Scott804

I really like to dropshot with a medium light. Obviously a medium light could be anything because of manufacturer standards, but I find myself enjoying dropshotting on medium light rods more. That being said, every single time without fail that I have to dropshot on a medium rod I am always pleasantly surprised. If someone told me I would be forced to dropshot on a medium rod forever I probably wouldn't lose sleep over it. So if you WANT an excuse to buy a fancy dropshot rod... you have one. But if the old bait monkey isn't on your shoulder, I really don't think you're losing out on much.

If I am going down to 70 or 90 I am probably using a spinning rod, personally. A lot of people like shorter jerkbait rods but I have never really understood why, I much prefer the 6'11 - 7'0 ones. I use a Megabass Levante Jerkbait Special 6'11 M/F for casting & a Shimano Zodias 7'0 ML/F for spinning.

If I could only have one, silent. Dog X is a mean walking bait. I don't know what it is but that thing will get bit when my other walkers don't. I think the clean cutting action it has + being silent can be really good in calm conditions. I have caught a lot on the rattling one when it is raining/choppy, though. If you are fishing pressured water I would probably lean toward silent.

I'm not the most fond of Dobyn's for bottom contact, but they make a darn good crankin' rod. Before buying I would do some research, I have been hearing that their quality is going downhill but that could just be hearsay. Anecdotally, I have a Dobyn's Fury 705 CB. Great rod for anything with treblehooks. Currently it is my designated small crank/big popper rod. I used it as a jerkbait rod for a long time and it did great. That being said I don't think it could handle a 3/4oz crank, and it sounds like the rods ironbjorn listed would be perfect for what you are looking for. Megabass Levante EMTF seems like it would suit your application well, it is listed on their chart as being applicable to both cranks & spinnerbaits/jig hook reaction lures. However they just upped the price to 250, the rods were an insane deal at 200 and are probably still worth the extra 50, but if you look around on Facebook Megabass used rods groups you could probably find one used in the price range you listed. The action on those rods is not as "one note" as the Dobyn's rods are in my experience, which can be good or bad depending on your application.

+1 Silent jerkbaits specifically. Some of the most violent strikes I have ever gotten have been using silent jerkbaits in crystal clear water.

2x on Lynn Dollar. It is really cool to be able to watch some of the new trends at the time appear for the first time in some of the videos on that channel.

Like fishing bluffs? Uphill, and look up the free rig. Might seem like another JDM nonsense rig upon first inspection but it was designed to be used for steep drop off banks to entice bites with the way fish set up on them. They typically aren't used to seeing a bait presented to them in this way and it can do some damage if you find some fish that haven't been exposed to it.

1. Yes. Well made lures. 2. Both are really good. The Jr is a great beginner swimbait. 3. I agree with Phish, RT Ghost Gill and RT Bluegill. Generally I think most people think of Ghost Gill as "the one to have" as far as ganteral colors go.

Get a small tupperware and fill it with hot water and then poke holes above the water line and stick a pencil through and place your spool on while you are spooling up so the bottom half or so of the spool is resting in the water and you will spool up with significantly less memory. Might want to do this outside, the water can splash as you reel. Disclaimer : I am not liable if your wife makes you sleep on the couch for poking holes in her favorite tupperware.

Traditionally obviously a jig or a big swimbait is a good answer. However right now I have been having really really good luck with the new Z-man Big Blade chatterbait for targeting big fish. If I need a kicker in the boat, I'll tie that thing on and there's just something about that bigger profile that just seems to draw the bigger bite for me. First time I took it to a pond I was fishing with a normal sized chatterbait and couldn't get a bite then I switched and caught a 3, 4, and a 5 in that order in 10-12 casts. That thing rocks.

I think the advantage the shakeyhead holds over other baits/rigs is that you can stay in one place and impart action onto the bait without it moving. You can shake a texas rig like you do a shakeyhead, but it isn't going to look nearly the same. Being able to toss a shakeyhead into a laydown where you think a fish might be and let it sit there and wiggle the tail of the worm in his face without the base of the worm moving very much is a great tool to have. Not to mention it is relatively versatile when fishing rocks, open water, and other situations so you don't have to retie if you are going down the bank and there isn't anymore wood/rocks. Pressured bass are probably used to seeing lures enter and leave the brushpile/laydown over and over but if something comes in and just sits there standing up shaking for 4-8x longer than a texas rig being worked through the cover then it might entice a bite where a t-rig won't. Just food for thought.

