smalljaw67

Sometimes it has the opposite affect, especially a month before black Friday! A few years ago I got a new LED Smart T.V., the price was 899.99, and everyday I'd go back it would be a $889.99, then it would go up to $909.99 and after that price jump up, it came down in a hurry, 2 weeks of visiting the site and it came down for a total of 6 hours as I got it for $684 and 4 hours later is was up to $799. That place is funny like that, and the same thing for my Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth rod, I keep looking and it stayed the same until one day when I got an email with a 12 hour sale, $77.49 shipped, that was just nuts and of course it never happened again.

The reason these and other reels are loaded with grease is because a lot of guys don't do maintenance on the reels after they buy them. Read reel reviews long enough and you'll spot these people, they will say, "This reel was great when I got it but after 1 season it started acting up and making noise" , that is a reel that had normal lubrication and the person who got it used it pretty hard and never cleaned or lubed it up. I know a guy that has Shimano Calais and the old Chronarchs and he has had them for years and when I asked him who cleaned his reels, his answer shocked me, he told me they were never cleaned or lubed and yet they made no noise and were still smooth and he goes out 2 to 3 times a week, and that is the reason why there is so much grease from the factory.

When it comes to spinnerbaits you need to look at the components to see what kind of bait it will be. Picasso makes one of the better spinnerbaits, at least for my liking as I make my own but theirs are similar to how I like to build mine. They use a Stainless steel wire that is dyed brown to cut on visibility, I'm not sure if it works but it doesn't hurt. They use .035 wire, to me that is key because it means their bait will have good vibration and still have some decent durability. They use a Mustad Ultra Point hook which I like because it is made to penetrate and not cut so you don't lose many fish with it. Finally they use a good swivel, it is a Sampo ball bearing swivel, for spinnerbaits there are only 2 swivels, Sampo and Worth, if a bait has one of these is is a good bait. I don't go over the blades because if they use a good swivel they aren't going to use crap blades and because of the good construction I can tell you that you should pick a few up, they are high quality and will catch you a lot of fish, good luck.

I asked the same question to a rod designer and he said that lure action isn't a concern, if anything certain lures get designed to work with a certain action rod but when it comes to the rod, lures are the last thought if any. The reason for a moderate or slow action rod has nothing to do with single or treble hooks, it has to do with the size of the hook and it is why fly rods have such a step bend, not only to make casting better but also fish control and leverage. The purpose for the moderate action is to keep pressure with out pulling a hook free when the hook isn't large enough for full penetration, and by full penetration it means that the hook point and barb comes through the fish skin to the opposite side. Most baits use small trebles so unless the fish is hooked in front part of the lip, it rarely is large enough to go all the way through so it is basically imbedded with only the barb holding it in place so a rod with a lot of bend will keep enough pressure on the fish to keep it hooked without so much pressure as to pull it out. On the new super deep and super big cranks that use 1/0 and 2/0 trebles, you see guys having success with flipping sticks, the reason is now the treble hooks are large enough that they fully penetrate which eliminates the need for a moderate action. The only time where you would need that with larger hooks is when using a no stretch line, then the rod action is more about absorbing shock than it is about keeping pressure on a fish. So if you replace the trebles on a crankbait with single hooks, if they are large enough to fully penetrate, then you no longer need the moderate action but if they are still small to the point they don't go all the way through, then a moderate action will still benefit you for the same reason it does with a treble hook. It is true that crankbaits have better action and deflection capabilities with a moderate action rod, but it is more a product of lure design and luck as the action of the lure has very little to do with a rods design, the fact that most crankbait have small trebles makes for rod designers to incorporate the moderate action into rods that are designed for that technique, the hooks are the focus, not how the bait runs, so if you replace the crankbaits hooks with single hooks, you'll still need the moderate action rod unless the hooks can fully penetrate, the magic number is 1/0 but they would be large in most cranks that are 1oz and less.

