leinad

don't agree at all - my experience tells me live bait is the real killer , worms, minnows etc., i stopped using live bait at least 20 years ago. i fish ned rigs 95% of the time , maybe more and have caught over 400 smallies this year from shore or wading and not a single fish has ingested a ned bait, all are lip caught or the very rare snagged fish. i guess if you sit there and wait 5 minutes to set the hook i guess that would happen no matter what your bait is.

strike king for the profile.

i have 2 rods that are rated for 1/32 lures and those are the dobyns 6.2 and 7.0 sierra trout and panfish rods and are paired with daiwa regal 1000's with 4 and 6# mono. my local river ( the housatoic in ct.) has lots of moving water and is less than 4' in depth in most spots i fish.so i use these ul's to throw out the light baits to keep them out of the rocks. i've caught some big smallies on the 7' (16-18") and its a blast ( set that drag correctly) . rods have good backbone , solid tip, fast rating and bends like an ultra light when anything over 10" fish is on the line. the lightest mushroom jig i use 1/32 matched with a zman tube or ticklrz i'm guessing the weight to be about 1/15 in total. the 6.2 is new and only have maybe 10 fish on that , biggest being a 14" lmb.. rods are lots of fun for me and i strongly recommend them if you can afford (figure around 150) them. these are the only 2 rods in this range i have experience with. if not comfortable with a ul designation than i can recommend the following in "L" 1/16-3/8 , dobyns fury 6.6 , phenix m1 ( i have the previous generation), phenix recon and shimano curado are all great stream/river smallie rods for me and handle those 3+lb fish very well. if i might also suggest the daiwa regal 1000 paired with any of these rods its affordable (60$) , reliable and has a great drag for this price ( i've got 8).

1) mushroom head with trd/ticklrz 2)kietech style swimbait 2.8/3.2 impact/fat impact on a owner flashy swimmer 3)inline spinner

just the opposite of every post prior to this one , 1/15 zman jig head thrown into riffles that run the interior 3/5ths of the river then bring out to the remaining 1/5 th ( on my side of the river) which is 3-5' deep and VERY SLIGHT CURRENT to average 7 smallies an hour ( i keep a log so i can give accurate info on this ). i search out water with current adjacent to pools and eddys. when the current is very fast in this example i will go as heavy as 1/8th. i don't want my ned sitting on the bottom but just deep enough to tick the rocky bottom on my retrieve.

put me in the lighter the better group with the zman 1/20 or 1/15 head for 90% of my time on moving water. my goal is to throw the bait upstream and let it flow down stream as naturally as possible with a taut line and retrieve to keep the bait just above the rocky bottom. as stated this works for me most of the time but in very fast water i will increase the weight as needed , 1/10,1/8, 3/32 1/4. there is a section of water i fish with really fast rapids so i tried 1/3 heads and all i ever get with these is snagged , have not gotten many fish in that weight and in those condititions. the river i fish, on average is 4 to 6' deep, 150' wide with large areas of pools and moving water both slow and fast. smb are the major species followed by trout and lmb.

i have the phenix m1 6'9" light

i fish the housatonic river in ct. and i have 3 light action( fury, curado and phenix) rods i will use in rotation all have the the diawa regal 1000 reel attached and use 1/15 ned head and trd or ticklrz almost exclusively. if you are looking for the most fun ( i am ), this setup is the ticket (imo) and will handle the 4+ lb smb that will end up hooked on occasion to the 10-15" smb that are the mainstay for me on this river system. prior to using the light action rods i used ml action but wanted a little more "thrill" than these rods provided. i have a VERY small rate of lost fish( 1-2% ?) with the l rods. the river is about 150' across with fast current in spots and is and i'm guessing here maybe 4' deep on average and 6-8' deep as its deepest average .

best : light jig head ( round head , mushroom, etc , with any 3.5 or smaller plastic bait ) t rig 6-7" worm worst : hollow body frogs !!!! spinner baits

shore fisherman here and; 10 baits in no particular order zman trd zman ticklr z missle bait ned bomb gene larew ned inch worm savage gear structure gill hags tornado 4" keitech fat impact 3.8" geecrack gill jackall flick shake worm strike king rage twin tail grub 4"

i'm bringing this one back just because i'm curious. missle bait ned bomb gene larew ned rig inch worm zman trd tickler big bites limit maker hags tornado jackall flick shake worm stanley slide and glide worm savage gear structure gill molix ra shad keitech fat impact

1/16th ned rig with either a trd or gene lerew ned inch worm

put an order in 4 business days ago and got conformation of shipment yesterday for 2 items out of 13 so i inquired (email) where were the rest of the order was and the response: Thank you for contacting Tackle Warehouse. We are currently experiencing a high volume of inquiries. Please anticipate a delay in our response time but know that we are working as quickly as possible to assist you. We appreciate your patience and look forward to serving all of your tackle needs! Sincerely, Your Tackle Warehouse Team mighty fine customer service ( issues with last 3 orders placed all in the last 4 weeks ). rethinking my continued use of TW.

i'll go with jerkbaits/swimbaits(soft) . think i threw them once in over 100 times out fishing this past season.

TW cal.to conn. is 7 days. got a warehouse in atlanta but all my orders come from cal. , go figure. think it would be cheaper for them to ship eastcoast to eastcoast.

crusader rabbit ( cartoon, nyc tv stations ) , no fishing shows on tv that i remember ( late 50's early 60's ).

yes it is . placed 2 day shipping order on 2/24 8:00 am pst and did not receive an order confirmation , sent email late that night ((est)( gave them my complete address and paypal transaction info)) and got a response 3 days later on sunday saying i screwed my email address up and they couldn't find my order ; yet they sent me a copy of my original order as one usually gets with no tracking info. got the order yesterday .

the housatonic river in western ct. has nice size smallies, trout ( 3.5 to 5 lbs for either are not uncommon) and smaller pike ( 25" is about the avg size for me).

100% catch and release !

give a shout out to the retail outlet who sent it by usps. bought a dobyns rod from discount tackle in wa. got conformation and trak# from them and immediately called them to ship another way , would not do it ,anyway it came like yours but the real problem was the tube it was shipped in less than half the thickness of tw's or dobyns direct shipping tubes. very flimsy packaging and discount tackle told me they never have problems shipping rods through usps. nonsense!

no problems with tw put an order in this morning on east coast and ups has it and it's on its way(same day processing and that seems to be the norm). had i think 30+ transactions in the last year and other than a 3 or 4 day delay in processing the orders in may/june of 2021 (covid) and 1 or 2 day delay during their christmas sale no unreasoable delays for me.

4 dobyns 4 shimano 3 st croix 1 ark 1 13 fishing 1 enigma 1 favorite 1 phoenix 1 ugly stick

jackal flick worm stanley slide n glide (my favorite for a shakey head) roboworm hags tornado strike king rage cut r worm savage gear dragon tail ( new for me in 22)

yes spinning

i use spinning gear 100% of the time river fishing for smalies. mf for shakey head , heavy ned rig and light texas rigged creature baits in fast current , a ml for ds and neds and a lf for 1/16 ned heads.