Brian11719

Chances are they started by now considering this thread is over 3 years old...

I bought a rod just for hard jerkbaits (and sometimes squarebills or poppers) and ironically the Lucky Craft Pointer Minnow 100mm is the only one I use...but I use it pretty often.

Lately it's been the spunk shad or freeloader for a spinnerbait trailer. The spunk shad is a little lighter which I prefer since the ones I throw seem to have plenty of weight already...

Right now the Lew's Tournament Pro Speed Spool LFS can be had for under $150. I don't own one of these specifically for frogging, but I do have one and can confirm it's a nice reel and the 8.3:1 gear ratio would probably be a good fit for throwing a frog. I actually just use a regular LFS for frogs w/ this gear ratio and have been happy with it.

Tatulas look like they are about 20% off on American Legacy Fishing right now. They seem to have had unannounced sales on Sundays lately so if it were me I'd probably pick up one there...pretty sure you aren't going have a malfunctioning one show up on your door...

I wouldn't recommend the Yum Dinger for wacky rigging. The Senko has the right amount of weight for the action and some others you might consider are the Berkley Powerbait Maxscent General, Strike King Ocho, Bass Pro Shops Stik-o and Sixth Sense Clout. I do like the 4" Yum Dinger for a weedless ned rig or if I want to wacky rig a drop shot, but for a regular wacky worm these are the ones I would suggest if you don't want to throw a Senko. That said I love the Senko and green pumpkin watermelon laminate, gooseberry laminate, watrmln copper org red laminate, and electric shad are all awesome. You can also find them on sale sometimes...for example Dick's looks like they have a buy 3 get 3 free going right now so that's basically 50% off if you order 6 packs.

ALF at it again w/ the secret Sunday sale...tackle monkey finally got me:

For me $170-200ish but I usually try to wait for a good sale and then pick one up for $120-150.

+1 for secret lures (both the jig heads and the tubes themselves). I personally like the 3/16 oz size jig head.

Probably the mag2 w/ a 3/0 ewg and a 1/8oz bullet weight for me. Maybe a drop shot if they are lower or a senko if they are higher but the nice thing about the mag2 is you can pretty much fish it anywhere in the water column.

The stealth ninja sunday sale seems to be on at ALF again. Almost ended up with a new daiwa reel and dobyns rod but managed to shake the tackle monkey off this time...

^ same. I even paused one watched the bass come right up to it then just pass and swim away...beginning to think this just isn't the topwater lure for me...which is fine because I like walking a spook more anyway.

Ironically some reels (eg. a Lew's Custom Lite 20) end up w/ the same line cap as others in the 3000 size (eg. an Ultegra). That said I usually go with a 30/3000 for everything except my drop shot rod. In my case I for my medium heavy / fast spinning rod I have a Hypermag 300 so it has a little extra line capacity than most of my other reels (all Shimano). I also tend to go for reels with more drag for this particular setup since it's one of the ones I use around grass a lot so that might be another thing to consider while you are deciding which one to get. In terms of brands for spinning reels I like Shimano and Lew's. The other thing I look at is weight and while I haven't noticed much of a difference between 2500 / 3000 reels it does seem like a bit of a jump up to 4000 (I tried a 4000 reel once and ended up selling it almost immediately).

Based on price / value and what's available at tacklewarehouse / ALF right now... VTS610MLXF VF2500HGF This is a nice setup and the rod has a 15 year warranty that is legit.

I use a 7'3" medium heavy / fast action spinning rod with 15lb braid and a 10lb leader. 3/0 ewg hook with a 1/8oz weight for actual flukes or no weight for a caffeine shad...can't say I've had this problem and this setup works awesome for me and is one of the main reasons I own a spinning and casting medium heavy rod (I like the casting rod for jigs and heavier texas rigs but the spinning rod for 3.8" keitechs and flukes).

