BobP

Yes, there are epoxies that take longer to harden than 30 min epoxy like Devcon Two Ton. There are "table top" aka "pour-on" epoxies like Envirotex Lite and rod guide epoxies like Flexcoat. You have about 3 minutes of brush time with Devcon Two Ton - enough time to do 2 average size bass baits. Devcon will get hard to brush after that but will sag after application unless you rotate the bait for about 45 minutes (room temperature). The downside of slower setting epoxies like Envirotex is that while you have much longer brush time, you also have to use a much longer rotation time to keep the epoxy from sagging - maybe as long as a couple of hours. Most guys who use epoxy on baits build themselves a bait rotator of some kind. "30 minutes" is the time you have to join the pieces of whatever you are gluing together with the epoxy - after which it will have hardened too much to form a glue bond. It has nothing to do with using epoxy as a topcoat. We epoxy users just "appropriated" 30 min epoxy due to its clarity, leveling characteristics, and toughness. Envirotex Lite and Flexcoat contain solvent that slows the initial hardening. It also makes for a thinner coating when brushed on a lure. Devcon and other "30 min" epoxies are popular among bait builders because they offer reasonable brush time plus reasonably short rotation time, plus good performance as a topcoat.

Theoretically, you can disassemble a spinning reel and get it back together if you are very meticulous and methodical about how you take it apart - and if you have some basic mechanical aptitude. But very few guys are gonna be methodical enough not to screw it up. They are significantly different from baitcasters. I wouldn't recommend it unless you have no other choice and if you try it, I'd recommend following Delaware Valley Tackle's advice. There's a reason that many reel maintenance shops won't work on spinning reels.

Ha! One of my favorite bait mods is to tail weight a jerkbait until it falls slowly backward through the water when paused. It's a great simulation of a dying shad and is killer in the late fall when shad are beginning to die off due to falling temperatures.

Yep, they work. Personally, I prefer a 3/4 oz jigging spoon for anything down to 60 ft deep. If you'll be fishing less than 25 ft deep, a 1/2 oz spoon is better. I'm a jigging enthusiast in the winter and buy unpainted spoons from Lure Parts Online that are similar to your BPS models, then paint them with white glow-in-the-dark paint and fish them 55-60 ft deep where the shad and bass tend to hold this time of year in my local reservoir. In warmer months, I like a larger spoon like a 4-5 in long flutter spoon cast and hopped off the bottom like a jig.

If you want to adapt your jig and trailer colors to reality (I've never heard of any study where moon phase had any effect whatever), turn over some rocks at the lake before you head out and match the colors you see on those crayfish. Crayfish colors vary according to the body of water, time of year, and specific crayfish species. That said, most crayfish species, most of the time, in most areas of the U.S. are mottled dark green or brown in color. They may have color accents of blue, red, orange, or yellow at certain times of year when in reproductive mode.

Any rod where the tip feels heavier than zero when you hold and fish it is "tip heavy". The longer the rod, the more leverage the tip has, so longer rods tend to feel more tip heavy, all other factors held equal. Rods used for touchy-feely bottom presentations like dropshotting, jigs, or T-rigs feel more sensitive when the rod tip weight is neutral while you work the bait. Rods used for moving bait presentations like crankbaits, swimbaits, or spinnerbaits are always tip heavy due to the pressure exerted by the bait as it moves through the water, so tip-heaviness is largely irrelevant to those presentations.

If you know how to snell a hook, straight shank hooks are superior because they have a cam action when you set the hook that provides better hook-up percentages. If you are too lazy to snell the hook, there's no advantage and an offset hook will work better since they typically hold the bait up on the hook shank better. JMHO

I doubt you'll find much consensus on what is best in a jerkbait/topwater rod because there are many variables that depend on exactly how the rod is used. For me, the rod has to be the right length so that I can point the tip downward while working a jerkbait or walking topwater bait and not have it hitting the water. 6'6" works for me. I prefer a moderately fast action rod that is also tip heavy to make the jerk motion as efficient as possible. Some died-in-the-wool jerkbait fishermen even add weight to the rod tip.

My favorite deep jerkbait. V1 has a slow rise. V2 suspends. V3 has a slow sink. I love the Dobyns V3 in Ghost Chartreuse Shad for clear water.

In absolute terms 24 is better than 12 and 36 is better than 24. That said, it depends on the size of your boat and how and where you fish it. I'm a casual fisherman and 24V has always been enough for me. I don't fish big water tournaments and my 24 lasts all day on the lakes I fish. My 24V TM pulls my 19' fiberglass Triton just fine for the kind of fishing I do. I don't have to buy/charge 3 trolling batteries, a more expensive charging system, and avoid that 75lbs of extra weight in my boat. If I lived on Erie, I would consider 35V as a minimum.

Jack plates are good things. They put the prop in cleaner water further behind the boat for better performance. And they make the motor height infinitely adjustable so that you can fine tune the height for better performance, quicker planing, and higher max speed. But unless you fish very shallow water where you have to jump up on plane ASAP to get in/out of an area (and I think 99% of freshwater fishermen avoid this kind of spot anyway) - you do not need a hydraulic jackplate. They make manual jackplates that will do exactly the same thing, only you have to use a wrench to raise/lower the motor height. But most guys would say a jack plate has only minor effect on most aluminum boats.

I've got a big H'bird SI unit on my bass boat but doubt I would feel the need for SI on a kayak. The transducers for SI are large, cause some drag, and have to be totally submerged to work. Not saying it wouldn't be "nice to have" but I don't think $300 is gonna get one. The kind of sonar you want depends on how you want to fish in your kayak. Want to research lakes before you see them for underwater features that hold fish? Then you need a unit with a map cartridge ($150) that shows depth contours. Just want to mark and save waypoints as you fish the lake? Any GPS unit will do that.

