smalljaw67

I really like Rapala DT baits and that line of new patterns is going to get me to buy without a doubt. I wasn't a big fan of most of the Ike's custom ink patterns, but these new ones, I have a feeling the river shad in a DT-4 is going to kill fall smallmouth in the river.

I hate saying this but they were junk, is this a reintroduced reel or is it an older one you bought used? If you bought this used it is broke, the trigger opens the bail and holds the line, sort of like a combination spinning reel and a spin cast reel.

He throws jerkbaits and topwaters on a 7'5" rod, and so far he is the only person I've saw that does it. I still look and ask as it just amazes me but that is why there are so many rods as we all fish differently.

a 7' *** won't be as clumsy as what you have now, the difference in weight will amaze you and you'll find it hard to pick up a combo like the pro max. There isn't anything wrong with the combo you have, but the rod and reel you are getting are way above what you have, like I said, 7' rod will be fine.

I have the original Smoke and I haven't had any problems at all, in fact it has been an awesome stick. I think they had a 5 year warranty, I'd contact Quantum, it sounds like the wrapping isn't right or maybe a bad batch of epoxy.

I learned a long time ago that walking baits are like poppers and lipless cranks, sometimes a different action or sound is the difference between loading the boat and getting skunked. My favorite has to be the Super Spook Jr. as it has the right action and right size for both numbers and big fish. Not all walking baits have the same action, the big difference in them is the amount of roll and how far they walk from side to side. I've had days were my spook wasn't getting any interest but the Sammy was getting crushed and vice-versa. It is best to have a few different brands and sizes, and if one isn't working, before giving up on a topwater bite, give a different size or a completely different bait a try.

Tough question for me but I'll go by which I use more. For me, poppers are tied with walking baits, Super Spook Jr. is killer but so are others like the old discontinued Yo-Zuri Banana Boat and the LC Sammy but the Super Spook Jr. is my favorite. A Storm Rattlin' Chug Bug is a killer popper but so is the Xcalibur Zell Pop, two completely different baits as one is loud and aggressive and the other more subtle. Then you have prop baits, the Tiny Torpedo has always been a great bait, and my favorite prop bait up until last year was a Heddon Dying Flutter, but now the new Yo-Zuri 3DB Prop, that is a smallmouth smasher, they absolutely choke it!!!!

The absolute best fluke hook I have found is the Owner twist lock light, I use the 2/0 for the 4" fluke jr. and the 4/0 for the 5" version. I actually use a different fluke bait but I have used the zoom super fluke as well with these hooks. I fish them on medium power spinning tackle most of the time. If I'm throwing the flukes in heavy cover I use the Owner twist lock 3X, same hook with more beef that I rig on 17lb copoly with a MH casting rod. I have used EWG style hooks and the bait would always find a way to slide down the shank, then I found some J-style worm hooks with a wide gap that I used and liked, the Trokar TK-100 HD worm hook was fantastic, or so I thought. Then my friend told me to try the Owner twist lock light hooks, they were developed in part, to be used with the Senko, so giving them a shot couldn't hurt, and now that is all I use, the hook up and landing percentage is close to perfect.

Use spinning tackle, light line and a light head and just let it fall until it hits bottom. You can dead stick it for a bit and then just lift and drop, you aren't going to work it fast, just lift and drop.

You must have a mighty good rod that you are going to feel a difference between those lines. The only lines that make a difference in sensitivity is fluorocarbon and braid, but that only was evident when fishing deep, 15'+ as a shallow bite is picked up with any line.

Since 95% of reels in the $100 and up range are 7.5oz and lighter, the Lews LFS Speed Spool is 7.1oz and the Pflueger Supreme is 6.5oz and both have aluminum frames. EDIT: This is 100 size casting reels, not heavy duty or larger 200 size reels.

I back my drags off after every trip and they remain that way until I go out again.

Hang on for a bit, ICAST just got done and there were new rods introduced so there will be some clearance sales going on. A lot of times you can get a steal if you just wait a bit and keep your eyes open. Now, the Abu Garcia Verdict isn't a bad rod, it has that extending handle feature that a lot of anglers didn't care for but the rod is actually decent. Anyway, on Fisherman's Factory outlet (FFO) they have a 6'9" ML-F Verdict for $53.88, the ML verdict is more like a medium power from other manufactures, this will work great for shaky heads and is within your budget and the best part is you don't have to wait around.

CeeJay is absolutely correct, most of the time off-set means the hook point. The Gamakatsu in the link is also non-offset but that is the point, the Gamakatsu has an off-set SHANK, and that is what most think off and it is confusing, especially if you want an off-set point and an off-set shank.

Go with the Lews regular LFS speed spool or the Pflueger Supreme casting reel, I have the Supreme XT but just saw my friend's regular Supreme and it is really nice, I may add one myself for $99.99! The Tatula is a good solid reel but as buzzed bait already mentioned, it is heavy and the frame feels bulky because of the T-wing system. If you see a pro qualifier on sale at BPS, then that would be another option.

You need to rephrase your question, to say the most sensitive MH rod in a price range that you specify. The NRX is probably one of, if not the most, sensitive rod, but are you willing to fork over $500 for the rod?

Pflueger Supreme, fantastic reel for the price!!!

