Cgolf

A while back I took the paint off a couple of RESs. What I found was one had a white base and the other had a clear base. Would guess the chrome would be a white base for sure. Wonder if the plastics are slightly different which would explain why some didn't swell?

Is Megabass the brand that caused my credit card to spontaneously combust when it saw the prices when I tried to put them in my cart?

Glenn seems to not be a fan of TW. I am joining his side, except for Black Friday and the 25 days sales where I have scored some great deals.

Not exactly Wal mart sale prices but stopped at a Gander Outdoors that was closing. 50 percent off lowest tag fishing and 70 precent off lowest tag marine. Got a backup Yak life vest for 21. All the BioSpawn baits and lure dye were 3 a piece. Suffix 832 was 5.40 a spool. Cordell baits were 2.40 for and 3.25 for 2. Structure bugs were 2.75. Could have gone really crazy but budget and all that lol. Bummed they didn’t have any Menace grubs, but more than happy with what we found. The D bombs were under 2 for the bag.

Just hoping you don’t run out of wave heads. My father in law will be ordering me 40 total heads spread across 3 weights for Christmas. Will probably use them unskirted, really liking that style of fishing.

I want to add an additional use for snaps. I fish mostly slider heads and shakey heads with my plastics. Back when I was getting started it was because I was lazy, but later I did some testing and am convinced that lighter heads, 1/4 and 3/16 ounce, fall more nose down than when tied direct. If the bait is tied direct to a flouro leader, the knot doesn’t pivot at the tie point, the bait needs to pull the line down as well as the nose of the jig to go straight down, which I don’t think happens with light weights. The snap allows the bait to freely pivot and get to a nose down attitude much easier. This is a small detail, but when fishing vertical cover like reeds, having the bait at the base of a reed or two or three feet away can mean the difference between getting bit or going away empty handed. In 20 years of doing this I have not lost a fish to a douloc snap failure.

That would be really nice. I am not a fan of the 3750 boxes they include with bags, haven’t found a great use for them. The old deep 3700 boxes work great for cranks as long as the trebles are rubberbanded together to make them easier to get out. 90 percent of my backup plastics are stored in the 4700 double level boxes. Gonna be a very sad day for me if they discontinue that box. I have more than I will admit too. wish they would bring back the falcon lipless box too. That was an amazing box.

Awesome thanks. That would work, I could lay the plastics flat and a crank bait box could be the vertical box. I use the Plano 4600 dual level boxes for plastics. Honestly I am not sure I would even fill this bag up which is a good thing I think, or I could pack a bit more tackle.

I am looking to do an order tonight and need to know if the 3700 boxes will lay flat in the magnum bag. I am looking to replace the super magnum back killer bag. The magnum will hold all the boxes I need for a week trip and I like that they front pockets will hold 3600 size boxes. It also won't take up as much deck space. I just need the boxes to lay flat in the main compartment because vertical storage does funky things to my plastic boxes. I am a bit anal in my organization and all of my plastics are boxed so that they are straight and won't take a funky set when set flat, Rage packaging in a box lol. Thanks

I just read an article in Bassmaster by David Fritts that he uses braid on his cranking setups because his cast is violent enough to actually break flourocarbon. Kind of insane when you think about it.

Totally agree. I got folks on twitter swearing by the stuff and I did finally break down and try some, but when it is gone I will be back to straight fireline on spinning reels and power pro or 832 on baitcasters. I just don't see more bites with flouro, I think for some folks it is a confidence thing. I grew up near Geneva lake, gin clear, and we would throw baits on solar xt and would get bit. I will say a couple of times catching toothy critters, the flouro didn't get bit off like braid would. Do you think a line like Yo Zuri Hybrid would be a better leader or is it not worth it since your essentially adding 2 more knots to the system and just deal with the loss of a bait or two? I do like Yo Zuri Hybrid for cranking deep divers, but it is amazing how much more sensitive braid is.

