Cgolf

I have 2 for Musky that are great and I throw big swimbaits for musky on them sometimes catching the occasional bass with them.

Jade Jigs has a 20% off sale starting at Midnight ending Monday. No code needed discount applied at checkout. Of special interest to some they now have environmentally friendly Neko style weights. I haven’t tried them, but it sounds like they recommend gluing them with Zman baits.

I haven't used the EWG neds for Ned rig fishing, but do regularly use non Zman plastics on Ned heads. I would think that since these baits stick well in other scenarios for me, slider head or or a standard worm hook I think you would be fine. When I did fish the Zman stuff a lot I was unimpressed by the TRDs, they seemed to tear alot and it seemed they were a slightly different plastic formulation than the Zinzerz, and they didn't last as long for me. I am guessing that you may have better luck with the cutting the Zinkerz in half and trying those. IMHO the 1/2 Zinkerz is a far superior bait to the TRD. I also feel they have more action, the TRDs are a bit stiff. Stretching the Zinkerz and letting them soak in a jar overnight or longer also makes them softer, especially since it dissolves the salt quicker.

For whatever reason the slider spider head 2/0 light wire hook not EWG, comes through rocks pretty good.I do use a snap which probably helps the bait pivot on the rocks maybe even standing the crawbug up, I can dream lol. I do think the snap does protect the knot though as they have gotten out of a lot of rock snags with no damage to the line. It did take a lot of trial and error to figure this out along with donations to the river gods. I have used 1/8 ounce jigs as well with some success depending on the shape of the head. I just really settled on the 1/16 to fall inline with the traditional Ned definition and that it gives me enough bottom contact to trigger bites.

For Ned heads it is a 1/16 th sized from Jades that is 20% lighter because of the tin/bismuth alloy, but 1/16 oz in other brands worked too but might have snagged up a bit more. 3/16 slider heads mostly with the small yum crawbug have served me well over the years on my flow. Different flows will determine lighter or heavier weights. For Ned I use non Zman baits so get away with lighter jig head.

It is a balancing act for sure. River fishing for smallies, I have caught a ton of smallies popping them loose off a rock. You need to dial in the weight to still bump cover but not snag up hard every time. I figure a few lost baits is part of doing business there. Dialing in the weight is not an exact science though. I also use size 1 and 2 hooks, nothing larger and they are all light wire to bend out on snags.

I am really curious why you are fine with reels where you bought two and each had an issue. I have not gone back to Pfluegar because the two Presidents I bought were so geary feeling out of the box I couldn't use them. Abu I am on the fence about, because I bought older models at a cheap discount and the grease was dry or they didn't put enough in. Other major brands like Daiwa, Quantum, and Lew's have been solid out of the box and Daiwa's customer service has been great to get free bail springs for the Regals I have when needed. If I bought two reels from some place and both had issues, I wouldn't purchase anything else from them, regardless of how much free stuff they gave me for my trouble.

My two were super geary feeling even after adding extra grease. Cleaned them this year and regressed them. They were so bad on a trip I switched them out to the backup reels I packed. One feels much better the other only slightly better. They are now backup reels for me.

I don't disagree and will be putting more effort in this year with them. I just wish I would have bought a handful, not 5 handfuls of them. I fish reeds a lot where spinnerbaits do really well, so hoping that swim jigs will too. I think in the past I tried to fish them too much like a texas rigged plastic. If I fish them like a spinnerbait I may actually do better and the mindset change while retrieving them hopefully will unlock it for me. Looks like you need a second order;) That does suck though. I ordered some reels from Scheels last week that are discontinued and they only have the size I am looking for. I was a bit happy when I saw they didn't go on sale for memorial day, unless they have another sale coming. In my case availability won out over getting a good deal.

