Shadcranker

I've been looking at some soft plastic swimbaits and have narrowed it to a few that look good. looking for 4-5" shad pattern: 1. 3:16 Shad 5" 2. Optimum 4" or 6" 3. California Swimbabe Baby E 4. Osprey Talon 4" Has anyone used any of these? If so, what depth do you fish them at? Most are around 1.5 oz baits, so I assume they'll work down to 15ft and still swim straight. Thanks SC

Best jig I've found is the Davis Sjaky Head SL model (long shank). I buy them in 1/8, 3/16, and 1/4 oz sizes. You can buy bulk bags from Coosa Tackle, and on-line dealer (around $9.99 for 25 pack). They have a strong Nickle Coated hook and the heads are very consistent quality.

McCoy Mean green is the best I've found for low memory spinning line. Works great.

I have 4 for different conditions: 1. No rattle flippin jig- Oldham's Screw lock 2. Rattling Flippin Jig- Lunker Lure Rattle Back Monster Grass Jig 3. Finesse jig- Bitsy Flip 1/4 oz. 4. Football jig for deep structure fishing- PJ's Jig.

I am looking to buy a couple of soft plastic swimbaits, and have found 3 that look good so far: California Swimbabes Baby E Optimum Swimbait 3:16 Shad Has anyone used any of these? Also, what is the recommended rod / reel combo for a 4-5" soft swimbait? Finally, when and where do you fish these things? Are they a clear water bait, shallow only, around cover only???? Thanks

1. Pearl super Fluke 2. Tx rigged 4" tube 3. Carolina Rigged Lizard 4. #7 Shad Rap Could do most of what I need to do year round. Honorable mention: Bitsy Flip jig and cavitron Buzzbait

The best spinning line I've found is McCoy Mean Green. It's very limp with little memory and does not twist much at all. It's also very strong. Give it a try. You may have to order on line. www.***.com has it. Good luck.

I use the Slugo nail-style weights. they seem to really help the bait not jump out of the water nose first. I can work it sowly at 3-4 ft or speed up, and it will stay just under the surface. Does not seem to hurt the action at all.

I throw 5 basic baits on my rig year round: 1. 6" Zoom Lizard in Gren Pumpkin or Pumkin Pepper (die tail chart). 2. Zoom Baby brush Hog (same colors) 3. Zoom trick worm in Watermelon or Green Pumpkin (clear water bait) 4. 4" Zoom French Fry in salt and pepper (shad imitation) or watermelon Pepper. 5. 10" Zoom Ole Monster Worm (Red Bug or junebug for deep Summer structure fishing. Lizard, Trick Worm, and Brush Hog in Spring. Other two are Summer baits.

I too live and fish in Middle TN. If you can let me know what lakes you fish I can help with bait selections. Clear, deep, rocky highland and midland reservoirs take a different approach than cover filled lowland lakes. Generally speaking, fish jigs, tubes, lizards, worms, grubs, flukes etc. on normal weather days, as the fish tend to be deeper on these lakes. Tubes are one of my go-to baits on Priest for sure. I use two different styles / rigging types. 1. 3" finnesse tube on a 1/8 to 1/4 oz BPS tube head on spinning tackle (mid to down lake areas when fishing clearer water and shallow flats). 2. 4" flippin tube with 3/16 to 1/2 oz bullet weight on Baitcasting equip (For upriver areas with more cover or for dragging on deep structure at night or in Summer). If you're fishing Center Hill, Old Hickory, Tims Ford, etc. the go-to baits would change a bit.

1/4 oz Cavitron (Gold blade / white skirt). Great quality; extremely slow buzzbait, holes in blades, etc. Tried them all, and it's the best IMHO.

Jig seems to produce better in colder water. I usually throw platics once the water hits 58-60 degr. I think you get more bites on a worm or lizard, but agree that the jig tends to get bigger bites. Around the spawn, a Lizard produces more for me than a big jig, althought the smaller finesse jigs (bitsy bug, etc) work well too. If you're pitching or flipping thick cover, a shorter profile bait (while bulky) like a jig or tx rigged tube seems to come through the cover best. Just tie on both, and see what they like best that day.

I think Diawa is catching up. Their quality really seemed to lag behind Shimano in the late 90's and early 00's. I own probably 15 Shimano baitcasters and love them (mostly old and new Curados). They cast great, and they are absolute work-horses. I bought a Viento a year or so ago (same price as the new Curado), and I recently sold it. It was a nice reel, but I couldn't seem to get the casting distance as I get from the Curado, and I just decided to stick with what I like best. That said, as with any brand, it's a personal preference.

I own a Flippin stick, but I very seldom use it. I pitch 99% of the time, and I use a 7' MH rod that I also use for Carolina Riggin and TX Riggin. If you fish real heavy shallow cover (matted grass, lily pads, bushes) in stained to muddy water, a true flippin stick is what you need. But, if you're fishing clearer water, sparse cover, then you can get by with pitching most of the time. If you are going to actually flip (10 ft of line in tight), then the Kistler is worth the extra $, b/c of the weight issue. if you do not want to spend that much, I agree with the e-mil above. The Diawa Light and Tough is a good stick for the $.

If you want a true flippin stick (7'6" H action), I'd look hard at the following: Powell or Kistler for a sweet light weight one (flippin with a heavy rod all day can get old). Also, Castaway's Bud Pruitt models are awesome and a great value for the $. The Team Allstar is nice, I own one. But I'd rather have one of the above.

I vote Symetre- best $79 reel ever IMHO. I own 2 Stradics, but I can't see that they're worth the extra $. Can't go wrong with either.

