smalljaw67

What you want doesn't exist. Here is the problem, you want to fish jigs and worms so you're looking at a rod that is going to be fast action and since you want to fish crankbaits, well that throws a wrench into the works because you do better with those with a moderate action rod. Ok, no problem there though because we can compensate by going with a medium power rod, it will be a fast action to fish jigs and worms yet still be forgiving enough to fish cranks decently but then you add frogs and now you really threw it out of sync with everything else. You are going to use, at a bare minimum, a medium heavy rod for frogs and it is going to have a little tip with a powerful backbone, you will be able to flip and pitch jigs in the 3/8oz to 1/2oz range with a rod like that but trying to throw cranks is going to be an ugly mess, and you'd be lucky for a 50% hook up to land ratio. So, what I would do is pick out what I use more often an go from there, like a 7'MH-F will let you throw jigs, worms, spinnerbaits, and small soft plastic single hook swim baits up to 3/4oz and even frogs provided you aren't throwing them is super heavy cover. Once you got that rod save up for a Lews David Fritts cranking rod for like $80 and even less if you buy it during a sale event because fishing a crankbait on a jig and worm rod just isn't too fun, I've done it and it is frustrating as not only will you lose more fish but you'll have problem with certain cranks not running perfectly or turning over when sweeping to rod trying to draw a strike, it just doesn't work to well. So look for a 7' MH-F and then think about cranking another day.

I fish both, and really it was only last season that I began using in-line spinners again for bass but I can tell you what the benefits of a safety pin type spinnerbait has over the in-line. The first difference is the safety pin spinner is going to come through cover a lot better where the in-line just touches a piece of brush and it is hung up. The second advantage is the hook up to land ratio, you will land more fish you hook with a bass spinnerbait versus the in-line because of the treble hook. In-line spinners are very good for numbers but they also tend to catch smaller fish on average, and yes, I know you can catch large fish on in-lines but on average larger fish will often hit the traditional bass spinnerbait more often than the in-line. As for just using a jig with a jig spinner like the Beetle Spin, well there really isn't anything wrong with that if you are trying to maximize space with the amount of baits you're carrying. The only problems with those are the sizes of jigs you are going to use, jig spinners typically don't work so well when using larger jigs in the 3/8oz and 1/2oz sizes because the blade arm on jig spinners is shorter than a typical spinnerbait but other than that there isn't a ton of advantage using a regular spinnerbait over a jig spinner.

I use Texas Rigged plastics in clearer water situations and in heavy grass, if there is less than 2' of visibility I'll throw a jig. There are exceptions, but it is all trial and error but water color and vegetation will help you decided quickly.

I think the only way that goes on sale is for a regular holiday deal with 10% or 15% off. I tried to find a sale on them before I got mine and just bit the bullet and paid full price but I'm thinking of adding another topwater rod. I wish Cabela's would get more in stock, every time I go there they either have 4 models which aren't what I'm looking for or they have zero. I think the closest sale you will find is TW's memorial day sale, sorry I can't help Dale.

I'd say just about every rod at that price point today will be good so look at things like reel seats, guides, and basically the looks of the rods and decide which length, action, and power you need and choose what you like best as all will be decent. If you want another suggestion, I'd say Fenwick HMG, I have the Aetos, Elite Tech Smallmouth and the new model HMG for $99 dollar and I can tell you it is a fantastic rod and at the price point it is actually a bargain. The rods are very responsive and balanced with a lifetime warranty, I think it will work for you but as I mentioned, just about every rod at that price will be good as all rods have gotten better and are less money than they use to be so pick what looks good to you.

I use Big Game in 12#, 15#, and 20# and one of the reasons I use it is because it has awesome abrasion resistance and that is very important to me. A lot of my fishing is done in a rocky river and when I say rocky I mean that you can't put a bass boat in the areas I fish, you need a jet boat or small water craft like a canoe to access it and even jet boats need to be careful. Those kind of rocks tear braid up fast and you don't want to have an issue with a 5lb. smallmouth on the other end, but to be honest, Big Game is pretty good. Right now I'm in the early stages of testing Spiderwire Ultimate Mono, the 2 things that are true with the marketing is that it is very small in diameter and it is extremely low stretch, if you are worried about the stretch then Ultimate mono would be a good choice, it has very little and hook sets are similar to braid, not quite as bone jarring but still very hard.

