Cgolf

I am really baffled by this post, and seems like someone is pro Berkley and wants to take a shot at River2Sea. Looking at TW to compare bottom colors (that sounds kind of strange lol) Plopper 130/180 Silver = 4 White/Bone = 6 Copper = 2 Clear = 3 Red = 1 and Black = 2 Plopper Silent Clear = 10 White/Bone = 5 Silver = 1 Black = 1 Chartreuse = 1 Copper = 1 Opaque White = 1 (T1000) Choppo Silver = 1 White = 5 Opaque White = 2 Green = 1 Black = 1 so looking at the colors River2Sea has a wider color selection with more clear options. That being said clear options may be better on a sunny day because they may reflect like more similar to a real baitfish on top. The only color R2Sea is missing in the smaller sizes is a green, I have what I believe is Bee Gee in the 190 size. I will admit that in the last couple of years Berkleys crankbait color options have kept me from purchasing and these haven’t changed my mind. My new topwaters for next year are a Savage zgear 100 size and a plopper 75.

This is the easiest sale for me to skip knowing the Black Friday sales are on 2.5 months away.

When helping my dad clean out his shop stumbled on this and wondered if it should be kept or trashed. I believe South Bend used to be a good brand back in the day.

I have a few besides TW DSG between all their sales and reward card I have used them quite a bit even though their selection is a bit lacking. Acadamy I got a great deal on ploppers and traps and would order from them again BPS and Cabelas Took advantage of their no minimum free shipping to get some of their house baits I like and items TW was out of stock. Asfor the local shop, I used to frequent one quite a bit till it was sold. After the sale, prices were bumped up a lot, seemed like most baits went up by 2 bucks, and we are talking existing stock. They were always a bit higher than the online stores, but I was willing to pay a little more for the convenience. That last price hike put them in the territory of only go in as a last resort. It’s a bummer, but guessing I am not the only one that stopped going there. In case any are wondering I am the old cranky;) cgolf11, I needed a new account because of an email issue.

Volume depends on sales and if you have high sales or like baits that use the same parts you can buy parts in bulk which will drive down the cost of making the bait. Also Berkley likely had less R&D time, which means their break even number is smaller and they can charge less per lure if they so choose, and still make a good profit.

I got some great deals a while back on ploppers, where I think I paid less than 8 a bait for my 110s other R2S topwaters. If people are patient sales can be found. Kind of like the whole generic drug thing though in that they need to cover R&D costs on top of keeping the lights on too. If you can limit R&D costs, you can sell the lures cheaper.

What got to me was the responses that BPS was unethical to Berkley is awesome for lowering the price. I have a decent stash of ploppers that will keep me for a while, only picking up a Plopper 75 and one of the Savage gear baits in the 100 size to see if the fins keep them from spinning less. I could really care less, just the differing reactions surprised me. The only copy that ever bothered me was Cabela's copying Reef Runner baits, because I see them as a small company (could be wrong). Them copying a big company like Rapala no worries. Also can't remember if it is you or @J Francho that don't like the Game changer word, but Bassmaster did have this bait listed in their game changer article;) https://www.bassmaster.com/bryan-brasher/icast-2018-features-some-true-game-changers

Wonder if there was a way to get weedless hooks so it could be fished in more places, but I guess that is what the spin frogs are for. I agree the plopper is a copycat bait too. My beef is inconsistency of the outrage on this site about either straight up copies, or baits that utilize features of other baits is all. But yeh I was surprised that Berkley made a version that was so close, I had expected they might have come up with something similar, but added some kind of innovation to differentiate it. Savage Gears is similar, but they added the fin, which will hopefully keep the bait from spinning as much as the ploppers sometimes do.

I find it interesting that Berkley went the route of essentially making a copy. I would have expected them to be innovators and not followers. Especially since they have some interesting and unique baits coming out in the powerbait line. Also find it interesting that because it’s Berkley everyone is cool with it, but some were all over BPS for there double plopper which is a version not even offered by River2Sea. Also recently a thread got pulled for a soft plastic brand that could loosely be compared to a site sponsors bait, if you ignore the fact it had extra flappers etc. This is what drives me nuts about this site, sometimes a copy is a great thing, and other times it is unacceptable. I guess it depends on the brand doing the copying or the brand that is being copied to decide if it is ok or not. To me I will try to buy the original, unless the price difference is huge.

Just caught this thread, and was curious if any one knows about the quality of the new Accurists. I have 3 that are 15 plus years old that have been solid. Workhorse reels for me over that time. Was looking to pick up another 100 dollar reel for Christmas and the new accurists are on my list to research.

So just spent a week with the combo and really liked it. The thing casts a mile and the only time I backlashed was when I screwed up my release point casting lipless cranks at night for walleye. Not sure how my other options would have faired, but so far this thing is a winner.

