ww2farmer

LOL ............who would of thought, a guy sponsered by brands with high cost items says those items are better. What did you expect him to say?

I like the Paca chunks, zoom super chunk/super chunk jr, and Yum crawbugs. The small baby craw bug is a great finness jig trailer.

3-4 of them are enough for me, with a 10 or so to feed me, wife and child, I usually keep any gills that are 7" to 10", smaller and bigger go back. I fillet them just like I do perch, cut in behind the gill plate, down the back, take the ribs out, then the skin. Perch usually have more meat,but there is planty on a bluegill

Buddy and I hit a local pond for some ice fishing today, not expecting much we actually had a pretty good couple of hours. We caught around 100 bluegills between the 2 of us, 20 or so came home with us for the frying pan., along with some yellow perch, and even a few bass. All fish were caught in 12' fow on a weed edge off a large slow tapering flat, on small teardrop jigs tipped with waxworms jiggled just above the weed tops. Pretty simple stuff, but alot of fun. Not a bad way to spend a 15 degree Sat. morning.

I don't use rattles either, infact I have seen more times than not when a rattle in tube while dragging for SM would NOT get bit. Now flipping them in weeds is a different story................but that relates more to the green fish for me. To combat your slime situation........drop shot the tube, 8" to 12" off the bottom. The small zoom tubes nose hooked on a #1 Gamakatsu DS hook are a darn good and underated DS bait.

I usually don't fish football jigs on braid. I like flurocarbon it has much better abrasion resistance, yes you lose a little senstivity and gain some stretch, but it is not been an issue for me.

That is news to me too. I like they looks of both, too bad the Black Widow is not available in LH.

I have a bunch of Fenwick HMX's, and IMHO can't be beat for less than $100, I also have 3 of the new St Croix Mojo Bass rods, but have yet to fish them so I'll holdoff on judgement for now. The Compre has the best warranty and is a great rod too. I have one and would add more if the mood strikes me. If you really want to save some money, the Shimano Clarus seems like a great rod for it's price, and I have never had a bad expierance with a Berkley Series One, or Lightning Rod.

The Rapala x-rap shad was a great smallie crank for me last year.

Well if you have 3 spots open try 3 differnt baits and see what one's you like best. I like Strike King Redeye Shads the best, but plan on trying the new Rapala clacking rap, and the Spro Aruku shad this year to see if I like them too.

I fish any size senko on my St Croix Avid 7' M/F spinning rod, I have no issues with it.

I can vouch for the Exceler, I have a 2 of them, a 2000 and a 2500. They are very smooth and light, and seem to be the least expensive aluminum frame spinnig reel out there. I got both of mine used off e-bay for less than $30 each, but I would pay full price for them. Infact if I needed another spinning reel (which I don't) I would have a tough time chooseing betwen the Exceler and my other favorite reel in that price range, the Pflueger President.

I have a trout stream that literaly runs through my back yard, I have always caught them on a piece of Berkley power bait trout dough on a #10 hook with a split shot about 18" up the line. There is zero fishing pressure there, so I don't know how relevent my expeirance is.

I have been guilty of this a few times, but less and less as I get older. I think the last time I bought something on name/hype was a few packs of Berkley Chigger Craws after Boyd Ducket won the classic using them.

I use Falcon Lures "K" wacky hook, it is surprisingly weedless with the wire weed guard, and comes with weighted shanks in various sizes. The hook is a Gamakatsu 3/0 shiner hook, and IMHO a fantastic waky hook. I like the 1/16 oz size for most applications, like dropping it into a pocket in the milfoil, or fishing the deeper weed edge in 12'-14' FOW.

I bought a pack when I ran low on my usual tubes I drag for S.M., they worked........no better, or worse than what I usually use (Zoom), but I would use them again and probably will.

I hold my rod in my right hand, and crank with my left. With both spinning and casting gear.

#1 St Croix #2 Fenwick #3 Shimano

I have 1 3700 box with my flipping jigs, a 3700 box w/ my football jigs, and a 3700 box w/ my finesse jigs. All sorted in each box by size and color. I keep my colors simple, usualy black/blue, green pumpkin, brown/purple, and watermelon/red.

Tube dragging for Smallies is one of my go to techniques. What works on Erie travels real well to the finger lakes. I like a 3" greenpumpkin zoom tube. I use a 3/8 oz bite me tube head 99% of the time. Keeps the tube on the bottom. Fill the hollow body of the tube up with gulp juice when a bass bites it won't let it go with that gulp in there, also helps sliding the tube head up, acts as a lube. The Inland smallies on the finger lakes like it just the same, allthough I sometimes go to a 1/4 oz head, as I am only fishing water 1/2 as deep. My buddy swears by 3" BPS tender tubes in melon pepper, but we have both have been in the same boat catching just as many fish with different tubes. For me the 3" tubes get better results than the 4" for SM at least. Rarely, if almost never (be carefull LOL) has using a 4" tube made any differnce, but going to a 3" has. I also rarely t-rig tubes when dragging, unless there is a lot of "snot" on the bottom. Hook up% long lining a tube t-rigged is not that good. With an open hook, they bite it, they are stuck. When I fish for smallies with tubes 99% of the time I am dragging them, I make a long cast and drift the tube on the bottom. when the open hook snags on something, pop it, often that triggers a strike.

IMHO........I don't like the looks or feel of the code series. They just don't do it for me. IMHO Quantum made a mistake by dumping the Accurist PT and CX series.

LOL I know this doesn't help much but I have the Mojo frog rod too, but have yet to fish it. It is typical of St Croix quality, you won't be dispointed on a quality issue, as for how it fishes..........well like you I am waiting to see.

I have been tempted to buy some as well, they got some skirt colors I like.

Yeah IMHO Ikey heads sucked, not worth it at all, and even though I have seen and use tungsten worm weights, I felt ZERO advantage in having tungsten shakey heads. I fish shakey heads in the weeds alot and thought the "weed wacker" Ikey head would come through them better, well it was a joke. As for the spot removers, I used both the Pro, and the standard, baits flew off the standard like they were going out of style, and it was a constant fight to keep anything on that peg, even with a dab of glue. The Pro modle was better, but I didn't care for the angle of the hook point to the line tie, to the worm, it seemed like I missed alot of fish on them. They really didn't seem to excell in weeds like I fish either, and unless the landed just right on a flat bottom rolled over and didn't stand up till I moved it again ,and I never felt confident or sure of what was going on down there. They do have a place,I liked putting a pink trick owrm onthem and shaking it in a bed, the way it stood up there worked very good. It seems that when I switched to the strike king heads my hook up pergentage went WAY up, the number of bites I got went up, the number of fish I caught went way up. my baits lasted longer on that head, and I generaly did much better with them.

I have had the 3 I bought for about a week or so now, will be april before I fish them though. These are my first leap into split grip rods (well I had a kistler for about 30 secs.) so untill I can tell if I like them or not I think the price is right. I have always found SCII graphite to be pretty durable, and senstivity is better than most rods in it's price range, and actually better then a few more expensive rods (Loomis GL2 to be exact) I expect these Mojo rods to be more than senstive enough for what I will use them for. I got the 6'6" M/F topwater/jerkbait, the 7' MHM crankbait, and the 7 H/F slop and frog.