GetFishorDieTryin

You ever check out the R2S D walker? I used them on my swim jigs prior to the Swammer coming out. The tail doesn't kick quite as hard, but the D walker has a good amount of head roll. They look more realistic than a swammer and are really tough. With some Mend It, you can paste them back together a half dozen times after they finally blow out.

I wanted my BFS rod to do a couple things, but first and foremost it had to be able to throw 2 and 3" baits on a 1/16 head as well as a spinning rod. I like my lighter rods to have a tip without too much "glass." I wanted the tip to be responsive without being too soft. That way I can feel more subtle vibrations and I can stroll the bait with very little take up. I prefer that kind of tip for JBs and ned rigs as well. If I got the right rod and it had fast enough action, I could use it for lighter twitch baits as well. I wound up with a 6'10 L F BF Vertical Tatula. It was pretty much exactly what I wanted. Im really pleased with the action and power of the blank. The rod probably weighs about 2oz, feels like nothign in hand. Its similar to XF ML, in that the tip is plenty crisp with baits in the sweet spot. I have fished more small JBs like Rozante 63s and Pointer 65s which are both 3/16, like Karashi. The difference is that karashi is that karashi fishes heavier than it really is. I guess thats due to the lower buoyancy when compared to SP jerkbaits. You can feel the entire weight of the bait when you twitch a karashi, but it doesn't overload the blank and recovers fairly quick. The rod is rated up to 3/8, but once you get to 1/4oz twitching baits, the action slows a bit. As Ive said, it fishes small minnows and crappie sized plastics and ned rigs very well. I've caught quite a few fish on 1/16 EWG style ned heads with a 4" hula stick. I've no problem setting the 1/0 EWG. If I were using light FC, I would likely want a blank with a little more power. As for a reel, I tried my luck with an Ark Gravity BFS and have been impressed. Its a little temperamental, in that it hardly needs and arm at all to cast a bait and will fluff or nest if you push it without applying sufficient brakes. The reel itself is unreasonably smooth and feels nice in the hand. For its price, it's well worth it IMO.

I would likley use one of the Champions for a bladed jig, depending on the weight. As for an additional rod, I would consider a 7' or 7'1 Med power Fast, theyre like a swiss army knife. I throw square bills, lighter free rigs, smaller spinnerbaits, finesse swim jigs, walking baits, weightless t rigs, JBs, shakey heads etc.

I would say 100, but you dont even need to go that big. I can bomb a 5/8 Duo nitro and still have PLENTY of line. Youre not throwing a 3/4 chatter as far as that little lipless, much less a 3/8. I used to lean more towards 150 shimano and #15 Inviz for a bladed jig outfit. IMO the biggest difference is the beefy grips and (100mm) longer handle and not the spool size. Im constantly speeding up/slowing down, chopping, burn and pause etc and the longer handle can help. I usually start throwing chatterbaits in Feb. 1/4 fished really slow, like a jig. As the fish get more active I would use heavier baits and heavier line/gear. This year I stayed with lighter gear that I start with in Feb. I fish chatterbaits in cover(around wood), but I use a shorter rod that im more accurate with, because if I miss theres no getting that bait back. With my standard bladed jig outfit I really just rip grass and I can get away with #10 BG or #12 FC all day. I stayed with the Met 70/#12 FC instead of going to the usual 150/#15. The decreased drag with the #12 makes a big difference. Not just with quicker connections and longer casts, I feel like the bait runs better as well. Normally I dont like a 6 speed with a shorter handle for anything other than fine wire hook swim jigs and treble hooked baits, especially when using heavier (#15) line, but downsizing the line makes enough difference to where its almost even. With #12 you have to be patient and take your time if you get some fluffed line that does end up twisting. If you hurry to pick it out and kink that line, it can lead to future heartbreak. I have no trouble setting the hook at distance with the lighter line, or catching up with a fish that "pushes" the bait. The narrow spool on the Met stacks line up quick, so the retrieve speed increases faster than it would with a wider spool, like a Tat 100 or the shimano 150s. If a bass is following that bait, I want her to commit before she gets too close and bounces. If that increase in retrieve speed gets a half dozen bass to react all year that would normally continue to follow and ultimately spook, its worth IMO. Or I could be crazy... As always YMMV.

