fishwizzard

For me the Menace is the only "essential" plastic in their lineup. It is so versatile and there isnt really any else out there quite like it.

That blue cat is amazing, but I am far far more impressed at a walleye in the canal. EDIT: I need to stop being lazy and drag my kayak out to Widewater. It can be such a pain to launch that I never do it, but it would be amazing to be able to fish the entire thing.

Oh, I just googled the article name, it comes up as the first or second result. I am using my grippers more and more lately. I have the grippers/scale in my back pocket and it is very quick to reach back and grab them. I feel like I am getting the bass back in the water faster with them as well, without having to focus as much on keeping a good grip on the bass, I can get the hook and the bass back in the water in less time.

That is interesting and the xrays are pretty cool. I have switched over to using a small fish gripper to both weigh bass and to help control and lift larger ones out of the water when using multi-hooked lures, it is good to hear that lifting them this way isn't harmful.

Really? I will have to go look for it, do you remember if the listing had good pictures? I gotta say, the more I look at the flat green on chrome, the more I am liking it. If I could find a rod to match it, a SV103 done up as a "bootleg" might be kind of fun.

I disagree. The shellcrackers were a dead match to small, thin-bodied panfish. They have such a subtle glide to them when rigged on a lightly weighted swimbait hook and give amazing hooksets. They also skip like a dream and are very durable. I am gonna buy up maybe a hundred of them, that should last me a good long while.

The "special" zillion I think is the most fun would be the "A Fishing Ape", a line of reels, lures, and clothing done in collaboration with the Japanese streetwear brand A Bathing Ape, more commonly know as BAPE. The reel is simple in design, but I really dig the flat green. Some of the clothing is really cool, but way way too expensive and likely even an XL would be too small to ever fit me. I might pick up one of the lures though. [/url] Edit, I can't seem to find a large hirez of the zillion.

Yea, I have been checking a few forums for a used rod that would suit my needs, but so far no luck. I am not in a huge hurry to replace the Irod as I still need to sort out what reel I am going to get for it, my 9:1 Zillon is not at all fun to crawl a Hudd with, so it has to go as well. I am also very very lazy about selling/shipping rods, I have done the "I'm gonna sell X and use the money towards Y!" a few times now but have yet to sell a single "X", so I am determined to sell a few rods before I buy a new one. Unless I find a really good deal.....

Thanks for the imput guys, I think I am going to wait for Black Friday to see if I can get a deal on the 795SB MT, if not then I will start looking into a custom for real.

Weird, I was looking some months ago for fit-over fishing glasses for my wife and this brand never came up when I was searching. All the ones I found were junk so it's good to fine a better option, thanks!

Wow, thanks guys, I had not heard of Big Bear or Carrot Stix before and had certainly never thought of musky rods. The 2-3oz low end on them concerns me, but it is a great place to start looking. I have a pair of very basic custom rods already and was going to reach out to that builder to get his thoughts, but wanted to have some idea what I was looking for first.

I have been fishing smaller swimbaits on a IRod Fred's Magic Stick this season and I am really liking throwing them. The Irod is working fine, but it's upper rating is too low for some of the lures I want to throw with it and the long handle is a pain to deal with. I want to replace it with a rod rated in the 1-4oz or 1-5oz range. The issue is finding one with a shorter butt section and a shorter overall length. The closest factory rod I have found is the Dobyn's 795SB MT. It still has a longer handle then I would like and at 7'9" is too long to fit in my car without worry. My idea would be a rod with like a 15-16" handle and no more then 7'6" OAL. I am not totally against the Dobbyn's, but the length worries me and will make it hard to leave the rod in my car for afterwork fishing trips as I will have to rest it up on the dash as opposed to a shorter rod that I can run up between the front seats and cover with a towel or jacket. I can't find a factory rod to fit my needs and was wondering if the cost of the Dobyn's (around $250) would be a reasonable budget for a no-frills custom rod. I would prefer a full cork handle (don't care if it is a cheaper grade of cork) and just a simple single color wrap.

It depends on my mood and the weather. If I am not baking in the sun/freezing in the wind I will stay longer and try to grind one out. If I am at the beginning on a long work break I will stay longer but if I am about to start work up again I will move more often to try and get on some fish. If I am by the pond by the great bbq place I stop fishing at 1pm irrespective of how much they are biting.

I don't remember what size the picture I saw used, but I found it while googling "ned rig jigheads" or something like that.

Yea, they have the same four that most places have, plus the KVD Magic. I really liked some of the lighter green translucent ones they used to sell. The "Honey Candy" color seemed to work especially well on a big swim bait hook. [

The best solution I have seen, is tying a small fly fishing hook onto the shank, but obviously that is a little labor-intensive. The new Z man heads with the lead keeper on the shank hold very well. Once the plastic has all the salt washed out of it you do have to reset it every couple of cast, but it generally only slips small fraction of an inch away from the head. I still find a hook to be too big and too thick for the tackle I like to fish them on, so I'm probably going to stick with buying Gooher heads and just gluing my plastics on.

They offer four colors when the baits used to be offered in eight or ten. Most other retialers also have limited colors and, for the ones that show it, limited inventory.

I have been noticing that these plastics have been going out of stock at a lot of places and not coming back. Does anyone know if they are being discontinued or something like that? I like the them for a few different presentations and want to stock up if they are going way.

Cool, thanks for the info! I like the looks of the hooks, they are sharp as hell and did very well in the "pliers test". The Gammie Finesse Cover hooks are far stronger, but I don't think my dropshot rod could really bend either of them, so there is no disadvantage to the thinner hook.

Hah, part of the appeal of the SV103 is that it takes the Steez sized spools. I am trying to keep to as few spool sizes as possible.

The SV103 is a really really great reel. I love the Alphas series for how light they are and how well they palm, they disappear in my hand. But the SV103 feels like the insides are full of melted butter, just perfectly smooth with no wiggle or play anywhere. I was a little leery of it at first due to the weight, but man am I glad that I took the chance on one.

I had not! I have a pair of Elite Tech Smallmouth MH/F rods that I use on my yak already and really like them. I do prefer a full handle to a split, but I don't think that is a deal breaker. I will have to poke around and find some reviews. I do worry about the rating, I don't want to go too light. Right now the heaviest lure I want to throw is the 2.5oz BBZ-1 Rat, but I want a little wiggle room on the the upper end.

I think my UL casting combo is "finished", so I thought I would post it. It's a PX 68 with a DIY spool and BFS Air bearings. I have it spooled up with 4lb Trilene XL. The rod is a Kuying Teton UL. For a $50 rod I am really impressed with it. It will throw a 1/16 inline very well, but my thumb is not yet up to up to it with how low I have to run the brakes to get good distance. For now I mostly use 1/8 inlines and spoons and with the brakes at 10 a slight flick of the wrist sends them both flying. For the most part I have only used it for white perch so I wanted to try and get a larger stocker trout with it this year to see how it did. For the last day or so I have been trying for stockers with it. I ran through maybe a dozen inline spinners, spoons, and micro cranks without a single trout and only two hits total. At dusk today I gave up and decided to tie on popper and see what my little rod could do. That bass was maybe in the 1.5lb range at best, but it is by far the biggest fish I have caught on this combo. The rod was great, the top section was bent double keeping the pressure on and the backbone was way more powerful than I thought it was. I would have lost against any kind of cover, but for open water I feel totally confident with a fish at least a bit bigger then this guy.

Interesting, I will give them another try then. Do you keep the hook point buried in the worm, lay it along the top exposed, or out the top and skin-hooked?

Big baits were not getting it done, but tiny popper saved the day.