Big Bait Fishing

Fishing swimbaits, I never want a moderate action. As far as treble hooks, they are same as any other hooks, reel them as quick as possible , get them to the surface and surf the fish in . With a moderate action, people want to play the fish, wrong ! That's how you lose fish ....

whatever !!! ha , i'm super jealous !!! most all the lakes/reservoirs were i live are county maintained so they go around and skim off all the topwater grass and mats , yeah , it sucks !!! hope you get some bigguns out of there !!!!!

Phenix make great rods and their customer service is phenominal ..... sounds like you already have the rod on the way , should work good but a fast action is best for glider baits , should have went with the Ultra Swimbait rod USB-800 a 8' heavy powered /fast action , much easier to work glide baits and jointed baits with the fast action , your bait will be a lot more responsive to twitches and pulls .

going from stripper guide at 0 degrees atop the blank to 180 degrees at the bottom of the blank is not radical ??? what about the line wrapping the blank for that 180 degrees ???

for 10'' or bigger worms i use Owner oversize worm hook in 7/0 , if i need weight , i peg a bullet weight . i like i slimmer hook profile on big worms and the 7/0 worm hooks from Owner are mandatory ! i fish big worms atop submerged grass and using big wide gap hooks catch too much grass ..

i love the first picture !! i would love to fish that ...

sounds sketchy ! i would think with the line rubbing on the blank and such a radical change in line direction that you you would drastically slow the line down it's path and lose casting distance and cosmetically damage the rod blank . i would never think one would even try that ..

i use Pro-Cure only in , shad , rainbow trout , crawfish , and trophy bass . i only use a drop or two depending on the bait , if it's for swimbaits , i use considerably more ! but i never put it in a bag of soft plastics , just only when i have the bait rigged and ready to go ..

quit lettin the fish run all over and shake it's head !!! once you have hooked it , continuely reel them in straight to you , like G-Man said , " pretend it's a pencil sharpener " just reel fast ... don't know if you ever fish big swimbaits , but is the same principal , reel them up to the surface and surf them on top of the water to you , you give the fish a chance , they'll throw the hook - don't give them one ....

C & M tackle(ACID ROD.com) sells micro guides ,stainless steel frames w/ zirchromium inserts for .98 cents a piece !! i think they are Alps . pretty decent guides , and the tip tops are $ 1.94 . use a Fuji surf guide( Alconite) BLCAG, in size 6 for your stripper guide , around $2.80

i am not a fan of hollow body frogs at all , toads (buzz frogs ) are all i fish , i only use single hooks , Owner beast hooks ( un-weighted ) , i love and religiously fish Canyon Plastics 4.5'' frogs , they have a little heft to them so they cast far , wish they made a bigger size Rage toad or a bigger Zoom Horny Toad ...

i make my rats with black rabbit fur

i'm sure it can be done , not going to have the best sensitivity since you probably won't have a high grade graphite/carbon blank , but then again , sensitivity is to one's own opinion and feel , but you might be able to make something that's very fishable !!! take a look at discontinued blanks that are marked way down !!

then find a rod that has a soft tip to be able to cast those small frogs .

you might want to look into a MH rod instead but make sure it has a good backbone .

you'll have to look it it up on American Tackle web site , it is better told by them with video of how it works , as far as Microwave casting guides , to me , they are not worth the cost of the guide set compared to other guides that are better and cost similar or less ...

get a good quality rod with a good warranty , you can get a bigger reel when you do decide to get some bigger baits. trust me when i tell you that a regular baitcaster that holds around 140-160 yards of 12 lb. line will hold plenty of 15 or 17 lb. line that you need for baits that weigh 3 oz. or less , been there done that ....

Phenix ultra 8' H 2-8 oz. swimbait rod . as for a reel , since you are going to be throwing small baits and won't use anything more then 20 lb. line max , you can use a baitcaster you probably already have , you don't need a big (300 size) baitcaster to hold a hundred yards of 17-20 lb. line . you will regret buying a rod you settled for rather than buying one that you like and it is a quality rod that will do it's job , don't learn the hard way ....

what's the warranty on rodgeeks blanks ????

not the same as St. Croix SCIV blanks but made from similar materials and was designed by St. Croix , so in effect it is not a rebranded SCIV blank ...

i must say , St. Croix makes incredible blanks and their customer service is phenominal !! when i cal them ( which i just did before i maid my previous post ) they answer all my questions and go above and beyond to make one feel confident in their products ... another reason i love their blanks is that they have spot on tip actions and serious backbone which i VERY much love !! their SCIV musky blanks are the best blanks on the market , period . i would never consider anything for my swimbait rods then them unless it was a Thorne Bros Predator blank that St. Croix makes for them ...

same graphite and engineered by St. Croix , but they are similar , not exactly the same ..

i assume you are talking about a spinning setup - i don't have micro wave guide set up on my spinning rod but did go with smaller guides for the stripper guide , second guide and choke guide to micro (3.5) running guides . i used a size 20 for the stripper guide which tames the coils coming off the spool pretty good then a size 12 followed by a size 8 then to 3.5 micro guides , the line gets tamed quickly and i would say i've gained at least 10 -15 yards on my casts which i think is pretty substantial !!!

why would anyone put a 300 size reel on a jig and pitching rod setup ??? you want a light reel , not a big high capacity reel like the curado 300e that weigh 10.5 ounces . a reel that will hold between 100-160 yards of 12 lb. line is plenty . you want the reel light , strong ang with at least 10 lbs. of drag . also get a high speed reel with at least a 6.4:1 gear ratio .

i couldn't see myself even thinking of using 20 lb. line unless it was Sniper or Shooter which is flourocarbon which sinks and a LOT thinner ! , not good for topwater but great for texas rigged plastics for fishing the bottom.