Brad_Coovert

I like smaller frogs, so I use the Bornzeye Jr. Another good frog is the one by River2Sea. Brad

I'll avoid passing judgement on the baits and their creator until I get a chance to have all of these baits in my hand and on the end of a line and put to good use. Just pictures and a few comments on message boards are not enough to justify judgement just yet. Baits may look similar, even exact, but the design of a bait goes well beyond the looks. The materials, construction, fall rate, swimming action, etc. are also part of the baits overall design. Would I boycott SPRO because Bill copied these baits? Not entirely. I would not use or sell these particular baits if I determined they were pretty much a straight up copy, but there are many more SPRO products that I really like to use such as the Arukushad, Bronzeye Frog, Little John and the Dawg and I am very much looking forward to the BBZ Shad though as well as the SPRO Bronzeye Popper. Besides, I do not like the double hook Bill used on his bluegill bait and I like Matt's Ultimate Bluegill much better than any of the others, so I doubt I even do much with the SPRO bait, other than trying a sample. Brad

I'll be buying both. I like the SPRO's colors and also like the TT weight system. Nice to see these smaller shad swimbaits hit the market. Brad

Every bass fisherman has knockoffs in their tackle box or boat. There is very little that is original in fishing as most baits are just tweaked versions of someone else's work. That is the norm in the tackle business.

Steady retrieve or maybe a few pauses thrown in. Just listen for the plop, plop, plop, plop, BAM! I love the Jitterbug. Brad

Sometimes I peg in cover, sometimes I don't. I never peg the weight on baits like tubes, beavers or straight tail worms. Other baits get pegged in cover. I like the Gambler weights with the goop in them. Just don't lose the line threader! Screw in weights work well too, but they can tear up your plastics. If I'm fishing a bait weightless in heavy cover or grass, I will use the Reaction Innovations screwed up bullet head. It is a clear plastic screw on bullet. It is practically weightless and the clear plastic can be dyed with worm dye. Brad

Another cool to bait to watch for when it finally comes out will be the SPRO BBZ1 Shad. They are just the right size IMO to work anywhere a bass swims. These baits are gonna be awesome and not too expensive either, probably around $18-$20 retail. Now is SPRO would just start shipping them! Brad

The old Bagley's baits will never be duplicated. There are a lot of pros who buy them as well as other older baits off eBay. Some of the oldies work far better than anything made today. Brad

Reaching through the gill area to reverse a hook so that it is easily removed has saved many, many fish for me that have been deep hooked. I'm suprised that more people do not know to do this, but I seldom fish with anyone who knows to try it when they deep hook a fish. Just be very careful so as not to damage the gills. Get too rough on the gills and all your work to save the fish will be for nothing. Brad

There are a lot of quality frog baits on the market that catch fish. My personal favorites for hollow body frogs are the SPRO Bronzeye Jr. and the River 2 Sea Bully Wa 55. I like the slightly smaller frogs as they cast well and the fish get the frog better when they strike and I get better hookups, but that's just me, others like the bigger frogs, especially if they have big fish in their waters. For toads, I like the Horny Toad, Cane Toad and Rage Tail Toad. There are a lot of good hooks for these baits and I really like one that is slightly weighted to the toad rides upright. As mentioned, another great bait is the Scumfrog Bigfoot. It is a floating frog with paddle feet. Kinda like a cross between a Scumfrog and a Cane Toad. SPRO has a new fog coming out, the Bronzeye Popper and it should be a great bait. Other cool frog type baits I like are the DEPS Basirisky and the Snagproof Wiggle Wog. As for tackle, 50lb. Power Pro and a 7'6" flipping stick is my frog rig. That line cuts through grass and combined with the long, stout rod, the fish WILL come to the boat regardless of how buried in the grass it trys to get. Good luck froggin! Brad

Sebile has several models os the Magic Swimmer. Not al may be out on the market yet though. Some models will be standard and others will be faster sink models. For current applications such as yours, a faster sink model may be in order. Brad

I didn't know RW even used any GYCB baits. :

The Brush Hog is my #1 Crig bait, especially on Barkley. Works great on a Trig as well. Brad

