Attila

Chunker from yesterday, going back today to finesse some bigger ones that followed but wouldn't commit.

Straight 30lbs braid; increased my hookup percentage especially at the start of a long cast.

When I started using them on bass I did well...then the musky started ravaging them too. But they do work well, and I'll be throwing some tomorrow.

I'm using a Mojo Bass Glass rod for crankbaits and can't really speak to the rod that you're buying as I run a Daiwa setup for my jerkbaits. I can tell you that the Mojo Bass series is very well built and, as I'm sure you're aware, very sensitive and I have no doubt that it'll meet the need you want to fill. A note about line selection - I run braid with a fluorocarbon leader. It provides me with greater control over the movement with the jerkbaits that I fish.

Nice @A-Jay.

I made the following post last year...hope that it helps you and that you find success with your testing as well. Tricked out a Shadow Rap with different hooks...it worked. To give everyone an idea of what I did, attached is a photo with the new hooks swapped in after a largish musky destroyed the regular stock trebles that you can see in my previous posting. I have substituted the treble hook at the head of the lure with a slightly larger (Size 4 instead of 6) red hook for 2 reasons; first to give the predator the impression that the fish they are chasing is bleeding or injured; the second reason is that most gamefish attack at the head of their prey, so a larger hook will be able to give a more successful hook up ratio than a smaller one. The middle treble hook remains a stock treble hook, a size 6 1X Strong Round Bend Treble in black nickle. The last or rear treble is a size 6 2X Strong Barbarian Treble also in black nickle. I find that it's a good hook to use on this lure because there are times when the fish will strike short, leaving only the rear treble in contact with the hooked fish. All the hooks are made by VMC, and they held up very well in the conditions that I was fishing. I'll be doing some more late night walleye fishing on some deep weed edges and hope to catch some larger fish at that time.

Must have been a bad batch. I was fishing some 1.5's right out of the box a little less than a month ago during our opener and I didn't have any issues with them at all. I fish them on a glass rod running straight 12lbs fluorocarbon as I find the glass rod really gives me an advantage when hooking fish. As I'm now getting into tournament fishing, I went out and upgraded my trebles to the Mustad UltraPoint KVD Elite Triple Grip 1X Treble Hook - 2X Short Shank and they've worked wonders in keeping fish pinned to the lure. It does sound like this is a basic sharpening issue and I would just use a pocket sharpener on them as @bigturtle suggested.

@A-Jay @12poundbass In the famous words of Bugs Bunny at the time of his tangle with the Krusher, it was time to employ a little strategy when it came to my recent purchasing. Now to complete the box of 1/2oz squarebills and crankbaits....I think I might even use the same line...lol Picture below of the combo.

To increase my product knowledge, I picked up a Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Signature Series baitcaster reel which I'm matching with a 7'2" MHR Tatula baitcast rod to use as my heavy spinnerbait/chatterbait/crankbait combo. Going to spool it with 15lbs Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon.

@mherak I'm fortunate to live down the street from Pro J and their selection is off the hook; lots of great, hard to find items. Easy to spend a lot of money there. I work at Bass Pro, so in that respect I'm fortunate in that there is really no lure that I can't buy if I need one. A quick search online brought me to Fishing World in Hamilton; they ship within Canada and carry some decent gear. While I've never used them before, it could be worth checking out.

It's the only braid I use, and I use the timber brown colour exclusively. I use 30lbs for walking topwater baits, 20lbs with a fluorocarbon leader for jerkbaits, and straight 65lbs for hollow body frogging and pitching/flipping. The water I fish is pretty clear unless I'm fishing slop but with that said even that has quite a bit of clarity to it. I find that it does cast more easily than regular braid and it has resulted in me gaining casting distance with all the lures that I throw. Well worth the price.

Ya, it's fun to catch them on top in the middle of all the slop.

