TourPT

Spro Poppin Frog 7lbs 6oz

Powell

I have been bass fishing for nearly 30 years and up until this year I never had much luck with tubes. This year I got a pack of Vertical Lure Tube X Tubes in a give away. I texas rigged them on a 4/0 Trokar tube hook, 1/4oz Vikes tungsten weight pegged with a 6th Sense Stopper, a Powell 775 flipping rod, Quantum EXO reel, 50lb PP, and absolutely had a blast catching fish on them all threw spring and early summer, pitching and flipping the outer weed edges in both ponds and my favorite lakes. However I did not have much luck with them once summer took full effect, much better luck with the Pit Boss and Rage Craws in the summer, but come spring 2016 you can bet the farm I will have a tube tied on again.

Vertical Lures Tube X

All Terrain Grassmaster Jigs And I guess you can say I am a bit old school for I never hear these mentioned anymore, but I still like and use the Lunker Lure Rattleback series of jigs quite a bit.

Same here, love the Powell Max 735 for frogs, so much so that I bought two more of them as soon as I heard the Max was being discontinued. Please post up a review of the Max 3D 736 once you fish it a bit.

My Fishing Companion Pro seems to be a pretty good log app. I played around with the free version for a couple weeks and liked it enough to purchase for $2.49. Some of the features are • View/Save/Edit your Fish, Gear, Locations and Trips • Attach photos, video and audio clips to your data • Mark fish as Favorites for quick access to your lunkers • Export Fish to CSV (Press menu on Fish list screen) • Organize your Fish by Fishing Trips • Add locations by map, zip code or current GPS location • Lookup Weather for any location in the world • Customizable Units of Measurement • Moon Phases • Share your data with others • Main Dashboard gives quick access to all your latest data • A simple, clean and easy to use interface • Import/Export your data to SDCARD

I have used these jigs for the last few years and have no complaints. They come threw the weeds good, have a half way decent hook and are pretty durable. I am sure there are better grass jigs out there but for the price there pretty good jigs, best in All Terrains line up IMO.

Not sure the model numbers yet but I will be purchasing two new Powell Max 3D rods this year. One for jerkbaits and another for med cranks/rattletraps. This should complete my switching over all my rods to Powell rods, but then again every time I think I have everything covered there is always one more my bass fishing addiction has to buy. LOL

Absolutely love the Max and Endurance rods I own and can not wait to try out the new 3D rods once the ice goes away.

I will second Hootie on the GL3. The GL3 MBR 844C is one of my all time favorite rods, have caught a ton of bass with that rod over the years and its still kicking bass. I have recently switched over to Powell, but the GL3 844C and 783C will be staying in my line up.

Have not fished Mich much but have lived in Northern IL my whole life, 49 years and do fish Wis waters a lot also. For me the darker craw patterns, chartreuse's and chromes colors seem to work best. Square Bill = Craw, shad or Char Black Back. Wis I add perch patterns Traps = Chrome Blue Back works about everywhere. Char Black Back in stained water or any water that also has big Small Mouths and Shush on this one LOL on cloudy rainy days Tequila Sunrise is killer for large mouths Med divers I like the shad or craw patterns, Char colors in stained water, a color Bomber calls Silver Shad I believe its the 6a model I use most, works great in clear water but you may have to do some work to find that color for I do not think they make it in that color anymore. Basically its a shad color with a pink line down the side instead of the char you see in sexy shad patterns. I have 5 left and they only come out during tourney time. Deep Divers, pretty much the same as above but will add solid white or bone org belly and char blue back. Mann's 15 plus in the bone org belly, char, brown crawfish and firetiger have produced many bass for me. Another great lure, The Original Rapala Countdown Minnow in the Silver Color or Perch if fishing Wis. Absolutely deadly. Have not tried the new Scatter Model yet As you can see I am old school when it comes to crankbaits. Bomber, Mann's, Big O, Rattle Trap, Bagley, Poes on occasion, older Rapala's and so forth. If it anent broke don't fix it. I do change the hooks out on all of them though.

Never really used the 735 for anything but Frog fishing, absolutely love the rod for that. This rod has a ton of backbone and the tip is a little stiffer then most frog rods I have used in the past, but once one gets use to that, its the best dang frog rod I have ever used, in fact I bought two more as soon as I heard they where dropping the Max and Endurance line. As for what your looking for though, well I have not done such with this rod but I would think it would work okay for say flipping and pitching 1/4oz Texas rigs, but if your thinking of using such for casting 1/4oz weights, this is not the rod you want. The 723 would be a much better choice for that. With that said the only Endurance I own is the 775 flip. Absolutely love that rod to. I use it to flip and pitch 3/8oz and 1/2oz jigs, cast 1/2oz to 3/4oz football jigs, but I have also thrown 1/4oz Texas rigs on it and it works pretty well for that also. Its not a broomstick like the flipping rods I have used in the past, has the power of such, but the tip has just enough action to allow you to cast, flip or pitch weights down to 1/4oz just fine. If your looking for something with plenty of backbone for flipping and pitching that can also cast 1/4oz Texas rigs, you may want to check this rod out also. By far the best jig rod I have ever owned and a dang good Texas rig rod also.

Black and Rainforest Black have always been my go to but for whatever reason the Nasty Shad color has been the ticket for me so far this year.

Bass of all sizes love the 10" Strike King Rage Anaconda here in Northern IL, even the ones barely bigger then the worm.