This is the last thing I want to hear as I have just gotten into it. I did try to stick with blades similar to what I use. I hope it doesn't get like fly tying, as I have a ton of supplies I haven't used in a while. If they had a worried like option I would go for that, so will stick with the sad as a replacement because I know where I am headed with the spinnerbait thing. I am strarting to do this now. My purchases are heavy around the holidays, but I still try to be much smarter than in the past. No more ordering 5 or 6 colors of a new bait to try out, now it is mostly 2 max. Sales are my blind spot, I definetely overspend there though, especially a deeper discount.

I have a few and that could change at any time with a little fishing luck. Right now I have a pile of swim jigs that are doing nothing for me. One year I went all in big time instead of buying a few and getting the system down before buying more. If I do finally figure it out it won't be money wasted. Jackall ReRanges - These have been a bust for me and I hate the weight transfer sound when casting. Ima Flits - Got these from TW on a 25 days sale and all were out of tune, even after tuning them I haven't caught anything on them. Topwaters in general especially baits in the plopper family and style - I haven't figured out when the time is right for these and 9 times out of 10 I apparently pick the wrong time. On the Fence - Plano edge Jig box and that series in general. See above on the jigs, and for now it has been repurposed into a spinnerbait box. For some reason I can't properly close the lids one handed like the add, but that is probably a me thing. I do like the 3600 box for my spinnerbait components. The hard shell aspect is better for that type of storage. I had hoped to do a 3700 flex in the future as I buy more components thinking I could also store some extra wire frames, but wow on the price. Will probably do the standard 3700 and store the frames elsewhere. Solid boxes, but they need a lipless box similar to the falcon box that was discontinued after they bought them. @Glenn If you ever talk to them that is the box they are missing. I have like 8 of the falcon boxes, but they are an inbetween size and don't fit in many tackle bags. Overall that is probably about it for me. One last one worm weights - Since I went slider heads 20+ years ago I don't believe I have used them more than a handful of times.

Hoping to see your luck, I do really well on spinnerbaits including my PB smallie, but can't crack the code on swim jigs. One trailer I really like though is the old yum woolie bully rigged sideways. At least when they were available they were very cheap. I will work with them some more this year again though to see if I can get a consitent bite.

I buy a tin bismuth jig from Jades Jigs and on their site they say it runs about 20% lighter than the respective lead head size.

The turnaround time on my order was nuts. Ordered last Monday at 9 pm and the order arrived Thursday. Will order from them again.

Well I re-rigged my baits for this season with some spares for quick changes. The bins have holes in the bottom to drain of water and help with airflow. Honestly I think I have gravitated to baits that last a long time. The menace in the opening post probably pushed it farther than I normally go, because it looks the the tail probably has some extra wiggle. I get why some would want to change out because that bait is now a one off, can’t ever make another like it, but it is impossible to remove it when the fish are just jumping on the bait. The bait monkey also won, as I realized I needed mor3 Slider Spide4 Pro heads lol. They have gotten a lot of business from me the last 20+ years. Also, I need to figure out what I am doing about 5he menace. Always bought it on sale because it isn’t the cheapest bait in the world. Seeing how many I have rigged up and in the boxes on backup, I will need to buy in bulk anytime I see a good sale. The good thing is 8 probably get 7-10 fish a bait on average. That is a gut feel, I don’t track stuff that closely. This has been an interesting thread with lots of different opinions. It is also interesting how expensive plastics can get. I think because we know they have a limited life span we generally never do the math to see how much cash we burn through fishing them.

This has been most of my trips this year. The strange spring has both the trout creek and bass lake in a state I have never seen before.

I thnink there is a balance on this. There were times in my life that I really needed to watch that. My fishing budget still isn't limitless, but I have collected enough over the years I need to use some up. This isn't a critique of your statement, just to point out there are those fishing on limited or fixed budgets. Also many plastics are getting quite spendy now as well, even some brands that weren't in the past. Over the years I have gravitated to durable plastics that catch fish and stay away from the baits that last 1 or 2 fish. Just don't go with Zman much because I am concerned I will accidently mix the two and waste a huge amount of plastics.

