'm throwing a swim jig and a square bill is second. I don't consider a wake bait to be a topwater deal, I use them over shallow flats a lot but if I'm using a topwater and I get a swirl or tail slap at my bait and then nothing, that is when I go wake bait, and you'd be surprised at how well it works.

If you read the reviews of that vise, it barely holds a 3/0 hook. This is typical of most 2A vises and while you probably tied 5/0 or 6/0 hooks in your vise, it doesn't mean it is rated for it and there is a difference. I'm sure that if I tied nothing but 6/0 hooks in my vise that I'd wear the jaws out in no time flat and my vise is a lifetime warranty, so how many 5/0 hooks can you get from a standard $20 2A vise rated for size 28 up to 2/0? I don't know but I bet it is on the south side of 100, what happens with those vises is the pressure eventually weakens the threads that lock the jaws and before you know it the threads fail and the vise goes in the garbage. I mean no offense but there is a big difference between tying jigs with 6/0 hooks in your vise, and what your vise is actually rated for and the reason I asked you about it is because I've searched for years for an inexpensive 2A vise that holds heavy hooks and I never found one under $80 and that is why I was so intrigued by your $16 dollar vise that was rated for 6/0 hooks. There may be one other there, I'm not sure but I never was able to find it so if it was me, I'd say to the OP, you can use one of these vises and it will probably hold heavy hooks for a few jigs but it is hard to say how well it will hold them and for how long it will work. When recommend something the someone is going to spend hard earned money on, I try to have all the facts to allow the person to make an informed decision, I understand what you were doing and I commend you for being helpful but that vise isn't rated for large hooks and that statement was very confident, confident to the point of me getting out my credit card to buy one and instead it was the same thing I've come across. BTW, Cadman is a good friend of mine, I know him longer than 10 or 12 years and just spoke with him on the phone just a day ago, if he tells you your jigs are made with a 5/0 hook, you can take it to the bank so you are correct that you tied 5/0 hooks in your vise.

The molds for the blanks are made from the real bait, that part is true, the difference is in the details. The first thing is the grade or type of plastic used, it may not seem like a big deal but it is, a lot of these companies design the plastic to have certain properties that will make the bait behave a certain way. A good example is the new Bagley plastic model Rattling Kill'R B, it is a plastic bait but it is more buoyant that regular plastic baits, they designed it to have a faster float to mimic balsa. Another example is the Mann's Loud Mouth crank, it is made from a really hard polycarbonate with steel bearings, that thin walled, hard plastic makes a loud racket with steel bearings bouncing off of it. What you get with the cheap blanks is a bait that will work but it won't have the exact characteristics of the original but in some cases the knock offs can be good too. In most cases the knock offs are made almost, if not, 100% identical to the original but the difference is as I said before, the plastic and ballast weights and rattles are not the same and that often is what makes a bait. There is one knock off that has a following in my area, is is an Adams Custom Lures 1.5 square bill, it is a knock off of the Strike King KVD 1.5, the guy buys the blanks and paints them but a lot of hardcore tournament anglers here love them and the guy charges more than a regular KVD 1.5 but he uses good hooks and the paint jobs mimic local forage. What makes it good is the design works so even though it was made with a generic plastic formulation, the bill angle and ballast weight is the same so the bait swims and deflects well and the fact the guy uses really good hooks makes it a winner, so don't be too quick to discount these baits, but don't be fooled into thinking they are the same either.

I have 2 Pflueger Supreme XT casting reels, I really, really like them and for me to have 2 identical reels in the same gear ratio is saying something because I like to try different reels.

