ww2farmer

Times I don't fish a fluke: #1 when the water is frozen #2 when I am fishing for perch or bluegills #3 when I am not fishing.

That's it !!! I am done with St Croix, I can't be associated with the likes of wnybassman..................errrrr................I mean Capt. Bob.

I won't crank with anything BUT cranking specific rods anymore. I use a 7' MH/Mod St Croix Mojo for shallow cranks, and lipless crank, and a 7'10" St Croix H/Mod Legend Tournament for my deep cranks.

Same. But I do crank with it too. Can't beat it for ripping cranks out of grass.

I am a big fan of St Croix, I own 4 Mojo's, a Rage, 2 Avids, and 3 Legend Tournaments. Are they the best.............meh......that's subjective. I have fished other brands too, like, Fenwick, Kistler, Shimano, and they have all been nice rods too. I don't get paid to advertise for St Croix, so I'll tell you that I use them and like them, but it ends there.

I always have my ipod with me. When I am by myself and the fishing is slow, I use it. I honestly think it helps me from saying " screw it, this sucks, I am out of here" and instead has kept me on the water long enough to figure something out, or they turned back on. When I am with people, I leave it off.

I wash it a couple times a year, just pull it in the car wash, hose the hull and trailer down, hit it with the soapy brush, and rinse off. I have aluminum, so I don't wax it or anything. I usually hit the carpet with the shop vac. they have there too. Before I put it away for the winter I armor-all the seats, tires, and plastic crap. Good enough.

I have caught "big" bass on everything I have every used. With a higher % of bigger ones coming on jigs, big crankbaits, frogs, and soft plastic craw/creature baits. BUT, day in, day out, year after year the #1 producer of "big" (around here 4-6 lbs) bass is a 5" senko. I don't know why, and I don't like it LOL, but I go with it cause I like catching big fish.

Carp and bass live in harmony and each species thrive in the same bodies of water around here. Ponds, creeks, rivers, lakes etc....... People hating on carp are either.................#1 ignorant, believing old wives tales and grumpy old man stories on how carp "ruin" bass water, #2.........can't face the fact they suck at bass fishing and have to blame it on something other than themselves, #3...........fish waters where there are carp but no bass, or #4............all of the above.

Any Shimano spinning reel in the $50-$80 range will last you a long time. I use, and beat the tar out of Sonora's ($50), Sedona's ($60) and Sahara's ($80) and never felt like I was missing something, or the need to spend more on a spinning reel. For casting reels however, I don't spend less than what it costs to get one with an aluminum frame. In the Shimano line...new...that's the Citica at $130. Used Citica's can be had for $50-$100 though, depending on what series, ( I prefer the D series) and I have never bought a bad used one, either from the flea market here or ebay.

Nonsense. You WILL cast further with the smaller diameter braid than with equal diameter mono or fluoro. To the OP..............I use the same rod, have a 2500 size Shimano reel on it, spooled with 15lb braid and use 8,10, or 12 lb. fluoro leaders. I can cast a 4" senko half way across the lake on it, switch to a 5", or add the weight of a whacky jig, and I just about spool it to the backing. Spray the braid down with KVD L&L or Real Magic and it can be done with just a flick of the wrist.

Just rub them down with some megastrike, but what do I know. I have yet to catch a bass with them.

I am 6'2" 330 lbs, and the fish in my picture to the left was 6lbs 10oz, and was as thick as it was long. It was weighed on two scales. Both a digital handheld, and at a tournament weigh-in on that scale. It "looks" like a 4lber in my hands. So I am the last person you would want guessing. LOL

Put a jig, or a t-rigged craw/creature bait right in those "little pockets" you described when they won't come up for the frog, or fluke and hold on. Bass in the grass , are bass in the grass..........Fla, LA., Texas, NY, or Minn. The only diff. is how "big" the "big ones" get. Works here, should work there too.

If your talking about Caffeine shads, NO. They do not float with OR without a hook. They have a lot of salt in them, and sink pretty good, at least faster than a Zoom super fluke. If you want ones that float get the Ela-z-tech material baits. Or if you want a bait of this style that sinks faster yet...........look at the GYCB D-shad.

If I have said it once, I have said it 1000 times..................it's not the frog, it's the dude pulling the trigger. Give me any of the frogs on the market and I will catch fish on them. So what about guy X who goes out with a Spro frog, gets blow-ups, missed fish, etc....and puts nothing in the boat that day? BUT the next time out he switches to, say...........a snag proof frog, and all of a sudden the fish are hooking up. Got to be the bait right? ................Wrong slappy. Too many times guys go out and don't realize it's just not the day they want to take it (or they are not willing to .............god forbid blame them selves for missed fish). Instead of switching to something they will take , like a fluke, senko, etc.... on blow-up, swirl, chase, but not eat it day, they just keep missing fish and go home cursing that brand of frog.

