Hook2Jaw

The Ded Ned Hed.

Stop making me try 6th Sense baits! I've already ordered a bill worth of Crush 50x and Quake 70s this week.

Yes, I've measured my casts. I get more distance with spoons than cranks, and could probably reach a long ways. For the time being, I'm happy with hitting 50 yards with big, air catching crankbaits.

The H2O Xpress Ultimate Jerk Shad catches fish. I suspect the Jackall Rerange and Rerange MR catch more fish, and they're 13 bucks a pop. Try them out with me.

I've got a Daiwa Tatula 150 5:1, backed with braid to two cast lengths of 12# fluorocarbon. I did what limited tweaking I could to the reel, at first running the spool bearing completely stock. That wasn't a long enough cast for my taste. Running them completely dry got me more distance, but I also got more nests from a very fast spool. One drop of oil proved to be the sweet spot between control and speed, and it'll now throw a ¾-2 ounce crankbait 50 yards, give or take. I'm sure there are better Daiwa reels for deep cranking, but the 150 has me pretty pleased. It's a solid little performer out the box, and even better once tweaked. YMMV, as everyone here says.

I don't have a mean enough rip with my current shallow cranking rod to clear weeds. I had hoped this was gonna be the case for me, but I'm in @Choporoz's boat. I keep finding reasons for new rods as well.

The theory behind a faster action on a jerkbait rod is you need the responsive tip to properly work the jerkbait. Then you need a softer power to not rip tiny jerkbait hooks from the fish. I use a 6'7" Medium Fast rod for my jerkbait fishing and topwater fishing, I accomplish both with the same rod...but it'll probably be two rods in the future.

My brother recently got into bass fishing and he wanted a rod that would throw both half ounce jigs and frogs on a budget, and I think the SLX combo I recommended him is excellent. The reel impresses the heck out of me, and the rod is great. If these SLX combos had been a thing years ago I'd probably have a full lineup of them, but all my stuff says Daiwa or 13 and I'm not much of a mixer and matcher. If all my rods disappeared today, they'd be replaced by these combos. The only thing the SLX line doesn't offer is a big cranking stick, and I'm not sure the moderate action heavy wouldn't work for it. Jam up stuff by Shimano, and I'm glad you guys are all enjoying your combos.

I understand this fully, my topwater collection is starting to outgrow the rating of my Medium Fast stick. I think a person could keep it to one rod should they have a good idea of what weight baits they're planning on throwing. @Firstoutfisher My heart says a Daiwa Tatula Elite 6'9" MLR is a good move for a universal topwater rod for baits under half an ounce. I haven't used one, but I can say the 6'9" HF is an excellent stick and I imagine the rest of the series is too. If you look around you can find deals for this stick on ebay.

I throw the Dallas, Texas rig in addition to the Austin, Texas rig. I haven't tried the Houston yet.

I had a buddy absolutely hammer them yesterday in a small lake with every daggum variant of shad you could want in it. He was throwing a Keitech 3.8 with a 3/0 EWG and slowly, slowly retrieving it. For me, the most successful shad imitator has been a ZOOM Super Fluke. I'll probably give the weightless paddletail a try, though.

Tom, reading about you catching the giants is legendary stuff.

I'm normally worming or jigging with a baitcaster, so I would absolutely love a high end Daiwa or 13 stick with a high end Daiwa reel for sending jigs and worms out there to tell me about all the plankton drifting into my line. I don't think I'd want the best of the best, something in the 250-300 range for each would suit me just fine. I'm on a kayak, my rods are vertical behind me, and I've cut two blanks in half this year. I would die in I cut a 300 dollar rod down to size.

I been fishin' since 1991. My meemaw set me out a worm in a deep hole in the Canoochee River. I waited, and shortly thereafter my bobber went under. Instructed by my expert meemaw, I went to cranking the handle of a Zebco 33 at 4 years old. A big ole mudfish showed himself, and meemaw decided that I couldn't whoop him. She took my 33 and promptly broke my line. I looked at my meemaw with disdain and said, "Meemaw, you need to learn to fish!" That's my experience from the past. Carry on, oh wise ones.

Texas rigged with a quarter ounce of lead. I've been doing it since I was a kid.

I'd just like to take a moment, from the bottom of me heart, to say thank you... ...to absolutely nobody! The double champ does what he wants.

I'm pretty thorough with my drag settings, and I'm sure it has caused me to lose a few fish as well as land a few. I prefer safe drag settings, typically running a third of the line's rated strength or the tested strength if that's an available number. I set the drag by tying a bowline in the end of my line, hooking the scale up and pulling until it slips consistently at the number I'm looking for. 6# gets two pounds of drag. This is pretty much my open water dropshot line. 10# gets three pounds of drag. This is my typical finesse line poundage for shakyheads and lightly or unweighted baits. 12# gets 4 pounds. You get the picture.

Man, now I've gotta go home and tell my flipping stick it ain't worth a flip.

Goodness. My most productive numbers lure is the YUM 5" Dinger. I've caught so many on them I keep them in my back pocket for putting a fish in the boat. The technique has become boring to me. My most productive quality lure is a half ounce jig with a floppy craw on the business end. I love this style of fishing. My most productive "today sucks" is a straight tailed finesse worm on a ⅛oz shakyhead.

I was about to pop in and give suggestions, but you've got it pretty well covered!

Big Game. That stuff might be the best deal in fishing.

These threads give me anxiety. Fishing with one setup would give me anxiety. I reckon my medium spinning setup with a ³/¹⁶ shakyhead and a Netbait T-Mac. Now that that's out the way, does anyone know if TWs next sale excludes Megabass?

I mainly use ⁵/¹⁶ for bodies of water for smaller fish and ½ for bodies of water with larger fish. I've found when fishing in muck and grass that dragging the jig or hopping the jig with vertical rod movement keeps the crud off my jigs better. I also toss these things in the heaviest cover available, so 9 times out of 10 I'm casting or pitching them on a heavy rod.

Man, it's a tough time of year. Most of my water is in the low 70s, but it's dropping quickly. I imagine it'll be in the 60s and high 50s next month. Once it gets below 50, if it does, I may be forced to hang it up. Goodbye frog. Goodbye spook. Goodbye buzzbait, goodbye plopper. Farewell, popper. Till we meet again in the prespawn.

I'm about an hour west of it.