A while back I tried the Shimano Sienna FG in the 2000 size based on a field and stream review and really liked it. Well last week I started looking online for them and they are really hard to find, discontinued? Found them on Scheels and placed an order Monday night at 9 pm and they were on my doorstep today. Looking forward to pairing them with my Dobyns Sierras. Hoping the lighter reels will balance better than the heavier reels Regals and Presidents.

I still use my ugly sticks all the time and leave it in my truck all summer for trips before or after work. I use it for river smallies and it has numerous trophy smallies on it and up until last fall my personal best smallie. On lakes I do find the Medium ugly spin pairs well with small jerkbaits and spy baits. I am a fan even though I own and regularly use mid to upper mid range gear as well.

I have tried swimbaits here in WI and caught a couple of bass on them, but maybe its because we have the smaller northern strain bass, they just aren't as effective, at least for me. I do use swimbaits for Musky, but I stay away from the soft body ones because that would get very expensive fast.

One bonus thing I have learned from this thread, is the Menace grubs I tear the head out on texas rigging them I could repurpose them as swim jig trailers. Generally I wouldn't use a menace as a swim jig trailer due to cost per bait and how little I use a swim jig, but this would be a great way to try it.

I do agree with this, if a bait starts to pick up weeds more than normal or the action is just off it gets tossed. That Menace in the picture worked like a normal menace right up to the last fish. I gave up on it to not leave a broken plastic in the water or in a fishes stomach. And because I am a bit sentimental/goofy I decided to pack that bait away and I believe I still have it today. I have also found largemouth to be very gentle on baits vs smallies. Baits probably last 75% longer when chasing largemouth. For whatever reason smallies really tear up plastics, they must hit them different than largies do. Not sure if others see this as well.

So I think I have two problems, one I have bought way too many baits over the years, especially in overlapping categories, and I have enough plastics and cranks to keep me going for quite a while. This winter I did a full inventory of both plastics and crankbaits to force myself to justify any new purchases, which has worked so far. As long as I don't say buy more single tail 5" grubs or tubes since well I have more than enough lol. Also I learned to try a bait like the producto tourney grub in small quantities before you buy over 400 of them to get to free shipping and because they are cheap. The bait works great, but is super durable and that is pretty much a lifetime supply. Problem two is my wife has taught me to be thrifty, not all bad, but this carries over into my plastic use. In most cases I could afford to lose baits at a good clip to thin my backstock at least a little. Since I rig all my plastics on either slider spider heads or ned heads I have the oppurtunity to leave baits rigged and I take advantage of that. The problem is that I will fish a bait until it basically falls off the hook. This means flipping baits over once the nose tears out on one side. There is something to be said for a chewed on bait getting more bit than a new bait, but is there a point that I am just pushing the get the most fish out of a biat a bit too far and I should just change them out? I have attached a pic of a Menace grub that was retired at that point after catching well over 20 fish. Am I doing this wrong, or if it isn't broke don't fix it? Really courious how beat up people let plastics get before they change them out? If I am doing this wrong how do I break the habit?

So I bought the jig box 2 Christmas’ ago and while it held the jigs well my lack of success with both chatterbaits and swim jigs found me not needing this huge box when I could throw them in a standard 3700 size box with a ton of other tackle. Then I got to thinking about spinnerbaits and would it work. I was pleasantly surprised that it works pretty well. As a Plano box guy for years it pains me a little to say the Flambeau blade krate is still the best, this is a good alternative if you can’t make the non standard sized blade krate work for you. One huge complaint on the edge boxes besides price, which is at a premium, is the latches. On this and the 3600 box I have the one hand close claim is not right. More than half the time one side isn’t fully engaged, even using two hands. I think if this box had half to hold jigs and half for other tackle it would be the perfect box for me. Others on this site have suggested this and it’s a great idea.

With some help from others figuring out why I had lazy lead blades, I made up 7 different 1/4 ounce spinnerbaits. All of the blade combinations were tested in the local trout creek. I particularly like the yellow bladed bait I made tonight.