Ogandrews

I throw chatterbaits, and everything else besides big cranks, on a 8.1. I use a curado dc, but a normal curado k would work well also. I really prefer a fast reel as it’s easier to pick up the slack when you rip out of grass. Especially with a chatterbait it’s not hard to slow down, just base your retrieve off of how the blade is vibrating. I would always rather slow my retrieve speed down and have the high speed reel to catch up to fish when they run at me during a fight.

A swimbait on a 1/8th oz owner beast or similar weedless swimbait hook would work well

While I don’t own those specific models I have multiple exprides and they feel just as good as my loomis imx pro’s which are $360-380. They are no question the best value per dollar in fishing imo. I like a longer rod for spinnerbaits so I use the 7’6” expride but if you like short rods I’m sure the 6’8” will work.

Put it all on, unless you blow the spool up with a really bad backlash you won’t need new line anytime soon. I use powerpro maxcuatro and I’ve got reels that have the same line from 3 years ago and it still is working as well as when I put it on.

For that price I’d pick up a st croix bass x 7’2” mph moderate action. I think that a moderate rod is really important for keeping fish pinned on treble hooks. Pair it with a shimano slx xt and you’ve got a great crank setup.

I fish a “power shot” all the time with a variety of line sizes. I’ll throw 30lbs braid to a 12lbs mono leader on a medium baitcaster with a finesse worm Texas rigged on a light wire hook, I’ll use 17lbs leader on a MH with a normal wire gami ewg and a bigger worm or creature, and I’ll use 65lbs braid straight on a flipping stick with a heavy wire hook and a 1-2oz weight to punch grass. When I’m fishing a dropshot on a baitcaster I generally like a shorter lead between the hook and weight, 6-12” usually. Especially short when I’m punching. Even on my light setup I’ll use usually a 1/2 or 3/8 oz weight to help get through the cover. I always tie a palmar knot and then run the line through the bottom of the eye one more time so the hook stands straight up and down on the line. Any time I’m power shotting I use tie on tungsten weights so I don’t loose them. I’m almost always using a 5-7” straight tail worm but you can use anything, I’ve had some great days with both a fluke and a swimbait on this rig.

That’s awesome. I just bought my first NRX last week and am blown away with how good of a rod it is. I have 6 different imx pros and the NRX is on a different level of weight/sensitivity. I haven’t used a conquest but a friend of mine has one and likes it just as much as his NRX’s. Idk if I would buy a conquest over the new st croix legend extreme but they are for sure an incredible rod.

One tip I will give is unless you are buying a specialized stretchy floro shock leader like sublime fc100, don’t waste the money on “leader material” lines, just get a spool of high quality line. I like mono for 90% of my leaders. Only time I will really switch to floro is if it’s super clear, like over 10ft of visibility, or I want to use 25+Lbs line then I’ll go to fc100 because it’s thin and super strong. Mono for most applications makes a much better leader than floro IMO, just pick your favorite mono and tie it on. If you are going to go with floro, pick a quality one like sunline sniper/assassin, abraseX, tatsu, gama ect. In my opinion most “leader” floros are just overpriced 30 yard spools of normal floro, besides fc100.

Another year of me using braid to leader has passed and I still use it on almost everything. I did play around with some straight floro on some cranks and jerkbaits. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t feel there was any benefit over braid to leader. After switching this year to a modified Alberto knot, I have even more confidence in the leader knot never breaking. With that knot I break my line at the lure knot 99% of the time. On 8lbs braid to 8lbs mono leader I landed a 52” musky and a 35lbs flathead cat, no breakage. Braid gives me amazing sensitivity, both slack and tight line, great hooksets, great control of the fish, a spool lasts a year or more, way further casting distance, and other benefits. If you know how to tie good leader knots and are using the correct leader material, your not going to break fish off.

3/8 oz swim jig dirty jigs no jack 4” chigger craw or rage bug Texas rigged 1/4 oz weight pegged 1.5 squarebill 3” senko on a dropshot River2sea bullywa2 frog

Always thought the same way, probably 90% of the popper fish I have caught have been on the same rapala xrap pop that I’ve owned for like 5 years. Only other on I throw is a river2sea bubble walker which is halfway between a popper and a walking bait, really undervalued bait.

I have shallows, squarebills, and flat sides/cold water baits in their own boxes, and then mediums and the few deeps I throw in another box. If you were looking to just load up with mostly one brand, the rapala DT series is really hard to beat unless you need to get over 20ft. Majority of my cranks are DTs, such effective baits for everything under 20ft for a good price just change the hooks. Throw a couple bx brats, dt fats, Shad raps, and fat raps in there and you would have a well rounded crank Arsenal from one brand.

It’s funny reading this because so many of my go to techniques are listed here, couldn’t imagine smallmouth fishing without a jerkbait ned or dropshot. I don’t mean any offense by saying this, but what kind of bass fisherman can’t catch a fish on a ned or t rig? Such effective and easy to fish baits. There really aren’t any techniques that I haven’t caught fish with but if there was one that always seems to not work as well as I think it will is a fluke. I’ve definitely caught fish with them, but i always seem to do better with something else.

Actual rebel pop-r i love throwing walking baits but never caught one in an actual spook

A lot of good recommendations in this thread, one of my favorites is a smaller glidebait you can twitch well like a waver 168 or gan craft 178. the other thing I have killed them on when the conditions are right is a spook or frog. Doesn’t always work, but if you have a day where the sun has been shining and warmed up the water some. I’ll find that bass get super shallow in either dark bottomed silt bays or flooded shorelines on the river systems I fish. When those fish are in 1-2ft of water it doesn’t matter that it’s 40 something degree water they are gonna eat it if their in a feeding mood.

