Jake the Cake

Agreed. I don't know if I'm a weak jig fisherman or if I just don't fish it enough or just don't have the patience. It seems I can take a simple swim bait setup and bounce it off the bottom with better results. My 2016 resolution is also to slow down and really give the jig a try more this season. I like the look of the Scrounger that WRB mentioned. Never fished one but I'll be giving it a shot.

1/8 oz Rooster Tail for Smallmouths in the river. Favorite colors have to be yellow, black, and white.

3" Powerbait Swim Shad - Shad color. simply because it's my most producing lure spring through fall and I'm incredibly comfortable fishing it. Plus it's got enough weight you can cast it a mile.

I've been using Berkley Vanish for both my Crappie and Bass rigs (4lb and 10lb respectively, Both spinning reels) and they seem to skip around docks just fine.

GX2 Ugly Stik (5'6" - Light) with a Shimano IX2000R The Shimano reel is only $20 and the GX2 can easily be found for $30 or $40. I've never had a problem with either. Now if you're pulling in 5lb panfish, I might upgrade to the IX4000R but for anything less, the 2000 works just fine. I've bent that pole almost in half and it holds up to anything and everything I throw at it, time and time again

I have both a Shimano 4000 and 2000 and they can both skip just fine but the 2000 is easier to handle while doing so. I believe it's more the rod length that makes the biggest difference.

Don't know if I jumped the gun or not, but I feel pretty happy with the decision I made. Pro Max 3 and a Fenwick Nighthawk should be at my door next week!!! $94 for the whole setup including shipping. Little more than the $75 I was looking to spend but definitely feel I have something that will last me for years. Thanks again for everybody's help and I'm excited to get started.

Lady Pflueger

So what I'm hearing a lot is don't go cheap, and the Promax seems like it might just be the best quality for my price range. I'm not going to lie, I thought the Daiwa Laguna was going to be the popular choice. Thanks for the opinions and tips everybody. I'll definitely have to post my setup once I get everything together after searching local shops and the corners of the internet.

Amazon has a promax rod and reel combo for $65.99 (and that was just a quick search) so if it's worth it I'm not too worried about paying the extra $15.

Finally at 30 years old, I decided it's about time to learn baitcasters (pretty excited about it). After doing my research, I'm looking at 4 rod and reel combos that are all within the same price range ($60 for rod and reel) and would like some opinion on quality and ease of use. Thanks in advance. Daiwa Laguna 100HS Lew's American Hero (Laser AH) Ardent Denny Brauer Champion Abu Garcia Black Max 3

Nothing special here. Bunch of $20-$50 reels and rods. But the way us two rednecks use them is priceless.

First year of really getting into LMB fishing and it went okay. Learned a lot of new things (especially from you all) that I'm excited to use in '16. I'm not quite ready to say goodbye to Crappie and White Bass and Catfish, but I am definitely welcoming chase of bigger and more frequent Large Mouth!!!!

Lol, I have to agree with Bankbeater. To me that's clear. But I'm also used to fishing in waters like this.

Aaahhhhh, that's a good looking lure.

I think finding birds, looking through a fish's mouth, and identifying water levels are the most useful tricks I've learned. Especially the birds in spring and fall, I'll haul towards them and fish a swimbait or topwater. If you're looking for fish in general, I'd take a 4" Gulp minnow when I see the birds and start fishing for anything that wants to bite. had a lot of good days like that.

I know we're getting off topic here, but where do you get one with red dots? Is it a Worden's?

1/8oz Yellow Rooster Tail. It'll catch anything in a creek or river.

I gotta ask because I've seen these lures before, but are these for bass? I laughed when I first got wind of these but since then I've heard quite a few mentions of them and I'm intrigued.

I'd have to say I go natural colors most of the time. if I get discouraged I'll switch to what I call clown baits and sometimes they're useful but most times I'm just using it to justify having in my tackle box, lol. Brown, green, black - on the bottom (jigs, T-rig, Drop Shot, etc) White, silver, cream, blue - any swimbaits one jig that blurs the lines between useful and clown, the Mizzou Craw from Strike King. It's one of my favorite but honestly it doesn't produce like I think it should but d**n do I get confident when I tie it on

Thanks guys. I'm excited to add all this to the arsenal

Glad to hear it works well!!! Do you use a standard trailer hook? when I was looking at the frog yesterday I thought it had the potential for short bites but I would imagine a trailer hook would make it sink or mess up the look of it so I just tied it on as-is.

I prefer my 6'6" Shimano pole (couldn't tell you what model). I feel it's got the right amount of accuracy and distance on the casts. I'm a little more inexperienced than other people on this forum so I use Fluoro for everything.

Good looking boat!!!

So do I need to fish this bait fast for it to be effective? I was thinking I'd take it out there and throw it near some brush and let it sit and give it a few twitches every now and then.