ghost

I bought 5 of the Magtouch & 2 XMLTi rods. The XMTi rods are on sale this weekend for $110 at the stores only. I've been waiting for the Magoutch rods to show up at the Cabelas store by me, finally did! I also have been waiting for the Carrot Stix, but no show on those....so when I saw the XMTi were on sale, I jumped on a couple & have a third one on hold till next week, for the sale price. The Magtouch are much nicer than I expected them to be. The handles since it's all graphite is much thinner in feel than a rod w/ cork grips. But the texture is good, I thought I had to add some type of wrap so my hand wouldn't slip. Overall, the actions are spot on w/ what they are for the specific rods. I ended up getting 3 Magtouch combos.

Can I use braided line w/ this type of eyelets??? I haven't used recoil guides so I don't know if braid will work good. is there much noise w/ recoil guides w/ the braid going through? Or should I just stick using mono w/ the recoils?

You can use it like a popper, but it will submerge slightly. Or you can steady retrieve, slow & it will zig-zag back wide. It will sometimes go off course when steady retrieve. I mainly use as a submerging popper. I have both the large & small Bass-O-Reno. On the small one, I added a prop to the back to change up the aciton. Well, bought them last year & haven't caught anything on them. Then again, I've really not given it a fair shake on how well it will work. I'll probably try them out again when the weather warms up.

It just started making a whining noise when I cast. It was nice & quite since I bought it a couple months ago & have used it about 3 or 4 times. But today, it just made that noise & it feels like I'm not getting the distance. I have 3 brakes set as I've aways have w/ Curado reels. I had this same noise on my older Curado. So, how do I remedy this problem???

Bought the CDM Brine & they are very nice. The fit is pretty good & the ones I bought are black frames w/ blue mirrored lenses, I think they are the 400 lenses, I paid $179.99 for them. Something that I am not accustomed to w/ polarized sunglasses & not sure if it's the brand or the model or lenses I bought. Every so often I see a faint second image of what I'm looking at, when looking through the Brines. Do you guys have this happen w/ your Costa Del Mar's?

Was at the BPS opening day of the Spring Classic sale. I bought 3 of ea of the mentioned lures. I'll see how well these work hopefully this weekend. I'll post pics this weekend. Silly me, I bought 2 of the same color, so I'm going to be returning the extra one...duh!

No Carrot Stix or the Magtouch rods at Cabelas. I ended up buying the rod mentioned on this thread. It's 6'10" MH, weightless worm rod. It seems a bit heavy compared to Crucials. I'll have to give this a spin, see if I'll like this rod. Sucka's expensive for a spinning rod, $190.....OUCH!!! What do you guys think of this rod???

Is there a way to add weight to the butt of the rod, to balance it out?

Sorry to sound ignorant, but I'm not sure what a tip heavy rod means.

Exceler b/c reel. I tried the Megaforce & did not like the fact that if I use the twitchin' bar, my left hand was not on the handle. I would need to take my hand off & operate the t-bar w/ my right thumb. If I got a fish on, then I would have to grab the handle...didn't care for that idea. Also I didn't like only having one hand to the rod/reel while t-barring it. The Exceler is very, very good at that price!

Thanks guys, appreciate the the kudos! Paul Roberts, what you said about the shad just hanging out, I think you are right. I mean I ran lures & bumped into the big ones qutie often that I foul hooked them. From what a friend told me that they are hanging out in this channel to spawn...I don't know, seems too cold for that. Probablly more to bundle up in a group. The bass I guess home in on this & lurk in the channel. I know a buddy of mine caught a couple pikes in this channel last year round March when the shad were in there too. I just hope the weather gets better tomorrow, I have the morning to fish!

Pinnacle makes that reel thats branded for Cabelas. Pinnacle's version is called the Pro Select PSE10. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewpinnacle2007reelpreview.html I don't own the reel, since they don't make it in a left hand model. I did wanted to give this reel a try, but no lefty model. Cabelas Tournament ZX is on sale for $69.99 right now.

I'm down for like 3 or 4 years on this site, even w/ the changes. Anybody here given you very good adivce? Or something that got you to get on your high horse & defend a lure/technique/rod/reel/ etc? Have you met any of the members on this board? Who would you like to meet? What's the best advise you got from here?

You could let the Subwalk sink, count it down to the desired depth. But for it to "walk" in deeper water, I don't know. I reckon it would if you're twitching it. It would start to rise up due to the wings on the back end. I would think that Rapala rates the lure at 0-6", subsurface for most optimal performance of this lure. Also it's quite easy to see what the lure is doing, even when it's casted far off. I guess that's why I like the pearl white, I can see what it's doing & see it disappear if a bass grabs it. The Twitchin' Rap the lure looked like it just pulled forward, it would sometimes "walk the dog", but it took some effort. The Subwalk does what it's suppose to do, a subsurface spook type lure. The Sure Set rear hook made a believer in me w/ that style of hook. BUT I don't think that hook is perfect for most lures. It does work perfectly for the Subwalk, once the bass gets its mouth around that lure, the Sure Set is going to keep it on. Now the thing I think may be a problem, if the bass does swallow the lure, the Sure Set hook could get imbedded deeper inside the fishes mouth than a traditional treble hook. So there are pluses & minuses about the Sure Set. I just hope I don't kill any bass w/ the Sure Set hook. Now this is not something new, musky fishermen have been using subsurface walkers for years, just that the lures are so much bigger than the Rapala Subwalk. For those who want to use a lure like the Subwalk for stripers, look at some musky subsurface lures.

