fishwizzard

Like in most plastics, I try to keep my colors simple. I use the following: -Junebug plastics with Charteuse jigheads - A bright green (Coppertruse, New Money, etc) plastic with a Red jighead - A natural (Drew’s Craw, The Deal, Mudbug, etc) with a Black Jighead. I have honesty not noticed much of a catch rate difference bwtween them.

I think the longer ones would make an excellent wacky rig plastic, but I have already given my shorter ones away I think.

A lot of the higher-end telescoping rods have floating gides. It’s a good feature as it allows more flexability in guide placement rather then having to slave them to the exact length of the sections. It also allows the rod to break down shorter overall and to use less sections. Idealy, all multipart and telescoping rods would have aligment marks to make setup faster, but I rarely see that feature. I keep meaning to add marks to my BBB, but have never gotten around to it.

The only way to really test them is to tie one end of a 200’ spool of briad to each spool, have you and a friend stand at each end of your street, and start cranking!

Yea, the more powerful the rod the softer I want the action. I have a few XF rods but they are all Light power or are for a very narrow applacation. I used a XH/R rod for most of my frogging this year and my hookup to landing ratio shot way up.

I bought a few packs of the smaller size Robo Ned worms and don’t like them at all for the Ned rig. They are too fragile and don’t quiver on a stright retrieve. I also tried them as as a substitute for a 3-4” senko for weightless t-rigging. They don’t have much wiggle that way either and I haven’t really found anything else to try them with. I did catch a few smallies drifting them weightless, but I think most any plastic will work for that if the bass are active.

The internet A lot of the JDM sites have them, they are on ebay, and even on Amazon occasionally. I think I did buy mine on amazon, but make sure to check pricing first as Amazon can be all over the place.

I use a Avid 6’2” M/XF for topwater and jerkbait and love it for both. Super light rod and the tip is the best I have ever used for poppin and jerkin.

My worm breakdown goes kinda like this: T-rig, dragging: 6-8’ Straight tail T-rig, swimming: 10’ Ribbon tail Weightless, shallow: Trickworm Dropshot, Sliderhead: Roboworm/Swamp Crawler

Daiwa has a line of telescoping rods called the "B.B.B." or "Triple B" line. I have one of the casting rods from it and like it a lot.

Has anyone tried theirs with a heavy lure, like 2-4oz?

It's really just the bump that kills for me. The reel with a RCS 1012 SV spool in it casts amazingly smoothly, just effortless distance and control, but that bump is just the worst. Also, while I don't hate the TW, it is very easy to see how much more trim and streamlined the Steez SV TW could have been without it and I don't think the TW system brings enough to the table to be worth the design restraints it seems to cause. In any case, the Steez is on the FMJ, spooled with 16lb tatsu. I am going to hit the lake tomorrow afternoon with a 1/2oz jig tied on and see what kinda trouble I can get in to.

Eh, it is a good reel but I would not pay anywhere close to MSRP for a second one. Not that it's bad, but it's not $200 better then an sv103. Right now it is rodless as it was uncomfortable to me on the rod I bought it for, an MBR 783 GLX. It feels comfortable on the FMJ casting around the yard, so I have some hopes that it will work out. The Steez TW SV has a bump-out on the rear-bottom on the handle side that my ring finger rubs on a few rods I have tried. The Alphas series has been comfortable on every rod I have put one on. I bought it looking for a middle ground between the Alphas and sv103, but if I could go back in time I would have spent the money on an TD-Z Ito and a ZPI spool. It's a bummer but I don't think there is a single current production Dawia reel that I am really interested in.

I have a Steez tw sv and I’m going to give this combo a try this weekend. The sv103 gives the rod a slight butt-heavy feel, which I like, but the Steez makes it super light in hand.

Never! The sv103’s and sv105’s are my core reels, if anything I am gonna buy a few more to hoard. I kinda want to get a nice long crankbait rod and a Curado DC and see if I can get 3/4oz lipless into low earth orbit.

The ebay 20% thing kills me, I had a Curado DC in my cart all night and finally closed the tab. I really want one but I am reel-heavy as hell at the moment.

Replace all live wells with deep-friers, the winner is selected via a cook-off back at the dock.

Does anyone else use a casting combo for drop shot? I tried it this season and I think I like it. Line twist with a floro mainline isnt much of an issue and with a shallow spool I dont mine swaping my line out more often. The downside is obviously backlashes, if that weight flys off you can kiss your spool of line goodby.

Fishing is the only sports thing I am into, so I never want to spring for a ESPN subscription. I did pay for the MLF streaming site for a while but couldnt get the stream to work on my TV, same with the BASS site. The Roku YouTube app is great, so I use that. I think my Roku is a few generations old at this point, I should see if the new ones can stream from random websites any better. I think I do agree with your point about the audience split in taste over best-five vs MLF.

I have been buying all my tungsten weights from omfishingsinkers, they are the cheapest I have ever found. I don’t really like the hooks they use in their jigs, but the weights themselves have allways been perfect. I spot check a few out if each order for burrs or any flaws but have never found any.

I find the MLF format way more engaging to watch then the traditional “best five”. I will at times throw a BASS tourny on as background noise, but they are painfuly dull to actualy watch. But really until I can watch a tourny on one of the big streaming servies, I am never going to see any of them live. Right now I hunt around for them on youtube and watch videos months/years after the events happen. I would watch them (and the million ads) , but my interest isn’t enough to pay for cable or buy a digital tuner.

What convinced me was dragging a weight across my gravel driveway, tungsten gives far far more feedback. Underwater on a rock bottom the difference is less, but the few times I tried a side by side it was noticeable. I also realized that I rarely loose a worm weight and only loose DS weights when fishing riprap or heavy current, so it’s not a huge expense.

I went with an FMJ with a sv103 on it. I have tried a few spools and I think the ZPI PG is next on the list.

I have broken two rods, but I broke one of them twice. First one was a car window, replaced the tip and then broke it again lifting a 15" smallie like 16' up out of canal where I was catching 3-4" panfish. It snapped like 6" down and I chucked it. The second rod was an UL that broke when I was flexing it by pulling on the line, I assume it had gotten nicked, the blank was a toothpick. I don't baby my gear but I am very diligent about using rod covers for any transport and try to stay aware of exactly where the tip is whenever a rod is in my hand.

The Fred’s MS is the rod I started my swimbaiting adventures with. Imho it is fine for an S-waver 168 or other glides that size, a 68 Special weedless is doable but you gotta set the crap out of the hook, amd the BBZ Rat50 is too heavy for it. I think an exposed hook 68 Special would be a lot better then the weedless one on it. I prefer it for treble-hooked swimbaits in general though.