Brian_Reeves

Nice

Each time I buy a new plastic I have never used before, I pull on it til it breaks. I just like seeing how far I can push this bait. I've probably wasted a ton of money doing this.

Calling Roadwarrior R-DUB will crack anyone up. For some reason, that just seems...out of place lol. I haven't ordered the CW's from * yet. Stupid moving has got my wallet screaming for mercy. I will soon though, once I get on my feet again. I'm with Brent. I'd much rather give the smaller guys my money than the titans when I can. Really, the only exception to this right now is Strike King, where I'll be spending my money on crankbaits, topwaters and Rage Tail stuff. I'm intending on pouring a few plastics myself to save some money and get some tricked out triple pours that I'm dying to try out. I'm also going to branch out and start trying to distribute my jigs and spoons sometime next year, once I have the correct equipment to handle that task.

Here's what I do on pressured water. I'm going to assume that the water is lightly stained to clear with various cover and decent depth. My first choice, right now, is a 3/16oz Big Bites swimbait hook with a Summer Craw colored Rage Tail Craw. Rigged weedlessly and fished exactly the same as a senko or fat ika, this rig has proved deadly on lakes like I just described. I fish a bunch of community lakes on post here at Ft. Hood, TX and this rig is very successful. And the beauty of it is very few people are using it. Very few. 2nd on the list is a GYCB double tailed Hula Grub or an * * on a 1/4oz, regular no-frills jighead with the hook exposed. If the cover is heavy, I'll use a fiberguard style jighead of one variety or another, depending on the factors. I just bounce this dude around on the bottem like a traditional jig or texas rig and watch my line. Bites tend to be subtle with this rig for some reason, so paying close attention to what is going really helps. I prefer blacks, browns, or greens with the usual glitter options. 3rd is a split shot, 4inch worm. I'll experiment with straight and curl tail designs until I find which one will get hit. Somedays, one is better than the other. I really like green pumpkin with a bit of chartruse dye like spike it on the tail. Instead of bouncing this thing all over the place, I let it fall to the bottem and then reel very, very slowly, trying to maintain a shred of bottem contact. Final choice for finesse fishing, for me, is a shakey head jig. I use two plastics on this rig. Either a finesse worm (sizes vary) or a rage tail craw. Experimentation is the key here. Usually a 7inch finesse worm (like the zoom trick worm) is a good choice. Once again Watermelonseed and Green pumpkin are favorite colors of mine. All I do with this rig is cast it out there and let it sit for a minute. Bounce it with a few short hops and let it sit again. If you hit cover such as rocks or brush, lightly shake the jig in place on a semi-tight line. I prefer 1/4oz jigheads with a scew-lock for this technique.

Here is a picture of how I'm rigging these things. Look at the second rigging of the rage tail shad. The Carolina Rigged Swimbait one. http://www.ragetail.com/ragetailshad.html

If you try hollow bodied frogs, I recommend a stout rod and 50lb braided line. As with any topwater, wait until you feel the strike and then set the hook. The more weedless the lure, the harder the hookset. My favorite techniques for slop fishing are hollow bodied frogs, rage tail shad and frogs, and ten inch weightless worms.

Are they new? If they were, I'd send them back to Bomber for a refund and go out and buy some bandits :-X

Combos are good for what they are. Recreational and entry level fishing. Anything a little more serious than that and combos start sucking. I used the Quantum ones for years, but they are long gone now. Operation Upgrade is in full swing ;D

Sure, Big-O...I won't try it : ;D lol I haven't tried this rigging with the screw-on type hooks. I don't see why they wouldn't work. I just don't have any to play around with. I've been kicking around the idea of trying some.

I'm fishing it just like a senko or a texas rig. I'm sure swimming would work too, though. I haven't needed to alter those two presentations yet. It's still a new concept for me and I'm still playing with it. The more I play with it, the more I think I need to buy a mold for swimbait hooks lol.

Yeah, Red has the right idea. The weight will tear the bait up some, but not that much. I prefer just pulling the hook eye through the nose of the bait. I don't really know a better way to explain it than this. Look at a regular texas rig. Instead of threading the entire plastic on from the hook point to the eye, all you're doing is forcing the eye through the bottem of the nose. The end result is that it looks the same as a regular texas rig. I don't have a digital camera right now. It's in a box because we're moving. So, sorry about that. But basically, just T-Rig the thing lol

I don't have a digital camera for it right now. http://www.***.com/descpageHOOKSFALCON-FBJGH.html The rigging is texas rigged on a hook like that one above. No other weight is used other than the weighted hook. It's just a regular old weedless rigging.

