Cgolf

River - Ned or Crawbug Lake - Rage Menace or lipless or spinnerbait - depends on which lake I am targeting.

Also could be the material change fixed the issue they were having back then with the Mojos as well. I love my St Croix rods, that guy just made it so I would likely never get a mojo other than the heavy duty one I picked up that day along with an Avid. They really have a lot of options in that 150 to 210 range now. I do think they are starting to phase out the Premier line though, unless the pandemic got them behind. I would love to pick up a spare MH moderate just in case, but the options are way more limited than in the past in the premier line.

I will always go with the premier series because they are made here in WI, at least the last I heard they were. When I was at the factory maybe 8ish years ago, the person helping me said to go with a rod made in WI vs the mojos which they outsource the build. I was told the WI built rods had less issues than the mojos. I have a premier MH moderate that is probably my favorite all around stick. I know a lot of folks on here use the Mojos and like them, but based on what I was told I will always stay away from them, except for the swimbait rod I have which doubles as a light musky rod. They told me the heavier action rods were good to go. Worded this carefully since they are a site sponsor and honestly St. Croix and Dobyns will likely be the only two rod makers getting my orders in the future because I really like both brands.

For me I can be in a horrible mood and once I am on the water that bad mood is shifted to the background. There is something about fishing and being out in nature that just chills me out. I guess it is my happy place. A fifteen minute trip to the river can set my day on the right path even if I wake up mad at the world, usually for really dumb reasons like I forgot to do something the day before.

One pf the new spinnerbaits I setup on a 1/2 ounce Barlows frame. It got me a river pike this year and yesterday on the lake I had 4 pike and a legal walleye on it. I had one big hit that felt like a bass and a few other hits a well. With all the wide willows it probably needs a trailer hook. I really like the wide willows. It is really satisfying to have a good day on something I made. The bass will come, this lake has a very healthy pike population lol. I did get a small bass on a whopper plopper.

I think it differs for everyone. My index finger is better trained than my thumb so I am more accurate with a spinning rod. Especially on mid range pitches to reeds or other vertical cover. With the spinning rod I also don’t need to worry about backlashes in these scenarios, as the softer lazier casts are the most difficult for me with a baitcaster, but it doesn’t stop me from doing it of course. Trip out today though is 4 baitcasters and 1 spinning rod. The spinning rod will be for plastics only on this lake. It is structure less for the most part so a lot of fan casting cranks and spinnerbaits.

Once I upsized the lead willow to a 3 instead of a 2 I had no issues. I learned I couldn't read the Jann's netcraft spinner bait making table. I read the small blade suggested limit from the 1/8 ounce line and the suggested large blade from the 1/4 ounce line. That took talent on my part;)

Went with roller swivels on the 1/4 ounce baits because Barlows didn't have smaller ball bearing swivels, so grabbed their roller swivels. The trail blades do spin fairly well and I believe Hummdinger, my number 2 go to spin, uses them as well. None of the above makes it right, but I could only order from one place so I went with what they had. If I find some smaller ones in the future I will swap them out. Just wish there was a source of cheap ball bearing swivels. I would even buy semi reasonable quantities if they were out there. They are ridiculous in cost to the point it is almost cheaper to buy premade spins, just not as fun.

For the 1/4 ounce and 3/16 ounce spider heads I have been using medium moderate rods for years. Some ugly sticks on the river and on the lake to now Dobyns Sierra medium fast which does have a softer tip than most fast rods in other brands. I have thrown them on medium light rods too. If I had to pick a favorite it is my M 6’9” Dobyns Sierra. I have been using these forever and they really stick the fish. 10 lb fireline on the reels and due to peer pressure a 10 lb flouro leader.

So for those that are getting into this, the main question I have is how do you achieve a perfectly vertical drop if fishing with something like a Ned rig? I fish a lot of vertical cover and need the bait to land under where the cast hit the water and my experience with baitcasters is the spool drag causes the bait to pendulum a bit away from the target. also what action rods are you looking at, as I have a soft tipped medium ugly stick that fishes lighter than most mediums I have. Also what weight jigs do you toss with it. My quick research says up to 1/4 ounce lures, which I toss 1/4 ounce cranks a lot on BCs, I do know a bandit 100 isn’t a finesse bait. my guess is the vertical cover is going to rule out BFS because the rod won’t have enough backbone to keep the big ones from wrapping me around a reed. You can watch the big fish attempt and many times succeed at doing this.

Alumacraft

I agree with all you wrote and want to say that an easy way for people to learn to limit backlashes with a baitcaster is actually with a fly rod. The fly rod taught me all about cadence and how to generate a smooth casting move to get maximum distance. The false casts hammer this home. When casting with my baitcasters I will do a micro backcast to load the rod and then smoothly accelerate to produce a nice cast. A roll cast essentially does the same thing. Even a snap cast can be done smoothly, but those are the riskiest casts for me to backlash. The only times I seem to backlash now is when the rod isn’t properly loaded.

I believe you, I think it’s just something I thought was normal because from the underspins to the spinning rods that was all I used and my normal when I first started. The first time I used a standard spin cast rod it was super awkward for me to hold the rod and reel. Now I like both styles, but on the river the spinning rod does pretty much does everything for me.

