fin

I didn't see it on TW, but looked at most of what Savage had on there. I like that it doesn't have a joint. I'm not sure if that really helps, but I've never had much luck with multi-jointed baits for some reason. I saw you posted in another thread that you use their stuff a good bit. Do you have an opinion on the joints? Their stuff is so big and heavy I'd need to get a new rod for most of it.

I checked one Academy today and they had practically nothing left. They have moved a ton of merchandise in the past couple weeks. I found a couple nice shirts at 75% off that made it worth the trip. Also I lost a lure today that I got at Academy on clearance a couple weeks ago. Very first cast, brand new. A topwater lure, into open water. Apparently there was a really large barely submerged branch, and when the lure hit the water it must have dived enough to hit the wood and somehow get hooked. I could not believe it.

Their stuff looks really tempting, and not outrageously priced. I'd love to hear how it works out for you. What length/weight is that one? I don't see one like it online. It looks like it has no joint?

I must be the only one here that has ordered a rod from DSG that was packaged well, and it was a $20 rod. That was back before this past xmas.

I don't know if you can really classify the RES as budget-priced though. Personally, I like the Academy lipless cranks, which are about half the price. The same thing that makes RES flutter also makes them run sideways at high speed. It's got a little bit too much flutter for my taste. I think every brand has its own good points. I never met a lipless I didn't like.

I googled for a couple minutes before I realized you were talking about the member Scaleface and not some lure called Scaleface. ?

Actually I'm afraid one day I'm going to step on a snake when I'm not watching where I'm going because I'm looking for lures. I picked up an old bottle once and it broke in my hand, requiring several stitches. That broke me of that habit pretty good.

It’s a bad habit, and I’ve got it bad. Just say no, kids. I’ve got more lures than I know what to do with, but I can’t quit looking for them. It starts off as something to do when the fish aren’t biting and eventually you find yourself looking for lures when you should be fishing.

It's sort of an art getting it to walk and look enticing. For me, there's a special reward when they get bit, I feel like I really finessed the fish. There are much easier ways to get topwater bites, but to me, it's one of the most rewarding.

Westcott 5" scissors from Walmart. Never cut paper with them, I never cut anything but line with them. They are super sharp and have held an edge for years. Only a few bucks. They give a clean cut, no fraying, but I still hold a lighter to where I trimmed the line for a leader knot, which prevents any future fraying.

Was that a one-day event? I think somebody else mentioned something about it being only one day. I'm trying to decide if I want to drive back out there again. I know it's got to be picked over and there's only going to be stuff I don't want, but it keeps calling me....

A white spinnerbait is all I can get bit on lately. If I try to spice it up with different colors, they aren't interested. Copper looks great in the water I fish, but I never have any luck with it. I've never tried any copper blades though. All those you made look great. I was just joking though. One time I was standing in a bait store looking at the choices, and this other shopper asked me if I knew why they made all those different colors, real serious like he was going to let me in on a big secret. He said, "So fishermen will buy them."

All those pretty colors to choose from, but they bite the white. Sometimes I think fish don't understand how to play this game. ?

That's a winner there. Sold out though.

That's part of the reason I didn't get one. One of my buddies would have had way too much fun yanking my chain. It's not that I couldn't take the joke, I just knew he would drive the joke into the ground. I'd never hear the end of it. Another guy once gave me a nice rod, and my buddy already gives me a hard time about that, implying the guy was gay and implying he gave me the rod because he wants me. I tell him maybe he should try the other side, since he never gets laid anyway, and his equipment is junk ?

I just assumed the one you got was the older model being replaced by the other one, but I'm just guessing. I would not hesitate to use pink braid, seriously. Those bright colors are great. I'm using bright yellow, which is pretty popular with a lot of people here. The pink cost a little more than the yellow I use though.

Kastking Pink Braid ? You'll love braid once you get used to it. You'll never go back.

Years ago I found a craw trailer sitting in the water along the edge of the lake that was huge, like 6"-7" and it was a realistic craw, not stylized like most craw trailers are. In fact, it looked pretty real when I first saw it, like a baby lobster in the lake, lol. I started trying to find out who made such a big craw, searching online, to no avail. It turned out that it must have been in the lake for years and had a real high salt content, because as it dried out over a few days, it shrank to half its size. It's weird to me that nobody sells something like that. There were some molds out there at one time, who knows where they are now. I wouldn't try a stylized big craw, personally. They work in smaller sizes, obviously, but when they get that big, they don't really resemble a crawfish.

The picture doesn't even look pink, it's more mauve. It's not like bright pink. Not as bad as all the fluorescent stuff out there. I saw some fluorescent green rods the other day that I can't imagine using. That would drive me crazy.

I'm not that cheap. Not sure where you are getting the 5' of braid from, it could be any length and multiplied by dozens of snags per year. The leader is mono, same weight, but it always breaks before the braid, and worst case, the leader knot would break before the braid.

The reason I use a leader is not so much because of visibility, it's because it will break off, saving the braid and prolonging re-spooling.

I saw it for $33 back in November. I saw it was down to $21 in December and thought about it more seriously, but I never got one. I joked about my buddies giving me a hard time about it, but honestly, I don't think anyone would really even notice. I don't look at other people's stuff very closely. I wouldn't paint it, you'll probably get some fun out of it.

I don't doubt it, I'm just dense 'sometimes' and I'm trying to understand.

So those lures are like .75 cent now?

If you cast, let it drop 3 seconds, hold rod at 3º, retrieve at steady medium speed, the bait will travel at about 5’ (more or less) below the surface. If you cast, let it drop 6 seconds, hold rod at 3º, retrieve at steady medium speed, the bait will travel at about 10’ (more or less) below the surface. That depth will gradually become less as you get closer to the boat/bank, but unless you are reeling at a high speed, you can make a lipless swim at whatever depth you want. I know you know this, you must have some point you’re trying to make that I don’t get.