ww2farmer

Shock and Vengeance are both good. Pick the Vengeance if your going to be fishing plastics/jigs/etc...and the Shock for moving baits.

I have used it, but I liked the Yum Warning Shot better..............and so did the fish, which is why I like it better. The Yum Kill Shot is very similar, tail wise, to the Jackal Cross tail shad, and/or the Zoom Z-drop...........both baits I never much cared for. The Warning Shot was a "new to me" bait in my 2015 rotation that ended up becoming a perminate addition. I liked it so much, I replaced my previous "go to" three inch-ish drop shot bait, the berkley twitch tail minnow with them. Of the three "new" yum finesse/drop shot baits, the warning shot, and sharpshooter were winners for me................the kill shot meh...not so much.

I have only ever had one cat that begged for human food, he'd eat anything we gave him, except for hotdogs and baloney.

My suggestion might not be "expert" approved, but I use automotive brake caliper/ high temp wheel bearing grease on my reel gears. Works great, is cheap, plus I use it on dozens of other things.............like M1 garand + M1 carbine bolt lugs/operating rods/receiver rails, 1911 + other pistol slide/frame rails, AR15 bolt carries. A little dab on the gears, and it's good to go for an entire season. I have never seen a decrease in performance. Plus it's CHEAP........$4 for a tube and I haven't had to buy a tube in years. The lubrication business is full of snake oil salesmen, when everything you need can be had at the local hardware store for a fraction of these so called "wonder lubes".

I have had multiple HMG's, go with the M.

Yes, but it sucks. Unless they cranks are small and light, I will choose casting gear every time.

I use braid for everything, and have for years. When I need more abrasion resistance or am fishing very clear water, I add a fluorocarbon leader.

I use 50lb braid.

For punching weeds, around docks or not, more often than not I use a texas rigged plastic beaver type bait , my favorite is the Havoc Pit Boss in green pumpkin in clear water, or black/blue in dirty water, with a pegged tungsten sinker. I use a sinker just heavy enough to get through the weeds..........sometimes it's 3/8's oz.............sometimes it's 1 oz......and sometimes it's somewhere in-between.

IMHO the most versatile cranking rod...........is rod you can do other things with besides just crank. For fishing things like squarebills, lipless cranks and medium depth cranks around cover, a good MH or M power, fast action rod will fish those kinds of cranks just fine. If the cover is grass, they will be better, IMHO ,than any cranking rod, and as an added bonus you can fish jigs, plastics and other stuff with them too.

I use braid for everything. I upgrade my trebles to 2x strong, and fish cranks on fast action rods. I, of coarse , am the odd man out here, but it works and works well for me.

Just to give you an example.........my squarebills. I keep them in a 3700 box, top row is Storm Arashi 5's, next row down are the Arashi 3's, third row is SK KVD 2.5's, bottom row is SK KVD 1.5's I use these colors: Arashi's - bluegill, rusty craw, mossy chart. craw, and baby bass KVD's - Nat. Bream, Orange belly craw, Chart/black back, and Sexy Chart. Shad I keep three off each color in the box, extras are still in the package in the house in a storage tote, when I lose one of the three out of the boat box, I get another out. Somedays when the pike are really chomping, I will lose all three of one size color, but almost without exception, the days they are biting that good I can tie on ANY of the other cranks and keep catching them. I have never felt under equipped carrying so "few" LOL.

Expensive is relative, in all hobbies. Get in where you fit in.

I'm a legend in my own mind........does that count?

They are a PITA for me to get used to after using cable steer, and making quick last minute changes of direction if you have screwed up in your boat control or postioning around things like boat docks, and laydowns to avoid disaster are almost impossible. But out in open water, teamed with GPS they are very effective. As some one who jumps between deep and shallow water often, I'll take the versatility of a cable steer. If I fished nothing but open water I might opt for the electric steer, and if I fished nothing but shallow weed choked water, I would choose a hand steer.........they are still the kings of blowing through the thickest of thick stuff, especially with the "reverse thrust" feature.

My favorite knots are: Palomar for tying braid directly to the bait Trilene for tying fluorocarbon to the bait Alberto for tying a braid to fluorocarbon leader In fact, those are the only three knots I know how to tie, but they have all been very reliable for me so I have never had to learn anymore.

My typical C-rig set up from the leader up is...........swivel, sinker stop to protect the knot, red glass bead, topped off by a 1/2 - 1 oz tungsten sinker.

I carry 4 colors of frogs, all Booyah Cricket frog (white belly w/ chart. throat/brown top) Bullfrog (chart. belly/green top) Shad frog (white belly w/orange throat/ purplish blue top) Dart Frog (black belly/black + yellow top) I used to carry the same colors in SK frogs as well, because SK frogs are a little heavier and displace a little more water over heavy mats and they also had a rattle, but I started saving torn up yum dingers, to stuff in the booyah frog, and added my own rattles. Problem solved, and now I can keep my frog selection simply to one brand.

I enjoy it.

I live in a Lake Erie lake effect band. There is a 100% chance of snow everyday from mid October until mid April.

I use Red Label..........palomar knot sucks, switch to the trilene knot and your knot issues will be over.

In a one time only Bass Resource exclusive, I will list my entire arsenal of soft plastics: Berkley Havoc Pit Boss's, 3" + 4" in green pumpkin, black/blue, and green pumpkin candy Berkley Power bait Chigger craws, 3" + 4" in green pumpkin and black/blue Berkley Havoc Bottom Hopper worms, 4" and 6" in junebug, green pumpkin, and shady watermelon candy Berkley Power Worms, 4", 7", and 10" in green pumpkin, green pumpkin/chart tail, blue fleck, and black/blue Berkley Power Grubs, 4" in green pumpkin, black/blue, milky salt pepper Berkley Power Tubes, 3.5" in green pumpkin , and black/blue Berkley Power bait Rib shad 4.5" in green pumpkin/watermelon, and pearl white. Berkley Gulp Leeches 3" in black Berkley Gulp Minnows 3" in Emerald shiner Yum Dingers, 3", 4", 5" in green pumpkin, watermelon candy, black/blue, and green pumpkin chart. tail Yum Sharpshooters 4"+6" in green pumpkin, watermelon candy, and bold bluegill Yum Warning shots in green pumpkin, watermelon candy, and bold bluegill And that's it........................seriously. I do alright with it.

Customer service and human relations.

In 2015 I caught 3 Largemouth over 6lbs, all on one of my homemade filipping jigs.

I like them (as well as the rattling, and a lot of the other Storm hardbaits). They are the only other square-bill I use besides the SK KVD's. The nice thing about them is they come with good hooks and don't need to be changed right away to be fished IMHO. I tend to like the silent Arashi's in clearer water earlier in the season before the grass gets real thick as they offer more translucent finishes, and I especially like them when they (the bass) want a bait to be burned, that self tuning line tine is legit, I like the rattling ones for dirty water around hard sparce cover, and I like the KVD's better in heavy cover, they just come through it better, esp. grass.