I had one, it was a round reel and mine had a 4.7:1 gear ratio that I used it for buzzbaits, yes, buzzbaits! I would make a cast and as soon as it hit the water I'd start to reel and sweep the rod at the same time and it was enough so the buzzbait would be up on plane without sinking. Once it was up, you could reel normal and it was just fast enough to keep the bait up but just barely, it was a killer way to fish a buzzbait slow. The problem with the reel is it fell apart in no time, I got 1 season out of it but aside from it falling apart, the spool tension was bad, it would loosen by itself and you would go to make a cast and poof, birds nest, the reel was functional for a bit but the consensus is correct, it was junk. If you find one in good condition, it is probably because someone realized it was junk and quit using it before it fell apart.

If you have a hardware store near you go there and pick up a few packs of foam ear plugs, not the rubber ones. Take a small hook and use it to make a hole through the foam ear plug. Once you do that you can tie your hook on and then thread the ear plug onto the hook, and then push it over the hook and onto the line, this will really help keep the worm up a little longer. The reason is the foam is very dense and it takes a long time for it to absorb water, it won't float the worm but when you move your C-rig, the worm will come up higher and it will sink but it will do very slow.

Yes, you need a new combo!!! We have pads in the waters I fish and there are 2 lakes that have mats and a friend took me out to teach me how to punch 3 years ago. I told him I was going to use my flipping stick and 50lb braid, he had his own rod he got just for punching, an Irod 7'11" Bub Punch rod with 65lb braid and I did manage to catch 3 fish but I missed a bunch and lost a few too, my partner caught 14 fish, and missed one, the moderate action seemed to really make a difference and after that I watched a few videos and that is what the punching guys recommend. I don't punch enough to get a separate rod but I do nknow I use braid for it, and I'm a guy who uses nothing but mono/copoly for everything except punching, heavy flipping, and frogs.

What you need to be doing is using the Ned rig, or if you don't have the stuff, just take a medium power spinning rod, a 1/16oz jig head and a 3" Senko and you're good to go. Seriously, the conditions you are encountering is exactly what the rig is meant for, it will catch fish when nothing else is.

It is the same thing as expensive rods and reels and everything else. What it is called is enthusiast level gear, every hobby has different levels, it all depends on how much or how far you want to go into it. Thank God we don't fly fish, I saw these custom hand made Bamboo fly rods that go for over $3000 and they place that makes them do like 125 rods a year and that is it and there is a 2 year backlog for them, so it seems a lot of guys are into that and it makes a $250 dollar swim bait seem like small potatoes.

Where did you get that info from? They don't float, they are thin like Bluebasser86 mentioned so they hang in place a little longer but they will sink if you dead stick them. Another thing is the floating worm standing off the bottom is impressive looking, especially in an aquarium but in truth, it doesn't always catch more fish. I've mentioned this information on a few different threads about shaky head presentations. Me and 3 friends documented our catch rates and actually fished floating and sinking worms side by side for 3 years and what we found was the total catches and catch rates were pretty close to equal. Some of the best worms were sinking ones but here is the thing, when we did have days when the stand up presentation caught more fish, it was always in water with more than 2' of visibility but we had some outing in gin clear water where a sinking worm was lights out and the only reason we can come up with it that a worm standing up on a lake bottom is probably not natural, fish my do it in a feeding posture but not worms or other crawling prey. That said, the bottom hoppers are pretty decent and both sizes work but if you are looking at one size that has to catch, the 4.5" is the one. That 4.5" is my favorite shaky head worm size, when it is tough, I konnw that will get them, and while I also like a 6" worm, that is when I'm on a good shaky head bite and I'm looking for larger fish.

Kickerfish1 explained it the best, none of these are going to be like a GLX or a Z-Bone but the KLX would be closer. The KLX also has the better blank, I'm not sold on the "multi-taper" technology Loomis is using with the E6X blank.

When I need a rod I don't ever just decide on a few different brands and then toss a coin or ask opinions. What you do is decide systematically and if you do it that way you will get the right rod for you. Here is how I do it, lets go with say, a spinnerbait rod but I need a rod that can handle 1/2oz baits with big blades and I also need it to hit specific targets but still allow me to make a pretty long cast. So that is my need, the very first thing is money, how much am I going to spend, based on the 3 you picked we'll say $160 to $200, so now we have need and price range. So the right rod for that would be a casting rod in a medium heavy, target accuracy is important but so is casting distance so something longer than 6'6" and shorter than 7', maybe a rod in a 6'8" to 6'10" MH and the action would follow, do you like fishing open water with a moderate or moderate fast action? To make it easy we'll assume you'll be fishing in and around weeds so fast action it will be. Now we know that we need a 6'8 to 6'10" MH-F casting rod in a $160 to $200 range, the next step is to look through rods either in store or catalogs or online, start with your favorite brand and see if they make a rod that fits your need and price range, maybe they do but you may not like the line in which it is offered so you look to another brand or go online and use the TW advanced search and see what comes up and when you get to see multiple brands, it will make it easier to choose and if you still can't decide, then come to a forum like this and ask for help and ask in a way that you can get help and not just a popularity contest because that doesn't always work. So if you want a new rod and need help choosing a rod, then lay out what your needs are and you'll find out what the best rod types you will need, then finally you can look to each one and see which will work for you.