Kyle46N

Middle one might be an Ugly Ducking lure.

I have a brown spro rat on the way as of yesterday. Most online sites are sold out right now, but spro has them. They are 32 bucks as opposed to 29.

Found one in Dicks today for 19.97. 7 ft medium heavy fast with micro guides. Very light, and with micro guides for 20 bucks? I don't care what the name is on it....it's coming home. Just became by 5 year olds new practice bait caster.

Good info by all. I have a few skirts still in the package with the white collar rotted already. I'm going to use the small zip tie. That should work perfect.

I have worn the H2O gear for 3 years now, and love it. Waterproof, and very wind proof. I have even used it as snow gear playing around with the kids the past two winters. After plenty of use, they are still as good as new.

Haha...I hear you on that!

I'm pretty sure we are shopping at the same store. Do you go to the Woodbridge store? I went to Woodbridge and Springfield. Springfield had the most on clearance. Are they re-stocking the clearance racks? I've only been once, yesterday. Their clearance stock is low as of yesterday though.

Made out pretty good at the two DSG's in Fairfax County area today. 50% off all clearance items. Snagged several Storm Arashi's square bills, several Sebile suspending jerkbaits, several Livetarget frogs/field mice, and KVD frogs, KVD SS O rings, and Strike King spinnerbaits. Like the pic above, they had lots of shaky head jigs also. I was pretty psyched to get some quality stuff. Thanks guys for starting this thread.

I've used whatever brand of actual jig head or wobble head. But my favorite plastic to put on them is the rage menace. Awesome bait.

Good post.....I apologize, I meant compared to the Revo. I cleaned a Revo STX first, then the Lews TP and found them to be very similar. Makes more sense now.

This...lol....proof that I could be much more concise.

On this same line of thought....I was taking apart Lews Tournament Pro's and Shimano Citica's the other day for cleaning, and noticed a ton of similarities. From screw placement, to gear placement. Very very similar.

MH if I'm throwing an oversized lure, or if I'm fishing in thick cover. Here on the Potomac I'm usually throwing a frog in thick vegetation, so a medium action rod would put me in trouble as soon as I hooked up with anything. BUT, in open water situations, I will throw normal to smaller size lures on a medium action rod. Sometimes even a medium light. Keep in mind most of these topwaters are treble set ups, so you don't need much backbone for a massive hookset.

I've fished ultralight my whole life....mid 30's now. My pops started me on an ultralight set up at 5 years old throwing small 1 inch or less lures in streams and rivers. With all that said, I really believe fishing with less than 6 lb mono is unecessary, and the only purpose for going lower would be the challenge of not breaking off or playing a fish. But as far as visibility, 6 lb is small enough. And small baits can be very effective for large bass, but I believe that it's most effective in small waters.

Ding ding.....I use medium action baitcast rods with 8 lb diameter braid for all my cranking. Braid gets the bait deep, you feel every little bump off structure, and the rod creates enough "give" to prevent trebles from pulling on a fish.

I'm replacing a few spinning reels this Christmas, and I've narrowed it down to these two brands. They both have the 6:1 higher speed, but I would love to hear from any of you that have used one of the two, or both. Both would be awesome. Or even what you've heard through the grapevine. I've pretty much switched to Lews on the baitcast side, mostly Tournament Pro's, which I love, but not sure of the same quality in the spinning reels. Thanks!

Another vote for a Falcon Buccoo. I own a 7 ft medium action, and I love it. It's done battle wtih big red drum and jack in the salt. That's a MEDIUM. I wouldn't think twice what a MH or H would handle....especially bass fishing. Add in they are very light and sensitive, it's a no brainer.

I say go with a Lews Tournament Pro. Incredible reel.....like already mentioned the smoothest I have used. And it's tough.....handled big reds and jack crevalle in the salt. With that said, if you do go with a Lews TP......don't pay the retail of 199.99. Go to EBAY and get it brand new for 150. There are at least two ebay stores that sell a bunch of them at that price point.

Just wanted to pass on a pleasant surprise on this rod. I bought it at Dicks for 99.99. On sale. I picked up a extra heavy, fast, 7' 2" for pitching jigs around cover. It had good reviews on Tackle Warehouse, so I went with it. The negative first.....it's a little top heavy...or feels like it. It wears my wrist out after a while. Switching up rods for a few minutes takes care of it though. The positive.....I'm blown away by it's pitching/flipping accuracy. The somewhat heavy feel acts kind of like a pendulum and results in a smooth, effortless accurate placement. More so than other similar sized rods I have used for jigs. And it's very sensitive. All in all, it's been a really fun rod to use....and even if you can't find the fish, putting that jig in the back corners of cover still keeps your imagination.

Good points by all. I would like to add some experience in regard to the frame strength of the tournament pro. I used to live in Biloxi, MS, and used it on a 7 ft medium Falcon Bucoo. I've done battle with a 25 lb jack crevalle, and several 30 lb red drum. Accidental hook ups while trout and flounder fishing. The tournament pro handled them like a champ....long fights too.....at least twenty minutes on all of them. They tested the heck out of the drag system. Over a year later, I'm now catching bass on the same reel, and have had zero issues. Long story short, if that's not a test on a reels strength....nothing is!

We've been hammering the crappie on Burke the past couple months. Caught a few walleye also....biggest 20 inches.

I'll add another report from today. On a tributary in the Ocaquan area. Kanes creek? It's at the back of Belmont bay. First time I've been there. It's really shallow, with not much of a creek channel, but the fish are there and hungry. Caught about 10 today, best five around 16 lbs. Couple 4's, couple 3's. Lost what I guessed to be a 10 lb snake head on a frog early. He showed me up in the spatterdock. Cane thumpers did the trick in dingy water, and wacky rigged senko's in the clear water above grass. I think the bite would have been much better if I had got there before 9 am. I wasted two hours fishing the flat at the mouth of the Ocoquan first thing. So, the fish are shallow right now. That's where I would look until we get a cold snap. Water temps were 65 to 66 today. Water is crystal clear in most of that area.

They are up shallow on the Potomac. I was on the flats in the mouth of the Ocaquan two days ago, and saw many bass in 4 feet of water. The water is crystal clear by the way....like an aquarium. They were hunting bait fish in the pockets amongst the thick grass. Couldn't get them to bite on anything but wacky wormed senko. Weird. Seeing how they were cruising, I thought they would be willing to it swimbatis, topwater, etc. But they wanted a wacky worm....sloooooowwww. Ended up with 7 around 2-3 lbs. Stealth also seemed to be the name of the game with clear water...but I had a noisy 5 year old freaking out every time he saw a cruiser....then would bomb the water trying to hit the bass with the lure...lol.

Good to know about the state park nitro. Thanks for the reply! I will be sure to post a report about our trip Sunday. We'll be dragging plastics probably, and hopefully we will be able to pass on some info (depth, structure, location, etc) to help someone else out.