papajoe222

Try letting the lighter lures hang down farther from the rod tip when casting. That will help to load the rod a little more and increase the distance. Oh yea, stick to 10lb. line or under for best results.

There are quite a few reasons why your hook-up success was better with the speed craw, the least of which was your choice of hook size/style. That is a good choice as far as size goes and the style of hook is more of a personal preference thing vs. a hard fast rule. As far as what size weight to use there are a number of factors to take into consideration. First and foremost being how you are rigging it. For a true Texas rig, with the weight free to slide up or down the line, most anglers like to go with the lightest weight possible that still allows you to keep contact with it. Wind has a lot to do with that. I prefer to go heavier because the way I fish this rig, the plastic is the only thing a fish will inhale. For a pegged sinker, or when swimming a Texas rig, I will go as light as possible and increase it depending on conditions or the depth of water I'm fishing. Unlike fishing a jig, either of those two presentations will produce more bites when moving the bait or dead sticking rather than on the fall.

I was a little surprised to see more than one up for sale. That one does appear to be the better of them, plus it has the original box and things.

I'll use a T-rig when I don't want the fish to feel the weight. When they suck in a jig and chomp down, there's that hard jig head. With a Texas rig, the majority of the time, all they get into their mouth is the plastic and the hook. I use it more for dragging and dead sticking. A jig is more of a drop bait as I either am pitching or flipping it to isolated cover, or jigging it along the bottom. A football or swim jig would be the exceptions.

Check out the jig fishing thread at the top of this forum. There are also a couple of good articles and videos on the subject.

Fat Free Shad. If I need to go shallow, a FatBoy gets the nod and for the deeper cranks I prefer a DD22

Just a heads up for anyone looking for a Sol. There is a new listing on that auction site with a buy now of $110

McCoy, but if you can save up a couple of extra buck$ Yo Zuri Hybrid UltraSoft is worth it.

If I'm using a drop shot weight, I always do just what your asking. It gives me the ability to lengthen or shorten the tag length without retying. I never have one longer than 18in. The majority of my drop shotting is done with a jig rather than a weight, but there are times when a cylindrical weight works better.

I like a rod with a short handle because of the way I have to work a Spook (wrist problems). The big advantage to using a short, pistol grip rod is in casting accuracy. For presenting the bait in open water situations, I don't think it matters except to the user. Stick with mono and go a little on the heavy side for hard topwater baits. If you find you're having problems with the line tangling in the front treble, try thumbing the spool or dropping your index finger on a spinning reel just before the lure splashes down. The addition of a split ring or use of a loop knot will make a big difference when learning to walk one of these baits and either is essential to working it without moving the bait forward. Do a search here on fishing this bait. There are a number of informative articles.

Cat Cay will block more of the glare from the side and are a great frame for fishing, IMO. I wear the Zane model (grey lenses) for both fishing and driving, but I'm leaning toward a pair of the Cat Cays with the green mirror lenses to wear strictly for fishing. The Costa bait monkey has my name.

Jimmy will kiss most any fish and then chuckle about them liking that sugar.

Thumbs up for sure. Now if you think the bait monkey is a difficult animal to keep out of your head, you aren't prepared for his big brother named Rod.

Great people there. Hopefully as they get more business, their inventory and selection will increase.

If you get snagged, DON'T pull on the line in an attempt to free your lure. Ease up on your hook sets as braid doesn't stretch. When it starts to frey, cut that section off. Lastly, if the water is clear and you believe that line visibility is costing you fish, add a fluoro or mono leader.

I've done well on good sized bass with some of my muskie baits, but then again I've also caught some 10in. bass with them too. Don't get too caught up in the big bait = big fish mentality when targeting big fish. A crappie jig will catch a lunker if placed in the right spot. One thing I've found that is consistent no matter the size the lure is, you have to present it slow. Better than average sized fish don't waste energy chasing down their prey. Just saying

The best way I've found is to lay he plastic bait along side the hook's shank. If there isn't enough open space between the plastic and the hook point for it to grab hold without compressing the plastic, I go up in hook size until there is.

If you can partner up with someone that has confidence in fishing spinnerbaits, you an learn alot in a short time. There is also a lot you can learn right here. Nice job on your first. Those are very versatile baits, so don't get comfortable only fishing them only one way under one set of conditions.

Mono, fluoro or braid? Casting or spinning reel? Did you spool it on yourself or did you have it done for you?

Something you need to understand about how rods are rated. First there is a power rating such as med. heavy and then there is a tip rating, fast, x fast. That is basically how quickly the tip recovers after flexing. The other thing is that different companies rate their rods power differently. Some companies will also give you a general idea of what application the rod is designed for. With the budget you have I would seriously consider giving DVT a call. Give them a idea of the applications you want to use it for an the type and size of line and lures and they will gladly make some recommendations. Reels are a whole different can of worms and the fact that there are an abundance of quality ones available makes it mor of a personal preference thing. Generally speaking a 6.0-6.3:1 is a good all around gear ratio, but some guys like a faster reel. Consider what size lures you'll be using most often and choose the size and model based on that. Some reels are better at casting lighter lures than others.

I ended up using three coats of the U40 and after two coats of finish, the white is still as vibrant as when it was first wrapped. I did do a test of it with two coats and it came out fine, but I wasn't taking any chances with the actual wrap so I went with three.

They will and I have, but only once. I had the frozen water blues so bad that as soon as the majority of ice was melted I had rod in hand. I'm the type that won't give up until I figure them out or I have to quit and I had no place I had to be. I doubt if the water temp was above 34, so I was keeping things small, deep and slow. About an hour after sunset I tried suspending a neon tube below a slip bobber. I just let it hang there about four ft. under the bobber in 10ft. of water for May e five minutes or so. When I went to move it, the bobber went under and I felt the resistance of a fish. Not much size and I dont know how long the fish had been holding that tube in its mouth, but I figured if things were that slow, I'd wait a few days before giving it a try again. The water ended up re freezing and it was almost two weeks before I was able to try again.

Bass will strike the head of their prey head first the majority of the time and so will be hooked on the front treble. The back end of your lure then thrashes arond and often the back hooks will catch . The only way to 'fix' that would be to remove all but the front or back hook. You'll likely miss a good percentage of fish though.

Many only think of a drop shot rig as a finess tactic, but I prefer it anytime I want to present a bait up off the bottom. One way I rig it that helps me determine if they want a bait on the bottom, or above it is to use a jig as the weight. I like a hair jig and I'll vary the weight to suit the conditions. I'll normally switch out to something I can use a baitcaster for after I've figuredout which they prefer.

Here I went out and spent big bucks on a Tracker for storing my gear and I could have saved a ton by getting eight or ten of those mag bags. Why do you guys always wait until the bait monkey gets his way before posting this stuff? Here I thought we were all friends. Friends don't let friends let the monkey win big. Anyone willing to trade ten of those bags for an overpriced alternative?