fishnkamp

Those swimbaits just plain catch fish and they really do not have to work them any special way. Throw them out, let them swim along and then occasionally let them die. The way they flutter down around a log, rock or whatever cover might be there is amazing. Just be prepared to get bit!

Just a note, this was an old posting from 2013. it probably would have been better to start your own thread. However let me start by welcoming you to the Bass Resource website. You will find lots of our members are happy to help you. Now everyone has their favorite way of doing things. Let me share my way. First I have my equipment and my wife's since she happens to be addicted to fishing as well. For whatever reason she has always had more line issues than me. So I have tried a bunch of different lines. Our favorite line for a spinning reel is Berkely original fused FireLine. I like to spool my reels about half full with Stren Mono say 10 pound. Then tie a uni to uni knot and spool the reel the rest of the way up with FireLine. To this I attach a mono or P Line CXX 10 pound leader. The 14 pound FireLine is about the same diameter as 6 pound mono. It has no stretch and is very sensitive. It also lasts for years. I do the same deal with the Stren as backing on all of my reels. it is good quality line so if I hit a big striper or big catfish I have no worries. It saves a bunch of money when spooling more than 25 reels between us. The price of fluoro or braid these days makes it worth doing it that way. If you touch the FireLine in the store you will notice i feels sorta wirey, that goes away and it softens up as soon as it hits the water and it never goes back to it again.

Depending on how long a rod you can handle here are some really nice rods to look at. These are rods the manufacturer designed specifically for frogs. Look at at the Irod Genesis II IRG754F “Fred’s Magic Stick” That rod is 7'5" and Fred Roumbanis designed it for frogs, but it i useful for lots more. It will run you around $150, Powell makes a nice one in the Max 3D 736 CEF Mag Hvy Frog. This rod has a real nice blend of power and light tip to throw the hollow bodied frogs. That rod runs $160 Finally look at a Dobyns 735C in any of the series, but especially the Champion DC735C

I belong to another board that has quite a few members that use Dobyns rods, including Gary himself. I asked a question about their Fury 704C, Sierra SA 704C and 705C. I was looking for the best choice in a rod for throwing spooks, and possibly throwing carolina rigs, chatterbaits and buzzbaits. If was looking at the 734, a 733 and a 703 or 704, but they you can be confusing. By the way I am restricted to a 7 foot rod by my rod locker, so that was my interest in the704C and the 705C If you read their answers it becomes less confusing. Basically they said my best choice was the 734C and here is what was said. Here was the first response. "The added length of the 734 has many advantages...casting, working baits, controlling fish are the top 3. A 7' rod is not the best for long casts and deeper water work. Carolina rigs and footballs should be 7'4-8' rods. The 734 is very versatile. Everything except the C Rig is right in the prime zone for what you have mentioned. I have several of them for exactly what you are talking about. The 704 is good for targets that are closer that you typically throw those baits mentioned. Spinnerbaits come to mind, along with dock work.The 734 and 704 work for Texas rigs and lighter bottom work in general. As mentioned, the 704 is good in closer quarters." Another response was more targeted based on the restriction The first response "nailed the reasons a 734 is usually a better choice than the 704. Most of them are not important until you've experienced the longer rods. In your case where a 7 foot rod is the longest you can carry and probably regularly fish with... you don't know what your missing. Now that's not a bad thing, we all used to think a 7 foot rod was very long... so you'll be very happy with the 704c The 704 will do everything your wanting very well. It will be an awesome spook rod, great chatterbait and Buzz bait rod. It will work as a c rig rod but wouldn't be my choice, since you have to stay under 7 feet the 705c would be my choice. I think the 705c will be great for all your bait choices here except the buzz bait and chatterbait. I think you're combining one to many techniques on this one, a good reason to go ahead and get two" Based on their responses, and the fact that I know the Dobyns rods run a half step power lighter than other manufacturers, the rods explanation makes sense. The longer rod (the 734 ) has a different amount of beef and tip taper and and can handle the longer line and heavier baits like the carolina rig, To do the same thing in a 7 footer I need to step up to the 5 power rod. My choice will be a Sierra 704C and find another rod in my arsenal to handle the carolina rigs. I am trying to upgrade my rods and sell some lesser quality rods that I have been fishing for quite a while. Certain rods are going to the Middle River Bass clubs flea market in March. I hope this helps explain the difference and why they might look the same but they really are not.

