Jay Ell Gee

If I get into some serious deep water fishing such as Lake Okhissa in Mississippi, maybe so. However, I primarily river fish so squarebills are about all I will be tossing.

I used to swear that I would NEVER throw a jerkbait. This year I finally broke down and tried flukes after I fished with my girlfriend's brother and saw the action they had. I now own white, baitfish, and watermelon seed flukes, white and shad caffeine shads, as well as white, shad, and baby bass sluggos. Boy was I missing a great south Louisiana lure! I still don't think I will ever toss a deep diving crank or an A-Rig, however.

Check out the St. Croix Mojo Bass lineup. The compre and the 150 dollar line above it would be good as well.

I fish a whole lot of soft swimbaits (my confidence bait) and I can agree with WRB. Letting them really get it in their mouth before setting tho hook is great. Reel down the slack and set the hook when you feel the weight of the fish. I think you will do well. I'm not shy about my hooksets on swimbaits either.

Matching the size (diameter, not lb test) can make tying knots much easier. I would highly recommend some serious quality time with a split shot rig if I was wanting to learn some techniques to gain confidence. Learning the Texas rig is great as well, much easier to manage in thicker cover. However, it's hard to argue the fish catching ability of a split shot rig

My best luck has come from using the 3.5 inch in the Magic Shad color. I rig them on a Gamakatsu keel weighted hook, 3/0 with a 1/16 weight on the hook. The screw lock keeper also keeps them from tearing up on you so fast. After you tear the nose up, you can use them for chatterbait/spinnerbait trailers, or even yet, remove the skirts from a spinner/chatter/buzzbait completely and throw them that way! Or wacky rig them through the body... it's killer! Lots of tail action on the fall.

Perhaps each member would be able to come up with the money for their own jersey? That would make it much easier on the team as a whole.

Congrats on the first of the year.

Heck, you are in the opposite situation of me. I walked into a Cabelas last week and walked out with a Dobyns Champion series spinning rod for 119.99. No idea what I'll do with it. If you decide to part with shoot me a pm! Jk. It would be an awesome opportunity for you to make a truck rod and reel!

As usual, I find myself agreeing with AJ. As a medical field student with a job, I don't fish nearly as much as I would like. I would like to land the fish I catch before returning them to the water and I will do what I must to put the odds in my favor.. Now, are all of my setups overpowered? No. I have a 7'2 MH/XF with a Lews MG 7:1 with 65 lb braid and superline hooks for frogging and flipping. I have multiple medium spinning rods as well. Heck, I even have a 3wt TFO fly rod that I use in local streams and creeks for river dwelling spotted bass. A 14 inch spotted bass darting into current on a 3wt is a whole different type of fishing. Keep in mind, that type of fishing is for the experience. Losing small spots is no big deal. My PB would have certainly been lost in weeds had I not been using a serious rod and line combo. I would have never even known how big it was, as I had not seen him before getting him beside the boat. I just don't like risking losing bass like that if I don't have to.

Try to hunt down some Calcutta sunglasses ($25) and then get yourself a nice rod, perhaps? As a student of the medical field, protecting your eyes is important. Nice sunglasses are a luxury and after having a nice pair of Ray Ban's stolen, I started using cheaper polarized sunglasses and haven't been terribly disappointed. A new, shiny St. Croix is always nice!

On a very small jighead...

I would swap the horny toads out for some Ribbits! Just kidding. Looks like a good setup. I would personally toss in a couple poppers/spook types myself.

So I get a tip of some nice rods in the bargain cave at an outdoor retailer near my girlfriend's house so I went to take a look. My goal was to hopefully find a rod for my recently ordered Chronarch 50e, which has yet to even show up in the mail. What I find instead Is a Dobyns Champion 703 for 134.99. Spinning. They put three tiny x's on the tip of the cork handle to mark it as discontinued (for that store) so after asking the girl about it, she said they could try to knock it down. I walked out with a new 703 Champion for 119.99. I only have one spinning setup and didn't plan on having another. My 50e was suppose to be my second finesse setup. But how can you not find a use for a 7'0 M/F Dobyns Champion, I ask myself? I don't even have a REEL for this thing. Yet. But I will. Eventually. Now I have to start saving for a nice rod for my Chronarch 50e. Again. What have I done? I hope this rod ends up being nice. I have a feeling that it will. Anyone have a nice Shimano spinning reel that they are interested in donating, or perhaps trading for a fly fishing setup? How did this happen?

