Kevin22

Anything acetone or mek based will melt foam. Epoxy will work as long as it isnt extremely pourus.

You do not want to use that veritas for cranking other than big square bills around cover. Thats all i can help with, havent used the other one.

Not really my type of fishing.. sort of falls in the same area as limb lining... Tru-turn are my favorite crappie hooks. #6-4 depending on bait size.

Gets twirly when you cast? Spinning reel? 12lb is pretty big for a spinning reel...

The same beeping is for "faulty oil sensor" which is what happens when you disconnect an oil sensor cable and there is an alarm attached. The alarm doesn't know if the sensor is faulty or in this case, missing.

Did you spool it up backwards? Seige or elite? Seige is some stiff stuff, I wouldn't suggest it for spinning reels. Elite is much better for spinning reels, but its like fishing with a giant rubber band.

Have a couple custom painted. Wont cost you too much for a solid chartreuse bait.

No it has to be a shimano As long as your rod can handle it. The black max 7'mh i was goofing around with the other day was stiff enough for a decent size swimbait!

2.5 and jerk seem to be fine. They act just as they did out of the package after 23 hours submerged. The 110 jerk took one extra split ring on the center treble to suspend the way I like it for cold water.

xrap 08 in oilve. Smallie candy

I am a shimano spinning reel fan, I like the spool design better than my pfluegers. I've used all mentioned here, owned most of them. If I had $80 right now I would buy a shimano sedona and a spool of 832/PP slick 8 braid.

Silas was gracious enough to send me the 3 KDS baits he had. If you read the other thread he threw the 1.5 for a while and it leaked water. He offered it, a 2.5 size, and a 110 jerkbait to anyone who wanted them. Well, they came my way. I got them earlier today and immediately noticed the packing on the 1.5 was soaked, it looked like a rainforest in there. Silas said the package was dry when he sent it 3 days ago. I took all three baits out and inspected them, I couldnt visually see any holes. I took them down to my test tank and tossed them in. The 1.5 suspended.... The jerkbait acted very similar to an xrap in terms of floating back up nose down. The 2.5 floated like a 3" red/white bobber, 3/4 of the body was above the water line. I attached weights to each bait to keep them under water for testing. The 1.5 sank like a rock with 1/8oz (probably only needed a BB splitshot), the jerkbait took 1/8 to drop to the bottom, and the 2.5 took 3/4oz to stay down. I left them submerged for 1 hour. I went back down 10 minutes ago and took the weights off. 1.5 sank to the bottom, the rest acted normally. So I put the jerkbait and 2.5 back in the tank and will leave them overnight. I took the 1.5 and shook it, didn't hear any water but its there. I took all the hardware off and tossed it in a vacuum jar with water. It bubbled at the front hook hanger. Obviously a QC issue that would have been taken care of with any name brand bait before painting. So I took a small drill bit and popped a hole in her to drain the water. Out came rusty brown water. I will plug and expoxy the drill hole, plus around the hook hanger and see what happens. The hooks are sticky sharp, not rusted at all, and were left wet and put into a sealed container in a window that gets sunlight. We will see if they rust. The split rings look to be standard quality rings, not the best and by far not the worst. For the time being, I don't see a reason to change out hooks on them. I will update after the rust test. For the paint jobs. They look good. Better details than most lower end factory baits (sk, bomber, bandit). Not sure they beat a true LC in terms of details. The two square bills are not perfect, smalll flaws in the paint job and drips/runs in the finish. A "bulk" hand paint job for sure. These are not $15 custom paint jobs. The one Silas fished doesn't appear to have any scratches in the finish, not sure how hard he put it to the test though. The jerkbait. Well it looks darn good to be honest. Its the same mold as a vision 110 from what I can tell. It suspended like an xrap. After it sits tonight, if it doesn't leak I will go ahead and see how hard it is to get it to be "perfect", it floats up pretty quick right now. It has the "correct" size hooks. The 2.5. Its a bobber. I've never seen a bait float that high in the water right out of the box. It has #6 hooks on it which are too small. I went ahead and tossed a pair of #4 2x heavy on there to see what happens and it sits 50/50 in the water. It will be a fast riser even with the #4 hooks if it doesn't take on any water tonight. With the stock #6 I'm not sure if you could get it down a foot in the water, being so buoyant. Looks like a "take a chance" type deal. There is surely a possibility of getting a bad bait (1:3 in this case). Does the chance of a bad bait and the "not perfect" paint jobs, along with modifications needed before fishing, outweigh the price of a "brand name" bait? That is the question...

