Smirak Posted December 29, 2024 Posted December 29, 2024 I stopped by Academy near my daughter’s house in Cookeville, TN. They had St Croix Bass x under $100 and mojo bass for $125. My local Academy doesn’t stock them, didn’t even know they stocked them. Only about 45mins from Dale Hollow makes sense I guess… 1 Quote
Eric 26 Posted December 29, 2024 Posted December 29, 2024 13 hours ago, Brian11719 said: Figured this would be the best place to take a minute and share my thoughts and prayers for the Family Budget Fisherman. Not sure I'd consider him the 'latest' bait monkey victim at this point, but if you take the time to look through some of his first videos, rod collection and aspirations when he started his channel and then compare those with what we have today you will find a man that should remind us all of how easy it is for the bait monkey to turn Walter White into Heisenberg. Stay strong my friends. I really enjoy his channel. Quote
FishTax Posted December 30, 2024 Posted December 30, 2024 On 12/27/2024 at 4:03 PM, Smirak said: Yall realize how “hard” it is to spend $400 at tackle warehouse WITHOUT any big ticket items? Got $400 for Christmas and placed an order today. Bought a new rod, reel and other stuff. Once the rod/reel were in my basket, due to my military discount, I still had a little over $100 to spend. Didn’t need/want any big ticket items. Grabbed some line, hard baits, soft baits, and a pair of pliers. When you’re buying $5-10 lures, it gets very daunting to keep track! I think all in all, I got a half dozen blade baits, a few sv-3 spinnerbaits, half a dozen or so crank baits (lipless and FS), and some other stuff. I’m not complaining, but I quickly go into analysis paralysis. Will post pics when it shows up. Showed arrival on 1/6, but just got a notification that the order is being prepared for shipment… I'd be happy to accept the challenge of spending that gift card without big ticket items. If someone sends me one I'll be happy to document the journey and see where we land. 😎 1 Quote
Smirak Posted December 31, 2024 Posted December 31, 2024 As promised, here’s what the baboon did to me this year… 1st pic - Mrs Smirak ordered the gift cards from TW. Got the physical card so I’d have something to actually open. As discussed previously, the gift card equipment went down on like the 22nd. So, in order for me to have something to open, she painted these “gift cards” for me. She said the pelvic fins act like rudders (notice all but one is facing the wrong way 😂😂). Honestly, as much as I love the tackle, this was my favorite gift. 2nd pic - total haul. All either 1/2 oz or above. For some odd reason, I just don’t like throwing under 1/2 oz moving baits…I have them, I use them, but find that most of my new purchases are all 1/2oz+ and are usually the ones that get tied on first. 6th Sense Congo Craw (can’t get them locally anywhere) (5) Damiki Vault (3) Dr Slick split ring pliers. Initial impressions are they will be good. A few Crush 75x flat side squarebill A few Quake 70 lipless Spro crawler MB SV-3 spinner bait (2) Keitech tungsten jig (1) J Braid Grande x 8, 50lb MB Orochi XX Diablo Spec-R Tatula 103H Some A rig wranglers Free TShirt! 11 Quote
Super User NorthernBasser Posted December 31, 2024 Super User Posted December 31, 2024 2 hours ago, Smirak said: As promised, here’s what the baboon did to me this year… 1st pic - Mrs Smirak ordered the gift cards from TW. Got the physical card so I’d have something to actually open. As discussed previously, the gift card equipment went down on like the 22nd. So, in order for me to have something to open, she painted these “gift cards” for me. She said the pelvic fins act like rudders (notice all but one is facing the wrong way 😂😂). Honestly, as much as I love the tackle, this was my favorite gift. 2nd pic - total haul. All either 1/2 oz or above. For some odd reason, I just don’t like throwing under 1/2 oz moving baits…I have them, I use them, but find that most of my new purchases are all 1/2oz+ and are usually the ones that get tied on first. 6th Sense Congo Craw (can’t get them locally anywhere) (5) Damiki Vault (3) Dr Slick split ring pliers. Initial impressions are they will be good. A few Crush 75x flat side squarebill A few Quake 70 lipless Spro crawler MB SV-3 spinner bait (2) Keitech tungsten jig (1) J Braid Grande x 8, 50lb MB Orochi XX Diablo Spec-R Tatula 103H Some A rig wranglers Free TShirt! I'd say that's a pretty nice haul! 1 Quote
Super User Munkin Posted January 4 Super User Posted January 4 Just ordered an Active Target 2, 16v lithium battery with charger, and misc mounting hardware. Waiting to see what the Lowrance Pros look like in person to see what size I am going to get. Fishing budget is blown out of the water and I still haven't bought the line or weights I need. Allen 6 Quote