Your talking about one of my favorite ways to catch bass. There is a Crig in my boat all the time and it has saved my tail in tournaments many times. The first thing I will suggest is that you should get a 7'6" rod. I know there are tons of guys here that use 7' rods and do quite well and I USED to be one of them, but when I switched to a 7'6" rod my Crigging really improved. Casting was easier and I got way better hooksets. The Esox rod I use is built on a 1 piece flipping blank that is rated as a Medium, but it is more like a MH/H rod in any other rod maker's lineup. There are lots of quality rod makers that make a 7'6" rod. If you're not sure you would like a longer rod, see if you haev a buddy that has a 7'6" flipping rod that you can borrow and try for Crigging. The next thing I would suggest is the use of an EWG style hook. I mostly use Gammy 3/0 or 4/0 EWG hooks on all my baits. I will Texpose the bait, in other words, rin the hook through the nose of the bait as you would for a normal Texas rig, but instead of burying the point back in the bait, push the hook point straight through the bait so that the hook point lays along the back of the bait. Then, tuck the point under the plastic. A large amount of the fish I catch on a Crig hook themselves. My hookset just finishes burying the point. I seldom mish or lose a fish. As for line, I like a copolymer mono for main and leader in rocks. No braid in rocks for me. I've had too many rocks cut braid like it was butter. In wood or weeds though, braid is good line. The weight. I seldom go lower than 3/4 oz. unless I am in weeds that are too thick, then I go to 1/2, 3/8 or even 1/4. I want good feel, good castability in the wind and a weight heavy enough to handle large plastics like Brush Hogs and 12" worms. The 3/4 oz. works best for me in most situations. The hookset... Normally, you have a lot of line out when Crigging and you have to move all the line on the hookset. With a Trig or jig, you can have some slack in your line on the hookset, but with a Crig, that slack can cost you if you have a lot of line out. The longer 7'6" rod helps with this, but a good no stretch line will help too. The skin hooked bait helps as well. When that fish grabs that bait and swims off, the hook point will break out and start to stick the fish. Your hookset finishes the job. Lastly, you need patience to get the Crig down. It took me over a year to to really get good with it. It has taken years to "master" it...even if that is possible. Keep up with it and you will get the hang of it and you will catch fish. Brad

RobbyZ.... Are you looking at starting a physical location or an online store? I started an online store in 2005 and I will tell you, it is tough to grow without a good amount of start-up capital or a good credit line abd finding wholesalers can be very difficult. I'm still small, but I am slowly adding products to the store. I really enjoy dealing with bass tackle and have learned a ton about the industry. Of course I follow a rule that does keep my inventory smaller than it could be, I do not sell brands unless I personally use their products. I just cannot sell something I would not use. If you have any questions, I'll be glad to help. Just shoot me a PM. Brad

My favorite Paddletail is the BK Swimbait from NetBait. No, they are not super detailed, but they catch fish. Brad

$2.99 was a steal. Whoever put those on sale needs to stop pricing items at Dicks or they will be out of business selling below wholesale. ;D The Xcalibur baits are good lipless baits. I use all three models. BUT....I would not limit yourself to one model. I fish several lipless models and find one or two always outproduce the others on given days. My favorites are assorted models and colors from: Cordell SPRO Lucky Craft River2Sea Xcalibur Good luck with your new bait! Brad

I only own one color in the Zara Spook series of baits and that is the silver flitter color. It has been very good for me. Brad

The Rage Tail Shad is one of the best topwater baits to come along in a long time. If you've got shallow cover in the waters you fish, then it is a must have bait IMO. Smokey Shad, Green Pumpkin/Chartreuse and Black Neon. Brad

I have not tried the SK hollow body swimbaits, but the NetBait BK swimbaits work quite well on the weighted and weightless hooks. As an added bonus, they already have a good scent to them. You might look into those also. Brad

I had a bad snag once when fishing braid. To get it loose, I wrapped the line around a cleat on teh boat and backed up using the trolling motor. Ended up pulling the snag off the bottom. I've hurt my hands with that line as well. Now I keep a small piece of dowel rod in the boat to wrap the line around if I have to pull on it by hand. Brad

7'6" flipping stick and 50 lb. Power Pro has been my ticket to great frog success in heavy weeds. I still miss a fish now and then, there is no 100% hookup setup on these baits, but when I do hook 'em, they WILL come back to the boat, regardless of size of fish or thickness of grass. Braid cuts like grass better than any other line. Brad

Big-O, when does SK plan on shipping these out to their wholesalers? I'm planning on putting in an early stokcing order very soon for the space monkey's and lizards. The rage baits are great. Brad

Jackall makes some good jointed wake baits. The Mikey series and Dagored are good baits. River 2 Sea has some jointed wake baits as well. These are the two brands I have used personally. There are many others though. Brad

I have 12 cases on order. You gotta get your orders in early with SPRO as they are SLOW to ship many times. Brad