Sherlock 60

I use baitcasters for most of my fishing, but for weightless plastics I use a MH spinning rod with 15# braid. If a weightless plastic comes off during the cast it's not a problem with spinning gear.

I like my spinnerbait specific 6'10" MH MF rod for 3/8 and up topwaters.

Thanks! I'll look into making some of my own as well as picking up replacement skirts.

Finally have some jigs where the collars and skirts have fallen off. No way my Spinnerbait collars will fit on a jig, so what do I use? I presume that there are replacement skirts and collars for jigs on the market. What do you use? Or do you all just get new jigs? (Bait Monkey Alert!!!)

My local Gander Mtn has a boatload of them and they are only $2.49. Not a bad price compared to other brands.

There is a classic bait and tackle shop just like you describe in North Webster, Indiana: "Ye Olde Tackle Box." Bass, Muskie and panfish are popular in the area and they have everything you could ever need. http://www.yeoldetacklebox.com/index.html.

EXACTLY what I did!

It's that time of year to re-think and reorganize my tackle. What, if any, types of bags, boxes, buckets, systems, etc do you use for tackle organization?

In Indiana it's Senko, Senko, Senko. For me that means 5" smoke pearl blue, any of the watermelon variations or purple w/emerald flake rigged weightless on a 3/0 EWG hook.

Is it OK to switch oils on a reel? Such as using Abu oil when the provided tube of Shimano oil is empty?

A 7'6" MH muskie rod is what I use. A store brand rod in the $60-70 range should work fine. Mine is a Gander Mtn Guide Series paired with an Abu C4 5600 reel spooled with 50 lb braid. I picked it up about 10 years ago. Also use it for medium-sized muskie bucktails.

Agreed. Also use 50# for smaller muskie Bucktails and swimbaits (with an 80# fluoro leader).

I've used Gammy EWG for years. But I committed to Owner Twistlock for a full season to try them out. However. I seemed to lose more fish. Back to Gamakatsu last year, but was very pleased experimenting with VMC EWG Long Shank hooks. Plastics lasted longer due to the long shank. I mostly use either 3/0 or 4/0 depending on size of plastic.

I use 15# on 2500 and 3000 Stradic FJs and 10# on Symetre FH 1000. Usually buy PowerPro or Spiderwire Stealth. Braid is all I use for spinning reels and very rarely use a leader.

Forgot to mention the reel: PQ 6.4:1 with 12# Suffix Siege mono.

I like the 6'9" Denali Kovert MH Spinnerbait rod for most topwaters. And I'm NOT on the Denali "pro staff."

They are good rods. Just plan on the M actually being MH and the ML being M, etc, and you will be fine.

For your purposes the 2500 should be fine. I have the Stradic FJ in both 2500 and 3000. I tend to use the 3000 for soft plastics in heavy weeds and pads. The larger handle seems to give me more leverage (but it may just be my imagination) to pull the bass out of the weeds.

X 2

The rattle is on the bottom front of the ones I bought and seem to blend in pretty well with the silhouette of the jig. Maybe that was to address the problem you mentioned.

The lakes I fish are full of milfoil, cabbage and pads so I just picked up some All-Terrain Tackle "Grassmaster Weed Jigs." 1/2, 3/4 and 1 ounce sizes. Anybody used these? Suggestions?

Gammy, Owner and VMC here, too.

Additionally, there are 13 hooks to a pack and I believe I paid $3.99. I'm not very price-conscious when it comes to hooks (although there is no way I can pay Trokar prices) so the extra value is a bonus. However, they are a bit hard to find in my neck of the woods.

Anybody else tried these? The XL refers to the extra long shank section before the bend. I used the 3/0 size last year for 5" weightless Senkos and was very pleased. The longer shank section means the Senko stays on better and lasts longer. They pretty much replaced my Gammy EWG hooks.