21 minutes ago, Motoboss said:

I can only hope.
The real pain is I have two new Curado MGL HG 150’s and one Vandord 3000 with three spools of Smackdown sitting on the shelf waiting on the rods. That’s what really hurts!

 

Ouch.

 

Love has never been easy my man.   

Gonna be selling a few things on FB to try and make up some of the damage from these two...

Some more stuff that I just needed to have lol.

5 dollar Berkley Magic Swimmers at the flea market. and one of the old school Devil horses(it was in the vintage package from probably somewhere in the 80s or 90s) for 5 bucks as well. All were new in the packaging.

Rapala buy 3 get 3 at Dick's. $3.25 a pack mayors.

Today's theme revolves around a primary local bass forage.

A-Jay

On 7/15/2024 at 7:13 PM, Gutierrez said:

Felt like the appropriate thread to put this in. Is the Megabass PopMax the greatest trap the bait monkey has ever devised? I mean just look at these things

 

Its like bait that came from a candy store 

That's nothing.  There are people that collect these and buy they from Japan where all the colors and limited edition runs are.  I remember seeing a guy on another forum selling them.  He had a whole collection of them with soft coatings like fake fur and that soft touch coating you see on pens.  They still sell limited editions.  Here is one from this year. 

2019 limited edition colors:

 

Love it. I know this: I love the PopMax

3 hours ago, A-Jay said:

Today's theme revolves around a primary local bass forage.

A-Jay

Your local forage is plastic and cardboard? You really should move south. Our local forage is real fish!!

26 minutes ago, Smirak said:

Your local forage is plastic and cardboard? You really should move south. Our local forage is real fish!!

As soon as you start posting a few of these units, I will seriously consider it. 

🤩

A-Jay

18 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

As soon as you start posting a few of these units, I will seriously consider it. 

🤩

A-Jay

Like I could ever catch a football like that. 

Be the perch

 

Well I normally don't post on this but I'm currently trying to find anything to do BUT work. 

 

Here's a couple packages that arrived yesterday.

 

Dedicated topwater rod/reel.  Probably going to be a second jerkbait combo when the water gets too cold for topwater.

 

PS The fire tiger jerbait was just too pretty not to buy.  LOL

 

 

That is one heck of a good delivery.

15 minutes ago, Rockhopper said:

That is one heck of a good delivery.

 

Yeah I'm excited.

 

All the baits are new to me other than the 110's.

 

So excited to try them all out.

 

I just bought my youngest a car last night so I might have to take it easy on my fishing purchases. LOL

Couple things coming from TW. Guess I'm on the fuzzy bait train now, mostly wanted to try the new rerange 95.

You guys get all the nice new toys. I can't imagine how expensive all that stuff is coming from Japan.

 

I'm in a different boat. I have a 12 year old son who is getting back into fishing because that is what his buddies are doing. So its saltwater tackle he is after. He wants to go after big reds, snook, black drum, sheephead, trout, mangrove snapper and whatever else he can catch. He wants to eat what he catches.

 

So as a dad wanting to make sure he has what he needs for that I have to take a different approach.

 

I am not going to spend a lot of money on brand new rods and reels he is going to abuse because he's 12 and just won't take care of it like I would, so I want to get him good solid decent stuff, but it is going to be used rods and reels purchased cheaply. Since I can rebuild rods and reels I can turn another man's trash into our treasure. So I hit the pawn shops hard and heavy over last couple of days and spent less than $200 cash on stuff for both of us.

 

I was swinging bundle deals at pawn shops.

 

I got that St. Croix Triumph rod made in Mexico I was looking at a couple weeks ago with a lefty Shimano Curado 201HG still smooth and in great shape. It was $249, but I got him down to $100 on it in a bundle deal with some other rods and reels for my son. So dad and son got some new/used tackle. I picked up a second Curado cheap because it needed work and no one wanted to buy it, but I did because I have another one just like it for parts. So between them both I will get 2 new/used Curados for me and the St. Croix.

