Hook2Jaw

The SK KVD Deep is my bread and butter. I love that bait.

I'm a big fan of Gerald Swindle, the man is hilarious and he's the reason I carry a TON of jig colors; a black one and a brown one. A-Mart, RIP, is another big favorite of mine for the already mentioned soft-spoken nature and his finesse fishing abilities. I also like to watch Takahiro Omori throw a bladed jig around in addition to his squarebills.

This dude should have went to professional wrestling, he's a rude human being and most of that hollering is an act. I haven't liked him since I watched him park his boat on top of MDJ and it just got worse after he told an angler he shouldn't be on the water because a tournament was going on.

My rods cost me between eighty dollars and two hundred and fifty dollars. At first, I was a Daiwa purist in both reel and rod, but as I looked at more and more products I began to notice I could get a lot more for my dollar with other brands. I've recently added quite a few 13 Fishing rods into my collection because I can pay considerably less for a blank as good as or better than a lot of other offerings. I've got two complaints about their technology, but at the same time I'm not spending a lot of extra money for a Fuji reel seat and set of guides. What drives my rod purchases is definitely feeling like I've got the best bang for my buck.

Roboworm Rebarbs are definitely a great hook, but I've been trying the Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp Round Bend Worm Hook out in 1/0 for Roboworm 6" Straight Tail Worms. I don't have any complaints, but the bass are pretty mad at hooks solidly in the roof of their mouth.

I tried to like clips, but I'm contacting bottom and cover too often when cranking to not end up tying the clip on again. I've found it's just easier not to carry another pack of something and just tie to the ring.

Get a premium braided line, it'll last forever. Tie a fluorocarbon or monofilament leader. There are multiple leader knots that are easy to tie, like the Albright. I do that one in the dark sometimes. I generally prefer an FG 99% of the time, but spinning guides are not small. Braid to leader will make your experience much more enjoyable. I recommend Berkley X9 in 10-20# pound test. 10# if you're contacting the bait at the other end, and scale upwards if you're often into visual bite detection. Once the wind gets up, I have a hard time seeing even thicker braid at the end of a long cast and still have pretty good eyesight.

If you stand in front of a mirror and say Live Scope three times, Randy Blaukat will appear and Judy chop you.

I'm beginning to believe fish "prefer a chewed up worm" because they're already on it before it got chewed up.

I do not like their braid. Braid lasts forever for me so I use Berkley X9. The Yo-Zuri braid loves to wind-knot.

If you guys are a fan of cheap fluorocarbon, give Yo-Zuri Topknot Mainline a try. I've had zero issues with it and have caught tons of fish with it over the past two years. You can get it for 10 bucks a spool at Academy.

It seems to me the author of this trout fishing book wasn't a very good angler, skunked a ton, and needed to justify his lack of ability with a quote. Poor guy.

I don't agree with this. I fish at least once a week, if I end up going twice it's typically because I skunked the day before. It eats me alive to fail, and I work hard to never fail.

I'm still waiting on the water to cool enough to get the jerkbait bite I had last year going, 53 degrees at my home lake isn't doing it. I'd really like some more 15-20 fish days on a rip bait. When the spring hits I hope to gain some confidence in a lipless crankbait. The spawn can buzz off, I get annoyed leaving a shakyhead in a light spot and waiting for a bite. The summer will see me cranking and throwing a jig. I'll try to crack on them again in the fall with the lipless. I hope to have some time to devote to a spinnerbait. So, baits to stay good at; jerkbaits, jigs, crankbaits. Baits to get good at; lipless crankbaits and spinnerbaits.

C'mon now. I saw you start the more expensive rod journey before me. Feed the monkey.

I really wanted the Z-Man Power Finesse Sling Bladez to work, but that thing came through the water popping a wheelie and I just hate the look of it. I believe the fish did too. I was gonna give the War Eagle spinnerbaits a try alongside the SV-3, and I'm now wondering if they kinda fill the same role?

