Latest Tackle Purchase Thread (Bait Monkey Victim Support Group)

[gim]

22 hours ago, Jmurphy87 said:

but not this blade combo

 

The turtle-back or oklahoma style blades are harder to come by.  Seems like almost every spinnerbait out there comes with a willow leaf or a colorado blade.  The turtle-back seems to give off more thump.  I am a fan of using them in murkier water.

[king fisher]

On 5/28/2024 at 9:26 PM, CDMTJager said:

Where to begin

in last 8 months for myself and my two sons to use

Bought six new baitcasting rods (13 blackouts on 50% off)

Bought one Daiwa Tatula casting rod

Bought 8 new spinning rods three Kast King, Three Daiwa, two Dobyns 

Bought four Abu Garcia Pro Max4's at 50-55% off

Bought two Shimano SLX MGL 70

Bought seven new Kast King Royal Legend Glory spinning reels four 4000's three 3000's

Bought 5.25" Zoom Super Flukes in four different colors

Bought 4' & 5" Zoom Boot Tailed flukes

Bought Cabelas 5.5" Shadee Shads in 3 different colors

Bought (on CO) Berkley 5" Power jerk Shads in two colors

Bought 5" YUM Houdini shad in three colors 

Bought 4" and 3" Yum Wooly bugs three different colors

Bought Strike King Caffeine shad three different colors

BPS 5" go to minnow in 4 colors

BPS Hoochie Coochie minnow in 3", 4", 5"

Bought 4" Keitech Easy Shiner and Fat Impact swimbaits in three different colors each

Bought Wacky worms form Z-man Zoom, BPS, Cabelas three different colors

Bought 3.3" and 3.8" cabelas swimbaits in four different colors each

Bought Zoom trick and Ultra vibe speed worms two different sizes four different colors each

Bought HogFarmer Spunk Shad 3.5 & 5.5" four different colors each

Bought Owner Twist Lock hooks #1, 1/0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0 both unweighted and weighted

Bought Gamak Twist lock hooks in 2/0, 3/0 and 4/0 weighted and unweighted

Bought multiple different styles of EWG, and Oshanacy from Owner, Gamak and Trokar 

Bought wacky and DS specific hooks in standard and weedless

Bought a BUTT load of Z-Man chatterbaiats and willow chatterbaits in three different colors 1/4oz. and 3/8oz 

Bought bare 1/4oz and 3/8oz Z-man chatter jig heads

Bought 1/4oz and 1/8oz under spins jigs 

Bought a butt load of assorted jigs form four different manufactures in four

different colors in 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2oz

Bought multiple 3/8oz spinnerbaits in colorado and Indiana blade

Bought 1200yrds of 10lb Yo-Zuri copolymer

Bought  1800yrds of 15lb Yo-Zuri Copolymer

Bought HI-VIS braided line in 15 and 30lb test from Power Pro and Suffix

Bought a 20 assorted plastic tackle organizing boxes form Flambeau, Cabelas and Plano

 

That's about all I feel like typing for now.

I'm glad to see the Bait Monkey did not suffer after getting kicked out of my house.  Please keep him for awhile longer.  

[Jmurphy87]

1 hour ago, gimruis said:

 

The turtle-back or oklahoma style blades are harder to come by.  Seems like almost every spinnerbait out there comes with a willow leaf or a colorado blade.  The turtle-back seems to give off more thump.  I am a fan of using them in murkier water.

Exactly why I chose them, I am an odd man of opposites. I do the reverse of normal and it works for me. Gin clear water I throw black and blue baits. And catch 4+ lb fish so if it works for me I keep doing it. Maybe I get lucky with fish that are too eager, but that is not the case for this lake. I caught my pb on a green pumpkin jig out of this exact lake. So it must not be a fluke, although I fish a very stained water pond that they will only eat natural colors for the most part. It’s only normal if you agree with it, throw caution to the wind and go for it and let me know the results. Every body of water is different but hey it works for me, I have pulled a 4+ lb bass out of that pond using black and blue colors.

A local Ollie’s haul after my work friends saying that we might go to a frog 🐸 lake lol. I might be wrong but I am going with two colors of frogs and a reel my new to fishing friend can blow up plus a backup just to be sure lol.

[CDMTJager]

On 5/31/2024 at 1:52 AM, Pat Brown said:

 

 

The monkey is pleased with your efforts.  🙈🙈🙈 

 

I got a ton of odds and ends recently but most notably I got some scum frogs from Midway USA to try out per @LrgmouthShad recommendation and they are fantastic.  The Trophy and the Launch are both incredibly useful frogs and come in small and larger sizes with beautiful paint jobs.

