Cgolf

Got my Shadow Rap order from Rapala. They came in a lightly padded envelope, thankfully the post office was fairly gentle with it, only a few boxes were messed up. Excited to try a few of these colors next year, my wife already put them away for Christmas.

Either that or the stacked sale/bait monkey powers are too strong and you end up not even needing the free ship 49 code. Speaking for a friend of course?

Thanks to all with the Rapala deal. Picked up 19 total shadow raps in all 4 styles. Has been a great jerkbait for me and first one that gave me confidence in the technique.

I solve that by using cheaper heavier reels with them that work fine and I don’t want to just throw them out. The better rods get the mid to upper mid level reels. Fishing on a budget just means I have taken a longer time to fill out my combos with decent stuff.

So its a lot like fly tying, definitely not coming out ahead on that one monetarily, but it is a fun past time so that makes up for it.

Building rods could be a future hobby. What are the setup costs? Would just have to convince the wife that it is cost effective. I did ask John Crews and Ike on twitter about a cranking rod and John came back with moderate action with power rod and flouro. It is funny that the general angling community might have come to a different conclusion than the folks that do it for a living. I do remember a similar thing about the split grip. Gary Dobyns was on Kent Browns show and wasn't in favor of them at the time because I believe he said it was harder to balance a rod, but he had them in the lineup because everyone wanted them. I just go with what gives me the best performance. My Avid MH fast action BC rod I find very sensitive and seems to hook them just fine, but I tend not to use it as much because casting distance and accuracy is a little less than my moderate action rods. I do fly fish too, so that could impact my rod choices as well.

I have tried flouro and just hated it as mainline, leader ok. I do use yo Zuri hybrid for my deep cranking and walleye trolling and 25 lb big game for swimbaits.

I did find the St. Croix premier in a moderate action, which is a very nice rod. I think it was @A-Jay that has recommended the KVD cranking rods to me. They are on my list to try, just couldn’t pass up the deals on the St. Croix and Dobyns. I had always heard with braid a moderate action rod keeps from ripping the hooks out, and gives a little more control/buffer if a fish surges or jumps. Actually thought a lot of pros used moderate rods for cranking. Sensitivity wise, I have two st. Croix’s in similar price points, Eyecon and premier with one being a moderate action and one a fast. I feel the sensitivity is similar just need a bigger hookset with the moderate action rod. I will I’ll give you the Ugly sticks are heavy, but I have fished them so long from the days when that was all we could afford I have become used to using them. I would really like to find a couple more of the square bill rod. Besides cranks it has become my plopper and jerk bait rod too. Very versatile rod.

832 has become my sub 50lb goto braid. Out of the package it doesn’t seam as stiff as power pro. Nothing is as bad as fireline though that takes a bit to work in on a spinning reel. I have found that the 30 lb 832 has been tough as nails for me with zero break offs. I tried the spiderwire flouro braid, name may be wrong but similar idea to 832, and power pro 30 lb and had a lot of random line failures. 832 on same rod and reel no issues. I do stick to 50 lb power pro for Musky and heavy bass applications. As far as sound it might be a bit quieter than other braids, but not like mono or flouro.

A little surprised that nobody responded to mock me, question my sanity, etc;) The true question I have is why is it so hard to find mid to high end rods with a moderate action which is my ideal action fishing braid because it leads to less lost fish. I did pick up a St. Croix Premier MH moderate action BC rod that has worked well for me. There are a lot of presentations and line choices that can benefit from a moderate action rod. That is why I have stuck with the ugly sticks in some cases even though they won't be the most sensitive rod, the presentations don't really need the sensitivity.

I have used Kalins for years and found them to have a tail that moves very well even at a really slow pace, while maintaining good durability. Other brands are either durable and the tail doesn't move at slow speeds or tear up after the first few bites. As far as colors Ron's craw has worked well in dirty and in clear water were you can see bottom in 10 fow. Other colors are bluegill, motor red, water red and water purple.

On my fishing trip this summer, the two spinning rods I used the most were a Dobyns ML Sierra for plastics and an Ugly Stick M GX2 for spybaits, jerkbaits, and some plastics (heavier swing heads mostly). The Dobyns is a phenomenal rod and wish I would have bought a couple more with last years 25 days sale, but the action of the Ugly really has done well with the spybaits and jerkbaits, and heck the price can’t be beat. I have seen similar things with baitcasters too. My favorite stick is the aqua blue wright McGill fiberglass Clunn square bill rod that works great for ploppers, lipless, square bills and heavier jerkbaits. Sometimes in the mid/high end rod market, they forget that a rod with a parabolic bend can be an anglers best friend, and finding a moderate action is near impossible. It also helps out for those of us that mainly fish braid. Not saying we should all load up on Ugly sticks, but I have come to the realization that no matter how many Dobyns, St Croix, etc rods I carry, the Ugly and Clunn rod will always be on deck.

