Mbirdsley

Easiest way to do it is to use model paint like MN fisher said. I would add testors to your list too. You could also spray paint them. Best way would be to take some 000 or 0000 steel wool and rough the surface up a bit than bake in a convection oven at 350 for 20 minutes. Goodwill sometimes has old convection ovens.

Make/pour my own jigs, chatter baits, and inline spinners . Buy hard baits. I will buy un painted jigs from other people if I’m unsure if I want to buy the mold or if I won’t use it enough to justify buying the mold. last year I was ready to start making my own spinner baits. This year spinner baits have been hit or miss for me. So I’m holding off on doing that.

I have a lightening shock rod. Brown with split cork handles. I like it it’s a good extra rod

I want to go back to big game for cranking. I was afraid to do it with the current rod considering how whippy it was . With a new one I can. My catch rate has went up exponentially since switching over my to other moving bait rods back to mono

Do you use mono with your glass rods or flouro/co-polymer ?

Michigan is home to 10,000 lakes of all shapes and sizes. The only real area devoid of a ton of lakes is the triangle between Lansing, Saginaw, and flint. But, there are a lot of great small mouth rivers in that area

I don’t need a glass I’m just trying to figure out what a glass rod is. If the skeet Reese rod isn’t glass than I’ve never actually handled a glass rod. I’m going to look around maybe even if I found a 7ft medium bait caster. Mediums depending on the rod seem to be a little slower in the tip than MH fast rods. I may have to take a trip up to Jay’s or stop on my way up north. Jays carries a lot of rods. My only other option for bass stuff is cabelas in Saginaw and BPS in suborn hills. Jays and BPS are about an 1-1.5 hrs away I’ve caught a lot of fish throwing cranks using that black max combo. Only issue with that cheap set up is the reel bogs down once you get into 5 and 6 xd size cranks.

Yeah I dont know. Mine is the all yellow one And your right at some points in the retrieve I can’t even feel the crank. Last year I did not really have an issue with the rod landing fish. . However, this year it has cost me a lot of nice small mouth all year. They hit and I can’t get enough power to get a good hook set. I think something along of the lines of an ugly stick( but, better) type action would work good. I know that st.croix has the bass mojo crank rods in stock around me most of the time. is that skeet Reese rod considered a glass rod or graphite?

Hard bait : what ever worked that day plastic: black/blue flake chigger craw 2nd place: any craw/creature in summer craw color

Looking for a new crank rod this/winter. Giving up the ghost on the skeet Reese crank rod. I can’t keep fish on the dang thing even with good sharp hooks and flouro. If I use my elcheapo 6ft6 black max medium rod they stay pinned all day. I’m looking for somthing with a faster tip that I can use mono with ( so the exact opposite of that skeet Reese crank rod) . I’m betting what ever I get I’ll have to order on line so first hand accounts would be nice . I could spend anywhere from $100-$200 bucks. If I get a rod at the lower end I’ll stick with my 5:4:1 phluegar reel if it’s towards the $200 mark I’d probably get a new reel with a little faster ratio. I wouldn’t be looking to throw anything bigger than 6xd’s on it. Most of my cranking is 3-12 feet. Are all of the glass rods whippy and slow action? how is the dobyns FR 705CB rod? or any other suggestions.

They work and for some reason I can cast them farther than a shad rap. I have to use a spinning rod for my Shad wraps to get any distance. Flicker Shad I can chuck with my cranking baitcaster. Wierd that they are the same thing basically. One is made of wood the other plastic.

Kvd Magic color represents about everything a small mouth eats. I only have it in a 5 inch ocho. But, I bought it for ultra clear northern Michigan lakes where you can see 14-15 feet down. I’ve not caught anything in it however, I’ve not really fished it hard yet either. . Best way to describe it would be a Smokey Greyish green with a touch of translucent mixed in for good measure

This is exactly it. I hate loosing fish and I’m not even fishing tournaments yet. I lost a huge smallie today. I actually thought it was a snag so I gave a half a$$&$ hook set. Than it started moving and taking line, there fished jumped than it was gone. Looked at the lure and still had what ever hooks kvd puts on cranks. If I had triple grips on it that fish would been stuck. I have been turning over my hard baits and getting rid of non-successful ones and Ive gotten lazy in the last couple of months due to work of swapping out hooks

