Avalonjohn44

I have two Vientos and would buy more if I had the cash. I love mine. Twitchin' Bar is OK, I use it when jerkbaiting in cold water. Sometimes when worm fishing, but not often. It does not get in the way, and does not seem cheap or weak to me.

My Gander has them for $3 too. Picked up a few today.

I bought a Skeet Reese Spinnerbait/Worm rod a month ago based on the Skeet Reese Jig rod that I have. In the store it seemed awesome, tried it out finally at my mostly thawed out lake and I hated it. Unlike the SR Jig rod which is wonderful (I use for everything from worms to cranks to topwater) , I cannot feel a thing on the SR Worm rod. I am within my 90 return policy at Gander... Can anyone recommend a good Worm rod for $99??? The Veritas seems nice, and there are a number of St. Croix Triumph series that look good as well. Any good ideas?

My primary colors are Green Pumpkin, Watermelon Gold, and Blackberry. Blackberry is my favorite, It is a very dark purple, almost black, with lighter purple fleck. Very good color around here (VA/WV). Also use the superhog a lot. It is a slightly bulkier version of the BBH, and has a more beaverlike appendage at the end. Another very good bait.

I whole heartedly agree with going straight shank as well. I made the switch to straight on all of my beaver and brush hog style baits and it made a world of difference in keeping more fish. Instead of going through all of the shrink wrap, I bought some Parasite weight and parasite clips, these keep the bait from sliding very well.

That is the Academy Sports H2O Xpress logo. The lure is the LC RC1.5 DD knockoff in sexy shad type pattern. They call their bait the Model CRS+...

1st place: LC RC 1.5 Blue/Chartreuse 2nd place: Terminator Green White spinnerbait, Dual Willow Leafs, rigged with a white grub. 3rd place: Ribbit Frog, Pumpkin w/Pearl Belly Honorable Mention: Zoom Magnum Trickworm, Green Pumpkin on Shaky Head (If I had those to fish for the entire year last year they would have cracked the top 3) Zoom Baby Brush Hog, Blackberry T-rigged. Booyah Black Buzz Bait

I collect some lures, Old Bagleys and Heddon wooden lures mostly. Some go for a ton on Ebay... My favorite lure to get my hands on is the Cooper Looper Bubble Frog. An old plastic crank with vinyl streamers. I have four that I found at different times, and they are just flat out cool. I have a piece of driftwood that I mount my favorites on.

River2Sea makes a decent knock off for $8, called the Bubble Pop. I have two, they are superb poppers. Never pulled the trigger on the Megabass version.

It looks really good. I especially like the antennae:

Walmart seems to have just signed a deal with Strike King. They have SK everything all of the sudden. About 3x what they used to carry.

If a lip was the sole key to a bait hunting, then it would have been figured out before now. I think they claim it is the lip and the internal structure. Truly, I don't think this hunts any more consistently than any other bait. They are just marketing it as such. Really I think it is nothing more than a more affordable version of the LC RC 1.5/2.5 bait. The timing of LC losing exclusive rights to the design and this bait coming out (as well as the Lucky Strike version on the way) are too close to be a coincidence.

I have a ton of stuff already. I don't really Need more, but there is stuff I still Want... I'd get: Kopper's Live Target Frogs (2-3) = $20-30 The rest I'd spend on old Brass HW Bagley baits on Ebay.

I have four now. Got two 1.5s from Walmart and the finish is a little uneven. Got green shad and sexy shad. It almost looks like they actually sculpted or sanded the finish before it dried. Very odd. Then I got two from Dick's and they are absolutely smooth and look excellent. Got Black/Chartreuse there in both sizes 1.5 and 2.5. Hooks don't seem as bad as you describe on mine though. All four baits have the same hooks (well larger on the 2.5). THey look about as good as VMCs, pretty sharp and strong. They aren't high dollar hooks, but for me at least, will suffice. I don't know if I buy the hunting claim yet, they could have something internal that skews the bait to one side, but there are not any internal moving parts like you said. I haven't gotten to test them out because my lake is still iced over.

Zoom and some V&M lizards from years ago.

I HATE YOU. ;D My lake is still mostly frozen. There's a 1 foot gap on one end that has some honest to goodness liquid water.

Next 'big' purchase for me is gonna be three of those Kopper's Frogs. They look so beautiful, it makes me want to bite one.

Dunno the particulars, but I'm a big fan of bagley baits myself. Problem with Bagley is that they always seem to be on the brink of just shutting down for good. You can find plenty of Bassn Shads on Ebay, and you can usually get them for a pretty good price.

I always wonder if sometimes the extra scent isn't making bass shy away or not fully take a bait. For instance I love oregano, but sometimes I can approach a dish with way too much, and definitely know that that much oregano, while it smells nice at first will put me off, being far too strong to eat. I wonder if sometimes the bass might pick up a bait and say whoa, too much 'whatever' and drop it or not fully take it because of scent.

I was thinking about getting some megastrike and/or JJ's magic this year. I'm not a hard core believe in scents, but it doesn't hurt to dabble now and again. It seems everytime I try lures that are super scented like gulp, trigger x, or even regular berkely baits I catch catfish and snapping turtles and get a bunch of annoying panfish pecks all day long... Maybe the result will be different with the applied scents.

Not exactly a swim bait, but I still do well with Potomac smallies with a rapala broken back.

I've heard the same issues on them, dulling, and somebody on here was complaining about them breaking on a hard hookset. With that info and the ten dollar price tag, I'm not buying any. I'm just fine with my 99 cent per pack clearance supply of Strike King Saber Point Hooks.

Dude, walk around some. It sounds like you give up too easily. That or try some bread.

I don't know that I buy fish remembering baits. I would think a more patient and subtle presentation of the same baits would produce. A switch to a smaller line might be a good idea too. Maybe even standing back a ways from the bank, maybe if it is a small pond your profile/silouette might be spooking them.

Intentionally foul hooking is a d!ckish move, and you should have told him so at the very least, and called your local game warden/fish and wildlife service. I think normal bed fishing is OK, I don't feel that it really impacts the population of healthy bodies of water. I base this on the following article, which describes a scientific study on bed fishing. Very interesting article. http://fishweb.ifas.ufl.edu/allenlab/Popular%20Articles/Bed%20Fishing%20May%2010.pdf