TorqueConverter

Almost all of my DTs have come from Walmart. My local Walmart throws them into a clearance bin regularly at around $5 a piece. It's as if they order new Rapalas regularly only to discover old stock on the shelves, mark it down and drop the old stock it into the sales bin. You'd think they'd figure it out that they have a Cabelas and Bass Pro within the same metropolitan erea.

I have the 7'10'' MH I use for deep cranking and throwing big wakebaits. I love the blank and the rod is a powerhouse but the furnishings are poor. Guides are not braid proof, the EVA foam is the worst I've ever seen and the Fuji ACS reel seat is uncomfortable.

This is how a baitcaster should behave. There is a good chance that the backlashes that occur at the beginning of the cast are the result of the spool accelerating more quickly than the lure. This happens because the spool tension is too light, the reel has no centrifugal braking or the centrifugal brakes are off. There is no need to thumb the spool of your reel in this day and age other than to slow the bait as it approaches and enters the water.

Take a look at XL armor coated. The stuff has ZERO memory.

I picked up a Vertias and Pro Qualifier for $65 a piece during the BPS classic with rod and reel trade in. I couldn't be happier. You may have to just go the Lightning Rod route for that budget if you can't find any good sales or clearance items. If you're willing to bump up the budget by $5 then the Diawa Jupiter at Walmart is your best bet. It's a Walmart exclusive and is a fantastic rod for the money.

This is type a bait I need to get into. They're some real interesting looking baits out there.

I didn't need to hear that! My wallet hurts

Their XPS cranks are great. I'm not a huge fan of their soft plastics. A lot of people like the Stik-Os. They're like a senko with a fatter tail section to give the bait a wider wiggle. The baits need this extra built in action because the plastic is stiff. I like their Punch Hogs as a follow up bait to frog blowups.

I've had this exact problem in the past. Turns out the culprit was two things: 1 Overly broken in (old) braid that wouldn't lay on the spool right let alone come off. 2 Bad knots. Your "break offs" are probably "knot failures". A uni knot, fresh braid and some centrifugal brakes turned on allows me to cast my cranks into the stratosphere on #30 832.

I have no idea. I'd love to visit a DT production line. I want to know how they shape those bodies and form the crank from balsa so cheaply. There has got to be some real interesting tooling that looks nothing like the injection molding machines of most hard bait production.

Schrodinger's crank?

The way you have worded this seems to indicate that the only differences between a lipless crank and lipped, is sound. The two baits are night and day apart. The sounds each make are the least of their differences. If you have a tremendous amount of confidence in lipless cranks and want to throw a slient bait then the silent Bil Lewis Rattle Traps should be at the top of your list.

When I think Duckett, I think of a fishing rod. I must be a minority here. I don't care about people. At all. I don't care if Bubba and Jim Bob don't get alone on the ABC bass tour. Is the product good or not. Are Duckett rods junk or are they excellent? I was thinking about picking up a Micro Magic CB rod, but all this talk has got me hesitant. I also believe that the rod blank is 90% of the rod and I keep hearing that Ducketts use cheap blanks.

Great insight. This is something I have been very interested in for a while. Were do the reel designs originate? Do any of the brands do R&D or is that all outsourced or even licensed from an unknown entity? I've seen two different reels, from two different brands, using the same reel design, but with different materials and braking systems at two different price points. It almost reminds me of building a PC were there are lots of brands out there, but it really comes down to who's parts are in your rig. I'd love to see an Ibuypower or Cyberpower sort of online builder for reels and rods. About those Ebay lures. Are you saying that you are seeing custom painted knock offs (KO) selling for up to $16 a piece? KOs are sold naked and without hooks just for that reason. As long as they are not trying to pass them off as a real name brand product such as a Rapala DT, Megabass Vision 110, Griffon ect then they should be alright. Even cheap baits can have fantastic actions. I would go as far as to say that there is nothing inherently expensive about a bait that moves well in the water and that a good action can be had at any price point. The things that typically drive up the price of a bait are things that matter to anglers but not to the fish. Sonic welded seams, weight transfer systems, great hooks, beautiful hand painted finishes, scratch resistant clear coats ect. While you are not necessarily paying for a better action in a bait by spending more money, there are actions that are exclusive and that exclusivity makes the bait more expensive. It remains this way until a more attractively priced bait can knock off the bait's action. Balsa baits seem hard to knock off. It probably has something to do with them not being two halves of plastic shat out at X number per hour by an injection molding machine. It's easy to knock off designs but craftsmanship remains more elusive. I'm not sure where craftsmanship is even present in modern baits. A machine operator running an injection molder is not a craftsman.

