kickerfish1

You just had to release these after my order... guess I know what this means!

I have been using the VMC spinshots for the past 3 years with zero issues.

I watched an episode of the Bass Pros a few weeks back. One segement featured KVD tossing jerkbaits in the spring. He specifically said he uses flourocarbon line for jerkbaits. Personally I use both mono and floro for jerkbaits and lean a bit towards mono most of the time. I really don't notice too much difference unless I am trying to get them to run a bit deeper then floro usually works better.

Thanks hookseton3. The hook photo you posted looks excellent as well for that style of bait!

I don't often find myself fishing waters with much to any current really. If I had guess which one would best it could be any really. I would start experimenting with adding some kind of weight to offset the force of the current. I would see if there would be any way to insert a nail weight into the bait. Second choice might be a keel weighted hook that is fairly light weight ... maybe a 1/8 ounce weight. Last option may be something like a scrounger head or a light swimbait or jig head. Overcoming the force of the current will be challenging. By adding weight you will obviously lose some action effectiveness of the bait vs the bait in its weightless form.

My favorite as well. Still fish plenty of super flukes, slug-o, d-shads, and a few other miscellaneous soft jerkbaits. D-shad is good for deeper water weedlines, the fluke has the best erratic action for shallow cover, and the caffeine shad has the best dying baitfish resemblance plus it casts very well.

Nice Brad! That collection is close to Trey Harpel's.

The 3.8 inch fat swing impact is one of my favorite swimjig trailers for the California style of jig. By this I mean the Northstar flip and swim, Siebert elite series, or the Dirty jigs swim jigs. The smaller and more slender swing impact is great as a trailer on the northern style finesse swim jigs. Outside of a trailer option or as A-rig attachments I would swim them on the keel weighted swimbait hook nice and slow when it is cold and more drop and lift when it is warmer. Weight would be dependent on depth and to an extent how patient you are. Also consider fall rate and action as it relates to overall weight. Typically I like 3/16 for most of my scenarios and I may adjust a bit either way as needed. The squid scent, action, and color options make these some of the best baits I have fished. Their product line as a whole is very good and has caught me alot of fish. A go to lure company for me especially when I am on a tough bite. I think you really like em.

I am the same way. Probably in the realm of 70% shimano and 20% Daiwa and then the MSC category of Lews, Okuma, BPS, Quantum, etc... The alphas platform is one on my personal favorites along with the 50 sized shimanos. The amount of customization options is very good with the alphas platform as you already know. The only downside of the alphas ITO is finish and durability of a few parts. Depending upon what you may wish to use the reel for I would HIGHLY recommend installimg a set of the Pixy 6:8.1 gears. They are incredibly smooth and well worth the $35. Probably my favorite upgrade on mine I have everything done to it inside and out including custom paint.

In no specific order... - Jig - size, color, type, and trailer dependent upon time of year. - topwater - Frog or x-pod depending upon cover present - Texas rig- normally a rodent, beaver, d-bomb etc... These typically account for 90% of the larger fish taken on given year for me.

Noodling bass!

They match the dobyns dx series of rods extremely well as well as the "new" cumara series.

Nice updates thehooligan! I enjoy seeing your arsenal constantly evolve. I just finished finalizing my 2014 arsenal. Just waiting on spring to roll around...

I dig the scorpions. I will probably add a new one to the collection before too long.

It was mentioned quite often in a "Your Favorite Topwater" thread. It is a great bait with a vast amount of color choices and a unique sound in the water. They cast well and seem to have that 'it' factor. Defidently a good popper style bait.

You probably lost the click pin. Very small part. I upgraded a few handles on some shimano reels and found out I lost 2 of these in the process. Check your reel schematic paying attention to all necessary small parts associated with with the click plate assembly.

I will be adding some to use as well. The product offerings they have especially the D-bomb have been impressive to me.

I think you will be very pleased with the Orochi XX line of rods. I was skeptical a bit at first but the EMTF is slowly becoming one of my favorite rods. Purchased it mid summer last year to fish 3/8-3/4 oz jigs and to compliment a few other dedicated jig rods from both the Dobyns DX and NRX lines. Towards the end of the year I was slowly gravitating towards the EMTF over the other rods. Gary helped me decide on that rod over a few other rods in that line as well as a few other manufacturers. Minus the filler in the cork handle, the rod has impressed me to the point that I will be adding an Orochi XX shakey head spinning rod in the next month or so. Enjoy your new purchase and BTW that bottle of cork sealant will last you a VERY long time for many uses. I coated about 30 rods with it last year and still have 2/3 of a bottle left.

No doubt. I have bought rods and reels from Gary along with tuning parts. He always goes the extra mile to help a customer out plus his hands on experience with mid to high end gear is second to none. One of my favorite places to purchase high end items or specialty products from. Plus he is one of only a few places that stocks the U-40 cork sealant for rods.

I had very strong results fishing the Northstar Hippy series jigs with RI Sweet Beaver or SK Rodent trailer. For a smaller hair or finesse jig just down size to the smaller 3.5 inch versions. Same preference as ww2farmer...

Megabass Pop-Max in black orochi.

St. Croix has a very high performance blank as well though the name escapes me. The best perforning blank in the eyes of custom builders and custom rod junkies is the phenix K2's.

Put me in the categorty of satisfied customers with Mike and Robert at Hawgtech. Had them do some drag stars and cast control caps for me. The anodizing went really well and they look outstanding. Great guys to work with!

I have both as well. The NRX is more sensitive and more responsive. However the greatest attribute of the nrx in my opinion is the casting distance. The rod casts further than any other rod I own. If you go NRX buy a Rep sample with a full warranty and wild card. You should be able to get into any NRX rod for about $400 or less. For 1/2 oz jigs the rods to look at would be the 894 and 895 JWR rods and the 873 CRR rod which fishes more like a 5 powered rod. Just like anything else performance is subjective. Until you fish both side by side it will hard to use opinions to justify another new rod. If it was me I would fish the DX744 and see if you are left wanting more. I have zero issues feeling jig bites on either series. NRX rods are mentioned in the same breath as the Custom Phenix K2 rods, higher end megabass rods, and maybe a few other JDM and custom builts. Of course Dobyns was supposed to release the new Zayta series which will be their highest end rod to date designed to compete with the NRX. While the release date is still unknown it may be worth holding out for one. Decisions, decisions...

Thanks for the details. Outstanding end result!