smalljaw67

If you can't find a Shallow A then just go with the baby 1 minus, it has a wider wobble than the Shallow A but not as much roll but it still works. I do understand how you feel though, when the Storm Sub Wart was discontinued I was disappointed because that had a different action than any other bait so if you find some you better stock up.

Lipless crankbait, square bill in chartreuse with black back, big jigs and topwater when the temp is right.

It will handle an A-Rig, the extra fast action on the Aetos rods is very stiff so this rod is going to be a broom stick. If you are going to throw an A-Rig make sure it is a least 1oz and throw it on heavy mono or fluorocarbon, the rod, in my opinion, is too stiff to use with braid, something with a slower action is a better choice as braid has no stretch at all so you need a shock absorber of some sort.

I have my Smoke reels over 3 years now and they are still awesome!! I also have a 7' MH-F Smaoke casting rod and it is an excellent rod. I have a buddy that hates Quantum with a passion and I told him to use my rod, he wasn't paying attention and so I handed him the rod (with a Revo Premier 2nd generation on it) and he grabs it and as soon as the retrieve was done he looked at it and saw Quantum and just shook his head. He fished with it for half the day and then cussed me out pretty good, the reason was that he hated Quantum so much that he fished with the rod longer than he wanted because he was trying to find fault but instead of finding fault, the more he used it the better he liked it!!! Now he has one but he blacked out the name on the rod...LOL!!! Seriously, it may sound like hype but the Smoke rod seems to be really good, it is super light, plenty strong and it is balanced beautifully which is hard to believe as it has a split grip and is very light which usually means tip heavy. The reels I think are the best reels Quantum has made and the rods are probably up there too although TT give the EXO high marks.

The key to it is practice, it takes time but it isn't hard to master. I have a few videos on you tube showing how to tie and trying my best at explaining what I'm doing and why I'm doing it. The other thing is the fish don't care if your jig is ugly, my first buck tail jig for river smallmouth was really bad, it had bare spots and too much hair in one spot plus the collar looked bad as hair was sticking out all over. I was going to just cut it up but my friend to me to give it to him to fish, I figured he use it to make an idiot out of me. Well turns out he caught several good fish off it before he lost it and it just goes to show you it doesn't have to look perfect for it too work, a lot of mine leave a lot to be desired.

I use realistic patterns on poppers because they aren't being worked as fast as a walking bait. A good color is Bone, in any popper or any baby bass variant and I try to stick to those types of colors.

It boggles the mind that G.Loomis spent a lot of money in a complete redesign of the GL2 and now, not even 4 full years later it is going to be phased out. I'm thinking if they phase it out it will be done over a decent period of time, say a 5 year thing to see how the sale of the E6X goes.

This is tough as I have 3 finesse set ups but 2 of them are killer. I think I would have to say my favorite is a 6'9" M-XF Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth spinning rod with a Daiwa Tierra 2500 spinning reel even though my Fenwick Aetos 7' M-F spinning and Pflueger Supreme 8230 is a little lighter and more expensive. The reason is the Elite Tech smallmouth is very light and sensitive and while both are very comfortable the smallmouth hidden handle is just perfect in my hand to where the rod truly feels like an extension of my arm.

All season long!! I love them in the summer to search points, just like in spring of fall, you can rip it off the bottom and let it fall yo-yo style or burn it over grass beds. If you're only using them in spring and fall then you're missing out, especially post spawn when the fish scatter and are hard to locate, fan casting a lipless crank will cover water and will pick off the active fish and possibly lead to a pattern if you notice fish coming off of wood or rock more often.

I got away from them for a long time until last season when we were experiencing a really tough day and my buddy pulled out the Mepps Aglia and put a beat down on me. I went the next day and there were no Mepps on the shelf at Wally World so I grabbed some Rooster tails and our next trip I was on them. They worked so well that I started making them myself, I got a mold to pour the bodies and I use a Hagens pro wire former to bend the wire and so far it has been good, the smaller 1/16oz with a sonic blade (panther martin style) seems to work great on trout, I'm hoping the larger 1/4oz with the same type of blade works on bass too.

