MIbassyaker

Heddon Torpedo & Tiny Torpedo (or propbaits in general, which are an entire underrated category of lures) All the bomber "A" series: 2A, 4A, Square A, Long A, Flat A Rebel crawfish Charlie Brewer Sliders Mister Twister worms, grubs, and lizards CLU Zero Gravity Jig

Green pumpkin is the only one I have used. Ayu and KVD magic look good too. Mostly bluegill/sunfish and yellow perch forage around here.

I have a couple of the ones with 2 spinnerbait racks and 1 buzzbait rack. Here's one: Actually, they're pretty good storage boxes, and can be filed/stacked alongside any other 3700 box. You have to be a little careful taking baits out of a full box, but for storage at least it works really well. And it doesn't bend the wires enough to deform them -- they spring back to shape immediately when taken out.

And the two of them have won the last three classics.

...on a drop shot of all things. Well, that's how you seal the deal. Man, Edwin is a machine.

Rip-pause retrieve, varying the length of the rips and the pauses. Work it with the rod tip, reeling the slack. Good post-spawn presentation.

Lindner-era In-Fisherman used to insist on colorado blades over willow blades in most situations, and especially in current.

Good haul. They'll eventually get bent up, worn out, skirts will fall off with use, so nothing at all wrong with stocking up.

A big ol' "meh" this week so far: 7th, 32nd, 34th, 41st & 48th.

Bill Dance's favorite color worm famously is blue: "Any color worm as long as it's blue" I don't think there is such a thing as a bad worm color. There may be some colors that fish better in some places under some conditions. But those preferences aren't necessarily going to be large or predictable, and could be different in different bodies of water, or at different times. You usually just have to figure it out from experience in the places you fish. I worry about location, depth, speed and size before color anyway. When in doubt, throw whatever colors you like best -- you'll fish them with more confidence than ones you don't like.

Both good choices. I would fish red shad in brownish-stained or muddy water, and Black/chartreuse in greenish or algae-stained water.

Just follow the weight ratings on the rods rather than getting hung up on the "medium" vs. "medium-heavy" label. If you want to fish something 1oz, get a rod with a top rating up to, or over, 1oz (That's going to be a MH or H). I can only say how the particular rods I mentioned compare, not whether it is general trend for SC.

#HardAtWork

Ah, now here's a great argument for making my own spinnerbaits...single-spin colorados in general(other than dark-colored night-fishing baits), and especially hammered blades are increasingly hard to find. Love the copper too. And they would be great in my own murky local river, which I don't fish often enough.

A. Wendlandt B. Cobb C. Davis D. Kennedy E. Gustafson

Most of my rods are fenwick or St. Croix. One comparison I can make is between a 6'8" MH-F Fenwick Aetos vs. a 6'6" M-F SC Premier. The Aetos is a little bit more stout, but they are close in power, and both are rated 1/4-3/4oz. I would say the M premier is not quite the same as a typical MH, but more like a half-power somewhere between an M and MH. and that actually makes it an extremely versatile rod -- it can do all but the heaviest jobs of an MH, while still being able to fish lighter baits.

Junebug is my favorite "dark" color. I use it much more often than black/blue, which everybody else loves. In my waters, green flake is money, for some reason. At dawn, a junebug ribbon-tail worm is just perfect in the summer: A dark, meaty silhouette, winking through the algae-stained murk as the first rays of sun catch the green flakes....

Yes, yes I do -- I have the 6'9" MH-F and 6'10" MH-MF casters, and the handle lengths are perfect on those.

I don't know anything about the Villain, but have four Aetos rods, 3 from the previous generation (2 casting, 6'4" M-XF, and 6'8" MH-F, one spinning 7'0" M-F), and one casting from the current generation (7'5" MH-F) that Fenwick sent to me in a warranty claim when I broke another of the last gen. They are excellent and beautiful rods -- very light, with "crisp" actions, and power ratings that are right on. The new generation is even lighter. I use the 7'5" MH-F for a mix of jigs & frogs. The tip is soft enough to launch a 1/2oz frog a mile and has plenty of power for slop-work even though it's not a heavy. And it has excellent sensitivity for bottom contact. The only thing I don't like is that the handles of both generations are 1-2 inches longer than I wish they were. But that's just a matter of taste, as I prefer shorter than usual handles.

A crystal ball, a divining rod, and some tarot cards.

An ok start: 77th percentile overall, 14th in the BR group. Just wish I had taken somebody other than Combs for Bucket A (yup, I had him too). He has now done that to me 3 or 4 times in a row in the events that I've picked him. Wow, just checked the schedule again -- back-to-back events with Lanier happening immediately this week.

Not sure where I last saw the Meeny Spin in a store... it's been a few years probably. But you can order the jig spinner forms on the Mr. Twister website, at least: https://www.mistertwister.com/information/jig-spinners/408#JS03

I....also don't understand what's so different between turning a spinning handle vs. turning a baitcasting handle. But I'm not interested in that sort of hair-splitting. I am interested in this, though: I have been fishing spinning reels for more than 3 decades, and I don't believe I have ever in my life held the rod with my thumb pointing down. My thumb is on top, fingers wrapped underneath with 2 or 3 in front of the reel stem. Or, the thumb is on the side, sort of pinching the foregrip with the knuckle of my index finger on the other side (a reason I prefer spinning rods with a foregrip...I do actually grip it). Nobody has ever before remarked to me that there is anything odd or unusual or wrong about this. Here: I mean, the wrist angles down more than a baitcaster, but the thumb is certainly more forward than "down", and it's still on top. Nothing like a computer mouse at all.

Another thing I believe but can't quite prove: The bubble fogy, with the blade that has the holes in it, seems to stay a little deeper than the one with the solid blade.

After day 1: 80th% overall, 14th in BR group. I was worried that "picked the wrong Johnston" would be this year's version of "picked the wrong Lane" from years past...but happy to see both Chris and Cory show up big so far.