TrippyJai

Kissed a bass once when I was younger and it wasn't pleasant. Very slimy. I doubt I'll ever doing it again unless it's a 10lber.

McCoy Mean Green - Copolymer Regular PP - Braid for punching, flipping Sunline FC Sniper - Fluoro

You'll love it. Absolutely no memory, just a few casts and it'll be limp again. It's really strong too, I have never broken off once with this line. Once the colour starts to fade or gets rough, time to change it out. It's cheap enough to do it often as well. Do yourself a favour and buy the mini bulk spool of what you use most. People should give this line a try if they are using co-polymer. You won't be disappointed. In fact, I've never even heard a bad review on this line before.

That reel sure is ugly. It looks like one of those cheap $20 reels you can get at Walmart for beginners.

The Aruku Shad is my favourite in Perch. I like the Jackall TN series as well.

If I had only 1 colour to choose from, it would be white. I usually buy 3 colours though. A shad pattern, a bluegill and chartreuse colour.

Saying the truth means that your a hater now? No one said they made "terrible" rods.

If the fish are biting a specific bait, they are going to fish that bait. I think it's more important to do well in a tournament than not do well fishing a sponsored bait that isn't catching fish. Ike was using a SK 6XD along with a DT16 on one of the latest TW Vlogs and was open about it. KVD was known to throw the MB 110. KVD was throwing a Fat Free Shad along with the 6XD because Tim Horton was leading a tournament. Randy Howell caught most of his fish on the DT6.

I don't see why you would need to take them off, it's better to have and not need than to need and not have. Won't make much of a difference either.

The anti reverse bearing is a one way bearing. The anti reverse pawl is a back up in case the one way bearing fails. Most people take it off and the JDM reels don't have the pawl. People will claim it's smoother without the pawl. I keep it on all my reels, it's a tricky part to tweak. If you have it on too tight, it'll cause the reel to be sluggish and if you have it too loose then it'll hop over every hump on the ratchet and make that clicking noise people complain about. For the brake tabs, green is heaviest, then pink then clear/smoke are the lightest. I've not noticed a difference between the pink and smoke. I've always set 2/6 pink breaks for all my fishing conditions. When it blows like crazy during the Fall weather, change the casting style to a lower trajectory and tighten the spool tension knob a tad and if you still have issues with the wind then switch to a heavier bait. The old braking system really is a set and forget, I don't recall ever needing to change the tabs. I will however at the end of the season, pop 2 new tabs so they wear evenly.

Smoke brakes I put on my 50E. The list of upgrades are in this thread with pictures: http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/128379-finished-upgrading-my-curado-50e/ I lied about being finished because I did a few more upgrades for fun. I swapped out the rachet, drive shaft and key washer from the Core because they were lighter saving a bit of weight. Reel was a tad lighter in hand, but when I put it on a rod, it didn't make much difference from before.

All 4 spools are the same weight except different in colour. The JDM spools weight a tad lighter because of the lighter brakes, but you can order the smoke ones from Shimano for like $5. Performance wise, they will all be about the same. The biggest factor in choosing a reel is weight, the core is much lighter. If you don't mind the extra weight, with the money saved, you can use it towards upgrading the drag star to aluminum, longer handle, power knobs, bearings, drag, etc. Yes, you can buy the 7:1 gear set from the Core.

I've always enjoyed the reports Paul Roberts wrote. Fun read.

We should create a Shimano thread and bait him out from hiding.

I miss Muddy. I wonder where he's at these days.

I've been using the Gammy EWGs since the day I started fishing and never had issues with them. You don't really need a hard hook set, just reel the slack and set the hook. The key is to reeling and keep pressure so that if your hook set didn't pass the barb, it will during the fight. If you are using the heavier wire EWG, you'll need a stronger hook set.

I'm still here if you need a new friend

I have a pack in size 2 that Mustad gave me. I played around with it and it's a really cool snap, especially if you've had problems before with other snaps, I think this will be your fix. It's a little hard to remove lures though as the wire is very stiff. On certain lures, it's a pain the fingers. I've been using the BPS duo lock snaps for years in size #2 and it has never failed on me. I had my lure stuck on a shallow log one time and I decided to pull as hard as I could to get the snap to open and the KVD 2x strong hooks bent before the snap failed. I've caught a lot of pike/musky on them as well. They are easier to swap lures which is what I like best about them.

One of my favourite actors as well. Growing up, I loved the movie Hook.

If you borrow someone else's gear, make sure it can be replaced or don't touch it. If you break it, expect to replace it. I believe the same rule applies to others who borrow my gear though I won't let anyone borrow anything that I can't afford to lose because often times, I don't ask people for the money or lure back.

I've never owned a STX so I cannot comment on it. Like others have mentioned, the E series are a set and forget reel with the braking system. I had over 20+ E series reels all together. I set it to 2 brakes on and never had to change them under any fishing situation. When the wind blew like crazy, tighten up the cast control knob a tad and change casting style to a lower trajectory. If that wasn't good enough, up size the weight will help.

Keep using the Mean Green, it's awesome! I'm always telling people to try it out if they want a copoylmer/mono line and don't ever have to use another brand. No need for line conditioners either. If your looking for fluoro or braid, try a different brand though. I wasn't that impressed with McCoys other offerings. For fluoro, try Sunline Sniper or Seaguar Invizx. For braid, I personally use Power Pro Original the most, it's cheap/realiable and if you want something smoother, try 832.

SK KVD 1.5.

Fenwick has better offerings at the lower price points and their most expensive rod at TW is 179.99. This is where the St croix Avids price point starts at. I would not purchase a St Croix rod below the Avid line up.

The new Rat-L-Traps have the Bill Lewis set lock treble hooks and they don't benefit from an upgrade unless you want a 2x hook or to up size them. They are one of the sharpest and best stock hooks on any crankbait under $10. The only baits I have in my tackle box that have better hooks are my Spro's which come with gamakatsu's and Jackall's which I think comes with Owner ST-36's.