 

They get bit a lot and heck even I can catch a fish with them now and again!

 

I really like the shad color and so do the bass!

Scumfrog is tied as my favorite frog and one of the only two I use now and I use the Scum Frog most often. In two weeks on the lakes I fish most, my luer choices will be for 75-80% of the areas I can fish from shore will be 

Frogs

OCCASIONALLY Poppers

Soft plastics rigged weedless.

Otherwise 90% of casts with any hard bait will result in bringing in a coffee can sized clump of weeds.

It could possibly only me, but trying this smaller Scum Frog literally doubled my hookup rate with frogs. You might consider giving one a try if your aren't already.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Scum_Frog_Trophy_Series_Popper_Frog/descpage-TYP.html

[CDMTJager]

21 hours ago, king fisher said:

I'm glad to see the Bait Monkey did not suffer after getting kicked out of my house.  Please keep him for awhile longer.  

Will do. Bait Monkey is fat dumb and happy in my house for sure. No he will NOT retire here, but lets say he will enjoy and extended vacation.

But in all fairness to me since making all those purchases have spent literally 100s of hours figuring out what of I bought works best and I am very happy and relieved to report about 80% is working well. Glad I didn't go to crazy on color selection as the fish in the lakes I do 90% of my fishing in have shown a very clear preference for only four colors thus far, but I do not have enough hours worth of data to come to any conclusions. But thus far flukes in white ice/sight fish, watermelon red flake/pearl red flake and ghost shad have caught fish better than all other colors I tried by at least 4:1. Also dipping just the tails or last .5" of my slukes and swim baits in chartreuse dye I feel has definitely increased my numbers of hits.    

Especially about 90-95% if the soft plastics I bought, 98% of the chatter and willowchatters, and 90% of the hooks I bought for soft plastics work enough well but unfortunately only two will see use as they have that much better of a hookup ratio VS the others.

 

Could just be unique to my situation and I didn't go into using any hooks for rigging soft plastics weedless with any pre existing prejudices or preferences whatsoever, just trying to determine what worked the best all around. For me two types of twist lock soft plastic hooks worked significantly better in every way than all the non twist lock hooks I tried with one just that much better than the other it is all I now use. That being the Owner Twist Lock Light hook.

 

Until last year I hadn't tried a new of different SP worm hook in over 25 years. Always used either a standard OS worm hook or a O'Shaunessy Offset worm hook. Hell till last year never fished any other type of soft plastic save for worms.

I guess my massive level of new tackle and lure purchases this year are making up for years of lost opportunities.

Chatterbaits and willow chatters combined this year alone have combined accounted for over 100 bass for me including my largest bass fir the year thus far.

[CDMTJager]

On 5/21/2024 at 10:33 PM, KP Duty said:

I don't miss fish on those G-locks 👍

Which Gamakatsu exactly is the "G-lock" you speak of? 

On 5/21/2024 at 11:24 PM, Jmurphy87 said:

On 5/21/2024 at 10:33 PM, KP Duty said:

I don't miss fish on those G-locks 👍

That’s what the guy at the local tackle shop said also, figured why not you can never have too many hooks in reality. 

Would either of you mind saying wich Gamakatsu hook exactly is this so called "G-lock"?

 

I figured it out.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/search-tackle.html?start=0&count=20&searchtext=gamakatsu+g-lock

[lynxcat]

Tacklewarehouse has amazing deals on Gambler right now. Like 50% off and another 20% off that! $2.22 a pack. 

[lynxcat]

1 hour ago, lynxcat said:

Tacklewarehouse has amazing deals on Gambler right now. Like 50% off and another 20% off that! $2.22 a pack. 

It’s only certain colors but it’s still a wide variety. For ones that are typically almost $6/pack these are a no brainer if you like Gambler. 
 

I’ve crushed largemouth on swim jigs recently. Love how these get the secondary action from the skirt. Not the most durable but manageable. 

[Cgolf]

Removed

[Columbia Craw]

I felt guilty……for this long.

[LrgmouthShad]

Ordered 10x Coda Apex Jigs for dock skipping in NC soon. TX-based small company. Wire-tied jigs with owner jungle hooks and a little shorter skirts that flare well. 

[Jmurphy87]

Two things from me

[NorthernBasser]

23 minutes ago, Jmurphy87 said:

Two things from me

 

 

Two things from you...every 5 minutes. 😅 You are the true Bait Monkey!

[fin]

On 6/4/2024 at 1:48 PM, NorthernBasser said:

Not sure about this Rick Clunn Trickster spinnerbait. I'm curious to see if a) the blades will tangle up with the hook and b) the bent wire that close to the hook will hurt hookups. 