Tightline UV Whisker series, I like it!!!! I'm amazed no other companies ever thought of doing that until now, I'd imagine it works as it changes the action a bit as well as bulks up the profile.

What length and power are you looking for and how much money do you want to spend? There are a lot of really light rods but length comes into play as a short, light power rods are going to be the lightest while long, heavy and XXH rods will weigh the most. If you are looking sub $200, it is hard to beat the Fenwick Aetos, my 7' M-F spinning is less than 4 ounces, and the Quantum Smoke rods, I'm not sure about the new version but the older one is very light, with my Smoke 100 reel on a 7'MH-F Smoke rod, the both together on my scale weigh in at 9.9oz and on a friend's scale it weighs in a 10.2oz so that is very light. That isn't close to the lightest though, if you can find a Shimano Cumulous, some of these were like 2.8oz and with a 5.8oz reel on them makes the entire weigh 8oz even, that is just sick. Now, the Cumulous is going to cost a good bit more and there are other light rods but you'll pay salty for them, it just depends on what you want.

Yep, jump on the XT for $75, that is a good reel! I grabbed an MGX for $59.99 and I feel I got a great deal, and I have an XT casting reel, very good work horse reel and either casting or spinning you'll do well.

If all your fishing is going to be heavy, say 1/2oz jigs or even 3/8oz but in heavy cover and your topwater doesn't include anything with a treble hook then you can certainly find a rod that will work for both and it won't break the bank. Everyone will have a favorite so what kind of price range are you talking about? Anyway, look for something 7'3" to 7'6" H/F stay away from extra fast.

I try to always buy multiples of a new bait I'm trying, if it comes in various sizes I look to which size will best fit my fishing and I'll often buy 2 of each size I need. I will get basic color patterns to start and if the bait is successful then I'll go buy a few more , at least one more with the same color and size that did well along with a few other patterns. When it comes to being successful, I'll buy multiples of the size and color that did well like I said before, but with other patterns I'll start with one and as I use them I'll continue to add. If I can't afford to buy 3 baits, then I don't buy any until I have enough for that.

You didn't know there was different baits? You said you lost a fish using this, I know what size jerkbait I'm using because if it isn't quite right I need to know whether to go up or down in size. The numbers refer to the length of the bait in millimeters, the 76 is 3" and the 100 is 4" and the 110 is not quite 4.5". A lot of fishing success depends on small details, the little things we tend to not think about can make the difference between a so-so day and an excellent day, especially jerkbaits, I've had days with a Super rogue that the fish would follow and turn away and then go to a Super Rogue Jr. and it was lights out, had I not known there was a different size I would have figured the fish were in some sort of negative mood and didn't want the jerkbait. When I buy jerkbaits, or any baits, I see if there is more than 1 size and I will try to buy at least 1 bait in each size but in rality I like to have 2 of each size so I have a minimum 2 color patterns to use.

I can't wait to hear about it, that is the model I'm interested in too.

Which one of the Yamamoto jerkbaits was it, the 76, 100, or 110? What you have to understand is most jerkbaits are designed to be fished on light line, like the Megabass vision 110, that bait was designed for 6lb to 8lb test and a spinning rod so when fishing on 12lb line with a casting rod we tend to have the hooks bend out. That said, I'm not sure what hooks are on that bait but Dwight Hottle said it perfectly, 1 lost fish doesn't indicate a hook problem, the fish could have just swiped at the bait and may have been barely hooked under the chin or was just skin hooked. If you continue to lose fish then either it is something you're doing or the hooks can be bad but the only way to know for sure is with experience. Try to match the hooks that are on it weight wise, find out what size they are and then look as a bunch of different ones to see if it is heavy wire, or light wire because if the bait is suspending good, a slight change in weight can have disastrous effects on the action and suspending properties of the bait.

