the reel ess

Yeah, Lunnkerhunt. I really wanted to like this frog because of the natural looking legs. But so far, no good. You shouldn't have to fix an $8 lure so it works as advertised. I also have to pocket size that I haven't used yet. I actually got it first mail order. I should've tried it before wasting $8. I'll give it a try sometime on spinning gear. Maybe it'll work better due to being much smaller. Why does this site think Lunk_er is a curse word?

As with cars, just because someone has a $250 lure or a $60K boat doesn't mean they're better off than you. Usually, quite the opposite is true. I draw the line at $50 for what I'll spend without notifying my wife unless it's a gift for her. I don't have to, I just do so I can maintain my self-respect as a hubby and dad. I don't recall her ever saying to me "Don't buy that!" I also agonize over big $$$ purchases so long the urge to buy it usually passes.

I had a good size bass blow up on a Chug'n Spook the other night and miss it three times, even coming out of the water. Then I caught a 5 lb'er on just one of the hooks of the trebles under the jaw.

And someone can always catch 'em. I don't know of any tourneys where no one catches anything. But then I'm not in a local club. Maybe it does happen. But I take the opposite approach and fish a place I can cover in a day. That way I KNOW there's a captive population of bass and that some of them will see my bait. That solves one part of the equation. Then if it's getting really hard, I can play my ace in the hole and go to a place that's overpopulated (stunted). They're almost always hungry.

No

It looked like a good quality frog with realistic legs. It even appears to be swimming with a steady retrieve. And you can tell there is quality in the design.

5 LB 1 OZ on a Chug'n Spook Jr, frog pattern from the kayak. It was almost dark as you can see from the photo. It only had one of the 6 trebles, under the jaw. I had to wear it down to get it lipped without wearing those hooks.

Update: I mentioned this on LunkerLure's official YouTube channel and they responded I should superglue the nose and the plastic button that seals the body underneath, but not the hole where the hooks exit the body so it'll collapse when I get a bite. I'm going to try to go tomorrow evening and give it another shot, but it's on a short leash.

Buy them. He doesn't care. He's the problem, not you. I worked at Wally World for a year when I was a teen. My buddy worked in the sporting goods/automotive dept before the days of the Super Walmarts. He always had a list of what was going on clearance. I would ask him to take the rods I wanted off the rack when he put them on clearance and put them with the damaged goods. Since I had to wait for payday, I couldn't just go get them. I got three nice ones on clearance minus my employee discount that way and used them for years. Still have one and just sold 2 5'6" pistol grip "96% graphite" rods at a yard sale. To be clear, I wasn't asking him to make them damaged to cheat the company. I just had him hide them for me until I could buy them.

I wonder if it's also cheaper for a teacher. The wife's an educator. You'd be surprised the discounts out there for them.

Just like Big Lots...you can find something you want there. But you can't go there with a shopping list.

I think that red face coming right at the fish just makes them strike out of pure instinct.

My buddy told me if you put things in your cart online but don't order, they, BPS and Cabela's will email you offering free shipping. I haven't tried yet. I get what I can off Amazon because we have PRIME (no shipping charges ever). You pay a small fee once a year. $25 I think. The wife paid it because that's how we do most shopping for gifts.

Wacky, T Rig Craw, Rat L Trap. I'm still gonna try a chicken rig sometime, but I haven't had a day where nothing would bite in a while. Something keeps saving my day. Notice the nail in the big end and that it's rigged backwards from the middle. It looks like you could get it close to overhanging branches and it would fall into the bank, not away. But it looks like a technique where you need to have a good idea there are fish there to tease with it. Not a search bait. Also looks good for bedding bass. But I'd prefer a bubble gum, lime or methiolate color Trick Worm for the visibility. This looks like a Zoom Ultra Vibe work with tail cut. I know they sell them that way or you can cut the tail straight on a curly tail one.

I bought one of these and tried it out Sat evening in a pond with a lot of weeds where frogs have done well before. It got three bites and no catches. Although one was a hookup but the fish buried itself in a clump of thick weeds. my mistake. But the lure was waterlogged and I had to squeeze it out after every cast. This caused the action to be different from what I expected. I sort of dove under a little after the first couple pulls. Do other people have this same result? For $8 I wasn't terribly impressed for the first try. And while the body is very soft and collapsible, the points of the hooks are pressing into the body. My Booyah Pad Crashers have daylight between the hooks and body. And they don't fill up with water every cast. I was wishing I'd brought another frog in the kayak even though I got three bites. The fish were turned on. I also caught 2 on a Chug'n Spook Jr frog pattern and missed two bites on it. One of these fish took the Spook and swam straight toward me so fast I couldn't set the hook for 5 seconds. He was still on! That's another issue in itself. I was fishing from the kayak, which tends to make topwaters dive, so you work the rod up instead of down. I usually fish them slower to keep them on top. But that's what I mostly fish from.

I was gonna say it looks like a Millionaire.

Dick's doesn't seem to know what people in our area fish for. They don't seem to try.

Yep. Only thing I've bought there in the last few years is Zoom Craws. I would buy Trick Worms there, but they're always out of bubble gum color. Academy has become my go-to.

Sure you're right. But if I'd been barbless last night, I would very likely not have landed that 5 lb. fish.

Anyone remember this classic? I had several as a kid. I remember catching crappie from time to time on them. I was surprised to find they're still being made and BPS has them.

RatLTrap. Reel it just fast enough to keep above the grass. It won't always work, but they'll be good fish when it does.

I respect your disagreement. But that's what caused me to put the topwaters away for more than a decade before I learned to use and love them. At one time I had concluded they were a gimmick, or at best, a fringe bait that I couldn't count on to get bites. Now they're my favorite. As a rule, if a person tries a bait a few times and gets skunked, that bait goes back to zero. Don't let the first few times you try a new bait be in the worst conditions. There are exceptions to every rule of thumb though.

One way is to use them at the right time and conditions. If you don't, you'll end up putting them back in the bottom of the box.Don't expect many topwater bites at high noon with bluebird skies. Unless it's a really weedy place and the bait is a frog.

Last night I had to lip a 5 lb'er that had only one hook of a Spook under his jaw, none inside the mouth. I wanted badly to land that sucker, weigh it and get a pic because I knew it was a good fish. But that thing was peeling some drag and I could see the other 5 hooks flying around looking for some fingers to bury themselves in. I finally wore it out. My buddies were in a Bass Tracker watching the thing spin me around in circles. When I brought it to hand it still had its mouth shut and I had to wrestle it to get it open. To this day, after 35+ years fishing, I've never gotten a hook barb deep.

I caught a 5-1 last night on a Chug'n Spook Jr, frog pattern so late It was hard to get a pic. Had some good misses too. A few bites on the Lunker Lure frog. I'm not sold on it yet, fills with water too easy. Anyway, I fish early or late, preferably late.