fishwizzard

I generally get them on eBay, although a lot of the JDM tackles stores carry them as well.

These are great heads, along with the similar Decoy Nailbomb: I like them both for different things but tend to use the Nailbombs more often due to them having a slightly finer hook and longer shank.

Wet wading is my favorite kind of fishing, take the fight to the fish and beat them in their own house. A year or two ago I started getting braver and have started wading muddy marshes as well as nice clear smallie rivers. It's slow going, but sometimes just getting a few feet off the bank can be huge in terms of castings angles.

Zero spool tension, max brakes to start. For a really easy to skip presentation I can usually back the brakes down a little.

I have the Gen2 version of the FMS and it is amazing. It's not a rod for open water popping, but for long cast-n-drag or moving topwaters like toads/buzz worms it is perfect. It's can handle thicker trebles, so smaller wake and glidebaits are good on it as well.

I have fished the E6X 783c along side the GLX version of the same rod. While the GLX is far superior in terms of sensitivity and general feel, the power/taper was very very close if not the same. If you know and love the MBR taper, then the E6X is well "worth it". The E6X wasn't bad per se, but for the money you can get a Dobyn's DX during one of the constant 20% off sale, you are close to an Expride, and in general the 200-250 range is very competitive. But again, if I was in the market in for a rod in that price range, I would consider an E6X because I do love the MBR.

I’ve Been storing my Fat Impacts in a Plano box for years with no noticeable deformation. I do keep them horizontal almost all the time, they only end up vertical when I stick them in a backpack for a day’s outing.

At long last, I have given in to the call of the popper. I still think walking lures are more fun to fish but I can't argue with results.

Very nice looking man, really glad it fit. I have been obsessively fishing small grubs, jighead and t-rigged. I want to get bit on the t-rig to test the power of new rod, but not a single hit. Over like 8 trips I have caught dozens and dozens of tiny tiny bass on the jighead, but tie the t-rig on and nothing. It's unfathomable that it keeps happening and I am going a little crazy I think. I am going to stop and switch to a popper for my afterwork trips for a while, I think that will improve my mood.

https://www.keitechusa.com/catalog/tungsten-jig-heads-keitech-shaky-football-jig-heads.html The hooks are very very small, I can try to grab some pics later if you are interested.

It’s not a terribly good test as he is dragging it flat without any weight on it. Load it down with an average amount of fishing tackle and only let the stern drag and I think he would have had a much different result. My first yak was a cheaper one from West Marine and even 10 feet of dragging the stern across a concrete ramp caused a noticeable amount of wear and I’ve never cared to repeat the experiment with my nicer yak.

I’ve always assumed it was due to the bass feeling safer at night because the risk of predation from birds is less, so the older and presumably more wary bass will more willingly hit stuff on the surface/in the shallows at night.

Yep, 100% my experience as well, I even use the same size and colors. I try to only buy them on sale and will rip one out of the water if I see a little pickerel chasing one of mine. They are good enough to be worth it imho, I would pay a good little bit for the same lure but with a titanium wire.

What line is it? There is a huge variation in the thickness of “10lb” mono, for example, Trilene XT is 0.014” while Supernatural is 0.010”. The line might simply be too thick to handle well on the size spinning reel you have.

Take a look at the JDM Daiwa Black Label rods. I have the LG 631MHFB-FR model and, although I am not a great skipper, it’s got an excellent taper for it. The rod will load a weightless Zoom Super well enough, so a 5” senko should be workable.

I have never bothered with the glue, I put the hook on first and then the weigh, so when pulling the line the hook can’t wedge in the gap. I have tested a few of them by securing the hook to a fence post and pulling, the hook bends or the line breaks before the gap starts to open. I have never managed to pry one back open again and get it to reclose satisfactorily, so it seems like it’s a one-way process and can’t be used to swap out weights.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Decoy_Open_Swivel_SN-7_7pk/descpage-DCYOS.html I use Decoy Open Swivels and I think there are other thing like this on the market.

Whatever length the rod I want comes it. If I had to pick I would go between 6'6" and 7', a compromise between leverage/handling and being able to take up slack quickly.

That is my favorite part of yak fishing, parking myself in a huge pad field and throwing at anything that twitches. I am less picky though, if it will hit a lure I am happy to catch it.

My 74UL is cursed. I have had it out for 4 trips totaling like 6 hours. In that time I have mostly fished two presentations: A 3" grub, rigged on a 1/8oz Daterhead, Total weight ~1/4oz A 3" grub, t-rigged on an 1/0 Twistloc w/ a 1/16oz weight and 8mm red glass bead, Total Weight ~3/16oz Same grub for both. Both fished the same, a long cast, a sink to the bottom, and then a slowish swim back to me. I will fish an area with each, alternating which one I start with. So far, I have caught 32 bass, all dinks. All of them, every one has been on the Daterhead, not even a single hit on the T-rig! Its nuts, they are so so close in terms of action and appearance. The rod isn't super sensitive imho, but there is no way I would be missing that many hits on the T-rig if they are happening at even half the rate the Darthead versions gets hit. It's driving me nuts as all I want to know is "Can I get good hookesets at the end of a long cast with t-rigged plastics?", but at this point I don't think I even care as clearly there is no reason to throw the dumb things! Other then that, I am liking the rod more and more. Now that I am used to casting with it, it has become easy to make 50-70' casts into some decent wind with pretty good accuracy. The length and taper was hard to get used to as most of my L and UL rods are a lot shorter and/or slower in taper. The Dobyn's UL has a lot of power compared to an UL Trout rod and even to a few L spinning rods I have owned. I am dying to hook into a larger bass with this thing as I think it will handle it very well. The tip is going to be amazing for river fishing, I debarb my hooks and even a jumpy little smallie is going to be hard put to escape it I think.

I have never successfully tied an actual arbor knot, I just do a clovehitch finished with two half-hitches and a small piece electrical tape over it.

That’s the hook I’ve been trying but I have been using the smaller 4/0 ones.

I use a 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG, but I really want to make a Twistlock Owner work, but the hooksets with them are awful, more lost then landed for sure. Which makes no sense as I use the Twistlocks on Super Flukes to great success and at times I fish them as slow as I would a Senko. Has anyone else had this kind of issue?

If you are throwing 1/8-3/16oz spoons, the Teton is very much worth looking at. I just picked up and am currently testing the Dobyn’s UL rod and it is looking like a great longer range option for spoons in that size range. Spoons are one presentation that I 100% makes sense to use L/UL casting tackle for. Their aerodynamic shape and tendency to twist lines makes them a great fit for it.

Most all ovens that don't have a built-in thermometer controlled dial are like this, our old propane oven is off by almost 15f, my wife's baking successes really improved once we started using a BBQ probe to monitor temps.