War Eagle 44

Teal, I just thought with it being such a compact bait with great claw action that it would be more popular than it's porven to be in this thread. I don't recall very much talk or reading about guys using this bait for this technique but I just don't understand why because it's very similar to the BB Cricket but with flapping claws. You hear about guys flip/punching the BB Cricket all the time so I just though maybe people were using these and just not talking about them much. I like to flip/punch other baits as well such as beaver style baits (the D-Bomb is growing on me FAST), baby brush hogs, lizards, jigs, etc but I'm certainly not going to forget about this little bait anytime soon. I was just so pleased with how easy it was getting down through the thick stuff and then geting bites once it was there that I'm fired up to try it again soon. I'm planning to go again Thrusday if I can and I'll be trying it again then, though it's effectiveness might be lessened a good bit due to all the rain we've gotten the last 3 days. The water is really muddy now so it may not move enough water or be big enough for them to find in such conditions. Still going to give it a try though, just to see, it can't hurt to try. I'll of course have another flip rod rigged with a much bigger bait just in case, I'm thinking this 1/2 Dirty Jigs no jack with the D-Bomb trailer. I've tried the one's with the bigger claws but I much preferred the smaller claw version. If I were going to move up to a bait with claws that big I'd go with the baby paca craw every time, I love those baits. Anyway thanks for responding to a slow thread.

Wow I'm really surprised at the lack of responses to this. I guess this bait isn't nearly as popular as I thought.

I'm not exactly sure of your price range but a Shimano Chronarch E5 is a real good crank reel. I myself use either a Citica E, Calcutta TE DC, or Chronarch B. Only the Calcutta has a 5 gear ratio, the other two are both 6.2 ratio's. I never have any problems fishing any cranks even 6XD's on either of the 6 gear reels. I use the Citica E a lot and it's great IMO so that's why I suggest either finding a used Citica or Curado E (the Curado E came in a 5 ratio the Citica E didn't) or if you're going new the Chronarch E5.

I didn't mention this in my first post but the Powell 735C is a very versatile rod, it's not just for frogs. It also makes a very good jig rod, casting or pitching. It will handle all but the nastiest of flipping duties. It fishes hollow body swimbaits great and also I've been fishing big swim jigs on it as well. Fishing half ounce Dirty Jigs swim jigs with Keitech Swing Impact Fat 5.8 trailers around and through the heaviest grass or brush I can find has been great on this rod. I plan to go up to 3/4 oz jigs this summer and I have no doubts about the rods ability to fish them. This might be the rod I would pick to keep out of my whole collection if I were forced to have only one. It's not for finesse techniques in ANY way and the lowest pound test I'd ever fish on it would be 15 but it fits a lot of lures and techniques that I like to fish. It also says it's good for wake baits, now I don't fish these so I have no experience with that particular lure but I'm sure it will handle them as well. Deep water football jigs are easily fished with this rod as well. Just some more info on the 735C, aside from it being a really good frog rod.

I'll second the Powell 735C. That's the frog/toad rod that I use and love it. It casts hollow body frogs very very well and it's also not bad with the toad baits either. The baits I use most often with it are Gambler Cane Toads and Spro Bronze Eye frogs. It has plenty of power to get the fish up and out of the grass, I run 50# braid with my drag set tight so there's no slip. I've been fishing this rod like this for at least 5 years now and I've not had a single problem with it, very durable rod. If you look around you may be able to find one in your price range. If you can't I'd suggest trying to save a little more because this rod is very much worth it IMHO.

I've enjoyed tremendous success on these little baits with a variety of techniques, C-rig, light weight T-rig, jig trailer, etc but I'd never had any luck flipping/punching these plastics until this past week. I got 4 or 5 bites in 2 hours flipping whats left of the grass in my local lake. Now I know that really isn't a ton of bites but taking in to consideration that 1 I'd never had any luck on one with this technique and 2 my fishing partner was flipping a Berkley Pit Boss and got exactly zero bites I was pretty happy about it. Both baits were green pumpkin and both had been dyed in JJ's. We were fishing the thickest grass we could find so I had it rigged on my Powell 7105 using 65# PP S8S, a 3/4 tungsten, and 4/0 Owner Zo Wire twistlock flipping hook. I was able to get this compact craw through the grass with the 3/4 but my friend had to have a 1 oz to get the Pit Boss through. I have no idea if that small weight difference had anything to do with me getting bites or if it was just that the fish wanted a smaller bait that day. Either way I'm very happy to get a few bites flipping this bait because I've enjoyed fishing it so many other ways and it's a fairly cheap and easy bait to find so it doesn't hurt to go through a pack a day. Surely some of you guys flip/punch this bait so I'd just like to hear your experiences and ideas for rigging or "how to" pointers if you have any. Thanks fellas!

I strongly disagree that pegging your weight weakens your line. If done properly there is no damage what so ever. I'm also not saying that one can't damage their line by improperly pegging their weight because you can. It's also not the best way to present your bait in every situation either (pegging) I was only trying to make the point that if you do it correctly it doesn't weaken your line. No offense meant at all toward Bass-minded.

It's a shame I don't know the answer to your question because I use P-Line CXX on every trip but I can't remember for the life of me if it sinks or not. I was leaning toward saying it floats but maybe Jig Meister is correct and it's actually slow sinking line. Either way it's a fantastic copoly and I use it on every rod that I don't have braid on. I use different pound tests for different techniques obviously like 10-12 for cranking, 15 for jigs t-rigs spinnerbaits etc., and 25 for large swimbats swim jigs and Alabama rigs. Great stuff.