When I started throwing frogs for largemouth bass, I was under the impression that if I matched the local forage I would be in a position to give the fish what they were feeding on the most in the region that I was fishing in. Here in central Ontario, most bass fed on leopard frogs which are either green or brown on the topside and usually white on the bottom. Some bass would eat bullfrogs on occasion which were green with a yellow coloured belly. Really, it came down to what was found on the body of water I was fishing. So when it came time to buy my frogs, I focused on green leopard frog patterns that came with a white/yellow type of belly. I rounded out my selection based on what frog fishing guru Dean Rojas stated during one of his many interviews, selecting a couple of all black and all white frogs. Every hollow bodied frog purchased was one of the Spro Bronzeye family. Little did I know how important those selections would be. Over the last few days I found myself in swamp after swamp, searching for some big largemouth to inhale my green leopard frog patterned lures. I saw the frogs hopping around everywhere, so I was pretty sure I could convince the fish to eat what I was throwing. It started well and I was catching fish on numerous casts but nothing over 1lbs in size. Believing that I was throwing the right lure as I was getting bites, I continued using this frog the next day…but while the numbers were there, the size was lacking. So I decided to make a switch. I looked through my box of topwater lures and decided to tie on an all black frog. I threw the new colour into the same water with the same retrieve that I used on the leopard frog patterned lure, only this time the fish were all over it and were bigger in size. Suddenly I was connecting with fish in the 2-3lbs range and nothing smaller which made me one happy camper. The weather was a mix, with the sun being out sometimes and overcast at others. The fish were relating to lily pads and dock edges with lead in cover. I know that time will tell if this pattern of larger fish liking black frogs will hold up, but for now, I’m definitely a convert and believer that black frogs catch more and bigger fish than the classic leopard patterned ones. As many of you know I’m a devout Daiwa product user, but this time I wanted a change. Working at Bass Pro, I want to make sure that I was using gear that other anglers had expressed an interest in so that I could provide them with feedback on its performance. After speaking with the Canadian frogman Pete Garnier about rod selection, he outlined the benefits of the Quantum Smoke 7’ MHF action rod and the success he had found with it while frog fishing here in Canadian waters. I matched the rod with a Team KVD left handed bait casting reel with a 7.0:1 gear ratio and an amazing 16lbs of drag behind it. After loading it with 65lbs timber brown Power Pro Super 8 Slick, I felt confident that I could horse big fish out of the slop I was expecting to fish and this combo didn’t disappoint. Below are two fish, showing the difference in size when it came to fishing the two different coloured frogs. Cheers, and sorry for the long write up but I really wanted to share my experience on this the start of my hollow bodied frog journey. I was mentioning to a friend that I’ll probably have a whole box devoted to frogs by the end of the summer…and that’s not such a bad idea I think.

Thanks for sharing the video again @A-Jay. It really helped me understand the ins and outs of launching a boat solo, something that I know I'll be doing a lot of in the coming years. I really like the boat launches your state has put in to facilitate boat launching, kind of wish ours were as good. We have some decent ones scattered around but nothing like that one.

Fished a lake that was stocked a couple of years ago. Nothing huge, but they sure enjoyed the Spro Bronzeye frog a lot. Going to one of my regular haunts tomorrow morning, hoping to catch a few big ones.

I'm actually waiting on some more information from companies about the percentage of pure tungsten they use in their tungsten products. Once I get it I'll be happy to post the findings here for everyone.

Braid to fluorocarbon I use a uni-to-uni knot and have never had an issue with it breaking. Direct to lure I always use the improved clinch knot; it doesn't matter if I'm fishing braid or fluorocarbon. I use Seaguar InvizX and have never had issues where the knot was where the line break happened. As a matter of fact, I've had squarebills get caught up but managed to pull the lures free without the knot breaking. I tend to keep things simple, and it's worked well for me.

That's one smooth ride right there. I just thought of a couple more questions if I may? Do you use a Hot Foot? and also does the higher hull make it harder to trailer the boat when you're on your own? Cheers.

Really love the boat @A-Jay, thanks for the tour. Are your Humminbird units networked? Also noticed that you had a couple of rods on the back deck; were they tied down and if so are the ties similar to what are on the bow? I'm looking at the 1625 Fury XL SS version and there's a lot of things I'd like to put into my design that match what you've had done to yours. Thanks again for your great video review.

I use The Rod Glove ones and they have done an excellent job for me every time that I go out. Don't forget to pick up some lure wraps too.

Understood @J Francho, I appreciate the feedback as always.

@J Francho Much as I'd like to, I throw a lot of jerkbaits, crankbaits, and squarebills and they tangle with plenty of musky over the course of the season which do a number on regular stock trebles. That's why I swap them out for something with better quality that can hold up to some of the fish I run into....

Welcome to Bass Resource, and don't forget to mention your service in the general forums as well! Two suggestions; use a topwater and stand about 15ft back from shore as I'm pretty certain the bass are hanging shallow and can see you if you're right on the bank. Have an awesome day!

Cool, thanks for the feedback!

I've been using them on a shakey head and it's worked well, going to be trying it on some alternate baits this coming weekend.