BobP

I often throw a soft plastic frog (Zoom Horny Toad) in heavy pads. It weighs more than many plastics so the bass can track it easier when skittered over the pads, and it will sink into openings in the pads. 50 lb braid minimum. Swim jig, Senko, hollow frog are other good choices depending on exactly how thick the pads are and what kind of pads you have. Some lay flat on the water, some are emergent pads with leaves in the air. A spinnerbait or swim jig/bladed jig is good around the edges. It's all about efficiency. You often have to search through lots of pads to find where the fish are holding and whatever does that fast and efficiently is best. Once you find them, you can slow down and use a variety of lures.

To me it's mostly about water clarity. The clearer the better, vary the retrieve according to water temp and fish mood. I choose something else when clarity is less than 3 ft.

Yep, storing moisture cured urethane (MCU) is a real pain because it begins to harden after exposure to the moisture in air. Be aware that MCU moisture cure begins after application and lasts for several days to about a week. If you coat a bait and fish it the next day, MCU is like regular urethane, with limited durability. You have to wait for the cure process to make it really tough and hard. Your MCU will begin to harden in the can a lot sooner than you think. Amble on over to tackleunderground.com/Hardbaits forum and search for posts about MCU storage. There are many of them and they will give you ideas on how best to store and apply it. I've never been able to use a whole can of MCU before it hardened, using it to dip coat batches of baits over months. Even with Bloxygen. Guys who never open the can and tap it with a screw to get out the MCU, then brush it on lures, report they have gotten to use the whole can of finish.

True chartreuse is yellow paint with a little blue mixed into it, and you don't really see it on baits too often. Most guys including me prefer Neon Yellow Createx to true chartreuse because it is a brighter, cleaner looking color. Createx used to sell chartreuse but I haven't seen it in their lineup for several years now. There are lots of small companies that sell unpainted plastic crankbaits made in China that are knockoffs of commercial brands. Bustin Bass Baits, unpaintedlures.com, Predator Bass Baits, etc, etc. Be forewarned that knockoffs usually LOOK identical externally but are almost never the same internally, so you don't really get exactly the same bait as you buy from Bomber or other lure companies. Some of them work great, some not so great, and some are worthless, so you just have to test them for yourself and winnow out the good from the bad. If you have to buy three $2 knockoffs to find one that actually works, that would have paid for a a real Bomber - so buying the real thing and repainting it is sometimes a good alternative.

Some hooks are too tempered to bend, some are easier. Japanese brands are often tempered harder than others, so it's a crap shoot whether you can de-temper an Owner hook with heat. If you heat it and let it cool slowly, that removes some of the temper. Cooling it fast after heating creates temper. All you can really do is try it and if it breaks or the lead head melts, throw away that jig.

There are lots of sources for unpainted crankbaits. Virtually all of them sell Chinese (or sometimes Japanese) knockoffs of popular baits. The bait may be exactly the same on the outside but will always be different as to the plastic type and wall thickness, internal structure, ballast, chambering, etc. Some of them come close to the original and work well, some behave differently but still catch fish and are good baits in their own right, and some are worthless duds. It's a crap shoot and it's your responsibility to find the good ones and never try to sell a knockoff as an original. Predator Bass Baits, Bustin Bass Baits, Janns Netcraft, Dakota Lakes, unpaintedlures.com and lurepartsonline.com, plus others sell them.

I make my own baits, so no, I wouldn't buy them. But yes, I'd fish them if the colors suited the water I'm fishing. One thing for sure, bass are not art critics but fishermen are. So you can judge for yourself whether your paint jobs will catch bass (use) or might also catch fishermen (sale). You'd like it to do both but for me, the bass are critical while the fishermen are just 'nice to have' since I don't sell mine.

