MIbassyaker

I'm using a 6'8" MXF St. Croix avid x for senkos, flukes and other weightless plastics, which has the same blank as the Rage mentioned above (as do the new models in the Mojo Bass line). It really is perfect.

I seem to lose and break hardbaits almost as fast as I go through a pack of soft plastics. How many times getting snagged in laydowns will it take before I have to break off jig or a trebled lure? How much banging on rocks can your crankbait take? How many big fish, toothy critters included, will it take to completely mangle your spinnerbait or buzzbait beyond the point of use?

Yes, they are excellent. Even weightless they have the pronounced wiggle, wacky or t-rigged. And, compared to GYCB senkos, they smell...."better".

4" Berkley Power Worm on a 1/8oz Owner Bullet Ultra Head: I like the curly tail not for the action necessarily, but because it slows the fall slightly compared to a straight tailed worm.

Whatever plastic body you personally think looks good on a texas rig, that's the best one. The reason doesn't matter.

I've been hemming and hawing about the 90 vs. 130 too...Is it not basically just a big propbait? with a twirling fin instead of a propeller, but essentially the same effect? I'd like to understand better what the problems are that people are having with the 90 size...I'm not quite grasping what it means for it to not run or swim smoothly, or why a split ring should help. My DSG has some 130s in stock, although I've been holding out because I want to see a 90 by comparison in person.

Chigger and rage are my two favorite craw baits, both as trailers and texas rigs, and I use them both all the time They have different actions; the chigger craw claws sort of undulate, while the rage claws have a powerful, rhythmic kick. This makes rage craws fall more slowly; you can slow down a heavy jig's fall quite a bit with a rage craw trailer. Chigger craws are made of powerbait which bass definitely seem to hold on to longer than other materials. Both unfortunately have some durability issues and are prone to having claws ripped off, but I accept that as the cost of being attractive enough for fish to strike.

Megastrike Cavitron, 3/8oz. black skirt, black blade, no trailer. I use the other colors too, but black/black seems to be the most versatile.

Good find. I do something similar but with Plano 3731 boxes:

what kind of hook are you using? They don't get torn up nearly as quickly for me on an owner twist lock hook compared to a regular offest or ewg worm hook.

I use the 6'10 medium heavy, moderate-fast action Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth, in addition to buzzbaits and heavy topwaters, and it's awesome:

I'm generally a color skeptic -- all else equal it matters sometimes, some places, to some degree, but in most cases, it's trumped by other factors. However, I do think there is something to the following rules of thumb: 1. in low visibility conditions, precise color matters less than just getting bass to see the bait. Dark colors, contrasting colors, or bright highlights can help. Opaque colors make better silhouettes. Also, the color of the water will tend to make some colors "pop" better than others; chartreuse seems to brighten up in green stain, orange/red in brownish stain. 2. in clear water, less-bold contrasts, muted colors, and "natural" colors (smokes, greens, browns) are preferable. Specific forage colors and patterns can tip the balance between more strikes and fewer strikes, but whether it does this depends a lot on particular lake and conditions, and it's virtually impossible to know whether this is the case without experimenting. In lake I fish with 10 feet of visibility, green flake seems to be preferable to all other flake colors, especially when the sun is out, regardless of the main color; In another very similar lake about a mile away -- basically the same visibility prey and predator species, vegetation, cover, etc -- flake color doesn't seem to matter at all, and I have no idea what makes it different in one lake than the other -- all I know is my record of success trying different things. 3. Many baitfish, craws and other forage species change hue slightly depending on the colors of their surroundings. The colors you see in the water, on the banks, the sand, weeds, rocks, wood will be the shades and hues crayfish will take on, and will tend to be reflected off batifish scales, etc. Thus, choosing jigs and plastics that "fit" with the colors you see around you can help, especially in clearer water. 4. There may be better colors in certain situations, but solid black is rarely the "wrong" color for fishing on the bottom, and white is rarely "wrong" for fishing up in the water column. They can work almost across the board, clear water, murky water, low-light, overcast, sunny, etc.

