IndianaFinesse

I've been having problems setting the hook with a 1/32 and 1/8 ounce owner ultrahead shaky head on a 6'10" ml/f (fishes close to a medium power) rod with a spinning reel spooled with 8 pound braid and a short eight pound mono leader. Rigged with either a finesse trick worm or a full size trick worm, usually with the hook point buried as that is the only way to get through all of the weeds. How should I set the hook with this set up? I only have maybe a 35% hooking percentage.

Around here they spawn multiple times, there is usually 3-4 waves with each successive wave smaller in numbers and often size.

Sorry about the confusion, it isn't meant to be. Here it is, in essence. Soft plastics 4" and under, on a mushroom jighead weighing no more than 3/32 (usually 1/16 is the most used, followed by 1/32 and 3/32) ounce with either a #6, #4, or #2 hook. Some would add a #1 hook, but I don't like them that big. The most versatile and popular with the mwf crowd is the 1/16 ounce head with a #4 or #2 hook, with half of a zinkerz or a TRD. i happen too know team9nine spends a lot of time (especially in the summer) throwing a zoom finesse trick worm on a little mushroom head.

You're both wrong to some degree, unless you are really jerking the bail closed when turning the reel handle. The biggest negative of closing it automatically IMHO is that it twists the line. I close the bail manually, using my hand to slowly feather the line while closing it on the spool and closing the bail at the end of the cast.

I would still consider a 4" finesse wormz a Ned rig, unless he used a big 1/8 ounce jig on it or something.

No, I haven't had any durability issues with the TRD, but I don't use them anymore either. But back when I did use the TRD, I never had a bait get to torn up to use. I would simply rotate the hook around in an entire circle on one end, then once the one side got to torn up to use I flip the bait around and do the same thing to the other end.

Zinkerzs are still made out of elaztech, but have a much higher salt content than the TRD. Which means that once the salt has soaked out of the zinkerz, it is full of tiny holes that make it softer and more boyant than the TRD. I always glue my zinkerzs and zeroes onto the jighead, and they last almost forever. I've only had one half of a zinkerz get to torn up to use, and that was after it had caught over 100 bass. I always break them off first.

If you have a curado 70, let me know how they compare once you've tested it. Looking to buy my first non-greenie curado... Which is a slippery slope I've heard.

Finesse baits-6'10" ml/f spinning rod with eight pound braid Shallow cranks, spinnerbaits, and buzzbaits- 6'6" mh/mf (fishes like a medium power) paired with a shimano bantam "greenie" curado, spooled with 12 pound mono. Medium and deep diving cranks-7'3" mh/m rod paired with a daiwa excellor, spooled with 12 pound mono. Jerkbaits and topwater-6'6" m/f (fishes like a medium heavy)spinning rod spooled with 10-12 pound braid for topwater in the summer, and 8 pound mono for jerkbaits in the winter. Ned rig, shallow cranks-6'6" ml/mf spinning rod spooled with 6-8 pound braid for Ned rigging, and I'll swap out the spool for a spool loaded with 10 pound mono for shallow cranks if the need arises. I recently broke two of my rods (one on a pike that surged under the kayak, and the other on a dumb cast), but these two are what I'm replacing them with. Frogs, flipping, punching, big jigs-magnumheavy/fast 7'3" rod paired with an 8.2/1 ratio reel spooled with 40-50 pound braid. Jigs, t-rigs, general purpose rod-mh/f 7' rod paired with an 7.1:1 ratio reel, spooled with 30-40 pound braid.

Senkos, jigs, and frogs are the easiest.

Power pro, although I do really like gliss on some of my spinning reels.

How do you like your dobyns frog rod?

Yep, but they aren't getting my money

I did not intend to offend you by stating the catch rates of some mwf anglers(?) but there is absolutely zero truth in the statement that we say there is only one bait that can be considered a "Ned rig". We fish with many different baits, finesse shadzs, leachzs, hula stickzs, etc. I personally prefer elaztech baits because they are softer and more durable, it get pretty expensive fishing cut down senkos, but I do sometimes throw a slightly cut down finesse trick worm on it sometimes. No where have I said that you have to fish elaztech baits, they are just my recommendation. The only thing that bugs me is that the definition of the word " Ned rig" is being lost and confused. While it used to have a generally accepted meaning, it no longer does. When words lose their definition, we lose our ability to communicate affectively. Now days, when someone mentions that they were slaying them on the "Ned rig", I have to ask whether it was actually just a shaky head (according to your definitions, what's the difference between a shaky head and a Ned rig anyways?) or if it was actually a small plastic under four inches on a small jig head, that isn't so heavy that it mist be fished on a tight line. I could not care less if you do fish an entire senko on a 1/5 ounce jig head, but don't call it something that it isn't. The other thing is that many new comers don't realize that when they buy a pack of 1/4 ounce power shroomzs and put a trd on it, they aren't really using a ned rig and are actually fishing an entirely different bait. Then they dismiss the rig, or come back here and ask why they aren't seeing the catch rates expected. BTW, I don't know where you live, but I can garruntee that the fishing isn't any worse than it is in Indiana or Kansas. Just ask @Bluebasser86and I don't always catch 5-10 bass an hour on it either, but if I'm not getting those catch rates or better, I am usually not fishing it.

