smalljaw67

Go with the 843C, Loomis specs are a little confusing but the numbers are pretty straight forward. I have no experience with the E6X but I know the IMX MBR rods in the 843C and 844C have a big difference. The mag bass tapers are excellent and they are fast actions but there is some nice tip with the 843, the 844 will feel stiffer and I'm more comfortable with a 3/8oz weight with the 844. For me it would be simple, if I'm spending most of my time slinging lures in the 3/8oz to 1/2oz range I'm going with the 843, the only way I'd go to the 844 is if the fishing was going to be in moderate to heavy cover most of the time and I'm not just talking some grass, I'm thinking thick grass and heavy brush. I think the 843 will be more versatile for pond hopping, it will allow you to use a wide selection of baits in a good size range for ponds with the ability to use treble hook baits with much more efficiency than the 844.

The tourney trail is lighter and has a faster action with more backbone.

The Wally Marshall rods are moderate tapers, I have never saw any moderate fast, at least not in the Mr. Crappie branded rods. That said, those rods are designed for crappie, I'm not sure if you ever held one or used it but a moderate crappie rod in a ML is a buggy whip and it may be rated to 1/4oz or maybe 5/16 but let me tell you, at 3/16oz it feels like you have a 1/2oz bait on. I have a 6'6" ML-M that I use for fishing hair jigs under a float and when I get the occasional bass it reminds me that I do not want to use that rod for anything else. The biggest bass I caught on it so far was a 17" largemouth that if I had to guess was just a hair over the 2lb mark and while the rod handled the fish, it took 4 minutes to play it which is a long time for that size fish, and the rod was bent completely in half. Now if you are asking what you can use it for I'd say crappie, bluegill and perch with small cranks and light jigs, if you are thinking to use it for anything other than panfish I'd say don't bother as they aren't a typical medium light. To put it in perspective, I have a G.Loomis bronzeback that is rated 1/8oz to 5/16oz that is a flipping stick compared to my crappie rod, and the bronzeback is considered a light power in that series but closer to a medium light in a bass fishing rod.

If you have the rod use it, then see how it performs for you. It is very hard to gauge something like that from reviews because you don't know if the rod came with a bad guide or if someone hit the guide off the side of the boat or any other problem. You also have to watch for guys that "parrot" reviews, I see this a lot where people will post a bad review of tackle that they don't even own because they "heard" it bad, it happens more than you think. Use the rod and don't have any preconceived notions on how it will work, chances are it will be just fine.

It depends on the crank, weight is a big part as well as the way it is fished. My favorites would have to be the Bagley Honey B, Rapala DT Flat 3 and more recently the Yo-Zuri 3DS Flat Crank.

A friend on mine told me Mark Zona was using a jointed structure head on TV while fishing Falcon lake. Then he tells me he was putting on his own hook, of course the only SK head I know you can do that is the tungsten football head, so is there something new out? I use the Biffle Hard Heads but I'd like to try that structure head only I want to use my own hook at times so any help would be appreciated.

I don't know how crucial rod length is for you but I like rods in the 6'8" to 7' range for my finesse spinning applications. That said, American Legacy still has the G.Loomis Bronzeback 811S-SP on sale for $165.75 which will leave you more than enough for a good reel. With spinning I find the rod is more important than the reel and a good rod with a good mid tier reel would work really well. If you stay with American Legacy you can get a Shimano Ultegra for $150 or a Daiwa Procyon for $108, both solid reels and you'll still be in budget with a killer set up. The rod is 6'9" listed as a light power with a fast action but it is really more of a medium light rated 1/8oz to 5/16oz. I have this rod and it is a perfect all purpose finesse stick, it has a really nice tip, soft enough for drop shot fishing but not so soft that it can't be used for other techniques. I've only used mine twice this season, I was fishing 2.75" tubes on a 1/16oz head and I also was throwing 1/8oz hair jigs with it, the sensitivity is excellent the backbone is impressive, it may be worth checking out if the 6'9" length is ok.

Listen to Smokinal, he summed it up perfectly. A lipless crank or jerkbait is your best bet, tubes and hair jigs work but there are times, especially at that temperature, that the fish are looking at minnow forage higher in the water column because they are thermal shocked so they can't move too well, and that is why a jerkbait works so well. Covering water isn't really a problem with a jerkbait, it is a visual bait and the fish can see and detect it from quite a distance and if you don't have clear enough water the lipless crank will be the better weapon.

Look up Tommy Biffle, he is the one credited with starting the swing jig with the Gene Larew Biffle Hard Head. The technique is to make a long cast with a heavy enough head to keep contact with the bottom as you give a steady retrieve. If you go to you tube there are videos showing the way swing jigs are designed to be fished. *** has a good video with Davey Hite fishing one and explaining that he uses the swing jig as a replacement for the Carolina Rig. While you may be using the swing jig in a different manner that is working for you, I believe you may be missing the boat on how it is most commonly used. A few seasons ago the entire top 12 of the elite series at Toledo bend caught fished that they weighed in on a swing jig, Mark Davis said when the water was dead calm and you couldn't get bit on a crankbait or any other moving bait the swing jig just had them turn on. The fish were scattered so covering water was a key, and that is what makes the swing jig such a weapon, it gets fish to react when they aren't actively chasing like when the water is dead calm. I've been using it in mid summer to cover rock flats and it is faster than a C-rig but still gets fish to react, and much better to fish than a C-rig.

