Spectrum

If you're budget is $300, $250 is a lot to spend on a rod. If you don't have any cash you can put in yourself with the gift card, I'd look at something else. I can't give you much help there though. I've owned a lot of Powells and really liked them, but never owned their swimbait rods. The Okuma rods get a lot of praise, and would save you a little more money in that $300 budget, but I can't speak on them from personal experience either. I throw 8" Hudds on the 807. I've used the 795 too. I'd think about what baits you're going to buy and fish the most and go from there. The first two baits I ever owned were Hudds and that's all I fished for at least a year. Learned them backwards and forwards, and got confidence not just in the Hudd but in throwing big baits in general. For as long as I fished just a Hudd, I wish I had started with a rod that was a lot heavier. I don't know if there are any left, but I saw something about Dobyns trying to clear out their remaining gen 1 rods. They had 795s and 807s for like $100, and to call the office to buy one.

I'm fairly new to Texas, but from what I understand, we ain't East, West or South. Texas. Mike - Austin, TX

A little bit of everything I guess, depending on the day. Hot Water Music (first 3 records are all-time greats in my book) The Broadways, Strung Out, Lagwagon, NOFX, etc. All that from back in my highschool days Drive-By Truckers, The Hold Steady, LIONS, Dead Confederate. P.O.S., Doomtree, Prefuse 73, OutKast.

Yea, that's what has me thinking about a flipping stick. I'm betting on being able to really drive the hook through on both these baits, better than with a standard swimbait rod where I feel like the rod has to load deeper before hammering a fish. That's how I intend to fish it here. Pitch to a spot, drag it back like a football jig. Coming from Erie, there's not a whole lot of that going on...long casts in deep water. I'd have to find a loomis to check out. Surprisingly, there isn't a decent tackle shop around here, and Cabela's doesn't carry that line.

I'm looking at picking up a new rod to throw basically just 6"-8" Mission Fish and weedless Hudds. I've been throwing them on a 795ML, 301E with 20lb CXX, and I guess I don't really have a problem with how that setup fishes, but I feel like I'd like to get something rigged up with 80lb Samurai, and feel good about throwing these baits into the really thick stuff. I don't generally like braid, and my 795ML always has either a punker or 6"/68 Hudd tied on. I like to leave it that way, and get something else going for pretty much just these two baits. I was thinking something along the lines of a dobyns 765/766 or 805 flipping stick, to really lay into a hookset and pull 'em out of the grass. I just got a 735 that I like a lot, but haven't fished a Mission Fish on it. I don't really like flipping much, and just moved here from Lake Erie, so I don't own anything heavier than that 735 outside of swimbait sticks. Any opinions on what you like for throwing these two baits into heavy grass? Doesn't have to be a Dobyns, that's just mostly what I own these days.

Nice fish. Kind of making me jealous... This is my first winter down south in several years, and that's what I miss the most. Knee deep in 36 degree water, 20 degree air, snow falling, guides frozen... I'll get a couple of days in over Christmas I hope. The fishing only gets better up toward NY I assume.

Thanks for the replies. I'm good with split rings. I just don't always bother to replace them in the past. I don't know about the ST-36 in 2/0, 3/0 but I ordered some this morning on the recommendation of another. I've pretty much always stuck to the 36 for sizes 4 through 1, and ST-41 above that. I see where some people aren't fans of the 41's shape, which I guess I can see, but to me it's a way more durable hook so I tend to just use that on bigger baits. I'll just have to toy around with different hooks on the TT and see what works for me. I'm going to try the 2/0 and 3/0 ST-36 on big 9" punkers. My gut says stick with the ST-41s, but I had one blown out of the water the other day a couple of times, without hooking up, and I guess this is the major issue people have with the more curved points. I've been throwing swimbaits a while, a few years, mostly fishing hudds deep in open water on Erie. But I just moved to Texas and I ain't trying to lose any DDs cause I assumed the hooks that held up to 6lb smallies are good enough for these fish in cover...

I've never been much for replacing hooks on baits unless they're absolutely terrible, but after breaking a couple of trebles recently, I'm starting to see the light. I have 8" and 10" Triple Trouts I want to change the hooks out on. I searched but didn't really find an answer. On hand, I have ST-41s in 1, 1/0, 2/0 and ST-36s in 4, 2, 1, 1/0. The hooks on a TT are pretty big, but also much lighter wire than the ST-41s. I don't know how much, if at all, it would mess with the action or sink rate. I figured I'd get some advice from more knowledgeable people. Also, split rings. I have a bunch of hyper wire rings here, so if y'all think I should swap them out, the same question applies. I guess while I'm at it, I'll ask about the wood punkers and shellcrackers as well. I have a few 8" and 6" I've been using the stock hooks without a problem, but I think I'd rather just change out all the hooks I need to at once. I'll have to tie up some feathered ST-41s for the tails, but what size rings and hooks would you put on 6", 8" wood punkers, wood shellcrackers, G2 shellcrackers, and 5", 6" injected punkers? If there's some thread where replacement hooks are covered, let me know. I've been reading here for a while, but I think this is probably my first actual post. Thanks