For a lure to catch fish, it must first catch the fisherman!!!! Nobody really knows what the fish see and things that happen on the water make it tough to pin point. On crankbaits I believe there are times when an ultra realistic looking bait helps, in my waters when the bluegill spawn you will catch a few on various types of cranks but if you use a Koppers Live Target bluegill crank, it will not only catch but the hits are ultra violent and that leads me to believe they see it as a bluegill. With spinnerbaits you rarely fish those in a stop and go manner, if you stop it the bait falls like a rock so detail I don't think is important but I think if you get the colors of a baitfish right in the head and skirt material, you can create the illusion of a baitfish but this is pure speculation. I very seldom use a single color jig, if I make a brown jig for myself, it will have a brown head but I'll use plain brown skirt material for a base and then add a few strands of a different shade or brown and I will often use up to 4 different shades of brown to create a mottled appearance as I believe it looks more realistic but does it truly help or hurt? I'll never know but it does seem to work and there are ton of examples when loud unrealistic colors work, it comes down to personal theories and whether you think it is worth the price of realistic baits.

You made a blanket statement, every extra fast rod I own is very stiff, there isn't anything soft in the tip, that is why I said it depends on the manufacturer. My neighbor, or use to be my neighbor, was a St. Croix rod guy and his Avids with the extra fast were softer than my rods. I understand where the rod shuts off from the backbone and yes, the tip isn't as strong as the backbone but my MH-XF rods get mistaken for H-F rods by my friends because they are like broom sticks. That is why I said that because I have tried rods like what you are describing and my 2 Fenwicks, 1 custom and 1 Daiwa and every one is very stiff with no limber tip section. Yes, you are correct in that a lot of rods do have a limber tip but I meant that not ALL rods fall under that, the person has to understand that he may end up with a rod that is very stiff like what I use which I would not want to use with 50lb braid.

If you use braid you'll be fine with the shock series but if you use mono or fluorocarbon you may want to ask others that use the same line. The shock is made for braid so the action is going to be a little slower in action which can make for a rod that isn't very sensitive with other types of line and it can also hurt you on a hook set. I'd ask those who use them if you will have problems if you aren't a braid user.

These are Idaho spinners, they are just like a jig spinner only they are set up as an in-line instead of a safety pin type. I hope this helps.

I fish high speed reels for lipless and square bills a lot of the time and I use to use a 5.1:1 for cranks but now I'm using a 6.4:1 most of the time. The older reels had significantly less power and torque when you got into higher gear ratios but improvements in design now make it easy to throw cranks with a higher speed, the only cranks I won't use a 6.4:1 with are the deep divers, the ones diving 15' +, but all others a 6.4:1 or something in that range is fine.

I think it depends on the model, what are you looking at specifically for length, action, and type, spinning or casting? As I said, I have the Aetos in spinning and casting and an HMG casting and if you are looking at spinning rods in the medium power, go with the medium light HMG and the medium Aetos. The HMG will hold its own but it is noticeably heavier than the Aetos and the HMG is far from a heavy rod. If you are going with a MH then I'd go with the Aetos and that is just because you say you can get an Aetos, and if you can afford it the difference in weight with a MH will serve you really well. The reason I have the HMG casting rod is that made one in a power and action I needed and the price was just icing on the cake and really like the feel of the rod but I probably would have gone Aetos if they had the rod I needed in that line because I already have 3 of them, they are my favorite rod. S, which model are you looking at?

That statement isn't true, I've run into 3 different extra fast actions and I own 2 of them. The first one is the medium power extra fast, these are a little stiff but the medium power still is forgiving enough that you are fine with braid but I wouldn't go 50lb braid on a medium. The next is the MH-XF jig and worm type rod, those are pretty stiff as they load very fast and the tip section is as flexible as a normal medium heavy fast only the tip is shorter. Then you have the drop shot type extra fast, those rods have a very flexible tip section that shuts off really quick, most are medium or medium light in power. A lot of what you want depends on which rods you are looking at, if they are MH and they are intended as jig and worm rods, they are going to be too stiff to use with 50lb braid, you'll have your fillings shake loose setting a hook with 50lb braid with that type of rod and if you don't keep your drag loose you will more than likely end up breaking the rod at some point. I'm not saying these others are wrong but I don't use braid and so I lean toward rods with faster actions as they are usually more sensitive because they are generally stiffer than the regular fast action, but it depends on the manufacturer, as some have a flexible tip while others are very stiff.

