Brad_Coovert

For the same reasons mentioned by others above, just say no to speed clips. They can open themselves and your bait and fish can come off. That is reason enough to not use them. Brad

Welcome to the forum! There are no dumb questions, so ask away. What craws did you get? There size is gonna determine your hook size. A 2/0 or 3/0 should suffice, depending on hook type. I fished a lot of small crwss from GYCB, Netbait, ZOOM, etc and most worked well on 2/0 EWG Gamakatsu hooks. As for rigging when not being used as a jig trailer, you can either Texas rig them with a bullet weight for fishing in all kinds of cover or you can thread them on a jighead. Again, depending on what size of craw you got you will have a lot of rigging methods with jigheads. For instance, if you fish a lot of rocky waters, you could use a football head. Some small craws work great on shakey style heads like Spot Remover Jigheads. There are a lot of good jigheads out there for all kinds of fishing that will make a craw stand up in defense mode with the claws up. Hope this helps. Brad

Remember - There is no such thing as too much tackle. All of my productive baits have backups, some have second backups and there are always thrid, fourth, fifth....backups in the closet. If I go through those, I will raid my inventory if I have them there. In fact, there are a few certain crankbaits I have that I may carry 6 of in the boat and another 6 in the truck or hotel room. Some guys in the club treat me like a floating bait shop during tournaments if the y lose a bait. They come look for me. Of course, the price of tackle goes way up on the water. 8-) Brad

There are no bad trailers for jigs IMO. Any plastic can be trimmed to make a good trailer. I'll use any plastic on a jig. The back end of a Brush Hog can be great on a jig. Still, my most used baits are NetBait Paca Craws and Chunks, ZOOM Super Chunks and creature baits. Brad

The hand poured baits are great drop shot baits and are good on jigheads. Their lineup of injected baits are great as well. They have a craw, a creature and a large swimming worm. Brad

Depends on what I am doing. A great follow up for a miss on a floating frog or buzzbait is to toss in a soft plastic frog like a Cane Toad and let it sink in the hole. If I'm throwing a topwater and get a miss, a floating worm, Super Fluke, Senko or lightly weighted tube to the same spot usually works well. I'f I'm cranking or spinnerbaiting, I will follow up with a jig, tube or creature. Brad

No problem posting the link Doug. I think the singles that come with the jigheads have 1/8 oz. jigheads, but I'm not positive. Brad

A guy in my club uses the tube lizards and tube craws on Carolina rigs all the time and does quite well. Easy rigging and good hooksets. Brad

The Method Crankbaits are factory baits, but they are excellent crankbait. They have a tremendous amount of vibration. They have been very good crankbaits for me in shallow water. There are a few guys here that make hand made baits. I;m sure they can hook you up with some good baits. As for Sisson, I believe he worked for Bagley at one time, so I would assume that his designs would be similar. Brad

The rabbit hair has a different look to it when the bait is paused and it swims really well when the bait is moving. The spinner blade is interesting. It adds some flash to the bait, but it also makes the bait shake slightly when it is being retrieved. You'd have to see it to see what I mean. Basically, they are a different look than other frogs. They have sharp, strong hooks, a well mounted belly weight and they collapse easily. They are a pricy bait at $10.95, but I have sold several so there are some people out there that like them. The Natural Frog is the most popular color. Brad

Everyone will have a slightly different answer, but knowing a lot of the guys here, any of their setups will work. For general spinnerbiat fishing, a 6'6" MH Fast or Mod Fast will do the job IMO. Personally, I have three rods that I use for spinnerbaiting depending on what I will be doing. I have a 5'6" pistol grip rod that I like to use shoreline fishing or fishing in small creeks off places like the Ohio river where I am making short casts that need accuracy. That little rod makes it easy to put a bait anywhere. I also have a 7' rod that I use when I will be fishing open water like large grassbeds where accuracy is not the issue, but distance is. I also use this rod with heavier baits fished on deep structure. I have a 6'6" rod that I use when doing what I would call normal bank fishing. Just casting at stumps, laydowns, etc. at a normal distance. All three rods are MH power, with tips that are somewhere between Fast to Mod Fast. I want enough backbone to get a fish out of cover, but enough tip to load, cast well and help the fish inhale the bait and hook themselves. Brad

Between the two, I'd take a Boogee over a Rad any day. Better components IMO. Brad

To be honest, I have not found a spring water temp that all three baits did not work in. I have caught fish in water as cold as 40 and as high as 70 on all three. The main variable was how fast I fished them. This time of year through the spawn, I will have all three tied on. Brad

I really like the DD22's as well. Lavender Shad is by far the best Norman color made IMO. Brad

Booyah makes a good, inexpensive spinnerbait. Another brand I would suggest is Secret Weapon Lures. They have one of the best, if not the best, blade systems that will allow you to make endless blade combinations with one bait. They offer several kits and have colors that are just a bit different than most brands. I know the guys that designed these and they are good baits with a ton of on the water time put into their design. Brad

I can fix you up with these baits. PM sent. Brad

I was curious as to what jig they were using. I don't know if WalMart will carry the 4 packs or not, they must just be for dealers. Brad

I would try some of the soft lower cost swimbaits first, like the Storm swimbaits. You could also try one of the new Lake Fork swimbaits as they can be fished weedless or on a jighead. They come in single packs at WalMart or 4 packs as well. Either way, you should be able to come up with some baits to try out for less than $10. Brad

I use the Gambler Swim Blade quite a lot and do not have problems with it. I have not noticed a trailer problem though. Maybe a bad batch of trailers? Brad

What kind of jighead comes with the prerigged ones? I have not seen the pre rigged packs, just the 4-packs. IMO, the 4-pack is a better deal for $4.89. They are also coming out with a 3 1/2" and 5 1/2" model. Both should be hitting retailer's shelves soon. Brad

Thanks guys. Glad to be of help. Brad

If you're getting Fat Ikas for $4.41, you better buy 'em up. That's way less than wholesale. Brad

The Vertical Jig-X and Tube-X are great baits. Brad

Don't count Duckett out in the Elite. He is not a new guy by any stretch and he has fished about half of the Elite lakes on the 2007 schedule in the past, so he will know some of the waters. What will hurt Duckett in the Elite in 2007 is all of the time he will spend doing prmotional work due to the Classic. It will cut into his time on the water prefishing, etc. Brad

There is what the pro says he's using. There is what he is actually using. "Prototype" means another company's bait that my sponsor does not make, but that it is currently scrambling to copy as we speak. Brad