Which colors did you get? Leonardo? Donatello? Raphael? Maybe Michelangelo? But seriously, their little commercial makes it look like bass don't mind them too much. You never know! I always wondered if bass ever hit baby pond turtles. Hey, even small children dressed as zombies like turtles. Bass certainly should!

I have pretty much every lure mentioned so far. Good to know that they all produce! I saw a worm that I have never noticed before today, and I am going to pick some up soon. The Zoom Dead Ringer 4.5 inch. Seems like a solid choice as well. Thanks for the suggestions! I have every type of plastic mentioned short of reapers, so I will give them heck this season.

I like the Big Bite Baits Squirrel tail on a shaky head, as well as the strike king finesse worms. However, I would really invest some time in learning how to split shot. Get yourself some 4.5 inch roboworm curly tails, zoom dead ringers (amazing worm, especially in the 4.5 inch for finesse), some small flukes, etc and rig them on a light wire hook (size appropriate to the bait, 1/0-2/0), peg them with a bobber stop/carolina keeper with a small tungsten weight and a bead (or just use split shot!) and start dragging that bad boy across fishy looking spots. It has saved a LOT of days for me.

Good catch my man! I caught a chub in the local ponds as well. They are a lot of fun while our rivers are all screwed up due to rain. For future reference, these posts normally go in the fishing reports section. Just don't be surprised if someone moves it. Great fish and awesome job catching them near top! I was testing a rod and line combo two weeks ago walking a Damiki d pop 70 and it was smashed twice in five minutes. These winter topwater bass are crazy! We're you burning it under the water or waking it up top?

My choice would be a St. Croix Mojo Bass Wacky Rod. It's a 6'8 M with an XF tip. I wouldn't trade mine for anything. At 100 bucks, it's tough to beat.

I own a Powell diesel and while I like it a lot, I would spend the extra 30 and grab a *** *** black. The blanks on the compre just feel... dead to me. I have a few Mojo's as well and like them. Best thing to do is find the rods, mount your reel and see which feels best. The Veritas line is a bit stiff for trebles, unless you buy the winch.

Just Texas rig it weightless, perfectly centered. 4/0 or 5/0 EWG of choice. I use Gamakatsu. The bass in my profile pic was taken on a watermelon red. My favorite topwater bait.

I have recently been tossing Owner shakey heads, the football shaped ones with a screw lock keeper. 1/8 or 3/16 works very well. I have, however, put in an order for some E2 shaky head pro models by megastrike from TW. Looking forward to using them. I hear great things. You should also look into using that setup for spilt shot rigs. It's an excellent weapon to have in your finesse arsenal.

Hey everyone. I have recently been trying to get more into finesse fishing and am going to re-teach myself the split shot rig, as well as teaching it to the girlfriend for her to gain some confidence. My new setup will be a Chronarche 50E with 8lb Yo-Zuri Hybrid on a 6'9 ML/XF St. Croix Legend Tournament Bass. Just hoping to get some lure recommendations (floating and non floating) to get rolling with. For starters, I have a few packs of 4.5 inch curly tailed Roboworms as well as some 3.5 inch Roboworm Zipper grubs. Thinking about grabbing some zoom centipedes as well. Will primarily be used for river and pond LMB with the ocassional lake trip thrown in. Rivers and ponds are typical stained Louisiana waters. Just curious to see what everyone else tosses! Any technique tips will be welcome as well! Thanks!

I will second Scorcher. A split shot rig on light tackle is a great start. I don't have a lot of confidence in spinnerbaits, so I toss soft plastic paddle tails and squarebills when I want to cover water a bit faster. Show up at daylight in the warm months and throw a ribbit or popper. If fish are there, you will know shortly.

Actually, I work at bass pro shops and am allowed to fish it whenever I like. I'm just not a fan of showing up to fish at my place of employment on my day off. Now, tossing a fluke and frog on lunch or after work? These things may happen...