Right now you can go to Cabela's and get him a great set up in your price range. The only change you need to make is the reel size, you'll want a 2000 series reel, it will have a larger spool and has enough line capacity that you can run 10lb line and have more than enough, a 1500 size will hold around 100 yards of 6lb line, a few snags and it won't cast well. The Cabela's Tournament ZX spinning reel in the 2000 size is on sale for $55.99, it is very similar to the Daiwa BG reel and has the same features with an excellent warranty. That will leave you enough to grab a Cabela's Arachnid rod, on sale for $139.99, that will get you right at the $200 price point, the Arachnid rods are really nice, they have Fuji K-frame guides with SiC inserts, normally found on much higer end rods. They have a 6'3" medium power with an extra fast action, in my opinion I don't think you will get a better set up for the money and it should last him a long time as the rod has a lifetime warranty.

I got a 7'ML Avid X and I did so after fishing the regular Avid side by side with the Avid X in the exact same rod. The Avid is a solid rod and I never felt blown away, it was a good rod at the $200 price point, but the Avid X really got me. I could not believe how much more responsive the rod felt with just a different guide train and split grip, the difference was so stark that I had to get in touch with St. Croix to find out if they weren't using a different blank. They told me everything is the same but they did confirm that when they were testing prototypes for the new Avid series that the guide train along with the split grip did have the same consensus among their staff when testing it. I'd say that is micro guides are a deal breaker for guys that like to use braid with a leader, that would be the only con, as I said, I fished both rods in the same length, power, and action using the same line and lure side by side and there was a noticeable difference in the way the rod handled and the feel, they didn't feel like they were even close to being the same blank.

Shaky head and swing jig are two totally different presentations, one is retrieved like a crankbait while the other is fished slow. Form me a Shaky head consists of 2 baits, a 4.5" straight tail finesse worm and a 6" straight tail finesse worm, I once used a lot of different baits for that but narrowed it down as those seem to produce in all situations for me. In the waters I fish I don't go past 20' except for 1 lake and only in mid fall, the times the shaky head works best for me is in the summer and the fall, beginning post spawn. I try to use the lightest weight possible, 1/8oz is my main weight but I will use 3/16 if there is a breeze or 1/16oz if the water is cold or I'm shallower than 8'.

The X-Rap is one of those baits you can use all year long. It has a very aggressive action but it suspends well and can be used with a slow pull and pause that makes for a great cold water bait.

Team9nine is correct. they are offset shank worm hooks sometimes called "J" style hooks. I use that type for regular worms like the Basstrix Locomotion and the Mann's Jelly worm. When you hear offset the hook can offset left or right or the shank can be offset but I've never heard of an offset hook that the point isn't in-line with the eye, that would make most hooks offset. There are 2 main styles like what you have pictured, you have the "J" style and then you have what is called a "Sproat" or "Southern Sproat", and that is just an O'Shaughnessy bend at the bottom of the hook.

This is something that is trial and error and you may really never know what made the fish bite.

I don't use jerkbaits with less than 2' of visibility because there are better options. That said, for water temps under 60 degrees I like suspending baits and for someone not familiar with jerkbaits I would not spend on high end models but focus instead on good proven baits. Here is what will work for you, the Elite 8 Suspending rattling rogue, Chrome/black back orange belly for large mouth and clown for smallmouth. After that I'd get an X-Rap in the size 8 and 10 in the silver color, that will cover both species, and then for warmer water go with a Rapala Shadow Rap Shad, and a floating Smithwick Rattlin' Rogue, go with tiger minnow for largemouth and clow for smallmouth in the rogue and the shadow rap shad albino shiner does great for both species.

I have a Hammer rod that has Winn Grips and I have to tell you, they are extremely comfortable and provide great grip. So far I haven't heard anything really negative on the regular Winn Grips but I have heard that the wraps have had some issues.

Here is a picture of mine, very easy. The skirt is green pumpkin barbed wire with some pearl on the bottom. I used the barbed wire pattern instead of using black for the lateral line look, it makes it simple but you still have the black in there.

I fish the Susquehanna River a lot, natural colors work best with cranks when the river has at least 2' of visibility. If you can find some of the old Xcalibur XCS 100 and 200 square bills in the "real Craw" series, grab them, they are magnets for bigger smallmouth in the summer.

I'm in the same boat as you my friend!!!! The last time I counted I had 211 jerkbaits and I've probably bought at least 30 or more since then, but I just can't help myself.

I think every lure manufacturer has a different version of the "shad" color but Tennessee Shad is slightly different. The 2 main differences with Tennessee Shad from other shad patterns is it tends to have either a red throat area or orange belly and the back color is usually gray and it extends down the sides further. That said, Tennessee Shad, Bluegill, and Perch patterns are natural colors that work well in stained or off color water.

My favorite lipless bait overall is the Xcalibur One Knocker but for rivers it is the Sebile Flatt Shad, it just seems to work better in moving water than most other baits.

When it comes to polycarbonate lenses, the optical quality between expensive pairs and cheap ones are stark. The difference between an expensive pair and a mid price pair is not going to be noticeable unless you have 20/20 vision and even then it isn't a lot. Now when you get to expensive glasses, they usually have the option of glass lenses, that is where the optical quality really comes out, there isn't any better than Costas or Maui Jims with glass lenses. The problem with glass lenses when fishing is they get heavy on your face and no matter how comfortable you will get some irritation from the nose bridge and ear pieces. I had Maui Jim glass lenses, awesome glasses with the best optical quality but after 4 hours of fishing in hot sun the weight would make them uncomfortable to the point I went back to the $50-$60 dollar market as it wasn't worth paying top dollar for polycarbonate lenses. The difference between the cheap poly lenses are the better ones are ANSI rated and scratch resistant, you get to that point around $40 or so and then the higher up you go the better the frame material and better rated the lenses are.

I have 3 that I use in rotation and all have a time and place. The Rapala DT-10, Bomber 7A, and the Bomber Fat Free Shad BD5.

That technique isn't really good for Florida, it is more of a Midwest (hence the name) and Northern technique for clear water.