War Eagle 44

The absolute best way I've found to prevent this is the Owner twist lock hooks as others have already suggested. I have however made my own "keeper" for smaller thinner wire straight shank worm hooks that also work very well, for me at least. I've done this on Owner (pictured) and Gamakatsu straight shank worm hooks, it works equally well on both. I think I actually prefer the Gamakatsu hooks in this particular situation even though I'm more of an overall Owner fan. I prefer the regular point of the Gammy over the cutting point on Owner. It's easy to do yourself, I just wrap a little braid around the shank of the hook and then put the heat shrink tubing over it. The small barbs on the hook shank hold the braid in place (make sure you go over both of them) and then in turn the shrink wrap holds the plastic in place. Cheap, easy, and as I said effective for me.

I have 5 Powell Max rods, 4 casting & 1 spinning. I've fished these rods pretty hard for the last 5 or 6 years with absolutely zero issues. I'm still fishing them today but I've started to slowly gather a new "set" of rods from a different brand. I would've more than likely stayed with Powell had the new Max 3D line been available at the time I decided I "needed" new rods but they weren't hence my move to a different brand. I've been very satisfied with my Powell rods and wouldn't hesitate at all to recommend them to anyone. I've since handled a few of the new Max rods and I'm very impressed by them. If I were looking into new Powell's these would definitely be the line I'd be looking at from them. I'm not a big fan of any of their rod series below the Max though, just a personal preference thing.

Agreed, Tatula it is.

Finally got around to re-assembling the Chronarch 101B with the addition of the Yumeya shallow spool. Still haven't fished it, well for that matter I still haven't even spooled it with line. I can't decide if I want to use a rod I already have or if I need to pick up a new one.

Although I only have one Falcon rod their finesse jig rod would've been my suggestion as well. I've really enjoyed and been impressed with my Falcon so I feel very confident recommending them. I've always wanted their finesse jig rod but for some reason I just never pull the trigger. I think you've made a very good decision and don't forget to let us know how you like it.

I have one in Dill Gill but I've yet to fish it. Warmouth has been a fantastic color for me though.

Yes most of my jigs are Dirty Jigs. None of them are the finesse swim jig though, I only use the regular swim jig and my favorite No Jack swim jig. I fish them on 50# braid 99% of the time as I'm usually swimming them through heavy grass. I almost never swim the "Cali" style head, I use them for flipping and pitching. As a matter of fact I think only two jigs with that style head actually came from the Cali line, the rest are from the no jack flip line. I much prefer the swimming style head for any type of swim jig duties but they aren't offered in weights above half ounce so I had to go with the Cali swim jig to get a three quarter ounce head for this particular instance. There are a few other brands mixed in there, some Strike King Hack Attack jigs, two different size PJ's jig, and there's a Jackall Spade jig in there somewhere.

This is just one of my jig boxes, I have 3 total. I usually try to organize them by color but I also put the ones I use the most in one box. This is that box, my favorites.

I like a 7' MH fast to x fast baitcast rod with 15# fluorocarbon or somewhere between 30 to 50# braid with the same 15# fluorocarbon leader. In the spring when the fish are really aggressive and the grass is just starting to grow I'll fish them on straight braid in the grass. I always use either a Gamakatsu super line ewg or an Owner wide gap plus ewg hook.

I've used 20# on my spinning rods and loved it. I have a buddy who uses 15 on his spin gear and he also loves it. Nether of us have ever experienced any issues, we both use a fluoro leader as you plan to do. I for some strange reason I prefer the brown over their green color, even when using a leader, there's just something about the timber brown color that seems to get bit more often for me. I'm in no way saying this is an actual fact, it just seems to work out that way for me. More than likely it's just because I have more confidence in the brown color.

Nice, very nice. I've really considered doing this exact thing only my C4 is blue so I was going to go with a blue Garcia rod.

When actually holding both cranks their differences become very evident. They aren't that close in design actually, action either for that matter. Both work though and I've been impressed with the Luck E Strike's. I agree with the guy above that said the RC 1.5 is the bait that all other squarebills are judged against, it's just that good. I think other companies have produced some really good squarebills though, KVD 1.5 being one example.

While I've never fished a Tatula I have owned several Daiwa's in the past and they were great reels so I'm sure the Tat HD would be the same. I do however own a 301E and absolutely love it! It is so solid and powerful I love throwing umbrella rigs with mine, makes easy work of fishing them for long periods. I've not had any trouble fishing "regular" sized bass lures with it either. I think the lightest I've gone so far is a 3/8 oz swimjig and trailer but it handled it with ease. Either reel will get the job done for you but I'd definitely go with the Curado.

Maybe you got a bad one because all of mine have fished great. I've got around 10 so far (only had 5 or so in the water) and they "glide" just fine while being extremely easy to walk. You are correct though about them taking on water, you need to squeeze them about every other cast to keep them working at their full potential. This is my only complaint with these lures. I'm a big frog fisherman so I spend quite a bit of time with one frog type bait or another on my line and I've found that the shad works better on lower pound test braids. The lowest I've gone so far is 50, my usual frog line is 65, but they perform much better on the 50. I plan to try them with 40 sometime in 2015.

Did you mean ad nauseam or are you just sick of this type of thread?

I also use the Mustad KVD trebles on these baits but I always up size my hooks to #2's on the 1.5 and #1's on the 2.5.

Owner Ultra Head shakey heads with NetBait T-Mac worms, fantastic combo.

I agree 100%, 65 casts plenty far.

I have many different brands of plastics overall but I tend to "cherry pick" a few lures from each company that really work for me and stick with them. In the case of beaver baits I've tried a few but only really fish two, the original Sweet Beaver from RI and the D-Bomb from Missile Baits. I'm really glad I don't have to narrow my selection down to a handful of brands but if forced I think I could, Zoom, Net Bait, Rage, and Gambler could more than likely get me through.

I'd have advised you to at least fish it once before you took it back but glad you got a reel you'll be happy with after all. Forgot to mention in my earlier post but the 300E is also great for 10XD's.

I use mine for primarily umbrella rigs and swimbaits but it's by no means a "bad" reel for regular bass lures. I've fished 3/8 oz swimjigs without any problems. Also fish the middle size Whopper Plopper with it, it will absolutely launch those baits. I love my 301E, very robust reel.

Smallie Beavers work great on the shakeyhead.

15# fluorocarbon

X2

I fish a 1/4 oz scrounger/super fluke combo a lot and the best rod I've found so far, IMHO of course, is my Powell Max 706CB. It's a crankbait rod obviously so it has that type of bend/action while at the same time being a 6 power rod it has plenty of backbone for good hooksets at the end of a long cast. I fish it on 10# CXX. I've also fished them on "regular" 7' MH rods but didn't like them nearly as much as I felt the action was a little to fast. So I'd suggest a rod from their crankbait/reaction type rods, one mean for deep cranks.