Berkley Cherrywood rod which i bought on sale for around $15.00 which i now use exclusivly on every species except crappie, it is a blast to land bigger fish with the nimble Cherrywood, paired with a Pflueger President Xp size 25 reel. My lure of choice is a lipless crank and or a squarebill to find the depth first and to feel what the bottom is like.

When i figure all that out then i go to this with a bobber>

 

A 6'6" m/f St. Croix Premier rod with a Pflueger 6735 President spooled with 8# Big Game. The bait was a toss up between a weightless 4" Yum Dinger, or a weightless Zoom Finesse Worm.

8 hours ago, crypt said:

7'3" MHX casting rod  Abu reel, Culprit Fat Max worm. 75% of my fish last year on this rig.

That’s what I got my PB on!

Fat Max is always 1b for me no matter where. 
 

As always a Zoom Magnum UV Speed Worm.
This year a 10.2 using a MH/F Ark rod

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mike

Black/Blue Christie Craw Texas rigged on a St Croix 7' MF Legend Xtreme with a TD-Z 103ML and Sunline Supernatural 12lb mono.

 

for me it was my IMX Pro 7'6 MH Mag Bass rod with my curado 200i, 12 pound text Sufix Siege and a #5 Mepps Black Fury in line spinner in red and black. Caught my first muskie with this rig oh yeah 

2 hours ago, OmegaDPW said:

I prefer the black body with a little bit of yellow and red.

 

Fishing a lot of tidal waters, the salinity levels are extremely high, & the bass were feeding on grass shrimp.

 

@bulldog1935 spinnerbait 😉

 

 

My #1 for '23 was my 6'9" Kistler KLX with a 7.9:1 Abu Revo-MGX on top, with a perch Berkeley Stunna 112+1 tied on with #10 fluorocarbon on it.  

 

Spooled up, my jerk bait rig weighs in at 10.7 oz.

I'd have to go with the punch rig double wide beaver. Although this would probably be 3rd for numbers behind spinnerbaits and buzzbaits, maybe even 4th behind frogs, as it's only a primary option for 8-10 weeks it still produced almost half(24 of 62) of my 3lb.+ fish including my 2 biggest (6-3,6-4).

 

The setup: 7'6" h/xf Allstar lite flippin' rod, 8:2 slx, 40lb. 832, 6/0.ewg mustad grip pin, 3/4 or 1oz. Tungsten weight held with a jumbo peg it.

7'6" st croix MH/ModF, 17lb tatsu, zillion

Deps 7+ meter deep crank

 

 

7'-6" ML XF SC avid

3" swim bait with 1/4 oz. head

close 2nd a 5" senko

 

gotta tune you guys to gear-forum protocol - it's not sexy if you don't show the gear

 

       

I'm must say that I'm disappointed on last year's performance of every piece of tackle I own.  They are all aware that I expect much better this year. 

On 1/20/2024 at 9:01 PM, ol'crickety said:

7' 2" MH fast action spinning rod with a 2500 Shimano reel tossing a popper, Senko, Plopper, or underspin with 30 lb. braid. 

Pretty much what I use too. Seems to work.

 

John

Carbon light 2.0 mxf 10 lb braid Carbon light 2000 size spinning reel. Wacky worm 

13 minutes ago, JGD said:

Pretty much what I use too. Seems to work.

 

John

 

Cool!

Best lure was a tie between a ned rigged xzone ned zone and 4.8 jackall flick shake worm. Both thrown on a 7’ med-light Kistler helium with Daiwa ss air.

7'2 MH Kage with Lews SpeedSpool LFS and 40lb braid. 

 

- 3/8oz Dirty Jigs pearl ghost shiner swim jig with FAT Impact 3.8 in Tennessee shad

- 1/4oz mini max chatterbait in spot remover with Zoom split tail trailer in glimmer blue

 

I'd say those 2 lures on that setup were responsible for the majority of my bass in 2023. 

13 fishing defy silver 7 ft L

Daiwa Revros 2000

4 lb Sunline Super natural mono

Roadrunner Zman shad fryZ combo

 

During the fall I mostly fish for crappie but I probably caught more bass while crappie fishing with this setup than I did during spring and summer.  Now I'm hooked on finesse swimbait fishing and I'm planning other rigs to use larger swimbaits like the 2 inch keitech. I was trying to decide on a rod for my shallow spool metanium for months but after this I decided to get a custom ALX built. Can't wait to get it. 7 ft L+ trickster made into a casting rod. 

Trey Harpel 110 TR Jerkbait

Savage Gear Battletek 6'10" M

Curado 71 mgl

 

ZMan TRD

Phenix Feather 7'1" L

Curado BFS

 

These 2 Combos caught the most fish for me last year

NFC 807 blank spiral wrapped and carbon grips

Tatula 200

Seaguar Abrazx 20lb main line

Spro swivel, Ryugi TG sinker, 12lb YZH leader, 2/0 offset worm hook.

Zoom Speedcraw in Green Pumpkin Magic. 

 

Rod is specifically for Carolina Rigs.

 

 

Dobyns Dock Fishing 610

Metanium 15 DC 151

Varivas Absolute 14lb test Fluorocarbon

Rattle Trap 1/2oz Summer Sexy Shad

My 2 best setups were a 7’-0” med/fast action rod (Wright &McGill Insight) with a Favorite Soleus bait cast reel with 10 lb big game and a Strike King finesse jig(swim) from WalMart. My second best bass producer was a 6’-6” - 7’-2” light powered spinning rod with a 500-1000 size reel with 4 lb test and a blue fox 1/16 oz inline spinner. I fish a few retention ponds and the bass respond best to smaller lures which match their size 😉 

Dobyns Champ XP 735 Special with Burl cork...Tatula Elite...50lb P-Line TCBX brad...Sprinker Frog.

 

 

LMB. 5" wacky senko, Zodias 7MF spinning + Vanford C3K

Striped. Hog Farmer mini flex 5 wire 4 blade A rig, Expride 76MHMF + Bantam MGL A HG

For most fish, mine was a Forecast SP841 blank and TD Alphas casting combo, 8lb. Invizx line and a 1/8oz. hair/feather jig.

For size, it was a Browning Boron/Graphite and TD Viento combo, 40lb. Sufix Performance braid and a 1/2oz. Arkie head jig/RageTail Craw.