 

But for him I picked up:

 

1 Ugly Stick 7' MH fast and put a brand new Shimano 4000 spinning reel on it I ordered for less than $30.

 

1 ugly stick 7' H paired with a Shimano BaitRunner 6500 in process of rebuilding right now.

 

1 Fenwick HMX 7' ML F rod that came with an Ardent Big Water Salt 4000 for like $5.

 

1 Penn 7' Pursuit rod MH F paired with a Penn Silverado SV5000 spinning reel for saltwater. Larger spool/line capacity.

 

1 Vexan 7' Inshore baitcast rod retails $159 to $199, and I got it for $5. No reel for it yet. Besides he has never used a baitcast reel, and I think that rod is going to be too big for him right now. Maybe I should start him out on a 6'.

 

For some quick decent tackle he'll be able to keep up with his buddies. He said some of them have some really cheap tackle so their dad's aren't spending big bucks on high end tackle some boys are going to abuse and destroy. I bought those fiberglass Ugly Sticks for him because they are almost indestructible. I bet he will break the Penn graphite rod. He does not know how to care for any of it yet, but he's learning and wanting to learn so that's good. He's watching all the youtube videos so this weekend when he goes to his buddy's house fishing with a friend and his dad on their boat in Mosquito Lagoon, hopefully he will be somewhat prepared.

 

He also got a long sleeve fishing shirt with hoody, gloves, polarized sunglasses and I gave him the brand new Trophy Catch hat I got at ICAST this year from state of Florida biologists as soon as I stepped onto the show floor they were the first booth I ran into. Great people those biologists. They are the ones with the best fishing secrets! Not all the pro's running around.

 

Less than $200 for all that. Now I gotta get to work rebuilding the reels.

 

Can you guys buy this much stuff for $200 from Japan? I'd be broke if I went that route!

 

You know, I went looking for stuff for him, and wound up spending the most on myself with the Curado's and St. Croix rod. And I don't feel guilty one bit because he is taken care of too. I think that Baitrunner will more than make up for it! I bet none of his buddies have a baitrunner!

 

The Ardent 4000 just finished rebuilding it. Now to adjust the line on it or replace.

 

Here are a couple of the reels I did not buy. The prices were too high on the newer Penn reels, but that old one I figured would be too heavy for a 12 year old boy.

 

 

 

Passed these up as well, but a buddy of mine may buy one of them.

 

2 hours ago, Peacedivision said:

Couple things coming from TW. Guess I'm on the fuzzy bait train now, mostly wanted to try the new rerange 95.

Love those rerange baits, I use the big boys.. 130’s 

24 minutes ago, F14A-B said:

Love those rerange baits, I use the big boys.. 130’s 

I haven't tried the 130 but the 110 has been really good for me, I also keep a couple in a heavy wire 2 hook config for striper.

I don't remember if they're STX45 or 58 but the 2x#4 uprated weighs the same as the factory 3 hook.

1 hour ago, Peacedivision said:

I haven't tried the 130 but the 110 has been really good for me, I also keep a couple in a heavy wire 2 hook config for striper.

I don't remember if they're STX45 or 58 but the 2x#4 uprated weighs the same as the factory 3 hook.

They have a very unique action and throw super easy.. just a great bait. 

Just ordered 3x Karashi's in the Megabass Respect 90 color drop of GG smallmouth bass.  This could be the best lure in my arsenal.

 

On 8/27/2025 at 5:39 PM, Rockhopper said:

Just ordered 3x Karashi's in the Megabass Respect 90 color drop of GG smallmouth bass.  This could be the best lure in my arsenal.

 

I love fishing it, just no catches with it. I need to get another colorway I think.  

Grabbed a couple bulk packs of Rotten Tomato D-Bombs from The Bass Hole before they got sold out. 
 

3 hours ago, Smirak said:

I love fishing it, just no catches with it. I need to get another colorway I think.  

I've caught countless fish on the Karashi. And 5 totally different species so far.