fishwizzard

They sure do. I use small paddle tails (cheaper ones!) when I am deliberately fishing for picks. I have found that if you run them quickly, the picks will just smash them in the middle and hook themselves. This is my favorite pickerel picture, a little hammer handle one turned this fluke inside out.

Yep, it is my favorite way to fish. Except for the ticks. And the thorns. And chiggers. And the poison ivy.

I feel the same way, which is why I had to jump on this guy before Native discontinued the color. As for rods and reels, I care a little about color I guess. Or rather, I love blinged out color-matching combos, but have yet to be willing to pay more to customize my gear. I think once I settle down and mange to keep a combo together for more than one season I might dip my toe into it a little.

I got some of this stuff a year or so back but I messed something up and got a spool of line that was literally thinner than my hair. It was so fine that with calloused fingers I honestly had trouble feeling it. I spooled it on my UL spinning combo and hit the river. It cast further than anything i have used before but that first wind know was a showstopper. I was also so light and limp that I struggled to tie knots in it. Also the thread title made me think for a second that this brand was revived and was now making fishing gear;

Frogs. I guess some people can make them walk, but I just cast them out there and kinda drag them back to me. Hell, let's just say topwater lures in general are a thing I struggle with. This past season I devoted a lot of time to learning jigs and chatterbaits, maybe next season will be devoted to topwater.

Welp, there went an hour and a half reading that guy's blog. He has some good ideas and is really really clear when presenting them. I know videos are the way of the future, but I will always prefer text with pictures.

Oh, I see the appeal of it all, but it is easier to resist when I can't just hit a single "Submit Order" button. I am also rough enough with my gear that the effort might be wasted, unless I go rat-rod style. That reel of yours is pretty stunning in any case.

The ability to resist dress up parts gets weaker and weaker every day. Only the inability to find a single vendor with all the parts I want in stock has saved me from ordering a few times. Where did you find the orange bumpers, I don't think I have ever seen them in that color?

This has been a super useful thread. I currently have a CR723 IMX that I originally bought to use a general purpose bank rod and while I love it, I have been looking at the GLX 783C MBR as an upgrade for it. I love the taper on the CR and it sounds like the MBR is the same, so I think my plan will work. I do have a question to add though, about the power rating on Loomis rods. I have two rods from the CR line, a Medium Heavy (CR723) and a Light (CR721) and neither of them will (in my opinion) will handle weights in line with the rating on the rods. The 721 seems heavier than the rating, casting best at the upper end of it's range, around 3/8oz being the sweet spot. The 723 is fishing lighter then I was expecting, with 1/2oz being about the max the rod feels like it wants to cast. The upper rating is 3/4oz, but the rod really feels overloaded when I try to push it to that. At the end of the day I still have a use for each rod, the 721 throwing smaller jerks and topwaters and the 723 for senko-class plastics and 1/4oz jigs. So I guess my questions are 1) Am I crazy? and 2) In terms of power, is a MBR "3" going to feel the same as a CR "3"?

They did 3-ish years ago. I guess I need to give them an other look. They said the price was due to their limited parking, which is understandable I guess.

I have had the same issue with smaller smallmouths, they inhale a lure and their smaller mouths make it harder to get in there to get the hook out. I now debarb all of my hooks for soft plastics and any hardbaits/jigheads small enough for a dink to swallow. I have used the "through the gills" method to good effect, but my cheap gun-show hemostats were not up to it. I upgraded to ones like A-Jay linked and they work great.

I throw the 130s on my frog/swimbait rod, an Irod rated 1/2-2oz. It will throw one a mile and the rod is long enough to keep the line off the water when fishing from the bank. The 90s I will throw on any rod that will cast it, I keep one in my tackle bag all the time as my "emergency" topwater.

I have used the Skip-Gap hooks for senkos and other thin plastics, but I have never gotten them to fit well with tubes. I wanna say my issue was that the hook isn't "tall" enought to fit most tubes, assuming I want the extra bend to stick out past the bottom of the tube. But maybe I am doing it wrong, I will try to post a picture tonight of what I was trying.

