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Owner Shaky Ultra head is an excellent option - also, comes in green or brown

^^^^^ Yes I shake my head when I see my neighbors that were complaining a few years ago about Walmart putting the little local vendor out of business, now getting Amazon packages delivered non stop every day. Now they do all they can to avoid doing any shopping locally, where they may interact with other humans; which is o.k, but it would be easier to understand if they weren't such big hypocrites to begin with. I like shopping online as well, Use Walmart.com all the time, there's no prime membership fees and if an item doesn't have free shipping, I get it delivered to the store for free. I enjoy going to Walmart; the one near our house is pretty decent and the people that work there provide excellent service. With all the above said, I'd rather be fishing and looking at nature than looking at what's wandering around at Walmart.

No, I'm not limited to those colors; I have almost all the rest of the colors, including Cali Craw and Perfect Perch as well as New Money, which for the most part are dark green with other color specks. I have the whole spectrum of Z man plastics including white lightning and pink. Only color I'm missing is yoga pants - which is black? I will probably buy a bag of that color. I primarily use a variation of green pumpkin because that's what works the best for me most of the time in the region I fish, in the lakes I fish where the water is crystal clear. I do carry one of each of the other colors in mixed in 2 separate bags to try if my favorite go to colors are not working or if they are really working great and I'm catching so many fish I choose to experiment. Because the Zman plastic is so durable, the packs of colors that I experiment with will probably last for years, as I have never had an issue with storage as long as these are kept in the original bags. I'm not telling anyone fishing Table Rock or anywhere else what color to use; although I've heard the South African Special color works really well in certain parts of the country LOL. Use whatever color you want, experiment, have fun with it. Should have originally answered the OP as follows: I prefer Zman plastics for ned rig fishing, they have all the colors I need and I never had an issue with storage. End of story.

^^^^^^^ This 100% Based on 3 years and a lot of hours testing, real life fishing;the Zman finesse plastics are super durable and catch fish. I'm up in the middle of nowhere in the ADKs this week, otherwise, I would attach a picture of the plastic and jig that I have used for the last 2 days. Well over my old record of 80+ fish caught with the same jig and Zman finesse TRD. I will add that the more the plastic is used, the more the salt goes out of it and the more it plumps up, the better it seems to work, so I love it when I don't get bit off by a toothy critter and the plastic gets really worn out. I will not put new Zman plastic on unless the old piece is hopelessly beyond further use. As far as color selection, my experimentation/experience has shown that in the upstate NY region , a variation of green pumpkin (dark green) with any of the various fleck colors offered by Zman work the best - the basic black fleck is one of the best producers for me. As far as other colors - orange, purple, coppetruse, etc.; I have tried them all with minimal results. So for me to go looking for more colors would just be adding more stuff. I don't need more stuff, especially when I know which stuff works. After saying the above; if someone wants to try robo or any other brand in any new color, please go ahead and spend away.

NE97 Thanks for starting this discussion. I have traveled that same journey, by experimenting, i.e., spending lots of $$ and trying every different color. I now mainly use just a few colors - for finesse or T rig worm fishing I use some variation of green pumpkin - (why don't they just call it dark green? aren't pumpkins an orange color? talk about confusing things) with some type of fleck in it - black, red, gold, purple. I also use the pumpkin color - which amazingly is actually the color of a pumpkin- orange (again, why not just call it orange), with black and green flecks in the plastic. I occasionally use what I will call dark purple (June bug?). Limiting what I take has definitely made things easier, and I'm still catching just as many from my kayak. Please note that I fish in the North East, in lakes that are mainly clear water; so the colors that work for me may not work for someone in Louisiana. I will still experiment, after all this is supposed to be fun, right? So l may even throw the South African Special just to see what happens.

Eric - I frog fish exclusively from a kayak - these hooks will increase your hook up ratio tremendously. I use a 6'9" medium first generation Veritas spinning rod and a Mitchell 300 Pro reel with 30# test braid; so not a super heavy rig and I have great success frog fishing when the fish are hitting frogs. Attached is a picture of one of many fish that I landed using the trailer hook. Note that I have no affiliation with this company or any other company, I just use the product and it works well. Matter of fact; when I ordered these hooks a few years ago, I had to wait 6 weeks to get them from Cabelas, since they were out of stock. I think these hooks will up your confidence level and hook ups. Best wishes.

You're talking about the frog trailer hook, right? If so, the 2/0 works well with a smaller frog; I use it with a Booyah Jr. Pad crasher. I have the 4/0 size, however, haven't used these yet. The 4/0 looks as if it would be better with a larger size frog, although the 2/0 will still work well if you can slip the ring on each side of the trailer hook harness over the hook on each side of your frog. I think you will really like these trailer hooks; they will definitely help you hook more fish. Good luck

I have the 6'8" Mojo and it's my favorite. Use it for a variety of presentations out of my kayak, mainly for ned rig with great success. You will be very happy with your deal; a great buy.