I have been using flouro as a leader with braid for a while now. Spinning combos get 8-12 lb red label and I have great luck with it fishing a rock filled river. The only time it breaks off is when I snag up and to be honest even then it takes more than I would expect to break it. For my heavier line rigs I have 20 lb sniper and like that as well. As far as lines I have tried and don't like, Gamma seemed to shed when I used it, perhaps I had a bad spool. Vanish I won't use for gear fishing, but it seems to work well as a leader fly fishing, not sure why it holds up well there and not for other applications.

I can't speak for others, but for me I catch a lot of fish on our vacation lake with the tactics I use, and I have grown the bag of tactics I have over the years, and I am still trying to add more. I have many finesse presentations, but they all get more casts per hour than a Senko. For my personality quirks, that works for me and I probably could fish a Senko but not for long without getting board. The vacation lake is also a very windy lake and I fish out of a 16 foot aluminum boat that makes holding stable difficult. I also fish reeds a lot and in the wind weightless baits and true Ned rigs are difficult to fish in those conditions. Often I have to up the Ned rig weight to put the bait where I want it. The only time I could effectively fish the weightless senko is sunup where 4 of the 7 days it has been calm enough to effectively fish lighter baits around vertical cover. Who knows if I fished different cover and wind conditions maybe I would be using it more, but since this is the lake I hope to retire on it may not be in the cards. I know they catch fish, but the drop being slower and the twitch and then glide of the bait taking longer than a weighted plastic is what doesn't suit my style. If I am not catching fish I do what I need to do to catch fish, longer pauses, etc until I key in on what they want. Last year it was letting it drop and shaking the bait in place while other years it was letting it sit. I just haven't grabbed a weightless senko or other stickworm to put them in the boat. I have used a swim senko on a 1/4 slider head and let them sit on the bottom for 5 seconds to catch fish, but to me the swim senko is a completely different bait.

Reading through the thread also got me to thinking about when I read the lures used to win and place at a Bass or FLW tournaments. These guys all think they have the best baits for the waters and maybe even the only ones they will get bit on. Then a lot of times the baits of the top ten finishers will be quite different. The AOY tourney was one of the few that really had a common theme. Many responses on here fit that. If the high water goes down, I will have to force myself to try a weightless Senko.

Having fished a Senko before it definitely falls slower than a menace, tube or otter. I do agree that when I fish vertical cover 90 percent of the hits are on the initial drop, maybe with a subtle shake in place before I reel back. Fishing weed flats or in the heart of a reed bed I will get bites on the retrieve as well, usually hopping it along the bottom. Want to at least say I have stuck with inefficient, and to be honest in the back of my mind there are concerns gut hooking a bass even when watching the line. I had to change my Ned rig retrieves up a bit because River smallies were choking them if I got any slack in my line.

Well said. Fishing reed beds I have seen a change from a narrow bodied menace to a wide bodied ugly otter mean the difference between bites and no bites. Also while this discussion is about plastics I have seen a huge difference switching from an Xcalibur square bill that plows water to a much more subtle Bandit 100 after a cold front. One of those deals where the fish need to tell us what they want, whether we listen or not is the key to getting bit. My mental block is fishing fast. Was at a seminar by Seth Feider and when he talked about his jerkbait retrieve I still can’t get myself to retrieve a jerkbait or any other bait has violently as he described.

I have tried them some, but when baits like a tube or Menace are getting bit I tend not to bother putting them down and trying a Senko. One situation I might see them working for me is on cold mornings when the sun is coming up and the fish don’t want to bite right away. Generally my goto then is a spybait retrieved slow and straight or a jerkbait popped a couple of times near cover than reeled back slowly to maybe hookup an indecisive bass (this went from a weakness for me this year to a confidence bait by forcing myself to work with them). In fact I stocked up on shadow raps for next year when their site allowed all the codes to be stacked. It sounds like they work pretty well weighted, I may try them on a slider head like the swim senkos. I need to use those again as I have a fairly healthy supply of swim senkos to use up.

Not run and gun per say, I have spent 7 hours fishing a series of Reed beds smaller than the size of a football field. I do however like to keep reeling and casting as much as possible. I am actually a pretty good stick walleye jigging deeper water, but I can only take it so long especially with light jigs in 20 to 30 feet of water. The line watching helps some, which you need to do with a Senko so there is hope for me. I will say I have had a few 15 fish hours with the Menace and Baby Menace on a slider head, it has been more effective than the Ned rig for me on flat water. Probably just how I am wired.

