Cgolf

Great info. Thanks for posting. My clear water strategy has been, to try to match the hatch figuring no matter how good or bad their vision is, if The bait is close to the forage fish color they will see the bait as prey. In clear water when it is overcast or wavy I go with water red, and when it is sunny and flat smoke red or purple. This to me covered gills with the sun on them and in the shade. The Chartruese results surprise me, I wonder if smallies are the same as largemouth. Over the years smallies have really liked chartruese over other colors.

For everyone that orders from Acadamy, help me understand if I am getting what I ordered or some extra baits. My order initially showed as shipping in two boxes, one lure in one and the other four in the second. Since then I got an email that another package was shipping with a second of one of the two traps I ordered. Then today I got another email that a second set of two poppers were being shipped. Are their shipping emails just goofy, or am I getting extra baits shipped to me? Of course me being who I am would probably let them know they goofed up lol.

They were 2.50 a piece before the 20 percent off. I also didn’t have tax added, because there isn’t an academy here.

Just seeing that part of my academy order shipped. Looks like the ship similar to DSG, partial packages instead of a full order. Just glad I was able to get in on the deal.

Thanks, I think;) Got 3 110s ordered and 2 1/2 ounce traps on clearance for 27.94. Presale cost would have been 61.55, couldn't pass it up.

For me it has been pretty simple. Very similar colors to what I use for tubes. Kalins Ron’s Craw, works in all water colors Water Red, works in all water colors Kalins Bluegill clear water and that about covers it. Up here though perch and bluegill are prevalent so that probably helps with the above colors.

I cut my teeth finesse fishing for walleye and crappie, and just used the same jigs and plastics for bass because it worked. The slider spider head really opened up my options and have been using that going on 20 plus years now. The only complaint about the Ned rig is they put a name and rules on a rig we have used for years.

The jigs I used in the pics were 1/16 ounce berkley half head jig with a size 1 hook, 1/16 ounce Morel with a size 1 hook, and the the minnow heads on the zoom UV speed craws are 1/16 ounce with a size 1 hook. So far I like the shape of the morel better than the berkley, as it being pancaked more covers more of the bait.

I have fished 1/2 zinkerz on a slider spider head and really done well around docks and weeds and had really good luck with it. Even fished it on my local river and it came through the rocks well. I happen to call it a Sled rig lol. I do fish an anglers choice wart hawg a lot which is a heavily salted skinny stick bait and the fish love it, it seems the tail doesn't need to float up to have success with the Ned.

Smash Tech offers the 4" version, not sure if I have seen any other options out there.

Grabbed 6 packs of those on the 25 days TW sale. Will be curious how well they hold up. They look cool.

The kicker is it turned off 7 feet from the boat, father in law had the scatter rap, I tossed a RES where I thought it went and hooked up and landed a low 40” musky. We were in 5 feet of gin clear water so I am sure the musky saw the boat and turned off.

I was super bummed that I could no longer get them, will have to see how the Siebert Morels and the new Berkeley heads hold up. Only thing I can figure is something sudden happened, because the site and everything was still up. Service before was very good.

Curious to see how it works. Over the years the yum crawbug has caught the most smallies for me on the system these will be fished. I think they just like the profile, so even if the flappers on the speed craw don’t do much it should catch fish on that system.

I think we are still good. That isn’t a whole lot different than the TRD hawgz I have seen that Ned uses.

Was rigging up some baits for the May opener and a conversation on instagram inspired me to rig the Rage Baby Menace on a Ned head and man it looks like a winner. The second was I cut down a Zoom UV speed craw by removing 2 or 3 sections to see how that works out. Thinking both of these baits will work well.

It isn't like amazon or Target... either when we are buying non tackle items where there are 100s if not 1000s of reviews and you can dismiss a certain percentage of them, large numbers of reviews works in the consumers favor. Then you have reviews like I found on a bluetooth speaker this weekend, where the person said the speaker in question didn't fit their needs and they would be purchasing one that was bluetooth compatible lol.

So reviews like that are a joke? Really? My wife and I use reviews all the time for all sorts of products, because short of buying everything it is the only way you learn anything about the quality of a product. I also don't ask people that are sponsored by the product I am asking about or salespeople for their opinions because they are biased. That said not all reviews are on the up and up, but you average them out, but I certainly don't dismiss them. Now if that review was a bad review about a Rapala you might believe it;)

The only thing that I have noticed over the years is that fish either will chase a bait and crush or or they want a bait that is sitting still or dropping straight down.. Once I figure out which it is I choose one of many options in those two categories. The thing I finally quit doing is trying to force feed them a crank when they don't want to chase their meal.

They scatter crank has been really good to me and have even fished it in moderate current and bounced it off rocks with no issues at all. You just can’t fish it fast, even saw one bring a nice musky to the boat only to turn off at the last second. I think the thing catches fish, but it was so different many won’t even try it, and that is why the thing ended up in clearence bins. Think the cranking rap, also fell to a similar issue, because it was a plastic bait produced by Rapala so it couldn’t be good right)

I wonder who makes their rods for them now? My cabelas prodigy sticks that I really like were made for them by Daiwa.

Thank you all for the ideas, and I am compiling a list for my second flipping stick. With your info in hand I went to my local cabelas which didn’t have a great selection, but I found a deal. They had the cabelas fish eagle 2 piece with a previous sale tag on it for 55 and with my 10 bucks off coupon walked out under 50 with tax. The 2 piece doesn’t bother me as much after using high end fly rods that are 3 and 4 piece sticks. Follow up question other than big jigs, what can I use this rod for. Would think it might double as a good light swimbait rod too.

Looking to toss some jigs in the 1 to 1.5 ounce range and looking for a good stick to use. Currently have an 8 ft mojo bass swimbait rod rated to 4 ounces and a wright McGill Clunn 8 ft s glass stick rated to 1.5 ounce lures. Used the mojo last year briefly and it worked, but want to use it for swimbaits. Was going to try the Clunn rod and see how it goes, but not sure it is ideal. The two sticks I saw in a catalog were a cabelas fish eagle 7’ H Fast action 3/8-2 1/4 ounce for 70 and a cabelas tourney trail with the same specs for 50. Any my thoughts on those choices, other ideas? Would also be happy if you told me what I had is good, heavy jigs is not an everyday tactic for me.

I like good bourbon and scotch so I would have to give up all of my subscriptions lol. Now just need to get it ordered. For subs I have BAM, In Fish, FLW, Bassmaster, and get Musky Hunter when I see a new one at a store. I enjoy reading magazines, BAM is the best, and has a ton of content, also takes a long time to get through. Really miss the old Bassin and Crappie mags.

Don't overthink things, they are just fish and we often give them way to much credit for being smart.