Cgolf

On a recent thread I commented about losing 2 shadow raps in short order to big musky, and have seen them take other jerkbaits in the past. Because of the toothy critters, shadow raps are at the high end of my budget for jerkbaits. How much will using even a short steel leader screw with the action of any jerkbait including the Megabass baits. Most cranks I can get away without a steel leader, but with jerkbaits and the bait often being on slack line I am defenseless against a toothy critter mouthing the whole bait and biting it off. What options are there other than the steel leader?

Had a toothy critter experience with not one bug two shadow raps. First one I caught a bass and missed a few. Then all of a sudden saw a solid musky strike the lure and I brought back empty line. Three months later new lure third or fourth cast another big musky empty line. I too hate losing cranks before their time and can definately relate. The only expensive lures I now throw from shore are topwaters and when throwing jerkbaits I have a steel leader on, a little diminished action is better than cut line.

Thank you for all the input, I was really close on the black max but it didn't have the free shipping.

Actually going with a Daiwa Laguna that is temporarily out of stock, but since I don't need it till spring I am good. Even with the issues I have had with some of their stuff I will give them one last shot. Will pick up a puzzle to get the free shipping and call it good. This is the reel I got form my father in law and had wished I had picked up one for myself.

The thing that sucks about the daiwas though, is they cast incredibly, from the mag force to an 80 dollar model I picked out for my father inlaw. The Viento does have the thitchin bar thing, but I think it was originally a 200 plus reel. I usually go go cheap on spinning reels and believe it or not Shakespeare reels in the 20 to 30 range have been really solid for over 10 years of hardcore River fishing. The original regal I had was a tank and loved it and used it off 15 plus years, just carried extra bail springs with. Not sure what happened on the second set, I got them on clearance, so not a lot was lost, but just disappointed that I got 2 reels I love from Daiwa and 3 that were essentially problem children.

Looking at the Black Max and it looks like a good deal, and I have love my Abu Round Musky reels. Now I have to decide which model and find the best price on it, seeing a bmax3 and a bmaxC. Will need to research to see what one would fit my needs if I go with the Bmax.

This was one model 'KastKing Royale Legend Baitcasting Fishing Reel – Perfect Baitcasting Reel – 11 + 1 Shielded Bearings – 17.5 Lb Carbon Fiber Drag - 7.0:1 Gear Ratio' that sounded like a good replacement for my Daiwa Megaforce that casted great when it was working. Daiwa might be big, but I have had horrible luck with their reels, I will say their customer service was very helpful though, I just needed to call them too often. I had an old regal spinning reel that was awesome as long as I had extra bail springs. The new regals I had worked ok, but the anti reverse failed quickly, but they are still usable. I had a Daiwa magforce that casted great but the piece that lays the line on the spool would get out of sync often causing binding. My Viento I got on sale for 80 bucks has worked pretty well, but I haven't used it as much as my Quantum accurists which have been bullet proof for a long time for me. So long story short I am not sure I want another Daiwa reel.

Searching on their site which is overwhelming, I did see the Kast King reels. Where are these from, I have never heard of the brand?

I got a gift card at work for 50 on amazon and was wondering if anyone knew of any good deals on reels on amazon? I could use either a baitcaster or a spinning reel. Don't want to go much if any over that though.

Fished 98 days this year. Usually get around 150 days a year, but the river fishing was really down this year. Many of my trips are on my way to work, so they are shorter, but it is still fishing:)

I was questioning the Berkley cranks, not cool looking Muskie/Bass bait. There was something about the new Berkley cranks that just looked off to me.

Since this year was really bad conditions for fishing I will first pray for better weather. I did make the most of it though, but my list is surprisingly similar to what I would have said last year. 1. Get my boat out more, make the time for it not excuses 2. Fish the reed beds and sand flat, on the vacation lake, they sit on late into the night for trophy Bass, Walleye, and Musky. Been saying I would do this for many years and have yet to do it. 3. Fish the drop shot more, worked well one year and quit using it. 4. Work on my home grown rig that I just don't give enough time even though I know it is a winner. 5. Do some videos on my reed fishing tactics, guessing that many don't do. 6. Fish the stupid Senko, get bored with it again after 2 casts, but repeat many times until I see that it can catch fish instead of giving up on it after those 2 casts. 7. Change lures more often, I generally don't switch out a lot, I need to switch out more. 8. Be more patient and like Ike never give up

How do they fish? I saw the paint jobs and could not pull the trigger and put one in my basket, especially at full price.

I use the gripper to land almost all of my fish, so unfortunately that doesn't work out for me. I do have a second manual gripper I could use to land the fish initially, and the use use the other to weigh, but as long as I don't screw up the math this has worked for me.

The kalins grubs are awesome, doesn't take much to get the tail moving and they are both soft and durable. The 5" seems to be the right length for a lot of swim jigs.

Similar to what @A-Jay and @j bab I have the cheaper Berkley lip gripper that I hold the fish with and then use my digital scale to hold both. I then just subtract the weight of the gripper and all is good. No harm to the fish and quick and easy release.

Funny thing, I was looking through my RESs last night and I have a silent one that has a faint click like a weight is loose, and it dates back to the timeframe they came out. It appears to be the same color as yours, but with all the chrome because I have never tossed it. Will be tossing it a lot next year though to see how it works.

I had good luck with them on a drop shot rig in the middle of reed beds. I would rig it on one of those weedless spin shot hooks and cast and retrieve it. Didn't need to work it much, and the fish seemed to like it.

I like to hit the bargain bins at Mills fleet farms, I have found some really good baits at super cheap prices. Not sure why some of the stuff is being cleared out, but I am not going to complain. Cabelas can be good too with random markdowns. Last time there I got 5 bags of cabin creek smoke purple tubes for .88 cents. The bummer is they only mark down one color and the finds are randomly placed, you really have to look.

Picked up 2 RES today where the TW website didn't do justice to the colors. The Chili craw had red flake all over the bait which should give it some extra flash and the DB craw looks awesome and with orange being my favorite color I had to pick one up. Sometimes just getting out to a shop and seeing some colors in person, if they have them, really makes it an easy decision to pick up more colors.

A lake we vacation on is a great example for this as I have it patterned better than my local lakes. There is a large sand flat on it that I could spend the full week on working the reeds and the weedlines of the flat dropping into 30 feet of water and have a great size and numbers week considering where the lake is, Bass don't grow too big there and spawn into July sometimes. If the flat is blown out, though I will cover a lot of water, especially hitting docks around the lake which did really well for me last year. I will say though the sand flats are my favorite spots to fish though, because the trophy Musky also hang out there and they love RES and the Musky fisherman just don't fish the area.

It looks better in person, where did you find the different color options?

What is the difference between the two, is it just the hooks or are the guts different?

Had a triple score at DSG today. Best deal was due to a price match my wife got $60 off a North Face winter coat, I got 4 bags of senkos for the price 2 with SK a Banshee RES were 3 bucks, and this put my points over so I get 10 bucks free now.

It thought it ran past Christmas last year starting a little bit into December. Either that or I am remembering the date the sale ended.