 

 

That's an interesting spinnerbait. I'd be real curious how it will work. I wouldn't be very optimistic, but these things can be surprising.

 

Most of those beads seem kind of pointless since the wire is horizontal, and just unnecessary top weight. And obviously the front one isn't doing its job.

 

Tackle Warehouse has a "Luck-E-Strike Trickster Spinnerbait" that looks mostly the same but it doesn't have that extreme bend, and it has a different style front bead. Rick Clunn isn't mentioned on that one. Weird.

[NorthernBasser]

On 6/4/2024 at 3:41 PM, fin said:

 

That's an interesting spinnerbait. I'd be real curious how it will work. I wouldn't be very optimistic, but these things can be surprising.

 

Most of those beads seem kind of pointless since the wire is horizontal, and just unnecessary top weight. And obviously the front one isn't doing its job.

 

Tackle Warehouse has a "Luck-E-Strike Trickster Spinnerbait" that looks mostly the same but it doesn't have that extreme bend, and it has a different style front bead. Rick Clunn isn't mentioned on that one. Weird.

Here's the one I got. 

 

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Head_Hunter_Trickster_Plus_Spinnerbait/descpage-HHBN.html

[KP Duty]

17 hours ago, NorthernBasser said:

 

Two things from you...every 5 minutes. 😅 You are the true Bait Monkey!

Lol.  We know what stage he is in.  In a couple years, he'll have so much stuff, it acts like a deterrent.

 

BTW...did you get those curados from Ali-X?  I have the same 2 reels coming.

 

 

[PhishLI]

Stupid sales keep getting me.🤣

[hokiehunter373]

33 minutes ago, KP Duty said:

Lol.  We know what stage he is in.  In a couple years, he'll have so much stuff, it acts like a deterrent.

 

BTW...did you get those curados from Ali-X?  I have the same 2 reels coming.

 

 

IIRC he's already been there and sold it all off. He's just restocking now lol right @Jmurphy87

[KP Duty]

3 minutes ago, hokiehunter373 said:

IIRC he's already been there and sold it all off. He's just restocking now lol right @Jmurphy87

I read that the dopamine spike you get from making a purchase can last over 48hrs....longer than any illicit drug.

[Jmurphy87]

2 hours ago, hokiehunter373 said:

IIRC he's already been there and sold it all off. He's just restocking now lol right @Jmurphy87

You know it, the more that I collect the more picky I get about what exactly that I want. I am already overwhelmed with rods again. Heck one of my friends from work who is just getting into fishing has gotten some great deals from me. Like a kage spinning rod and a ballistic reel for $100 and I loaded him a 3700 tray with high end top waters, crank baits, frogs and buzz baits and jigs even chatter baits along with various plastics all for $80. I like helping people get into the sport and having good gear.

2 hours ago, KP Duty said:

I read that the dopamine spike you get from making a purchase can last over 48hrs....longer than any illicit drug.

Maybe 2 hours if you are lucky lol.

[Jmurphy87]

21 hours ago, NorthernBasser said:

 

Two things from you...every 5 minutes. 😅 You are the true Bait Monkey!

You know it, maybe that’s why I like crawling and hopping around on the 100-500 ton presses at work. Maybe I am a monkey lol, I didn’t even throw the lures that I bought yesterday. Planned on it but like normal, bring a lot use a little bit of stuff. Of course it doesn’t help that one of the most productive areas of the lake is a weed line to a break. Weightless senko for the win. Hard to fish but it works great, 10 fish per senko is not too bad.

[NorthernBasser]

10 hours ago, KP Duty said:

Lol.  We know what stage he is in.  In a couple years, he'll have so much stuff, it acts like a deterrent.

 

BTW...did you get those curados from Ali-X?  I have the same 2 reels coming.

 

 

There's definitely such thing as too much tackle. It can create anxiety. Or so I'm told. 

 

And yessir. Those were Ali steals. 

[KP Duty]

59 minutes ago, NorthernBasser said:

There's definitely such thing as too much tackle. It can create anxiety. Or so I'm told. 

 

And yessir. Those were Ali steals. 

Word.  I also bought a 150 and a 70.  Then decided at noon today that if there were any 70XG's left I should buy another.  There was 1 left  

[Texas Flood]

Looks like TW info was off on the specs for what I ended up getting. Already sent them an email, so hopefully this gets clear up soon.

 

 

[MN Fisher]

1 minute ago, Texas Flood said:

Looks like TW info was off on the specs for what I ended up getting. Already sent them an email, so hopefully this gets clear up soon.

I had the same issue with an Okuma rod I got - the response was "Trust what's on the rod, not the website".  Maybe yours will be the same, but who knows.