tkunk

For swimbaits, I use sexy shad or white when it's sunny and green pumpkin when it's cloudy or dark. Weather and time of day can have a very big effect on their color and bait preference. Even if the sun goes behind a cloud for a few minutes, I'll switch colors.

You move the bait with your rod, and reel in the slack. Never move the bait with your reel. It's similar to a jerkbait retrieve but with longer pulls. In my experience, the cadence depends on water temperature.

I'd go with a deep cranking rod, mostly for versatility. You can do shallow cranking with a deep cranking rod, but you can't do deep cranking with a shallow cranking rod. I look for a couple of things in a cranking rod for smallies. First, length is important for casting distance, so longer rods are better. Second, I want the rod to be as fast as possible while still being able to keep fish pinned. The reason for this is that for smallies, it's usually best to retrieve crankbaits the way you'd fish a Carolina rig. A soft, whippy rod makes this kind of retrieve a pain. Keeping these two things in mind, I'd recommend the Dobyns 805CB or a moderate fast flipping stick.

When you put things into perspective, $100 isn't that expensive for a lure, especially if you don't have to worry about losing it to toothy critters. I'd bet that many people on this forum spend more than $300/year on senkos, keitechs, and other short-lived soft plastics.

I pond fish in the winter, and I use a 7'5" MH XF rod with 40 lb braid for everything, mostly because I'm too lazy to carry two rods around. I don't have any issues losing fish on jerkbaits or topwater lures. Crankbaits are pretty much the only lure I don't use.

For 1/16-3/32 oz hair jigs, I often use a Daiwa Steez XT ML/F. It can cast light lures a good distance, and it handles big smallies very well. It's more expensive than you specified, but I'm very happy with it.

You didn't mention a price point, but either of the Avid XF spinning rods is great for jerkbaits. I use the ML one for pointer 65s and 78s. If you think 6'8" is too long, you can jerk down and to the side instead of straight down. I prefer longer rods, because the lakes I fish are very clear, and I want to maximize casting distance in order to avoid spooking fish.

I've had several instances where I couldn't keep up with smallies when they do this. You reel as fast as you can, and you can't get your line tight. Then the fish jumps out of the water (sometimes on the opposite side of the boat) and shakes your lure. I use a Stradic CI4 with the NRX 822S, and it's my favorite spinning combo.

I wouldn't use a moderate fast rod for jerkbaits. You'll get a lot more control and have to work far less hard with a faster tip, and, oddly, you won't lose more fish. I always use an XF rod for jerkbaits.

I once left a casting reel's drag locked down over the winter, and the spring washers compressed from () to ||, so I couldn't get the drag tight once things thawed. I don't know if spinning reels have the same type of drag. I keep the drag on my spinning reels super loose, so I'm not afraid of hurting anything. But I do loosen the drag on my casting reels every trip. The trick is to set it ridiculously loose, so it's impossible to forget to tighten it after your first cast.

Thanks, guys. Super helpful. I usually keep my drag very tight on casting reels, so not tightening the drag star before attaching the handle must've been the issue.

If you like bass fishing, and you're in WI, you probably go to Sturgeon Bay a few times a year. Howies Tackle there will set you up. You'll need to give them a few weeks' notice. I get my heads in bulk there, but I don't recall the price.

How much are you supposed to tighten handle nuts? Do you hand tighten them? Should you use a wrench? Is it OK to use loctite blue? I've found that when I get a new reel or receive one from a manufacturer after servicing, the handle nut tends to become loose, and there's side-to-side play in the handle itself. I figured there's a reason why manufacturers don't tighten them up. Thanks.

I have a bunch of Shimano reels. I'd take a Chronarch 200e7 over a Metanium any day. The latter is smoother and casts maybe 10% farther, but the former is far more durable. I have two of each reel, so it might not be a fair sample.

A lake that size in WI is probably mapped in Navionics. Look here. If you can, enable the sonar charts for the highest possible level of detail. That'd be the first place I'd look. The second thing I'd do is some internet research to check if it's a smallmouth or largemouth lake.

I fish around zebra mussels, and I don't see much of a difference between any of the high quality brands. If I get any kind of a snag, I'll either break off or have to retie 95% of the time. The only thing that's consistently helped me is to use heavy leaders for bottom contact lures like tubes and jigs. In really nasty areas, I'll go as high as 20 lb test. I still lose lures and have to retie all the time, but there's less chance of losing a fish when I get bit after popping my lure out of a snag.

Longer rods will increase your casting distance, especially for light lures. I fish super clear water for smallies, and it's important that they don't see me, so I use an 8'6" rod for 1/16 oz hair jigs. I'd go longer if I could fit it in my boat.

Not sure if this is a dumb question, but do different Legend Tournament bass rods with the same action and power have different tip softness? For example, the TBC68MF is labeled as a jerkbait rod, and the TBC71MF is labeled as a plastics rod. Both are medium power/fast action rods. But does the jerkbait rod have a softer tip than the plastics rod? I can see why it might. More generally, is there any way to know what to expect for a rod's tip when you can't actually hold the rod? I buy all of my rods online, so that's not really an option for me.

This is exactly what happened to me, and it still does. I have to service this reel a few times per season to keep it working. I service my other reels a few times a decade lol.

You can cast farther with the longer rod, but you'll be more accurate with the shorter rod. I'm not sure whether there's any more to it than that.

I own the LTB slop-n-frog, and I think it's great for 0.75-1.25 oz spinnerbaits, swim jigs, and big (smallie) swimbaits. Casting distance is great, sensitivity is good, and hooksets are never a problem. I normally fish the Great Lakes, so I have no notion of slop and/or frogs, though.

I like 200-sized reels for anything that casts well. With 150-sized reels, you'll be able to cast out most of your spool. I use the 200k for spinnerbaits and deep cranking, and I like it a lot.

So far, fishing's been bad this year. Normally, I get maybe 5-10 fish per trip. This year I'm getting 0-2 fish per trip. I'm sure it's related to the colder-than-normal temps around me. The only thing that's given me any success is slow rolling Keitech 3.3's. I've tried senkos, T-rigged lizards, and jigs, but I haven't had any luck. Does anyone have any advice for baits and presentations? Thanks.

If you do backlash or even have a few sloppy casts that don't backlash, it helps to take preventative measures. Attach a hard pulling lure (e.g., a big deep diver) drop your line in the water, drive away until your spool is nearly empty, then reel your lure back in. But the most important thing, IMO, is to never go lighter than 40 lb braid on a baitcaster.

I fish for smallies on Lake Michigan. On a good day, I usually have 3-4 rods out for dropshot baits, tubes, swimbaits, and jerkbaits. Depending on the season and wind conditions, I might also have rods out for hair jigs, spinnerbaits, and crankbaits. On a bad day, it's more like 10 rods.