I used to have an apparatus I made in haste that was essentially a cardboard box, with a full body goose decoy stake run through it. The spool(s) would be threaded onto the stake. I would wrap a rubber band around the stake, which the spool would rest on. The rubber band wouldn't allow the spool to spin too fast and added a little tension. To either side of the spool I would have additional bands to keep the spool from moving to either side. I put a dozen 8oz J weights in the box to keep it from moving. I could fit 5 spools in one of those small TW cardboard boxes. I just run the line out of the hole in the side of the box, put the box in a side pocket of a tackle bag and leave a little gap between the zippers to let the line run through. If the reels have great line management, ill wind it on in a pinch, but prefer to have it put on with a machine. Bigger spinning reels that I put 180 or 200 yards on will always be done on a machine.

Believe it or not, there are really good preoducts that dont have a Daiwa or Shimano badge or decal. Okuma has some rods and reels. In terms of function and durability, Makhaira will run where Saltiga will fail. Ive never had a KK reel, but they've been around over 10 years and sell a ton of reels. If they were junk, they wouldn't have the repeat business they do. As far as googan rods go, ive never owned one. I was able to get my hands on some of the Favorite rods when they were working with some of the creators and I can honestly say I strongly disliked them. The CatchCo rods are a different story. Im not a fan of the googans, but if I said their rods didn't feel better than most at DSG I would be a liar. Theyre kind of ugly, but in hand they were light and balanced. I liked that the locking nut can't back off on its own and had an audible click. I liked that they labeled the blend of graphite. As far as I know, all blanks are composites of different graphite. If you had a blank that was all 40t graphite it would be exceedingly frail. Althought the grips were comfortable, the grips on the budget had plastic that was a little cheap feeling and the 2pc reel seat seemed like it would be

Thanks for the reply, but I figured it out. It was the line rubbing on the crossbar.

If youre willing to go JDM, Bantam is a no brainer. You can get at least 70 yards of wider dia #65, which is more than enough. If you want to stay in the US, then Curado 200M would be a good alternative. The 200M is a fairly small framed reel for a 200 spool, but its not as small as a Bantam. The JDM Bantam is a higher quality reel, and its the same price as the Curado 200M after paying the duty fee on Digitaka. The Daiwa reels are bigger when you compare them to the same size Shimano's. A Tatula 150 has more capacity than most 200 size Shimanos. If you like Daiwas I would go for a 150 over a 200 for sure. Personally, for a jig rod, I like small reels with an MGL spool, which are light and start easy, but cast very far. I would recommend either a Metanium or Bantam. Both are brass geared reels, which stay smooth. Biggest difference is weight. One is Magnesium, which is lighter and the other is AL. Both reels are super solid and would be perfect for pitching and frogging. So, in conclusion, Bantam would be my recommendation for sure. At just over $200, theyre a steal. There could possibly be a new Bantam in July at icast. Someone else will probably have more info on that.

Yeah, I figured it out. I spooled it in the parking lot at the lake with about 90 mins of light left on a rainy day. I was in a hurry because I knew the fish were stacked in the SW corner and the bite would fall off really quick. I could hear that the noise was coming from the area of the level wind and was baffled because Ive never a squeak like that from a Daiwa, even older Tatulas. I had a hard time getting a knot around the solid SV spool and getting it to bite into the spool and stack. Turned out that in my haste to get on the water I ran the line under the cross bar. It was the FC rubbing on it that was making the noise. Just operator error. Unlike that JDM Metanium, whoever put the Tat SV together was fairly liberal with the grease. Although it's still a little tight, its improving. I really appreciate you working on those reels. The Metanium had never fished better. The FK is still pretty stiff, but eventually it should loosen up. I used to pack the Spinfishers that I wet waded and surf fished with, full of blue grease. If a little water happened to get in, it wouldn't cause any damage. All that grease would cause the reel to run really tight, like the FK, but those older SS reels werent very smooth anyway. Do you know what kind of grease you used in the stradic? Just wondering

Class Act... God Bless You

Whats so bad about 8 pack baits? I understand its nice to get 12 or 15 for 7 or $8, but theres a downside. When you have that many baits in a pack, especially worms, they dont sit flat and can take bends.