Try to keep in simple. Try to limit your color choices as much as possible to have the basics covered, such as one dark and one light color for plastics (light for clear, dark for stained): What I would get if I had to start over: Cranks/ spinnerbaits, etc.: (4) #5 shad raps (2 gold, 2 shad) (4) # 7 shad raps (4) bandit 200's (2 craw and 2 shad pattern) (4) 300 bandits (2 craw and 2 shad) (4) 10-12 ft cranks (Strike King series 5 or similar- 2 shad pattern / 2 chart and blue) (4) DD22 cranks (same colors as above) (6) spinnerbaits (3/8 and 1/2 oz in white and chart /white) (4) Cavitron buzzbaits (white and chart)/white (4) Rattlin Rogues (2 suspending models and 2 floaters- shad and gold) (4) Rattle traps (2 red and 2 chrome and blue) (2) Pop R's (shad or bone color) (2) Spittin Image or Zara Spooks (shad / bone/ clear) Plastics (buy one light and one dark color of most- light go with watermelon pepper; dark go with junebug or black and blue): 2 bags each: 5 " grubs finesse tubes (3") Flippin tubes flukes (just get pearl color- works 95% of time) Senkos Craws Shaky worms Floating or trick worms 7 or 8" plastic worms 6" Zoom lizards Sweet beavers or Creature bait You could buy all of this for around $300. Then you'll need terminal tackle (hooks, weights, jigs, skirts, swivels, etc,). Buy the worm hooks, etc in bulk to get a better deal. Buy weights, tackle bags / boxes, etc at WalMart. Shop around for deals on hardbaits and plastics (on-line or at big box sporting goods stores like Academy, BPS, or Dick's). Things I left out are chatterbaits, jigs, swimbaits, and probably a few others. That said, you could restock pretty well for less than $500. Just don't get carried away with the colors, or the bait monkey will own you.

I had very little confidence in jigs until last year. What I did works, and here's what I suggest: 1. Start with a finesse type jig in 1/4 or 3/8 oz (Bitsy Bug or Eakins are good, or trim up a full sized jig and remove the rattles). 2. Use lighter line to match the small jig (12-14 lb). 3. Only carry two or three rods with different jigs and stick with them all day. 4. Fish areas that you know are holding fish (don't search with it; it's not good to cover water). 5. Pick a weather day that you think the fish will be feeding (low pressure, pre-front). 6. Use the most natural colors you can get away with (greens, browns, etc.) and match the trailer to the jig color. I like the Zoom Speed Craw or small Zoom Pro Chunk. All of these will help you to gain confidence in the jig. Once you master the feel of a strike, you can experiment with larger jigs.

Great bait in my opinion. Very seldom out of tune straight out of the box. Lavender Shad and Chart / Blue back are my standard colors. Fish it on 10lb line to get max depth.

My limits are as follows: Reels- for 90% of my baitcaster fishing Curados- $200 ea. I am probably going to step up and buy a Chronarch or two to treat myself, but I don't need them. As for spinning reels- the Symetre might be the finest $79 reel ever made. It's all I need. Rods- I am buying Powell Bass Max Rods now- from $169 to $180, and they're awesome in my opinon. I like both the spinning and BC rods, although most of the rods I'm buying are BC's. As far as spinning rods, the Crucial line works great and is a great value for $129. I have around $380 in most of my BC combos, and anything above that is overkill to me. Spinning combos around $210 ea, and they're all I need. Find what works for you, but yes there is a choking point on this stuff.

Bottom line IMHO- Light line (4,6,8 lb) and finesse applications (grub, small tube, hair jig, drop shot, shaky head, light CB's like #5 or 7 Shad Rap)- Spining tackle. Line from 10-30 lb and more power applications (flippin, cranking, spinnerbait, carolina rig, large topwaters, etc.)- Baitcaster. Be versitile, and use what works best in a given situation. I don't have a prefernce between the two. My preference is whatever presents the bait in the best way to allow me to catch more fish.

I'll take some of that wager sir - ABA buying BASS. That's about like Bob's Hardware Store in Lousville KY, "with four stores in the greater Louisville area to serve you" buying WalMart. ABA is a nice organization, but I seriously doubt they have the financial backing or organizational capacity to run BASS. Let's see how they do running the weekend series first. I bet they have a whopping 25 boats for the opener in our area this week.

I went to ESPN. com (under contact ESPN member services) and voiced my opinion, and we should all do the same or expect the same or worse next year. Probably won't make a difference, but I feel better for venting to them. I directed them to this thread.

F- no live weigh in coverage, and re-ran the same covg all weekend. Ran only 10 minutes of weigh in coverage? I didn't even see Skeet Resse in final weigh in, and he lost by four ounces???? Terrible effort in my opinion. They should have just waited and had a recap show the next weekend and edited it down to a one hour special. I'm glad I went fishing Saturday instead of staying around to watch all the "live" action of Friday's fishing day. Absolute joke.

If the spectators had not been there, he would have been fine. I'm sure Howell would have rather him run at full speed with limited wake than to go half speed and push a big wake (I fish on a narrow river a lot, and lots of boaters think they're doing you a favor by slowing down, when actually they are pushing more water by half idling / half running). Either wide open or idle speed is good; half or 1/4 speed sucks. That said, he should not have shot that narrow gap at full speed. It was very dangerous, and I'm sure he was honestly just gigged up on adrenaline and made a poor judgement call. BASS was correct to DQ him, and I thought GS was right to not blame Trip Weldon, the spectators, fellow competitiors, etc. He took the interview and apologized publicly. Punishment fit the crime, and life goes on. As this sport grows, the spectator boat issue is going to be a bigger problem, and this incident IMHO is just an example of the risks that spectators pose. I had a hall pass yesterday and could have easily gone down there, but I honestly did not want to get in their way. Glad I didn't, b/c I whacked em on Guntersville.