fishwizzard

I like the thicker fluoro both for strength and how it affects the fluke. I think the thicker line makes the lure slower, so like I can fish it with fast, hard twitches, and the fluke will make a quick dart to the side and but then quickly stop. I don't know if the bass like it better that way, but they very much seem to be able to get a better bite on it when fished like that.

I don't enjoy the braid/leader fukein' life, but it was the best option that I tried. I couldn't find a reel/spool that would both cast the fluke well and manage the thick, stiff, line. The way I fish a fluke, fast and jerky, and where I fish a fluke, overgrown marshy swamps, conspire to give me a lot of loose-line on the spool issues, so going to thicker braid on a shallow spool fixes that for the most part. The leader is half for teeth and half for action, I don't like the way the fluke moves with straight braid. I use thick, still leader because I want to get a good knot with the thicker braid and I find the stiffer the leader, the less I hate how the braid behaves. If in the last two seasons you were at a SOMD pond and some some dude squatting on the bank trying to swap out a spool while muttering to himself, that was me. I tried so many different things and wasted so much 16lb Inivx.

I do have some 30lb leader, so I will give it a try with a Rico next time I retie. I may have also ordered a pair of both Evergreen OBs and Pop-Xs. All in the same basic gill colorway as my Ricos, so the testing will be more even.

In the before-times I was up there a few times a year, hopefully I can be back soon. I was also shocked at how light it was. I bought a small pile of the Keitech jigs from ebay a year or three ago as I fish a single lead-ban lake. So I have used them, but only a handful of time. Now I kinda wish I had grabbed the other two lots the seller had...

No need to even pull the rod out: The 1/2oz Keitech with that tiny trailer weighs the same as my "standard" 1/4oz jig. I had forgotten how small and thin the hooks on those Keitechs are. Based on that, I would say that the 611m+ would be fine for that presentation. It's not going to feel as powerful as an actual jig rod, but I have a few dozen decent 2-3lb bass on the rod with my jigs, which have the same if not thicker hook then the Keietchs. If you want I can still get tip deflection pic later tonight when it's my "fussing with tackle over some beers" time.

Oddly enough, my M/XF Avid now has 30lb braid to 16-20lb saltwater leader on it. I had spent years looking for the "perfect" Zoom Super combo and settled on that line choice last fall. Thicker braid to mitigate the loose-line issue from slackline twitching and the heaver leader to deal with cover and sharp pickerel and snakehead teeth. I am going to give it a try with lighter poppers but am not super optimistic.

On a spinning rod I keep my entire hand in-front of the reel stem with my pointer finger indexed on the blank. The keeper goes on the opposite side just above where my finger falls, or below my finger tip, tight to the for-grip.

There’s a chance I have that exact jig and plastic sitting around the stash, if I do I’ll snap a picture tonight of the tip deflection if that would help you. I know that I have a 3/8oz Keitech jig and the TRD Craws.

Interesting. I am currently using a loomis 721c, a fairly light rod, and 11lb Defier Armilo (.0108”) for my popping adventures. I went with such light tackle as my previous popper rod, a 6’3” M/XF Avid, has been re-purposed for other things so I don’t have appropriate line on it anymore.

The 611m+ is an incredible rod but I wouldn’t want to use it for 1/2oz jigs. In my experience it’s ideal for 1/4oz jigs but a 3/8oz jig with a bulky trailer really starts to overpower it. Specifically, the Kietech jigs might be ok at 1/2oz due to the thinner hooks and lower overall weight, but that PA would never be my first choice for jigs that heavy.

That’s a very interesting take on things, thanks for posting it. Before I got on the popper train, walking baits were my preferred non-frog top water and I tended to work them fairly quickly. With the poppers I’m trying to break that habit and work them very slowly, but it is good to hear that speeding them up isn’t the worst idea out there.