Guys he is running a St Croix Premier 6 foot ml spinning rod and a good reel. He can easily change to 6 pound test and he will be set. That rod is fine in fact very good. I used to chase smallies on the Susqy with several Premier rods. My suggestion to add to what he already has been given is to fish the small baits that have been listed but also add a swim bait like the Reaction Innovation Little Dipper on a belly weighted swimbait hook. They can be fantastic. When I did fish the Potomac and Susqy rivers for smallies the most successful lure for me was a homemade twintail grub ( like a beetle spin body). We throw them on 1/8 ounce ball jigs. Check out the Uncle Bucks lineup for something similar.

My wife and I are smallmouth nuts. Because she is addicted to catching them, I get to vacation on places like Lake Erie and Dale Hollow. We have some nice reservoirs here in MD also. Without seeing the lake that you will be fishing let me share some baits we use on all of them, I never go anywhere clear water, or dirty tidal without some 5 inch grubs. I like Kalin's Lunker grubs, as well as Yamamoto grubs. In clear water watermelon red flake, white, smoke with salt & pepper all seem to work well at times. I even like the bluegill color. Next, look at a hollow body swimbait like Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper, Keitech, or Strike King Swimming Caffeine shad. My preference is the Skinny Dipper and Big Dippers. These can be fished in shallower coves with just a swimbait hook, they have the screw lock to hold the nose of the bait and then just texpose it in the rear. For deeper water, a belly weighted swimbait hook can be used, This is good down to say 10 feet of water. Lastly companies like Picasso make lead headed fish head shaped swimjig heads. I use 3/8 and 1/2 when fish are suspended under bait. The deepest I have ever encountered was on a 100 foot flat on main lake. The bait was about 15 feet down and the 5 to 7 pound smallies were around 30 feet deep. Anyway I like those baits because they are so versatile. Lastly, if you find the fish on the deeper ends of points or rock piles a blade bait can be just as good as a spoon. Baits like Cincy Fishers, Silver Buddies, Gay Blades all work. Since you may loose some if you are fishing them correctly, I like the Cincy Fishers, much more affordable and well made. One more tip is to go on Anglers Technologies and Navionics web app so you can study the lake ahead of time. I use both of those anytime I am headed to a lake I have not been on and I want to make a game plan up. Remember a live minnow helps locate fish too. Sometimes a slip bobber and a finesse style carolina rig with a minnow works wonders. Enjoy your trip and share some pictures! Smallies are soo much fun!

Seriously Kayaks have come a log way. Lets get some details. What kind of water do you have that you can fish. Is there any small creeks, mid sized rivers, ponds, or bigger lakes? All of these offer different opportunities to fish and some require larger or smaller boats. Boats like Gheenoes, Kayaks, jon boats all have their place and offer different stability. Each can be moved around differently. Some need a trailer some can be roof topped. And of course some of the fishing opportunities offer fishing from shore. Another option is to see if you have a lake or reservoir that rents these type boats. Often you can use your own battery and trolling motor. I have two such lakes and often you see someone do just that.

The Dobyns Fury FR 704C would be my choice. It is the 7 foot heavy model is a real weapon. Very nice rod. Another great choice would be an Irod Genesis II IRG 704C. If you have never felt an Irod these too are awesome rods. I fish two rods for jigs and plastics. The first is my favorite rod of my entire arsenal. It covers baits from 1/4 to 3/4 but, can handle way more than just that. Check out the Powell Max 3D (mine is a Powell Max, the old version) 683 CEF. That is a 6'8" 3 power beast of a rod. I fish rods from all of these rod manufacturers and really like their products.

Then I just missed them. I was not axtually looking at any rods other than a St Croix Avid X at the time. I was in a group of about 5 of us..

You better call ahead. I am not sure they will have them in stock. This BPS is stocking more and more of only BPS gear. I was there on Thursday and I do not remember if they had any Ike rods in stock. If you run around the beltway to Angler's Express you could check out a bunch of other brands including Dobyns, Powell's, Duckett, one three, Irod, Cashion St Croix and some Shimanos as well.

They are gone in my BPS in Baltimore

If what you are looking for is a nice jerkbait rod have you looked at an Abu Garcia IKE Delay series jerkbait rod. It is 6'4 ( short handle means you do not beat up your arm) The EVA is a nice comfortable firm type, not the cheap squishy kind. I have a bunch of time on mine and really like it. If you prefer cork? Check out a Powell max 6104 CB. The handle ic a bit shorter if I remember correctly. I just sold a St Croix premier 6 foot medium that wold work good for most 1//4 to 3/4 spinnerbaits. What exactly are your preferences. Lastly call Tom of Toms Custom rods and have him build you exactly what you want. If he builds it it will be beautiful and fill your needs.