This is something I'm beginning to disagree with -- the idea that I should spend less on my baits. While I don't own any Megabass SV-3s, I do see 70 positive reviews for them on Tacklewarehouse. I've begun to branch into more expensive baits from the cheaper offerings, with the idea that I'll actually spend less money and catch more bass over time. I'm not saying to always buy the most expensive offering, but I do have one example. I had about two hundred dollars worth of Z-Man Chatterbaits and Z-Man Project Z Chatterbaits. I threw them again and again, and always used to say I could not catch fish on bladed jigs. I would slow roll them, burn them, yo-yo them, and rip them through grass. Sure, I did catch a few fish, but I began noting just how positive the opinion is for the Z-Man Jackhammer and finally bit the bullet and grabbed a few. I took them to a local grass lake where I've fished my Project Z and OG offerings, and tried out the Jackhammer. I put twenty pounds in the kayak that day, and then added the Minimax to my arsenal. It's another stellar bladed jig and I am now very confident in the presentation. I should have spent that two hundred dollars on the cream of the crop and been done with it. I am careful with the more expensive baits, I fish them with my budget in mind. I only carry six Jackhammers, and I'm going to try my best to keep them in my possession instead of a snag or a mouth. That doesn't mean I'm not throwing them into cover, I just keep them in 6' or less of water where I can typically push them out of whatever snag they're in with a push of my rod tip. I check my line often and set my drag correctly to prevent fish breaking my line. On the opposite end, I tried the Megabass Vision 110 and was absolutely unimpressed. On a day fish were biting, I caught more on my Jackall Reranges and Strike King KVD Deeps. I've almost replaced all of my Reranges with Yo-Zuri 3DB 110s, which have a very similar flash and action, they just don't cast as far. For my water the Vision 110 has not excelled. I believe my water is not clear enough for the bait to really work it's visual magic. This is all just my two cents, and at the end of the day you should fish what you want and spend your money how you want. My own money has just begun to go farther by spending my money differently rather than saying I need a box full of bladed jigs in case they're on the bladed jig or a box full of spinnerbaits in case someone else is catching them on them. Maybe give a renowned bait a fair shake, it isn't like spinnerbaits aren't incredibly weedless and typically fished on line strong enough to stand up to most fish that inhale them. I'll be giving the Megabass SV-3 a shake in the spring and I'm very excited, I don't think they're gonna make me as good as the spinnerbait fishermen on this board, but I believe they'll add another bit of confidence into my wheelhouse and currently the bait class of spinnerbait doesn't reside there.

Why do ya'lls chatterbaits look funny?

I'm too cheap to buy just another jerkbait over ten bucks and the replies in this thread tell me to keep this one off my radar. If I want a slow sink, I can add a suspen-strip to my already suspending baits. I wasn't impressed with the Megabass Vision 110, either, and plain and simply catch more bass on Jackall Reranges, Yo-Zuri 3DBs, and KVD 200s and 300 Deeps.

Berkley X9 holds its color very well.

@Kyle S, is All Black the name of the color? That's just an awesome name if that's the case.

Strike King Bitsy Bug. She picked it up out of a brush pile in 12' and I just felt mush. 23½", I didn't weigh her.

My most expensive rod is a bottom contact stick, and it's paid off for Texas rigging and jigs. However, my favorite technique is winter jerkbaiting and I do that with a 110 dollar 13 Fishing Omen Black 3, which is still a joy to fish. I don't think there's a correct answer, this situation is on a personal basis. If you're on a budget, I think the best way to handle things is to spend your money on rods that handle a lot of weight or carry techniques that have a lot of user inputted action. If you have no budget, splurge or don't, that's up to you. If you're all in on spinnerbaits, grab whatever works best for that and you. Those are just three different examples, but this is bass fishing and nothing is set in stone. I like to throw ³/¹⁶ shakyheads with a Medium Fast casting rod, for instance.

I ended up grabbing a 13 Omen Black 3 7'1" Cranking, the one rated ¼-1 ounce. I'll be surprised if it handles that weight range well, but I'm hoping it's gonna do just fine with Rapala DT6-10s, Spro Rkcrawler 50 and 55s, as well as the Headhunter Fire Tail Craw. I'll let you guys know how it does once I get it opened. I know there still remains a big stigma against 13 rods, but I've had mostly good experiences.

I'm really unimpressed with the lack of a low seating position. A river boat should have the ability to give you a low center of gravity, and the RVR119 does not. I'm not a fan of the dugout canoe styled hull, but the battery recess for a Torqueedo is cool. The anchor line chutes are cool. The max speed it got with an 1103 was great. I just can't get past zero internal storage and a single seating position at 1,650.