ww2farmer

No, not yet, and I typically fish them on stout gear. Usually a 7'3" H/F rod, and 50lb braid with a 15,17,or 20lb fluorocarbon leader.

I like the SK Red Eye Shads, and the old Xcaliber's............I am currently OUT of Xcaliber's thanks to the pike, and I don't love them enough to pay what people are asking for them now that they are discontinued. I'll keep the SK's, and probably pick up a few of the "new" Booyah branded baits which are supposed to.............."supposed to" be the same as the old Xcaliber baits. A third bait that flies under the radar a little but was very effective for me was the Storm Rockin' Shad.

Based on what conditions your going to be cranking................I would avoid a cranking rod specific rod. A good M or MH powered fast action rod with a soft tip will serve you much better, especially in and around grass. I started cranking years ago in much the same conditions you describe, lots of grass, some wood, little bit of rock here and there, and nothing much more than 10-12 feet deep. I started with a 7' M power, fast action graphite rod, and it worked and worked well. But having little exp. with cranking, I listened to all the talking heads and believed I needed to get a "cranking" rod. Well 10 years later, and many many cranking rods later, I decided all these "experts" could keep there cranking rods, and went back to what I started with. The #1 reason.................I was never ever happy with how cranking rods performed in grass. They just load up too much, and instead of a nice clean pop out of the grass, you end up just dragging the bait further into it, which in turn gets the bait all wadded up and you have just wasted time. Do this all day and it adds up to tremendous amount of frustration and time spent not fishing. Your going to get a lot of people blabbing about ripping hooks out, or pulling baits away from fish, or any other ..........IMHO..............nonsense on why you shouldn't fish crankbaits on "non-cranking" rods. All I have to say to that is.................these are problems that I have not had, and I go against the "conventional" grain, I crank with graphite, "non-cranking" rods, and I crank with braid. I'd like to invite these people who spout off about how wrong I am, to spend a day on my boat cranking with me so I can show them.

My system is organized disorganization..............I know where everything is, even when I don't know where it is.

I really screwed the pooch on putting the boat up this year. Tried to beat the weather, which...............has been unseasonably fantastic. I could have fished the last three weeks. Oh well.

And whose boat to avoid as well.

Store them in the house in the winter, and when not in use during the season, they are in a rod sock in the rod locker of the boat. As for cleaning and maint., nothing fancy. A wipe down of the blank with a wet rag, I'll clean any "gunk" off that has built up around the guide frames or reel seat, and if the cork is really dirty, some Dawn dish soap on a paper towel soaked in hot water cleans it up good enough for me. I check all my guides for issues with a cotton q-tip, and they go to my rod builder for repair or replacement if needed, and that's about it.

For me...........3/8's is the "do all" size if I could have one, but, I have choices, so I use them. Here is what I do: 1/4oz.....I use these from the bank out to 5-6' FOW, OR over the top of thick grass 3/8oz.....mid depth work, 5-10' FOW, and my go to size in shallow water when the water is still fairly cold BUT CLEAR, because even though the water is cold, if it's clear, it needs to be moved along at a decent clip so they don't get too good a peek at it, and the extra weight over the 1/4 oz size keeps it closer to the bottom a little better on a slightly faster retrieve speed which is the key it seems for me getting more bites in cold water. 1/2oz.....for fishing along deep weed lines in 8-12' FOW I can adjust the rigging on my trailer for a little extra depth control. I usually use a simple single tail grub for a trailer, I rig it with the tail "curled up" if I want to keep the bait down, or the tail "curled down" for little lift when I want to keep the bait high. The lift or push effect is subtle, as the thin grub tail is not very bulky, but it is noticeable, and it works for me doing it this way, so I roll with it.

