Frank5

Another vote for BD Storm here. Not the most durable casing but their warranty is excellent, it’s bright enough, has great battery life, waterproof, affordable, and love the 3 night vision modes.

They are truly awesome. Swim them like a metal lip, jerk them around, pop them, unreal casting distance.

I swear chartreuse looks better under water than any other color, but that’s my with my eyes...With that said, Ive prob caught more fish on white so i guess that answers my question.

I don’t have enough good things to say about the Yozuri Hydro minnow. Have had had great success with them since they came out. I prob have some 15 plus Daiwa SP minnows (different sized floating never liked sinking models) that I seem to not really even fish anymore because I feel like the the hydro minnow out does it in all categories. It has a slight but noticeable edge with casting distance and i def think the action is better than an SP. With fish in close, light or little wind, or wind at your back you can’t beat a Bomber 16 Long A’s swimming action in my opinion. All in all, when it comes to minnow type swimming lures, i pretty much exclusively favor Hydro Minnows and Bombers. Just my $.02

I did not call VS directly about this. I called one of the “licensed” Van Staal service centers/tackle shops and that is what he recommended. Theres prob numerous ways to skin this cat, but I’ve been doing as was suggested by this reputable tackle shop and VS service center. As as far as the gear oil is concerned, it’s pretty easy to find. I get mine at Walmart and it’s cheap. I believe the bottle I have now is Vavoline 80-90W.

I’d call one of the service center tackle shops and talk to one of the Van Staal techs there to see what they suggest. The last time that i spoke to one about this same thing, they suggested some Simple Green solution diluted in water to clean and 90 weight gear oil for lubrication. This is what I’ve been doing for the general cleaning and maintenance that you speak of. Hope this helps.

Fair enough. I cannot speak to that only the customer service issue. I have ordered from both RH and CTS. RH was not an ideal experience, but CTS was super smooth, helpful, and responsive to the point where when i see a claim made that they have bad customer service i feel compelled to say something because the experience i had was so impressive. I respect your acknowledgement in clarifying. I do not know the ins and outs of that distribution question so cannot comment on it.

Well apparently you had no experience with CTS directly only RH correct? Because if that’s the case then you really can’t even make the claim to have had a bad experience with them?

Very interesting. That’s cool. Sounds like the right kind of ammo for canals and inlets

Roddy, Those look great. Love the Black over Blue one. How does it swim and where in the water column? How long is it and how much does it weigh?

Have a buddy who makes some great ones. These are my plugs of choice when peanuts are around. The ones I’m holding are slightly bigger than they appear. I’m 6’5 and have abnormally large paws haha

My favorite type of plug to fish hands down. Will always fish them unless super rough or super windy. Have prob caught more fish on metal lips than on any other type of lure. Can’t beat their profile, swimming action is excellent, and they can be fished in shallow water when a lot of other plugs can’t be. Give me a stiff fall W/N/W wind and a flat ocean in the dark fishing these plugs by myself and that’s heaven to me.

IMHO: 1.) Yozuri Hydro Minnows 2.) Bomber 16A 3.) SP Minnows Personally, I think the Bombers swim the best out the 3, and i like their color/pattern variations the best as well. But they also cast the worst out of the 3 which we all know. I think the Hydro Minnows casts the best out of the 3 and swim the second best behind the bombers. In my opinion, SP Minnows cast the second best behind the Hydro Minnows, but have the worst action of the 3. All in all, they all catch fish.

I would agree. I own two 150’s and going to get a 200 hopefully soon. I think that the 150’s are the most fun size to fish, but i do agree that they have limitations. My knock against them is not the line capacity or casting distance limitations, but the fact that it is a task to fish plugs 3 oz or over with the 150’s, especially in current. With that said, i still love them. If you’re rod is gonna be that 9’6 Shimano, my personal opinion is to go with a 150. That will be a great fun light weight setup.

Some towns and people did make a fuss about it. In Bay Head, my family and the majority of other beach front owners who were adamantly opposed to the replenishment by the ACOE, took the state through multiple stages of the legal process before the end result sided with the state who was deemed legally allowed to take property rights along the beach through eminent domain for a compensation of $500 or some odd dollars to each beach front owner for that property. The whole thing was rigged from the start as Dan Tinman and others have suggested and the guy who really wanted to drive it into action was Chris Christie. To me it does not have to do as much with protection, as it has to do with building one politicians personal legacy through his own eyes as well as driving economy and creating a place where more people can attend the beach. Like others, i speculate that building some sort of artificial reef system would be a win win across the board for nature and residents....but not for greedy politicians. What is so interesting about this beach replenishment operation and the bylaws within the contract that was forcefully applied to unwilling towns like bay head (some towns were willing to sign easements unfortunately) is that it stipulates that property be taken over permanently forever, not temporary like in other situations in other areas of the country. Ultimately this whole thing is super unfortunate and depressing. Ironically, Chris Christie had the nerve to buy a house in Bay Head, after this whole thing. Looking forward to seeing him around some time so that i can ask him a few very direct questions (peacefully).