This ^^^^^ !!! If you have a ripple on the surface you will want to use the gunfish, calm is where the Sammy does the damage.

I use to use a casting set up for flukes until I got the right spinning rod and that is what I use most of the time anymore. I'm using a Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth 6'9" M-XF spinning and it does a great job with a fluke and even the fluke Jr. is easy to fish with it. The extra fast action makes it a little stiff but with the medium power it is very forgiving, this makes for good accurate casting and working the bait with plenty of power for hooking and fighting fish. The only time I go with a casting set up is when I'm in heavy grass, then I'm using a 6'6" MH-F, the reason for that set up is simple, the length lets me make accurate cast and I'm not going for distance, and the power and action combine to let me work the bait and pull a fish out.

Right now I'm using what I believe is the lowest stretch mono I ever came across. Spiderwire Ultimate Mono, it has a smaller diameter than any mono I ever used and the stretch is without a doubt, very low. I'm betting this has less stretch than a lot of fluorocarbons, it even beats out the Cajun Clear Lightning that was the lowest stretch mono I have used up to now.

The only line that is going to add sensitivity to your set up is one with little to no stretch so most monofilament and some fluorocarbons aren't going to add much but braid will. If you want a low stretch mono that may add a little more sensitivity try Spiderwire Ultracast Ultimat Mono, I'm testing it now, and so far two things I can tell you is that it is very thin and it is really low stretch, in fact I never used a mono with this little stretch, whether it adds sensitivity or not is hard to say. My advice to you is simple, don't worry about line to add sensitivity to your outfit, if you are truly concerned about it then either go to braid or find a more sensitive rod, most mono isn't going to add sensitivity and even if it did it would be so little that you wouldn't even notice anyway.

I'm not sure if it helps but I no it doesn't hurt. I did a side by side for 3 years but it was with hair jigs using UV flash materials as well as some UV flash on finesse jigs and believe it or not the UV enhanced jigs generated more bites but there are just to many variables which makes it hard to know exactly why a lure is getting bit. I think UV belongs in the scent category in that we don't know with 100% certainty that scent is really working or if it is just giving the angler more confidence which makes him focus a bit more while fishing it.

The Cabelas G-Finish Rattlin' Rogues are just stupid good for the money, easily in my top 5 right now. Another less expensive one with good hooks out of the box is the Storm Twitch Stick, it is only $5.00 at TW but don't be fooled by the low price, these are my quickly becoming favorites as well. The Luck-E-Strike RC STX is a decent bait, the hooks on them are light wire VMC, they aren't strong because like the 110 they are modeled after, they are designed to be used on light line. If you want to upgrade the hooks I'd go with the Owner ST-36, they are the strongest hooks that won't affect the suspending properties of the bait.

The Ned Rig, it is an old method that is now getting popular but as a river smallmouth angler I can honestly say we've been doing it for years. Our river is wide, shallow and rocky and large jigs and hooks don't play well trying to fish on the bottom and often the water is gin clear and the smallmouth will key on small prey. So we began using 1/32 and 1/16oz jig heads with size 2 and size 4 hooks to fish not only small baits but also larger ones. If you want to see a funny rig, a big one in my area is a Sweet Beaver, not the Smallie Beaver, fished on a 1/8oz jig head with a size 1 hook, most guys flip or pitch that bait with a 4/0 or 5/0 hook, in the river it would be snagged as soon as it hit. Anyway, you wouldn't thing that little hook in a Sweet Beaver would hook a fish but it does a great job just because the smallmouth never seem to pick that bait up by the tail, they pick up the smaller one by the tail but not the larger bait.

My shaky heads are all rigged weedless, meaning the hook is in the worm basically. Now I won't throw it in heavy cover but it isn't meant for that either, if a shaky head isn't weedless enough then a T-rigged soft plastic might be a better choice.

There is a big difference in the blank, my lest expensive rod is a Daiwa Procyon spinning rod and to be honest it isn't bad. I mention that because the guides are the same and the blanks are similar in both are IM-7 so I'm thinking they should be close. Anyway, the Tatula has a proprietary reel seat, better guides and a better blank, just the guides alone make it worth $30-$40 more and I'll bet it is probably close to a full ounce lighter than the Lexa. What I'm trying to say is that you will notice a difference between the two, they are far from clones and even though the actions are the same, the feel of the rod will be vastly different.