I had one of those spinnerbait rods to, it was a reddish or maroon color wasn't it? I would love to see them start to be made in the USA again. One of my fishing buddies has their frog rod, it to has a green blank, dark green if I remember correctly. He loves it and I've been with him plenty of days that hes caught a number of frog fish with it. Yes I'm sure they did. I had forgotten just how nice a rod these things really were. Like I said I got it when I was first starting out so I didn't fish it all that long before moving on to GLoomis rods because I thought they were the rods to have and anything less just wouldn't do. Now I've been very pleased with my Loomis rods as well and continue to fish them today but I was just a little surprised at the quality of this old AllStar. Very sensitive, nice crisp action, light, and best of all weren't these rods below $100 when new? I can't remember but I think they were. Either way I'm glad I came across it again and I'm definitely going to use it more now. Thanks for the replies and keep them coming.

I was going through some old tackle recently and ran across an old All Star rod that I received from my mother for Christmas when I was first starting to get serious about fishing. She knew I liked to worm and jig fish so she went to the tackle shop by herself and picked out this rod for me. For this reason I'll never purposely part with it, and when I ran across it I knew I had to take it out for a trip. It's still a very good worm and jig rod even though I've moved on to "bigger and better things". It was more sensitive than I remember, but that's more to do with me than the rod gaining sensitivity obviously. I enjoyed fishing it so much that I may just bring it out of retirement fulltime. I was just wondering if anyone else still regularly fished these old gems? These were of course the ones that were still made in Texas and really quality products. My local tackle shop doesn't even carry AllStar anymore after they sold out because he says the quality dropped that much on them. I've not handled a new AllStar in some years so I can't speak from experience or am I in any way trying to trash the company. Simply wondering about the old ones still being used. Thanks guys

My absolute favorite baits are frogs/toads. Spro and River2Sea for hollow bodies and Gambler Cane Toads. There are so many baits I've had great success on and love to fish but if I had to pick, the frog/toads would win. Gambler Cane Toads- bull frog and Lane's Toad are my favorites. Spro and River2Sea- Killer Gill for Spro and Armed Forces for R2S. Although I haven't tried R2S's new colors Bigmouth and Bream but they look great in pics.

I agree with everyone else, the 1.5 comes through wood very well. Really nice bait for that type of fishing.

I love the D series Curado's, in my opinion they were the best ones. Having said that I haven't fished any 200 size E series Curado's but I do have 4 Citica E's that I really like and they are very similar to the Curado E's. They are going to feel totally different, form wise, from your current D series reels but they really are very good little reels. I don't think you would be going wrong purchasing a new Chronarch E at all. On a side note I do own 51 & 301 E Curado's and love them as well. The 51 is just so great at casting smaller lures and it pitches amazing due to it's low spool weight. The 301 is just a tank, I use mine for A-Rigs and bigger swimbaits.

I'm also going to suggest a Powell, the 7105 flip punch rod, I really enjoy flipping with this rod. I have a Citica E 201 mounted on it spooled with 65# PP Super 8 Slick and they fish great together, it's a fairly light weight combo that balances well and has really good sensitivity. It has a slightly softer tip than most other flipping rods which I think helps in two areas, pitching ease/accuracy and handling braid. I'm very happy with mine.

Shimano Chronarch SF 101.

I'm for either Hackney, Grigsby, or Denny. I'd prefer Hackney.

This is an easy one for me, I consider all 3 of these equal. Calais DC Calcutta DC Stella FD

I've had one for over a year now and I've caught a few fish on it but as iceintheveins said I too usually opt for a hollow body type frog because of my past success. They are very different looking than any other frog lure so they have that going for them. I haven't been able to get any to come up and blast it on top, I've caught my fish on it by "swimming" it under the surface. A couple of fast jerks to get it under then I just continue with a jerk reel jerk type of constant retrieve and it swims along very life like. They really hit this lure hard for me when using it this way. It's just not quite as much fun because it technically isn't a top water strike.

I use 3/8 most in jigs. It just seems to fish most cover well, especially wood IMHO.

Thanks again for the helpful ideas.

I know this really doesn't count since Larry Dahlberg is sponsored by Shimano but he used to have a commercial during his show where he spooled a Calais DC on a cast. I've never purposely tried to do this with mine but I just might have to give it a shot now just to see if I can do it.

I like swimbaits as my swim jig trailers. I've used a variety of different brands but my favorite is Keitech. Their Swing Impact Fat swimbait is fantastic IMHO. They have a nice selection of sizes and colors, I'm sure you could find some to your liking. They just flat catch fish for me. If they were a little easier to come by and a bit cheaper I'd only use these for all my swim jigs. The nearest tackle shop to me that carries them is about 45 minutes away so its not to far but no exactly "convenient" either. I think they sell for $7.99 a pack there and there's 5 to a pack, best I can remember. They do tear easily so they're not the most cost effective bait but they work, no question about it.

I'm talking about a Dirty Jigs swim jig. Never tried them on a football head jig before, might have to give it a go.

Are any of you guys doing anything a little different to your rigs or are you just putting 5 swimbaits on and going at it?

Yes they are very useful I'm finding. I try to figure out new ways to use them all the time, mostly unsuccessfully. It's worked out great for me, you should go ahead and try it. I can't remember if Bass Pro has crimp on weights heavier than the 3/8 but if they do I might try them this summer as well. In July & August the fish are fairly deep here and I don't think many guys are trying to get swimbaits that deep so it may work out for me. Although if I were to go up to a half ounce weight I'd also go up to a 10/0 Beast I think.