HoosierHawgs

6.. Sorry I own 6. Got ahead of myself (or maybe the bait monkey did.... Hmmmnnn)

Berkley. I like all of their rods for the money. I asked for two more for XMas myself! They are food rods, especially for someone just starting out. Strong, reliable, and sensitive. I own 4 already.

I will be sure to watch it. I love my Berkley rods, and would love to try another one. I need to do reviews on mine. (I have 2 Lightning Rods, 2 Cherrywood HD's, 1 Lightning Shock and 1 Amp Spinning) They are great for the money.

I enjoy the Bandit Squarebills as well. Get one in chartruese, that is the ultimate dirty water bait. The fish can see it, and it is loud as heck!

They have one more bearing. Both are graphite. This doesn't bother me, but I like the aluminum better. The reason I bought them is I got them for $40 each. One for crankin and one for swim jigs/spinnerbaits.

Jerkbait gets the ticket for me. Lots of guys on geee like blade baits.

If ots muddy, slow roll a black and blue spinnerbait with a big thumper Colorado blade. I like my blade to be painted black w/a blue flake as well.

Inshore Redfish. It's like bass fishing on steroids.

Looking to buy some plastic chunks for flipping jigs, and wanted to know what everyone's favorite chunks were! I'm looking to match with a black and blue jig, as well as an okie craw color jig.

Did you not like the frame? The carbon fire is a graphite frame/ vs regular speed spool is aluminum. The regular speed spool also has a few more bearings. I really like my speed spools. I currently have a tournament (5.4:1), 2 original speed spools (6.4:1), and two laser mg speed spools (5.4:1 and 6.4:1) and have not had any problems after 2 years of use with my oldest one.

Same as said above, it's just nice to have so you know how much adjustment you are making, and you can get a sense of what 'x' amount of clicks amounts to in terms of lbs of drag rather than just blindly playing with a drag star, but no, it doesn't make your drag any stronger or effect the performance of the reel.

This is a true statement, I would recommend changing out the hooks on these baits as well.... If you really want to upgrade look at some of the Lucky Craft Square Bills, they are on sale for $7 on BPS website.

Take a good luck at the BPS XPS Squarebills. I like to shop local, and do that a lot, but those baits are only $4.29 or $15 for a 5 pack and are on par with much more expensive baits. Also, I really like a translucent gold color when it comes to crankbaits, so whatever brands of baits you go with, I would look into that type of color.

Bass Pro Shops ProLite Special Casting Reel (Marked down from $100 to $60, couldn't help myself!!) paired with a 6'6" Berkley Cherrywood HD ($25) for jerkbaits/topwaters. So in total, $85

Doesn't seem like a big deal to me. Most innovations that are real game changers are done by the individual angler when it comes to frogs, including bending hooks, adding trailer hooks (is this effective? do they make the less weedless?), clipping legs shorter, or to different lengths, that kinda stuff. Patrick Sebile is a great lure maker though, he has some really innovative lures like the soft and hard magic swimmers.

Finesse has a truly different definition from angler to angler. For someone who mostly power fishes, throwing a smaller spinnerbait and slow rolling it may be considered finesse. Great series of articles explaining this in more depth here: http://www.bassmaster.com/blog/what-finesse-fishing-all-about This specific article is the intro to the series. It's a column post by Mike Iaconelli (I think that's how its spelled???)

I have done well in colder water with a silent squarebill. The water around here is not muddy, but it is slightly green stained. I caught my personal best in November on the Xcalibur Silent Squarebill. We actually were pulling ice out of the water so I also understand the cold.

Squarebill crankbait. I caught my personal best on one last month.

Mono for all my treble baits. Don't want to rid ripping hooks or pulling a bait away from a fish.

The whole point of a swimbait is to be a very natural immitation of a baitfish, so I would definitely match the natural forage.

I don't think there is a wrong way to fish one. Just figure out the cadence the fish want. I usually start out searching with a spinnerbait. You can chuck them just about anywhere, they are practically weedless.

If I don't like to fish something or I don't have confidence in it, I'm not gonna fish it in a tournament. Under pressure like that is not exactly the time to experiment. I prefer to have a game plan, similar to the way Anthony Gagliardi fishes l, rather than run and gun

On what line? Fluoro, mono, and braid would all cause the lure to have a different sink rate.

I have not held one, but I have owned several of Berkley's rods, and would not hesitate to buy one. We spoke about them and good opinions were given about them in the thread on best cranking rod for under $120

I'd buy the carbonlite. They are on sale for $70