Strike King used to make Oxblood finesse worms. Obviously roboworm does, but its only 8 for the longer fats, you get 10 with the standard straight tail. Reins makes scuppernong bubblign shakers that are very close to some oxblood colors and they dont come in 8 packs.

Just about everything works right now because the fish are feeding agggressively before they guard the bed during the spawn. I would suggest getting some light (1/16) jigheads with small hooks. The Berkley half heads are good choice. The head is a versatil shape, the keeper will work with any plastic, and the hooks is very sharp. You can fish a ned rig or small (2.8 to 3.5") swimbaits like the 3" Keitech Easy Shiner or Swing Impact. Fish them on light spinning gear with light line. Small swimbaits or even grubs will catch fish all year with the exception of the water freezing. Senkos, Yum Dingers or the BPS stick bait produce good numbers from prespawn to late fall or early winter. bladed jig or Spinnerbaits are great this time of year. They dont work as well on clear calm days as they do on windy and or cloudy days. I would go with the spinnerbait first. Get a little Booyah Pond magic, they put up good numbers. Lipless Cranksbaits are good this time of year as well. If you can find some moderate submerged grass, like milfoil or coontail, throw a lipless in it and rip it out. You can get a reaction bites that way and often they're good quality fish. I like a 1/2oz Strike King Red Eye Shad for a moderatley priced lipless bait. Look up yo yoing a lipless to see how to fish them.

IMO, they each have a different action and obviously profile, to match the mood of the fish, time of year and profile. The Easy Shiner is the most subtle of the 3. Its the most subtle of the 3, with a tight tail swing and little to no roll. The profile of the Easy Shiner imitates very small, slender baitfish or fry. Think herring, spearing, minnows and juvenile fish. The Fat swing impact is on the complete opposite of the spectrum, relative to keitech anyway. The tail and body as larger the other 2, which causes the tail to swing harder. The body is round, which along with the tail helps the bait roll from side to side and give a little movement to the head of the bait. Now just because its more aggressive doesnt it wont work in colder water or on spooky fish. When the water cools down, the plastic stiffens. What made and still makes keitechs so great, is that the plastic is so soft it it still swims in frigid water. It will stiffen slightly, but still swim on a super slow retrieve. The Swing Fat is good at imitating fish with a stocky or thicker profile. Think taller (relative to length) profile, like Alewife, gizzard shad, smaller sunfish, peanut bunker, pinfish, pilchard etc. The Swing Impact is like a finesse Swing Impact Fat, or slightly more aggressive bait than Easy shiner. The tail doesnt swing as wide as the Fat, but wider than the Easy Shiner. Theyre kind of a neglected bait, which isa sham because theyre really good. The profile is similar to the Easy shiner, unless the fish are looking at it from below or over the top of the bait. Think of it as a slightly more aggressive Easy Shiner with a rounded ribbed body. When you compare the 2.8 fat and SI, the fat has much larger profile. The roll of the fat causes the fish to see more of the belly and top of the bait as it rolls. As the fat rolls, the fleck causes quick flashes as it catches the sun on the correct angle.