Flywall99 - Since you're getting a lot of hits, you're really doing something right to start with. Try adding this to your hollow body frog - Lake Fork Frog Tail Hook Item: IK-135134 This will help increase your hook up ratio immensely. I use these on a Booyah Junior Pad Crasher with much success. The reference above is a Cabelas item#. Good luck - hope this helps.

My observations are similar to A-Jays. SMB that I catch in the Adirondacks, particularly in rivers with rocky bottoms, tend to be extremely dark. Those that I catch in Lake Ontario, especially where the bottom is sandy, tend to be lighter. I throw them all back, so can't tell you if or when the chameleon effect kicks in.

Snapping turtle is another possibility - a large one can be well over 50#s and will definitely wake you up when they decide to go under

I fish the ned rig a lot and crimp the barb down and land most of the fish I hook. I have only bent one zman hook trying to pry it out of the mouth of a pickerel with a pair of needle nose pliers. Never have these hooks bent fighting a bass, they are also needle sharp out of the package. As far as the z man hook bait keepers, as referenced above; I recommend bending these down so they are parallel with the shank of the hook. If you are using z man elaztech plastic, this will be good enough to keep the plastic in place and make it easier to straighten out if it gets twisted and scrunched up. If you keep pressure on the fish from the start, you will have good success. Yes, you may lose more than if you keep the barb as stated above by Bluebasser, however, if you're not in a tournament; as long as you are able to fight the fish and see it, then it's all good. You are fishing for fun and will land many fish with the barb crimped down and will have more fun seeing a fish swim away after you quickly unhook it and release it uninjured. Best of luck.

I met John that day when they were wrapping up and getting ready to go. Good to meet up with him in person, super nice guy. As I told John as he was leaving - these guys don't know it but you're the famous one around here. I guess his fame is expanding now

Changing to heavier # test line may help you, but it will not completely cure the problem; and sometimes there are advantages to fishing with lighter line. So why not fix the cause. There are many helpful videos out there that will help you visualize how to prevent the problem. A short one that I have seen on the Bass Fishing Tactics Podcast by Kevin Scarselli dated 4/6/10 - Preventing Twists on Spinning Reels is about 1.5 minutes long and is the best I have seen on taking the slack out of the line and preventing a situation where it can get under your spool. The video by Glenn on this site about removing twists on spinning gear is also good, however, the one I recommended from the podcast will provide additional help with this problem.

I don't think he was referring to the line slipping on the spool. I believe that OP was referring to line slipping underneath the spool on spinning reel. This has happened to me with both low # test braid line and mono line, so it's not just the braid. Not sure how full your spool is, but over filling could be contributing to your problem. Most likely, if you are spooled up with the proper amount of line; you have too much slack in your line between the first line guide above the bail when you start reeling in after casting. Steps to avoid this - manually flip the bail over after casting and grab the line (pull up and hold it next to the rod shaft as you begin to reel) above the bail to take slack out of line as you start reeling. This should help to cure what's happening. This problem usually happens to me when it's extremely windy - usually when the wind is gusting toward me and/or I'm not paying attention. I know it's bad when the line gets wrapped around the spindle under the spool, so I hope the above helps you avoid this. Good luck.

For years I have used an Okuma SST 6'6" ultra - light with a small Plueger 20 size reel. Not an expensive rod (I think about $49 at DSG), but have landed most everything with it - trout, bass, northerns, pickerel and of course all types of panfish. I usually use just 4 or 6# test floro or mono line. For panfish, I use a 1/16 oz. VMC moon eye jig along with a curly tail grub; the one pictured was a Strike King 2" grub Tuxedo Black/Chartreuse. Using that size bait keeps the real little panfish off and allows for just hooking the larger ones, as well as interesting a larger species if it's in the area and feeding. Yes, you are correct - it does make catching the smaller ones a lot more fun. You should consider getting an ultralight set up; it is especially good when the bass aren't hitting and you just want to not be frustrated and have fun. When the bass are shut down; I have caught several dozen panfish and have been surprised along the way by pickerel, pike and bass. Edit: I ran into John, who is a super nice guy and great to meet in person (see below) last week and showed him what I was using. Also, I will add this tip: to make the jig easier to use - (this also applies to the TRD jig head as well) - take your needle nose pliers and squeeze down the metal bait keeper that is sticking out below the jig head. Squeeze this down so it is flush/parallel with the hook shaft. This will help to not tear up your plastic, so will make it last longer and will still be enough to keep the plastic attached well to the hook.

