TwoCan

+1 to whoever said steepandcheap, I bought a pair of costa Straits the other day. With next day shipping it totaled 84 bucks and I still saved 108 dollars. If I knew I was going to like them this much I would have bought a second pair and a different color lens.

KVD jerkbait, T-rigged rage craw, Zoom super fluke

A little more difficult to pitch/flip up here. Natural colors like watermelon and green pumpkin are best. You gotta stay back a ways since the water can be almost crystal clear. Better than pitch/flipping is running a jerk bait along the edges of docks, I personally have more success doing that than pitching/flipping.

Looks like that's what I will be getting then! Now, just to find a 7.1:1 reel...

You can never go wrong throwing a jerk bait in clear water. If you have one in bluegill or especially perch, I wouldn't hesitate to give it a try!

Do you have any deep diving cranks? After the morning bite shuts off I go out deeper and find the thermocline, and if it's possible, throw deep divers that can reach just to about the same depth or a foot or two above the thermocline and have been quite successful. Also, lipless cranks or any other type of reaction bait above or on the edge of weeds in about 10-12 feet of water has worked well.

Any reviews on the Quantum Smoke rod? Thinking about getting one 6'9''M of jerk and rip baits/top water.

Does anybody know if/where to find different lenses for Costa's? I am ordering a pair of the Straits that come with the copper lenses (closest I could get to amber) and was wondering if I could find different colored lenses like blue and gray for them somewhere else? Thanks!

Strike King XDs when the bass want something big, loud, and fast Dropshot or a shaky head when they want something small and slow Most of the bass I fish around stay shallow for just the wee hours of the morning and then head 25 ft + deep until the last two hours of the day when they move shallow again. There is a lot of fishing out in the middle of nowhere for deep suspended bass.

RES in sexy shad or bluegill Honorable mention: Spro aruku in chrome with black back.

We all have one. When the bass just aren't talking and telling you what they want. I'm talking when you can't even catch a cold or a sunburn, what do you throw? Mine has always been a whacky-rigged senko. I'm bound to catch something.

- T-Rigged Rage Craw (pegged, claws dipped in chart. or red JJ's) - RES

Get JJ's magic and dip any soft plastic in it before you throw it. You'll never worry about 'human scent' again. As for leaving a pre-rigged lure set on the deck, it all depends on how long you're letting it sit, the sun, how hot it is, ect. If it's a hot, dog days of summer type day I will keep my plastics in the shade and won't rig one until I'm ready for it. If it's a cloudy, cooler day I don't have a problem letting it sit on the deck for a little while.

The other day was slow on the lake. Slow is a bit generous, it was dead. So I thought of a different way (at least to me) to rig a craw. On a shaky head. My thinkin' was that on the bottom the shaky head would put a plastic craw in a natural defensive position with the claws up and spread out. I didn't catch anything with it, but I hadn't caught anything all day. Just wondering if anybody has tried rigging a craw on a shaky head and it worked out or not.

I have been trying to find a good fluoro recently for jerk/rip baits and cranks. Last evening at a tournament I was fishing Vicious 100% Fluoro in 12lb test and it was working flawlessly for 3 hours. Right around the time when we had a half-hour left I was setting the hook and the line snapped somewhere between my pole and the lure. I was frustrated but though maybe there was a kink in the line, and I was in a tournament so I need to keep a positive attitude. I tied on a duplicate of the lure I just lost (1/2 oz. Red Eye Shad) went to cast it and the line snapped at the reel! Just wondering if anybody else has had this issue with Vicious or if maybe I just got a bad spool.