snake95

I'm with JF. I use everything from weightless senkos to 1/32 Ned rigs to 4.3" Keitech Swing Impact Fats on a 1/2 oz VMC Swinging Rugby Head. And all catch fish from the same spot. Lighter is often fine if the water is calm and fishing close to shore. Heavier works to keep baits pinned and crawling slow along the bottom.

A-Jay thanks for this contribution and awesome pics from about a year ago. I've been eyeing these rods, which have languished, for years now, at my local Walmart. They had clearance tags printed in 2014 (!) but still priced around the retail of $150. Back in 2016, I had seen them at another store for $55, and then they dropped the price to $15 and sold them all before I could go back. Finally talked the store manager into letting them go for $50 each. Looking forward to putting a bend in them like the one in your pics. What an awesome shot.

All I can say is just check carefully what comes in. Frankly, I really love Academy and will continue to buy from them. But, in the excitement of the Great Plopper Sale of 2018, they actually short shipped one bait in one of my many boxes, and I had to call for a replacement. In short, the boxes appear to be filled by humans. Or maybe robots. Somebody capable of making mistakes.

I can't add much to this except to say a 2017 7-0 Vengeance, 2 pc, ML has been a good "trunk" rod for fishing light spinning gear with U-tails, Roboworms, and Ned Rigs. I can't complain at all about that rod. *Edit: sorry you were asking about casting** Would delete if I could. Point is the Vengeance has been a fine spinning rod for me.

For me, the most basic bass catchers are: 3" Yum Grubs in small packs from Walmart, any color will work, white seems basic to me. Use small ball heads or if you find them, Zman Shroomz heads (my Walmart carries them). Zoom trick worm (again, pick any color, I use a lot of white and various green colors, but I don't believe there are bad ones out there). Use 2/0 worm hooks (the heavy wire "superline" hooks would not be my top choice), plus some 1/8 oz worm weights. I would add those.

Interested to hear what you don't like about these. I just bought a few packs, came home, turned on my computer and read this. Hmm....?

Appreciate your input on this interesting topic, Andrew. To add to the thread a bit, I have caught some decent bass on cheap old lures of unknown origin, and I'm sure other guys do just fine with many "knock offs" "store brands" and just generally inexpensive lures (each of these categories may be quite different). Personally, my go-to's are typically middle of the road name brands or the occasional house brand (such as SK Banshees), but I certainly appreciate why a lot of serious anglers like their LC, Megabass, Evergreen, etc.

Yeah, me too. At one store Sammys and RTO 2.5s were on for $4.00 each plus 15% off. I went a little nuts. They also had oddball baits like the Moonsault for $1.50.

Interesting to hear (and not surprising). As an example, I'm 99.9% sure the SK banshee lipless baits at DSG are (were?)1/2 oz RES' in different packaging and limited range of color selection. I saw no differences otherwise.

This may be a stupid question, but can anybody give a reason why these LC baits made in 2002 or maybe 2008 are somehow inferior to those made in 2018?

I think anyone who does this with a stretch 40 in calm water, relatively shallow and clear, post-spawn, will be surprised at what a deadly topwater this lure is.

I didn't have a lot of luck with stickbaits and couldn't figure it out either. Despite what you might read, you are not alone. In contrast, a couple of weeks ago in shallow areas of ponds in FL, I was tossing senkos into areas where there were signs of fish movement (either protecting or hunting fry, I think). Nearly every cast got me bites. For years they didn't do much for me. Now they are a go-to bait. What changed for me? I think it was just persistence that led to experience and then to confidence. I like to Texpose them weightless, and I'd say I built my confidence by working hard to slow down and to target them carefully and fishing them where there are signs of fish in the area.

No Wanders in the lot I saw. I think I covered nearly all of the ones I saw. I bought a few of these older less common baits since they were priced at about $1.50 each.