I am a big fan of the Mustad and SK heads. When I first started using swinging jig heads a few years ago, I started with the ones pre-attached to a hook, I quickly moved away from those to the Mustad fastach system. Going forward, I will probably only buy the SK heads, not that the Mustads are not quality items, as they are, but for size reasons. The SK, are tungsten, and much more compact than the Mustad, which helps with getting better hook-ups.............let me explain. When I am throwing these heads, since it's a bottom contact presentation, I use then in fairly heavy sizes...1/2 oz. minimum, and usually 3/4, or 1 oz. BUT often times in our clear water a smaller profile bait is the key to getting bites....baits like the small Havoc Pit Boss, 3" chigger craws, etc......these baits perform best on a 2/0-3/0 EWG hook , when using the larger 3/4, and 1oz. Mustad heads, that's a big ol' hook in front of a small package, and I HAVE had some hook up issues with this arrangement. Much like traditional football jigs, I use a sweeping hook set with these to avoid blowing the fish's mouth open with a snap set, but still not much bite with a small hook behind a big sinker. Once I switched to the smaller profile tungsten SK, that problem all but went away. I still use the sweep set, but , for example, the 1oz SK is about the same size as the 1/2 oz Mustad, there is much much more bite for the hook to grab when using the smaller baits and hooks.

No, I can barely speak English as it is. Adding words with lots of letters arranged in funny ways into my everyday vocabulary would only further prove how big of an idiot I am.

If your dad is like most dads, he's probably happy to help.............even if there is swearing and dirty looks involved. Years from now, you'll both look back on such things with fondness.

If you want to stay with an off the rack, mass produced rod, the best rod I have ever had for light t-rigged plastics was my 7' M power, fast action St Croix LTB. Very versatile rod, and more powerful than the medium rating suggests.

Plain old 4" curly tailed grub works for me. I have used various other trailers, and the grub out catches them all.

Winning tournaments. My partners and I cash or come in 2nd place more than almost everyone else combined in the circles we fish in, but for some reason, we only seem to win one or two a year. Yeah, we're consistent and don't stink out the joint much, but man.....some of these 2nd place finishes some day have got to start turning into W's. In the last two seasons alone we have eleven 2nd's compared to only 2 wins (1 in each season). I guess it's a nice problem to have. But in a lot of these tournaments we are finishing 2nd to the same handful of guys, guys who if they are not winning are not doing jack squat. I guess we don't swing for the fences hard enough.

I want to try not to fall out of the boat....2 years in a row I have fallen out at least once. Other than that, I want to try and not break anything.

A 4" worm, nose hooked on a drop shot.

I have always tied direct to the split ring. This coming season I am going to take the split ring off a few and use a snap, just for grins and giggles.

Green pumpkin is a good all around color. If you have a heavy bluegill forage base, like my home lakes do, green pumpkin candy works very well. In the middle of summer when our lakes get stained green with algae blooms, I dip the tails of green pumpkin baits in chart. dye on sunny days, and use black/blue on cloudy days.

I like the VMC rugby heads.

Yes..........

We agree on the reel speed..............but I like a faster action rod for squarebills. I fish around grass most of the time, and moderate rods just load up too much for the way I like to rip them out, same goes for lipless cranks.

I became a believer in blade baits (silver buddy style baits) this fall. I had several decent outings with them, that may (or may not..IDK) have been better if I wasn't a novice with them.

My heavy power rods are built on MHX "Mag Bass" freshwater series blanks. I use the MB874 (7'3") for flipping, pitching, and punching jigs + t-rigged plastics from 1/4oz. up to 1oz. My second one is an MB844 (7') for frogs, swimjigs, chatterbaits, and pitching jigs/plastics from 1/4-3/4oz. in tighter spots than I would want to use the 7'3" rod. Both are very versatile rods, and have replaced multiple other rods in my boat. I find the 7'3" rod is the "sweet spot" for me in a flipping/pitching/punching rod...long enough to flip/punch, short enough to pitch to targets with precision, and doesn't wear me out like all the 7'6"+ factory rods I have used in the past.....of course to be transparent, I have NOT used a longer, custom built to my specs. rod............yet. YMMV.

Yup

The last few years I have been very fond of the SK KVD's and the Storm Twitch sticks. As for colors, I typically toss jerkbaits in clear water so I stick with natural/translucent colors.