I do fish a fair amount of weightless plastics, just not on that rod. I am not a huge fan of XF rods due to the poor casting performance, so I tend to use them exclusively in the upper half of their range to help them load better on the cast. In addition to smaller jigs/t-rigs, I have used the BT as a dropshot rod a good bit. It’s got a great power/taper for t-rigged DS fishing, esp when using a cast-n-crank retrieve. It’s also a lot of fun with smaller walking/popping lures. In open water, it makes a reasonable 5” Senko/Super Fluke rod, but I generally want a little more power for those presentations. Overall it’s a really nice rod in terms of fit and finish, power/taper balance, and sensitivity. It’s very much a “ML/XF spinning rod in casting form” and can do a lot of stuff well in that world.

Yep, I have had one for a few years now and really like it. It's got a very fast action, so it's not the best caster, but once you get the lure out there, it's wonderful for small jigs, t-rigs, and little paddletails. This is the 3600 box I packed to use with it, the three presentations on top all weight right around 3/8oz, which is the rod's sweetspot.

I am down for that time frame. I want to order a pair of Evergreen OB's and a pair of Pop-X's before then, but trying to find a store that has both in stock in the colors that I want is proving hard.

Awesome, this is what I am looking for. For me, the Rico is very much a Blooper, a Pop-X/Bubble Pop 65 is a Spitter and the Pop-Max would be the Drunk Sailor.

How are you guys managing to not open the door? I would have to be tied to the mast to not succumb to the urge to take a peek/sniff at least once.

Ha, I wish I could, but I was out of work for like all of 2020 and have to be a good boy for the time being.

You don’t say? I have a Super Red Demon that would look amazing with a Mars on it but the sticker shock was too great so I ended up with a Ryoga 1520.

I will be curious to hear your thoughts on all of those, I’m just starting to dip my toe into upscale poppers. I bought a pair Ricos a few months ago to start with and I want to pick up another pair of a different brand/style in the next couple weeks to compare to/complement them.

I get my second shot next week, so I will be game for a meet up as well. I will admit that a lot of my bass time this year has been ringing in a new finesse rod, but even when powerfishing I am only getting the tiniest of bass. A super fluke around emerging pads during pre-spawn has traditionally gotten me some of my biggest bass of the year, but so far this time it's a million dinks falling over themselves trying to hit it.

There is now Ester line out there. From what I can gather, it's like fluorocarbon and braid had a baby, so you get a single strand, "clear" sinking line that has no stretch. The people who are talking about it seem to mostly use it for extreme UL fishing for crappie using solid tipped ajing rods.

Top is a 1/0 Light, bottom is a 1/0 Finesse. I am currently on a "tiny weightless plastics" kick as well and had these out on the bench already. I can weigh them both if you would like. In general, I use the Light hooks for general duty fishing and the Finesse ones for UL and some L rods as it's a thinner hook and the wider gap seems to give better hooksets with less force needed to move the plastic. I have some of the 3X/Flipping hooks but only really use them for t-rigged jigs and the very very little punching I do.

I went out on Saturday and got about two dozen dinks on a Super Fluke. It seems like I have The Curse of the Dink on me, I have caught over a hundred bass in the last few weeks and maybe 2-3 have gone over a pound. Yesterday I had three little 7” bass chasing and pecking at my chatterbait on multiple casts, but they were all too small to get hooked. I am going to lean into it, lighter rods, smaller presentations, tying my beard hair together to use as line, the Dinks will not break me!

So once a few years ago I, for some dumb reason, capped my (empty, rinsed, but not well enough) gatorade bottle and it made it's way from my crate into my car. I found it like 2 months later. In August. I opened it and almost fell over, the ammonia smell was insane, it brought tears to my eyes. The new rule is that as soon as I decide to replace my bottle, the cap gets thrown away before the bottle go into the crate.

@Corey T, I wish I could help you, but I never got a single bite on that t-rigged grub! After like 3-4 dozen bass on the jighead version I gave up and moved on to other things. The little bass will be hungry for a while, so I will pick it back up soon. I have an abundance of small 2-4” plastics, so I am going to try a few more t-rig options. I don’t have any of the current Phenix rods, I did have the Recon 2 6’8” L/F and loved it. Regretted the sale the second the rod left my hands. The taper was ever so slightly on the Mod side of Fast and was the perfect blend of castability and hookseting Power. I would replace it if I could and I’m going to give a Light from one of the more current lines a try someday.