kikstand454

its my experience that i fyou throw a multitude of lures in a multitude of presentations and you dont catch anything.... its not the lure... theres no fish there... maybe the fish have moved from where you were catching them and your buddy picked up the stragglers....

i dont know about the clackin rap specificly... but i dont think the scratches and stuff will affect how it catches fish. btw... if theyre following but not biting... change your retreive... then your color. 8-)

pretty much every bass fisherman i know personally has settled on big game if they still use mono. i used it nefore i switched to yozuri. big game is great stuff for cheap cheap.

i dont understand the whole "its noisy when i cast" thing... so what? its great line that works well... casts well... i mean... who cares about the little bit of sound? i guess i just dont get it. :-/

hahah... im a power pro guy... and so therefore.. i dont care about the sound of the line going through my guides. sorry... had to...

true. i have one of those and am using it for cranking.. lol.. im like the third owner and it feels like new. lol.

new in box from a retail store... pinnacle solene. this reel is awesome for the money. ive owned three and to my knowledge the two i gave away are still running strong and the one i have still throws my unweighted plastics with ease. spinning would be the quantum incyte. its 11bearings or smooth goodness. i have the first one i baught 3 or 4 years ago and it has been in salt water and fresh almost every weekend since... and it still feels like the day i got it. doesnt look like it... but fishes like it. i use that one solely for salt now and have a new one for fresh. if youre going to to the ebay type route its really hard to beat the quantum accurist pt. you can find them n.i.b. for like 50 bucks. they were 139 brand new in the day. great reel. if i were you id try to find the accurist salt water... pts. its one of the best reels i own period and you can probably find it pretty cheap. i dont know about that one though.. i havent looked. good luck!

good idea. ill try that. my paint problems have not been limited to the chrome colors as others have stated on other threads. i had a red one that the paint came off and a shad one too. and of course the sexy shad chrome. id be ticked but then i got some xcaliburs this winter and the first time out the eyes fell off. next time out... the other lures eyes fell off. in grass. the first one didnt even catch a fish..not even a bite.. the second one two undersized crappie and a dink bass. i wonder what im doing to them. lol

other than the fact the paint falls off them like nobodys business... yes... they are way better than the original rattle trap. i think so anyway. i feel the action and as said before.. the fall... is alot more attractive. besides the hooks on a redeye are light years better than the hooks on an original trap.

eh.. i havent caught a whole lot of fish yet on a jig. but im learning. what i do "know" is that a jig bite is different than a t-rig bite. i think maybe you are treating them the same... sometimes with that t-rig or even a c-rig bite... you feel the tap and then wait to feel the weight of the fish.. or count to three or whatever your method is. this doesnt seem to work as well with a jig. like mentioned before it seems the fish doesnt hold onto a jig as long as it will say a t-rigged worm and it bites and swims a second and then lets go. from all that i have read and seen- and my little bit of experience, it seems to be better to set the hook hard and quick when fishing a jig. as soon as you feel it pick up. also i have to vote for throwing braid. i use 15lb. flouro for t-rigging... and its great.. and you can use it for a jig, but i think that braid is a better option. besides... most of the time braid is cheaper than flouro. or at least the same price. and braid will EASILY last you all year.

Theres really only 2 manufacturers you should consider...Daiwa & Shimano. Which one all depends on what you expect the reel to do. A Curado is not going to do well with light stuff,you will need a baitcaster with a light spool for that type of work. Shimano has a few choices.,unfortunately the prices get up there. The Chronarch and the Core will throw light stuff well.,especially the Core. Daiwa has the Sol. If you don't intend to throw small light stuff, a Curado is fine. Theres really only 2 manufacturers you should consider...Daiwa & Shimano. Total loss of any future credibility based upon that statement. Neither Citica nor Curado is fit to bear the shoes of any Revo. x2 that is just asnine. abu garcia,pfluegers,quantums, johnnymorris...etc. lots of good quality reels in that price range. @ the 200 dollar price point... all the manufacturers have a great reel.

yozuri 12 or 15lb!! the bigger the line... the easier it is to pick out backlashes. although... the harder it is to get good distance. if youre not down with yozuri i would use 12lb berkley big game. its a really good really cheap mono.

good question. but really i think it comes down to size of fish. many want to go out and power fish and get the 3-6lbers and then find a kicker. but if all that fails and you got two hours left... downsizing and using a technique that is more of a numbers thing is the way to go. most reach for a senko. you know you can catch SOMETHING on a senko...i personally go for the trick worm. its my senko. if the fishing is so tough for you that youre not catching them cranking or jigging or whatever "big fish" tactic you started with... chances are it is tough for the rest of the field too. better to put five 2lbers in the boat and try to make a top 5 then keep going for those fish that havent responded all day.

x2 also like to add to question number 2... whenever you throw a rig with a leader...esp a leader with a weight like a c-rig. act as though you are throwing the weight... not the lure. i know that sounds weird... but when you go to do it next time... you will see what im talking about. if you cast with the length of the lure in mind... your rig will helicopter and twist and just be bad. if you throw the weight... then the weight will go first with the lure trailing behind it. give it a few shots and youll see what im talking about. i basically live by my c-rig. its a great thing.

rodger... im also in florida. lol. but yeah.. i mean i understand fishing a c-rig in 8ft or less water with a 1/2oz or 3/8oz lead. you dont have the same forces at work trying to move you off the bottom. also you dont need to worry about the longer drop. i guess i just have the point of veiw that im typically throwing a c-rig in deeper water and thats why i rig that way. i guess in a way were both right. catt- yeah i know but i was trying to illustrate a situation where a heavier weight was more important. i fish bars all directions! 8-)

black zoom trick worm. either c-rigged or shaky head near docks.

just my oppinion but when i started out... i was told to put on fairly heavy line. (15lb mono) this was because it was easy to manage and more impotantly... easier to pick out the backlashes. dont worry about light lures to practice with. look at your rod and grab a weight that is in the upper spectrum of your rods rating... (if it goes up to 1oz, tie on a 3/4... etc.) and then go out in the back yard or a park and start casting. go for normal "bankbanging" length casts at first. this will help train your thumb. then later you can go for the open water cast where its all out. then comes pitching, which is much more about precision and control. you will get it man, just practice. and like was said before... dont worry too much about your distance or your accuracy at first. train your thumb. when you get that down you will find that you can out cast your entry level reel,(that you can catch many fish on) and want to move up to the 100 dollar level. then the baitmonkey has you in his furry paws....

