Lead Head

I love checking out new/different colors in baits, however I rarely purchase them. I try really hard (and sometimes fail miserably) to limit my colors to dark, light, and natural. I'm in dirty water mostly, and probably wouldn't see a significant difference in fish caught if all I used was black or white, but thats no fun. To your question, my daughter likes wild colors often using pink. Pink jigs, worms, and crankbaits (I'm still not sure where she found pink cranks). To my surprise, she has little trouble catching fish.

@Spankey Yes, I'm pretty sure it comes in c10 and c15 (cloud 9).

@Spankey 6th sense Mudgill. Plan on giving it a workout this year to see if it can be my new river squarebill.

@FishNTell typically, a heavy is better. Frog hooks are large and require quite a bit of force to set. I don't know if you plan to fish pads or weeds, but a H is usually required to handle that stuff. You can get away with a MH that has a max lure weight of 1oz, but braid is a must and you might struggle around cover (especially vegetation, fish go down into it). Again, this is all just my opinion based on my experience.

@ironbjorn I will defer to your knowledge here, my experience with them is... dated.

In my opinion, the lightning rod, arid-x, or any other H rod mentioned (nearly any H F or MF) will work fine for frogs. The big trade off is going to be when you have something other than a frog tied on. It comes down to if you want to pay extra for versatility, cosmetics, and comfort.

@A-Jay I never considered using the less dense sinkers to try to sit on top of goo... thats genius!

My winter/Christmas additions. Some more line still incoming, and some unskirted Siebert jigs/fogy not shown.

I usually only have skirts on a few jigs. I also only have a handful of skirts pre-made. I keep jig heads of various designs, weights (almost all 3/8 and 1/2oz), and colors in a standard 3700 box. I bring my "on the fly" skirt making kit with me. You can fit way more skirt making materials than you will ever need in 1 trip in a zip-lock bag. I've only had to get the kit out 1 time on the water, but it makes me feel better having it along.

I have a similar situation. I own rods built on Rainshadow, NFC X-ray, Rodgeeks, and MHX blanks. My favorite rod... an old BPS Extreme that I stripped and rebuilt.

I'm too old for nonsense like that, but a few years and a couple of drinks ago...

@TnRiver46 I still giggle to myself every time a picture of your boat with that "hot seat" up front shows up. I bet sitting in that thing while motoring can get interesting.

I like the green mirrored (copper based) costas. I own a pair of grey based, but far prefer the copper. To me, they are superior in low light, overcast weather, and stained water. They are close enough to equal in bright sun that I never bother to change, and almost all of my water is stained (if not down right muddy) anyway. I try to be a frugal fisherman, but after nearly 20 years of working nights the sun is hard on my eyes. I don't skimp out on sunglasses.

People catch bass on jigs well over 3/8oz all the time. The fish has to feel the weight of a jig nearly every time. I've caught a great many bass on a t-rig with a 3/8oz bullet sinker both pegged and unpegged.

@Bluebasser86 good grief! That is one FAT gar. I've seen some monsters down here in the AR river but never one built like that. He was eating good!

Be sure and let us know when you get it, and what you think of it.

The body does indeed (eventually) expel stuff. My dad pulled a piece of glass out of his foot from a 35 year old injury. My brother still finds threads from his pants and small pieces of shattered tac holster in his 10 year old gunshot scars.

@schplurg loved the "oh!". Just a guess, but it seemed like you said this on unexpected and/or violent strikes... good stuff. I also liked how you stepped it up to "oh shhh" on the good topwater hit.

One thing I absolutly love about it... when you stick a fish with it, they very rarely come off. I tried a x-fast rod for frogging and lost way too many fish after a good initial hookup.

Yes! I absolutley love the rod... for lots of applications. It will cast a wide range of weights and is my absolute favorite frog rod. I have 2, one is now raw graphite and red (in the photo), the other is primer grey and black. I should weigh them, they should be MUCH lighter now than they were off the shelf. Stripping down a rod to bare graphite is a major pain, but I was willing to do it for this blank.

New to me SV arsenal, left to right Steez 100 (sv spool added) on a Rodgeeks MH bass4 Alphas sv105 on a old green bps extreme H rod that I stripped and rebuilt SS SV with upgraded drag and 8.1.1 brass gear set on a NFC X-ray SJ-736 Alphas sv105 on a MHX mb842

When jig fishing, I like my leader to be as long as possible without entering the tip top of my rod when pitching. This usually means a few inches shy of 6'. 50lb 832 to 25lb sniper for jigs in clear water, or if the hook is too strong to bend out.

This guy uses leader at least 2x stronger than his braid, in this case 10lb braid to 30lb mono so 3x stronger. I'm 100% on board that the FG is a better knot, but since I use leader that is weaker (and usually 1/2 as strong or less) than my braid main line I don't trust that test to be applicable to my fishing. In the 10 or so trips I was able to test that "gt" knot last year, I was just as likely to fail it as I was my knot on my lure. That tells me it is about equal to my terminal knot, if thats 50% or 80% line strength I couldn't say. I just know its super fast and easy to tie and has not failed unless I wanted it to... yet. Just looking at it, I would guess a uni to uni would be stronger. With my post last year I decided to go ahead and stick with this knot for awhile to test it out. So far, I'm still "testing it out" but it hasn't done anything to make me abandon it yet.

Ok, I just made a large post on the Alberto alternative thread in regards to this video. If you care to see all my thoughts on this knot look there. The short version is... 1. I'm pretty sure this isn't a true GT knot, and not the one actually tested. Its been awhile but I think the guy in the video confirms this in his comments if you track down the original video. 2. The knot in the video works great for me and is currently all I use for both light and heavy tackle.

I posted about this knot a while back. If I remember correctly, it was pointed out to me that the knot being tied in this video is not a full blown GT but a simplified version of it. If you track down the original video, the guy that made it confirms this in the comments. (I'm pretty sure, its been awhile) Having said that, this is the knot I used all last year with great results. My only failures were snags that I had to intentionally break off. On intentional failures, it was about 50/50 between the leader knot and knot to lure with FC. I used this knot with 15lb braid to 10-14lb FC, 30lb braid to 14-16lb FC, and 50lb braid to 25lb FC all with the same results. Mostly suffix 832 and sunline sniper. When I first started using it, I was intentionally way over doing my hook sets to test out if it would hold up. It works great for me, I haven't had to tie a FG knot in nearly a year. As always YMMV.