I don't see what I'd call color shift in the few Createx iridescents I've tried - I think they just have some reflective flake in them to accent the effect.

I use Superlube grease on sliding parts and gear teeth, Shimano ACE-2 drag grease on 'wet' drags, and a light bearing oil like Yellow Rocket Fuel or Ardent bearing oil on bearings and the level wind. I especially like Superlube, which is a white PTFE fortified grease sold in 8 oz cans at NAPA. I agree with DVT about specific brands of grease and oil with one proviso. The thinner viscosity your bearing oil, the quicker it will be thrown out of a bearing and the sooner you will need to re-lube it. So it's a trade-off between bearing speed and how often you'll need to re-oil them.

I like S Glass rods because they have an action intermediate between E Glass and graphite, and the weight is considerably less than E Glass, which always seems too darned tip heavy to me. I can't speak to the Wright and McGill rod but I have an S Glass custom built on a Seeker BS704 blank that is light and fairly sensitive - though not as sensitive as graphite.

I don't worry about mag wheels taking punishment and the same goes for mag reels. Some companies including Shimano say their mag reels are now OK to use in saltwater. If I were going saltwater fishing and had a choice, I'd nonetheless choose to take a non-mag reel. No sense tempting fate.

I have a Lew's Tournament Speed Spin that I had to send back upon receipt to fix a problem with the bail function - no problem after they adjusted/replaced it. Never had that problem with a Shimano but have had a Sedona bind up when water soaked during river fishing. To me, the Shimano spinning reels seem more user-friendly. I'm a Shimano baitcaster fan but have had better luck with Daiwa spinning reels in the past. None of this addresses current models from any manufacturer - you just have to take your chances!

There are 2 markets for them. Collectors who pay ridiculous amounts for specific paint patterns and fishermen who want them because many of them "hunt". Truth is, some of them hunted, some of them did not, and some of them could not be tuned and were worthless for fishing.

Depends on what it is and how it's handled. For a urethane varnish or concrete sealer, it's usually enough to re-seal the can. If you are concerned about a skin forming during storage you can use an aerosol can of Bloxygen to dose the can before you seal it. Bloxygen is an inert nitrogen-argon gas mixture. Or as the air space increases in a can, you can decant your finish into jars that have less air space between the finish and the sealed top. Both of those finishes simply harden as their solvent evaporates and if you can keep that from happening in the can, they stay liquid. Other finishes are not so user friendly - for example, moisture cured urethane makes a great coating but its very difficult to keep it from hardening once it has been exposed to moisture in the air.

The screw eyes work. Not as well as thru-wire construction or hand-twisted screw eyes but OK if they are epoxied or superglued when installed. I much prefer using soft temper .041" diameter stainless steel wire and twisting my own screw eyes, which I can make to any length desired and have more glue surface when inserted into pre-drilled holes in baits. It's easier to install split rings on thinner diameter wire and the soft temper ss wire allows you to tune a balsa bait without cracking the finish, so it remains waterproof.

Did Hi Salenity mean to say "Don't get the 5 minute Devcon"? The 30 minute Devcon Two Ton is the one you want. The 5 minute versions won't level out, hardens too quick to brush before beginning to harden, plus it turns an ugly brown after exposure to UV for awhile. Pluses: epoxy is great looking and very durable. Minuses: you have to rotate the bait for 45 minutes after application or it will sag, it's one of the thickest topcoats you can put on a bait, which is fine for wood baits but not very attractive on plastic baits. It draws away from any sharp edge while it hardens and that area will chip and wear very quickly - like the belly edges of a 110. There are all kinds of topcoats used on crankbaits and each has good and bad points. For a casual user that doesn't want to get into it too far, perhaps a can of solvent based exterior grade urethane varnish will work - dip it, hang it, let it dry, clean off the hook hangers, and voila. No expertise in mixing, application, or curing required. Another dip-able topcoat used by some guys is solvent based concrete sealer. Notice I say "solvent based" when talking about crankbait topcoats - no water based topcoat has been shown to be proof against water immersion.

If the choice is the Omega, I go with the Pro model. I have an early Omegas and the reason I never use it is the excessive weight - it's a real heavy metal boat anchor!

I like the LC staysee ver 3, which is a slow sinker. The ver 1 is a slow floater, ver 2 a suspender.

Retrieve speed is absolutely critical and you only know it's right when bass start to bite it - so you have to experiment on the day, according to sunlight available, and water clarity. Crankbaits are reaction baits. You want a crankbait to be sensed by the bass but not so visible that they can determine it's not a real prey item. Generally, that means clearer water = faster retrieves. The lake I fish most is very clear. If you want to get a bite there, you have to really burn crankbaits back to the boat or go fish-less. In my personal experience on varying lakes, faster retrieves generally get more bites in open water while slower retrieves do better in heavy cover (where you can't really burn it anyway).

The critical thing with the Albright is to make sure the line exits the loop in the same direction that it came in. If it doesn't, you don't have an actual knot and it will unravel during use. The Albright is the smallest good knot you can use and that's important. But a uni-uni seems as strong in practical terms and it doesn't have the little "gotcha" the Albright does while tying it. You can buy a little Fast Tie tool that makes tying a uni-uni quick and easy if that's the knot you choose. But using a thin strong Albright makes casting with the typical bass rod using size 6 tip guides much more trouble free.