pbizzle

I taught my self to fish a spinnerbait by taking a 1/8 ounce chartreuse and white Johnson Marabou Jig with a little willow leaf jig spinner for crappie. I only caught a bunch of small bass and a few crappie on them, but it was the first time I'd caught a fish on a "spinnerbait", which is now my go-to search bait. This is how I'd recommend you try to catch fish on them.

I have a T3B and I love it, it's probably my favorite reel. I have a few things to say about it though. •It's not as smooth as a $250 reel should be. My cheap Abu Orra SX's are smoother than the T3B. •It feels cheap because of the "zaion" material it's made from. •Handles don't have good bearings in them, which is not a huge deal, but you'll notice it. •Weak drag like nearly all other Daiwa's. You don't need more than 8lbs of drag, but you'll probably want more. •It's hard to get used to the hood design at first. •If you use the hood to engage the clutch (like me) and switch to a reel without the hood design, it'll take a few cast to get used to using the reel handle to engage the clutch. So while I would be VERY disappointed in this reel if I paid the full retail price of $250, I am MORE than happy with it for the $100 I paid for it. You can't go wrong for $100.

How do you fish the senko on the back of a jig? Any type of jig, or does it work better on a flipping jig over football jig?

Yesterday was probably the proudest day of bass fishing I've ever had. Even surpassing the time I caught my first 5 pounder. I won our last tournament of the year. That in itself is not special, because it was actually the fifth tournament that I've won all year. The reason I'm so excited is because this was the first tournament I've ever won where I caught all of our fish. There was a really big cold front that came in, and made the fishing really rough. We started the morning out by fishing a hump, and I caught a little dink on a football jig first thing. That's when I knew that I was going to have a good day. We fished for the hump for awhile, and then we ran over to the bank and fished grass for a while. I ended up loosing one at the boat, which would have been my first fish on a buzzbait. We fished there another half hour and then ran back to the hump. About 15 minutes after we arrived I was throwing the same jig and I saw my line jump. I reared back and broke it's jaw, and it didn't move. That got me excited. I hollered at my boater to get the net and ended up landing a nice 4 pound 6 ounce fish. I was overjoyed after that. About 45 minutes after that I started seeing bass coming up and busting on shad. That got me excited to, so after one busted about 10 yards away from the boat I picked up my topwater rod and threw out a spook. I walked it about 10' and then it just got crushed. I have never been so happy to catch a short little spot in my life. It didn't even measure, but it was the first fish I have ever caught on a spook. We only had a few more hours after that until weigh in, and it was all unproductive. I was nervous going back to the ramp, but I was hoping that it was as tough for everyone else as it was for us. We only had one fish, but thankfully that's all it took. We only had 4 boats in this little club tournament, and only another one weighed a fish in. It only went 2 pounds. This win pushed me into first place for the entire club. The Arsenal: 7'6 HF Abu Vendetta - Abu Orra SX 7.1:1 Gen 1 - 15lb Pline CXX - 3/4oz black/blue/purple Terminator Football Jig - black/blue 4" Berkley Chigger Craw 6'6 MF Quest - Abu Orra SX 6.4:1 - 14lb Berkley Trilene XL Armor Coated - sexy shad H2O Xpress Model TWS

What size trailers do you generally put on your jigs? I hear a lot of people saying that they use smaller trailers in general (i.e. paca chunk, baby rage craw, rage chunk, etc.) I also hear a lot of people saying that full size trailers are just too big. I for one know that's definitely not the case. I throw a full sized craw about 90% of the time (i.e. 4" chigger craw, rage craw, paca craw, etc.) This is the way I've caught all of my big fish. Don't get me wrong, I've still caught my fair share of dinks when using a big trailer, but for the most part they're all big bites. I'll still go back down in size as the water cools, but that's the exception. So what size trailers do you guys throw the majority of the time? Am I looking at this the wrong way? Here's just a few examples of ones I've caught while using a 4'' chigger craw on the back of my jig (BTW all of these fish were released)

Well my 7' M Mod. Ethos made quick work of this TOAD I caught on a squarebill this summer…

The San Diego Jam is my favorite knot for any plastic line (fluoro, mono, and copoly). I wrap 6-7 times. 7 for anything that's not too thick and 6 for anything that's pretty thick. I love it. I switched to it from the palomar because I was worried about the line crossing itself on the palomar. I still use it for braid, and sometimes I'll use it for a worm hook or jig. 90% of the time it's the SDJ though. It's as easy to tie as an improved clinch IMO, and seems to be nearly if not as strong as the palomar.

Well my buddy's dad is an All Star Rod/Abu Garcia pro, but he can really use any Pure Fishing brands. He has almost completely switched to the new Pfluegers over the Gen 3 Revos (excluding any speacialty reels like the new Revo Beast). He says that they excel in some of the areas that the new Revos have been a disappointment. I've used both when on his boat and I personally can't tell a huge difference between a Pflueger and an Abu. My favorite Pflueger has been the Supreme XT, which is a Revo SX frame but with a centrifugal brake system (not the pitch centrifugal like found in the Abu's). I hate both brands magnetic brakes though.

