ww2farmer

Red Eye Shad, I like Chili craw in early spring, then as the water clears, I switch to Japanese shad on sunny days or albino craw on cloudy days. The Booyah (old excaliber) baits are a distant second....I fish them about 10% of the time when I am throwing a lipless bait. I have a few others like the Berkley warpig that's seen some use, and I have some of the new Storm Arashi lipless baits to fart around with next year.

I am partial to 2 kinds Spinning gear I use VMC wacky jigs in 1/16th or 1/8th oz. Casting gear I use Revenge Flippin' Whackers in 1/16th or 18th oz. as well.

One of my favorite rods of all time.............and I think I am going to re-add it to my arsenal now that the are coming in the SCIII blank.

I opt for a curly tail worm when the water gets warm, and a little color to it. From late spring to early fall, if I am throwing a curly tail worm, it's usually a 7" Berkley power worm most days, the 10"er when I am fishing deeper off shore stuff, and a 4"er when the bite is tuff. I go back to straight tailed worms in colder water, or really clear water.

My go to has been the rage single tail grub for about 75-80% of my fishing. The rest of the time, it's rage tail menace, or some kind of boot tail swimbait. This year the rage swimmers will get a workout.

I can skip with a $50 Abu Black Max, as good as I can with Revo STX....it's not the reel,

I am not surprised. The ones around here, seem like they go through extensive remodels to change the layout of the store on a yearly basis...........that can't be cost effective. They are also on drugs when it comes to pricing. I have not bought a single thing there in the last few years that wasn't on sale. Fishing stuff is mildly over priced, same with ammo, but my god they must think that every firearm they have in stock was used by Teddy Roosevelt on San Juan Hill. You would have to be a complete idiot to buy a used gun there, many if not all of them are higher priced than NEW ones at other stores.

I fish shallow year round...........you would be surprised how many big fish are in the dirt when there is still ice on the lake, or when the water is boiling hot I fish deep year round...........you would be surprised how many fish never leave deeper water, even in the spring I fish frogs year round I use braid for crankbaits..........sometimes with a flouro leader, sometimes without I use braid for everything.......^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ I don't use GYCB senkos I have not fished my senko alternative (yum dinger) weightless in years I don't "pose" too often for pictures to be plastered all over social media so Aunt Jenny in the nursing home, Uncle Larry in Montana, and the guys from the fantasy football team can all stand in line to give me a pat on the back.............that and the less people who know what I'm doing the better.

I'm with you............My tournament partner uses his old GLX's mixed with a few newer ones, when I "borrow" one of his rods I always reach for the old ones. He has lost a few to breakage and they get replaced with newer GLX's and I just don't care for them. My first "expensive rod" was a USA made Fenwick Techna AV, a 7' M spinning.........and I swear to god I could feel more on that rod with mono, then any other spinning rod I have ever owned and used with braid since. I broke that rod a long time ago, and what Fenwick replaced it with was sad compared to that old USA made Techna AV. I was so disapointed with it, I sold it, and have never bought another higher end Fenwick since it seemed you were getting HMG quality blanks (which are decent for the $$) in a gussied up package, for more $$.

The yum warning shot nose hooked on a drop shot rig was my #1 "tuff day" bait last year, I also like wacky rigging small 3" and 4 " um dingers on a drop shot, as well as scaled down craws/creature baits, like the small pit boss, or 3" chigger craw. I also reach for a 4" yum dinger, or finesse worm on a 1/16th oz wacky jig on tuff days. Shaky heads with a finesse worm are also a staple. If they are not biting well, all three of these options are on my boat deck. Then you have those bizzaro tuff days when they won't bite "normal" sized moving baits, nor finesse soft plastic presentations, but for some reason are willing to chase small cranks like KVD 1.0's and 3xd's or the small frogs like the little booyah pad crasher.

for me it's a clear water/ dirty water thing. I prefer swim jigs in clear water, chatterbaits in dirty. Secondary is water temp....I seem to do better on chatterbaits, even in clear water when the water temps are cold.

I put them in empty soft plastic bags, with used/torn soft plastics, and then in the trash.

I fished Rat-L-Traps exclusively for years until the Red Eye Shad burst onto the scene. Since then, I have switched to Red Eye Shad's almost exclusively, with a brief forays with other brands. Now that SK has silent, and knocking Red Eye Shad's they have eliminated my need to try other brands until they build a better mouse trap. I have complete confidence in the RES, and it's produced many many big fish for me.

SK KVD's..................I usually go with the 200, it has consistently produced more and bigger fish for me than the 300.

