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What kind of cover are you fishing? If you're fishing mainly weedcover, you may want to look into a graphite cranking stick. That way you'll be more likely to feel your bait contacting the weeds so you can snap it free before it fouls.

Wanna hear real music? ;D ;D Nice. This is the clown who got an ice cream cone with lightning bolts and the word "brrr" tattooed on his cheek after being released from a mental hospital.

I'm a huge music buff and collector. Arcade Fire, from Quebec, is without a doubt the most impressive and skilled new band I've heard in many years. They won the Best Album of the Year Grammy last night, with The Suburbs. It's really good to see a wholly original indie band become famous. Folks should check out their debut album first, Funeral. Here's my favorite two songs from it. I heard them on the HBO series Six Feet Under and I've been a huge fan of them ever since. Very entertaining live performances also. I saw them in Minneapolis last summer. It was great.

I think more often than not, people are naturally going to be drawn to the decade from when they were in their teens and early 20's, regardless of whether or not it's a great decade of music. These are the some of the most impressionable years of your life. I'd say the 60's were my favorite. It would be hard to make an argument that the 60's were not the best and most influential decade of music. Clearly they were, with the introduction of the Beatles, the Stones, Dylan, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Doors, Hendrix, Cream, Creedence, Led Zepplin and all of the soul artists and groups like Marvins Gaye, Temptations, Otis Redding, Righteous Bros and on and on and on.

I'm with him on this one. For those that wade, walk to the riffle at the head of a large, deep pool in relatively fast water, face downstream and let the current pull out 40 or 50 yards of line. Let the line unspin in the current for a few minutes and reel it back up SLOWLY thru pinched fingers as Ronnie described. It's a easy fix and it works wonders.

Thanks for the advice. I bought a 744 yesterday. David P has given me excellent advice on Dobyns rod purchases on numerous occasions thru PM. This time was no different. He explained that he uses the 744 for the same range of baits that I intend to use it for.

That California video is great. The tip about "fishing uphill" is especially interesting.

I have fished some Xcaliber XR50 lipless cranks with the flat finish. I can't say that I noticed any difference in catch rates.

Any particular reason?

What's the reasoning behind painting crankbaits, especially bright colored crankbaits, with flat finishes? Are there any advantages over gloss finishes, or vice versa? For example, the Chart Light Blue color from Lucky Craft is one of only a handful of baits from LC that has a flat finish, and I can't see a little glare from a bait this bright scaring any fish off. Granted, a darker or more subtle color like the Rootbeer Craw may be a different story.

Ah, I was wondering about that one too.

Smallie Beavers make really good trailers for swim jigs. They are my favorite, along with GYCB twin tail grubs. The flat bottom of the beaver gives the bait an erratic action when you let it fall between twitches, sometimes even spiraling like a tube jig.

They became my new favorite frog after I tried them last summer. One thing I noticed right away is that the extra weight of the frog seems to prevent it from climbing over lily pads unless the pads are really thick. Instead, the frog tends to move the pad or make it's way around the pad while remaining in the water, which means this frog spends more time in the strike zone than a lighter frog that tends to hop over the pads. I think I had fewer missed strikes because of this. A Spro Bronzeye that's half filled with water will do the very same thing. I've always had my best luck with black topwaters, and the Phat Frog is no exception.

Ahaha, nice job, Fish Chris! Great advice.

The $2 Cotton Cordell Super Spot with upgraded trebles is one of my favorite crankbaits and is an excellent cold water bait. This lure fouls very rarely around weedy cover. It's super tight wobble seems to repel the weeds. The Spot is one of my go-to lures search lures in the fall.

I don't know if this relates to the Savvy series, but in the Champion series, the 733 and 734 were intentionally built with slightly slower actions than the 703 and 704, with the 733/734 being intended for use with a variety of moving baits rather than bottom contact baits.

Congrats! Not to rain on your parade, but he's got a point. The 3/8 black/black Cavitron buzzbait is one of my favorite lures ever. I haven't bought another company's 1/4 or 3/8 oz buzzbait since I bought my first Cavitron a couple years ago, but I still buy and frequently use 1/2 oz models from other manufacturers on windy days.

There's no doubt it has gotten easier because of the advancements in tackle alone. I would like to hear one of the naysayers make an argument to an old school pro who used to flip with broomstick rods and 25 lb mono, that fishing hasn't gotten easier since the development of braided fishing lines, light, crisp, sensitive flipping sticks, high end sonar, and whisper quiet trolling motors.

SS703C Go check out Capra's in Blaine. As of a week ago they had a 30% off sale of Dobyns rods and the 703SS was in stock. I was playing around with the Dobyns Savvy series rods for the first time, dragging the rod tips across the carpet as a quick way to gauge sensitivity. They feel like very nice rods for the price, about as good as St. Croix Avids, which are excellent rods.

Since both of these rods are rated for 1/4 - 1 oz lures and are both probably better suited for 1/2 oz and up, which one casts and handles the smaller weights better? In other words, 1/4 and 3/8 oz jigs and T-rigs. I will be purchasing one or the other to be my primary jig rod and although I mainly fish 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 oz, I'd like to know how they handle the lighter stuff if I choose to throw them on it. Thanks, Joe

The last issue of Bassin' Magazine that I bought last summer advised people that the best way to fish worms and jigs was on spinning tackle with 20 lb. mono. You'd be better off if you stopped looking. ;D

I really like those GYCB Hula Grubs. I fish them on either skirted and plain football jigs for deep, active fish in the summer. They have a nice action when dragged quickly on a heavy jighead, which will also kick up a little dust trail behind the jig.

"Everything is practice." -Pele High percentage spots. Function over fashion.

Single gold colorado is a good place to start. They cast like a bullet because they have less wind resistance than a spinner with tandem blades.

What kinda rod are you using for your baitcasting setup? It will help narrow down which lures to suggest. Regardless, I would suggest a 3/8 or 1/2 oz. white spinnerbait as the best lure to throw when first learning how to bass fish with a baitcasting tackle. The lure is easy to cast and somewhat weed and snag resistant, and will catch at least a few bass wherever they exist.