Solarez is easy to like since you apply it and you're ready to fish in a few minutes after the resin has cured in UV light. But like every clearcoat, there are pitfalls. It's not as glossy as most other topcoats, if that is an issue for you. It contains wax flakes which are necessary for the resin's surface to cure hard. If you apply Solarez and let a bait hang for several minutes before curing it in UV, the wax will tend to surface and then migrate to the tail of the bait and leave a white blush - which can be glaringly apparent over dark paint. It's pretty cheap at less than $30/quart for the High Gloss Solarez. Be sure to stir Solarez before use to disperse the wax flakes that tend to accumulate on the surface of the resin. I use a brush to apply it, then put lures on a lure turner for 10-15 mins to let it level out, then I either cure it under a salon nail light for 3 minutes or set the lure turner, still running, out in the sunlight for about half an hour. Voila, ready to fish. Except for the lower gloss, I think Solarez performs very similarly to a slow cure epoxy like Devcon Two Ton. Added benefit - it probably will not yellow like most epoxy eventually does.

I have the Crucial M and ML power dropshot rods, both in 6'8". They are equally sensitive so I prefer the M power rod. I don't see much advantage to a 7' rod for dropshoting since you aren't making long casts and the shorter 6'8" rods balance better with a 25 size reel. The XF tip sections of both rods are very soft action, which is perfect for dropshots. If you have 5 lb or bigger bass in your environment, the M power Crucial will handle them best. I've really enjoyed using mine for several years and the action/taper of the Crucial dropshot rods is custom made for this presentation.

OK, obviously you put something back together wrong. You need to crack the reel open again and closely study the diagram that came with it to see if you can figure out what that was. Nobody ever learns to service reels without screwing something up in re-assembly a few times. You'll learn from your mistakes and you will know it's a lot easier to take something apart than to put it back together properly. Some guys just don't have the aptitude or the patience and never get it right. For them, a pro reel service center is the way to go.

I think you want to stick with epoxy if you troll baits. Epoxy is usually thicker than other topcoats and although there are tougher coatings, they are almost always much thinner. Thickness means it takes longer for hook rash to wear through the topcoat. If you paint with water based acrylic latex paint, a breach in any type of topcoat will let the paint begin to absorb water and push the finish off the lure. For baits that I cast, I prefer moisture cured urethane like Dick Nite S81 - but it is very thin and epoxied baits last longer when trolled. I've used Devcon Two Ton for many years and like it but there are plenty of alternatives in 30 minute (slow cure) epoxies that work just as well - maybe the Alumite epoxy is one of them, I've never tried it.

Rather than go through additional hassle, heat the tip with a flame until it's glue softens and adjust it straight. If it doesn't feel solid, mix up a little 5 min epoxy and re-glue it. You need to know how to do this anyway because the tip top is the guide most often damaged and you will have occasion to replace one eventually.

There's no inherent reason that round reels have to be engineered differently from low profile reels, or vise-versa. I put the survival of round reels down to 2 things. First, Shimano Calcuttas and similar reels are overbuilt for reliability and toughness, weight be damned. Their lower ratio gearing also promotes smoothness and durability. Whether or not they balance on a rod, many guys are very attracted to supreme durability. Second, tradition - all reels started out as round reels. If you build a completely bullet proof round reel and continue the model line for many years, some guys will favor it just because that's what they're used to. Could Shimano or Abu build all metal low profile reels engineered the same as their round reels? Sure, but would bass fishermen favor those "low profile heavy metal" reels over the light, modern low profile alternatives? I don't think so.

Most often 10 lb for me. It gives better action to the bait than heavier braids and I figure you should be able to catch a 7 lb fish on 10 lb braid. Just don't use a snap hook set.

Before I got wise to how they were built, I lost the little spring activated clicker inserts on several of my Shimano reels. It doesn't make a bit of difference to the action of the cast control knob and since I don't depend on noise to adjust the knob, it's a non-issue.

I don't think you can't really specify a perfect rod type for C-rigs without also considering what type line and what weight C-rig you plan to use. For me, the sweet spot is 7' MH fast action paired with braided or fused superline (I like 20lb Berkley Fire Line) and a 3/4 oz C-rig. It casts far and is a sensitive combo. A longer rod will throw farther and pick up line faster but it will also tend to be more tip-heavy, and since a C-rig is a "touchy-feely" presentation where you are constantly weighing the bait to detect a strike, you want the rod to be very well balanced when you hold it.

Personally I wouldn't buy a magnesium framed reel for saltwater use regardless of manufacturer claims. But for freshwater, it makes the lightest frames available and works just fine. I have a Shimano 50 MG that I like a lot.

