islandbass

Good stuff. I like how you think and actually do much of what you laid out.

Wow. That’s nearly an ounce difference! However, for me, microguides are a show stopper.

After I typed my message, the thought crossed my mind you might have meant the bait runner type of clicking drag. First, no umbrage taken. I think, and this is just my opinion, casting reels that bass anglers use probably don’t have that feature because there is simply no need for one for bass fishing. And perhaps, the sound of line being pulled by a bass is probably sufficient music to their ears. I would bet if shimano and daiwa saw a rise in demand for it via feedback from enough anglers, they’d probably incorporate such a feature.

Not great bang for the buck, excellent bang for the buck. I have their no longer made mag touch rod and I just love this rod. When Cabelas rods go on sale it’s an even better deal. Although I don’t have an xml, I presume they’ll follow suit.

Welcome, fellow Pacific Northwesterner! There are casting reels with clicking drags. You can practically find clicking drags on quite a few reels in the mid and upper ranks of casting reels. You might not know this, but bass anglers who are gear heads and prefer the finer reels in life are quite receptive to wanting their reels to have a clicking drag. Many even find that a desireable trait. If you have ever read a casting reel review from tackle tour, you will almost always read the reviewer checking to see if the drag clicks, and give a huge sigh of relief upon discovery of a clicking drag. That’s an inaccurate statement to make if you’re referring to All bass anglers on how they fight fish. There are a few reasons for wanting to haul in a bass quickly. It is not practical and dare I say not cool to play out a fish in superheavy cover. There simply isn’t enough space. Your line could get tangled up in the cover with the fish still on and if that happens things just got complicated for both the angler and the fish. So there might be a practical reason(s) to get the bass up and back into the water quickly. I play bass as I would any salmon or trout, letting my rod and drag do the work for me, and I think it’s safe to say other bass anglers also do that. I’ll even play out a blue gill or a pumpkin seed, lol. That’s the sporting and honorable thing to do. Some salmon anglers act similarly when jigging for salmon from the pier. They’re trying to haul their salmon up quickly too because they sure as heck don’t want a seal to ****** their catch. With all that said, I sure hope you didn’t mean a clicker as in a bait running clicker, lol. ? A word I used got filtered. Let me say right now I meant nothing offensive by using it. I used the word in its original and neutral connotation primarily — and secondly, because from a writing perspective, the word rhymes with catch. The word is something a thief might do to an old lady’s purse. My apologies.

I’ve not had any problems with siege and I use the improved clinch and Palomar knots primarily. I haven’t had any issues with knot slippage with siege or elite up to 20lbs. However, the thicker the diameter, the more mindful I am on ensuring I not only make a well tied knot AND ensure I have enough tag end to account for slippage. I do that by not cutting the tag end too short. I do this for any line I use. I’m actually more conscious about it with new braid since it tends to be slick out of the box.

First, welcome! It is nice to see someone in my neck of the woods here. This topic gets covered periodically here and just know that a everyone is different and the only way to know for yourself is to try both. Unless you are completely ambidextrous, one should feel more comfortable or natural to you. Find out which of the two feels best and stick with it. In addition, I see no point in casting and switching hands as a default and will only do it if it were my only option. Here is the bottom line: A RH reel is not designated as such to imply that it is for a RH dominant person. It simply means that the crank is on the right side of the reel and vice versa for a LH reel. It is 100% accurate and true. If you are RH dominant and new to baitcasters and come from a spinning background, I'd bet a floating rapala minnow that you will prefer a LH reel. If you are RH dominant and have been fishing will casting reels way back when, 3 or more decades ago, when most casting reels RH as the majority option, you'd probably prefer a RH reel because that is all you had available to you. A loose but fair analogy. Take playing baseball. If you are RH dominant, you throw with your right hand (rod casting) and catch the ball with your left hand (retrieve). If you use the same convention for fishing, you would want to cast with your right have and therefore retrieve with your left hand. Even this isn't fool proof, because some RH dominant people prefer to bat lefty. That is why I recommend you try both. Chances are one should feel better than the other. I prefer LH reels but am comfortable using both. I trained myself to get there if only to make myself more versatile.

Aw, come on, I can make a better one than that, lol. Yours is respectable. The time I hate that the most is when it happens on my last cast, and I’ve done with a decent cast with the weight falling off during the cast.

That’s good on you! That old adage, “You get what you pay for,” just might be true in this case.

As a shorebound angler too, 6'6" is practically my minimum length. 7' is my preferred length and as you mentioned sometimes trees and other foliage can get in the way of an overhand or sidearm cast. So unless I need a mega cast, I just cast underhand (pitch) in tight quarters, regardless of the rod's length, even if it's one of my 8'6" salmon rods. Doesn't matter what is tied on either. You should see the looks on steelhead/salmon anglers faces when they see me underhand cast. They look in amazement and say, "I didn't know you could cast like that. Cool." To the subject, I hope they aren't going away. IMHO, 6'6" is the "middle ground", baby bear rod. Not to long, not too short, but just right.

x2

One sold on one ebay transaction for $20 US. $50 Canadian is about $39 US so if you want it, haggle down to $15 as WRB noted. Gotta say, it did look nice, but looks can be deceiving.

Congratulations! Must be nice to get the “first fish of the season monkey” off your back on the first outing.

