Shockwave

Come on up to Milwaukee!! I'll take ya out to a couple lakes where we can catch em all day long!

This I can definitely understand. They do go nuts in the boat and they bleed like it's a friggen murder scene.

A buddy and I went out tonight to try to get a night of fishing in before the rain hit. We went for bass, of course, but ended up CRUSHING pike instead. We didn't see a single bass but we landed over a dozen pike in just over an hour. We had to call it quits because the storms moved in earlier than we hoped they would but we had an absolute blast while we were out. We were talking on the way home about how we don't understand how so many people consider them a nuisance when they're so fun to catch and they taste so good! We didn't keep any tonight, and the toothy critters killed two spinnerbaits but I feel that it was well worth it! What are your thoughts on pike?

My uncle is probably the best fisherman I know on a personal level and I'd consider him the one who got me hooked on fishing from a very young age.

I keep a supply of green pumpkin, bama craw, blue craw, and Falcon Lake Craw. I caught my PB on a t-rigged green pumpkin rage craw.

I'll use a snap swivel when trying to figure out what color lipless crankbait the fish want. Once I get one narrowed down, I tie directly to the lure. I'm always pretty nervous about it tho and have been thinking about switching to these speed clips.

I'm getting more confidence in jigs and this combo is the one getting it done for me!

Scaleface, I need to come down and do some fishing by you!!

Seems like a good mix of stuff like I expected but I do see a good amount of folks having success with senkos. Just to make sure I follow the "no pic so if didn't happen" rule, here's a pic of my PB. I WISH we could see 10 pounders like that but we just don't see fish like that all that often up here. The state record is 11lbs and change.

I caught my personal best LMB last week. I thought it was interesting because I had 5 rods on the deck. I had a jig, 10 inch thumper worm on a Carolina Rig, deep diving crankbait, bronzeye frog, and t-rigged Rage craw all tied on. I thought I'd get the larger fish on the C-rig fishing deep because that was the pattern that day but I ended up catching my PB (6.8lb, 22 in.) on the Rage Craw pitching to docks after the C-rig bite slowed down. That's my confidence bait. That got me to wondering what others have caught their PB on.

That's one of the beautiful things about red vines! I can fish and snack at the same time. Usually, if I feel the need to munch on something, you'll find me fishing with a red vine hanging outta my mouth!

I usually go with trail mix, homemade jerky, and red vines. If I'm gonna be out there all day long, I'll bring a couple pb&j sammiches as well.

I, too, am a dedicated Siebert's jig thrower. I also like the dredge series! Gimmie a 1/2 oz black and blue arky head and a blue craw football head and I'm set!!

I think I'm in for the Kentucky Lake event. I highly doubt I'd be able to make the Toledo Bend event. That's quite a hike coming from Wisconsin.

How'd you end up doing?

Thanks for the replies everyone! I think I'm going to try out an 8ft Hvy mod/fast action and see how I like it. I'm actually looking at the megabass orochi XX leviathan as an option. I've heard nothing but good things about that rod. Worst case scenario, I end up not liking the extra give and I sell the rod. I don't think that'll happen though.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel or anything. Just wanted to have a convo about if my thinking makes sense or if it's flawed and wanted other opinions.

This is exactly what I'm doing. I want a Lund Pro V GL and am planning to wait till early spring of 2016 to pull the trigger on a leftover model. I'm taking the time now to do homework on the potential dealer I'm gonna deal with.

7'6" MH/F Duckett White Ice, 7:1 Daiwa Zillion spooled with 15# Izorline XXX copolymer.

There are countless posts about rods for pitching and flipping in heavy cover. Most people prefer a 7' to 7'6" HF with 65# braid. With this kind of setup, I could see a lot of hooks being ripped from the fishes mouth especially if you're anything like me and you swing for the fences on the hook set. This setup really offers minimal give since the rod has so much backbone, the line has no stretch, and since most use a 5/0 hook, that ain't gonna give either. I was thinking about going with an 8 ft heavy rod with a parabolic bend so it'll at least over the minimal give on the hook set so that I'm not yanking the lips clean off the fish but you still have the power needed to wrench a fish out of the thick stuff. Am I wrong in thinking this way?

What is your budget? If you don't have the cash for a high dollar rod, you may want to consider a 7'3" HF Duckett Ghost. Really good rod for the money.

I've never tried one with crankbaits but I also have a 7'3" HF for topwater and heavy jig presentations. I'm possibly going to be picking up another one. I'd agree with what SenkoGuru said. It's one of the best $100 rods out there.

Oh man!! My jigs from Siebert Outdoors showed up today!!! I'll be getting out on the water this evening and hopefully gaining some more confidence!!

I also use JJ's magic methylate to color my GP craws orange. Just dip em and fish em!

Deep is right. My personal preference is a 7 ft Heavy with 65# Suffix braid for the environment you're describing. You're gonna need a rod with good backbone to wrench a bass out of the slop he's gonna dive into after hitting your frog.