islandbass

Oh yeah. That exact one has even caught me some trout.

I agree that no money is the best defense, but if and only if one doesn't have credit cards! ;D As a proud member of the baitmonkey bortherhood, here is a visual of mine.

Like was mentioned above, the Shimano Convergence is a better rod for the money. Way better in my opinion. Give them a look. I back that up too. You will have a lighter (in weight rod) and better guides to boot for just a few more $$$. And this is coming from someone who has a Lightning Rod. They are relatively heavy. You won't notice it until you wield it and then wield a lighter rod. If you have a sportsman's warehouse nearby, check them out. The ones in my area were selling $89 compres (two models above the convergence) for about $45. Now that would be a deal and a half.

Lubina, Holy smokes, that looks sweet! And the handle is on the "correct" side too. ;D At first, I considered only getting a red pixy, but now I'm having second thoughts. The tweety yellow is starting to look really good to me. 8-)

I have used gel/paste type attractants such as megastrike and Nitro craw on my crank and jerk baits. I also place some on the bends of the trebles and any excess onto the 12-18" line. I haven't seen a decrease in strikes so it might be a confidence thing for the individual angler. Now with salmon fishing, I have noticed getting more strikes doing this over those that did not from the dock and I am talking easily 50 other anglers with me on the same dock. In a 2 hour period I got 4 strikes(lost them all ) while NO ONE else on the dock even got a strike regardless of what they were using and I know I was the only one putting a gel attractant. I think the whims of the fish plays a certain role but the jury is still out. I think it supports my confidence, but on the other side of the coin, I have been nailing bass on cranks long before I ever thought of using attractants. : Bottomline: use it if you think it helps you.

That awesome. I haven't bought anything from his site yet but I would when I need to (Translates to not having any expendable cash at this time) ;D

Spoons and Inline Spinners are the ticket for me with ultralights. I also like to use poppers and smaller cranks. If you do want to fish soft plastics, I'd opt for what Joel recommended to aid in setting the hook. The UL rig should have an easier time with lighter wire hooks as he suggested. Joel, UL fishing for bass is an abolute blast if the water fished is fairly open. There is nothing like seeing the parabolic bend of a UL rod protecting the 6# mono I use, as the bass hopelessly tries to escape. Last season, my fishing outings were severely limited. I probably only fished about 10 times the whole season. Of those outings all the bass I caught except one was caught on my UL rig, and bass up to 4# with no bass broken off. If the cover is lacking and nothing else is working, it never hurts to give a UL rig a go at the bass.

CX Premium (8 and 10#) Pros Solid, tough line, casts well Cons At these strengths, I didn't see what I saw as adequate abrasion resistance. Arrgghhh! Memory! If you do not like memory, stay away from this line Used on spinning reel only CXX (12 & 15#) Pros Tough to beat in the abrasion resistance department. This line is tough!! Cons As a result, this line is very thick. At this test, bass sized spinning reels isn't ideal. Memory up the ying yang too. Line is not as manageable especially with strong winds as other lines I have tried, and I have a jedi trained thumb. Used only with a bc reel. Fluroclear (8#) Jury is still out. I bought this line because I couldn't find Invizx. Pros Castibility is excellent. Memory much more manageable than the other two lines. Evolution (12#) Pros Superb Castibility Very Tough Cons Memory once again Only with a casting reel If one doesn't have a problem with memory and there is some serious memory on the mentioned lines, then those Pline lines are not ideal for you. What I say is not a complaint, but it is what I have experienced and observed. There are other lines as tough that don't suffer from memory half as bad. -ib

Then get the MH casting set up. This combined with what you already have will cover you for most bass application. Pfluemis hit the nail on the head for you. 8-)

Don't mean to hijack the thread, but how do you like using a MH rod for finesse fishing like this? I have a ML, but have always wondered how the MH do for drop shotting My drop shot rig is also an ML but my convenience trunk rod is a mh compre. Its MH action has not result in a loss in hook ups or anything, but it is stiffer. Other than that, it works just fine, but a softer tip would probably allow the user to work the bait with less effort. Back to the subject, I think the 1st 3 rods would also be okay for starting out.