I have given up trying to explain it. I really can't fathom why so many people have so much trouble with it. You also have to accept the fact that on any given day, your going to get "rollers" , "boilers" , and blow-ups your just not going to connect on. Now it's time for me to get all arrogant and d-baggy (well maybe just more than usual), but the best way for me to teach some one to frog fish..............is to come watch me do it. I have turned guys, who didn't know the first thing about it, on to it, and into frog fishing fools............overnight. What they do with it from there is up to them. One dude in particular has taken the ball and run with it, getting into his own niche and groove.............now I want to punch him in the bean bag every time I see his "reports". You know who you are.....LMAO. But to be fair, he has shown me plenty-o-stuff too. In fact, I am going to issue this dude a one on one, frogging challenge this year. Him, me, frog and nothing else, same lake, same day..........loser can never use the frog again..................OR............buys lunch (depends on who loses) LOL. He has me beat by 2 oz's. on frog lunker for the year so far, and I am losing sleep over it.

Yes, many times. Same great service as with everything else. 99% of the time the problem with shipping rods is the carries fault ( UPS, Fed-ex, USPS, etc...) from them man-handling it and trying to make a 7' long tube fit in a 5' long spot. That said, I don't think I have ever had a rod I bought from TW break because of a "wound" from rough shipping, and I live all the way across the country from them in NY, so it's handled a few times before it gets here.

6'8" MH/Fast Shimano Clarus Spinning rod for skipping docks. I DID buy a new 6'3" M/XF St Croix eyecon spinning rod this winter for that purpose, but it snapped like a twig on the first fish I caught with it this year. No worries......I know St Croix will stand behind it, I have used there warranty service many time......( I am a rod killer), but I wanted a new rod NOW. LOL Besides, in the last 4 years, I have broken my dock skipping spinning rod every single year, time to try Shimano and there lifetime over the counter warranty. When I send the broken Eyecon back to Croix, I'll gold star/upgrade it to something else (if I like the Shimano for this application).

The 1990's era Chicago Bulls player introduction music.........aka Sirius by The Alan Parsons Project.

I have been using a Gamakatsu 5/0, screw lock, 1/4 oz. weighted swimbait hook on the 4". It's darn near perfect. So far only the things with teeth have wanted to play with it, but I see a few decent bass in my future with this set up.

Out of 100's of TW orders, only one has ever had a problem, and it was not there fault. It was UPS's. Even then TW sent me another complete batch of the same stuff free of charge.........weeks later the "lost" UPS order showed up, I called them and asked what they wanted to do about it, they said keep it, and consider it "payment" for the screw-up. I didn't argue with them LOL. Granted it was only a $50 order of misc. soft plastics, and had it been a rod, reel, or something more expensive I would have expected them to want it back, or charge me for it, but as it was, that was above and beyond what they had to do, and (like I wasn't already LOL) made me a customer for life with them.

4 colors for me, green pumpkin, watermelon candy, junebug, and bubblegum. If you can't get bit on any one of those four............it's a you problem, not a fish problem. Like your not around fish........period.

You can do very well on grass filled, clear water lakes with just a handful of stuff. Like I said in my previous post K.I.S.S. on the color selection, greens/browns on clear days, black/dark colors on dark days, and for those time when the usually clear water gets a little stain to it. Nothing turns clear water fish on faster than a little color in the water, but also nothing shuts them down quicker than when clear water turns to super dirty really fast. You can, like I do...............needlessly carry a small tackle shop with you on the water, but day, and day out, on clear water grass fish. 3 soft baits are all you need. A texas rigged creature or craw for flipping, a senko style stick bait, and a fluke type soft jerkbait. Add a hollow body frog for over the top work, a spinnerbait for combing the grass, and a crankbait for the edges and you have the basics pretty much covered.

Exactly, and besides I take great satisfaction and even a little pride in knowing I do what I do, as good as, if not better than a lot of guys on a WAY tighter, and smaller budget. I am not jealous of guys with more, it's there money, they earned it, they can spend it anyway they want. But I do dislike the d-bag who "thinks" he's better than you because he's spent more money on stuff in a season that you might in a lifetime. But that's not isolated to bass fishing, it's in every walk of life, but it is becoming far too common and getting worse in fishing by the year. It's one of the reasons I started a low entry fee, aluminum boat only tournament trail, to get away from the KVD weekend warrior/action figures, who marvel you with the specs of there NRX rods, and can recite the TW website to you by memory, yet, go "ike" when they actually catch a 12" keeper. And believe me, there are plenty of guys around here who will take your lunch and eat it too, out of a tin boat. In fact I would say a HIGHER % of the field in my past tin boat tournaments have been threats to win. Where in many of the true "opens" I have fished in the past, you get a lot of donations to the purse.