ww2farmer

IMHO, smallmouth are garbage as far as eating goes. I kept a limit of 12" ers about two years ago in the fall, after the water cooled down, and compared to largemouth, of the same size, out of the same body of water, at the same time of year, the smallmouth were terrible.

I don't care for the popping one, but I use the regular and Jr. size a lot (as well as the SK sexy frog). I use a couple colors of the Booyahs, cricket frog, bull frog, shad frog, and dart frog. As for the SK, I use stump jumper, spring frog, tiger black, and green pumpkin/orange throat.

I like them for what they are. Which is a good cheap,dependable, utility rod, that I fish a lot of different things on.

I'll leave these here.....my $$ results the last 5 years fishing out of a glorified "jon boat" (bass tracker) w/ a 25 HP motor, against guys with faster glass rigs, often festooned with the "latest and greatest" electronics, power poles etc... Wins: 6 2nds: 15 3rds: 9 4ths: 5 Other money spots when there have been enough boats to pay more than four places: 5 Lunker: 3 Those are just open results out of my boat, add a couple more in each place for other assorted tournaments out of my boat, and a bunch more out of various buddies older glass boats, none of whom have the "latest and greatest"........... Moral of the story, learn the water your fishing, learn to fish, and you'd do fine in a row boat. Would I like to have a bigger, faster boat..........sure, I'd be lying if I said no. But I make the best out of what I got, and know my limitations, I DO NOT go out on Erie, or Oneida and try to compete, I stay to the local smaller lakes. I actually take a little pride in doing well out of what some people feel as an inferior boat.

Which, of course is your opinion, but not mine or probably many others here. I like booyahs and Strike King's. Are they the best.... I don't know, nor do I care. They work and fit my needs. I avoid blanket statements, they are generally made buy fools or kids.

What day were you there? It's been on fire since Sunday morning.

One of the few Havoc baits I have not been impressed with. Like Bluebasser86, I could only get them to "back up" with very light line and a tiny hook, not my style. I'd just rather put a nail weight in a 4" yum dinger and get the same action with my regular dock skipping gear.

I come from a small rural town on the bank of a lake. My high school class graduated 75 people, few stayed here after school, and of the few that stayed, I am the ONLY one who fishes...and I don't see anyone else from "my generation" that I grew up with out here either. The overwhelming majority of guys who come to my tournaments are older than me, and I am 39. But, there is hope, a lot of the guys are also under 25. I think it has more to do with wives/kids/jobs etc...and not having time to fish for the 25-40 year old crowd.

The pump motor is probably shot, and drawing too many amps if it's the original pump to the boat. I'd replace it, then if the new pump keeps blowing fuses, look deeper. A new pump is not very expensive, and, like I said, if it's the original, it's almost 30 years old..............time for a new one.

I have never had a 6xd sink, or even come "out of tune", and I have owned, and do own a TON of them. You got a dud. The only SK bait that I have had be a dud out of the package, out of the 100's I have are a few Red Eye Shads that took on water.......SK replaced them, and then some, I think I had two that were bad, and they replaced both, plus gave me two more extra's for the trouble, and a free hat.................good enough for me.

I used to buy used St Croix rods that came from Elite series pro Brian Snowden, they were nothing more than off the self Legend Tournaments, with the exception of his name on them. Brian gets "x" number of rods per year from St Croix, uses them for a season, and then sells them at a deep discount. He and I had a mutual friend who was one of the first people the rods were offered to, and he in turn let me in on it. In this case, there was nothing "special" about any of the rods. They were the same things you or I could buy in any store. Is that the way it is with all touring pro's.................I doubt it, but it's also idiotic to claim that all of them have some kind of special stuff that we never will see. Some probably do, most probably don't.................and put me firmly in the "I don't give a crap what they have/use" camp.

I liked the 7'1" MH/F that I had enough, to have my first custom built rod built similar...as in using the same pac bay minima reel seat and guides (slightly up sized from what the rage uses), didn't care for the grip.

