Ogandrews

I throw chatterbaits, and everything else besides big cranks, on a 8.1. I use a curado dc, but a normal curado k would work well also. I really prefer a fast reel as it’s easier to pick up the slack when you rip out of grass. Especially with a chatterbait it’s not hard to slow down, just base your retrieve off of how the blade is vibrating. I would always rather slow my retrieve speed down and have the high speed reel to catch up to fish when they run at me during a fight.

A swimbait on a 1/8th oz owner beast or similar weedless swimbait hook would work well

While I don’t own those specific models I have multiple exprides and they feel just as good as my loomis imx pro’s which are $360-380. They are no question the best value per dollar in fishing imo. I like a longer rod for spinnerbaits so I use the 7’6” expride but if you like short rods I’m sure the 6’8” will work.

Put it all on, unless you blow the spool up with a really bad backlash you won’t need new line anytime soon. I use powerpro maxcuatro and I’ve got reels that have the same line from 3 years ago and it still is working as well as when I put it on.

For that price I’d pick up a st croix bass x 7’2” mph moderate action. I think that a moderate rod is really important for keeping fish pinned on treble hooks. Pair it with a shimano slx xt and you’ve got a great crank setup.

I fish a “power shot” all the time with a variety of line sizes. I’ll throw 30lbs braid to a 12lbs mono leader on a medium baitcaster with a finesse worm Texas rigged on a light wire hook, I’ll use 17lbs leader on a MH with a normal wire gami ewg and a bigger worm or creature, and I’ll use 65lbs braid straight on a flipping stick with a heavy wire hook and a 1-2oz weight to punch grass. When I’m fishing a dropshot on a baitcaster I generally like a shorter lead between the hook and weight, 6-12” usually. Especially short when I’m punching. Even on my light setup I’ll use usually a 1/2 or 3/8 oz weight to help get through the cover. I always tie a palmar knot and then run the line through the bottom of the eye one more time so the hook stands straight up and down on the line. Any time I’m power shotting I use tie on tungsten weights so I don’t loose them. I’m almost always using a 5-7” straight tail worm but you can use anything, I’ve had some great days with both a fluke and a swimbait on this rig.

That’s awesome. I just bought my first NRX last week and am blown away with how good of a rod it is. I have 6 different imx pros and the NRX is on a different level of weight/sensitivity. I haven’t used a conquest but a friend of mine has one and likes it just as much as his NRX’s. Idk if I would buy a conquest over the new st croix legend extreme but they are for sure an incredible rod.

One tip I will give is unless you are buying a specialized stretchy floro shock leader like sublime fc100, don’t waste the money on “leader material” lines, just get a spool of high quality line. I like mono for 90% of my leaders. Only time I will really switch to floro is if it’s super clear, like over 10ft of visibility, or I want to use 25+Lbs line then I’ll go to fc100 because it’s thin and super strong. Mono for most applications makes a much better leader than floro IMO, just pick your favorite mono and tie it on. If you are going to go with floro, pick a quality one like sunline sniper/assassin, abraseX, tatsu, gama ect. In my opinion most “leader” floros are just overpriced 30 yard spools of normal floro, besides fc100.

Another year of me using braid to leader has passed and I still use it on almost everything. I did play around with some straight floro on some cranks and jerkbaits. I didn’t mind it but I didn’t feel there was any benefit over braid to leader. After switching this year to a modified Alberto knot, I have even more confidence in the leader knot never breaking. With that knot I break my line at the lure knot 99% of the time. On 8lbs braid to 8lbs mono leader I landed a 52” musky and a 35lbs flathead cat, no breakage. Braid gives me amazing sensitivity, both slack and tight line, great hooksets, great control of the fish, a spool lasts a year or more, way further casting distance, and other benefits. If you know how to tie good leader knots and are using the correct leader material, your not going to break fish off.

3/8 oz swim jig dirty jigs no jack 4” chigger craw or rage bug Texas rigged 1/4 oz weight pegged 1.5 squarebill 3” senko on a dropshot River2sea bullywa2 frog

Always thought the same way, probably 90% of the popper fish I have caught have been on the same rapala xrap pop that I’ve owned for like 5 years. Only other on I throw is a river2sea bubble walker which is halfway between a popper and a walking bait, really undervalued bait.

I have shallows, squarebills, and flat sides/cold water baits in their own boxes, and then mediums and the few deeps I throw in another box. If you were looking to just load up with mostly one brand, the rapala DT series is really hard to beat unless you need to get over 20ft. Majority of my cranks are DTs, such effective baits for everything under 20ft for a good price just change the hooks. Throw a couple bx brats, dt fats, Shad raps, and fat raps in there and you would have a well rounded crank Arsenal from one brand.

It’s funny reading this because so many of my go to techniques are listed here, couldn’t imagine smallmouth fishing without a jerkbait ned or dropshot. I don’t mean any offense by saying this, but what kind of bass fisherman can’t catch a fish on a ned or t rig? Such effective and easy to fish baits. There really aren’t any techniques that I haven’t caught fish with but if there was one that always seems to not work as well as I think it will is a fluke. I’ve definitely caught fish with them, but i always seem to do better with something else.

Actual rebel pop-r i love throwing walking baits but never caught one in an actual spook

A lot of good recommendations in this thread, one of my favorites is a smaller glidebait you can twitch well like a waver 168 or gan craft 178. the other thing I have killed them on when the conditions are right is a spook or frog. Doesn’t always work, but if you have a day where the sun has been shining and warmed up the water some. I’ll find that bass get super shallow in either dark bottomed silt bays or flooded shorelines on the river systems I fish. When those fish are in 1-2ft of water it doesn’t matter that it’s 40 something degree water they are gonna eat it if their in a feeding mood.