Cgolf

As for my confessions -After being a cheerleader for and using the Ned rig a ton the last few years, I probably tossed it less than 5% of the time this year. Always found other things that worked I guess as this was one of my better fishing years. -Zman baits have fallen out of my lineup. Using sliders with plastics, I cut off and retie and keep the baits in a bin on deck to be reused later. The obvious problem with Zman is they need to be stored seperate and it just got to be too much of a pain. -I still value my Ugly Stick spinning rod for jerkbait and spybait fishing. It also makes a great river rod with plastics. There is something about the action of the rod that just works for me with these presentations. - With the sliders I tend to use a snap, I believe there are performance benefits, that I of course realized later after the initial laziness. Have compared to direct tie and doesn't impact #of hits. In 15 plus years can only remember 1 snap failure.

Add me to this list in not believing in them. I have been tinkering again over the last year with them and still can't see a difference in catch rate. I know folks swear it makes a difference, but I think it is just a confidence thing. Honestly the line is the least unnatural part of a rig. Think of the weight and hook with plastics and multiple trebles on a crank, to me those are going to be seen by the fish way before the line is. The only time it might have gotten me and extra fish was landing a 30+ pike on a crank. I am guessing the fireline would have been cut, while the flouro was abraded, but held.

Just some clearance 6th sense cranks, some shadow raps and shads from when they had the crazy code stacking deal and some gear we got when a gander store was closing. This weekend will likely get some more menace grubs and some spybaits and siebert wave heads. So a little bit of stuff.

Got my 6th sense sale Christmas gift today

Those look nice. I have about 20 of the small DT 6 size in metallic red, got for 2$ a piece, that I have used successfully fishing a very rocky stretch of river from shore. The only reason it falls out of the rotation is the Bandit 100 is a miracle worker in the same conditions. It is essentially a very good crank getting edged out by a great one. The bigger shallow version might give the bandit a run for its money, too bad they don't make them any more. Luhr Jenson had/has some great cranks including the speed trap which is a bait loved by a lot of pros. Editing to add I also picked up 20 to 30 klawdaddys in a couple of colors and sizes for under 2$ a piece. Those have also done well for me at times to.

Just curious why there is no love for the shadow rap series? One mention of the ripstop and I am the lone shadow rap fan. I have the others, but really had a breakout year with the shadow rap in 2019. They are a bit pricier than the husky jerks but not by much.

It was in the ice fishing section. I only would need to cast it 20 to 30 feet to work around reeds. If it doesn’t works it’s kind of cool piece to have in the box.

This is small in comparison to the BF pics, but picked up a couple of husky jerks and a micro ripping rap while at the hardware store today. The micro ripping rap is intriguing. Hoping it will work on my 10 lb fireline setup and toss it around reeds for bass and crappie. But Holy cow that thing is small.

Technically the plastic worm for developing mass market soft plastics Plastics for me though are a 3-5" grub and a tube. These are far and away my most consistent producing baits over many years.

The shadow rap series has been very good to me. I haven't compared it to the high test baits, but it catches plenty of bass for me.

That Dobyns Sierra I got for 115 and some other baits worked out well for me. I think expectations are too high, especially after a good BF sale.

It’s always interesting seeing the Black Friday orders posted, because we all have such different lists of must haves!

I edited as you were posting. Looks like SK is 10 plus 20 percent off. Guessing there are other brands too. They just listed the brands with the extra 10 percent off on TW!

Don’t see the add yet, can you tell if they are doing the extra off on SK and others? My father-in-law is ordering my Christmas gift so hoping he saves a bit extra since I think I had like 20 packs of menace grubs on my list. alright it does look like SK baits are an extra 10 percent off. The sale price is the extra off. Feel less guilty about my list now.

I use the VMC spin shot hooks. Start with a small swivel tying flouro to that and to the top attachment on the hook. Tie a piece of flouro to the bottom attachment on the hook and knot the end to hold the sinker. I store them in medicine ziplocks that can be found at Walgreens and Walmart. I usually put the weight on at the lake. The swivel works for me because I use a snap by choice on my spinning rods fishing soft plastics, slider and shaky heads.

Thankfully most just want to learn, which is mostly fun minus the frustration of getting blanked on a trip. I personally will admit to being somewhat thrifty and having a thrifty budget, so it is more difficult for me to pull the trigger on a bait in the Megabass price range. The underwater videos were telling to me. The vision seems like an aggressive jerkbait. The shadow rap series and LC pointers and flash pointers do as well. To my thinking this extends their usefulness window to the full season up here since they can be worked wild or mild.