He he, I ruined my season by forgetting my password. So I had to create another account under the same name, I'm still in but obviously I can't have a decent score starting from scratch at this point in the season. Oh well, I guess I can just add the points I get to my previous accounts total.

Definitely worth the net, we bought it for like 5$. Not huge for a flathead by any means, just excited to finally land a decent one on lite tackle. I'm not entirely sure i even want an 80 pound cat on the line, at least not on that set-up lol. On a side note, we tore the crappies up today on another lake. 160 fish, 137 of which came in a two hour period once we found an ideal structure situation. Nonstop crappie action, an average of one every 55 seconds or so. I could not have imagined a structure more ideal than it was, a hump rose out of 22 feet and topped out at four, and on one edge of the hump there is a huge 50'×50' brush pile.

Plus the 65$ entry fee, it is not worth it in my opinion. I just recently found out about the length records, and was planning on submitting my next channel cat over 31.5 inches (I catch about half a dozen over that every year, with four so far), but once I found out how IGFA makes you pay a total of $115 I quickly changed my mind. 50$ for a measuring mat and a 65$ entry fee is robbery IMO. Kind of lame to, I've personally caught 5 different species of fish (some multiple times) that would have beat the current length records.

What he called a "Ned rig" was in fact a 1/5 ounce jig head with a senko, what makes that different from a shaky head/jig worm? Not really asking you ocdockskiper, it just really bugs me.

5-10 bass an hour is on the slow side of average for most Midwest finesse anglers...

Except I can get a curado for $120...?. And I really prefer shimano's centrifugal braking system anyways. I really like the smaller reels, I have smallish hands and have a hard time palming the larger reels well enough for walking frogs.

I know dobyns typically run a half step light, but a heavy powered rod for 3/16-1/2 ounce baits? I don't fish around a whole lot of brush or weeds. I throw a lot of baby boo jigs (3/16-5/16), some 3/8 ounce jigs, some lighter t-rigs in the 1/8-1/4 ounce range, and that's about it.

So the champion 703c would be the better rod for bottom baits between 3/16 ounce and 1/2 ounce?

Wait, 31.5 inches is the world record? Heck, I have already caught three this year that beat that. Biggest so far is a 34 incher, I am definitely going to try an submit my next one.

Finally landed my first decent flathead today. Had a few break me off in the past, but nothing landed until today. Pulled him out from a brush pile on a breakline (the one you showed me about 20 feet off of the shoreline where the deep water cuts close in, next to a large grey dock with two boats underneath it's shingled roof. Thanks @Team9nine!) with a shaky head, tied onto an eight pound leader. Couldn't have been while I was fishing with straight braid of course, it had to be the second trip out after experimenting with using a mono leader. At first it didn't want to leave the brush pile and stayed down there rapping my line around all kinds of branches, but somehow it untangled itself (miraculously without fraying my line like yarn) and decided to go out into the much safer open water. Followed it with the trolling motor on high, the thing was convinced it was going to spool my little 1500 size reel. After a few minutes of that, it pretty much stayed directly beneath this boat and didn't really go anywhere, didn't come up but didn't try to go away either. Eventually it got tired and came up to the surface, which presented another dilemma. It couldn't fit in our net. Luckily I was fishing with two other people today, so one of them used the net and scooped its head into that, and the other grabbed the tail half of the fish and lifted it into the boat. It thrashed the net, tore two large holes the rubber mesh, and bent the metal frame up pretty bad. By that point I had my own personal cheering squad, four pleasure boaters had stopped nearby to watch the fight, and the two houses nearby both had everybody outside watching. My scale only goes to 25 pounds, so unfortunately we couldn't get a weight on it, but we guessed it to be in the 45 pound area. It measured 44.5 inches. Felt awesome to finally land one of them after having three or four break me off.

I probably wouldn't buy a dobyns if I had to pay full retail, but I plan on getting a refurbished rod in addition to 40% off. So I could get a savvy for 60$, a fury for $50, or a champion for $100. And no, it is not from a contact inside dobyns.