Scott804

I think the stunna has taken the place of favorite jerkbait for me. For me it has worked excellently as a power fishing jerkbait, lots of ripping and hitting it with decent jerks repeatedly at different paces/patterns. I am sure it has a place used traditionally as a jerkbait as other users have posted, but for me it has really taken the cake for the warmer water parts of the year & for the power fishing heavy part of the fall. Forcing 110s into power fishing did work well, but they were not built for it and you could tell. Bills would break, hooks would bend out, and you would still catch fish well, but it just kinda sucked. The Stunna feels super at home being used this way to me with the slow sink rate and reinforced bill. I recommend picking up some 1+s too if you plan to try using the bait this way. The Stunna 1+ used in shallow water works well with the faster aggressive sink rate can dig it into the strike zone a good bit quicker and the big bill will bounce off of obstacles and the bottom better. If you get into a shallow-shallow stretch you can still keep it up by ripping the bait upward like stroking a jig almost. With it being designed by Hank Cherry, I am not surprised it is such an excellent jerkbait. Both of his classic wins had jerkbait bites involved and I wouldn't be surprised if atleast one of them wasn't a stunna prototype. I really like the Blaze color in the spring. Talk to a lot of megabass guys and some of them will tell you one of the best spring 110 colors is Viper Tiger, a limited run color which is basically identical to blaze. Not a whole lot of full red jerkbaits on the market. The other main color I throw is Silva Dolla. Just seems to get bit the most no matter the condition for me, so that is what I throw.

Do you fish rivers? Smallmouth? Those are my two main applications for it. I love drifting these for smallmouth. I will occasional use them at others times, like tossing them under docks seems to work pretty well. They truly have a very small unique profile and I would consider them unique to anything else on the market. If you really want to see them in action look up Nolan Minor's Hobie BOS win on the Susquehanna River using the Evergreen Gizmo on youtube.

I have found 23 rebel Pop-Rs so far. I think I would rather have the three 110s LOL

100% Sportsman, especially at the price you gave. That thing is awesome. I never had a single complaint about mine.

Forgot to post this awhile back... Big cranks and little worms! I bought flick shakes on clearance on a whim and now they have become a staple. On another note... does anyone have reel suggestions for lightweight cranks? SLX 70 MGL is not cutting it for me... maybe it is user error. But I was looking at the Daiwa JDM Alphas SV on TW. Or maybe the Tatula SV TW 70? Not sure. I am sure the bait monkey would appreciate any input on the matter.

I totally agree. I think rods just have more/more pronounced character as far as what makes them different than a reel. There is something incredibly satisfying about hunting down the perfect model for a specific technique and it feeling perfect for the way you fish. I generally loathe buying reels the same way I loathe buying line. I wish I was excited about buying them!

I should add for technique, just use your normal crankbait rod. Line is your preference, just make sure you keep your rod tip up in the air if you want the wakebait to truly wake. You can put the tip downward to make some wakebaits dive, some 6 inches, some 2 feet, just depends on the bait. You can do some nifty stuff around cover if you use the ability to wake and dive to your advantage, especially around stumps.

It'll do fine with a whopper plopper, I say go for it! I love my 734c so far.

Wakebaits like swimbait wakebaits or wakebaits like 0ft running crankbait wakebaits? If the crankbait kind, the KVD 2.5 is really good.

Shoot me a message if you want to fish! If you are still into kayak fishing you should check out NVKBA & VKT. Both very well ran kayak fishing tournament trails here.

I feel like boat prices are ridiculous nowadays. But I also just feel like that is the direction the sport is headed in.... livescope, Bassmaster EQs, 100k boats that are hardly any different functionally than the boats of 10(+?) years ago... If you have the money to keep up, power to you. Gonna stick to my silly plastic boat.

Man that thing just looks like it gets bit don't it. Ordering one, looks too dang good.

187 for a Levante is a steal

Florida, F1, Northern Largemouth Meanmouth Both Kentucky & Alabama spots Smallmouth

Me and my brother were walking along a river casually today to the spot we were planning to hunt. We hear a doe spook across the river and my brother crouches down and is struggling to formulate words. He has never killed a deer before so I assume it is just normal first deer jitters and he already has his gun up, I am slightly further back and can't see over the bluff wall down to what he is clearly seeing. He has already had 7-8 different mishaps and mistakes causing him to miss deer this season. Bow exploded, used the wrong pin, forgot to put in primer, forgot to put in powder, powder got wet, etc. He pulls the trigger. Click. Forgot to rack in a shell. I immediately take two steps forward and look down on the bottom of the river bank and the biggest buck I have ever seen in my life (outside of the internet) is sitting there trying to figure out what is going on. I am going to try not to exaggerate too crazily, but I am a fisherman. It was a six point, but his rack was super wide and curved outward on and on softly, but even with the size of it, I was more impressed by the size of his neck and shoulders (more on this later). I have shot a good amount of deer, but I have never really shot a good one, I grew up hunting the good ol "we are gonna go out and sit in the stand and maybe we will see a spike" with grandpa and deer infront of dogs in counties with seemingly endless hunt clubs and pressure. Some decent 2.5 year olds, my best being a deer that had two good points and then the other side was just one giant beam that kept going. Cool character, but no trophy. Anyways, this buck was leagues and leagues above anything I had ever seen in real life. I raise my Winchester 94 and put the bead on him and give myself a good 3 seconds to make sure of my shot, I felt good about it, but my adrenaline was going harder than I have ever felt before. I let loose a round, he stands still. Not good, so I rack another round. Put it on him again. He had taken two steps, and I felt better about this shot than the first. Pull the trigger, click. I guess I didn't rack the action all the way, rats. It looked like he had been injured when I watched him walk away. Me and my brother are both going "did that just actually happen?" and immediately start the hike back to the truck to go home and get a kayak to cross the river. We get back and kayak across and hike the two miles down across from where I shot, find the exact spot. No hair, no blood. We did a 3.5 hour grid search till dark just to be sure. Took a shot at a target before dark at 100yrds on irons, bullseye. Wasn't the gun. Massive bummer, still agonizing over it now. Not the best way to start the new year, and certainly not a fun way to end the season. Luckily he is still out there though! I actually think when we spooked the doe he was about to lock it down, his neck was massive and rutted up and I suspect that is why he stood there confused when she bolted, he was focused on other things. It was cool to see such a massive deer, even the biggest deer I have seen compared to this one look skinny and frail. Hopefully I will return to this thread next year with a new encounter with this deer. This also all happened on public land, which is 80% of what I hunt.

