kikstand454

If you have mats and you think there is 7' of water under them- my friend you're going to get your arm broken! That is a perfect set up in a canal! Punch away! Take pics!

I'd go 7' m/f. But that's just me.

^ the Florida/georgia one was where I assumed. Birth of bassmasters! Well sorta. ... Lol. Yeah, in that pic there, that's the lake on the "hooch" ( Chattahoochee river) off to the right there is the flint river, and roughly where the chart is in the upper right is how you get to spring creek. If you're going to put in there at Sneads on the Fla side, that whole side of the hooch is grass covered sand bars. They should be loaded up on there preparing to move up. Slow rolling a big spinnerbait has worked well for me in the past. The area isn't too deep- 10-15 with the bars coming up to 7 or so. The north point there where the flint meets the hooch is alot of shallow backwater and stuff, great for traps. Down towards the dam, the bottom right corner of this pic, there's a ranger station area and the riprap and rocks are pretty abundant there. There's always fish there. .....just have to see if the RIGHT ones are there.

15# YZ hybrid for me.

Great job!

I think that's a beautiful ride! Congrats!

Oh man. Last weekend a regional tourney was there and it took 35# to win! The top 6 people were over 25# iirc. I heard NOTHING about how or where they were caught, but if they caught them like that they MUST have been staging up to move in. If you get to pre fish , I'd look for bedding fish in the spring creek area- on up to fish pond drain. Otherwise, your normal type prespawn points and ditches. I'd throw traps and jerkbaits to find them. Good luck. Tell us how you do!

I have the 7'6"mh/f of this model that I use for c-rigs. It was the only one offered in a split grip at the time. Mine was bought in '07-'08.

^ will do. They have flat rate shipping of $7 for 1oz flipping weights, so in order to make it worth my while, I have to get about 8 ( 4-2pks) . This makes it $5 a weight after shipping and tax. Not bad at all if the quality is there. May try and reach out to them and see if I can pay for a single 2pk and get the shipping waved so I can try them out.....hmmm. ....

A 7'x" rod in a heavy power will also double as a punch rod if you need it to. I used a 7'4" mh/f for a long time before I got a dedicated flippin stick. It did well with 3/4-1oz weights. It started feeling too springy after that. I never horsed a trully big fish out of the mat with it- but it landed its fair share of 3-4lbers.

I will chime in and say that I have a new white carbonlite reel and I love it in every single way ( so far) . It is stupid light, feels solid, and is one of the - if not THE- most trouble free casts I've ever had. Once I figured the braking out ( about 10-12 casts) I haven't touched it since. Time will tell if it holds up. I have some old bps reels that just won't die ( old blue rick clunn... ) and I have had bps reels that barely made it a year. Fingers crossed on this one!

That's the best price I've seen. Thanks.

As I don't own either, its all in store comparison. But as mentioned above. ... if anything, the white rods seem less tip heavy- but the black ones arent really tip heavy at all. So its kinda eh. If you put them on a scale, the white one is probably lighter. ...but I could barely tell.

Yes. I recently got a 7'm/f veritas and put the new carboblite reel in 7.1 on it. It is perfect for flukes and spooks..... and almost everything else I put on it! ( within reason) I personally use 15#YZ ultrasoft. But a 12#copoly would work fine as well.

If you can find the black carbonlites on clearence, then pick those up. I personally feel the difference is negligible at regular prices.

As a jeep owner, I feel spending thousands more on a Subaru is stupid. See how that was insulting to you... even though I wasn't insulting you directly? You can't say something like that and not expect a little backlash. You're skin has got to be tougher if you're going to throw rocks. Different strokes, different folks and all. .... Oh. ... and the carbonlites I fooled with seemed well worth the money. I'm considering getting a few myself.

I think you're doing pretty good there. Depending on your area- a heavy cover (braid) setup? If you doubt feel you need a dedicated heavy cover/ flipping rod- then your next step is to identify what you enjoy fishing the most, and specialize your next purchase to that. What you have can do all things OK- but specializing in the one thing you like to do the most will probably make you the most happy.

I used to ditch the old bodies and put on these little fat belly crappie plastics. I forget what they're called. Also the old BPS triple ripple grub. Deadly.

That'd be great. Like I said, I keep meaning to take the yak up there. ... they should be bedding there soon!

Man, I have caught ALOT of fish on beetle spins. It used to be all I threw when I was younger and bank bound! I've caught some nice redfish and speckled trout with them too!

Its looking good and fishing fair. I have not fished it at all. ... but I have friends who have. Heard someone got one 8# out of there around thanksgiving. Water is high. ..almost normal pool. I need to take my kayak up there. ......!

....Ike did this very same thing. Going from steez gear to what would become the veritas line. *shrug*

^One can hope. The guy seemed to think there were either none coming, or he didn't know when they were. I've been wanting to check out the new cranking stick because that's the only rod I need- a deep cranker. ( gasp! I know! What does that even mean? !) In all honesty, I don't go to bps very often at all because we have a dicks and academy in the same area and they are always way cheaper and have real sales. Bps is always overpriced on the same stuff and their "sales" tend to be ho-hum.

Yeah. Dicks is done here also. Academy is clearing house now. ....

^ as usual, I agree with what snook said. I haven't fished much in destin proper, but have fished extensively in the salt west of there from port St joe/cape San blas to the ecofina river. Your tackle will do fine. I will say this though. ... most of the redfish being caught off jetties tend to be on the big/out of slot/ bull type. You will NOT be OK in that case. Lol. You should be OK though with reds up to the upper slot (27"). Find a flat. ...espicially if you can find one with grass still on it ( unlikely) ...or a creek that has a dark bottom and wait for the sun to warm up the shallows/mud. The fish will be up in that shallow warm water. Gold spoons, gulp shrimp in white or new penny on a jig head or under a popping cork, and a bone zara spook Jr should catch anything in the area. Like mentioned above, lots of freshwater in the area. ... just look around when you get there. Fwiw- the bite is pretty slow here on lake talquin right now. ...and not any better on Seminole. A few weeks of warm weather though. ........