mheichelbech

I am about to get a G Loomis IMX Pro 892s JWR and just wondering if it is too heavy for finesse applications such as Ned and Drop Shots. I already have a medium power IMX I can use but was wondering how the 892 would do. I plan to try it for skipping senkos and tubes up under docks. I also am getting a Stradic 2500....if anyone has a 1000 model they would like to trade for, let me know. 2500 is just a bit bigger than I like.

My jig fishing buddy uses a 14 foot "cane" pole for flipping jigs for the same reason...to avoid or minimize the pendulum effect when flipping brush piles, beaver piles and the like. I don't like them but hard to deny their effectiveness.

I will check it out....it’s not that I never watch videos...I just prefer articles. One of the thing I like about this site is how they put out a written version and f videos (forget the name for that).

I was just checking out the Shimano Calcutta Conquest reel...out of my price range but what a beautiful reel! That thing is a work of art.

Yea this is what I had thought to be the only disadvantage with baitcasters....however I’m pretty well used to stripping line from doing it when pitching jigs to vertical cover. I just googled and read a quick article (I much prefer to read than watch videos) about this BFS thing. It’s the first I’ve heard of it. I guess I have been doing something similar to this for years and didn’t know it...albeit a little bit on the heavier side of things with 1/8 oz rooster tails, rapalas, and small worms or craws. I didn’t even know this was a thing!

Everything I read about finesse fishing involves using spinning reels. Is this primarily for the casting ability for light weights and small plastics or is there another reason? I have primarily used a Shimano Scorpion on a 6 foot medium fast rod. I can easily cast 1/8 and up baits which is usually about as light as I go anyways. I’ve typically only used a spinning reel for drop shotting. Am I missing anything on this?

So I bought 1 of each of the pad crashees today. The rubber skirt seems really long..do y’all normally trim it back and if so, how much?

Just curious, do you see that they are more successful than the locals fishing there? I recall when they had the Classic on the Ohio River in Louisville in the late Summer and the winning weight was not any better than what we could do but of course we knew the place like the back of our hands and it was really tough fishing. Lowest Classic winning weight ever I believe.

Are they good for any kind of shallow water fishing? They seem like just what they are advertised to be a deep water bottom or near bottom bait. Just curious if they’d be any better than a boot tail swimbait up shallow.

I’ve heard the same thing but looks like the most popular is the Booyah Pad Crasher. Don’t often see a particular brand consistently recommended like that. For my birthday I got some BPS “hard” frogs with the rotating choppo style legs. Anyone tried these or similar? Appears to be more of a throw it out and crank it in style vs walk the frog type. Appreciate the tip on the hooks! Good one!

So I’m planning to do a lot of frog fishing this year. The choices available are overwhelming. So far I have these questions: 1) What are the best frogs or frog makers? 2) How do you decide whether to use a frog with boottail legs or skirted legs? 3) How do you decide between a popper type frog or non-popper? Pretty wel have the equipment down, just need help with bait choices. Catching a 5 pounder in my first cast with a frog late last year sealed the deal on my love for them.

I just posted on another thread about fishing a lake last year with a friend in which I caught 3 bass over 5 pounds on 3 different jerk baits. My friend, fishing the same or similar jerk baits, caught zero. That was the only 3 fish we caught that day. What was the difference? The way I fished them (I think we were doing it similarly), the line I used vs his, or just luck that I happened to throw in the right places at the right times??? No idea. There have been many occasions when I wasn't catching fish on one type of lure, spinnerbait/buzzbait and switched to a different type lure, Manns Baby Minus One and started catching fish. On other occasions such as my first example, it seems to be really hard to tell. How do you judge, on those tougher days, what makes the difference? On the first example, we tried jigs with no luck and only caught the 3 on the jerkbait. Had we not switched maybe we wouldn't have caught any or if we had started out with jerkbaits maybe we would have caught more...some days certain colors may make a difference...but when do you say that a specific lure or color lure was the difference in the pattern on tougher days? For example, if you were fishing and catching nothing, changed up and caught one but then didn't catch another one for an hour, do you switch up again? To me this is the toughest part of fishing...especially if you know you are around fish and how do you attribute success, or lack thereof to being around fish or not being around fish or being around fish but not throwing what they wanted? For the guys that are good at figuring these things out, what is your thought process?

I agree... I probably didn't word my topic very well. It was as much about the lure blanks that custom painters use versus what the manufacturer actually uses. I guess another good example would be Lucky Craft lures...are the $8 LC baits as good as the $15 LC baits? I really don't know because I don't spend enough time or really have enough time to compare. I think this is something that can be really hard to determine except through visually watching the action. Some lakes I fish, it definitely doesn't matter....fish will bite practically anything moving most days...other lakes I fish are really tough. Another example is last year I was fishing in March and caught 3 bass over 5 pounds on 3 different jerk baits but those were the only fish I caught. The guy I was fishing with caught 0 although he was fishing similar jerkbaits. Was it me and the way I was fishing the jerkbait? Was it line difference? Or as it just luck that my bait happened to be in the right place at the right time? Hard to say it is.