I hope you picked up on what DVT said - drags, if they use grease, require DRAG GREASE, not regular grease. Drag grease is a thick, sticky grease based on cosmoline and it's very different in viscosity and action than regular grease. Regular grease will work for a short while, though the drag will have less max drag. But after awhile, the drag will become jerky which is exactly what you don't want a drag to do.

You can give a metallic sheen to paint by overshooting it with Pearl Chrome from Smith Wildlife Colors (see taxidermy.net). If you want a true chrome finish, that's much harder to get in any airbrush paint and the ones available tend to be very expensive. Most bait makers opt to go with a silver metallic tape to create a chrome effect. You can texture it to resemble scales. One of the best tapes is Venture Brite-Bak tape, available from stained glass art suppliers. True chartreuse is a combination of yellow and ?blue? paint and it's really pretty ugly. Createx used to carry it but dropped it some time back. Most crankbait painters prefer to use Createx Neon Yellow. Createx actually heat cures at 325F, which you hopefully will never try to reach on a crankbait. That temp will explode a plastic bait and will cause a wood bait to outgas air hard enough to bubble most finishes. That doesn't mean you shouldn't use a hair dryer to dry every paint shot you put on a crankbait. That helps speed the painting process along and makes sure the paint on the lure is dry before you apply any topcoat

Testing a group of experienced non-professional fishermen, a measured average cast was 70 ft and a long cast was 100 ft. Don't get caught up in the hyperbole about casting distance because guys tend to confuse feet with yards! You're doing OK.

In my experience, mag brakes used to be a lot less reliable than centrifugal brakes but that generalization didn't apply to all reels and mag brake engineering has improved a lot over the last decade. Different manufacturers implement mag brakes in different ways so you have to judge them on a case-by-case basis. Today, I'd still choose centrifugal brakes over mag on a low end reel but for reels in the $100+ range, I'd feel pretty comfortable with either system. I know that doesn't help if you're new to baitcasting and are wondering whether a reel will work for you. I suggest you pick out a couple of candidate reels and ask the question again as it pertains to them. After using centrifugally braked Shimanos for a decade, I bought an early series Revo SX with mag brakes a few years ago and it has worked great with the mag brake set to medium, over a wide range of lure weights and types. It was as "set-it-and-forget-it" as any centrifugal system I've used. So I can't say one system is better than the other - just that you have to look at a specific reel and get feedback on how that one performs.

I really like Super Lube automotive grease for gear teeth and other greased areas. Super Lube is a translucent white grease with Teflon (PTFE) and comes either in small tubes or in an 8 oz can for less than $10 at Napa. I like it because it is very slick, stays where you put it and does not glob up into ugly discolored crusts like other greases tend to do. Crack open a reel lubed with Super Lube after a year of fishing and it will look exactly like it did after you lubed it. But don't use it on drag disks - use a very light coating of a thick sticky cosmoline based drag grease like Shimano ACE2 Drag Grease, Penn Muscle Grease, etc. Some guys use drag grease on the gear teeth too since they undergo lots of stress during fishing. I opt for smoother, faster gears with Super Lube but If I replace a main or pinion gear and have a noise or rough retrieve problem, lubing them with drag grease will often quiet them down while they "wear in".

Well, as you can see, it all depends on whatcha got and how you like to fish. You can do with only a few combos if you don't mind taking the time while fishing to re-rig lures while rotating through the possibilities to find out what is works that day. My boat has slots for 6 rods so that's usually my max rod load. I sit down the night before and decide what may catch fish based on weather, season, and specific fishing knowledge of the lake. Most times one of the 6 will work. Occasionally I'll have to re-rig. I don't fish tournaments so speed is not an issue. But re-rigging rods on the water is not ideal, so in the end it's a question of balance: how much of a hurry are you in? how much junk you want in the boat? and what can you afford?.

The problem with level wind worm gears is they attract dirt as the line is retrieved. One minor pet peeve of mine is that many of the latest reel models have a level wind sleeve that opens forward, toward the incoming line. While the old saw that you "oil bearings grease everything else" is generally true, that doesn't apply to the worm gear because grease will attract dirt faster than a fine oil.

Actually, I much prefer 5 min epoxy. It holds well, and you can still take it off by heating the tip top. I've had too many tips come off in the middle of a fishing day to trust the hot melt stuff.