Forgot my phone at work today so no pics but, fished the Tittabawassee this morning untill almost 3 . Bass are still busting Shad every where. Took a pretty nice 27-28 inch northern 2 bends north from m-46 on a lucky craft 8ft crank. He was a filled out and looking good. I know since the flood there has been some talk of the pike being down in numbers. took him on a lucky craft silver 2.5 crank. I was cranking and actually went to mess with somthing for a couple of second which made me stop reeling. As soon as I again started he hammered it Caught a keeper smallie on a home made chatter bait. Right after catching that fish I proceeded to throw chatter bait into a tree. Luckily I can make a lot more Caught a really nice white bass maybe 12-14 inches on a crank, caught 2 more 12 inch smallies. Lost a huge fricken smallie on a kvd flat side crank. He hit so hard I thought I snagged untill he started taking line. In fact I didnt get a good hook set because, I thought I snagged. One jump and a head shake he was gone. I was not pleased. I think this skeet Reese crank rod days are numbered. I’m just not a fan of how slow the action and how whippie it is. this is the kvd crank. Somthing about this color I have has good success with. First time using this flat side crank but, I’ve caught a lot of fish with the same color in a 300 kvd deep jerk bait

Sucks there was epoxy in the eye

I handled the ugly stick carbons at Walmart the other day. That is as nice of a 60 dollar rod that some one is going to find. Probably be great for moving baits like cranks, chatter baits, spinner baits, and square bills. I’ve got an older brown lighting shock rod with cork grips that I bought 3 summers ago for my 2nd bait caster. Now it is kind of like an extra rod. For 50 bucks I don’t have any complaints but, I’m sure for that price bad ones will slip out unfortunately.

I usually use heavier weights. Standard weight I use would be a 1/4 oz. any thing over 12-14 foot use 1/2 oz. it will still kinda spiral down with the heavier weights but, it is a lot faster. In deeper water I can still get it to glide and dart a short distance. for fishing smaller rivers 1/8 Oz is my normal weight for 1-5 feet. Anything smaller than 1/8 and the current takes it down stream to much

Yeah I could see that. I’d mean if you put a 1/8 oz tube head jig in a tube. you can get it to do some wicked glide motions and work it like fluke Or soft jerk bait. It’s just going to take forever to get to the bottom but, it’s going to be a very very slow spiral down.

Okuma in general is pretty good stuff. I’ve never had anything that expensive from them. but, I have had a lot of their $40-60 spinning reels. I currently have a cemar c-30 on my m/l finesse rod and I think it’s a better/cheaper option than a president for most things. We have a bunch of okuma level wind reels for salmon fishing on Lake Michigan and they have never skipped a beat with basic maintenance once in a while.

Owosso super Walmart has pretty much been totally restocked on baits. Especially soft plastics. They are also now carrying Ozark trail soft plastics. I never knew Walmart had thier own brand of soft plastics. also has some reels in but, still lacking in that department. Ton of 40-60 dollar bai caster rods. Only thing they don’t have are the cheaper spinning combos

Zoom green pumpkin 4 inch tube is the only tube you will ever need

Chatter baits made from a 3/8 do-it Arkie mold. Line ties could be better. But, they do work.

Limited success with jerk baits but, my favorite have been the kvd 300 deep divers. All I have are the kvd deep divers. I would like to get some shallow ones. I also of some smith wick rouges in both suspending and non suspending. Most of my shallow jerk baits are rapala’s. Picked up some lucky craft 112 mr ‘s to try that I am excited about. Next to months I would like to devote to jerk baits. Than try some walleye trolling before it iced up and than put the boAt up bombers and rebels I have more success just throwing them out and cranking them like a crank bait honestly

I like a 1/4 for pitching at anything over 5 foot and deeper with no current on a bait caster. Any thing lighter I’m usually throwing a senko style worm or swamp crawler on a spinning rig using 1/8-3/16 in open water. Fishing the Tittabawassee River the way the river has been up the last couple of years. I use 1/2 oz to get down 4-14 feet. Been thinking of going 3/4 oz possibly next time though with all the rain we have had for the deeper holes.

There are deals to be had on eBay right now on brand new lures. Just have to be patient