For me, the Stunna is the deal for power fishing a jerkbait. Fishing it more like a crankbait shallow, nonstop casting and retrieving, but because it is a jerkbait I will pause it around high % areas of the cover I am fishing. Cast, jerk jerk jerk, jerk jerk, pause, jerk jerk jerk, reel up, another cast & repeat. I had a lot of luck doing this in the middle to late spring and the early summer. One of the best parts is, is that is still works great in traditional jerkbait ranges, like the early spring and the entirety of the fall. For me, if the fish are finnicky, 110. Otherwise I am probably throwing a Stunna. On the 110 I feel like I get more of those pecking strikes or light grabs where you jerk again and the fish is there, whereas most of the Stunna bites are my drag suddenly initiating and running. The Silver Dolla color is my best producer, but I caught multiple good fish on the Blaze red one in the spring.

Well I am glad that I am not the only one LOL

I really thought I had escaped the clutches of the bait monkey for the rest of December. But The Hook Up Tackle's sale got me good. Got the Evergreen Combat Stick Jackhammer rod. 7'3 Heavy Glass, Mod-slow. The finish on this series of rods is ridiculous, they look so much nicer than their price at 200$. I was never a huge fan of the camo grips online, but in person they look pretty cool. The range on this rod is 1/2-2oz and you really can feel that, a 1/2oz jackhammer with trailer feels like when you throw a 1/4oz spinnerbait on a 1/4-1oz medium heavy rod. I have a couple of plans to use this for, but main duty will most likely be jackhammers & magnum crankbaits. KVD 4.0 & 8.0 are the current plan, but I have not explored the oversized crank world too much yet. I expect a Big Blade chatterbait to feel at home on this thing too, which will be nice because I was pushing my cranking rod throwing it on that rod. I might mess around with some lighter swimbaits on this, but I am not sure yet. I do know I will try putting braid on and throwing big topwaters like the SB125, Ima Big Stick, big spooks.

Wish the Levantes and the Orochis never got that 50$ price bump. They were an insane deal before that. Exprides always punch above their weight, never a bad pick! Would love to hear what you think once you've got some hours into it.

The Landsat is a destroyer P5 model, which is their top end rods, 500$+. I have never spoken to someone who ended up really liking that rod, general consensus has been "only buy if you have money to burn". Megabass generally has better actions but their sensitivity is not on par as far as 500$ rods go. They will give a good run for money at 200-300, but the higher end isn't quite there on the spinning end. They have never been a bottom contact/jig and worm rod company though. The Shakeyhead is a great spinning rod in the megabass line, but not what you are looking for as far as ned rigs go, it can do it, but definitely not the dedicated rod you would want. Whipsnake is fun, but mine broke when it really shouldn't have and I replaced it with a Zodias 7'0 ML and don't regret it one bit. However, I would recommend looking into the new US Destroyer rod line up coming out this February. The Addermine is coming back and has a big big big cult following for ned rigging, Flyssa might be up your alley too if you have a knack for longer rods. I also would recommend the 7'0 L Expride, but specifically the Expride A. I have heard that the new L Expride B is not the same rod that everyone loved at all, and it will probably end up being really similar to your Zodias. A lot of people really loved the Expride A 7'0 L, it had a lot of fans despite being sort of an odd model for the Expride line up. If you can find it that would make a great option, but the Expride A is discontinued now so you might have to look for a last lingering one in stock or go used.

Something about that UV purple glaze they have on the white python & Bahama milk pearl colors. I don't know why, but every time I tie one on they seem to be eating it better than normal bone. Big believer in whatever it is they're doing there.

I was wondering why it said everything was low stock...

Not a big deep crank guy, but I just love to pick up my St Croix Legend Glass. Beautiful rod and easily the most enjoyable crankbait rod I have ever used.

I have always felt like if you took two anglers that fished very similarly and gave them the same crankbait, one with just bone white and the other with a shad pattern matching the type of shad, the one throwing the shad pattern would catch a few more. I feel like I have had color matter while out on the water, but there really is no way to know if that was the real decider. I have always been big on details but it probably at the end of the day is just a confidence thing.

2x. I caught some pretty good ones on a small jerkbait there last summer, too. But if you really just want to have fun fishing for smallmouth there (or any river that size... if you ever get the chance to fish the Rapidan in late Spring/Early Summer I recommend that one too... had a 136 fish day there this summer, wore me out so bad LOL) the curly tail grub is king. Ned rig is also a great one for these rivers, I find it gets a little better size for whatever reason.