Water temp....???? Air temp was 30 deg & the ice was finally off the water. If it works this good in cold water, can't wait to check it out when things warm up!

Yup, the Subwalks are pretty expensive, that's the reason I only bought 2. I was hemmin' & hawin' on what colors to get & the 2 I mentioned seems to be best for most water conditions.

Finally a day that was cold but the channel didn't have ice on the surface. Used a few different lures & caught some small bass & quite a few shad. I caught a couple bass on the Strike King Red Eye Shad & Wild Shiner in Sexy Shad color Switched out to a pearl white colored Rapala Subwalk. I checked out how the lure worked under the surface & every so often it would break the surface. When it did this I paused & saw a swirl right behind the Subwalk. I gave it a slight twitch & the lure was gone & the slack in my line tightened up...I then set the hook...FISH ON!!! I was fishing in less than 5' of water. I caught a 17", 3.4 lb LM bass! I used my digital scale & I velcroed on a tape measure. I hope this means it's a good sign for this coming fishing season! After releasing the 3.4 lb bass, I threw the Subwalk again & landed this 1.5 lb bass w/ prety much the same technique. The Subwalk do does do the "walk the dog" nicely...but I was using 40 lb braided line & a 7' baitcast rod from the dock. I think if I used mono instead & a 6'6" rod I would gotten more action out of the lure. I did get good action but the braid just didn't give it that "snap" that mono would have given a "walk the dog" lure. It is slow sinking also the white color I was able to see the lure quite a ways off. However, I am impressed w/ this lure. This lure works so much beter than the Twitchin' Rap, the Subwalk has more action when jerking it forward. I only bought 2 colors, the pearl white & the silver/black top. I didn't want to get all or most of the colors, just a couple for clear & stained waters. Also used my new Shimano Curado DHSV 201 b/c reel & that is a very nice reel. I will admit it's a great upgrade from the previous Curado. Next few times I go fishing I gotta use my Daiwa 7.1 Zillion & Advantage HSTA. I have the Shimano Curado 301 & 101 waiting in the wings for Spring fishing. I ended up catching 7 bass & snagged "umteenth" number of shad today. These were some pretty big shad & felt like really big fish, till I saw they were foul hooked on the dorsal fin. FINALLY, a good day of fishing in horrible weather!

Looking to getting an Abu Garcia Record, either the 51 or 61. Also a couple of the new Johnny Morris signature spinning reels, wide spools. A sales guy showed me that reel & it's sweet! Very smooth & very nice looking. Also the handle grip is a raised texture that feels right. I'm getting the 2000 & 1000. Also a 6'8" ML Extreme spinning rod. And a Cranking Stick, just don't know what length I want. If there is any greenbacks left, I'll get some lures, I hope I have some money left!

If the reel you want during the trade-in is out of stock, will BPS do a rain check for that reel & the reel trade-in discount? Or it's what's on stock during the reel trade-in that the discounts will be honored?

I have both frog lures. The Spro is heavier so you can cast farther & use a baitcast setup. I open up the hooks just a little so the frog has a little more bite back to the bass. The body is quite soft. The bigfoot frog is lighter & quite hard to throw on a baitcast setup. Works better w/ a spinning med/hvy to med setup. The body is much softer that it is easy for the fish to compress the lure & get some hooks in. I've added a worm rattle to mine so it has noise when worked through weeds. Both are good but are different in their own repepcts on how to use.

From what I understand when you get the rebate, it's on like a postcard. Some people say it looks like it's junk mail, so be careful when you get your mail & check to make sure it a postcard check. I think that's what mfg's are doing now, sending rebate checks in postcard form. So be caeful what you throw away!

Can you guys see it from where you're at??? It's clear skies here in Northern Indiana & the eclipse is starting. SO my question is....will this somehow affect how the fish will react tomorrow...if I venture out in 10-20 deg weather???

Why do guys like me who use left hand baitcast reels get left out of bargain stuff like this???? That totally blows! Like Quantum won't come out w/ a left handed Code or KVD reel or BPS won't come out w/ a left handed Nitro baitcast reel....No wonder Shimano & Daiwa gets alot of business. Enough of my rant, I would get that reel cuz it's just cheap...if it came in a left hand version.

I am looking for short shank treble hooks in black. Mustad has their Ultra Point in red short shank but the other Ultra points are standard shank. I have some lures I want to change out the hooks & need a shorter shank treble or the hooks if in regular shank will tend to get tied up. You guys know of a brand of short shank treble hooks in black prefereble & where to buy???

BPS will have their reel trade-in in a couple weeks. And I've been tossing whether to go for an Abu that's cheaper but an icon in fishing, C3; or go w/ a more expensive newer model, the Record. Both are bullet proof & seems to have pretty good track records. I've handled both & yes the C3 is slightly lighter, while the record does look sweet in blue w/ slight gray. I don't recall the gear ratio for either, if they are similar or if one is a bit faster. Never mind, I checked the gear ratio's & one model I am looking at have the same gear ratio, but I am looking at the C3 5501 & the Record 61. I'm not including the C4 cuz I don't want the higher gear ratio. So what do you guys think? Go cheaper or go more expensive? Also there's a $15 rebate through Abu Garcia....