I go back and forth between worms and 4" shad impacts (or alive shads) so I like a 1/0 or 2/0 ewg hook. Recently started using a 2/0 owner twistlock to prevent the shad baits from getting ripped up so much and have liked it so far. Don't really like nose hooking or using cover shot type hooks...tried them both and felt like I was missing a lot and suspect it's because there wasn't enough hook exposure (especially w/ the shad imitation baits). Guess what I'm trying to say is I personally like a small ewg but I'm sure there are others here that are going to say I'm wrong and ultimately I'd say try different stuff out until you find something you like then go with that and forget about what other people say you should use.

^ just in case you haven't got it already...aside from that pulling up the lure on basspro's website helps (for me) as they usually give you the hook size. I normally like to use this chart as a starting point and then for some lures I like a slightly larger single hook which seems to be what you've gone with...and to be honest the 2/0 and #1s are pretty much what I use. In this case that lure looks like a size 6 so it might be worth going down to a #2 for the front hook (or both). I did order some of those a while back and can confirm it is a noticeable difference between the #2 and 1 so maybe pick up a small pack and see if that helps at all...haven't seen this happen but that said I generally stick to 1/2oz - 3/4oz lures and the lightest I've gone down to (and used the #2s for) was a shad rap 6 which seemed to do ok for me...good luck.

...agree jerkbait and spinnerbait would have easily rounded out my top 5

If you get a casting rod there are a ton of options available. For flipping / pitching around heavy grass (and frogs) I like the Dobyn's Fury FR 735 C and would pair it up w/ a Lew's Speed Spool LFS. Believe the reel is on sale at the moment so that setup should come in right around $200 and I don't feel like I would need a more expensive rod for this type of thing. If I had the money to spare I'd put it towards a different rod where sensitivity is more important but if you are just wrenching them out of the grass this is what I'd use and you get a lifetime warranty w/ the Dobyn's.

I ended up with a couple extras and one that is 7'2 and another that is 7'3. Not much of a difference for me but if I had to do it again these would be my 4 spinning rods: 6'10 ML XF (drop shot) 7'1 ML F (worms and 'light' swimbaits) 7'1 M F (shakey / wacky) 7'2 MH F (fluke / 'medium' swimbaits / bubba shot) The lengths are more related to the rod line / warranty and what's available and if they were all 7' I'd probably be ok with it but I actually really like these lengths for the lures I throw on them. Haven't noticed much of a difference w/ the MH F 7'3 rod that I own but probably wouldn't want to go much longer than that for a spinning setup. Having said that IMO a little extra length is nice if you are fishing around grass and / or want a little extra distance on your cast. Flukes, 3.8" keitechs and a bubba shot are 3 of my main go to lures when there's grass around but not so much that the only thing you can do is frog or flip...

drop shot texas rig chatterbait

Depends on the bait for me. For example I like a caffeine shad with no weight since it has more salt in it and weighs more than a fluke. On the other hand I prefer throwing a fluke with a 1/8oz swimbait hook.

It might be worth considering a St Croix Premier PS70HF or PS70XHF and if it were me and I wanted something heavier for a spinning rod this is probably what I'd go with. Might be worth checking with them to see about the lead time but they both seem to be available.

1. I spend too much money on rods. 2. I spend too much money on reels. 3. I spend too much money on tackle. 4. Even with wheels dragging my kayak to the water sucks since most of the ramps around me are very big, steep, or far away from the parking lot. 5. Even if I wanted to drag my kayak down one of those big ramps, the water level in my local lake is so low right now I can't really get my kayak out there so I have to settle for a city park lake with muddy water and a handful of dinks that get 1000 lures thrown at them every hour. * Bonus thing I hate: Snakes. Don't see them too often but the moment I see one I'm pretty much gone regardless of how well things may have been going that day.

Aside from a decent hook would also suggest something w/ powder coated paint especially if it's around rock and other stuff that could scratch up the paint. Not sure what the hook size is but a Dirty Jigs Tour Level Finesse Football Jig in Okeechobee 420 would be my current choice...with a 3.5" adrenaline craw.