Try it without the weedguard, if you don't get hung up, you have your answer.

I gave mine up a few years ago. Nice rods, I liked them fine, I got them on sale so they didn't break the bank, they just didn't "do it" for me, so I moved on. I had the 6'9" MH/F casting, the 6'8 M/XF spinning, and the 6'9" M/F casting. I was not really impressed with the 6'9" M/F casting, I found it to be more of a moderate action rod and it didn't suit what I wanted to do with it real well ( suspending jerkbaits, topwaters) as I like a little faster action for these techniques so i am actually working the bait instead of loading the rod. The 6'9" MH/F casting was a good light swim jig, and senko rod, but it was a little light on power, I would say it's more of a M power rod, which is fine, but I wanted a little more power.....that, and I had reel seat issues with this rod. Almost every reel I had/have was loose in the seat, and the cork/nut fell apart. I liked the spinning rod the best. It was a very good shaky head, and flick shake rod, but I wasn't overly attached to it and it ended up being trade fodder for something else.

I don't hate anything, every brand has it plus and minus's. What turns me off on one brand or another, believe it or not, is their marketing strategy. Obnoxious, in your face advertising has always been a turn off to me, as well as legions of "fanboy" prostaffers who shill for, and/or bash other companies like broken records.

I have owned multiple rods, from all three series, spanning several generations of each series. IMHO..........go straight to the HMG. My favorite HMX's were several versions ago, and each "newer" generation of them goes backwards. They just re-did them again, and I have yet to try one, but the last version of the HMX was terrible. Heavy un-balanced and generally awkward feeling. If you want a rod that cost less than the $99 HMG, especially from a pure fishing brand, go with an Abu or Berkley. You didn't ask, but here is how I rank the pure fishing rods at various price points: $40-$60 .....Abu Vengeance > Berkley Lightning Rod Shock >Berkley Heritage > Fenwick Eagle > "regular" Berkley Lightning Rod $60-$80.....Abu Vendetta > Berkley E-motion > Fenwick HMX $80 -$100....Fenwick HMG > Abu Veritas Over $100.............I skip pure fishing products and go to St Croix, or custom built.

I agree with WRB.....dropshoting is not a great presentation for bigger largemouth in the pre-spawn period or the fall............IE the times of the year when your apt to catch your biggest fish. Smallmouth are another story, it's deadly on big smallmouth year round. About the only time I pick up a dropshot in the pre-spawn period when targeting largemouth is if they are not biting almost anything else, which happens from time to time, but rarely does it produce big fish. Dropshotting largemouth shines for me in the post spawn-summer/fall transition period, and often my biggest fish of the summer come drop shotting. Often power shotting heavy cover, or fishing lighter tackle rigs off deep grass lines. Come full blown fall fishing, it's back to the bottom of the rotation and only used for largemouth as a last resort. Like I said before, smallmouth are a different story......and almost a 180 of largemouth fishing. Often my biggest smallmouth of the pre-spawn period, and fall (times when it's not a productive tech. for largemouth) are caught drop shotting. In the summer, it's a numbers thing for smallies, but a producer of better quality largemouth.

Just about the whole tackle box is in play during the prespawn................you wouldn't believe the number of big bass I have caught in 50 degree water on frogs............I'm not kidding.

I fall on and off the dip wagon all the time....I give it up for a while, then start again, then stop, then start....It's a hard habit to kick. I know full well the risks, and to promote a "favorite" would be a disservice. One of these days I will kick it for good..............hopefully before it's too late.

I use 6:1 and 7:1 reels for everything. Usually the 6:1 reels for most moving baits, and the 7:1 reels with jigs and soft plastics....I do like the 7:1 reels for moving baits in clear water where I have to zip them along pretty quick, like swim jigs, frogs, etc.. The newer reels with their over-sized gears, coupled with modern deep diving cranks, or other high water resistance lures that pull through the water far easier than those of yesteryear have made slower geared reels obsolete for me. I can fish SK XD cranks all day on 6 and 7:1 reels comfortably, where just a short time ago, some of the older deep diving lures like Norman DD22's and the big lipped Mann's baits needed more powerful reels because they pulled hard.... I also find it much easier to reel a fast reel slow, than try to speed up a slow reel. Cranking like a mad man on a slow reel gets old, fast.

Megastrike is your friend.

The small diameters are great for open water panfishing.................for anything else it sucks. It has the abrasion resistance of wet toilet paper.

There's no money in soybeans or corn unless you do it by the 10's of thousands of acres. We grind from mid July to early October harvesting green beans and play the rest of the year.