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Excellent.

I've never had the legs of any of my frogs get sticky or melt. Some of the Spros were bought when they were first introduced, maybe 4 years ago. I keep them together in a Plano box and sometimes scent them with Megastrike. Keep them cool and dry and you should be fine. A lot of lures will fall apart if you mistreat them, not just frogs.

Those look excellent, and the price is good too.

The St. Croix Triumph line offers a excellent rod for the price. I would recommend that you search the various online flea markets for used St. Croix Premier rods. They are often priced in the $50-60 shipped range.

Heavy spinnerbait Jig and craw Frog

Those are a bargain compared to the Pop Max.

It's because the lure is given as much credit as the angler who tossed it. It's good marketing, it's easier to sell a lure than it is to sell other KVD-themed merchandise. I don't blame the lure companies for doing it. It's especially funny since oftentimes the lure that is credited is not the lure that was used. But it does benefit us consumers if we wait for the overstock sales that are soon to come when the hype dies down, like last falls blowout of the Red Eye Shad. I imagine I'll be loading up on $2 squarebills come November.

6-10 usually. Sometimes I'll make more if I'm using a lure that might aggravate a bass and pull them from the cover, like a buzzbait or spook.

I'd recommend the Dobyns out of those three. Have you looked into the St. Croix Avid series? They can often be picked up in the $100-120 range in online classifieds.

That's just about the perfect multi purpose rod. You can throw almost anything with that rod in the range of 1/4 to 3/4 oz.

I'm sure it's in development right now from numerous companies. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the next edition of the Curado were made with CI4 material after the success of the Stradic CI4. The material was first incorporated into Shimano bicycle components and has a great track record for lightness and durability, so I doubt that the use of CI4 reinforced carbon fiber is going to end with the Stradic.

Great choice. You'll be glad you spent a little extra on the Curado.

I put the rods in rod socks and set them in the corner of my basement, and put all the reels back in their original boxes.

They're excellent crankbaits, and at $5, they can't be beat. The DT Fat 1 is a great wakebait that is effective at covering water, and the DT Fat and Flat 3 are very good cranks. I'm not a huge fan of the VMC SureSet hooks though, at least not as the front hook. They hook fish well, but I've broken a few off in a fishes jaw, and they are very, very easily hung up on wood and tough weeds. With a replacement front hook, the DT Fat series are otherwise not easy to snag and will deflect off cover about as well as any squarebill crank that I've used.

I almost always use a trailer hook on spinnerbaits. For me, only about 1 out of 10 fish are caught on the trailer hook, but that's enough for me to use them. My PB was caught on the trailer hook. A trailer hook will often interfere with a plastic trailer, so I don't usually use a trailer. But if I'm trying to "wake" a spinnerbait, I will use a double tail grub as a trailer. The grub will give the spinnerbait more resistance and make it easier to fish it near the surface without having to speed the bait up. The tail half of a chewed up trick worm makes a decent trailer for spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and chatterbaits. An advantage of using a plastic trailer is that it allows you to add some color variety and flash to your spinnerbait, which is another reason why I like to use them sometimes. Purple plastics on gold spinnerbaits, red plastics on silver, and green pumpkin on white are good combos for me. I think the purple on gold makes a halfway decent bluegill imitation and works very well at times.

Spinnerbaits and swimjigs.

Braided line fibers are very difficult to dye, so some fading is inevitable. I haven't seen a braid yet that won't fade over time if left untreated, and even that only slows the process. KVD L&L works well, and I think Ardent Line Butter may even work a little better, if you can stand using that oily stuff. I will still use a black Sharpie if the line gets too silvery, or else just reel it onto another reel to reverse it. Once both ends are faded, the line is then used as backing. Braided line makes a first rate backing as it is lighter than other lines and packs down very tightly. I have noticed that braided line seems to hold it's color longer on spinning gear than with casting gear. That could be because spinning gear casts the line with less friction, or because casting gear is generally used when you're fishing areas with heavier, more abrasive cover.

Same here.

Speak for your own waters . I watched in horror one morning as very small pike went completely airborne and came down on the front of my sammy mouth agape, cutting my line and taking my lure in one swipe. It happened in the blink of an eye but seemed like slow motion ;D That said I still bought more sammy's. But Tw's can and will be lost around here. It sucks when it's a $6 spook, it really sucks when it's a $16 LC, and it would probably seem like the end of the world when it's a $28 MB popper,I don't have one, but if we didn't have those toothy bait thieves around here I would. Haha, that would be a downer to lose a $20+ crankbait. I have a hard time dropping more than $10 on a lure because of all the pike in my local waters. The good thing is, oftentimes when a pike snatches a lure, they aren't even really hooked. Three times last year I was able to find my lure floating within a minute, just yards from the scene of the crime. One was a Sammy, another was a Gunfish, and the other was a Phat Frog. My total losses to pike last year was about $60 worth of jigs, tungsten sinkers, crankbaits, frogs, and chatterbaits. :-[ I might have to jump on one of these Pop Max and hope for the best. They look really cool with those open gills, and I haven't tried a Megabass lure yet. If I had to choose one lure, it would be an American Shad LC Pointer 100. These are about as "high-end" as I've been willing to go as of yet.

Dobyns Champion 766C Shimano Curado 201E7 50 lb Fireline Tracer Braid

Was it ever open to public access? How long has it been off limits?

Agreed. That's the one I use, too. Couldn't ask for a better frog rod than a 735C. I haven't tried a Powell 735, but if it fishes like a Dobyns 735, you'll be happy with it. I look for a rod that's powerful, balanced, and crisp, but not so powerful or so long that it's heavy and cumbersome. A tip that has some play will also help with casting accuracy. Frogging long hours with an overly long broomstick is tiring and will wear you out.

The Alberto knot is little smaller profile than the Double Uni. I'm pretty new to the Alberto and have always used the Uni for joining lines. I've broken off unexpectedly a few times using a Double Uni, but I think that's because I was using heavier lines(50#/15#) and the knot had taken some abuse from the guides and needed to be retied. Don't forget copoly for leaders. P-line CXX makes an excellent leader material in the 6-17# range when you need abrasion resistance. I choose copoly over fluoro it situations where line abrasion can be an issue, like around metal dock posts or granite chunk rock.

Hopefully the new local Super Walmart will stock a better fishing section than the last store we had. That one was pretty much worthless for fishing supplies.

I've had my best luck on the Z Man Original Chatterbait in black/gold.