For the waters I fish water red and motor oil red are 1a and 1b and these two colors catch them in all water colors for me. Straight green pumpkin just doesn’t get bit for me, but Green pumpkin purple gold does well for river Smallies, so I do use a variation of it sometimes, but don’t carry it in the boat anymore.

So I messaged TW on FB asking if they were just listing the MSRP for the baits until they got final pricing. Their answer was that this was the price but they would price match. So I asked a follow up question of will the other Menace baits change from 5.29 to 6.99? If my math is right, that would be a 25% increase. Would love to hear from Big O or someone else in the know if the baits suddenly got a lot more expensive to make, or if TW is just very high on these. I love the Menace, but it has always been at the top end of the budget for what I personally will spend on soft plastics. I did also also message Rage Tail on FB with this question and a color request for the Menace and Baby Menace line. Tackle Warehouse got back to me and there are no known price increases for the existing Rage baits. I will remain confused;) and stock up on the Menace and Baby Menace at the next sale.

If there was a nose dive, it started before Pradco, and the only thing I noticed being different was the hooks. The 100 is my number 1 river crank and pretty much the only one that is a consistent producer. Haven't noticed a difference between late bandit bandits and the new pradco bandits. One thing Pradco may be doing is cutting down on colors, which for bass folks not a big deal, but could suck for crappie folks could be depending on the colors.

I know there’s a lot of hate for TW lately, but the two rods I purchased were in a very solid tube and had a plastic sleeve on the rod and bubble rap on both ends. Saved both tubes in case I ever need to send a rod back. Wouldn’t hesitate to order from again. Cabelas was in between, sleeve and bubble wrap on the rod, but a standard rectangle box that thankfully wasn’t damaged by the shipping company.

Agreed and it really sucks. We have already lost too many because the small fishing and other retailers don’t have the buying power of the big stores.

While I understand the point you are making and I don’t disagree with it, the case with Strike king makes no sense. Currently an 8 pack of Menace grubs or 9 pack of Baby Menace grubs are listed for 5.29. The newly introduced magnum menace 7 pack is 6.99 and the Baby and Ned structure bug and others are listed at 6.99. That price difference doesn’t make sense. For my fishing budget, the 5.29 was too much so I bought on sale, even on sale the 6.99 price is a nonstarter for me. As far as Yamamoto baits go they were way overpriced for me anyways, guessing he has a healthy profit margin built in, so if they raise prices to keep the margin that is their choice. As as far as the minimum wage hike, I hope my salaried position gets a bump too, or I am falling behind. Drives me nuts reading all the people that think a min wage hike won’t impact prices.

The video of the lure I saw the action looked pretty wild. While not really a game changer, it is definitely something I have never seen before.

Would like to see the trend of wow everyone pays 16 bucks for a Jackhammer, lets charge 10 bucks for are new inferior blade bait that should be really 5-7 bucks end. Saw this happen with golf, hope fishing remains an affordable past time that many from all walks of life can enjoy. Pipe dream I know;)

If that is the case than we can expect the other Rage baits to be at that price point soon to match what is on the strike king website, for example 6.99 for Rage grub and Menace. If that happens back to tubes and grubs for bass. Also if this happens the googans baits would be a buck cheaper at 5.99 which doesn’t seem right.

Guessing they will drop closer to the time they get them in. The smaller baits like the baby menace have more baits at the same price, so hoping the smaller Ned baits will end up the same price even though they have more baits.

I noticed all the new baits like the Rage Ned Bug are listed at 6.99 which instantly took them off my to buy list. I did just look at Strike Kings web site and all rage baits are listed at 6.99. I am hoping TW is just listing the MSRP now and will adjust the prices down as the products start to show up. Any thoughts or insight?

Thanks Glenn. Have always been a fan of their stuff. Now if we could get them to bring back the slim shake that would be awesome.

What is their website now? All I can find is an American bait works site. Colors in the finesse worm like water jelly and table rock red are not there. I think sun perch is gone too.