Hooligan

I like the Flit a lot. It's a super bait for semi-aggressive fish. The 120 is a solid 6' bait, that casts very, very well.

The best of the best for what they do.

There is a bait called Eagle Tail that any Muskie fisherman will be reasonably familiar with. The Little Eagle and Buchertail 700 account for HUGE numbers, and some huge fish, every year for us on several lakes up north. When Smalljaws leave the reefs and start poking at baitfish schools like cisco and whitefish, you can absolutely dominate fish with these baits. I've caught an awful lot of smallies on them. What is awesome about these two in particular is that they are single siwash hook baits. Really superb baits. The same can be said for Mepps and Harassers and the like can be really, really effective for largemouth at certain times. I really like them working deep weedlines in mid summer, and they can be super just post spawn. They're also really excellent around docks at certain times. #5 Mepps is what I caught my first fish over 6lbs on, and I've caught a number of fish over 10 on them when they're chasing big schools of shad.

Fished right, there are situations that the scatter rap WILL outfish almost any other bait. It's all about situation and location. I've done very well on the scatter raps.

Nope. Doesn't work. Mike's just blowing smoke to sell jigheads. Pay no attention to that theory at all. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Not to argue with you, but even Dean Rojas says he's about 35% strike to land ratio on frogs. Ish says he's sub 40%. Equipment wise, that's not an issue, either. I fish SPRO and Swamp Donkey's and Bobby's Perfect frog, 50lb braid or 25lb CXX in open water, Crucial, Cumara, and Loomis sticks. It's not an equipment issue at all. (These are some of the best Everstart and FLW guys in the Midwest, too. Including one that's been invited to fish FLW tour three times, and declined, in order to stay closer to home...but I digress.) I find a large disparity in numbers here. I've fished with guys that are well rounded with frogs, including a couple of the best in the business, and some of the experience I have comes from them. Some of the numbers come from them. I had a guy in TX fishing with me that is an extremely well known junkman that caught well under 1 in 5 strike to land.

I'm not going to challenge you on an 80% hookup rate, but that's pretty incredible. It isn't about controlling emotions or waiting for the rod to load for me, it's not about waiting to set the hook, or setting the hook sooner, either. I've just seen so many fish, not only me but the guys I fish with and against, come unpinned mid-retrieve. I would venture that overall, the best frog guys I know are at about 30-35% landed to strike ratio, if it's even that good. I say it's boring because it just isn't the most productive technique, I don't fish for strikes. I fish for landed fish. I Co-anglered for a gy last year that was frogging and he lost close to 90% of his fish just because of the way they were striking. I caught almost every one of those fish behind him on a swimjig or a senko. I don't understand the attraction of it, I guess. Then again, I'm not all that enthusiastic about topwater on the whole. Most of the time, there are techniques that will catch better quality fish in the same area as fish that are hititng topwater baits. There are, of course, exceptions like spawn and post spawn when big females will smash a Shell Cracker or a Wakebait. Anyhow, that's the way I see it. I just don't get the love of frogs.

#1 Why a hollowbody frog? Explain it to me. I don't get the attraction of it at all. I mean, I've caught some big frog fish, but Lord is it boring to me. #2 Honest to goodness hookup rates. I'm curious. I know what mine is, I know what the vast majority of very good frog fishermen consider their optimum catch rate. What's yours?

Serious response- I can't do it. It's entirely too limited. There's no possible way I'm going to limit myself to just five lures to use. Five Categories, maybe- jerkbait Jig Big Spinnerbait Squarebill Plastics- Senko, Finesse Worm, Ringers, the like.

Hot pink Backwards Buzz High Roller Rip Roller in Alabaster Slammer Jerky J's Joint Jigger 1/8 Ounce Hotflash Spinnerbait with a #12 Black Nickle Supermag Indiana Blade 16" Hooktail worm in Bubblegum over red with Chart flake.

I fish the 6XD and big LCs on a Crucial Swimbait 7-11 most of the time. There are rods out there that are geared towards those giant cranks, but most are swimbait blank based.

Lynn burned some bridges with BPS when he left. That's all it boils down to, really.

I think the image is reversed, which is what makes it look LH. (Joking) I've been told the reel is made in Japan as well. Different handle and bearing upgrdaes over the curado.

T Rig, Weightless, C-Rig, Mojo, Dropshot, Splitshot, drag em, hop em, crawl em, bump em. There's no wrong way to fish a Rage craw. It's not the only bait out there, but it's a good one.