I agree with the Dobyns 735C That will run you around $110

Well since you got crickets I will add my 2 cents. I hear the Zillion is a great reel. Unfortunately I can not help with any of the higher end Diawas.. I can tell you I have a friend that turned me onto the Diawa Exceler ( about a $99 rewel just a few months ago)and then i git my first Diawa Tatula Type R reel in a 8-1 left handed model to flip and frog with. I liked it so much I sold off my Curado Es and Chronarchs 200E7s and now I own 4 Tatula Type Rs and 2 Tatula CTs. They are great reels unless you are used to fishing with some of the really tiny bodied reels like a Lews. Those reels get lost in my hand and actually would be uncomfortable for me. I like the fuller size reels. In my opinion the CT is a tiny bit smaller than my Chronarch 200E7. I really like having an automatic centrifugal break system as well as an adjustable magnetic system. From what I have heard the Zillions are even nicer. It is amazing no one else has responded. Anyway I use both left and right and have some 6/3-1 and two 8-1 reels and will be getting some more as I change my entire arsenal over to Diawa.

I would not expect to stand up in a narrow width boat. Instead look to add these type seats or any other seat and clamp on bracket set. Now you have a seat with a comfortable back. Here is a pic of a 15 foot boat I converted from a gas to an electric reservoir rig. If you look just in front of the rear bench you can see two battery boxes. What you can not see is the two other battery boxes located behind the rear bench. The wire you see coming over the rear transom is a transducer cable. One person ran the boat from place to place using the two rear 55lb trolling motors. We fished using the front 55lb trolling motor. The black arm you see nest to the front seat was a depth finder mount. The three colored things below it was a set of buoys. I also had 4 fishing rod holders to troll for white perch with. In the picture you can also see an Anchor Mate on the front deck. It consists of the hand winch ( where you see the white rope) and the anchor assembly. These are very handy.

Angry John I agree my first, and not my last, Dobyns was a Champ DC 705C. I consider it to be a fantastic rod, Much like the G Loomis IMX rods that I used to buy. However I was trying to keep my suggestions in the price range the op was asking for opinions on.

Sorry that was a mistype on my part. I had typed it correctly in my original response. One nice thing about the Champion series rods is that they make most of the DC champs in both split and full handle to make everyone happy. I have handled the Fury 765 Flip as my friend Kris has one.The rod is really nice and light and well balanced. It casts very well.

The rods I suggested are rods designed for exactly this purpose. If we look at the Dobyns Fury 795 Flip first. It is a 7 foot 6 inch rod. Flipping sticks and Punching rods are rated slightly different meaning they will be beefier than a standard rod. So if you had a 7'6" standard casting rod in heavy power and a heavy power flipping stick of the same length the flipping stick will be beefier and have a faster tip. The 765 flip is rated as a Medium Heavy Flipping stick with a lure rating of 1/4 to 2 ounce. This is much stiffer than a regular medium heavy casting rod. It is built to take the hard shock of driving that big thick hook on a short distance using heavy pound test braid. This goes even more with the 805 punch rod.

You never mentioned a budget. I am going to make a few suggestions in the "under $200" price range. If your budget allows you to spend more then look at the same rods in a Champion series instead of a Fury series. There are two Dobyns Fury rods to look at. The first is a Fury FR765 FLIP. It is a nice flipping stick that is rated for 1/4 to 2 ounce. I doubt I would push it that far but it should handle up to the 1 1/2 punched. If you truly want to punch more, than they have a rod called the 805 Flip/Punch and that should work fine. It is rated as a 5 power rod( pretty beefy ) 8 foot long and is rated for 3/8 to 2 1/2 ounce lures. Those two rods cost $109 and $119. The Champion series is a higher end rod with a more expensive, lighter more sensitive blank and some better components. A Champion DC 805 Flip/Punch rod rates for the same weight of lures and costs $260. Another option would be to go to IROD and look at the Irod Genesis II IRG7114P “Bub’s Punch Rod. It rates for lures weighing between 1/2 and 2 ounces. It runs $150. If I went this route I would call out to Irod and discuss your intended use with them. I have done just that. Before I purchased my Irods I called them and they were happy to help me select the rod that worked the best for me.

