smalljaw67

April 15th they normally have a tax day sale but the next major one will be Memorial Day.

I like the designs, are all the cranks through wire construction with circuit board lips? The consistency is amazing, very nice work!!!

It is a tip top and what you are missing is the guide insert. The "eyelets" that are on the rod are called guides. Sorry but I had to put that there, it isn't you but me. Two words in fishing that go through me like nails on a chalkboard are "poles" and "eyelets".

I have a bunch of the 50SR, that little bait draws big fish to it!!!! I do really well with black and ghost violet.

The Bomber flat A is a freak, if you are undecided as to whether you should use a lipless or lipped crank, use the Flat A. It is a rattle trap with a bill but the nice thing is that it dives but it also is very slow rising, almost suspending so it works in all kind of conditions. For me it is more of a cold water deal but in the spring I use it on my rivers. My river is a large, shallow and rocky river and shallow cranks do really well but certain ones seem to be better. For the shallowest areas I like the Mann's Baby 1 minus and the BabyX, basically the same bait but the 1 minus only dives to 1' while the X has a really squared off lip and dives to 2'. After those I like the Arashi silent and rattling square 3 and then the 5 and then the 6' depth I like the Yo-Zuri 3DB crank medium. Now those picks are newer to me and they do work well, I normally would have said the DT-4 and DT-6 to cover the 4' to 6' range but they are balsa baits and a few good crankbait days can really beat those up and it seems you are concerned for durability so that is the only reason I didn't list them but I do use them as nobody talks about the DT-4 but it is a killer river crank. I also have an honorable mention, I didn't include it because I only have 3 trips with it but the Bill Lewis Echo 1.75 is looking to me like a sleeper bait, no other square bill or shallow crank I own work like it, the bait is loud and vibrates really hard and every single fish caught on it absolutely slammed it, I'm thinking a full season with this it may become my new favorite if it works like it did last year.

The Xt3 is one of those baits that shouldn't have gone away, that is as good of a bait as a Pointer 78.

I like it!! I tie a lot of jigs, it seems like I never stop tying but one thing I can tell you is that style you tied works. You don't see marabou tied with chenille for bass jigs very much as they are typically used for Crappie. I have a video on you tube on how I tie marabou but there is one I do just like yours but I like using smaller heads with light wire hooks for my hair jigs.

I use the 66 sinking and it was an absolute killer for clear water and pressured fish as they are basically a silent bait. When the bass are scattered during the early post spawn period, the Flatt Shad is what I use to cover water because I can reel it slow and it isn't intimidating to the fish, they just eat it. I have roughly 2 dozen so I know I'm good for awhile and because it was higher priced, they tend to show up periodically and I can get them cheap. The last 4 I got I paid $3.00 each and I would have bought more but that was all they had.

I own 2 customs and with todays technology if money was no object it would be a custom unlike any other. It would be St. Croix Legend Extreme 7'1" MH-XF blank, it would have split grip with custom Kevlar grips and a Fuji SK2 reel seat and a then finished with a full set of Fuji Titanium Torzite guides. It is a very low key build and has been on my mind for awhile, the blank is $205 but then the custom Kevlar grips are going to really hurt. I've been quoted a few prices but this rod with no bling is going to cost between $900 - $1100. The difference in price depends if the builder can make the grips of they have to be specially ordered and if that is the case it could cast as much as $200 just for the grips.

First things first, I look at tackle with an open mind and not preconceived notions, I ended up with some good stuff like that. Second, I'll look at value relative to the price point and decide if it worth my time and money to try it. The spinning reels are heavy and the 2-speed option is something that applies to saltwater species more than freshwater but I know some musky guys that might like the size of the reels with a 2 speed option. This is a new company, they have been bought by a Chinese company from e21 and then a Canada based outfit now owns it and they are trying to make it better.

There are different ones like the Action First series which I never used. The Flatt Shads though are a different story, those are killers and I never understood why they discontinued making them as a lot of anglers liked them. Natural Shiner, Natural Bluegill and Holo Greenie are my favorite patterns in those but if you have the action first ones like I said, I never used them.

I can't say I'm a rebel head but there are some that I really like. Back in the day the Rebel Crawfish in black with a chartreuse belly was a must have for river smallmouth, no matter how bad the fishing, that bait would always manage to make them bite. I also have some old cranks that weren't popular but they won me money consistently when fishing tournaments and this was also in the early 90s. The cranks were called the "Crank'R" and they were translucent with a lot of glitter, nobody used them except for me it seemed and the largemouth would hammer them but the downside was durability, they would crack on rocks easily. I still have some Rebels baits that I use a lot, like the Super Pop'R, it is long but only weighs 5/16oz, the tin profile is perfect for river fishing because it lets me scoot the bait across the current quick with still looking somewhat natural. The newest member is the Frog'R, a killer little walk the dog bait that is easier to walk than a Zara puppy and has a more compact profile yet still attracts big fish. I'm not a Rebel head but I do like a lot of their baits, old and new.

There are shaky heads out now that use a heavy hook and you could use them the same way as a Texas rig but I don't. For me, the shaky head is a finesse technique, it will be used in areas of sparse cover and it will be used when fishing is tough. The Texas rig is my heavy cover presentation, I'm going to throw it in brush and grass and it will usually be a 7" worm or longer.

My idea of light weight for reels is under 7oz and for rods it is under 4oz but that isn't counting flipping sticks or anything like that. When you start getting into long rods with heavy powers then light is pretty much out the window as the main concern with those rods are power and balance.