I never noticed this with a spinning rod. Depending on the rod angle during the retrieve I either set the hook to the side, vertical, or somewhere in between. I have never thought about it, or felt anything unnatural. I still fish an heavy ugly stick a lot on the river. The only time I had issues with a spinning rod was when I had a right wrist injury. I will say using my one left handed baitcast reel, I also had issues holding the rod with my right hand, but it was slightly better since I really didn't have to flex the wrist on the hookset.

No, but my success rate personally skyrocketed when I used only the reel to move the baits with a biatcaster or a spinning rod. This included baits like the 6th sense hyper jerk worked as fast as I could with my Lews crush baitcaster. Now I only us spinning rods for smaller jerks, even though I started with the spinning rod for all sizes of jerks. I am really temtped to give it a go again with baits other than the shadow raps I threw on the spinning rod.

When fishing with another in the boat the max I can carry is 7, and one is a musky rod. When out alone I may up it to 8 or 10. Some are dedicated rods, (swim jig, chatter bait, 2 spinnerbait, jerkbait, cranks, etc) so I pick and choose what I carry each trip out depending on which cover/structure I plan on targeting that trip. That said I could get away with a medium spinning, medium heavy baitcaster, and a musky rod and cover all my bases. The musky rod actually works well for the larger deep divers.

Just started listening to his YouTube channel today and one was about the only three rods you need to carry. I was encouraged that my choices were similar. What got me was he talked about using a spinning rod for jerkbaits and even light cranks. I started fishing jerkbaits on a spinning rod and had a decent hookup ratio. When I switched to baitcasters I struggled sealing the deal with those combos. He at least made me feel normal with my of a spinning rod. I do also regularly fish cranks as well as spinnerbaits on a spinning rod too. I wonder if it comes down to what you are used to. My earliest rod was an underspins and then I moved on to spinning combos. I probably didn’t get serious into baitcasters until midway through my fishing journey. So I probably just have a comfort level with spinning rods that may never be replaced. That said on vaca I take 4 spinning rods and like 8 baitcasters with me.

I think it is just the material of the rod. I assume the Ugly GX2s are still fiberglass. It is surprisingly not bad and being very short a nice kayak rod. The guide raps on it are 3 individual lines. It is nicer looking than many of my rods but ultimately I don’t buy them for looks. I own two of the baby blue Clunn rods which really proves that out. Off topic but as I write this I really seem to like glass rods, I may need to try a St Croix or Dobyns glass rod someday.

So this was a simple wrap on an Ugly GX2 which really doesn’t count of course because well it’s on a mass produced rod. Not sure which way to take your answer because reading my post back I worded the question horribly. If ugly could do that on a cheap rod others could do a little something more on a rod we pay 3x to 10x for.

So is this to simple of a decorative wrap? It is off a rod I have purchased in the last 6 years. I will go look at a rod that was passed on from my grandpa years ago. I think some old Zebcos I had back in the day didn’t look half bad.

Well old reliable got me for a Black Friday order, and my card took a hit. Then after they made appeared to make changes on the checkout side I stocked up on plastics during the 25 days sale and the wife’s card took a hit. I had already started to spread my money around, and now it will take them being the only store to have an item to place an order. Also their pricing at some point changed to be more inline with BPS on a fair amount of items. Will be interesting to see how they rebound. Being a loyal customer since 2014 I am a little disappointed, but are bank account is happier now. I just wish they would have said something other than the email that was sent out, unless they were told not too by lawyers. Seeing Scheels being mentioned, they turned around my spinning reel order super fast, very impressed with order number one.

Well I am done saying this is the last order lol. Got my small Jades Jigs Memorial Day sale. Looking forward to finally trying out the Neko rig. Also trying out some of the weedless Ned heads. Went with the 1/4 ounce because I will be fishing in windy conditions targeting reed bed fish.

I just realized for a week long fishing trip I will have 2 full blade krate boxes with a mix of mostly 1/4, 3/16, and 5/16 oz spins and a plano edge jig box with my homemade baits for over 100 spins in the boat! The non homemade are mostly war eagles some hummdingers, Nichols 33 minis, Strike Kings, and two from Allen. I am still versitile on the water throwing other baits a lot as well, but will always have a 2 rods rigged for spins, one a lighter bait and the other one a heavier bait (1/2 ounceish). I even catch keeper walleye as well when out fishing with spins. This thread is rough though as the bait monkey will now have gotten me as I need to try the Stanley spinnerbaits next year. I don't believe the wife will let me order anymore fishing gear for this season.

I use spinnerbaits a lot because they catch fish. One thing I have found is that lighter wire baits like a war eagle, get bit more often than say a SK bleeding bait spin that was my go to prior to finding the WEs. I have also found that unique blade combos like wide willows get bit too. It seems that the bass just want to see something different vs what is standard off the shelf that everyone tosses. I started to make my own now with wire frames from Barlows and it is a lot of fun. I personally never use a trailer or a trailer hook. I do trim the skirt to be even with the furthest back part of the hook and this increased my hookup rate a lot. I have started to experiment with trailers, will see if it adds anything special or if I go back to not using one. As far as retrieve it is pretty much straight in just varying speeds cast to cast dialing in what they want. Sometimes a pause or slowing down during the retrieve will trigger a fish. I use the reel to alter depth, I don't move the rod at all to add action.

Got my slider restock, and some multi species spoons and some spinnerbait beads on our trip this weekend on the great river road.