I took a deeper dive into spinnerbait this year. I love throwing a spinnerbait in the rain, or cool muddy water. Other than that, I have more confidence in a bladed jig or swimjig, which is why I need to get my spinnerbait weight up. Ive already known that quality of blade and wire makes a massive difference. Sometimes I want a heavier wire, other times I dont. I like the SV 3 for a smaller profile, general use SB, but in clear shallow water I actually prefer the double willow Molix Muscle Ant. The Zinc head is wide and flat. While it doesnt have the sensitivity of tungsten, its noticeably more sensitive than lead. The #2/ #3 blades and swivels are good quality and the wire, especially on the 3/8 is thin. The hook is a custom 3/0 OMTD, very sharp, very strong. The small blades, overall size and super light skirt dont have very much drag, which allows it to cast a mile. With a decent rod, you can feel every rotation of the blades and right before that fish hits you feel the sharp rhythm of the blades change as the fish pushes water into the bait. They're costly, as much as the SV 3, but they go on sale often. I can usually get them for $9-$11. If you want a cheaper option thats kind of similar check out Greenfish Little Bad dude or the Booyah finesse covert. I also really like the Greenfish spinnerbaits. The Bad little Blade is a compact finesse SB. They use one of their Bad little Dude heads, so you get a longer shanked gami hook and a head shape that sheds grass well. One of the reasons I like Greenfish Swimjigs and spinnerbaits is that they use single layer skirts. The single layer moves so much better than a full skirt and doesnt create as much resistance in the iar and water, so they cast farther and run deeper. Ive done really well with the painted blades on the Coleslaw color. The blade size is relative to weight. You can get them in willow or indy/col. The colors are kind of lacking, but the basics are there. Theyre 8.99, but are often discounted. The Greenfish High Class is a full size SB. They dont skimp on the blades. Even the 3/8 willow gets like a #5 primary blade. The head is really thin and detailed. The hook is a long shanked gami, which IMO, eliminates the need for those stupid trailer hooks. For the size of the blade and full skirt, they stay down really well. The 3/8 fishes similar to most 1/2 ive used. The keeper isnt as aggressive as the Bad little blade, its just a lead barb, but its effective. Unlike the bad little blade, the high class has a bunch of great colors. 100 Grand is great for the spring, bone is great, but my favs are golden shiner and almost. MSRP $8.99, but often on sale. I like Picassos spinnerbaits as well. Ive only used the Thunder(oklahoma) blades in the inviz wire and SS wire. Like every other Picasso product, the components are of high quality, and the baits are made to last. They use high quality silicone for the skirts. My only dislike is that Picasso likes to use grommeted skirts. That makes them durable and easy to change, but I think a collar, with a skirt wire tied over the top has better action, but that's just my opinion. You get high quality blades, the type of wire you want and a gami hook for $11. I like the Zorro Short Arm Aggravator, but that's more a situational bait. Its got a ton of thump and is really responsive. I like them for slow rolling, dirty water and fishing in lily patches in very early prespawn and other lighter to moderate cover.

YEP...I like em for fishing cover and dirty water, so I keep the guard on. The stock blades tarnish, so I swap them with a #5 or 6 (depending how deep I want it to run) Hildebrant, and they knock like a bladed jig. The blade is so close to the hook, I land 9 of 10 bites or maybe slightly better.

Ok, then the one I was talkin about was 1st Gen. The newer model had a black handle and didnt have cork grips. They werent cheap, like $250ish and the TX was like $280 or 300. If the C was smooth and casted well, I would consider it worth it, not too many reels that size are under 6oz. for that price. They would go on sale on Amazon for a little over $100, but they sold out really quick. If I can catch a sale on the TX ill buy one of them.

Got a new Tatula SV recently. Other than being considerably over greased, giving the retrieve a heavy feel theres something else that cuts through me like broken glass. The #12 InvizX running through the T wing makes an insufferable squeaking noise. Never had that with my older 103 TWS. I thought about using Pam or some other kind of non stick item, but I don't see it lasting too long. I think I'll try some tying wax first and see how that does. Anyone else experience this and remedy it? TYIA guys... As far as the reel, I really like new frame design. Its not a light reel, at a little over 7oz, but it doesn't feel nearly as heavy as an SLX DC. The amount of grease gives the reel a tight. The 0 adjust or w/e its called was on the tighter side as well. I loosened it about 1/8th of a turn. The brakes seem really heavy. I started on 10, like all the other Tatulas Ive used. 10 felt extremely tight. Despite the typical head wind of 12-20mph I worked the dial all the way down to 2 throwing a 7/17 spinnerbait with a #5 and 3.5 willow.

Thats what I would do. The newer Metanium frames are by far the nicest workhorse reels Ive ever had.