Another vote for Invizx. This is the first FC line I tried and I have never looked back. Stay away from transition. I carefully tied an improve clinch knot the first time I used it (my newbie bro bought it without my counsel :) and the thoughts of previous experiences of folks in these posts immediately came to mind about this line breaking. Back to the knot. As I mentioned, it was carefully tied. I gave the line a gentle but firm tug and the line snapped. I tried the palomar and the same frickin' result. I guess the rumors are true. I think they should change the name from Vanish to Poof. Because if you have a fish on, Poof! The fish will perform a disappearing act. How fitting that this lie is call Vanish, because that is what the fish will do. Maybe it was a bad batch, but I am not willing to take any more chances. SeaGuar Invizx You arren't going to see a need to look anywhere else for a fluorocarbon lline.

Depending on your budget, Shimano's Convergence, Clarus, and Compre line of rods have 2-piece casting rods. I have a Clarus 2-piece casting rod. The convenience is there and they are sufficiently sensitive. If you have a Sportsmans Warehouse in your area check them out. I have seen the normally priced $89 Compre on sale for less than half price. Clarus have an MSRP of $59 and I think the Convergences are either $39 or $49. These are great bang for the buck rods that will perform for you, have sufficient sensitivity and more importantly satisfy your 2-peice rod requirement. No, I don't work for Shimano nor am I sponsored by them, but I wish I were. ;D

The innards of the new stradic differ from the old stradic. It is almost like what they did for the new curado d and the curado BSF. The stradic has the new paladin gearing which the old one does not. I believe the spool has a different design too among a few other improvements. The old stradic is a sound reel, but I just don't like how it looks. If value is your basis, then getting two old stradics for the price of one new one wouldn't be a bad deal. Unfortunately for me, the bait monkey would make me get the newer one, and override my decision to never pay more than $79 (Symetre) on a spinning reel. As you can see in my avatar, the bait monkey is slowly but surely bringing me ever closer to the dark side, red light saber and all. ;D

Glad to hear a happy ending to your ordeal. I too like my local sportsman's store. The Fishing dept. manager and I are on a first name basis and I am always treated with excellent customer service and they know me by first name. Kudos to them for giving you service above and beyond the call of duty.

As already mentioned, those figures are a gage of how much line the reel's spool will hold of that test. As a rule of thumb for spinning reels and mono, the higher the 3 test, the thicker the line and the chances of the line being less manageable on the reel increase. A 2500 sized reel can and should easily handle 10# mono line. I've put 10# mono on mine before without a problem. I wouldn't go any higher than that on a reel that size. Not because the reel would break or anything. Line manageability would probably become an issue then. As for casting, here is a general rule of thumb: All things being equal, the thicker the line's diameter, the less the casting distance will be. Ex: On a 2500 sized reel, again all things being equal, 8# line will probably yield you a farther cast for the same effort. Maybe not too much more, but more. Remember, not all lines are equal either. One company's mono might not fair well on a 2500 sized reel but another's mono could.

Listen to Marty. He's got it right. If your reel is at least at the same class (ie, Daiwa comparable model) to a Shimano Symetre, this side spooling is moot. With such spinning reels, they can have line spooled onto the reel EXACTLY as you would a baitcast reel.

It has never happened to me but I don't do the braid/combo for drop shotting. I don't need the extra sensitivity. ;D Joking aside, if the knot that joins to two lines is a bit on the big side, it might get dug into the spool a bit on occassion or get caught on a guide and mess up a few casts here and there, but it isn't so bad (casting reels). I have considered, the ppro/fc combo, but I haven't gotten around to trying it for drop shotting and feel I don't need to go there yet. I normally fish clear waters and pure fc (invizx) is working superbly for me.

I might live up north, but I don't put my gear away. I'd rather fish in sub freezing weather than not fish. ;D When my reels are not in use, I loosen up the drags and leave the line on. Better to have line on the reel so it is ready to go at a moments notice than have to spend the time to respool it. I have a plano rod case that I store my rods in to keep them dust free and some others hanging to some hooks in the garage. I notice that even when it hits the low 30s, my garage averages a temp in the 40s. I can't store them in the house anyway. No way the Mrs. is going to allow that.