If you want numbers, throw a 1/4oz rat l trap in silver/black or silver/blue. The craw colors can be good as well during spring.

I used to use the 4" quite a bit when fishing creek smallies. A cut down 5" never really worked the same as a true 4". I haven't used one in years though. I use mostly 5" now, some 6" mixed in as well. I have caught way to many 8-10" fish to count, on 5 and 6" sticks. So no need to go to 4" unless you absolutely have to. With that being said, my 5" turn into 4" after 3-4 fish, then they turn into scrap after 3-4 more fish. The 5" is definitely the "all around" size, unless you are fishing gin clear water for smallies.

I am very happy in the 100-120 range, I feel that range includes quite a few rods that are excellent for the "fun" fisherman. I also got in on the closeouts of the 2nd gen veritas (before 2.0) and have been quite pleased. I did break one which leads me to the next point.... WARRANTY! Warranty is very important to me. I want a rod with enough of a warranty to fish a couple seasons with ease, I feel if i get two seasons out of a rod I probably got my moneys worth of fun. So 2 years of a GOOD warranty is a minimum. Abu and daiwa have been the best so far. The veritas I broke was 1 yr 6mo old and they replaced it no questions asked. All I had to do was send in a picture of the break and the serial number, and send them a $10 check. They replaced it with a 2.0 model. Three other key points that I NEED in a rod are; sensitivity, lightness, and a good action for what I need. I can find everything I need in a rod in the $100 range. I also try to keep all of my rods in the same range and feel. I passed up a dobyns champ that was dirt cheap simply because I knew I would favor it over my other rods and that would put me at a disadvantage. So keep that in mind. For the "same feel" aspect, I want to be able to pick up any of my rods and switch between another without issues. So all my rods have to feel similar in the grip and overall weight. Spending 20 casts to get used to a rod is 20 wasted casts.

Great drop shot, light shakey head, weightless plasic, and small topwater rod!

If you end up removing the line, may i suggest seaguar red label? Cheap, limp, strong, and durable. I have used the 4, 6, and 8 on spinning reels without issues.. And i am VERY anal about line.

I cant help you too much. I use xraps (stock and altered), husky jerks, and rogues. They all catch fish. This year i am considering trying the more expensive baits...

Pickeral dont have huge mouthes, so a 100mm+ bait (4"), will help you not to get bitten off. If you are really concerned, the smithwick suspending rogue is the bait for you!

Ive been using them for years for walleye and never seen a chart/white core... Id like to have that color though!!! Sometimes they do special runs for different retailers, could have been one of those that they had excess in and sold off on their site. Explaines the bulk packaging and CS not knowing the color.

Id bet someone lost a spacer so they went to walmart and took one off a reel there. ever notice all the missing spinning reel handles at walmart? They didnt forget the handles at the factory! Any reel that can be touched gets a full inspection before i leave with it. Same with rods, check the guide insert and feet for cracks before buying.

They look more like herring than shad IMO.

Jerkbaits, jigs, and sekos (wacky) fished very slow.

Blemishes?

12-15 fluoro for open water to light/moderate weeds. When in the big weed patches or any kind of wood i use braid. 30 if i have it, if not then i will tie a plastic on a jig rod with 50-65.