KP Duty Posted January 4 Posted January 4 Ebay LC's. I was after the MS colors (MS= Magic Scale). Jerkbaits are Slender Pointer 97's, with the top 2 being MS Wakasagi. 2 MS KJ flat 1.5's as well Picked up 26 various Black Label balsa baits while they were discounted. Grabbed 24 packs of missle crawfathers, a few of 'the 48' worms, Ned bomb worms, Gambler 7" Fat Ace and burner craws, BBB limit makers, and a couple picasso carbon chatters 30pks of Lake Fork Tackle chunks... 10 Quote
Pat Brown Posted January 5 Posted January 5 Those lake fork chunks have called out to me many times - can you give any info on action/durability look on a jig etc? Thanks @KP Duty Lucky Craft Jerkbaits are my favorite too. 🙂 2 Quote
OHBuckets Posted January 5 Posted January 5 2 hours ago, Pat Brown said: Those lake fork chunks have called out to me many times - can you give any info on action/durability look on a jig etc? Thanks @KP Duty Lucky Craft Jerkbaits are my favorite too. 🙂 I just picked up some LC 97MRs in the Hook Up's 9.99 sale Also, can't go wrong with the Lake Fork Pig Claw Chunks - TW has them at 25 (3.5") or 30 (2.5") packs for $5. 4 Quote
KP Duty Posted January 5 Posted January 5 7 hours ago, Pat Brown said: Those lake fork chunks have called out to me many times - can you give any info on action/durability look on a jig etc? Thanks @KP Duty Lucky Craft Jerkbaits are my favorite too. 🙂 These pig claws are nice...everything I'm looking for. They are really soft with no salt. Claws move with the slightest imput. Just ordered a few more while they are $4.99. Here is the 2.5" w/ finesse jig... 2 1 Quote
Pat Brown Posted January 5 Posted January 5 46 minutes ago, KP Duty said: These pig claws are nice...everything I'm looking for. They are really soft with no salt. Claws move with the slightest imput. Just ordered a few more while they are $4.99. Here is the 2.5" w/ finesse jig... That looks killer on there and I bet with no salt - looks incredible on the bottom - thank you! 1 Quote
Super User FishTank Posted January 6 Super User Posted January 6 I just received an order of 11 custom jigs from Johnny C's California Reservoir Lures. Great jigs. I really like their attention to detail with matching painted heads and weed guards. 10 Quote
MinDoFmejiA Posted January 7 Posted January 7 Anyone know of any websites that have sales going on at the moment? Bait monkey keeps poking at me and won't let go. Quote
KP Duty Posted January 7 Posted January 7 13 minutes ago, MinDoFmejiA said: Anyone know of any websites that have sales going on at the moment? Bait monkey keeps poking at me and won't let go. 1 Quote
MinDoFmejiA Posted January 7 Posted January 7 31 minutes ago, KP Duty said: I forgot we had a post for it already 😅 1 Quote
KP Duty Posted January 7 Posted January 7 On 1/5/2025 at 3:58 PM, Pat Brown said: That looks killer on there and I bet with no salt - looks incredible on the bottom - thank you! Correction...the pig claws seem to have light amount of fine salt. There is no evidence of salt in the bags or on the baits surface so it threw me off. Nothing like the LFT craw tubes which have heavy salt. 1 Quote
Super User FishTank Posted January 8 Super User Posted January 8 I got lucky on Ebay and snagged three of my favorite discontinued Megabass lures, the Live-X Leviathan. Two of them are from 1999 and one from 2003. All three colors are good ones but Megabass's painting has come a long way. 10 Quote
Smirak Posted Monday at 04:03 AM Posted Monday at 04:03 AM I forgot the bait monkey had me on speed dial. Berkeley/SK - Walmart clearance. I think I paid $16 13 Fishing - Ollies, $5/ea Nomad Designs - full price at BLS. $13/ea. I just bought them because I’d never seen them. They are a soft covered body lipless with a tail. 5 Quote
wdp Posted Monday at 02:44 PM Posted Monday at 02:44 PM 10 hours ago, Smirak said: I forgot the bait monkey had me on speed dial. Berkeley/SK - Walmart clearance. I think I paid $16 13 Fishing - Ollies, $5/ea Nomad Designs - full price at BLS. $13/ea. I just bought them because I’d never seen them. They are a soft covered body lipless with a tail. Those Nomads have my interest as well. Seen a few ads & watched couple videos. Let me know how they perform. Btw, think I have same exact kitchen countertops in my house. 😁 Quote
Smirak Posted Monday at 03:55 PM Posted Monday at 03:55 PM 1 hour ago, wdp said: Those Nomads have my interest as well. Seen a few ads & watched couple videos. Let me know how they perform. Btw, think I have same exact kitchen countertops in my house. 😁 Hail State - sucks to have lost Sat. I’ll keep you posted on the vertrex. Seen a few videos as well. Will be interesting to see how they work. 1 Quote