This has been my thinking as well. Although I do think that given the hit and miss nature of bass fishing it can be very difficult if your not catching fish due to the lure. I know I have like 13 Mann’s Baby Minus Ones in the Ghost Minnow color...6 are still in my box and the other 7 are stuck away in my hall of shame lure box. Some just don’t catch fish and some just don’t run right. I should have returned them but for $5-$6 it’s not worth the trouble. Point being even from manufacturers you can get losers. Maybe the more expensive brands are more consistent...I dunno. Obviously some lures you can just tell they aren’t running right. Others it’s more subtle...very hard to tell sometimes.

I agree it is a big splash well and those kind are a pain to keep clean. You get the water stain and smoke residue or something. At least my old HydraSports did. Yea with respect to the Jack plate I was just talking about how it sets the engine back further. I knew they did have any kind of adjustment. I don’t know why they don’t make boats with Jack plates built on. Or maybe they do...lol! Never been able to afford ordering a new boat with choosing options.

Sure most of you know back in the 1990s Ranger made some models where the back of the boat had a setback built in. Almost like a fiberglass built jackplate. The 1993 490s models are built this way. Wondering why Ranger didn’t stick with this. Was it problematic? Seemed like the perfect setup to me.

So are all of these custom painted baits that look so good and meticulously well done knockoffs and to be avoided. You probably know there are many people with websites selling custom painted lures. Some seem to be very successful with it. I’m just trying to square the popularity of the custom painted “knock offs” versus the actual manufacturer/original designers. Btw, I’m not meaning to be disagreeable. Just trying to figure out how these guys can be successful selling lipstick on a pig which is basically what is going on if I understand everything correctly. Something is out of kilter...either they are fooling a lot of people or they are getting really good blanks. Now, I know also there are painters out there who are taking originals and repainting them and this is usually reflected in the price of the lure but I’d guess that these are the minority. If anyone knows what the deal is on this I’d love to know more about it.

Thanks. Is this true for most all popular lures like this? Is this basically what Academy and BPS are selling? The same blanks as guys online but I guess not quite as good of a paint job? And is this true for any lure that is t sold by the original maker?

Aside of the paint job are there any differences in say a Megabass jerkbait or SCrank versus those you see for sale as custom painted blanks? And what’s the difference compared to those you see from Academy Sports and other national chains that sell the same looking baits at a cheaper price? Besides the hooks.

100% agree on the Footloose. Baby Minus One is my favorite shallow crankbait. I’d love to find something better but I haven’t been able to. If anyone knows of a better 1-2 foot running crankbait please post here. They do require changing out the hooks. Really like a feathered triple grip hook on the back.

Makes sense. I have pretty much done that but I never think there isn't something better that I don't know about. What I do now works for me but the kind of thing I don't know is, when would a "Rigging" style hook work better than the same size wide gap hook? I use the Owner Rigging hooks on finesse worms and similar baits. Would I be better using a straight shank hook on finesse worms or a wg style hook? I really don't know...I have never had any issue with losing fish on anything I do except for crankbaits/jerkbaits/rattle traps when I haven't changed out to the EWG treble hooks made by Mustad or Gamakatsu. I am always looking to be better and seeing what other people do to get better.

Going through my tackle today and was looking at my hooks and seeing that I had several of the same sizes of different types of hooks that aren’t really that much different. For example I had 1/0, 2/0, 3/0 and4/0 size hooks in the following types: - straight shank - rigging hooks (Owner) - wide gap hooks - extra wide gap hooks Also amongst the wide gap and EWG I had hooks with different “necks” I guess you could call it. Some are straight from the bend to the eye and some are slightly angled between the hook bend and the end. I know I use each of these hooks for different purposes depending on what I am doing but I’m not sure I ever thought about the why and if something different would be better than what I am doing. Like why would you really need an EWG on a bait small enough to use a 1/0 or 2/0 hook? When would you use a WG or EWG with the angled “neck”? Appreciate any input by those more known than me on these things.

This looks a lot like my old 370 bag without the Molle strap on ability.

What I really like large pockets for are storing the clamshell swimbaits packs, and other baits that come in clamshells. How are you (or anyone else) storing those?

How many soft plastics bags can you keep in those double height 3700s? One of the good things with those is it seems like it’d be easier and faster to sort through and find what you want without having to pull every little bag out of your pockets.