Nothing, I had always had one rigged on the trip I just got back from, and caught a few fish early on in the day right after sun up when they didn’t want a big bait, but after that a menace grub on a slider head would get ten bites to one on the Ned rig. This week taught me that the Ned rig is just another tool in my box and there are many times it will be ignored by bass. I did try and really like the robo Ned worm, not the most durable, but I like the colors. Also has the bonus it can sit in the same box as my rigged up menaces.

Thanks for the reminder on the hoodie, unfortunately I need to pay shipping, but still a hoodie for under 10 isn’t bad.

I will get flamed for this, but I have 2 Shakespeare excursions that I have had for over 10 years that have seen a lot of water time, from 20 to 100 trips a year river fishing, and are still going strong, heck they have held up better than my Daiwa Regals. They can still be had at Walmart for 20 bucks. The only thing I don't know is if the quality of the new ones is better, worse, or the same than my old ones.

Curly tail grubs, esp 5" Kalins and tubes, two baits that I think will keep fooling bass for a long time

A little off topic, but thanks for the link their Ned heads look nice and they have smaller hooks than the Seibert Morels. Fire tiger cranks have been a staple color for WI bass even in gin clear water. The only bummer is the fire tiger jig skirts I have found have all the right colors, just not the same look as a crank, real jumbled. Wonder if I take a sharpie to the jigs I tied above to add the vertical bars if it would make a difference or not?

Right now I have gotten my jigheads through them. I primarily use the Santone Rayburn heads but also like the outcast swim jig heads. The Omega heads in the picture haven't been used yet so not sure what I think of them. I think fishingskirts carries the Boss line of heads. I also had a lot of older spinnerbaits that needed new skirts too.

Also want to throw out TW although their stock can suck at times, but is a good place to get a few colors to start out with if you don't plan on buying in bulk and of course you can get other tackle too;) This is where I got my starting stash of colors, when I need to order again I will likely do a bigger order from fishingskirts.com.

My advice is to not overdue the orange, perch only have orange on their fins and generally very little and don't forget a touch of white for their belly. If a bass is looking up at your bait the white on the bottom is helpful. If you want to be all in, they do have black on top too:) My 2 attempts are on bottom.

So basically I am screwed;) My wife is super thrifty and only buys shoes as she needs them, and has used the same purse forever, and since it is an eddie baur purse, already had it replaced for free once:( I am really hoping that our thrifty ways put us in a lake house in retirement and then it will be all worth it:)

For some reason I have found that if I do a powerful snap cast (lots of power but don’t move the rod much) I find that I get more backlashes with lighter lures. If I cast allowing the rod to load and then with a longer move forward I rarely backlash unless I take too much brake off to max out distance. For some reason it seems like loading the rod gets everything in sync. If you ever cast a fly rod you will learn what being out of sync feels like and can do to your distance if you get too fast with your casting motion (super important there to load up the rod before switching directions). Another cast that doesn’t give me any issue is the roll cast or loop cast. Essentially you do a clockwise circle and shoot out a low cast that for some reason produces very little splash, great cast around spooky fish.

I hear you, but unless we think about it, it is a spec that catches the fisherman. I always set my drag with the hand pull test, never done it with a scale.

At the sale price with the rod included and cash back for the next time I hit the store I am figuring I paid 140 for the combo which I don't feel too bad about unless the rod is junk, time will tell. I am wishing that my wife would have decided sooner because I had looked and the latest Revo SX for 160 with a free rod, but missed out on that one.

The only issue I see with Bass Pro is that they are pricing themselves out right now and it seems to be getting worse. While sure the stores will get the impulse buys, less people are hitting brick and mortar stores nowadays and shop on the internet. Once you look online you see how high their prices are and you instantly go elsewhere. The only reason I ordered from them this year was that they had an item in that I needed and everyone else was sold out. What BPS should be doing is upping their customer loyalty program and normalizing their prices a bit, shoppers seem to be getting smarter. DSG imo has done a good job staying relevant with online and instore sales and their loyalty program is pretty darn good. Even though their fishing section is small, their sale this weekend got me in to buy a rod reel combo and I picked up 20 bucks worth of gear that was on sale on an endcap. Maybe BPS should take notice, or maybe they will buy them out;) Oh yeh and almost forgot, since I spent 100 at DSG they gave me 20 bucks to spend on ny next trip, felt like I was shopping at a Kohls.

Over the weekend I hit DSG and picked up the Lews Crush combo using the 20% off one item coupon, and picked up a Lunkerhunt prop sunfish, prop frog, and Prop Turtle (didn't see this on TW) on their 3 for 20 deal. Also for spending over 100 they gave me 20 bucks to spend on my next visit. My twisted math then figures I got the Lews combo for 140;)