BlakeMolone Posted Tuesday at 06:07 PM Posted Tuesday at 06:07 PM On 1/4/2025 at 12:45 PM, KP Duty said: Ebay LC's. I was after the MS colors (MS= Magic Scale). Jerkbaits are Slender Pointer 97's, with the top 2 being MS Wakasagi. 2 MS KJ flat 1.5's as well Picked up 26 various Black Label balsa baits while they were discounted. Grabbed 24 packs of missle crawfathers, a few of 'the 48' worms, Ned bomb worms, Gambler 7" Fat Ace and burner craws, BBB limit makers, and a couple picasso carbon chatters 30pks of Lake Fork Tackle chunks... The scheels in Tulsa has some 97 slender pointers for like 6.99 in the discount bin right now. Kicking myself for not buying them. 1 Quote
Super User Munkin Posted Tuesday at 08:37 PM Super User Posted Tuesday at 08:37 PM On 1/7/2025 at 9:37 PM, FishTank said: I got lucky on Ebay and snagged three of my favorite discontinued Megabass lures, the Live-X Leviathan. Two of them are from 1999 and one from 2003. All three colors are good ones but Megabass's painting has come a long way. Those are going for crazy money on Ebay! What is so special about them? 2 hours ago, BlakeMolone said: The scheels in Tulsa has some 97 slender pointers for like 6.99 in the discount bin right now. Kicking myself for not buying them. Looked at their website and didn't see any Slender Pointers Allen Quote
Super User FishTank Posted Tuesday at 09:12 PM Super User Posted Tuesday at 09:12 PM @Munkin The Live-X Leviathan use to be a pretty versatile bait for me. I could troll with it, use it like a jerkbait, fish it like a shad rap, or just burn it back in. Different from the Trick Darter, it has this sort of wide pitch and roll action in deeper water and it suspends, which is probably why it getting such a high price attached to it. Also, it supposedly makes a good FFS bait. All I know is that it still catches fish and I'm going to hate opening a new in package bait that is 26 years old. Quote
woolleyfooley Posted Tuesday at 10:06 PM Posted Tuesday at 10:06 PM On 12/31/2024 at 1:55 PM, Smirak said: As promised, here’s what the baboon did to me this year… 1st pic - Mrs Smirak ordered the gift cards from TW. Got the physical card so I’d have something to actually open. As discussed previously, the gift card equipment went down on like the 22nd. So, in order for me to have something to open, she painted these “gift cards” for me. She said the pelvic fins act like rudders (notice all but one is facing the wrong way 😂😂). Honestly, as much as I love the tackle, this was my favorite gift. 2nd pic - total haul. All either 1/2 oz or above. For some odd reason, I just don’t like throwing under 1/2 oz moving baits…I have them, I use them, but find that most of my new purchases are all 1/2oz+ and are usually the ones that get tied on first. 6th Sense Congo Craw (can’t get them locally anywhere) (5) Damiki Vault (3) Dr Slick split ring pliers. Initial impressions are they will be good. A few Crush 75x flat side squarebill A few Quake 70 lipless Spro crawler MB SV-3 spinner bait (2) Keitech tungsten jig (1) J Braid Grande x 8, 50lb MB Orochi XX Diablo Spec-R Tatula 103H Some A rig wranglers Free TShirt! Very nice! Have you had a chance to fish the sv-3 spinnerbaits? I’m very interested in trying some. They seem like they have a smaller profile then a lot of other spinnerbaits. On 1/6/2025 at 9:20 AM, FishTank said: I just received an order of 11 custom jigs from Johnny C's California Reservoir Lures. Great jigs. I really like their attention to detail with matching painted heads and weed guards. What color is the middle one? The football jig? It looks like a great bluegill match. Quote
Super User Munkin Posted Wednesday at 07:45 PM Super User Posted Wednesday at 07:45 PM 22 hours ago, FishTank said: @Munkin The Live-X Leviathan use to be a pretty versatile bait for me. I could troll with it, use it like a jerkbait, fish it like a shad rap, or just burn it back in. Different from the Trick Darter, it has this sort of wide pitch and roll action in deeper water and it suspends, which is probably why it getting such a high price attached to it. Also, it supposedly makes a good FFS bait. All I know is that it still catches fish and I'm going to hate opening a new in package bait that is 26 years old. If I have any I will trade it to you for something then. Went through a JDM jerkbait addiction phase for about 5 years. Bought one or two of every jerkbait I could find. Allen 1 Quote
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