I love a jerkbait and if I'm catching them consistently on it then there is no reason to change. I also let conditions dictate what I'm going to use, right after ice out the water temp is around 35 to 39 degrees and if the sun is out or the conditions have been stable for a few days then I'll throw a jerkbait and then a shad rap and see what happens first. If those aren't working or if the weather hasn't been stable and fronts have been coming and going, then I'll slow down and fish a hair jig or maybe a shaky head but if you're catching fish then you aren't missing out. I like fishing hair jigs too but there isn't anything better than when they are chewing jerkbaits.

When I discovered the Slug-o is was 1986 or 87, and there was a 4.5" baby slug-o and a 6" version. The slug-o is the original soft plastic jerkbait and the fluke is actually based on the slug-o but to me they are 2 different baits. The bubblegum slug-o won a ton of tournaments here in the northeast, what guys did was fish weed edges and lily pad fields with them. What you did was you make a cast to thepads and keep your rod tip high and when the bait hit you would reel it quickly over the pads and when you got good you could make it stop on one of the pads on the outside edge and then let it rest there. After 5 seconds or so you would easy the slug-o off the pad and watch it sink, normally it would get about 6" when a bass would come up and just eat it, that worked so well bubblegum got very hard to find. Once the fluke came out nobody threw the slug-o anymore but it is still as deadly today as it was back then. Here is the difference in baits as I see it, the slug-o is more of a darting bait and can be worked a tad bit faster than the fluke because the fluke comes to the surface just a bit faster but both are similar in that they both will come to the top when worked fast. As I said, the slug-o darts when you pop your rod and then stops quickly and then slowly sinks and the fluke tends to glide a bit further when you stop twitching and the darting action is a little slower, it is one of the reasons guys gravitated to the fluke as the slower movement worked a little better on pressured fish but to me the slug-o seemed to draw larger fish. Give those bubblegum slug-o baits a shot, not an early spring bait but more of a summer deal and when the weeds come up that is when that bait becomes deadly.

If Mike at Siebert Outdoors can't make it for you, I have a head that I've been making for guys that want a jig similar to a bitsy flip that I pour in 3/16oz and 1/4oz. Siebert Outdoors can probably hook you up with the exact color and jig you need.

That isn't exactly true, go to Tackle Warehouse and look under shaky head in the terminal tackle section. There you'll find a great deal of ball head shaky jigs and if you have a buoyant worm a ball head will stay upright as long as it doesn't land on its side. Also, ball heads are what I call all purpose heads, the Eakins jig is a ball head jig made for fishing on the bottom, the statement you made is very vague and while experienced angler know what you meant, someone with very little understanding can get very confused by a statement like that. A ball head is just a jig head shape, how it is used depends on how it is made as some are meant to swim grubs which the same are also used to bounce or hop them along the bottom. Some are made to be used as a shaky head and really, you can fish a worm shaky style on just about any ball head jig, but the shaky head is specialized as it is made to fish a soft plastic in a specific way and the plain ball head jig can be used a number of different ways depending on how it is made.

You'd have to put that on a predator series rod, that reel is too big for even flipping with heavy line, almost a saltwater reel.

To be perfectly honest with you, the NRX for jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, topwaters, and lipless and square bill cranks is basically wasting money. The NRX rods are made for ultimate sensitivity and they really don't have any models made for those purposes but there are some that will work for sure. John G. has listed pretty much what you need but I think for square bills and lipless cranks I wouldn't use a GLX in mag bass line, I'd use the CBR845 which is a medium heavy crankbait rod that has a great action, not too soft with just the right amount of flex and power. And I wouldn't use an NRX or GLX for frogs, I'd go with the frog series, in fact I'd probably save a lot more money and use the jerkbait rod (I have a JBR752C) and the topwater rods and then get an NRX or GLX flipping stick and an NRX for worms and jigs. By doing like this you can save enough money that you can have multiple NRX jig and worm rods to cover lighter offering to heavy stuff but I just don't see a reason to use a rod like that on moving baits.

