Ozark_Basser

I bet the winter gets real nippy down there in Tampa lol. Poppers in winter. Geez.

If you're six foot tall then it probably won't feel too long for you. I like to have a long rod as long as it's practical. A lot of old schoolers use shorter rods and have for years. I guess it's just the way they were brought up. My dad and grandpa are the same way.

I really only throw braid with a fluoro leader on big football jigs and big swimjigs. I definitely would be doing the same on spinning tackle, but I rarely ever use it. I use 50-65lb braid with 12-17lb fluoro leader.

The extra 6 inches will help with a longer cast and easier hookset. I don't know how tall you are, but the extra 6 inches will probably make short accurate casts and skipping baits to targets like docks a bit harder as well. If you fish jigs in deep water a lot with real long casts, I'd go with the longer one. If you go out a lot with your dad or whoever and just troll the banks mostly and stay about 50 ft from the bank I wouldn't bother with the long one. It just depends. I don't use anything less than 7 foot, but I'm 6'3.

I've thought about that before, but have never tried it. I have put suspendots under a wiggle wart bill to make it dive deeper though. Sounds like a good idea to use a slip sinker on a finesse spinnerbait if you didn't have a lighter power rod. Not sure about cranks. I would just go with suspendots on those, but try it out and post some results.

Smallmouth also seem to be more of a sight feeding fish than largemouth. I don't see what the big deal is with small lures and smallmouth bass. I've caught more bigger smallies on larger gaudy lures than anything else. With big floating jerkbaits, largemouth will come up to one and just sort of grab it or try to suck it in a lot of times. I have rarely seen this with smallies. Smallies will swoop up and try to kill it and about jerk the rod out of your hand.

I'd say you'll find some there. One more thing, a jitterbug at night in the summer can be a whole lot of fun. Just watch out for snakes. Oh wait you probably don't have snakes where you live. Lucky you. We have cottonmouths here that love to follow a jitterbug right to where you are standing. We tend to stay out of the water at night and where a headlamp.

What's the deal with all these people saying they like the option of breaking off? I haven't found a hook I couldn't bend to get a bait free from snags with braided line. I'm positive there's one out there, but usually the knot breaks or the hook bends when I have to free baits from snags, even with all the jigs that I fish with. To each his own I guess.

That smallmouth that went a tad over 4 lbs was caught on a black Spro Bronzeye frog. Don't discount the frog on creek bass, especially in the dead of the summer with high skies when creek bass get buried up in shady spots or in heavy cover.

Another thing to mention about creek fishing is stealth. Long casts and being quiet are just as important if not more important than bait or technique. Big bass can be really weary in creeks with such shallow, clear water. My biggest weighed smallmouth out of a creek was just over 4 lbs. Biggest largemouth was probably about 4 lbs, didn't have a scale, but I've caught a whole lot of creek bass between the 3-4 lb range.

All it takes is one good bite with that jerkbait then you're hooked. No wrong way to fish it as long as you jerk it in my experience.

Very true, but I swear that fluoro leader makes a difference sometimes. It's wierd that it doesn't with an A-rig. Maybe the bass doesn't focus as much on the wires and line because of all the baits kicking and causing more of a distraction. Also braid doesn't seem to matter as much on moving baits as it does with jigs and what not. I'm referring to clearer water situations of course.

If that rod truly goes by it's lure weight rating, then it seems like the tip would have to be soft. 1/4-1 1/2 oz? Awfully broad for a rod with a stiff tip it seems. Same broad lure weight rating as a zbone le. I've messed around with one, and they definitely have the tip I'm looking for but a bit pricy.

I was under the same impression. If the tip is like the Dobyns 735c, I probably won't be into it. I've gotten too used to the 7'3 H TFO, and really like it, but I kind of want something a little more balanced and lighter. The tip on that rod is very soft, softer than any other heavy rod I've came across.

Do you have any experience fishing deep water with heavy weights with this rod?

Just researched this rod a bit. Looks awesome. Definitely will consider it

Where they spawn in my situation is in the coves branching out on both sides from the big grassy point where I caught all of my good fish. If they have everything they need outside of a spawning area, why would they go anywhere else? Great point Tom.

I've been fishing a small lake here in central Arkansas since the end of summer. The same thing occurs here as well. On the north and south ends of the lake, there are grass beds that create points. The northern end is where I've caught all of my quality fish and on the south end I've never even had a bite. All I've been able to boil it down to is wind. Where I live the wind generally comes from the south, and in the fall the wind tends to blow a lot harder and it always seems to be blowing. It's hard to say what lies beyond each point though.

Catch some crawfish in the creek and see what color they are. Find some soft plastics that mimic the crawfish in the same range of color or better yet get a sane and catch some of your own to use as bait. Jackal I shad's in green pumpkin rigged on a shakey head reeled slowly on the bottom work really well in the creeks where I used to live also. When the waters warm, I always did really well pumping smaller swimjigs with a twin tail trailer attached. If you have casting gear, a Rebel F30S in Gold/Black rules in the summer in NW Arkansas on the Buffalo National River and Crooked Creek.

Just stay within the lure weight rating and use the slower tapered (more flexible - rated moderate or moderate-fast) rods for treble hooked baits like crankbaits, jerkbaits and topwaters. Use the faster tapered (stiffer - rated fast or ex-fast) rods for single hook or jig hook baits like worms, jigs, and other bottom baits. If all of those rods are rated as fast action rods, use the ducket micro magic for treble hook baits as it has a bit more give than a lot of other fast action rods. For fast moving baits with a single jig hook like spinnerbaits, swimjigs, even swimbaits, I like a softer tip which the duckett has as well.

I do just fine fishing football jigs with rods that have a softer tip than a 734c. I actually land more fish and cast a little bit farther too. I use braid with a fluoro leader so hooksets from way out or way down aren't a problem.

Right on. Good suggestion on the 764.

Just curious, but how would you find the 734c to be overpowered but not the DX784? It seems like the extra length would only allow a 3/4 oz jig to overpower the rod even more being that they are both 4 power rods. Does the DX784 have more backbone?

Good point. Do you own this rod? I had a 734c and found it to be a bit stiff at the tip. I bet the extra 5 inches would give it a little softer tip.

If that fish was sixteen inches or so, then I can definitely say that scale is wrong.