Poolie727

I'm jinxing myself no doubt, but never broke one on a hook set... now the ceiling fan in my office here, that's a different story. I did have a reel seat break once on a hook set and the reel went flying out of the back of the boat.

Seems normal to me. You only need to be concerned if you feel a strong urge to text someone about what you saw... now that's dangerous ;-)

You'll love the Curado. I have both. The Citica is fine for cranks and spinnerbaits, but I prefer the smoothness of the Curado for soft plastics and jigs.

My general rule is that if you're happy with the purchase, you got a good deal. I have several LTA's (casting) and am very happy with them.

I recently got turned on to the san diego ram knot, which is more or less a reverse improved clinch knot. The key to good knots with flourocarbon is to wet the knot before clinching it. It's the heat generated by a 'dry' knot that causes most failures.

Mitch, how long have you been away from fishing? If it's been a while, I think what you will discover is that practically every rod out there today will out perform what was on the market 5 or so years ago. So your concern about making a financial mistake is not that big of a deal. I promise you, you're not going to bring home a $50 rod and think man that was a waste of money. As others have mentioned, the rod is just half of the 'sensitivity'. Braid or Flourocarbon will do wonders for a middle of the road rod.

I can't speak for the LTX specifically, but the Kistler line as a whole are very good rods. I own several Mags, Argons and LTA's and love them all.

I have settled on InvisX as my primary line and buy it in 1000 yd spools, it's slightly cheaper that way because of (1) actual cost is less than 5 200yd spools and (2) I have less waste since it's all on one spool. I can actually spool one more reel this way.

+1 .... Seaguar Red Label is almost as good. The secret to Flouro is to wet the knot before clinching it.

What is it you don't like about the backpack bag? Just curious because my eye lingers on it every time I'm flipping thought the catalog. I just looks like a cool bag.

I think you will like it. Last summer I spent the day on Guntersville with my brother's Dobyns Champion matched with a Curado e7 and I loved it. I'm a Kistler fan myself but I really liked that Dobyns.

As others have said, the PQ while an okay reel, just isn't in the same league as the Curado... or Citica for that matter. With a little patience you can get a new one on eBay for around $150. I have 4 or 5 of them (sad that I can't say for sure) and haven't paid full price yet. For me the Citica is fine for cranks and spinnerbaits, but for worm and jigs it's teh Curado hands down.

Oh yeah... I've done way more damage to myself in the woodshop than fishing. Last Spring I jammed a wood chisel into my left palm. That was a 21 stitch mistake I won't soon forget.

Only once... so far. I was about 12, early one Sunday morning on my parents 20 acre lake in a jon boat. As I was lipping a 2 or so pounder it had one last shake in it and the next thing I know one set of treble hooks was in her mouth and the other set was in my hand. One hook was buried all the way up to where the three come together so there was no way to pull the barb though. I managed to get the fish off and in the excitement tossed it in the dry well instead... oops. Anyway, I rowed back one-handed and woke my mom up and asked her to take me to the hospital. My dad woke up and said, get me a steak knife. MOM!!!! The folks at the emergency room were amused.

Last year I went through many different brands of Flouro and what works for me is Seaguar red label. It's I believe the cheapest of the Seaguar line and I have nothing bad to say about it.