I jumped on the bandwagon 3 years ago. The TRD finesse jig head pairs perfectly with the Zman finesse 2.75" plastic as was stated by Bass Turd in the prior post and the hook size, although relatively small, hooks and holds fish. This lure will catch just about anything that is swimming around wherever you are bass fishing. I have found, in most cases, the fish are hooked in the front of the mouth and even when I hook a toothy critter such as a pickerel, I seldom get bit off. Take a look at the various pictures I have posted of LMB,SMB, pickerel and lake trout that were caught on this bait. I fish out of a kayak and don't have any electronics, yet I still manage to do pretty well because I use this rig whenever the conditions allow. I went out with my neighbor last year in his canoe and he had never caught a bass in his life and he managed to catch some with this. Also, the Zman plastic is indestructible and you could literally catch dozens of fish on this set up (my record is over 80 before I was bit off). You will get bit off or hung up and break off before you will need to change out the plastic. There are certainly many other lures to use but I am a big fan of this one. Edit - Note: that even though most fish are hooked in the front of the mouth, I still crimp the barb down in case one takes it deep, so the fish can be easily unhooked. These hooks are needle sharp and will still hold. I remembered this point after reading the post below by smalljaw67 - "To make it even better he pinches the barb down and still catches fish with it"

Glad it worked out so well for you. I don't think you need to cut anything, just pull the plastic strands all the way out through to one side. One could put these back through as well to get back to the original. Don't have one in front of me, however, I believe the strands are independent of the body, since I recall just pulling one side through when cutting the strands to make them even. Don't want to think you an idiot, just someone that likes to experiment like some of the rest of us here. EDIT - I just checked a Booyah frog and the strands are really in tight, very difficult to pull through. I was probably thinking of a different brand that I was able to pull through.

Went out yesterday to Honeoye after hearing the good reports from bclark, also thanks to JFrancho. First time there, fished from 3 til 8 with an hour break to eat and stretch. Got beat up by the wind initially, and took a while to figure things out. Caught 11 LMB and 5 SMB. The SMB were all fairly small 1# or less. 5 of the LMB were between 3&4#s.

Fawn I spotted yesterday bedded down in high weeds next to water

Went out yesterday (2-8pm) Wind was gusting, so stuck close to shore. Caught 4 LMB on a senko, the biggest was about 3#, the rest were maybe 1# each. Spent the most of the time having fun catching dozens of panfish with the ultralight rig. Also saw a fawn in the weeds close to shore which was really cool. Pics posted in Other Species fishing reports section. Saw a guy that was also in a kayak , reeling in a laker. Paddled out and talked to him and recognized him from last year. He targets the lakers and is really good at it; had hooked into 8 at that point, using a flasher type depth finder and heavy metal jigs for them. He showed me his technique last year, however, I don't intentionally fish for lakers; but it was good to talk to him again as he was really friendly and just likes to catch lakers and releases them all. One other thing of note was there was cotton type stuff from cottonwood trees all over the water. Had to constantly pick this stuff of the lure as well as from the line. This stuff is really fond of the braid line and almost seems to weave its way into the line, which is another reason I stuck mostly with the ultralight set up and floro line. In spite of dealing with pulling this stuff of my line and lures, it was a great day on the water.

Wind was gusting yesterday, so stayed close to shore. Caught just 4 LMB on a senko and spent most of the time having fun with the ultralight setup catching dozens of good sized panfish. Couple pics of one of the many colorful sunnys, as well as a massive crappie caught near the end of the day when wind went down. A bonus was sighting a fawn laying in the high weeds close to water. Was able to paddle my kayak into about 6" of water and zoom in with my little point and shoot camera.

Yes. Inline spinners just catch fish - every kind. If I had to choose just one lure to catch fish - any fish, it would be an inline spinner, specifically a Panther Martin - silver blade with yellow body and red dots. It's good to go back and revisit what works, thanks for the reminder.

I use the above type all the time. I will not use for for attaching lures such as a blade bait or chatterbait that I tie direct to the snap on the lure, or with a jig or hook which are tied direct to the line ( I may use a swivel without a snap, a few feet above the knot to prevent line twist). A swivel with a snap as pictured above, makes changing lures such as crankbaits, frogs, or spinnerbaits much easier, especially in a kayak. Benefits, besides being able to change out lures faster; are that swivels cut down on line twist and also help to avoid torque on the lure when fighting and landing a fish, thus cutting down on line break offs or hooks shaking out. I recommend the above type of snap swivel (crosslok) as I have never had one fail over years of usage. Anything can fail, however, I will not use the type that was cited as failing in this thread, which is secured by inserting the end into a small metal tab. That style, in my experience, is more likely to fail because of the flawed design - note: I have not used that style in years because of experienced failures. I have had no failures with the crosslok style and recommend the use or the smallest possible size for your application as well as a quality brand such as Spro, Sampo, etc. Also, I prefer a snap that has a more rounded bend in the front, rather than an angled or squared off front. Fishing is supposed to be fun, so use whatever makes your experience more enjoyable and have fun.

Careful, this thing could take off and next thing you know we'll be debating the cost effectiveness/durability of fish per hot dog vs. the senko at $7 per pack. LOL