Lip 'em!

The reel seat broke on the first one i had while setting the hook. Maybe due to the freezing temperatures being hard on the plastic? But I called customer service and they replaced it after i sent them pics, even though i had lost my receipt. I have had the replacement now for a year and have had 0 issues out of it and have caught a ton of fish with it! Overall i am very satisfied for the price! The rod is extremely sensitive but be aware that these rods are under rated on power(my 7ftmh fishes like a heavy).

Wow. Both are amazing, i'd almost feel ashamed throwing them! That first one is my absolute favorite color combo.

Negative. Slongs most of the time with an occasional strike king.

Buy the rage craws and bite about a half inch of it off before you thread it onto the hook. It's much easier to downsize a full size craw to the desired length than it is to make a chunk longer! lol

Booyah pad crasher since I can throw it in the slop and open water, and work it as fast or slow as necessary. Hard to throw a spook in salad...

I rarely use a trailer on my spinnerbaits because they change the way the blades rotate when the spinnerbait falls and will cause the bait to run on its side if not rigged perfectly straight. I will occasionally throw on a trailer hook if I miss several fish and I am not throwing it around cover...which isn't very often. So most of the time I run my spinnerbaits naked.

I like a natural looking frog with a green/white belly with maybe a hint of chartreuse during the day, and black at night.

I am a college student as well and definitely understand the money situation! That being said, if you invest in some good braided line for jig fishing (I use power pro 50lb) it will actually pay for itself because you will be able to retrieve more jigs without losing them when you get hung up because the heavy duty line isn't going to break. I first started fishing jigs on mono and I had the same problem with losing fish. Switched to straight braid and started reeling down and really setting the hook hard and that problem has all but been eliminated. Braid is the way to go for jig fishing and like I said, after you lose a few $4 jigs that you wouldn't have lost if you would have been spooled with braid, the line will pay for itself.

I use 1/0 gammy weedless split shot/drop shot hooks and haven't had a problem with hooking up. No need for a powerful hook set though with the octopus style hook, just simply reel down to the fish and put some tension on it.

Shaky head, drop shot, or wacky worm always on spinning gear. Everything else, casting.

Jika rig around water willow=amazingly weedless.

I am partial to the original Manns rig. I have several of the Yumbrellas that I found on sale for $3.00 and the large head they have seems to want to roll on its side. I rig mine with either zoom swimming flukes or strike king shadalicious swimbaits.

Green Pumpkin/Watermelon.

You're gonna want braid..

The only time I use a weighted hook is when fishing hollow body swimbaits like Strike Kings 4.5in Shadalicious, or I will occasionally rig a Rage Craw on one to give the fish a different look. I use gamakatsu 5/0 screw-lock weighted superline hooks and have been very satisfied with them so far. Every thing else though I generally just texas rig or put on a jika rig. LIke aceman said depending on the cover you're fishing and the presentation (flipping vs casting for example) sometimes its better to peg your bullet sinker, but for me most of the time its unpegged.

Split grip EVA. I seem to get better casting distance due to the torque created by having a split handle instead of a solid one where the weight is balanced. Cork also gets slick/slimy after a lot of use and I feel like its going to slip out of my hands.

I use their casting jigs quite often when dragging jigs on deep water humps when I want a different presentation than a football head. Caught several nice fish on their chartruese/brown/black color. They stand up really well on the bottom and not too expensive either.

Gammy all the way.

I have a box full of them in both 7.5in and 10in and they always seem to produce atleast a few fish no matter what the conditions. I've had the best luck with junebug/grape shad, red shad, pumpkinseed, and fire & ice.

I wish I had the amount of faith in lipless cranks as yall...I can't catch a thing on them no matter what time of the year. Spinnerbaits, square bills, and jigs for me!

Pitboss in Black/Blue.

Yes, definitely heavier heads like others have suggested. I might also try using grubs instead of paddle tail swimbaits---the extra water displacement of the paddletail seems to cause the rig to rise. Definitely don't have any spinnerbait blades on the rig if you are wanting to keep it down that deep.

Try a pearl colored zoom fluke on the C-rig.

I guess we just need to talk to the mods and have them change the DISCUSSION board to just an archived search board.

Slongs when im fishing during the day, strike king midnight special at night.