The way Rapala degraded and removed so many great products from 13 should be a crime against humanity. I wanted one of those 2nd gen(I think) concept Cs, with the silver handle and cork grips. No one around here carries 13. Cabelas and BPS had a few at times, but never the Concept models. 13 made some pretty nice baits as well, that Rapala pulled. I dont think they would be a nearly as successful as the Crush City line, but they wouldn't have hurt sales. Rapala cut the Fate and Omen Green line back so far before totally axing them. They were good rods for the price, and sharp looking too. I may just decide to pull all the X raps and sub walks out of my plug bags in a feeble protest.

Its 2026

It breaks down to 3 categories in my mind, Creature, Craws, Chunks and Hog style baits. When it comes to creatures there's a bunch, but for me one stands out as incredibly versatile and its proven. Biffle Bug honorable mentions Punchin Predator Palmetto Bug Fuzzy Beaver Craws, surprisingly is the hardest category to pick a #1. Theres a winner, but it just edges the other out and the others are in like a 3 way tie. Adrenaline Craw Ring Craw and Bubbling Craw Jackall Chunk Craw Air Craw Had GrandeBass not DCd the Mega Claw, it would have been 1st place. I had grabbed a bag of Okechobe Craw and Ballistic Bluegill when I went down the Airtail Ratller rabbithole, and they sat in a box for a couple seasons. I brought them out in June one year and started pitchin them around and that bait dominated. That bait caught the biggest bass every time I used them. It outfished D bombs, it outfished Brush Hogs, Super Hogs with a dyed tail nearly beat them, but I stuck a #6 in the last 5mins of the day, like 50' from the boat ramp, same color as the picture. (Ballistic Bluegill) Chunks are easy SuperChunk/SCJr Rage Chunk Hogs Super Hog -Game Hawg tie. As good as the Brush Hog is, I like the profile of the Super Hog more. Its got a decent profile, but isnt too long. The SK Game Hawg has the profile of the Super Hog in terms of width. SKs plastic is superior IMO to Zoom, there are great colors to choose from, and I actually think that coffee scent is effective. Tiny Brush Hog Glad to see it mentioned, its a real sleeper. I think Riots plastic formula is superior to most brands. Theyre good baits, but many on here won't admit it. Clam shell ensures every bait is perfect and the quality of the plastic is very good.

Walk the knot down by puling the tag and mainline separately. When the knot is almost exactly whee you want it, lightly pull both tag and mainline simultaneously and then pull the mainline hard to completly seat the knot. If your using braid, once cinched the color of the braid will darken.

Did you see the new Certate HD? Looks great, but I noticed something strange when I looked at all the images of it. Its a $700 reel and its made in China.

Although Nasci has really improved over the last 2 iteration, with a lighter weight and screw in handle, I would still take the Exceler or Fuego over it. I would consider Nasci if I were using rod that is slightly tip heavy, like a 7'3 M or 7'6 ML to help balance the outfit. Nasci might have a slight advantage when it comes to water intrusion, simply because Shimano has deleted the AR toggle where the LT frames have not. My 17 Fuego LT 2500 has seen some serious abuse in SW environments from April to early November and heavy use in FW November to April, every year since I bought it in Sept of 18. I didnt expect it to last no more than 2 full SW seasons and it still runs. It's not as smooth as it once was, but Im confident a deep clean would solve that problem. The only precautions I took were packing the gap in the AR toggle, as well as the auxiliary and primary handle port. A buddy of mine used to roll his yak frequently launching from the beach. He had VSs and custom rods, but after losing a few of them in the surf he started to use budget gear, which included (what I think was 2nd gen) a couple Nascis. He liked how Nasci fished over the Battles and Sheilds. He had some minor issues with Nasci that could be sorted out with a deep clean, but his complaint was that the reels felt very smooth brand new, but after a few seasons the operation would degrade, and he couldn't figure out why. Nasci had a unique main gear. It wasnt a high polished finish like other Shimano main gears, it was black. Eventually, he found out that the Naci used a main gear that with a coating. Where the gears mate, the coating would wear and could wear unevenly for whatever reason. Once worn, that buttery feel when it was new, degraded slightly. Not sure if Shimano still uses that coating in the newer Nasci. Even with that coating gone, the operation was still decent. I recommend Fuego, as its my preference. The reality is that either reel is exceptional and I would imagine you would be content with either.