LApanic

The cover/veg isn't super thick, at it's thickest in the summer...Lake Seminole, so it's a grass everywhere lake. Again pad fields, submergent to barely topped out Hydrilla and millfoil at it's thickest. I genrally throw a 3/8oz swim jig in the grass and 1/2oz on high speed reel in the pads. I tend to reel to quick sometimes with moving baits, so I opt for the 1/2oz spinnerbait over the 3/8 90% of the time. Im looking for something that's isn't so heavy to pulse/twitch the jig swimming and not wear me out as well lol. thanks for the input, I'll def put that on my list to look at

$150 bucks? Im hunting more of a swimjig specific, maybe 80/20 action, rod for swimming a jig. I'd be fishing a good amount of vegitation like hydrilla, pad/pad stems, etc but feel my current rod I use is to short (6'10") and too heavy. IDEALLY....I'd love to find good rod, with the power and action, to also frog and toss a spinnerbait, but still be a solid swim jig rod. Any help is greatly appreciated...TIA and tight lines

Thanks for the link....bookmarked!

I'm seriously looking into starting to do my own work, starting with replacing broken guides and then building my own. My local tackle store with fixing rods/replacing guides and unfortunately there is no one within 100 mile radius of me that does. I'm a local tournament angler that's a member of a club and fishes pot trails as well, so not only would I be scratching my own ***** but could be of value as a side business to the local fishermen in my area for repairs and maybe eventually custom rods. I've been researching and looking at starter kits on mudhole.com and before I pull the trigger on the $150 freshwater starter kit, id appreciate ANY advice, thoughts, etc from the rod building community here! Thanks in advance for any advice/info!

If your willing to travel as far as G'ville, but want to do a afternoon, I'd suggest the Coosa Chain. I live in Dothan and fish a local club that travels to Lake Mitchell, Lay Lake and this past March on Logan Martin. Big ole spotted bass w/ Good Largemouth as well. Easy access from Bham, south on 65 and your first Clanton exit, go east about 18-20miles and "Beeswax Landing" (Columbiana, AL) is the best ramps and creek IMO (and KVD and others) to fish in especially spring. 40-50miles east on the same Clanton exit is the best ramps/rentals/rv at Lake Logan Martin (Pell City, AL). Again if your going south the 2nd Clanton exit (Shoney's Inn & Loves), take that east for 10-15 miles is Lake Mitchell (Clanton, AL)...is my favorite of the the coosa chain...all 3 have a lot to offer and one turn off the interstate, 45min south of Bham. As far as boat rentals and marinas, the only one that im "familiar" with is Mitchell's Point on Mitchell. Again, we always stay at the Shoneys Inn when were fishing either Mitchell or Lay and at The Big Bull (70's roadside motel turned fish camp...HIGHLY RECOMMEND!) at Logan-Martin

ummmm. Pearl Melon, 3rd fav behind rayburn and chrome/black

Yep, Yep! "I knew it, I knew it" ~takahiro omori lol The inflated price of online Xclaibur Rayburn Red One-knockers in going down by the minute. It's funny how, it starts as "RAYBURN IS GONE...FOREVER" and the demand shoots through the roof, and bam, nothing changes but the label that Pradco puts on the box.

I think the durability, sizes and fishablity is what set Xcalibur rattle baits high in a lot of people's lists. Same way with the zell pop, the little things, like the subtle chartreuse belly with just enough sparkle/glitter just in the belly area. That's just good stuff IMHO. My biggest concern is that pradco is restructuring baits/brands as a race to the bottom to turn better profits. I know "new to the market" baits and color variations keep us fisherman hungry to try the latest, so that's another reason for restructuring to boost marketing and sales....BUT I think that off all the reasons I choice Xcalibur over red eyes aruku, 6th sense ****** or Yozuri Vibe rattle baits....a couple will be non exsistent with Booyah branding because of cost cutting (durability and colors mainly) Having 3 sizes is def a plus considering the alot of the alternatives have either just 1/2 or 5/8s. Here's my thoughts on XCALIBUR RAYBURN RED... 1st, the color "Rayburn Red" is also used on a Rat-L-Trap and a CC Super Spot, yet all three patterns are no where close to being the same. 2nd, It'd be crazy to think that Pradco/Booyah isn't going to release a simliar or close variant of Rayburn Red. There will be a craw for sure and they'd have to be under a rock not to see that that pattern is probably one of there best sellers if not THE best seller and the recent spike of $20+ for a Rayburn Red One Knocker is a dead giveaway to match as close as possible. Lastly, to sum up it all up, IMHO...the Rayburn Red "pattern" is probably not going away, just the name.

Here's the leaks/info, just found some...from the bassblaster again! 1. BOOYAH adds Knockers. > Formerly known as the XCalibur One Knocker and Rattle Bait, these two lures received a makeover prior to joining the BOOYAH family…. > The One Knocker is the proven XCalibur bait with a new look. It features a single tungsten rattle in a sound-intensifying chamber. …the “thump” of the single tungsten rattle allows the One Knocker to stand out and above the rest. > The Hard Knocker…updated with incredible color patterns. The bait still produces like it did, only better. > New color patterns were designed by some of the best anglers in the world, including Terry Scroggins, Jason Christie and Alton Jones. Both [baits] are available in three sizes (1/4-, 1/2-, and 3/4-oz) and eight color patterns. Boss Pop The new Boss Pop has an egg-shaped face that’s less deep than other chuggers to allow it to skitter across the surface like a panicked baitfish but still chug and spit. Available in two sizes, 2-5/16″ (1/4-oz) and 2-3/4″ (3/8-oz) and eight colors.

