Solo

I have about 6 of them and wish they were still sold. I've caught a lot of fish on them. They make a great alternative to the Johnson Silver Minnow when you want more vibration and wobble than the Minnow. You can still throw them into weeds without hangups and their drop action is stronger than the Minnow.

Used to use Ande green and pink. Braid came along and I changed over completely to that. But always felt ANDE was one of the best: had total confidence in the product.

As Alpster noted: not listed, but my favorites are Calcutta/Conquests

I pitch to fairly long stretches of shoreline cane, overhangs, and matted grass/weeds etc. Using the trolling motor, being able to get my lure back as soon as possible in order to pitch to the next likely spot is a good thing. A 7:1 comes in handy. My burner is the Shimano MG7 and the HEG is a good thing too. 8-)

Robert: do those Bassart grips slip when they're wet? Thanks.

Try a Johnson's Silver Minnow with a twin tail grub fished slow (let the spoon sink).

Zebco 33 on a 5'6" glass rod. Thought I had reached the top.

No offense, and certainly no reflection on anybody's preference. But this stuff is old. The backplay issue on the Shimano has been around a LONNNNNNNG time. It doesn't affect the performance of the reel at all. I have Daiwa AND Shimano reels. I think there are other comparison factors of Daiwa to Shimano reels that are much more important than minimal backplay at little or no drag settings. JMHO.

Picked up a pack of these. Searched the forum but couldn't find anything on them. Anybody use them? How do you rig them? Thanks.

I hope you get one too. What surprises most people when they first catch one is the sheer savagery with which these great fish take a bait, bend the rod, and straighten your hair. What a fish.

50 lb Power Pro or Stealth (both about 12lb. mono thickness) and an Abu 5500 or 6500C3 will set you up just fine. If you want to make that reel a bit more special, there are a number of reputable on-line vendors that sell upgrades parts for the ABU. It should last you years.

It is my understanding that Graphite is not manufactured by Loomis, Fenwick, St. Croix, etc. They order graphite from a limited number of suppliers specifing characterisitics: (e.g. modulus, scrim, etc.). To my knowledge (and I stand to be corrected on this) only Sage and Loomis have proprietary graphite designed especially for fishing (e.g. GLX). BTW Cabela's sells rods with a 65,000,000 Modulus and a lifetime guarantee. So Loomis rods (not including GLX) are not that much different in graphite composition from other manufacturers. The Fenwick AV blank for instance, is the basis of some very expensive and high quality rods in Japan. The Techna AV blank actually is very sensitive and comparable to IMX at a minimum. So is the St. Croix Avid. Mercedez Benz, cars with a premium price tag but score very low in quality ratings. But the NAME sells. Not saying Loomis is low quality, they're obviously just the opposite, but leagues better than other rods in today's market?: naw.

4" green pumpkin grub on 1/4 oz jig head.

That sounds pretty sweet. See what happens when you think outside the box. I need to do that more as a fisherman. I agree with the post above. I think I fish the 'same old same old' too much as well. Don't seem to experiment and try new ways out enough. When I was a kid, I'd try anything. Now I guess I don't want to seem, look, or feel ridiculous since "I've been around don't you know". That view probably costs me fish and a good time.

That can depend on the line size too. I've been using 65 and 80 lb braid for LARGE muskie lures and never had much of a problem with line digging in. Once in a blue moon? yeah, but then again not enough so it was an issue.