ww2farmer

I don't use Spro frogs anymore, but they are/were no better or worse than any other. A squeeze every few casts is second nature to me. I have even had a few that got poked full of holes by pike teeth and still worked fine. On little tip I can give you is to rub some megastrike into the nose, and butt hole. It will help keep water out, while still letting the frog compress, plus it's megastrike, so it's never a bad idea to put it on a bait anyways. "cool story bro" time...I once had a translucent spro frog that I thought took on WAY to much water, so I gave it to wnybassman. I think he still has it and uses it, so what do I know. It just bugged me that I could see the water in there, when it probably didn't take on more water than the ones I usually use.

Same here

Not the best day of fall fishing I have ever had on my home lake, but it wasn't too bad. Breezy, cold, and at times drizzle, but the green fish still played. I hadn't been there in 9 days..........which is forever for me, and the place has lost 10+ degrees of surface water temp. and the water was down at least a foot and a half. Started off throwing reaction baits on the windy bank for a while, but only the toothies wanted to go on that. Went to the calm side and found some good largemouth .Best five, out of the dozen or so keepers I caught today were....5-9, 4-3, 3-13, 2-14 + 2-11. Was going to go looking for smallmouth in the afternoon, but the increasing cold winds and rain made me think of better things to do.

Mine has changed over the years. For a while it was Fenwick, then it was St Croix, now it's Abu Garcia. Each rod has/had it's plus and minus's. The Fenwick's, at the time I was using them a lot, were lighter, and better than every thing else I had previously used. But local availability started getting really iffy with them, so I switched to something that was in just about every store I shopped in, and that was St Croix. After fishing for almost 5 years with mostly all St Croix's....I just got a little bored with them. The new stuff they are putting out keeps getting more and more expensive, and to be honest, the Rage, and latest generation Legend Tournaments just don't do it for me. I gave Abu rods a try early this season, and liked them enough to start replacing my lower end St Croixs with them, and by the middle of the season, I found my self using them more and more. I decided to run a little "experiment", so I took all my better St Croix's out of the boat (legend tournaments, Avid's, Rage) and just used the Abu Vengeance, Vendetta's, and Veritas rods I had accumulated. My fishing has hardly suffered, and I like the fact I can do the same things with $50-$100 rods that I felt like I "needed" $150-$300 rods for in the past. I have had a big change in my tackle buying ways the last year and a half. With two kids, bills to pay, and NOTHING else in life getting any cheaper, I am all about the most bang for the buck now, and I feel I am getting that with my Abu rods. I have tried many other rods just out of curiosity, like Kistler, BPS, Shimano, Berkley, Gander Mtn., and more I can't remember, and with the exception of the Berkley Lightning rod Shocks, nothing from any of those has stuck with me. Again........that's a bang for the buck thing too. I can fish a frog or swim jig just as effectively on a $40 7' MH LR Shock as I could/have/did on a $200 7' MH Avid.

Yes, and not even with high end gear either.

Well since someone else decided to dig this up, I'll play. I have been fishing both Gen1 and Gen2 Vendetta's all season long. I have no preference in the spinning rods, but I like the Gen2 casting much better. I am not a big fan of the ACS reel seat. I find the Gen2 rods to be a little lighter than there Gen1 counterparts of the same length/power/action. Going forward, I will buy either if the price is right.

I have a couple vengeance's, and a couple lightning rod shocks. Both are excellent rods for the money. If you can swing a few bucks more, the vendettas are also very nice. I use the vengeance and lightning rod shock for reaction baits, and vendettas and veritas for "feel" baits.

White Rage tail grub

I use Red label exclusively. But just as leader material, as I have braid as mainline on every reel I own. I have had zero issues with it, and I guess I have caught a fish or two.

I love a good spinnerbait bite. It's not often we get the "right" conditions for one on the lake I fish, but when it happens it's lights out. And there is seemingly never a time when Pike don't hit them, so when I am just looking to get yanked on by a big fish a 3/8's oz. spinnerbait over the top of the grass will draw some big bites from the toothies.

I have found most of the cheap digital Berkley and Rapala scales to be pretty accurate. World record accurate? No...but they are almost always right on with what my $300 equalizer tournament scale says. The only time they are off, it's been by an ounce or two at most, and when they are off a little it's always been on the light side instead of heavy. Where the cheap scales fall short is in durability. I can tell you for a fact they are not waterproof.