It's all about timing. Some of my best summer days are cranking, some are flipping, and then some are finessing the heck out of them with drop shot, flick shake, or shakey heads... You never know till you get there and feel it out.

Yes, and lucky for me it comes at just the right time............Mid/late November- Late March/Early April, or , as we like to call it here............Winter.

Mmmmmmmmmmmkay......................smokin the drugs is bad Bill. Wat the heck are you talking about?

I have a couple,and for the sale price they are great...full price... Mehhhhh nothing to get excited about, and, personally, I wouldn't pay msrp for one. The Exceler or Cabelas prodigy are pretty much the same reel, and start off cheaper. I will say this about that platform, I like it better than the Citica and Curado G's, but not as much as the E's

Not getting the "kicker fish" in tournaments. The, literally, 20 or so money finishes that I have the last 2-3 years, that were not wins, have come down to one cull.

I do just fine with my little aluminum boat against guys with $70k rigs.

DVT, megastrike, rage tail, batson, just off the top of my head.

I am there almost every day.

I had three of the Smallmouth rods, two of them I liked, one I didn't care for. The ones I liked were the 6'9" MH/F casting, and the 6'9" M/XF spinning. The dud was the 6'9" M/XF casting, if it would have been built on the same blank as the spinning rod, it would have been great, but it was not, and it was not true to it's XF rating, it was more of a Mod-F. To compare these rods to the new custom built one would be tough because of the power/action/length difference.

I never owned one of the original Fenwick Elite Tech Bass rods that were out before the Smallmouth series, but had quite a few HMX's, HMG's, and a couple of the Smallmouth Rods.

Initial impressions are this: Lighter, better balanced and "crisper" than the rod I replaced with this ( Gen 2, Abu Vendetta 7'3" MH/XF), and that rod's (the Vendettas) predecessor, a 7'6" MH/MF "Pitching rod" St Croix Legend Tournament Bass. To be fair to the St Croix, the LTB was the older, 1st generation, full cork grip, telescopic model, and was one of the few "dud" rods I had from St Croix, that I liked in the store, but hated once I fished with it. Power: It is not a broom stick, despite it's H power rating, it reminds me very very much in power to a 7' MH/F St Croix Avid that I fished with for many years, with a slight edge in the "umph" department to this new MHX blank. It is no where near the hoe handle that just about every St Croix, and Abu H powered rod I have owned has been....which is good, because I wanted to avoid that. It is more in line with what I have exp. with from Fenwick, Loomis, and Kistler H powered rods, or St Croix and Abu MH powered rods. Feel/Sensitivity: Not mind blowing, yet I didn't expect it to be, it is a $70 blank after all, but, I would put it against any $100-$150 production rod I have owned, and it would be right there. If I had to pin it down, I would probably rate it above SCII, and more towards SCIII. I had no problem feeling bites, the bottom, and my way through cover with it. I flipped a t-rigged plastic with it a fair amount in the tournament, and on a day when the flipping bite was off, and the bites were light and mushy "pressure" bites, it performed well, and helped boat enough weight for a money finish. I am smitten with it, as it's "new and shiny" a more detailed and perhaps less biased report will be made after I have fished with it for a while. I will say this though, I am very impressed with the builders work, and his ability to put a rod configured exactly the way I want it, in my hands. I will have him build me more on these MHX blanks, as I am pleased for what my $$ is buying balnk wise.

He delivered rod #1 (the 7'3" H/F) to me this am, at sign ups for our tournament today. It was a pleasure to fish with. The build is very clean, and simple, and just what I was hoping for. I can't wait till the spinning rod is done...I'll get pics of them both when they are finished.

Some of the old timers around here used to drag their anchors or some other hunk of junk tied to there boat through the weeds to stir them up, dirty the water, and excite the baitfish, thereby, turning on the resident pike and bass....seems foolish to me, but they claimed it worked. I won't be doing it anytime soon.