Mobassman

That's an awesome deal for a great rod! Very cool of you, Al!!

Isn't this place that very group?

42! It's the answer to everything! lol

You got the brown on a swimbait, too? That's a nice fish!!

Punkers are easier to walk. The Don is a little erratic.

Sadly, the closest thing to that is the Suspending Revolution Shad in 7". Maybe Mickey will make a suspending bait now that this is out.

I've had the best luck with lightweight PVC pipes(with caps at each end) and putting the rod inside some pipe insulation and taping the ends of the insulation VERY well. It's a little more expensive but they always get there intact!

The only problem I've ever had at Hooked Up was having everything I ordered not be in stock. And that was after placing the order and said items were supposedly there to ship. My order took a few days longer to get to me but they didn't rip me off.

Best online swimbait store, to me, is TW. They have a better selection than most, their shipping is excellent and their customer service is very good. I just wish they had the Baby Wakes. I can never seem to get my hands on one! I haven't had a bad enough experience to give any store the honors of "worst". lol

Best of luck with the interview! The site is new and the mods here are top notch!

The Megabait Charlie and the Reaction Strike Shad are the only two suspending, lipped baits I can think of. If I HAD to use one of them, I would go for the Reaction Strike Shad. At least it comes in sizes from 3 to 12 inches and it has much better reviews than the Charlie. Personally, I think I would just mod baits until something better came along.

Not the dink thread you intended, Ben. Kind of funny how this one panned out so in the interest of keeping it going, here's another dink.

I hope you bought them a beer, Ben!

If I could add a little to this topic: How do you guys classify wakebaits?

Those are some amazing cats, Combat!

I use the St Croix Mojo Swimbait rod, paired with a Curado 300E with 17# mono. I'm not throwing anything over 2-3 ounces so it works just fine for me. If I can ever get my hands on some FS Shad or Baby Wakes, that will have to change, though. lol

It's wasted paint because of who owns the bait, lol. And thanks for the props!

I custom painted a Punker to look like an albino trout for a guy once. His reasons for wanting it mirror just about everything that has been said in this thread. Too bad it was wasted paint, lol.

I lost all my pictures when my house burned down last year. My biggest swimbait bass ever was 13lbs 2oz and was caught at Casitas. My biggest swimbait bass, since moving to Missouri, was 9lbs 8oz.

Combat, That Baby Wake/Rat is plain SICK! It's a good thing I don't own any Baby Wakes, because I think I'd be modifying them right now!

OK, this isn't a swimbait fish caught be me. It was caught by my daughter. She broke off while fishing with her spinning setup and decided she wanted to learn to use a baitcaster instead of just retying. I told her it wasn't that easy, that it takes practice. She informed me that it couldn't be that hard. She's stubborn that way, lol. I grabbed a crankbait rod and showed her how to hold her thumb on the spool and when to release it when casting, etc, etc. She made her first cast and it was perfect! She looked over her shoulder and told me she knew it wasn't hard. LOL I took her spinning rod back to the car and when I came back, she had grabbed my swimbait rod and was chucking a Jackall Mikey. It kind of scared me at first but she was casting like she'd used it all her life. She was slow waking it in an eddy(she wanted to get a big striper) and I heard her scream. I get over to her and she has a big fish on! Thankfully, my girlfriend had the sense of mind to take some pics. I started to coach her and she just told me to be quiet, that this was HER fish. I told you she was stubborn, lol. It wasn't a huge striper or bass. Turned out to be a big silver carp! On a wakebait! Needless to say, I'm very proud of her....even if she did hijack my swimbait rod. Here's a couple pics.

I use shad style swimbaits and wakebaits for spotted bass. My biggest, so far, was a 7lber on a Castaic Threadfin.

The bait looks great. Apparently, the fish think the same!