I use the Bomber Square A on a MH, it weighs 3/8oz and even the smaller one weighs 1/4oz so there shouldn't too much of a problem. I have a Fenwick Aetos 6'6" ML-M cranking rod, I consider it a finesse cranking rod and I have it specifically for throwing smaller cranks up to 3/8oz and I love it. The problem is cover, you said square bills and if you fish them in cover you'll want a MH rod, if I'm fishing for big smallmouth in the river when I'm just hitting rocks with my square bills then I go with the medium light for my square A and KVD 1.5s along with Manns Baby X and 1 minus cranks. If I'm fishing a lake and my square bill is going through brush and I'm ripping it free from weeds then I'm using a MH as I need a little more back bone and I'm using a rod that is moderate fast, not a full parabolic action, it takes too much effort to keep trying to pull square bills free from cover with a rod that is too soft like a ML. If you aren't going through much cover look at the size baits you are using, if you are throwing anything 1/2oz with regularity then go for at least a medium, I have a medium light as I already told you but that is because I also have a medium and medium heavy, for me it was about getting a rod that is dedicated to fishing smaller cranks in certain situations.

That makes a lot of sense because I have had the pleasure of using my friends NRX spinning rod and it wasn't tip heavy at all but it also was short, it is the 803S JWR.

Comfortably Numb said it best, basically weedless means it had a weed guard on it and it means you can throw it in brush and around deadfalls and work it through that stuff without it getting hung up. The problem with not knowing about certain things is following the hype, I see a lot of people using football heads in the wrong situations and it sounds like you have the wrong jig. Football heads are for rock, Arky heads are for brush, bullet heads are for weeds and there really isn't a good head design for moss or algae. You also have to be aware of the weight, if the lakes and ponds you are fishing have a soft muck bottom then you will be limited in the size of jig, I would probably say 1/4oz would be your best bet as it isn't heavy enough to get too deep in the muck plus the smaller jig will appeal to more fish as smaller ones will hit it quicker than they do a large jig.

I don't drop shot at all in water that is dirty, in fact fishing a drop shot for me is similar to jerkbaits, the water has to to be clear or just a little color, maybe a little less visibility than a jerkbait but at least 2' minimum. It will work in dirty water but there are better options, bass are going to be shallower so I'll be either pitching a jig or soft plastic T-rigged.

I love jerkbait fishing and I have a lot of them but the Rogue is my favorite.

I had a kit with 6 of them in it that was given to me by a friend that saw them in a BPS catalog and purchased them for me as a gift. I put them in my box but mainly just to be nice but I found out from a friend that they are pretty deadly for river smallmouth. Well I did try them and they worked fantastic when the fish really weren't chasing you could throw on a lazy ike and just reel slow and steady and you would catch fish. The ones I had were like 3" long and weighed 1/4oz and a duo lock snap would be recommended but if it won't dive down check to make sure the line tie is straight, mine would sometimes get turned a little and it didn't swim right when that happened.

The same thing you're seeing is my experience and while I never got into the swim bait style wake baits I have tried using Bomber Long As and a Cordell Red Fin but I had more of less mixed results. I say mixed because I drew a fair number of strikes but they were more or less swiping at it and one out of 4 would actually get it. When I started using the Lucky Craft Wake baits things changed for the better and it got really good with the Mann's Waker Elite. Now, the Lucky Craft is a ptrettier bait hands down but something about the Manns Waker Elite that drives fish mad, they hit it really hard. I think maybe you should try more of the round crankbait style and mix it up and then see when each wake is most effective.

They are no longer made in the U.S. and as others have said, unless you get a very good price on the HMX, $10.00 more gets you an HMG which is head and shoulders better than the HMX.

I use a 6.4:1 reel.

I agree with this, those techniques are on opposite ends of the spectrum and I don't even see a compromise. You would basically have to find a rod to sling spinnerbaits and then use it for drop shot and just understand you are going to miss and lose fish as the rod will be a little overpowering not to mention that the fish are going to feel that rod and drop the bait before you hook them. If you get a rod that will work decent for drop shots, it will be very limiting on the size of spinnerbait you are going to use, I'd say somewhere around 1/4oz depending on the type of blades.