Tom Rust

I’m making the switch to braid (15 lb) and kinda shocked by the price! What’s a decent line for the money-I don’t need to fish the best but certainly want a fair price for what I get performance wise.

AJ, having just plowed through this fantastic tutorial, I have to say you are an amazing teacher! And your writing style reminds me of some of the greats of all time. I’m not sure what you did in the coast guard,(maybe ran the whole service?) but you missed your calling as a college professor teaching hundreds of eager students…soaking it all up. You, sir, are the modern day Buck Perry of smallie fishing! And I meant that with all sincerity. It’s time for me to start again on page one of this thread and see all the tips I missed the first time through. Thanks again for all the time and knowledge you have passed along!

First some humor: never squeeze your toothpaste in the dark-it might be hemorrhoid cream! And never open “snacks in the dark-it might be your dog’s treat bag! Fishing mantra-“The fish will be there tomorrow, but you might not be” so go anytime you can!!! And…there’s always unexpected surprises at the boat ramp- just accept they’re gonna happen and either laugh about it or accept them with grace!! 😳

Many of you probably have gone down this road ahead of me, but this came as something of a surprise today: Farmpond with 52 degrees and using a Stunna jerk with “traditional” jerk-jerk-pause cadence. Nothing forc30 minutes even though water was super clear. Then I decided to just do a slow wind on my reel after the lure was halfway back to shore, like a crankbait retrieve and….Bam! 3 nice bass on 3 consecutive casts, and 2 more after a couple empty retrieves in between. So in 10 minutes just totally re-wrote how to work a jerk. First half of retrieval jerk-jerk-pause to pique their interest then making it look like the minnow is recovering and slowly swimming off, and they couldn’t handle that scenario. Anyone else do it like that????

Not sure what you mean. I can go back with a complaint about the JM and they will swap out??????

{for redundancy sake, can be restated” Do you believe a $99 Nasci is as good and durable as the JM’s at $99/$129????}. I’m probably overthinking but would guess BP sellS way more JM’s so have lower production costs per reel than the Nasci, so price point of $129 MAYBE represents more features or quality than the shimano, or do you think BASSPro just slapped a higher retail Pice on a comparable to Nasci product than Shimano did with the Nasci??????

So stated another way, do you think the shimano at everyday price (before the rebate) is as good a reel as either JM REELS at $10 or $30 off sale price (plus the rebate)

Asking my fellow brothers and sisters to get me off the fence and into the checkout lane at BassPro before their Spring sale ends. I have the $150 rod, but need the reel. I know it will be a 2500/3000 size, but the choices and sale prices are as follows: A. Shimano Nasci for $99 minus the $20 trade-in Rebate. B. Johnny Morris signature $99 on sale for $89 minus the rebate. Nets out at $69. Or C. The higher end J Morris signature reel (shiny red snd silver) usually $129 on sale for $99 less rebate nets at $79 so the Nasci is $20 off, the regular JM IS $30 off, and the f”fancier” JM IS $50 off. What’s your pick and why?? I’m heading em there Tuesday around dinner time while my wife is out with girlfriends (. Just a coincidence I’m going then 😉😳😳😳lol)

Totally agree. When we purchase overpriced baits we are essentially saying we are ok with what the lure marketing departments are setting their prices at. And, I also see an eight dollar lipless as just one cast away from being another lost ten-spot

I’ve said this before but I truly believe the lure companies think the majority of us like to fish money tournaments (not me-never once in my life) and as such, will spend ANY amount to place in the money. In other words, the ends justify the means. I do believe hardcore tourney guys WILL spend any amount to cash a check. Thus, it IS affecting our lure budgets because the retails are based on the supposition that “money is no object “. Pretty true when you look at boat and tow-vehicle prices, not to mention electronics!

So I’ll paraphrase cast-by-fly’s response as follows: if it’s old and not that flashy, it has to sell cheap, whereas new and flashy-HAS to be a better fish-catcher and therefore automatically must be worth 2-3 times as much. Did I get that right or am I way off base??? Which reminds me of Buck Perry’s comments 50 years ago about lure finishes that old; chipped all off paint sometimes worked even better than the shiny flashier brand-new finishes. He also claimed he could whittle a small stick from a tree and attach hooks and it would do as well as a Rapala floater. Just sayin’

The bomber model A cranks are still retailing for $3.99 (everyday price) and almost all the other brands range up to as much as 10 to 12 dollars. I catch plenty of fish on the bombers so i see no need to spend all that extra cash on the others'. Is the price disparity related to the endorsement costs of having the pros hyping the expensive ones, or is it "corporate greed", or something else? i accept that with jerkbaits, there seems to be more precision engineering that goes into them, getting the weight transfer systems perfected, neutral buyoancy figured out, slow sinking or rising, etc. but having said that, there's Suspending rogues that retail for $8 dollars, compared to SK and Berkeley at $15, then megabass in a whole different realm at 24.99. I know the megabass guys swear they're worth it because it catches so many more fish, but theSmithwick rogues get a TON of love at $7.99. I'm really dismayed at how crazy expensive most of the hard baits are these days! What do you all think about this??

Right or wrong I use a size 1 spin shot by VMC Nose-hooked also

maybe it would help all of us if someone made a video underwater of what the fish's view is for what we call muddy water. in other words, show the dirty water from above looking down as we humans see it, and then show with an underwater camera how it looks down there. does anyone have a link to something like that??

Tn, were you standing in that current?- looks really fast!