I can't wait to get my mitts on one. I don't have a huge JDM assortment, in fact I think it's limited to 9 reels. These, however, are supposed to be the bees knees.

It's colloqiual. They've been forever called jerkbaits in some parts of the US. In others they're twitch baits, in others, minnow baits. For me, it doesn't matter whether they're suspending, floating, or sinking, they all fall in the class of jerkbaits. I generally have at least three boxes worth in the boat from ice out to ice up.

Genuinely, it's a common misconception. Some will term it as being to semantics, but it isn't. It's purely the physics of the rods.

That rod, technically, is built around fishing swim jigs. It's not ideal for spinnerbaits and the like, it's just too fast. It's a great jig rod up to 1/2 ounce. I prefer my plastics rods a little slower than that specific rod, but it will work for that, as well.

I'll disagree only on the very last statement. Typically, parabolic rods are NOT glass. Truly parabolic rods are most often graphite because of how specifically they can get the blank to strain in certain portions of the blank. Glass is nearly impossible to manipulate in that manner without additional materials aiding in the process. Also, it doesn't mean that the entire blank flexes, a parabola is a bend at a specific point creating a curve with the two sides of equal length.

Structure fishing. Whether with plastics, or chunk'n, or with dropshot. I love picking structure apart with a spinnerbait, but will do it however I need to.

BAH! I was looking for a post I'd made some time ago explaining the reason we choose the rods we do, and why we prefer one over the other. It's not always an easy thing to delineate but, there really are reasons there. Starting out, power- The power of the rod is what determines what that rod is capable of lifting, if you will. That plays out more in the presentation aspect than any other, for starters. Look at the baits that you're going to be throwing the most, and use the cover that you're going to be in to make an informed decision. A lite power rod, in most instances is not suitable for bass fishing to any degree. It just isn't. There are guys that will argue how much fun it is to go out and play with fish on an ultralite rod- just don't. It's bad for the fish and completely unnecessary. Generally Medium-lite power is where you're going to start with bass fishing, and that's usually very specific instances. Dropshot, small cranks and topwaters- almost always in relativly open water. Not a cover rod. Medium rods are a little more versatile, whether for cranking, for fishing plastics and jigs, or about any circumstance that you're going to be presenting the lighter end of the general bass fishing spectrum. A MH rod is a general purpose all around stick. It's a rod that will handle about 99% of what you're going to do in medium cover to even heavy cover. Are you seeing where this goes? As you go up in power, lure weight and cover goes up. yes, there are instances that it is variable, but the truth usually remains the same in terms of what you're going to be doing with rods. Actions of a rod- based entirely on the blank of the rod; more specifically, the taper of the blank. It has nothing to do with the "tip" of the rod, the butt, or any other part alone. It is the entire blank of the rod. Moderate rods are generally crankbait rods, or treble hook baits, lets say. Jig rods, are usually much, much faster and bend less into the blank. Think of the action of the rod as being the "Speed" of the rod: the faster the rod moves from a bent position to being completely motionless the faster it is. The longer it takes to remain motionless, the slower. Slower rods are more adept for treble hook baits. Single hooks require a rod that is both more powerful and faster in order to generate penetration of the hook. What rods do you want for startes? A 7' MH fast is a great all around rod to start with. A 7' MH moderate is a great starter crankbait rod. Either of those rods will fish a spinnerbait adequately.

Power- How heavy, or what weight it can handle. Action- the taper of the blank. The faster the taper, the stiffer the flex of the rod comparative to the power. More progressive tapers are generally noted as slower rods.

Huh. I've fished it extensively had nothing but terrible results. The bait has zero action other than the curl of the tentacles. It is very dead in the water. The appendages don't move at all on a hop, I think in all the fishing I've done with it I caught one green fish. I can think of ten baits I would throw before it. I really wanted to like the thing and have it be successful, but it was not to be.

Love it. Has taken numerous double digit fish for me, as well as countless 3-5 pound fish throughout the midwest.

I'd have been boned a long time ago on that one. I would say that neary 100% of what I buy to fish, I will actually fish. I buy a lot of collector stuff, though, too. There is probably 10 or 15 baits that I own that I haven't fished- that were bought that way. Plastics are the same. If I could buy Rage Craws by the thousand, I would. I buy most of my plastics in bulk, and will go through them often enough to justify it.