Rod: Shimano Crucial 6'10" MH (2nd best rod in arsenal) Reel: Shimano Curado DHSV 201 Baits: 5" Senkos Sniper Snubs and DS Weights 3/8 Jig with trailer Rapala Rattlin' 1/2 oz LC Pointer or Rapala DT6 (undecided)

This is entirely subjective unfortunately. What lines work for some people, others would despise. I have used the three major line types and copolymers with bait cast reels and all have worked well. Things I noticed was that the thinner the line was, the less manageable it was (and I mean less than 8# test). But this is what I mean. There are probably a number of folks here that have no issue with fishing lines that thin on a bc reel. In addition, some baitcast reels are designed for such thin lines. The bottom line is that it is highly angler dependent. What would probably be more important to consider is the application you plan to use more often. Once that has been determined, then an eduacted decision can be made as to what line type and strength would best suit the need. From my experience no one line was a true nightmare on a baitcast reel, from Sufix Seige to Yo Zuri Hybrid to Pliine CXX to Ande and Izorline. After all, baitcast reels don't make birdnests; anglers do! ;D

Congrats!!!! I wonder if I should mention that I live less than two hours from GLoomis HQ. ;D Gary and I go wayyyy back. Great name for your new weapon of bass destruction. 8-)

If you take a 1/4 oz. Tru-Tungsten worm weight, and compare it to a 1/4 oz. lead weight, their is a huge difference....The tungsten weight is wwwaaayyy smaller than the lead weight...the tungsten weight has smaller line contact than a lead weight does so you are getting more "bait" sensitivity. And ecause it is so much smaller than the lead weight, the bass are LESS likely to shy away from it....For those reasons, believe it or not, you CAN catch more bass than an ordinary lead weight. Let me say that this is tongue and cheek first, but how does your theory of a smaller object make a bass less likely to shy away from it if bigger bass prefer to chase bigger things? (i.e., bigger baits to catch bigger fish; I've also seen fish attack my weight at times instead of the lure ) ;D Okay, I won't quit my day job anytime soon for a comedy gig. Tungsten is denser than lead so it would definitely be smaller in size than a Lead object of the same weight. My refusal to use it is economical. I am not willing to spend the extra $$ for the traits it offers. I also say use it if you want to and don't if you don't.

It depends. During the week, I usually have my "trunk" rods for convenience and to minimize the prospect of having my one piece rods (true bass rods) from being stolen in the car. I usually have in the trunk during the week: 6'6" M Casting Shimano Clarus with Curado D, 12# Yozuri 6'6" MH Spinning Shimano Compre - Symetre 2500, 8# Fluroclear 7' UL Okuma Celilo spinning, Abu Garcia 101a Cardinal, 6# Trilene XL (All Two Piece by necessity and convenience) On the weekends, I break out my one piece rods: 7' ML Lamiglas Certified Pro Drop Shot Special Rod, size 20 Rapala 6Sxi spinning reel (Drop Shot/Finesse) 6'10 MH Shimano Crucial, Curado D (Jigs and Worms) 6'6" M Lamiglas Competitor, Curado BSF or Cardiff 301A (All arounder, cranks, jerk baits, senkos, etc. I am shorebound so I limit myself to 3-4 rigs and this homemade apparatus allows me to carry my rigs with one hand.

It depends on two things: 1) The angler 2) The reel's capabilities For the latter, it is just a fact that some baitcast reels handle lighter weights than others. As an example, with my curado D, I know I can cast a 1/8 oz lure with no problem. I am willing to be a Chronarch or a Pixy can do an even better job. However, my abu garcia round reel doesn't have a prayer of a chance of throwing something that light a fair distance. Then again, that round reel wasn't made for tossing such a light weight. For the former, the angler's skill comes into play too with regard to their dexterity and experience. As already mentioned, with the HE gearing, the curado d can just about handle everything. I have worked it with crank baits and it can do the job, but I have other reels that can handle that much more easily for me.

Thanks again, Raul. I think I'll pass on that reel now. The Bait monkey is ticked now. ;D