WIGuide

I like a graphite fast action rod for jerkbaits. I've tried moderate action rods for them and I feel like I have more control over the action with a fast action rod. My personal favorite jerkbait rod I own is a St. Croix Legend Xtreme 6'6" M/F To answer your question about St. Croix powers, they run slightly heavier than average. It's not a full power jump just slight. So a medium would be slightly stiffer than the average medium but definitely isn't a medium heavy.

I really like the Big Bite Baits Cane Thumper and this fall I tried the Eco Pro Tungsten Swing Shads. I've been really impressed with those as well. They look like a Keitech, but it's more durable without sacrificing action. I definitely see that becoming a staple in my box as well.

If plastics are all lumped into one, I have the most of those by far, followed up by crankbaits

Fingers crossed for you too! I'm hoping to go one last time this weekend. It's only going to happen if it stays warm enough to keep the lake from skimming over and right now that's not looking good. Hopefully it works out for both of us!

I picked up a Pflueger Patriarch XT spinning reel from Scheels for $100. Kicked myself for not buying more.

Sometimes it's not the pauses that's the problem, sometimes it's the jerk causes the issue. If you're jerking it too hard, or not popping the slack, a lot of times you're over working the bait. Try a little less aggressive jerk next time you're out. As the water cools later in the year, I've found that sometimes it even works better just to pull the bait slowly instead of jerking it.

You either need thicker braid and/or you need to spool it on tighter

I'm in the opposite boat as Hulkster. I've fished the Mojo and not the E6X. Since St. Croix has upgraded blanks the Mojo's are a very good rod for the price. A 5 year warranty isn't a bad deal either on a rod in it's price range. The SCIII blanks are light and sensitive and after using one for about half the year I love it. From the sounds of it either way you'll be getting a nice rod. I'm partial to St. Croix though, their warranty and customer service is outstanding plus they're built in my neck of the woods. (or the american made rods they offer are)

I'm not married yet, but my girlfriend loves to fish. Not quite as much as me, but she's always up to go and it's actually what we did on our first date. She's currently going to school about 3 hours away and she gets jealous every time I tell her I'm going fishing because she just wants to go with. I think I might have found a keeper and although I don't think she'll be putting in 200+ days on the water a year I don't think she'd mind if I do as long as she gets to come with when she wants.

Xcalibur XCS 100's They have been my top producing squarebills for years. I've got a pretty good stash yet, but I'm starting to be more careful about when and where I use them.

I agree that people shouldn't act like jerks. They shouldn't put people down for whatever reason gear or otherwise. They shouldn't rub it in your face that they're more well off than you or if they out-fish you. Let's be real though, there's sometimes it just happens, whether intentionally or unintentionally. What gets old to me real fast is how so many people these days gets so friggin butt hurt over anything negative around them. If someone in your club cuts you down because of your gear, don't take offence to it, find a way to use it as motivation to beat them. Prove to everyone just how good you really are, even if you don't drop an insane amount of money on gear. Learn a new technique, or a new presentation for an old one. Beat him from the front of the boat, the back of the boat, heck beat him from the bank, but don't curl up and whine like a preschooler because he hurt your feelings. Man up and let that fuel the fire. You don't have to be buddies with people that are jerks, just limit contact with them. There's no reason to hate people, because at some point you've probably been a jerk to someone too.

I haven't tried the new Bass X rods yet, but I'm thinking of getting one for next season. If it were me though, I'd try to take advantage of that deal at Cabelas and step up to the Mojo. The difference between the blank materials makes a BIG difference in sensitivity and since you can get them for almost the same price, I'd go for the upgraded model.

Like Roadworrior said, if you throw them a lot it's definitely worth it as you'll loose less fish. Otherwise, if you're only throwing them every once in a while with a fast action rod, you can loosen your drag to help compensate for the action.

I started out fishing at a pretty young age. I don't remember my first trip or my first fish, and honestly can't even say exactly when I fell in love with bass fishing. It had to be around 5 years old though. I can say that I was pretty much raised on the water though. I remember playing in the livewell and pulling one of my toy boats behind the boat when I got bored fishing. As a little kid, I'd draw pictures of boats and my favorite toys consisted of my boats and trucks. I also had one of those battery powered vehicles kids can drive and I pretended my sled was a boat so I'd pull that around and launch it and fish in the front yard. People who drove by probably though I had a few screws loose (they may be right), but that's ok haha. If I wasn't playing with my toys I'd be flipping through the Bass Pro catalog looking at all the bass fishing gear. I saved up my birthday/Christmas money and bought my first baitcaster around 8 years old, and bought my own boat at 11. I'm currently 28 so I've got about 23 years experience bass fishing and about 25 years fishing experience.

Why must I be broke this time of year?? haha I saw that earlier and really want to pull the trigger, but the responsible part of me knows I shouldn't. Thanks for tempting me again haha

I'd look at the St. Croix Mojo Bass 6'8" M/F rod for what you're wanting it to do. You can get it for $120 at TW right now, and you could pair it up with a Bass Pro Shops Pro Qualifier reel. It'll make a really nice setup and will handle what you want it to do.

If you're looking at staying with the LTB series, I'd go with the 6'8" M/F jerkbait rod. It'll be a great blank for topwaters too as well as smaller paddle tail swimbaits, light or weightless Texas rigs as well as other techniques that a MH would be overpowering.

As others have said it is doable. I haven't moved my way up to an 18 footer yet, but I've bought two smaller Rangers, (current is a 17 footer with a 130) for well under 5k. Deals are out there, but they are pretty rare. You have to act fast when you find one, but I encourage you to keep looking and saving while you do. 1986 Ranger 320V W/1996 Johnson 88SPL 1997 Ranger Sport R70 W/ 1997 Evinrude 130

A few things can help and have already been mentioned. I'm guessing you don't have trim and tilt, but if you do when you're idling around trim it way up, like to the point that the prop is starting to come out of the water or close. The angle of the lower unit will be more apt to push the grass down from the prop instead of it wrapping around the lower unit and getting twisted in the prop.

Personally, I'd be throwing all those on a MH/F if I was trying to simplify things. That's probably the best all around power/action rod out there. If you back your drag off considerably when you're using the treble hook baits, it'll help to keep the fish pinned. It won't do as good of a job as a moderate action, but it'll be decent and then you can still use it for those other techniques as well. To make it more "all around" you can even use it for jigs and t-rigs, and light carolina rigs as well.

^ hit the nail on the head, couldn't have said it better myself.

I like both the Live Target and Booyah frogs. I go with the Pad Crashers though as they're almost half the price of the Live Target and don't seem to have any drawbacks.

Congrats on the new pb! It's always great to hook into a monster and even better when the fishing is good!

I've had good experiences with their customer service as well. I had purchased a JM Gold Series casting reel that developed a very small tick while retrieving part way through the season. It wasn't bad, but since it was under warranty, I decided to turn it in. Unfortunately for me, they had discontinued the reel and didn't have any left at the DC. They ended up calling around and found they had one left in a store somewhere out on the west coast and had it shipped to me within a few days. Most places I've dealt with in the past would have just told me they didn't have any left to ship me so they could either try to fix it or just deal with it.

Since you already have two rods that will work for jigs, I'd probably look at a crankbait rod as well.