From an ad on the Bassblaster Daily email. If you click the image it takes you to booyahbaits.com but the literally have 5 lures that they've had forever on the site...thats all. iCast leaks, coverage will tell all!

Yep, It was stiffer than the Smoke, but it just didn't feel right!? The cork but was a turn of for me....because I've got a "nails on a chalkboard" deal with cork and dry hands or dryied out cork in general. All my rods are either EVA, wrapped in rod wrap or grip shrinking tubing from mudhole...just the way I roll, lol Have you fish the Concept reels?

I had that exact 13 rod and traded for the Smoke HVY....Didn't like the butt, but overall it was a great rod, not as light as the smoke but good!

What rod do you use for froggin with recoils? I'd like to get into recoil guides especially if I can get em and replace with stock guides. Currently using a 7'4" Smoke HVY. I have mixed feelings on micro-guides for frogging, but work fine till I invest in a Frog specific rod, like the new duckett frog specific Frog rod suggestions welcomed!

I think it is important the keep the whole spool, including backing because if make a long frog cast..40-50yds on a Tatula TypeR, im not far away from my backing. So I want backing tight so it doesn't gradually loosen on the spool with the retrive I use on my frog. I'm sold on everything Sunline...I think it's the best all around line company...period. So FX2 and Smackdown, which Smackdown sounds like the one I'll like, are going on the TW shopping cart to find my fav. Being 832 is a "sinking" braid, its not for me even though I haven't used any and have a spool.

tips from A-A-ron "mad scientest" Martin https://youtu.be/_uej2vVjqWs But Aaron..what if you dont have fingernails...haha

So I finally, after 4 years of fishing 65# braid bought a spool of Suffix 832 instead of the ole Original PowerPro. Power Pro has always been good to me, but now the advancement in lines these day, can cut down on a few minor annoyances I have with Power Pro.... 1st, Line Dig in spool...even on 10, 30 & 50, power pro sees to hang on occasion when casting due to line digging 2nd, Color fade, Im a green moss guy and always will be. I use Reel butter line conditioner and when I do fish braid, its frogging matts, slop and pads so all lines will fade, just seems a little quick with PP. Last but not least! Noise, PP Super Slick is not bad at all, but its still p0wer pro and has the line dig and fade, just not as much. I fish 3-4 differnt lakes with differnt quality throughout the year, and feel comfortable with 90% flourocarbon, so use SL Sniper all the way up to 25# for flipping wood and docks, beside SL Senshi mono for topwater, frogging and the occasional punch/flip into heavy vegetation. Suggestions, thoughts, go to he11, lol. Discuss

That's cute, should've been a comedian. Probably better at that than fishing

Thanks for the tips on separating terminal tackle applications into smaller boxes. Been a co-angler for 5-6 years now so I've learned, hard way or not, just about everything else mentioned. Im anal about rod sleeves and debated on a Plano rod bag, but the BPS velcro rod straps work just fine for me.

Between, 2/0-5/0 WideGap hooks, 3/0-6/0 EWGs, 6-7 different tungsten weight variations, split rings, snaps, beads, brass c-rig weights and clackers, various dropshot, shaky head, swimbait jig heads and probably a dozen or more other items I can't recall off the top of my head, I've gotta get a good handle on all that Im a non-boater in a local club and have tried a couple methods to keep terminal tackle organized. I started out with the Plano 45-501 Hook & Sinker box and for the most part worked pretty good, except the fact that I outgrew it for the most part. Then I tried using smaller waterproof planos separated by hooks, weights, etc, and then a couple lock plastics closures broke. Most recently I've placed each different item into various size jewelry plastics zips and used a deep plano to hold all the packaging. I've never liked the idea of keeping terminal in its original packaging, mainly due to space, and the different package sizes. So, being a co-angler, my next thought is a Bass Mafia Bait Coffin 3700 but would love to hear any tips/tricks systems that other anglers use to get there terminal tackle around and organized. Anything would be greatly appreciated.

We placed 3rd with 39.45 (5 fish/person 2)...1st had 47lbs. Everyone caught fish tough with a handful getting on schools with bigger fish. 4.71 was the biggest spot and a 5.26 largemouth the first day. The lake is 5.5'-6' down and 2-3 ft lower than usual so be careful! We caught them on main lake shallow bars, long visible points with chunk rock. Conditions: Overcast Saturday w/ 5-7mph winds and overcast/light to heavy rain w/ 4-8mph winds early..... water temp: 60-62 deg main lake southern points......visibility was 2-4 ft at our southernmost point about .5 from dam. Pockets 1-2 ft visibility...but current was key for us. It was right place right time deal..We left em biting at our main spot we found late saturday but the big ones showed up Sunday morning till for less than two hours but we had 15+ lbs each in less than an 1 hour on a super spook jr. > SK KVD 200s jerkbait, glimmer shad > a rig w/ Yamato glimmer pearl 2.5" grubs dipped tail > shad 3-5ft square bills The 3-5 pund bass came early at daybreak on a slow walking spook.....hit it on the pause

576 .25" dips! JK bud. I keep clear, chartreuse and methyolate. Clear runs out quicker because I dumk that plastic pretty deep. Chartreuse will last a good bit longer than SpikeIt mainly because JJs don't need nearly as much application and the scent last longer. Also it's a bigger bottle than spike it I think. And methyolate Ive got a half of bottle left and bought it 2-3 years ago. Just use it mainly in Prespawn to give green pumpkin that red craw accent