Great, then here is what I suggest and it is not hard to do. I would first try out the boat with both batteries in the rear and my tackle moved forward to say the middle. See how the boat acts. My batteries would be in a battery box like this one. Minn Kota Trolling Motor Power Center Average rating: 4.5out of 5 stars163 reviewsratings Q&A By: Minn Kota Walmart #: 550389590 share on facebookshare on twittershare on pinterest This button pops up a carousel that allows scrolling through close up images available for this product Then I would move them from the rear compartment and see how the boat would act if they were pushed forward to the area just behind the front bench. this will require you get some quality humber 8 gauge wire probably. I would test it with wiring up only one battery. If the boat feels like it responds better with the batteries moved forward, that is what I would do. I would mount the battery boxes with one on each side and use either the semi rigid pvc type wire conduit or the flexible wire loom used in auto and marine industry. Places like West Marine carry that stuff. I would bring a run down the sides along the floor or under the gunnels then have them come together in an electrical box. That way all you have to do is put a 3 way plug on your trolling motor. If you buy one of the Shumacker battery chargers you could cut off the alligator clips and install a 3 way plug on it. Then just plug the charger into the 3 way plug outlet on your boat and the batteries can charge.It can be done just that easily. If you use a Quick disconnect plug on the charger you could have two pig tails made up. One would give you the boat plug and the alternate one could give you the alligator clips back so you could use the charger as it originally was made. Here is a picture of the charger i mentioned. It is available from WalMart. i used three for my reservoir rig/ This button pops up a carousel that allows scrolling through close up images available for this product

Welcome back. First I need some info. Is this primarily a river/stream boat or a lake reservoir boat. Are you trailering or cartop/back of truck hauling situation? Or will this be left at the water's edge and just pushed into the water. These facts change my suggestions for you. I have had boats that I did all of those things with. In fact my first boat was a 12/32 jon boat we used on a reservoir. So far I have owned 11 boats in a 40 year span. So let me know where and how you will move and use it. Also was that a transom mount trolling motor?

Have you looked at an Okuma Helios yet/ I run an Okuma RTX and really like it but the helios is even nicer.

I see your budget is nice around $100 to $150. Excellent, there are lots of good choices in that budget. You say mostly weighted wacky and texas rigs. We need to consider a few things first. Do you own a quality sensitive 6'6 to 7 foot medium action spinning rod. Because this is the first weapon in a good rod arsenal. The 6'6" to 7 foot medium spinning rod handles all of the grubs, tubes, light weight texas rigged plastics ( up to say 1/2 of an ounce total weight) most efficiently. It can also handle unweighted Sencos or floating worms as well. Lightly weighted fluke style baits like Strike King Caffeine Shads or Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers, both unweighted and with belly weighted swimbait hooks, can easily be fished on this rig. So too can a drop shot work on this rod, although most guys prefer a medium light rod for a drop shot. If you do not own such a rod a Dobyns Fury FR703SF would work well. If you have that rig taken care of already, then the next rod in the arsenal can be a rod to throw heavier texas rigs, craws, wacky rigs and jigs. For that purpose I would look at a Dobyns FR 703C or FR 733C. That rod is going to handle a bunch or techniques. An alternative choice would be the slightly heavier duty FR 704C or FR 734C. That depends on the average weight of the baits you want to throw. All of these rods are lightweight, feel great in your hand and are made very well with good components. For the money they are a great bang for your buck. KI also like offerings from Powell and Irod, but I think you will be happy if you choose one of the Dobyns. If you give me more info I can try to narrow your selection down a but.

For general use I like a 6-3 to one reel especially for small to mid sized cranks, traps, spinnerbaits, wake baits, chatterbaits, and popping type topwaters. I just do not want to physically slow my hands down that much to fish them correctly. I do believe there are times I want to burn a bait but a small crankbait or trap can be overfished in my opinion. For baits like a Zara Spook or frog I want a very fast reel like an 8-1. I do not fish the bait that fast but rather I want to bring it in fast and rapidly cast again in the case of a missed blow up. your 7.3-1 is a good compromise for all of the above and if I were only fishing with a few rods I would set my arsenal up that way. I have over a dozen rods in my rod locker. So they are setup according to uses and what reel ratio and line works best for those techniques. Baits like texas rigs plastics, carolina rigs, jerkbaits and minnow baits do not matter since all the reel does is pick up slack. You move those baits by either dragging, hopping, or jerking the rod.

rippin-lips that is true, but he only wanted a small amount of braid maybe double or triple his usual cast as he is learning and is afraid of backlashes. If he has a shallow spool then I would drop down to say 8 pound test. I specifically suggested the 12 or 14 to get a tight firm spool of mono that might resist the braid from digging in. That works very well on all of my reels but I do not fish say a Zillion sv or one of the higher end Shimanos with the shallow spools.