I’m not sure if other guys do this but I never hear people talk about it. 90% of the time I’m dropshotting I’m using a 3” wacky rigged senko, especially when smallmouth fishing. Ned rig has nothing on the amount of bites that rig gets for me, gets great size for smallmouth too.

If I’m just throwing a keitech by itself for largemouth I throw anywhere from 2.8-6.8 but i throw the 4.8 the most, sometimes I’ll drop down to a 4.3 or 3.8 if it’s tough but even when it’s bad conditions they still eat the 4.8. The 4.8 is a pretty small bait once you start comparing it to baitfish, can’t tell you how many 6-8” smallmouth I have caught on a 4.8 keitech, also caught multiple pike over 40” on that same 4.8. If I’m fishing grass I’m usually throwing it on an owner beast 4/0 1/8th oz, sometimes I’ll go to 1/4 if it’s deeper. If I’m fishing rocks or more open water I’ll throw it on the dirty jigs Matt Allen head anywhere from 1/8 to 1/2oz. Another great head is the true bass screw lock head.

This is pretty funny to read because almost all the baits listed are stuff I throw regularly and do well on. There really aren’t any baits that I’ve given up on because they all have their situations, but if I had to pick one it would be a big curly tail worm like a 10” power worm. I have caught some big fish on them but they never seem to catch the numbers and size of fish that I get on a creature bait or jig in the same area. I need to try them some more because I know they have their place, especially in the summer when I’m fishing deep weed edges.

I use an imx pro 894 fpr for stouter wire 3/8-1/2 jigs, 7’5” heavy fast. I own MBR’s and JWR’s and the FPR is slower than the jwr and faster than the mbr, great rod for when you want some more power but don’t want the extra fast tip you get with a jwr. Doubles as a great Texas rig rod as well. I don’t like throwing jigs on anything under 7’5” but if you like shorter rods than the MBR’s are solid, just remember even a 4 power MBR is not a super powerful rod so don’t expect to be using it around really heavy cover.

I was about to recommend the brailist as well. Another option I have used, sadly don’t own, and really liked is the dobyns xstacy 754c. Super light, just as sensitive as an NRX and better balanced IMO. One of the things I like about the xstacy, just like the brailist, is that it loads more than a normal “fast” rod which really helps keep jig fish pinned especially when using braid to a leader like I do. Reel wise I would recommend the shimano bantam mgl, super tough and smooth reel. I’d you want to spend more, step up to a metanium or spend less and get a curado dc. Can’t go wrong with any of those options

I get what you guys are saying, and I don’t expect this to be perfect, I won’t be throwing chatterbaits much on it. I have a dobyns champion 736 glass as a dedicated chatterbait rod, but I don’t always bring it unless I’m on my own boat. I really like a softer rod for chatterbaits because I fish braid to a leader 100% of the time, even on cranks. If im in really heavy cover I’ll switch over to a jig rod but majority of the time I land a lot more fish throwing it on a stouter crank rod, just my personal preference.

Hey everyone I’m looking to get another crank rod in my lineup. I spend a good amount of time on my kayak or friends boats where I don’t want to bring 10 rods so I’m looking for something that is pretty versatile. Looking to throw 1.5-2.5 squarebills, shallow cranks under 10-12ft, normal sized lipless and chatterbaits if I’m not around serious weeds. The two rods I’ve narrowed it down to so far are the expride 7’2” mh glass and the kistler feel n reel 7’6” all purpose. Both are composite rods. Most of my cranking is done around around cover. I know one rod isn’t going to be perfect for all these applications but I’m just looking for something that would get by throwing them when I don’t want to bring more dedicated rods. If anyone has experience with these rods or other recommendations in the $300 and under range I would appreciate it.

Thought I’d put out a little review and see what everyone else thinks of the reel. I got mine a couple weeks ago and paired it up with a Shimano expride 6’10” medium with 30lbs maxcuatro braid to a 8-12lbs leader. First trip with it I went for smallmouth I threw micro keitech football jigs, midsized jerkbaits, 4” keitech easy shines on an 1/8th oz head and a 2.5” tube 1/8th oz head. It handled the small baits super well and still cast them really well. Used it a couple times now to throw small 2.5-3” jerkbaits in the 1/4 oz range for brown trout in streams and again it cast them amazingly well for a baitcaster. The reel has such a comfortable feel in the hand and is one of the easiest to use reels I’ve ever had. Definitely a big step up from the curado 70 in my opinion, you can notice the different gears and upgraded spool right away especially with light baits. Feels just like an really light version of the curado K which is exactly what I was hoping for. Anyone else have a chance to try these out yet? I couldn’t be happier with mine

If your looking for the most sensitive jig rod possible I’d go with with a new st croix legend extreme 7’4” heavy or 7’1 mh if you like something lighter and pair it with either a Shimano Antares or Metanium dc. I have played around with one of the new legend extremes and it is unbelievable how sensitive they are, and this is coming from someone that uses all glx/imx pro/exprides for my fishing so I’ve got pretty high standards.

Going to somewhat hijack this thread. This weekend I snapped the handle of my imx pro 892c while casting a 1/4 oz jig. Never had it happen before, but the blank and most of the cork just snapped in half when I was doing a hard cast like I usually do. This seems like it has to be a factory defect as the rods only a couple months old. Anyone have experience with loomis warranteeing stuff like this?