snake95

Rebel fans in our house. My best popper is an old "zell rowland" (transferred on) autographed pop-r. Love all of their other pop-r's too. Also really like the action of the wee-r and deep wee-r, and so do bass and panfish around north Georgia. The deep wee-r is great in rocky spots because it deflects off the long bill. The old "crawfish" wee-r color wouldn't cut it for a modern Megabass or Luckycraft, but when you see that brown blur go past among the rocks, looks like it might be a craw to me, and apparently good enough for the bass too. Wee-r lures sometimes come available in bargain bins in the spring at Walmarts. I guess they do limited runs of big quantities even though they no longer sell them at regular retail.

Discovered that DSG sells Strike King 1/2 oz lipless lures in it's "Banshee" line of Strike King made-for-DSG lures. Not every DSG in our area carries these. As a side note, I have used their "Banshee" spinnerbaits and they look pretty good; the buzzbaits are absolutely excellent on our ponds in north Georgia. Also, I've noticed that DSG has sold other house brand lures that appear to be 100% identical to the originals: the "Top Secret" line of small spinnerbaits was identical to the Booyah Pond Magic. I inspected the Banshee lipless very closely against the regular red eye shads beside them. From the oval line ties to the slightly raised gill plates, to the hooks, can't for the life of me see a difference except the package. The Banshees list price is lower (about $5) and they have a much more limited color selection - focused on the basics: red craw, sexy shad, chartreuse, and maybe a few others. Any red eye shad fans out there run a field test to compare Banshee lipless? I couldn't help but pick up a couple to do some testing for myself, but interested to hear the experiences of others.

Stopped in today. Still had the same baits on clearance as they've had for over a month (many of them have been on "clearance" back to early October) -- whatever was left. The store I went to said the 25% additional off is now over. Not sure what they'll do with the remaining "clearance" stuff. Here in north Georgia and the Carolinas I have seen some decent prices at the various DSG stores, especially when they have their periodic sales As other posters stated, it turned out January was not as good as a year ago, but there were a few decent deals here and there.

5.25 lb (my pb) on a Strike King "Banshee" (DSG brand) 1/2 oz buzzbait in bluegill, warm late October evening - just at the transition from dusk to dark. The biggest bass on our small local ponds were all caught on Banshee buzzbaits in chartreuse and bluegill. The second best fish smashed a Chartreuse Banshee burned across flat water under bluebird skies at 3 pm on a hot September afternoon.

Just stopped in to my local DSG. After reading everyone's posts and going for myself today, I'm thinking their post-holidays sale may not wind up including the deep discounts I remember from last year. Select items, and not at every store. Seems like they are holding at 25% off clearance to average about 50% off retail on certain very select items (or colors) nationwide at this point. I noticed that one store might have an item discounted, while another not at all (e.g. particular colors of KVD jerkbaits). I asked a manager if they would go lower, and he said he didn't know (said it like he truly didn't know, FWIW). Will be interesting to see if anything changes.

How's this for a "first cast" experience?: I fish this one place with stained water where for whatever reason the bass love firetiger crankbaits burned as fast as possible. The louder and bigger and more obnoxious the bait the better. So I got the bright idea that two of my favorite Crankin Raps had to be better then one, and put them on a YUM double up rig. First cast I flung this rig towards a likely spot and with a quick snap of my line I watched the two cranks fly off together like a pilot with his wingman close behind. They floated, but were quickly drifting away on the current. I hastily tied on the biggest, heaviest bait I could find - a 3/4 oz RES and chucked it as hard as I could toward the pair of cranks leisurely floating away. Not sure if it was the hasty knot or the heavy weight but either way it was on the first cast that that thing also snapped off, landing just beyond the cranks. Three lures and a double up rig in two casts... (I got very lucky and the cranks drifted into a shallow bay nearby, and I managed to snag them with a well-placed buzzbait hit, but only after 1/2 hour of "target practice" aiming at the cranks with the buzzbait).

Right there with you guys. It's a real shock when you're perfect cast with a heavy topwater or squarebill sails out majestically toward a thrashing mass of shad getting hammered at surface, and then your realize the reason your perfect cast made it right into the mix is because your line just snapped. Only feeds the need for more and more baits: I find it hard to buy one lure to "just try" because I always need to have a backup in case the first lure doesn't survive long enough to give it an honest try.

Blackshirt, I don't know for sure if the 25% off on clearance is at all stores. The ones I saw had varying quantities and types of baits on clearance, but not much else. One place had a decent selection on clearance, another had almost nothing. There is nothing that I've seen indicating additional markdowns in their ads, just at the stores. A handwritten sign in the one yesterday said there would remain an additional 25% off through January. So I would call first before making a long trip.

Just did a check-in at DSG today. No changes as of mid-week. Stuff is pretty sparse at the stores in N. GA at this point. Not a lot to hold out for. Will keep looking and updating.

Thanks guys. I got into bass fishing after I walked into a DSG late in January last year and discovered prices on tackle were rock-bottom, stocked up, and since that time have been tossing baits into trees and rocks every few day for 12 months straight. Before then, I had no clue what a "bait monkey" was. They've been reducing stuff at our southern stores, and have had either buy two get one, or the 25% extra basically since Thanksgiving. Still nothing as crazy cheap as I saw later in Jan last year so I figure they might get lower still toward the middle of the month.

Recently DSG's SE stores had all clearance stuff (ending with .47 or .97) on at 25% off. Some perfectly good baits, terminal tackle, line, etc are included in the sale. My experience has been that they will further reduce prices (typically to 50% off clearance) later in January, just not exactly sure when. Please sound the bait monkey alert when the time comes...