Thanks Raul. It's been a long road to the top but I'm finally so good that I can actually professionally overrun just about any reel you put in my hands. I guess all that hard work and dedication really pays off.

When you get distracted by that dumb looking bird mid-cast…

Usually I'm all over Big Bite's plastics, but I just haven't had the B2 produce like the Ol' monster or C-Mac does.

I've used other scents, but Megastrike is the only one that makes a difference IMO. If Megastrike didn't exist I would be using the Powerbait scent or garlic. The biggest difference in my opinion between the two is the fact that either scent will make fish hold on longer, but Megastrike will make a fish hit harder and try to eat your lure once they strike. I've never used JJ's but I do use some chartreuse Spike-It on the tails of some of my plastics and notice a difference in the amount of strikes I get.

What's your favorite worm for dragging in deep water? Personally I like the Ol' Monsters, but I want to try some 10" Thumpers. So what's your favorite?

I was only officially able to weigh the first "big" fish I caught, and it came in at 4-3/4 pounds. I caught two back-to-back fish that went larger than them about a month later, but our scales were dead. Do y'all have any idea how large they are? I've been guessing that they're about 5. All have come out of deepwater on a 1/2 ounce football jig with a chigger craw trailer and covered in A LOT of Crawfish scented Megastrike.

Do y'all use any plastics in this color? I just bought a pack of beavers in this color and I've been thinking about dragging them on a football jig in stained water, but I wasn't sure when else y'all throw this color or if any of y'all have had any luck on it. I haven't heard much about it. What other types of lures do y'all use in this color?

Well my birthday is in a month and I've really been wanting some new sunglasses. I would like Costas, but we don't really have that much to spend. Plus my dad told me that he'd help me get the flipping rod I've been wanting (7'3" Heavy ***). That's why I was looking towards the Typhoons. I know that a lot of pros like Wesley Strader and Andy Morgan wear them, so I'd think they're at least decent, but I know that going by what the pro's use is next to useless in fishing. I was looking at the Typhoon Cayucos with the brown lense on TW. They seem like a good deal for $85, but I wasn't sure how y'all felt about them.

You can buy them a 20 pack on Amazon for $6.

Well I couldn't find a good way to store them, so I eventually just took the container that you get BBQ in and put them all in it. It's worked find so far.

I'm assuming by light to medium cranks, you're talking about sqaurebills and medium diving cranks. Both of which are normally under 1/2 oz. I use a H2O Xpress Ethos 7' Medium Moderate Composite Cranker ($60) and a H2O Xpress Mettle ($60). I know that you were probably looking at the Orra Winch because of its 5.4:1 gear ratio, but unless you plan on throwing big deep divers the low gear ratio is unnecessary. The brake system on the Mettle will also be able to cast the light cranks better than the MagTrax brake system on the Orra Winch. I personally don't like the new series of Orra's. Don't get me wrong, I love both of my first gen Orra SX' s, but I prefer my 3 Mettles more so than any of the new Orra's. I know you may be sceptical of the H2O brand because it's Academy's house brand, but a quick search on the forum will show you just how much everyone loves them.

Hey everybody I just fixed it! It was a really stupid mistake. What happened is that I put my pinion yoke in upside down, so the pinion gear didn't align with the main drive gear. Really stupid mistake on my part, but my reel hasn't ever felt as nice as I does after all the maintenance I've done to it.

Thanks Aavery. I edited my post to make it easier for people to understand.

Just adding to your point about the sub 6 oz. aluminum framed reels, even Academy managed to make the H2O Xpress Mystic at 5.8 oz. with an aluminum frame and price it at $130. While they aren't at the same performance level as many other reels of the weight, if they perform half as well as the Mettle's they' have to be a good reel. I imagine if you upgraded the drag washers and spool bearings, it would outcompete MANY reels in the $200 price range.

What do you mean by spool tension? I keep my spool tension VERY loose when I'm casting, but I only notice the effects when my reel is in freespool. Right now my reel is acting like it's in freespool even though it's disengaged.

I love to catch strippers. They fight back really hard for there size. I always try to avoid tampons though…

I took apart one of my first gen Orra SX's for a much needed deep clean. Well the first time I put it back together I had a problem with reel not engaging after I turned the handle. I would push down the thumb bar to disengage the reel, and when I turned the handle to engage the reel the thumb bar would not come back up. So after that I took it all apart, and put it back together from the frame. Now my clutch works (thumb bar will come up after turning the reel handle), but my spool won't revolve after I turn the reel handle. I tried tightening the drag down and that didn't work. I thought maybe that the drag washers got some grease on there, so I took them out and it still hasn't made a difference. I don't really know what to do. Basically whenever I turn the reel handle there's no resistance and my spool won't rotate. It's like I have no drag pressure and my reel is constantly in free spool. If anyone has any ideas as of what I can do PLEASE reply. I'm sure DVT can give me some advice. Also I should mention I had to do this without any schematics. I know it was a really bad idea, but I bought a display model for $60 and got one out of a bet so neither one came with them.