I use a 5/0 offset hook. I am not a big fan of EWG's for 10" worms for some reason that I can't really put a finger on. Just have had better luck with the offset hooks. I think most big worms have the ribbon tail because it creates more displacement and action. With these big worms, you're trying to trigger a vicious killing strike. All that movement helps provoke the bass into thinking that it has to hit hard. I've never had a subtle strike on a carolina rigged 10" worm.

The funny part is how I discovered it. I was ticked off at a hollow bellied swimbait not working, so I ripped it off and sent it sailing. Being too aggitated and nearing the end of my fishing day anyway, I just strung on a rage tail craw onto the swimbait hook. I was too lazy to tie on my usual jighead or T-rig, so I just rolled with it. Ten fish later, I had developed a little bit of confidence. I've used a ton of different soft plastics with this technique, but the rage craws work best for me. The baby beavers come in a close second for when I run out of rage craws (which doesn't happen much anymore lol) or when the bite is really tough on pressured water. I want to try some salt craws, but haven't needed to yet.

The first lure I try nowadays is a rage tail craw on some sort of rigging or another. Other favorites are rage tail shads, ***, trick sticks, flukes, and crankbaits.

My favorites are: -Solid black jig with an Ocachobee Craw colored Rage Tail Craw -Watermelon/Watermelon Chartruse jig with a Summer Craw colored Rage Tail Craw -* *** on a 1/4oz regular ball jighead -Strike King 1/4oz white/chartruse spinnerbait -Bandit Footloose in firetiger or a shad color -Rage Tail Shad in several colors -* 5" Trick Stick in watermelonseed -Rage Tail Frogs with keel weighted hooks -Rage Tail Craws on keel weighted hooks in every color

And it might not be that big of a secret. But I've never seen anyone else use it. So far this year I have had one of my best bass seasons to date. It seems that on almost every trip, I'm getting close to a limit of nice fish. I'm going to let the cat out of the bag on one of my secrets. To those of you who read my posts, you'll probably notice that I'm not a finesse fisherman. I have very few baits that come even remotely close to being "finesse." That's probably my biggest drawback in fishing. So how am I not fishing dropshots, shakey heads, and split shot worms and consistantly catching tons of fish on nearly every fishery I've been to? One setup has produced more than any other. Ok...here it goes... I'm using a big bites swimbait hook with a rage tail craw or an * baby beaver craw as the lure. There, I said it. I couldn't keep it to myself any longer. If y'all try it, let me know how it works out for you. All I'm doing is fishing this rig EXACTLY like Roadwarrior fishes his fat ikas and senkos. I'm sure it will work with other soft plastics, but I'm really, really partial to the rage craw and the baby beaver craw. Gotta love what works for ya, right? This might be a "finesse" application that is worth giving a shot on your home waters.

My only deal with OPEC is that it is a cartel. Cartels are not generally known for being good neighbors or samaritans. I'm not against a bunch of people making a living. But when that living is at the cost of entire populations worldwide, then it seems that something more diabolical than wealth is going on. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist or something, but that is my take on it. Eventually OPEC will probably be infested radicalism. And if that ever happens, they will have the funds to get their hands on things that no coporation, cartel, or radical should ever, ever get. That's what scares me. Saudi Arabia is not a knight is shining armor. They sided with the Coalition because a peaceful country was invaded by a hostile one. Iraq. Iraq would have controlled the Kuwaiti oil fields, thus cutting the knees out from under OPEC, Saudi Arabia, and probably the rest of the Western world. Not to mention the Republican Guard was pretty oppressive against their 'brothers.' I wouldn't trust Saudi Arabia. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. Right now, they have that kind of absolute power by being one of the biggest players in OPEC. Sure there are other players, but they are the ones with the power to really pull strings. They can actually project their military might quite a bit further than their own borders. All of this, somehow, ties into Iranian missiles. Iran should be denied the ability to manufacture, maintain, or possess weapons that could be used for Nuclear, Biologic, or Chemical warhead delivery. Make no mistake about it. They aren't going to load them up with poodles and send them to Paris. Even if Iran is not currently capable of delivering nukes, bios, or chemical weapons, they should not be allowed to have the delivery system. I would not be surprised if some weapon of mass destruction is already in inventory and ready to be put on these bad boys. I haven't kept up with the news lately, so that might already be confirmed or denied. Regardless, all out war with Iran is not needed to solve this problem. One nuclear submarine launching conventionally armed tomahawk cruise missiles would probably rectify this situation. If access to the Gulf region is denied by Iranian ships...well I doubt that would last very long. Remember, one US aircraft carrier matches the entire aerial inventory of most smaller modern countries. That's just in numbers. If you want to talk technology and weapons...well we're talking light years in differences. I put my money on American goods when it comes to all out war. I doubt it will come to that. I'd like to see this entire deal solved with cooperation from the United Nations. Now that many of those countries are going to be directly threatened, I don't think that getting their hand with this is going to be a big deal. If someone pointed weapons at my house, I'd start raising a fuss real quick.