What hooks are you guys using to pitch tubes? I have tried it a little but have yet to find a hook that stays weedless but also gives me a decent hookup ratio.

Yea, it took me a few trips to sort it out, but my UL rod is rated from 1-4 grams, so an 1/8oz spinner is close to the top of the rating rather than the bottom, which I think helps a lot. I also spooled up with 4lb mono, which mattered a lot more than I thought it would. After I got comfortable I switched back to 6lb and my accuracy and distance both suffered.

You need a rod that can load with such a light lure. The Kuying Teton line of UL casting rods are great for the price (iirc $50 or so) and will cast as low as your thumb can handle. I am not super skilled with a casting reel by any means, but the right rod makes it a lot easier.

I have once, but it is too far to paddle my kayak and I hate paying $20 to launch at Smiths's. Round Bay is a great spot for white perch and stripers when they are around.

I think I am getting the hang of Allen Pond; Caught on a Jackall Squad Minnow. I was honestly just seeing how my BFS rod would handle it and was just casting aimlessly out to the middle of the pond. Got this one on a dropshot. It fought a ton harder than the larger one above, I didn't notice the scale was set to ounces at first and thought I had caught a real monster.

I plan on getting a fly rod at some point, as I am running out of ways to justify new casting/spinning combos to myself. I also want to learn to tie first, which I am working on now with limited success. However, I am immediately going to steal the idea of using rabbit fur as a drop shot lure. I could tie a little forked strip to a DS hook and have a far more durable lure then a plastic.

Speaking of abrasion resistance, I just had my first break-off due to it. I was dropshotting with 7lb Sniper as hooked into a plump 2.5lber that took a bit to get under control and landed. The hook was well lodged in the upper lip and despite being de-barbed, I had to grab pliers to get it out. Once I got the fish released I went to get my rod reset and discovered the hook was missing. I found it laying on the dock at my feet. I guess it must have broken off when I was unhooking the fish, but I have never had this happen before. Not a great pic, but the knot (a trilene) was very frayed looking where it when around the hook eye, I assume from rubbing on the bass's lip during the fight. Not sure what could prevent this.

Cool, thanks for the info.

Again, I have only fished the spinning rod for a handful of hours, but the difference is pronounced. I am hoping that I can get the hang of it with more use, my trigger finger is way way out of practice compared to my brake thumb.

I have a Phenix Recon PHX682 light action rod w/ an Alphas Finesse Custom reel I throw hard baits in that range on. I only recently got a spinning rod around the same length, but from my very limited testing the casting combo smokes the spinning one in distance. The JDM company MajorCraft makes a ton of lighter casting rods in the $150-$250 range, but can be found cheaper used.

I use a mix of all three lines, but braid is my least favorite. I have also used the Armilo Defier mono and really like it. I have used the 11lb and the 25lb. They both cast well, obviously the 25lb has some memory, but it is manageable even with a 1/2oz frog tired on. My only complaints with it are the lack of bulk spools and the lack of anything lighter than 11lb. Can anyone recommend a good mono for finesse plastics in the 7-10lb range? The 11lb Armilo Defier is .0108" and YZ Hybrid 6lb is .010~", so I am looking for something thinner than either. I am currently using 7lb Sniper (.0086") and 8.4lb Seaguar Finesse (.0085"), so something around that would be great. I like both of these lines but give Sniper the nod for coming in bulk spools, but I would love to try some monos before I make a bulk buy.

I find weedless is best when I am trying to fish faster current over a rocky bottom where I can't keep an open hook head from rolling and for the trick of casting to the far bank and then hoping the plastic into the water. I also like them when I am "hiking" and just stopping every so often to make a few quick casts, then it's just to annoy my hiking partners less by making him wait while I re-tie. So I spent about 45min fishing one of these heads today. I used the same half-zinker I took on an off a few times last night. Even after the lure softened up, the keeper held tight. Sadly, I didn't manage to catch anything on it, but if you want a big, heavy hook, these heads seem worth trying.