lunkerglx10

Just did a trade with Adam that involved some high dollar baits. Communication was great, and trade was completed without a hitch. I would highly recommend him to any SU member, and wouldn't hesitate to do business with him again.

If there was, I don't remember seeing anything on it. So I'd also be curious if there are discernible differences between the production H models and these newer workshop white label H models.

Picked up one of these from the site, but haven't had a chance to use it yet because of the ice. Any first impressions from anyone who has fished it a bit?

Been drooling over cam's new website! Saving my pennies for a MOAM custom stick. His work looks incredible, and I'm loving what everyone says about his customer service.

I've used the Fish Skull eyes in 10 mm as replacement eyes on slide swimmers. You can grab them from tackle warehouse: http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Fish_Skull_Living_Eyes/descpage-FSLIV.html

Those reel seats are so sick looking. Gorgeous build.

I've actually done much better with trout-colored hudds in bodies of water that don't have trout, or even any other forage resembling the profile of a trout. On bodies of water that get regular trout stockings, I've done noticeably worse. Could easily be an anomaly, because admittedly, it's not a huge sample size. But from a confidence standpoint, I think there's some value to throwing something a little different that the fish don't see as often. The fish have had thousands upon thousands of senkos and jigs dragged over their heads--especially the bigger girls--so I think going outside the box has its time and place. Picking the "right" color and profile is such an inexact science, that I tend to lean heavily on the fact that we're going after opportunistic predators.

they were sold out extremely quick

Cannot wait for these!

Dean is a great guy, and a solid SU member. Just sold some baits to him. There was a shipping issue, and he was extremely understanding of the extra wait time. Would not hesitate to do business with him again.

Looks like the biggest need for your current lineup is a small-medium sized glidebait. As mnbassman23 suggested, I'd have to STRONGLY recommend the gan craft jointed claws. Do some shopping around online, and you can find them in the black market here or on places like ebay for some great prices. I've found most of mine in the $35-45 range for 178s, and the $65-80 range for the 230s. If you were picking either the 178 or the 230, I'd personally go with the 178 which I think is a criminally underrated bait. It's certainly not the sexiest or most talked about bait on the block, and a lot of people don't really seem to consider them "must-haves" in their swimbait box. Hell, I'll be the first to admit that I tend to reach for my negotiators and slide swimmers before thinking about tying on a 178 most of the time. But after a particularly tough swimbait fishing year where I focused a lot of my time targeting big river smallies, the 178 has probably become my most reliable glidebait. Over the past season, my trusty 178 SS in perch has been smashed into rocks, stuck in trees, inhaled by a bunch of northern pike and brown trout, and of course, bashed by plenty of smallies with bad attitudes. It's lived to tell the tale, and still has a ton life left on it. If I want to keep the bait shallower, I will throw it on 20 lb mono (seaguar senshi or sunline defier armilo), but for the most part 15 lb seaguar tatsu is a match made in heaven for the 178 SS, IMO. I've even thrown it on 12 lb in super clear conditions, and had no issues at all. The bait runs extremely well on lighter fluoro. By the way, that's a really good starter group that you have going! If the zombie apocalypse comes early, and I had to swimbait fish to feed myself (this zombie apocalypse isn't sounding so bad now that I think of it), I'd probably include the savage gear line thrus, matt's U2 gill/ultimate gill and the 3:16 rising son on my top 5 baits for survival. They're all ridiculously proficient fish catchers, and can take plenty of abuse. Coming from a mostly soft plastics fishing background prior to swimbaiting, I still often reach for my soft plastic swimbaits when fishing gets really tough/discouraging. Each of those baits has saved my day on more than one occasion when the going gets tough.

Monster Fishing Tackle has the 8" v2, in a ton of great colors. I absolutely love these line-thru trouts. The price is extremely affordable, and they're absolute fish catchers. The 6" and 8" were killer baits for river smallies and pike this year for me.

Donation sent. Efforts like these are why this community is great. Best wishes to the family.

I've actually experimented with both the 178 SS and 178 F for the applications you mentioned. I'm a big fan of the jointed claws in that size, I think they're very underrated baits. With the right line/hooks, both can be useful for targeting that 6" to 2' range, but I tend to lean more towards the 178 SS. When fishing that shallow zone with the 178 SS, I've thrown it on 20 lb Seaguar Senshi and 19 lb Sunline Defier Armilo. Throwing the bait on mono + keeping your rod tip high usually makes it very easy to keep your bait in that range on a steady-leaning-towards-quick retrieve. The 178 F with 20 lb Tatsu doesn't quite get the bait where I usually want it--especially when I've been too lazy to beef up the hooks--but it can get the job done as well. The bait usually just sticks a little too high in the water column for me. Trust me, I really wanted to like the 178 F/Tatsu combination, because I'm a big fan of that line, but the 178 SS/mono combo seems to work a bit better for how I work the bait MOST of the time. My recommendation? Keep the 178 F, and try to find a 178 SS off eBay or on the black market. They're both awesome baits that definitely have their time and place. With a little digging around, I've found 178s for around 35 bucks, which is a steal for such a great bait.

+1. The open compartment Planos work great, especially if space is an issue. I carry the 3707 and the 3731 (just a deeper version of the 3707). I use the owner treble covers, and I can carry a solid 20-25 baits easily in the 3731 box. If you're concerned about hook points or bent tails, putting a sheet of bubble wrap in between layers of baits can help with that. Helps prevent them from sliding around as much. I have a few upright-style plastic containers for hanging hudds/other baits with fragile tails, and they definitely do the trick. I just find them to be pretty bulky and annoying to carry around when I'm out on the water, especially if I'm out on my kayak. The Planos are great, because you can just chuck them in a backpack and go.

I put a Hobie pro angler 12 on top of my Honda civic. Looks pretty god damn ridiculous, but gets the job done. I have the Yakima cross bars on top of the car, and just strap the yak down with those. They work awesome, especially if your car is a lease because they don't require the drilling of any holes to mount. The PA is probably around 120 lbs for reference, if that helps.

Welcome to SU! I'm from Long Island, and also branch out to NJ and (more so) CT from time to time. You will get lots of strange looks when chucking swimbaits around the Island, but our fish eat them just the same. All those baits you mentioned work great around here, but I wouldn't go too crazy with specifically tailoring your baits/fishing style to the Northeast (especially if that means going out of your way to downsize baits). Whichever baits/bait styles you had confidence throwing in San Diego, try it out here. Most of all, don't take anyone's word (that goes double for the DEC) on whether a body of water has big fish in it on Long Island. If it looks fishy give it a shot. I've had numerous experiences where people told me "there's no fish in there" or "everything in there is tiny", and they were completely wrong. Good luck, and hope you have an awesome season!

I have one of those rods, and I wouldn't recommend it for baits in the 1.5 to 2 oz range such as the s-waver 168 and the hudd 68. I've thrown some baits in that weight range on it, and they felt pretty dead with that stick (I think that would be especially true for the s-waver 168). I do like the rod a lot, especially at its price point, for baits in the 4-7 oz range. I really like throwing the baits you mentioned on a MH swimbait setup, but If you're looking for a production XH that has a little more range, I've found that my dobyns 867 does a nicer job of handling baits below it's rated range.

I also had the same issue, so I made two orders. Is there anything we can do (send a PM or email, etc.) to make the shipping less of a hassle?