Did you play dress up with Barbies as a kid? ;D jk That's a good tip. I've used the clear before, but got out of the habit due to lack of patience. It stands to reason that simple repairs can be made by other colors, though. I've never tried it. Something to keep in mind though. Thanks!

Muslims are not really a viable enemy. They cannot project any real military threat to our side of the ocean. Sure, terrorist attacks are always a possibility, but unless we resort to genocide, that will always be a problem. I will not be a part of genocide. OPEC, on the other hand, can project economic strife on the entire world. I think that if we opened up our oil reserves and fields and ONLY sell to AMERICAN companies, NO EXPORTING, then we'd see el cheapo gas again. Until then, we have to enjoy $4+ a gallon. Sure, I believe in conservation. But PRESERVATION OF OUR CULTURE AND RIGHTS will have to come long before bigfoot, the speckled pineapple upside down cake bird, and whatever else is out there. If done properly, the oil wells are not that intrusive to environments as Green Peace and PETA would have people believe. I would run for president, but I'd have to be 35, which I am not. We'll spend the next 10 years putting together a campaign though ;D

I use jigs. Any color is fine as long as it's solid black or watermelon/chartruse. I don't put much stock in colors. I keep it very, very simple. The more I fish, the more simple that list gets. I'm colorblind, so I can't tell what I'm throwing half the time anyway. Why over-complicate matters? I've seen too many lure colors win on the same bodies of water to really put stock in color selection. I think the basics tend to be the most consistant. Sure, there are days when a certain flake or shade will catch more fish, but more times than not, what I use will work. Besides, if you have too many colors to work through in one day, what good is it?

I personally say that we rush to build oil wells, drills, and whatnot then set a military blockade on OPEC ports. Destabalizing their grasp on world economy would hurt for a few years, but would be nice in the long run. Viva la revolution!!

War is simple. We got that part down. Marines, Navy, Airforce, and Army...we're all pretty darned good at what we do. It's the political aftershock of war that we insist on being involved with for some reason that complicates matters. At least we don't have to worry about a huge invasion force and where to come from. Iran is surrounded by Coalition forces to the east and west. And people wonder why they are jumpy. Regardless of who they decide to shoot that missile at, if anyone, it will play out very, very badly for Iran. If they decide to hit one of our fleets or our troops, then they will involve themselves in something that they THINK they are ready for, but surely are not. Each US Fleet has more missiles and planes than what people realize. Each Submarine can carry enough conventional explosives to wipe out entire militaries...that's not even counting nukes. If Iran decides to shoot at Israel, then hod help Tehran. I think that this is just a bit of barking, nothing more. I doubt that even Iran has the gall to openly challenge the US military, this time with the backing of the United Nations.

I use a rage tail craw A LOT. (note the signature line). I use them for flipping, trailers, and various rigs. I LOVE the Rage Tail Craws, a lot!! But I have another love in my life on some days. Hula grubs have been a staple in my box for years and years and present a very different profile. I'm just limited on how I present them, though I know just about all of the rigging techniques and how to use them. I've tried them on a carolina rig with no success, but I might give it another go on a hard day.

I sincerely doubt that. Iran would be 1991 all over again, missiles or not. If you can't control the air, you can't survive on the ground. And I think those F-14s that Iran has are a bit older than those shiney, sexy F-22's. I'd re-enlist for the invasion of Iran, personally.