For me a shakeyhead usually stays on a spinning rod and a texas rig stays on a casting rod. Sometimes they will switch over to the other type of rod depending on what I am trying to do. I fish them both very differently though, if I am trying to power fish I am going to use a texas rig to pitch it and cast it to hop it around or work it through the cover I am fishing. If I am using a shakeyhead I am probably finesse fishing and either going to slowly drag it along the bottom or over rocks or I am casting it into a laydown and shaking it lightly on barely slack line. My shakeyhead plastics are also very different than my T-rig plastics. I fish a lot of creature/craw stuff and occasionally a worm on a texas rig whereas shakeyhead is almost exclusively floating worms, with an occasional craw thrown in.

I use a St Croix Legend Glass 7'2M/M and it is so much fun to fish and aesthetically very pretty too. Worth every penny to me. I will occasionally fish smaller cranks on a Dobyn's Fury 705CB too. I like the glass more though, I don't know exactly what it is but I catch a lot more fish on the glass. Something about the action and softness helps me climb through cover and not jump the gun on the bites a lot better than graphite. As for line I have been using 12lb Sunline Crank FC. I like it, but if you look at the price tag and scowl I am confident that normal sunline fluoro would probably work great too. I sometimes use mono or hybrid on graphite when cranking. Cranking is really fun to learn and try to master. Nothing quite like it when they are destroying squarebills on sight in the spring or fall. Squarebill has a place in the early summer for me too. I don't know about others, but I have found color to really matter in shallow cranking. I've had ponds where they would absolutely not eat one color one day and then I will switch and suddenly it is an 8 fish day. (PS. That glass + crank FC fluoro works amazing for bladed jigs, too!)

Have you tried getting your seat higher? I was having similar casting issues casting over until I got seat risers. It also made pedaling far more comfortable.

I use a Megabass Levante Brailist 7'4MH/MF and it is known for being "parabolic" for a jig rod. It works really well for me, I don't like fighting a fish with an overly fast rod personally. Really comes down to personal preference, but if you want to play it safe I would go fast. I feel like you wouldn't be missing out on much by not having extra fast.

Generic but they work. You can get some darn good deals if you check often and are fast on the website, too.

6'11 M/F Megabass Levante Jerkbait special with a Shimano SLX MGL 7.2 with Sunline Supernatural or a Copoly line on it. I also run a spinning setup about half the time I'm throwing a jerkbait, it just depends on the application. The Levante is good at what it does though. I also use it for spooks and lipless crankbaits. Yet to find a setup that can launch a MB 110 farther than this one.

Megabass - 3 Shimano - 1 St Croix - 1 Abu Garcia - 1 Lew's - 1 Dobyn's - 1 Thought I was going to stick with Megabass rods once I found them but that price bump has me looking at other things. My favorites rods are the St Croix Legend Glass 7'2M and the Shimano Zodias 7'0ML at the moment, but that could change a day/week/month from now.

If I can figure out how to rig 6 rod holders on the tuff krate that is the direction I am leaning now. I really like the top lid. And yeah I agree, lots of overpriced junk on the market. The good thing is almost anything can be DIY'd as far as kayak mods go.

Yeah. Some over 100$ seems silly. Most of them don't even really have many features, but at the same time sometimes little things can make a big difference and if it fixes some of the hassle of the classic crate maybe I will consider switching.

That is super clean! My crate is real beat up and the holes are definitely something I'd like to eliminate too. I like what you did with the lid though, I feel a compulsive urge to bungee cord everything on the kayak but that lid looks way cleaner than a bungee cord holder.

I currently have a basic run of the mill modified milk crate for my kayak fishing crate. It certainly does the job but I'm not super in love with how it looks and while it isn't the end of the world, I have begun to look at some of the aftermarket kayak crates specifically made for kayak fishing. It seems like no matter which crate I go to, in the reviews there are multiple people complaining. I find it hard to justify buying a 100$+ possibly kayak crate if 1/3rd or 1/4th of the reviews are negative. So, what kayak crate do you run? Normal milk cart? Hobie H-Crate? Yakattack BlackPack? Wilderness Systems Krate? Any anecdotes or in depth experience would be appreciated!

Messed around with it. Haven't figured out how to efficiently use it yet. Rigging was a big hurdle for me. They certainly move different than anything I have ever seen though.

Not particularly, but the fact that I do like all of the Megabass prostaffers certainly doesn't hurt.

While those lists are a good place to start, keep in mind a good portion of techniques can be pretty subjective. I know guys who throw bladed jigs on H/XF rods with braid whereas I throw them on a medium moderate glass rod. If you feel like you might do better with a faster/slower/different line type/power then try it out and see.