Instead of burning it, try reeling as slow as you can while still keeping it on top. Part of the appeal of the cavitron is that it can be fished slower than many other buzzbaits. I also don't have problems hooking up without a trailer hook that I have with other buzzbaits, because of the extra crook in the hook arm, the hook rides deeper and there's a bigger gap between it and the blade. I had never caught a fish on a buzzbait at all despite trying to use them off and on for years, until I tried a cavitron last year. I just left one tied on and made sure I gave it a solid chance everywhere I went, and all of a sudden it started producing. Edges of lily pads and reeds, over submerged beds of coontail, eelgrass and milfoil (I'm fishing around vegetation 95% of the time). Last year a Cavitron with black skirt and black blade accounted for my biggest bass of the year, my second biggest pike, and, a week and a half ago, one of the biggest bowfins I have ever seen and definitely the biggest I have ever hooked. What would I not recommend? I've never seen a topwater that won't draw strikes. The question for me is, can it hook up and can it it hold up? My biggest pet peeves are hollow bodied frogs with bodies that wont collapse properly to expose the hook, or start falling apart after a couple of fish. I gave up on strike king KVD sexy frog because the rattle would fall back by the hooks and kept it from collapsing. Then when I tried bending the hooks out slightly, one of them broke off in my hand.

x2 all of these

Best of 15 this morning went 19", but a somewhat "trim" 3.65lb. This is one of two I caught shallow early on a black/black cavitron, before switching to a finesse worm on a shaky head to probe a steep, weedy dropoff ...and for a little while it was a fish on almost every cast. Mostly dinks, but 2 others about 16".

No plastics...ouch. Do I even use 5 different "plugs"? lets see: 1. Propbait: heddon tiny torpedo, black shiner (chrome, black back) 2. Popper/walker: Megabass pop max, any color (this is the one I'll splurge on) 3. Squarebill: KVD 1.5 in bluegill 4. Jerkbait/minnow: Rapala original floater, F11, perch 5. Lipless: Strike king red eye shad, bluegill That about covers the applications I'd need. Hardest decision is to leave a wiggle wart off the list.

The super fluke is a legit, highly-versatile, bass-catching workhorse, almost anywhere, all year long. Almost every tackle shop carries them (or something similar by another company) because people buy them, catch fish with them, go through the whole package, and then come back for more. You can nose hook them, texas rig them, put them on a mojo or carolina rig, put them on a jighead, underspin or chatterbait, or use them any number of other ways. The banjo minnow on the other hand, is a legendary laughingstock, a mediocre lure overhyped by infomercials designed to catch fishermen more than fish. They don't have as many rigging options of a fluke, they aren't as soft and action isn't as good, and the plastic components are prone to breaking. Yes, you can catch bass on a banjo minnow. But everything you can do with a banjo minnow, you can do much better and more successfully with a super fluke. Don't be devastated -- use the flukes and don't look back.

For me the preference boils down to this: what do I want to make my non-dominant hand do? I'm a right hander and learned on spinning reels, so cranking my left is well-practiced, but holding the rod while working the bait, setting the hook, and fighting a fish with my left is not. My right hand is much more agile and could probably figure out how to crank, but my left strongly resists ever learning anything it doesn't already know how to do. So, leftys for me. Had I learned on a right-handed baitcaster at age 8 instead, it might be the other way around.

Is that 7'3" MHF HMG one of the ones you have? Wondering how it would be as a frog rod...

The first time somebody on this forum tipped me off to FFO, I felt like I was being let in on a secret. If you aren't aware already, you should know most of their items are discontinued models. Still, I've bought 3 rods and two reels from them in the last year and couldn't be happier....scratch that; possibly I could be happier if I got another. Oh, and it's 20% off over $40 right now....like I said above, I can't stand it anymore.

Anybody have that 7'3" MHF casting model of the HMG that is still available at FFO? It's rated 3/8oz to 1 1/4oz, which i'm curious about -- anybody know how it handles baits at the higher end of that range? And would it do well as a frog rod? Only a few left and I can't stand it any more.

The Cavitron strikes again! One of three bass this morning, all 15"-16". ...and a crappie on Berkley Pit Bull, of all things.

I mostly fish whatever small, low-traffic lakes I can find within an hour of grand rapids (the "low traffic" part is much easier said than done). Two biggest so far this year, 3.8 on a livetarget crappie, and 3.5 on a megabass pop max: I also hooked one of the biggest bowfins I have ever seen Monday morning on a Cavitron Buzzbait, before having it shake off kayakside. Wish I had a picture, but glad I didn't have to land the beast.

Pad Crasher for me; the price is right and hooks up easily. I like the livetarget frogs too, but I can never bring myself to pay full price for anything by livetarget.

I bought the same rod over the winter from FFO for the same applications. The rod is gorgeous, light, action is very "crisp". I love the handle and reel seat. Although, I have been more successful with it for topwaters than jerkabits (however, never much gotten the hang of jerkbaits with any rod, so there is that). It absolutely rocks a Pop Max.