I don’t but used to think about getting one. If if you decide to get one, I’d chose whichever store you’re willing to drive to and pick it up in person. Many places will waive the shipping cost for in-store pickup.

I’m from originally from an island where bass aren’t native but like all if you love bass fishing, hence islandbass. I didn’t have enough creativity to think of anything else for a screen name. Hope people don’t think I’m a bass player, lol.

Whatever you get her, make sure it’s on par at the very least, with your gear, especially if it’s your wish to show her the joy of fishing you have. Not only that, if it turns out she doesn’t like it, you’ve got another rig for your arsenal. ?

One thing about Shimano’s “lowerend” Rods is that they give a lot of bang for the buck. I know you won’t regret it. My use of the quotes indicates they’re low end in price not quality and value.

I would surmise that only the first 1/3 if the spool’s line was used so that most likely the only section of line that is twisted. This is what I would do: * Find a big open and long space *?tie on a good quality swivel and attach a good weight like a bass casting weight. Some bass casting weights have swivels but like I mentioned, a quality swivel. Use split ring to join the swivel and weight if you have to * with the weight on the ground, walk off about 3 times the max casting distance (twice is probably sufficient, but I’m a bit on the overkill side) you did while you were fishing, hence the need for the large area * reel the line back up. This should simulate the tip about how people with boat “untwist” the line on their spinning reels from the back of the boat that should do the trick. another thing I do while I’m fishing to alleviate twist is periodically I’d have about rod’s length of line out and hold the rod out about 70 degrees with the line dangling. Now the next part could be maddening if you hate watching paint dry. Now that the line is hanging vertically the lure will spin back and forth like a top as the becomes untwisted. It feels like an eternity but it’s really only about 20 seconds and it’s a good investment of time.

Have a corolla too and I’m surprised the middle section can easily accommodate one piece rods. I think the concern at least for me is theft. Rods laying in plain sight is my greatest anal concern especially with tweakers prowling around. They don’t need but 30 seconds to bust a window, steal not only your high end rod but also the reel attached to it. Then you have to get the ding dang window replaced on top of that. So when I use my one piece rods I won’t go anywhere other than home after fishing unless I bring my rod quiver with me. I always get strange looks when I tote my quiver holding three 1-piece rods. Those who are anglers look at me and say cool by way of a smile. Those who aren’t look at me with eyes that say that dude is a geek. Those who are Walmart employees come up to me and check my gear to make it isn’t unpaid merchandise. I kid you not! No way is a Walmart in western Washington going to be carrying Shimano curados or Cardiffs or symetre. “Excuse me sir, but I’m going to have make sure that this fishing gear isn’t unpaid merchandise. Please come with me.” i am laughing my head off in my mind and actually relished the fact that my mid level gear was worth inspecting. Walmart employee: “Shimshano Curado. Nope we don’t carry that. Shimshano Compraste? Is that a Mexican/Japanese collobaration? Got a cousin whose married to a Chicano. Really nice guy. islandbass: “Really? Ya don’t say...” Walmart employee: ”Yup. We had so much fun at their wedding and I even learned how to do the Macarena. Lamiglas Certified Pro Dropshot Special? Hmmm. Nope, we don’t carry that either. Rapala? Okay. We got Rapala. But a Rapala spinning reel? Nope. 20sxi6? Sounds like a missile. Do you work for BOEING? islandbass:“No sir.” walmart employee: “Okay, sir. Looks we don’t carry any of your gear here. Thanks for your time.”

This says it all on my position. When possible I use my one piece rods. In my case, my 2-piece rods get the most action. Good two-piece rods are out there and quite affordable and you don’t need to look farther than St. Croix, Shimano or Fenwick just to name three companies that make good quality two piece rods. There is no need to have get a cheapy 2-piece Walmart special unless you believe that will suit you. None of my 2-piece rods are lower end nor are the super high-end. They are however, more than adequately and robustly sensitive enough that if I didn’t tell you and you didn’t look, you wouldn’t even know they were two piece rods based on how they perform. Lots of old school notions still floating around and in belief out there and that’s okay. I’d probably be still thinking like that too if I didn’t find my quality 2-piece rods. A Shimano compre rod sports alconite guides. That’s my mark for being quality enough guidewise.

Splitting hairs, lol. There are so many ways to look at it as you’ve discovered that it gives me a headache when I do it myself. ? For me, generally speaking a technique that benefits from needing the line to be recovered quickly will be the reel I’d use with a higher gear. Else, I honestly can’t recall ever losing a fish or hook set because I couldn’t reel up line fast enough. If that were the case, how did the old timers do it with reels with perhaps half the line recovery rate of today’s reels? See? Now you got me thinking too much again, lol.

Unless your facing tight quarters where you might actually have to pitch your bait (I’ve had to pitch crank and jerk baits), I will err on going with the longer rod. I’m also a bank angler and hence my preference for a longer rod as a general rule. PS the bait monkey solution is to get both.

You got that right firetiger17! German beer is top tier.

If I don’t trust the stock hook, which is uncommon, I’ll replace it. Many reputable companies use capable stock hooks so I won’t replace them until it’s time too. Honestly, I can’t think of a name brand crankbait whose stock treble sucked out the gate.

It should also make a decent drop shot rod, casting or spinning.