Yes I have tried those. There okay but not as good of results. Berkley makes or did make one similar to that grape Culprit, but there is something about the translucent blue that really makes a difference. Everyone use to make that color, even the no name brands and then that color just disappeared. That color just flat out produced around here no matter if I was at a Lake, Pond or River Fishing. Heck I almost got fired over it for the first time I tried it I was on my lunch break and the bass where hammering it so needless to say my lunch break lasted and extra hour and a half. d**n flat tires, sorry boss. LOL

Years ago many companies made a Culprit style ribbon tail worm in a transparent blue firetail similar to the color of this worm that was absolutely deadly on the bass around here. (Note: this is just a sample of the color but not the worm type for its the only photo I could find of the color, make this in the Culprit type 7 1/2 inch ribbon tail and put me down for several bags of them) Please someone bring back this color combo!

Ah Thank You. I believe you are right on the Spinner. As for the Spoon I don;t think it is a Zam but that info put me onto it possibly being a Heddon King Stanley. From Googling the info you gave me it appears neither is worth much of which means I may clean them up, after doing a little more research to make sure, and then fish them a bit to see what they catch. Thanks for the help edfitzvb

Wondering if anyone can tell me what these lures are. There in pretty sad shape, tarnished as you can see, but curious as to what they may be.

I have at one time or the other owned, Oakley, Solar Bat and Wiley X, but I came across this company Guideline a couple years ago and have not looked back. I presently own a pair of there Eclipse ($69.95) in what they call there deep blue six lens (Basically smoke with blue mirror) and a pair of there Draft ($59.95) model in what they call there freestone brown lens and I could not be happier. There light weight, well built, cut the glare of which in return does help see things in the water very well. I can actually see into the pockets withing the weeds very well on some bodies of water I fish, spots I have fished for years and I am constantly noticing something I have not seen before. There not magic but do work just as well if not better then those I listed above IMO. There also priced well below the others I mentioned. Another thing I like about them, being as I have a big head, they fit great and the lens coverage is perfect IMO. Bright days the Deep Blue six is the ticket, low light or site fishing the Freestone are outstanding IMO. As far as clarity goes, I don;t really notice any difference between them and the Oakleys, Solar Bats or Wiley x. I have never tried Costa or glass lens so those may be a whole different ballgame, but for the price these perform as well as the others I mentioned IMO. The one thing that really separates them IMO is there customer service. The very first pair I owned was a interchangeable lens system (Discontinued) and those frames has issues. I must have broke those frames at least four times while changing out the lens. Every time I called, no hassles at all, they would send me out a new frame of which I would have with in a week of the call. They stand behind there products and to me that is a big plus. No issues at all with the two pair I have now, but its nice to know that if there is that they will take care of the problem. Been a while since I have posted, just thought I would chime in with another option in the under 100 bucks that I did not see mentioned. Worth checking out IMO.

I own this rod and several high dollar frog rods and actually its pretty dang good for frogin. You get better guides and such on the higher end rods, but for the price its hard to beat. IMO, I have not weighed it but to me if feels lighter the the certified pro model, not as light as say a Dobyns but nothing that should wear you out. The tip action is a little stiffer then some, but once you get use to it, its really not a problem. The two things I really like about the rod is that it does have the power to yank big bass out of the thickest stuff with no problem. With some of my higher end rods you sometimes get the feeling you may snap the rod in such situations, 5lb bass plus 8lbs of weeds, its never happened to me, but sometimes feels like it could. With this rod I never get that feeling. It pulls them out of the junk with power to spare. The second thing is, and I have no clue why, but for some reason I get real good solid hookups with this rod. Others are good, but if the bass gets that frog this rod is golden, for me anyways. The only two issues I have had is that the ring fell out of the top guide shortly after I got the rod a few years ago but Lamiglas sent me out a new one right away and the butt cap fell off last season of which a little gorilla glue fixed that problem. There are lighter rods with better components out there, but not at that price range IMO, as far as frog rods go. Made in the USA by one of the top manufacturers in the country. I should also note, I have not throw the ribbits and toads on this rod so I can not comment on that but it should work fine. I have a Loomis I prefer to use for those. I bring that up for when I hear frog I think hollow belly but some mean toads.

Xcite baits makes some floaters in different styles from worms to craws and shads and such. Can't say how well they work yet for I just purchased a few bags and we have ice here, but they look like some good baits.

I have had good success with the Garlic on some waters, however like Bobby, Original seems to work the best for me.

10" Rage Andaconda in the Plum Color or The Charlie's Worm 8" Swimming Worm in JW Black Grape Green Red Glitter, are my two go to worms. My favorite use to be a ribbon tail design like the Culprit style worm, in a translucent blue, fire tail, but no one seems to make that style in that color anymore. Heck I can’t even find this color blue or I would get those and dip the tail myself. The bass around here would go crazy for that color back in the late 80's early 90's, and then the color just disappeared from the market. Photo not the worm I am talking about, but the color is dead on.

I mainly use Spro frogs these days but that Scum Frog Popper is one heck of a fish producer. I learned to frog fish with the Scum Frog Popper several years ago and IMO there is no better frog to learn on for it flat out gets the strikes and IMO it is still the best choice for situations when the bass want a smaller profile frog. It lands upside down a lot, is a little harder to cast accurately with do to lack of weight and it does not hold up as well as the Spros IMO, but there is no arguing it is one heck of a fish producer and at $2.99 one can load up a tackle box with these frogs without breaking the bank. As far as hookups go, one thing that I believe really helped me, other then using the right gear for the job, was that I started throwing the frog way before the sun comes up. Dark enough outside that you could not see the frog or the strike. What this did was force me to wait to feel the bass before setting the hook. It takes a bit to get use to and I would recommend doing such on a body of water that you know well, but I honestly believe such has made me a better frog fisherman and has helped to increase my hookup ratio. Fish slow, pop, pop pause and when you feel that fish, drive the hook home. Happy Frogin!!!