Just wanted to comment on this, and maybe get a few reactions. The nearby Ollies (had never heard of the store before this thread) had two boxes full. They included Sammy's, Pointers, and Gunfish. They also included a broad range of Lucky Craft ranging from rare to downright obscure. Examples included TR.85SR minnows, CB-001's, classical leaders, big LV's, bevy cranks, shallow pointers, live pointers, etc. One had a sticker saying "new for 2002" which I take as indicating they somehow got a hold of some very old stock! Maybe this isn't the thread to get into details, but interested to learn if any of these old baits are gems, and especially if there would be any difference between 2002-era and 2018-era sammys, pointers etc. Maybe the answer is if they are Lucky Craft they are going to be great?

Thanks Mumbly. I found it but your explanation is better. @KayakFish107 You deserve the deal of the day award. $8 for whopper ploppers with free shipping. Wow!

Where do you enter the academy promo code when you go to check out? A-ha... where it says "Promo code" at the bottom right of your cart...

Yes, the 2 cents I can offer to this thread, and maybe help a few anglers out, my son's experience shows there is no need to be intimidated. My son had just turned 9. He had never even held a fly rod, and had zero fly casting preparation of any type. The afternoon we went out, we had a friend with fly rod experience teach him in some basics in about 10 minutes about how to cast wet flies and streamers into a river. About 10 minutes after that, he was reeling in smallies. Sure, he was not exactly graceful and couldn't cast more than perhaps 20 yards. More practice would help! But he could certainly catch bass on the fly in no time. And @bostonsox2904 thanks for the encouragement, we will see how he does with his new rod.

Cool, will do. I also use the Yamamoto stretch 40 with a light wire worm or EWG hook 2/0 or 1/0 as a “finesse top water.” Honestly was a huge success for me in calm shallow water last year. Reel fast enough to create a wake and you’re good. Just don’t expect tails to stay attached more than one fish. I got the old stretch 40’s on closeout and obviously others would be great too. Ugly Root beer green something or other. Didn’t mention at first since a weird shape for a grub but similar tail.

Man, I felt that way too. Started replacing my TRD's with 3 inch YUM grubs in white and fishing them with varying retrieves, and now one of my top bass-catchers - often get whatever other species are nearby too - Walleye, trout, you name it. @ChrisD46 I fish 3" YUM grubs in white, silver flash, and pumpkin (brown pumpkin), just because that's what I find at Walmart. They all work. I'm starting to fish heavier grubs too but get tons of bites on the 3"ers.

Really interesting post. A friend took my 9 y.o. son smallmouth fishing with streamers in a shallow river in Canada last fall, and he did great. I had never fly fished and was surprised at how quickly he took to fly casting. I bought him a 6 wt combo to try fly fishing here in Georgia largemouth country, but maybe I went too light... We have not had a chance to try it out down in GA yet.

@n8cas4 Suijin, as described below. Thanks to Brad. Also, if you like Aaron, check out the Inside Bassmaster podcast. He's one of my favorite Pro's. Pretty sure he mentioned the Suijin in the interview. https://www.bassmaster.com/news/podcast-team-martens http://www.picassooutdoors.com/product_p/psuijin.htm

I use both, and know that Junebug is common and fairly standardized. However, Yum dingers in their "Bama Bug" - a muted (almost dull) black/blue swirl have caught me more bass in stained Georgia ponds than any other stickbait color.

Chris I fish 6-inch Dingers in some North Georgia ponds. I T-rig them weightless and lob them into schools of bluegills and nearby bass hammer them on the fall. I use their Bama Bug color but obviously others will work fine. I like the 6-inchers for the extra weight and casting distance. The spashdown is serious, but actually seems to attract the bass in certain situations such as when they are hanging out near schooling 'gills.

Good tip. Also, if you sign up for their points program online they email you a coupon for 15% off your next shopping trip there.

I am still experimenting and learning with senkos. However, I have been doing very well on them in the past couple of years. I buck the apparent trend: I throw them weightless, texposed 95% of the time, casting to targets. My initial motivation was that I hated getting snagged. I've stuck with it because it works too well for me to change to wacky as my default.