6 minutes ago, Cdn Angler said:

 

Work like crazy around here. Most confidence I have in anything.

Bought one, caught a bunch one afternoon. Ran out and bought 3 more. Haven’t caught a fish on them since. 
 

No lol

Just now, Derek1 said:

Bought one, caught a bunch one afternoon. Ran out and bought 3 more. Haven’t caught a fish on them since. 
 

No lol

 

Regional and fishing pressure thing I think. 

 

I fish a lot of water with light fishing pressure (maybe 1-2 boats on a lake on a Saturday, some days zero) and a whopper plopper outfishes any moving bait most of the time: jerkbaits, crankbaits, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits etc. 

 

Factor in that lakes have a lot of grass and a topwater lure is easier to work...and it outperforms so it is a no brainer. 

 

It's hard to put the thing down.

 

If anyone watches NDYak it's the same situation.

50 minutes ago, Cdn Angler said:

 

Regional and fishing pressure thing I think. 

 

I fish a lot of water with light fishing pressure (maybe 1-2 boats on a lake on a Saturday, some days zero) and a whopper plopper outfishes any moving bait most of the time: jerkbaits, crankbaits, swimbaits, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits etc. 

 

Factor in that lakes have a lot of grass and a topwater lure is easier to work...and it outperforms so it is a no brainer. 

 

It's hard to put the thing down.

 

If anyone watches NDYak it's the same situation.

Cool, it sure is a fun bite. 

6 hours ago, Dangerfield said:

I'll be using those for Pike opener, which comes faster than Bass. Got some trokar beefy swimbait hooks for those left over from the magdraft freestyle. How do they hold up? 

They'll tear, but they fix up great with Mend-it. I had so much success with them right away that I went nuts buying up a supply, but I keep fixing the ones in use over and over again, so I've barely dug into the new packs.

 

P.S. They really like at least a 1/4oz keel weighted hook to swim correctly. A 6/0 Beast weighted works great for it.

On 3/4/2022 at 11:29 PM, EWREX said:

i use these for chatterbait trailers. pike and pickerel approved!

It worked out great. I caught a honkin donkey pickerel on the diesel minnow/texas eye rig tonight. It grabbed the tail first and I felt the stretch, dropped it, then hit it hard when I ripped the rig fast. Not a mark on the elaztech

Just restocking on my two favorite colors, PB&J and Green Pumpkin Craw

 

 

Oh, and I have something else on the way from a little shop in a faraway land called California...

 

 

 

5 hours ago, JohnFromLisbon said:

Just restocking on my two favorite colors, PB&J and Green Pumpkin Craw

 

 

 

 

 

Such quality jigs. Love them. And for only $3.50 MSRP? Great deal.

 

@NorthernBasser right? Over here it's a lot easier to get JDM stuff than regular USDM tackle and gear, but luckily these are now in pretty much every single store. And at pretty much the same price, I paid 3.49 EUR for each, that's like 3.80 USD.

 

Good hooks, solid colors... What's not to like?

1 hour ago, JohnFromLisbon said:

@NorthernBasser right? Over here it's a lot easier to get JDM stuff than regular USDM tackle and gear, but luckily these are now in pretty much every single store. And at pretty much the same price, I paid 3.49 EUR for each, that's like 3.80 USD.

 

Good hooks, solid colors... What's not to like?

Mustad 2X Strong Ultra Point hook. Hand-tied skirts. Just overall really nice quality. 

16 hours ago, PhishLI said:

They'll tear, but they fix up great with Mend-it. I had so much success with them right away that I went nuts buying up a supply, but I keep fixing the ones in use over and over again, so I've barely dug into the new packs.

 

P.S. They really like at least a 1/4oz keel weighted hook to swim correctly. A 6/0 Beast weighted works great for it.

It worked out great. I caught a honkin donkey pickerel on the diesel minnow/texas eye rig tonight. It grabbed the tail first and I felt the stretch, dropped it, then hit it hard when I ripped the rig fast. Not a mark on the elaztech

I've had trouble sourcing Mend-it north of the border, but I may try to find an alternative. I checked my terminal tray and I've got Trokar 7/0 3/8oz hooks+Owner large centerpin, they seem to fit the belly slot. I'm hoping that's not too heavy for my jig rod. I do have some Gama superline keel weighted worm hooks that look to fit but will be a challenge to rig... and here I thought I could lock the bait monkey away until July.