I fish a clear water weedy Iowa lake at night during summer. I'm not convinced that black is really a better color at night but I do throw black baits at night per convention. I like to fish the few feet of water above weed beds around docks. I prefer a full moon and that some of these docks have lighting. I throw black spinnerbaits and all colors of chatterbaits mostly. Some of odd ball baits I throw are black Berkley Heavy Weight worms wacky rigged and various plastics on a split shot rig. One of my favorites on the back of the slit shot rig is a pre rigged worm. It spirals in the water and closes and opens itself up when pulled and paused. "what is old is new" never rang more true. One of the problems I have is keeping hammer handle sized pike off the spinnerbait. They don't seem to be interested in the chatterbait and plastics. Big fish seem to be most active during low light periods. If I'm frogging all day at a couple good slop spots, catching numbers of small fish, I can almost always return to these spots and catch some giants at night on the same baits.

I have the same experience with my Bass Pro. I wonder how much of this nonsense that goes on is because of the spring classic or spring time in general. That seems to be the time when most bass fishing and tackle purchases are made.

I haven't got my hands on that reel but judging from what I know of it, I'd say stay away. It's not that it is bad but that it is identical to a Laguna for more money. It's a $90, $60 reel. I'd take a Laguna over a Abu Max or pretty much anything else in the price range but I wouldn't pay $90 for a $60 reel painted orange and black. The Arid rods seem decent for the money.

I love and hate Fireline. To make a long post short, the stuff is indestructible but behaves badly in all other aspects. All this talk about it being a superline when compared to mono is just the overstating of very average behaviors for a braided product. I'd recommend #20 or #30 Sufix 832 as an alturnative. #14 Fireline is actually a #28 ish product as Berkeley want's to rate it at 50% of it should be. I still use #14 as a deep cranking line. Stay away from Fireline Crystal. The stuff is garbage.

I haven't thrown it much. It has a more risto rap like body than a deep bellied DT baits, has a louder rattle and wiggles in the middle of the bait with equal amounts of head and tail movement. I haven't thrown it at Okoboji but I kill em with DTs there. The DT-20 and DT-6 are some of my hottest baits. They also pull the occasional big walleye too.

I'm retarded. Got the two rapala posts confused. That rear hook is normal. DTs have had rear sures-sets for a while. They've returned to normal hooks for 2014.

Bait ball effect, whether that even exist or not aside, does anyone think that having a smaller profile object imbedded within a larger bodied bait has an effect? I used to call up schools of big spots to the surface with Super Spooks. They'd get shy about the size and throwing a smaller topwater at them once called to the surface would get me bit like crazy. I'd do this in like 20 mph winds if I had to. Small profile baits get you bit in large numbers yet their ability to displace water and get the attention of fish is not as great as a larger bait. Clear baits have been around for a while but a small profile within a large clear bait is new to me.

It varies bait to bait. The Square A appears to have no differences at all or only comes in the small size (does bomber still make the big bodies square As). The biggest changes are on the Super Spot. It made from a cheaper plastic that has a higher pitch sound when struck. It lacks the belly bulge, the eyes are 3D jeweled eyes and there is gill plate relief on the bait. It's noticeably high pitch and louder and a bit tighter in wobble. The Wiggle O has different eyes from the regular model and is made of a cheaper plastic.

Glad I could help. Don't get too excited about the 12' rating. I fish my little Warts at around 6-8 feet range. Post your other mystery baits and we'll see if we can't identify them for you.

Cotton Cordell Value Series Wiggle O. Sometimes referred to as a Bait Bonanza. Walmart has them kicking around loose in a green box on the bottom shelf of the fishing isle. There's also a value series specific CC Super Spot and Bomber Square As. That color might be discontinued. I forget how deep they dive, but it's the same as a Wart.

I curious about a couple of things: 1. are the graphite components of reels really a slab of graphite, or are they graphite fiber reinforced plastic? 2. If the frame of a reel is flexing, wouldn't that cause the gearing to become out of alignment and loose efficiency? It would be harder to turn the handle when reeling a heavy thing in or the spool tension is so great that is distorts the frame.