You tried the Shadow Raps? I am curious what others that fish jerks a lot think of them. They do well for me and I got a great deal on 19 of them when Rapala’s web site allowed us to stack multiple codes. I guess I am in the beginning stages of a jerkbait addiction, mostly over the lipless one, so I guess it just transferred;)

This is an interesting question. When I am on a reed bed bite I would switch up plastics till I hit on the one working that day. I just assume that next year I will do the same with jerkbaits. It is nice though when your first choice works and you don’t need other options.

Did just watch a shadow rap video too and it seems similar in many ways to the vision and flash pointer, except it has the slow sink. Seeing that fishing the 110 wouldn’t be a stretch for me since it works similar to my current stuff.

If we had all the answers fishing would be boring:) Half the fun is thinking we had it figured only to learn we weren’t even close!

So most of my hits have come when the bait is either paused or gliding to a stop. So if the posture of the bait when it’s paused doesn’t trigger the strike, then what is the trigger? Is the action of the bait in motion what draws them in and just the pause itself regardless of bait posture that triggers the strike?

Wow this really took off. I will get through and like some replies after work. My current crop of Jerkbaits is varied and with the exception of the shadow rap series many are one offs. I have Shadow raps (standard and deep), Shadow rap shads (Standard and deep), X raps, Husky jerks, Perfect 10s, Some of the Strike Kings (shallow only), 1 SPRO mcstick, Storm twitch sticks in the small size, couple of Jackall squad minnow 80s (TW sale), LC pointer 127, and LC Flash pointer 127 MR. So I have a fair amount to chose from. Once I become proficient with them I will have to decide if I want to try out a 110. It seems that stained water muskys are the ones that attack the jerkbaits, so maybe I only use the 110 in clear water?? Just such a hard choice knowing we have a lot of pike and musky just waiting to bite off that nice lure. I lost one shadow rap to a musky on its first trip out and after catching a couple of bass and missing a few too. Its replacement, next trip to the lake, lasted all of 3 casts before a large musky walked of with it. Musky are a love hate thing, but surely can run up the tackle bill. So curious what the 110's attitude at rest, and is that what sets it apart from others? Or as someone said is it just the consistency bait to bait that say rapala or others can't match?

With the joking around on the sale thread about is there a sale on Megabass baits or not it got me to thinking about the jerkbait I will likely never buy. Simply put is a Megabass that much better of a bait or are folks more confident fishing it so their results are better? Personally the biggest reason I won’t buy one is that musky up here love jerkbaits and losing a 9 dollar bait is painful enough. My jerkbait history is long littered with little success. I always had issue either finding the right cadence or missing strikes on slack line. I had zero confidence in the lures and presentation. Last year on vacation I had spotty luck early on, building some confidence and on the last day it clicked. Ultimately I had switched from a baitcaster to a spinning rod and that rod happened to be an ugly stick. What this combo did though was helped me keep just the right amount of slack in the line to allow the bait to work and still detect strikes and get a good hook set. Once it clicked and I had confidence in the presentation my catch rate skyrocketed that day. Over that week I also caught fish on 4 different jerkbaits. The reason I ask about the Megabass jerkbaits being king, is that I have a hard time believing that one bait will always have the right action under all conditions. I always hear the cheapest, husky jerk, is one of if not the best cold water bait. While some baits slowly rise at rest, slowly sink at rest, are neutrally buoyant at rest, and of course the different actions of the baits, each will have there time and place. I am guessing the same is true with the Megabass. There are times it will hands down be the best, but I would expect there are just as many times another bait will perform better. The thing that can't be replaced though is confidence, which will lead one to fish certain baits more proficiently than other baits. Am I off in this thinking? I am in no way saying people shouldn't use the baits, just really are that much better at triggering bites or if folks are that much more confident when fishing them leading to more bites? To those that say how can one day change your outlook on jerkbaits, it is as simple as confidence. Now instead of hoping for a bite I know I will get bite once I find the right presentation and bait. Each cast will have a slightly different retrieve until I find what the fish want, and of course I will try different jerkbaits as well till I find the one that is working. Jerkbait fishing has been the most difficult presentation for me to learn over the years, I am looking forward to next season to use it a lot more.

Who buys that garbage besides like everyone? Well at least a many on this board!

Thanks, gave my wife a list and she picked out some for me and her dad. Can’t wait to try the splashback popper and the cloud 9 C25 (this is a monster of a crank). Will find out at Christmas what I truly got.