 

Post some pics of the gator, I'm glad that rig worked out for you - I got some tail spin add on from zman to add some flash. Pike love that stuff, it's my value-friendly options when I know the smallies aren't biting.

37 minutes ago, Dangerfield said:

Post some pics of the gator, I'm glad that rig worked out for you - I got some tail spin add on from zman to add some flash. Pike love that stuff,

Will do. Flash is the reason I was pumped to find the Texas Eye jigs. I fish at night or in low light most of the time, but have had terrible luck with underspins here, but the flash provided by the stick-on eyes of all of the paddletail/boot tail swimmers I use seems to be just right.

 

P.S. If you do a search you'll find alternative home brew concoctions for plastisol bait mending. Might be worth a shot. Super glue sucks for it. Just wrecks the bait. Mend-it or an equivalent is the only way to go. Once applied you'd never know the bait had been torn.

 

P.S.S. I've caught these up to 30" around here, but this one at 26" was the tallest and fattest by far. It must be quite old. I could've fit my XL fist into its mouth. Their heads grow wider as they age. A bit sketchy on the release even though I held her by the tail and wagged her slowly.  She went down the bank and got caught up on some submerged branches. Disoriented and head out of the water. I went back in twice to get her going. One last tail grab and wag, and a few words of encouragement and she rocketed off.

 

 

 

My new Zillion G needed a new ride, so... My ARK Essence 7'6" MHF came in yesterday afternoon and last night it got a nice workout from this savage pickerel.

 

 

Got some turkey ammo from bass pro and needed to round out the order with a couple small things. Finally got an s-waver and some senkos to please @BrianMDTX

 

 

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

Will do. Flash is the reason I was pumped to find the Texas Eye jigs. I fish at night or in low light most of the time, but have had terrible luck with underspins here, but the flash provided by the stick-on eyes of all of the paddletail/boot tail swimmers I use seems to be just right.

 

P.S. If you do a search you'll find alternative home brew concoctions for plastisol bait mending. Might be worth a shot. Super glue sucks for it. Just wrecks the bait. Mend-it or an equivalent is the only way to go. Once applied you'd never know the bait had been torn.

 

P.S.S. I've caught these up to 30" around here, but this one at 26" was the tallest and fattest by far. It must be quite old. I could've fit my XL fist into its mouth. Their heads grow wider as they age. A bit sketchy on the release even though I held her by the tail and wagged her slowly.  She went down the bank and got caught up on some submerged branches. Disoriented and head out of the water. I went back in twice to get her going. One last tail grab and wag, and a few words of encouragement and she rocketed off.

 

 

 

My new Zillion G needed a new ride, so... My ARK Essence 7'6" MHF came in yesterday afternoon and last night it got a nice workout from this savage pickerel.

 

 

I didn't know there's a homebrew option, I'll do some research tonight. We used to catch a ton of pike but season over season the water levels in my fisheries have risen or drop upwards of 2.5' making some seasons way more productive.

 

My wife caught her PB on a dirty jigs 1/4oz guppy head with a 4" river2sea D-Walker, came in around 13lbs, can't remember the length. Honestly, I'd give those D-walkers a shot too, they're very durable compared traditional plastisol baits. And came be purchased prerigged. My brother in law will only use spark shads because they produce quality fish, pike largemouth and smallmouth but I can justify it for anything other than bassin.

 

That Zillion looks awesome, I hope I don't regret selling my fuego and tatula CT for the Tatula 100. It's feels a bit lighter, smaller and rigid than the CT, especially the Tatula. The newer handle knobs feel nicer and are almost identical to the knobs on the Feugo LT.

Edited March 8, 20224 yr by Dangerfield
Typo

9 minutes ago, Dangerfield said:

That Zillion looks awesome

It's turning out to be, and more than I thought at first. It's breaking in and improving quickly. The Z boost is different, and dial settings combined with braking profile is definitely providing next level stuff compared to Mag Z. Also, it feels like belt drive instead of gear driven, so that's neat. Zero regrets. It's special.