The football jigs you are using are probably made with a heavy wire, 60 degree hook which are also on the top. Go you You Tube and look my name up, smalljaw, I have a video explaining different hook types, you'll want to see part 1 I believe, it may help show you what I'm trying to tell you.

I probably fish some of the same waters as you do and I like to use the ned rig a lot but we've been using it for a long time only we used to fish it on a 1/16oz ball head and call it a dog turd because we used brown 3" senkos and that is what it looks like. Anyway a good medium power spinning rod with 6lb to 8lb line is great for those types of things. I just poured, painted and tied some Eakins style jigs in 5/16oz, I used a 4/0 Owner 5326 cross eye hook (flat eye) in that jig and it is considered a light wire hook and I throw that on 14lb line. The difference is that it isn't an Aberdeen style hook, most jigs that have a 90 degree line tie, like the mushroom head you were talking about, are Aberdeen style and do better with light line, but finesse jigs like the one I'm telling you about can be fished on the heavier line. I don't know how much experience you have with finesse fishing but there are different types with different hooks and some of them require lighter set ups but that is what finesse fishing is all about.

I have a lot of jerkbaits and I have the Megabass Vision 110 in the regular version and the Hi-Float model, along with a good bit of Pointers, flash minnows and flash pointers and on and on. As Hogsticker has said, with all the expensive jerkbaits out there, and all the ones I own, the X-Rap is still a major player!!!

Yes, 14lb for a 1/4oz jig is fine but not all jigs, I make some 1/4oz football heads that 14lb test would be overkill unless used on a spinning set up. I guess it matters to me since I make so many kinds of jigs but you are thinking of 1/4oz skirted jigs which normally have a hook that 14lb line can easily handle. The OP sounds as if he wants 1 rod for ned rigs and 1/4oz jigs, you can do it but that line will lead to bent and broken hooks so the best bet is to use a spinning set up for the light stuff.

I live in PA too and I make a lot of tackle and you are the main reason I pull my hair out!!! LOL!!!!! 14lb line because the soft plastic is heavy and using it on a casting outfit and then when you fish it the next post you would make is that the hooks on the 'shrooms heads are junk because you'll bend them out with that set up. The hooks on those heads are called Aberdeen hooks, they are designed so they can be bent straight to free from snags and then be bent back again. The Ned rig is designed to be used with these hooks on a light to medium power spinning rod with 4lb to 8lb line max and believe me, it will work, I have landed many 4lb and 5lb Susquehanna river smallmouth with a 1/16oz ball head jig with a size 2 Aberdeen hook and the hook wasn't bent but I did it with a medium light spinning rod and 6lb line.

That rod isn't a great fit for T-Rigs at all. It is a little bit stiffer than a cranking rod, but only until a little pressure is applied and then it has a deep flex. The reason for that is the rod was meant for throwing traps and ripping them of the tops of weed beds, not for working worms. Braid will help it do that but then it still won't have the power to move a larger fish out of cover, if it was a heavy power yeah, but that isn't what the rod is. I would call it a medium heavy light, somewhere between a medium and medium heavy compared to most other medium heavy rods. Get the Bucoo 7' heavy power, fast action, that rod is made for jigs and worms unlike the trap caster you are looking at.

You don't want the Aetos 7'2" MH-XF, it is under rated as it is a very stout rod. I use mine for a dedicated pitching stick but it is also great with swim jigs in cover, and I'm talking 1/2oz with 5/0 hooks. I also suggest you look for a rod with a fast action and not extra fast, C-Rigs you want the rod to be a little lighter in the tip but since you want an all-purpose type set up go with a fast action rod in a medium heavy power between 7' and 7'4".

I like buzzbaits in stained water but if the fish are scattered then I use it even in clear water. Spooks and other walking baits for me are used when the water is calm to a slight ripple, they don't make enough commotion to stand out in chop. Popper, like Bluebasser said, are for targets and when you want to make noise without moving the bait too far. Both can be used in clear to stained water. Prop baits are kind of the "all-purpose" topwater, I use them in clear to stained water but I've had success when the water is choppy as well as when it is dead calm but I found the best time to use it is when there are bass chasing minnow forage. If conditions are right for a topwater and I notice minnow flickering right before or after a bass blows up, I'm pulling out the prop bait.

It depends on whether you're fishing smallmouth or largemouth and how you are fishing them. I use 1 brand of tube for most of my tube fishing, I like River Rock Baits Pro Tube, they are the best hand dipped tube you'll find and I like the 2.75" and the 3.5". The only other tubes I own are the 3.75" Cabelas Flat Tire Tube, I use them for 1 thing, to flip and pitch heavy cover for largemouth. The tubes are hard and smallmouth spit them fast but they very seldom hit them, the largemouth love seeing these fall through limbs and grass. They are hard and durable and when you add sect the body just slides effortlessly through cover.

There is only 1 size screw lock. If you are new to this I'll bet you got the Mustad 32796 instead of the 32798 and the difference is in the wire diameter of the hook. What size hooks did you get, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0?

I may have to fish with Bluebasser86 some day as he and I have similar styles and likes. The Supreme is a solid reel as I own a spinning reel and I have 2 XT casting reels, everything Pflueger has been a solid performer. The only reason I got the XT over the regular Pflueger Supreme is because of weight, the XT is 6.5oz and the Supreme is 7.8oz and I'm so use to the lighter reels that I had to go for light weight.