I get the weighted Senko, I have done well at times with a swim senko on a slider head. Although I never thought to rig a standard Senko on a slider head, but have had success with a Zoom Mag finesse so it should work. I just don’t understand fishing them weightless and that to me is where the inefficiency comes in. I might try it yet this fall, I have a handful of bags, and see if I get anything. I also think many would already consider my 1/4 or 3/16 tubes or Menace on sliders a bit of a finesse presentation already. Rarely do I go heavier. My swim jigs usually only go 5/16 so I am not a power fisherman.

Probably depends on the lake too. Our vacation lake I generally have up to 5 patterns I can fall back on to catch fish. My home lake I don’t get out on enough has greenish stained water with very little structure that the weeds aren’t consistent but in huge clumps. The consistent pattern is docks, but being an urban lake I don’t like fishing them as often. It is truly a run and gun lake to find fish especially since I am only out every 3 to 4 weeks. If Iknew where they were on this lake it might work well, but only if my normal baits failed to produce. My ultra finesse bait are spybaits, Love those things.

For my fishing I like tossing all lures but a weightless Senko style lure. I just don’t understand the appeal of them to anglers. If fishing is that slow in an area, I look for a new area with fish willing to bite. The slowest I will fish is letting a lightly weighted plastic drop to the bottom, pause it a couple of seconds reel it in and repeat. To me it’s like slip bobber fishing for walleyes where you need a few beers in the boat, not driving, to get through the night;) We get stacked cold fronts when I fish in N WI and I still get a lot of bites on tubes, grubs, Menace, and jerkbaits with the plastics on a 1/4 slider head. What I notice since I fish a full week is the bass position differently in the same general area, but will hit the same plastics, with a touch longer pause on bottom. Why do you all toss them when you could get more casts in with other baits that will also catch fish?

What size grub are you using? I could see if it were a smaller grub it would be easier to inhale. I have seen some aggressive bites periods though, where no matter what I throw including crankbaits the bass will get the whole bait in their mouth, best term I can come up with is choking it. Unfortunately for me these bites seem to be few and far between, but that could be what is happening.

I have fished a kalins 5” on a slider head for years and never had one swallowed that I can remember. I generally let it drop to the bottom, then either pop and drop it or a slow steady retrieve. I generally don’t let it sit too long on bottom though. How are you retrieving it?

So this will be my last comment on this;) For the disappointment in TW. Back before BPS bought Cabela's I had a spreadsheet on items I use regularly comparing the prices between the 3 stores and TW was the lowest across the board by a large margin, and therefore they recently have gotten a lot of my business. Fast forward to know and the margin between other shops has gotten smaller or they are more expensive than some. Not sure what got them to change their pricing model and that is where the disappointment lies? TW is just another shop now and I didn't want to believe it when others have pointed it out from time to time recently. It was nice when I could one stop shop and be a smart shopper lol. As far as shopping my wife will often split groceries between two stores to save money, they are in very close proximity to each other or on her way home from work so no extra gas costs and we almost always buy the store brands. We also shop an Amish bent and dent store and can get some amazing buys on groceries as long as we watch the dates. Siebert will most likely get our Rage order and when I lose some bass jigs I will try some of his. The Morel Ned heads are my current favorite Ned head. The sale thread has been a great help, because others find the deals for us:)

I guess you are missing my point. My wife has me on a bait monkey limiting yearly fishing budget. No real complaints with that. For my budget if a lure I previously bought a lot of jumps in price by 25% to be one of the more expensive plastics on the market, I will take my money elsewhere. Seeing Siebert’s post tells me it may be the shops getting greedy not Strike King. I am all for folks that can afford all the tackle they want (I don’t attack them like I have seen a few low budget anglers do), but cut those of us with a more limited budget some slack when our eyes pop out at prices. Heck a lot of people called out Googan for being expensive, now some Rage are more than Googan.