@DangerfieldIf you google "mend-it glue drying up" (include the quotation marks) you'll find a thread on a website I'm not sure we can mention here that has homemade mend-it recipe, I've yet to try it myself.

2 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Got some turkey ammo from bass pro

What kind of turkey ammo did you get? You should have put that in the photo too.

3 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

Got some turkey ammo from bass pro and needed to round out the order with a couple small things. Finally got an s-waver and some senkos to please @BrianMDTX

 

 

You gonna like those #956’s! 

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

What kind of turkey ammo did you get? You should have put that in the photo too.

 

I bet they cost a pretty penny. Hope you get a nice gobbler with those!

13 hours ago, Dangerfield said:

I checked my terminal tray and I've got Trokar 7/0 3/8oz hooks+Owner large centerpin, they seem to fit the belly slot. I'm hoping that's not too heavy for my jig rod.

I added a 1/8 oz weight to the scale along with the Miyagi rigged on an Owner Beast 6/0 1/4oz. Total is a skosh over 1 oz. I don't know what the wire gauge of the Trokar 7/0 3/8oz is, but if it's the same as the Beast your rod will need some gusto to send it home, especially if the hook sets into a hard part. Sometimes the bait balls up when it's engulfed and I've socked hooksets right thru the tail on occasion. This combined with the hook size has me swinging hard with this one. 

 

Here we go, one day ahead of schedule.

A few things from Roboworm, a couple of packs of Flat Worms, drop shot hooks, line, tungsten weights...

 

 

And Plano StowAll bags, two of each, and also couple of 3500 Edges plus hook containers to make my own tiny terminal boxes, to take with me with I'm bank fishing and to have a dedicated drop shot terminal box on the someone-else's-boat bag.

 

The 3700 size ones I got a few weeks ago.

 

19 hours ago, PhishLI said:

I added a 1/8 oz weight to the scale along with the Miyagi rigged on an Owner Beast 6/0 1/4oz. Total is a skosh over 1 oz. I don't know what the wire gauge of the Trokar 7/0 3/8oz is, but if it's the same as the Beast your rod will need some gusto to send it home, especially if the hook sets into a hard part. Sometimes the bait balls up when it's engulfed and I've socked hooksets right thru the tail on occasion. This combined with the hook size has me swinging hard with this one. 

 

It's pretty beefy, thicker than a Dirty Jigs California swimjig. I've used them with the magdraft freestyle. I got a 1/2oz bottle of Mend-it and x2 packs of Owner Beast hooks on the way from a tackle shop north of me. I'll be using a Lew's Custom Lite Magnum Jig rod(MHMF) which is an absolute workhorse for me, anything from a 3/8oz jig+ to mid-size swimbaits. It put my Fury 735 outta commission, it's lighter, more sensitive, has plenty backbone and a softer tip. 

My new Expride Bs are slowly showing up!

 

Thank you FedEx! ?

I stocked up on the new Bobby's perfect frogs and found a stash of the old wobbletrons from a guy on the forum!

On 3/8/2022 at 3:51 PM, PhishLI said:

Will do. Flash is the reason I was pumped to find the Texas Eye jigs. I fish at night or in low light most of the time, but have had terrible luck with underspins here, but the flash provided by the stick-on eyes of all of the paddletail/boot tail swimmers I use seems to be just right.

 

P.S. If you do a search you'll find alternative home brew concoctions for plastisol bait mending. Might be worth a shot. Super glue sucks for it. Just wrecks the bait. Mend-it or an equivalent is the only way to go. Once applied you'd never know the bait had been torn.

 

P.S.S. I've caught these up to 30" around here, but this one at 26" was the tallest and fattest by far. It must be quite old. I could've fit my XL fist into its mouth. Their heads grow wider as they age. A bit sketchy on the release even though I held her by the tail and wagged her slowly.  She went down the bank and got caught up on some submerged branches. Disoriented and head out of the water. I went back in twice to get her going. One last tail grab and wag, and a few words of encouragement and she rocketed off.

 

 

 

My new Zillion G needed a new ride, so... My ARK Essence 7'6" MHF came in yesterday afternoon and last night it got a nice workout from this savage pickerel.

 

 

Is your zillion usdm or jdm?  I'm asking because I want reassurance the brass gears on the U.S. models are also buttery smooth