*shrug* to each their own. i have tried several braids... and among those that i have tried.. i have chosen power pro for both fresh and saltwater. i have had no problems and continue to have no problems. but then.. i like quantums too... so wth do i know right?

what? im not tryin to get constant bottom contact with the lure, im trying to keep constant contact with the sinker so as to better feel the bottom/ stay with the contour. if i throw onto a midlake hump thats 12 ft deep and i know it rolls off to 22ft, i want to know when i get to that edge so i can let out some slack and work it down the slope back to the boat. when i come to a peice of wood, i want to know so i can shake the glass and make the lure dance. you use a heavier weight for a c-rig for all of these things and one more important one... you can fish it much faster. a 3/8 oz weight will move a foot or more with every move that you make with your rod tip. esp with 20ft of line pulling it. you spend half the cast waiting for it to hit the bottom, which it did in an arch because it wasnt heavy enough to go straight down against the resistance of your line... then every time you move it, youre waiting to feel the bottom again. 3/4+ hits the bottom quick... mostly right where you threw it... and it stays there. like it should.

i have a crucial CRCX76MH that i currently use for c-rigs but have used before for deep jigging and frogs... and t-rigs of course. i think the setup you have will do most anything you want to do with the right line. 15lb flouro or 40 lb braid would be enough/not too much imho.

this entire thread kills me. how long do you want this reel to last rooster? i mean... ok i understand that you want value for your money... but really when it comes down to it... the just dont make them like they used to. noone does. if you take care of the citica... itll probably last you 5 or 7 years or so before you have to either rebuild some of it... or get another reel. with the way technology is advancing... will even a curado be that great in 7 years? you need to think about your return on investment more than your perceived "reliablility". for 120 dollars youre getting a fine reel that will work for you for at least 5 years right? thats 24 dollars a year. 24 dollars man. it need not "last" any longer than that becuase it will be anciently obsolete by then. 5 years from now you will be saying... "man my old citica still fishes great! but it sure isnt my shimano ninjahamster200!!! that thing shreds!" i have an old lews cranking reel thats probably 25 years old..that has 3 bearings and will out cast any citica... any day. does that make it a better reel? hahah yes. my point exactly. buy the best quality you can afford. dont over extend yourself for minimal gain. youll drive yourself nuts.

Good thinking. I've done that, and I was thoroughly confused for a few casts. PowerPro does create some extra friction for a few hours until you break it in. It's a little rough straight off the spool, but a terrific line overall. This is to both snoopy and beaver islander - That may have been the issue, though I don't think so. I have been using that same rod/reel/braid set up for all season up until now. I have caught many fish on that and have had issues with that particular reel having a worn drag disc that I had to replace (other times with the same reel and smaller fish I had the opposite issues, the drag was too loose and I had to use my thumb to gain line on the fish, but after replacing the drag I have not had that issue again and no it wasn;t the line slipping on the spool. I tie the braid with a polomar knot threaded into the holes on the spool, not around the spool like most people do). Again today the reel worked fine with the flouro on it. Maybe this is a one time fluke. My tournament partner uses powerpro with no issues whatsoever. So who knows? I am fairly sure this was not user error in this case though. maybe this was your issue. it doesnt matter what knot you tie braid to a spool with... it will slip into itself... digging in... and then when you cast or reel, the line is coming out from under itself. you have to either use. backing (mono) or make a really good long cast and set a peice electical tape across the spool and reel it in to stop this issue. i use power pro all the time and the only problem i ever had with it was it digging in and then when i went for a long cast... it would catch in the reel... and snap and send my bait three miles across the lake. since i learned that digging in solution i have never had a single problem with it at all. i trust it and like above all other braids ive used.

if youve got crappie and gills and youve seen bass... i wouldnt worry about how small youre going... theres probably some bigger fish in there too. crappie dont really do too well in bad water... so its likely that there are some good bass in there too. like you said though... youre wanting to practice a baitcaster and maybe catch some of those smaller fish in the process... and i personally would through a 3/16 or 1/4oz beetle spin. probably the 1/4 oz/ itll be easier for you to throw and it will catch the snot out of anything that swims. get the black one with the yellow stripes. good luck!!!

x2. and i hate to sound like an ugly stick "advocate" or whatever... beacuse honestly for bass i prefer shimano rods.... but im kinda frustrated because i think most people identify "ugly stick" as those eva foam originals that they sell at walmart for 30 bucks. they have other models you know. there are lighter and more sensitive ugly sticks that are really great rods for the money. such as... http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_22372_100002000_100000000_100002000_100-2-0 and these new ones that have split grips (though in foam )... http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=58283&familyName=Shakespeare+Ugly+Stik+Inshore+Select+Rods just sayin.........

i have a clarus spinning rod 7' ml/fast with a quantum incyte reel on it. this is one of the nicest and most comfortable/sensitive rods i own. not the most expensive... but nicest. i use it for drop shot and shaky heads. sometimes senkos. 8-) you will be happy with that rod and probably never ever need the warranty.