Not on that exact rod, but the Rage in general, mine is a 7'1" MH/F casting Likes: reel seat, and the blank in general is nice, light and sensitive dis-likes: micro guides, the old school hook keeper, and the handle

Yes, we have all caught bass that can be seen, and have seen you .But more often than not, those bass are very spooky, and are difficult to catch. So much so, that I almost always refuse to fish for them. I have had good days fishing for them, but it's the exception, not the rule...........around here. In other locations, it may be different.

I like Albino craw, orange craw, Japanese shad, bluegill, and baby carp.

Probably my last trip to Conesus this year, and they were biting pretty good. No super hogs like the 7lber from last week. But it was the best day for numbers I have ever had there, with 50+ keepers in the boat, most were 1.75-2lb class fish, but probably a dozen 2-3lbers made it in the boat, as well as nine over 3lbs. All green ones, I couldn't find a brown one to save my butt today. Best five today were a 5-4, 4-8, 3-10, 3-7, and 3-5.

All my plastics stay in the original bags. I have a couple deep, single, large compartment Plano 3700 size boxes. I have a box for craws/creatures/jig trailers, one for worms/flukes/senkos, and another for misc stuff, like small drop shot baits etc....I keep a big waterproof box full of extras in the boat to restock things in the boxes as they get low, and even more in a Rubbermaid tote at home.

If you can see them, they can see you.................GAME OVER. Also, cruising and/or sunning fish are just that. They are not actively feeding. You can get a few to bite here and there, but often it's futile. It's fun to look at them, but go fish for fish that you can't see, or that can't see you and your success rate will go up.

Bill, too much spinning gear in a small boat is a mess. If your competent with casting gear, use that for as much as possible, and then spinning for the rest. I carry 5 spinning rods in the boat, and it's about 4 too many, even though some do double duty. One for light line drop shotting, one for flick shake/shaky heads, one for skipping weightless plastics, one for finesse jigs/small jerkbaits + crankbaits, and an UL for panfish.

I like to be mobile, all the heavy winter coats, bibs, etc...make me feel like a mummy. I just put on two pairs of socks, flannel lined jeans, long sleeve t-shirt, flannel shirt, and my insulated carhart hooded sweatshirt. If it's really cold I'll wear a knit carhart cap OVER my dirty, ratty, SK hat. If it's raining or snowing, my rain coat/pants go over everything. I can't fish with gloves on, so I keep a couple hand warmers in the pocket of my sweat shirt for a quick warm up. I have a lot of "natural" insulation, I can tolerate the cold pretty well. I am good down to zero in these clothes...........as long as the wind is not blowing hard. This is pretty much my basic attire when it's cold on the boat, OR when I am ice fishing, but I do have a flip over ice shanty and heater. If I had to sit on a bucket................well no............there will be no sitting on a bucket, I'll quit ice fishing if it comes to that LOL.

There are no "rules" on what lures to use for what season. I use the same basic stuff all year long, location, and presentation method is key. Some days they hit moving baits, some days they don't. Some things are obviously more effective at certain times of the year than others, but no season is ever a bad season to fish soft plastics.

TW has Spike it markers. They are very handy, and a lot less messy than dips.

That makes me feel better. LOL. What the heck is pepper grass? We have eel grass here. It's fantastic looking stuff, but they don't use it much.

I get all my wacky jigs, tube heads, drop shot sinkers, football heads local...............LMAO. He doesn't charge me much, and often uses lead/hooks I supply. You just have to watch out for all the chicken crap in his yard. I return the favor by watching him haul buckets of sap out of the woods in the winter for maple syrup, just in case he slips and falls or something. I am sure after I stopped laughing I would help, or at least call for help........well maybe go get help, since the phone reception at his house is iffy at best.

I have only had and fished one of the rods you ask about, the St Croix LTB. I see you want a rod for plastics/light jigs, if you end up going with a LTB, get the M power/fast action, or M/XF action. I have had both the 7' M/F, and 7' MH/F, and the MH is very stout, and fishes better on the UPPER end of it's rating (3/8-1oz) than it does the lower end. The M/F is a very versatile rod, and except for punching/flipping thick cover, it does a lot of things well, and will fish 1/4-3/8 oz. jigs better than the MH IMHO.

I have never owned a glass boat, and probably never will, they are just too much $$ for me, so I'll stick with aluminum. BUT I have been around a lot of glass boats, and Rangers are the only glass boats I see that at 15-20 years old are still rock solid. Of coarse it depends on the guy who owns it some, but if I ever buy a used glass boat it will be a Ranger.