I have the Elite Tech smallmouth in both casting and spinning, I have the Aetos in casting and spinning and I have a casting rod, so far, in the HMG and while I'm not a brand loyal guy, I can tell you Fenwick is now my rod of choice. I'm not sure what model you're looking at but the 7' M-F Aetos spinning rod is incredible, there is no other way to put it but, you have to really like the skeleton reel seat. That rod is super light and the sensitivity is just fantastic, it really is a high end rod in my book but again, we all have different taste and feel so that is for you to decide. The HMG, well I can't speak for the spinning rod but my casting rod should have been priced a lot higher, build quality is excellent and for a $100 dollar rod it really is incredible. The feel of the rod at that price point is also something you don't get, the rod is really responsive and if I find I need another spinning rod down the line I'd have no problem grabbing an HMG. Thunderballs, breaking a rod when it is pretty new can come from defects or damage from being on a shelf or from shipping but normally when someone breaks more than one high modulus graphite rod, it is usually user error, high sticking or boat flipping fish, one or the other.

Spinnerbait rod for sure!!!! I have a 6'6" MH-F rod that I have as a dedicated spinnerbiat rod, I can roll cast with fantastic accuracy and get my spinnerbait into some tight spots and still cast with decent distance.

The reason for the thin wire hooks is because of how they were designed to be used, we here in America use them wrong. The same thing for the Luck-E-Strike RC STX, they use a fine wire VMC hook but the 110 was made to be fished on a spinning rod with 6lb line, the RC STX was made to be an almost exact copy so it utilized the same type of hook. Most of us, including myself, use 10lb or 12lb line with a casting rod so we usually apply more pressure to the fish than what the bait was designed for and that is why we bend the hooks. I emailed them and asked why they made the bait with the thin wire hooks and that is what they told me, which is basically we use too heavy tackle when fishing that lure.

Which model was it? They have 5 different suspending models, so look at the bar code and you'll see letters and a 4 digit number.

The Yum is almost an exact copy, I have had both and the only difference that stood out was the antennae, in the Yum version the antennae go just a tiny bit pass the claws and the mad man the antennae extended about 1/4" beyond the claws. 1/4" doesn't sound like a lot but on a 3" bait it is a noticeable amount, but if you didn't ever have both in your hand at the same time, you'd never know the difference, it makes me wonder if both were made off the same mold or someone had a mold made off the others product and they only changed the antennae. The other difference was the plastic, the mad man seemed to be a bit softer but the Yum scent seemed to really work, that is until they switched to the F2 formula and then it was no longer any good but that is another discussion.

I read a book and if I remember the name of it I'll post it. Anyway, it was about fish biology and how different freshwater species live and the bass chapter was interesting. The author writes that the part of the brain responsible for memory is extremely small and they don't have the part of the brain that is needed for reasoning, which is what you are referring to. The fish lives solely on instincts and just like some people are smarter than others, it is the same with fish and some have better instincts than others as well, that explains why one fish gets caught multiple time and another fish doesn't get caught at all. During certain seasons like pre spawn, these instincts change and they focus on eating much more in preparation for the stressful act of spawning and at that time they are more venerable to being caught. The fish isn't thinking, it is reacting to its environment and its instinct is to be an opportunist when it comes to feeding but what it perceives as prey is based on its instinct and some have better instincts than others. In the Berkley lab they discovered fish have a memory span of about 10 minutes but they can become conditioned to things like color and even scent, they don't remember that they were caught on a purple with blue flake worm after 10 minutes, but after they've been caught and see a purple with blue flake worm multiple times, their instinct changes and they will ignore it completely and while it isn't know for sure, some researchers believe that certain instincts will be passed on to the next generation.

It isn't a big deal but the scratch on the blank could be an issue but it is hard to tell if it is just a surface scar or a nick. If it was me I'd let them know as see what they say, if it has anything less than a 5 year warranty then send it back now.

I have a good mix of 7' and shorter rods and what I can tell you is my main spinnerbait rod is a 6'6" MH-F because casting distance isn't bad but more importantly I can cast more accurately with it. I target fish spinnerbaits, I don't make real long casts in open water, I'm making my casts into small pocts between weed beds and nothing like a 6'6" rod for that. The same thing for topwater rods, 6'10" and under is what I like and my frog rod, it is a 6'10" H-F, I feel I have more control of my bait and they are more comfortable for me to fish with. Get what works for you.