I'll tell you now that if he is selling Arky heads for $0.25 each it would almost have to be a bronze hook, unless he is spin casting and buying hooks in lots of 10K or more. Since these are already painted with weed guard you can easily buy some along with some skirt material and then tie. I think this is the best way to go about it as it will cost you a few hundred dollars to get set up to pour, paint, and tie you own, then you can see if you like tying them enough to go to the next step which would be painting them and then tying.

a ball head is the shape of a jig head, it could be a big jig or a small jig. A shaky head just refers to a jig that is used to fish a soft plastic, it was once called a jig worm up north but when it became popular throughout the country the name changed to shaky head as the name was taken from the manner of action given to the plastic being used on the jig. Most shaky head jigs are rigged weedless , the plastic is held by some sort of keeper that is on the jig head itself or on the hook shank where as a ball head jig has a plain collar and the plastic is rigged with an exposed hook. Does this help clear things up a bit?

They work, it is just a matter of the conditions you use them, remember, lures are tools and you aren't going to use a screw driver to hammer a nail and the same thing applies to lures. That said, I really loved how hard swim baits like the Sebile Magic Swimmer and the Storm Kickin' Stick looked in the water, but the fish seemed not interested, I could not catch anything and I figured I was using them in the right areas and under the right conditions, I didn't know what to think. So, I did some research and asked others who used the bait and found there were a lot of anglers like myself that couldn't get any fish on them, but I also found those who had a lot of success with them and from putting together information from various places I developed a pattern of when and how to use the baits and now I catch fish with them. So look to see how these are being fished by others and what times and what type of conditions they are working the best and when those things come up, that is when you can try it and then, after catching a few fish, you'll have the confidence in it to experiment and find other productive patterns for the bait but you need to catch fish first. I'll let you know the little I know about those, most of the articles and videos I have come across that deal with the Gambler EZ swimmer, it seems these are more like a topwater swim bait, I've read that they have very little to no action on the fall and that most are fishing it in heavy grass just using a slow steady retrieve near the surface of the water. I read that as I was looking for information on soft plastic type swim baits for my own use and that was the only thing I read and the videos I saw on that bait were all done fishing the top around heavy grass. Do some investigation but one other thing I can tell you is that I've done better in cooler water with swim baits in general, water that is less than 70 degrees, and the most success I've had on that type of swim bait during summer has been when I've used them on the back of a swim jig, good luck.

I use a Bagley Bang-O-Lure as well as the Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue during the summer, very few anglers use floating jerkbaits. The reason I like the Bang-O-Lure is the exact reason you like the Rebel, it has a wide action and floats up fast and yes, it seems to draw strikes from larger fish on average.

The jig that works every where, the jack of all trades is the ball head jig, plain and simple. It works in rocks, wood, weeds and everywhere in between. The best all around jig I think is the 5/16oz Eakins jig, the only thing with it is that I wouldn't use it on a flipping stick with 50 or 65lb braid, but if you want a good jig for 8lb up 12 or 14lb line with a MH-F rod that you can drag, hop, or skip, that would be the jig which is a ball head jig.

I've been really impressed with the Yo-Zuri 3DB and 3DS baits, I used them last year in late summer right until mid fall when temps got too low. Specifically I started with the 3DB Prop, I have it in prism ghost shad and prism shad, the fish were chocking them when nothing else was even drawing a follow. The 3DS popper is awesome too, a little over 2.5" and only 1/4oz, it has the sound of a popper that cost a lot more. I also like the Zell Pop popper from Xcalibur, if the rumor is true and they do discontinue the brand, look for the Zell pop to be deeply discounted and buy as many as you can, these are excellent poppers. Since you mentioned the Yamamoto Pencil Tate, I'd go and include the Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil in Ghost Shad, on the water they blend in so well and the bass are trying to swallow them, I've never been so hyped on a series of baits like the 3D series, everything I've tried in that has not only worked but exceeded my expectations.

You are wanting something better than the Diesel for $50???? Unfortunately you'll have to pay to play as you aren't going to a new cranking rod that is better, however there might be a generous soul out there who may want to part ways with a good cranking rod for that price but new, you aren't getting any better unless you move up in price, sorry.