Vilas15

And he puts them to the test against plenty of big river smallies. A different breed than even big smallies in a lake.

I had the same question. Some discussion here:

I picked up a fat b*****d for musky last fall. Havent caught anything on it yet but i liked the noise and color options. Paint showed a bit of wear where hooks beat it up, but its a wood bait so im not too surprised.

Panther Martins are the best spinners I've found. They work best on a spinning reel, however don't be afraid to use larger, heavier spinners to make it work on a baitcaster. Small fish fill still hit a big spinner. If you use cranks, try using jerkbaits. Twitch them as they float downstream. You don't need to retrieve them. Yo-zuri pins minnow is a great bait.

I do not have that many plastics, so thats why i only need one bag. If you've got a ton it might look more like @A-Jay's situation. I think the bags fit a few less than they say since you need to be able to look through them and find what you need.

There's 8 boats on my favorite lake today which is a lot for a Tuesday. Launch can only hold about 15 max. But it's only 480 acres. If it's packed I'll go to one of the other 1300 lakes in the county. Or maybe take the long drive south to the next county's 1300 lakes. I've only fished about 10 enough to know them well over the last few years, but it's better that way than fishing a new one every time and never learning anything.

I've got all mine in a single speed bag in original bags. If I had a ton of different colors of a single type of bait, say tubes or grubs, then I'd probably give them their own Plano. But right now the speed bag holds a pack or two of everything I've got from swimbaits to tubes to grubs to flukes.

I think by friday temps will be high 50s by me and maybe touch 60 on smaller lakes. Then rain comes and might cool them off a bit. So youre probably right the spawn is likely 2 weeks out at least. Im optimistic for this coming weekend though.

I changed my schedule around to head north wednesday night instead of friday night. Hoping I can beat the rain a bit. Temperatures look to be heating up and I think we'll see the last bit of smallmouth prespawn action. Friday is a new moon. Things are lining up I hope we can both get on some fish! Are you there through the holiday weekend?

I put the knot between the first and second guide. Then the knot doesnt need to pass through the largest guide where the angle of the line changes dramatically coming from the reel. Means i use about 4 or 5 feet which seems to be long enough for me.

The st croix factory store has b-stocks which are factory blemishes sold 30% off. They also have c-stocks which are rods returned under warranty which have the tip broken off and they stick a new top guide on and sell them real cheap. Those are just thrown in a bucket and youve got to measure them to see how much theyre missing. They also scratch off the label on the blank so you cant try to return it as your own for a new rod. As far as i know they dont have demo rods, or fully repaired rods available. Ive seen multiple people recommend getting a demo Loomis NRX at a discounted price.

Are you thinking about giving it a shot if the deal is good enough? ?

If you want information on the Renegade, here you go:

Vinyl can get slippery in the snow and ice if that's a concern. See if there is an option for vinyl cockpit/carpeted decks. They offer it in the deep V boats and I think it's the best of both worlds.

If this is true that the tip would deflect the same amount, then I understand now. I'd like to do some testing to see if this is the case but I don't have the right rods. Confusion comes from the fact that I've always though of it as the same power rods would have the same blank diameter at the handle, and the action determines how the diameter changes as you go to the end. In this way, a moderate action would likely deflect farther if power is the same. I'd like to see a chart of blank diameter along the length of different models all from the same manufacturer.

Trying to resist derailing the thread, but Im just too confused by this. Please explain if you don't mind.

I only have tournament MBs. If i were to step up Id go with the tourney pro or maybe BB1 pro. Soeed spool MSB is also in that range which Im not familiar with. But Id probably give the edge to tournament Pro.

I agree. I think it's ridiculous when somebody says they prefer a 7'2 over 7' in the same power and action. Take the labels off and there's no way they could tell the difference. I do think there's a discernible difference between say a 6'9" XFast vs a 7' Fast but some guys just need to justify having 30 different rods. All this is assuming you're comparing within one brand, since two "identical" rods from different brands can be different. Back to the original post, shorter rods have their place and don't fall for the trap of using what everyone else says just because.

I've got a 5' UL all the way up to a 9' musky rod. My bass rods all fall between 6'6" and 7', but I am tall and plenty comfortable with longer than average rods. I don't fish out of a kayak or canoe much but I would use my 6'6" spinning rod for that.

That depends on color of the carpet. Grey should be ok but can get pretty warm sometimes. Black will show scratches and rock chips, a lot. Dirt shows on just about any color but probably the least on black. Same as any car. Just waxed my black lund this weekend. 2016 and shes starting to get beat up a little but looks great from a distance!

Pic of my arsenal before a day on the water last spring. Pay no attention to the baits tied on, they are all junk ?. Left to right: Lews tourney MB on St Croix Premier Crankbait 70MHM Pflueger President on St Croix Premier 70MLF Pflueger Summit XT on St Croix Triumph 66MF Daiwa Tatula CT on St Croix Mojo Bass 71MF Im now realizing my dads got nicer gear than I do: Plueger Summit XT on St Croix Avid 60MLF Shimano Curado on St Croix Eyecon 70MM Abu Revo SX on St Croix Mojo Bass 68MF Shimano Stradic CI4 on St Croix Legend Tournament Walleye 68MXF

2" boatbuckles are 25% off at cabelas May 14-27 according to the flyer I just got. Good thing mine just showed up at my door...?

Here's this years attempt. I think it's part "muskies eat walleyes" even though a study just completed on Lake Miltona showed 2% of the muskies diet was walleye, and they don't want stocking because it will bring more traffic to "their" lake. If I remember correctly the rep who is behind all this owns lakefront property that would be affected.

Grub is my first answer as well. My second answer is a lipless crank. Can be bounced off the bottom like a jig, yoyo retrieve, ripped off the bottom, straight retrieve, stop-n-go, burned at the surface above the weeds. Only issue is it can't be made weedless but with a stout enough rod you can rip it free.

Palomar