Where did you find a $16 dollar vise that is rated for 5/0 and 6/0 hooks? I'd love to get one!!! I have a Griffin Odyssey spider vise, I have a tumb screw jaw set and it will not wear out with oversize hooks, it isn't designed that way. The Spider is rated up to 4/0 hooks but I've done 5/0 and 6/0 but not a lot nor do I do them all the time. If you don't want to invest a lot of money you can try to find the cheap vise rated for large hooks, I tried for years and could never find a 2A vise rated more than a 4/0 and most under $50 are rated for a 2/0 hook. The Odyssey Spider can now be purchased with cam lock jaws for a few dollars more, it comes with a C-Clamp but you can buy a pedestal if you'd like since they are all on a standard 3/8" diameter rod. The Anvil Apex is like $100 and will hold 7/0 hooks down to a 32 and is of good quality, but here is the deal, rotary vises are nice to work with and make learning easy but you don't have to have one, I've been tying jigs for more than 20 years, the last 12 years I've been tying steady and for a long time I used a cheap 2A vise, this was mainly for feathered trebles and small hair jigs for smallmouths. When I was doing large bass jigs I'd wire tie, and my system doesn't require a vise for that but when I would thread tie a large bass jig on the 2A vise, it would slip and I finally broke it. I tied approximately 30 jigs with a 5/0 hook for me $22 vise rated for a 4/0 hook to break, my current Odyssey Spider, with thumb screw jaws I got for $85 has had more than a thousand jigs with 5/0 and some 6/0 hooks and it still does a great job but I do mostly jigs with a size 2 hook up to a 3/0 75% of the time so my vise works for me. So, decide how much you want to invest but if Buzzed Bait shows us that vise, I'd say get that one, because I too want one so I don't have to use my good vise for large jigs.

I was using a spinning rod for the size #5 shad rap until 2 years ago. Now I use a Fenwick Aetos 6'6" ML-M casting rod and I got even a better way to throw them on a medium power rod. The Bagley Balsa Shad #5, the #5 shad rap is 2", the Baley #5 Balsa Shad is 2.25" but it weighs 3/8oz and let me tell you, I'm really liking it!!! Last year I got to try them out, I only got a little bit of time but I can tell you, big time fish ctcher and easier to cast!!!

If you are a casual angler fishing from the bank I would recommend the shaky head first and I'll tell you why I believe that. The first thing is that it is easier to set up the shaky head, just tie on the head and attach the worm and you're ready to go. The second thing is equipment, any medium power rod will work well with a shaky head, you can use it for a drop shot but having a rod that is too stiff makes the drop shot less effective because you end up moving the weight too and the fish will often feel weight and spit the worm, so a drop shot specific rod makes it easier to do. The third thing is water itself, fishing from the bank means you will be searching for fish more than fishing fish you spot on a depth finder, and the shaky head is a much better search option than the drop shot, and yes, you can also drag a drop shot but it isn't as effective fishing it like that as the shaky head is. So there is my take, the shaky head you learn first and then go for learning the drop shot.

Your Bill Lewis Slap Stick is another great find!!! I believe another site still has these but I'm pretty sure they're discontinued since they are no longer allowed to be used in the Rat-L-Trap only tournaments. That bait sits vertical in the water because of the tail weighting and when you give it a rip the back end comes up and "slaps" the surface hence the name. There is a cult following for the slap stick so you may want to give it a try.

I use to hammer smallmouth by simply casting and retrieving a 1/4oz Luhr-Jensen Krocodile spoon!!!! I never used the larger sizes but the reason I stopped throwing them was they were notorious for catching smaller fish. I will also tell you it was a great lure for my wife to use, it didn't require to much skill but just watching the flash and darting action of it coming through the water would make you think it was a real baitfish if you didn't know any better, good score!!!

I can't speak for the rage rod but I do know about the Mojo and it is not the same blank but the same material. I called because I was convinced the Avid X was a different blank than the Avid since it felt so much different and here is what I was told. The Avid and Avid X share the same blank, and when I inquired about the new Mojo the guy laughed a little and said that they do use the same material but the Mojo has slightly different tapers as it uses different mandrels and it uses a different scrim and resin. So there you have it, the Mojo uses a different set of mandrels with different scrim and resin which makes them a different blank than the Avid. I didn't ask about the Rage rods.