Hammer 4

I had one from 2003 IIRC. Fished it both in the salt and fresh for years. Great rod for the $$.

Well glory be, got some diesel tonight and guess what, price dropped a whopping 20 cents per gal. Not complaining, but I'd really like to see it come down a tad more.

If I can flip from a FatCat float tube, flipping from a yak should be a breeze, as you sit much lower in a float tube..Just takes a bit of practice.

And you have belter than I do. Diesel is anywhere from 6.89 for off branded fuel, and 7.00 to 7.19 for the well known brands. I have yet to see any drop in gas or diesel prices.

From what I've seen was that gas/diesel prices haven't changed at all here in my area. Even a slight drop in price would be welcomed. Sigh..

What I found was throwing 7" glide baits and the 8" hudd with the Tatula 200 is the reel kinda struggled a bit. When I switched to the 300 Tatula, casting was much easier and resulted in better distance. The 200 works fine for baits like the 6" hudd, and baits in the 2 to 2 1/2 oz range.

Up until about a year ago, I always used Chevron Diesel fuel. If I happen to run low, I'd use an other brand, what I found out was, my Duramax not only ran better, plus I got better mileage with Chevron. Nowadays Chevron is the highest priced Diesel in my area, so I now use an off brand fuel. Using an additive helps some.

^^^^^^^^^^^ This.

I have the Diawa 300 tatula. My previous swimbait reel was a Shimano Curado 301 E 7, and it was great. IMHO the tatula is just as good. I throw up to 3 1/2 oz baits with 20 lb mono on mine. The only thing I did to my 300 was buff the spool ends for better casting.

Yes, cancer does suck, lives are taken way to early, people suffer badly, not to mention family and friends, I've been there. My heartfelt condolences to you and your family. May your Brother RIP..

Just to put this out there for ya..I fished with Quality mono for many years, in all types of conditions, and caught my fairs share of bass, won a few local club tourneys with mono on a gin clear lake. As for stretch, cheap mono will stretch more than expensive mono. Sensitivity is controlled mostly with you, i.e. keeping a finger on your line at all times. Mono also has qualities that fluro doesn't, i.e. better knot strength, and less memory in most cases. These are things to consider if your wanting to make a change. Whatever line you buy, do yourself a favor, and buy the best quality you can afford.

Shhhh..We don't want them catching the big uns...?

My question is why do you feel the need to switch to fluro ? I have 1 rig with fluro, and that's on my spinning rig for clear water, finesse baits only.

Same here. Very impressive for sure. Hats off to all pilots.

As far as I can tell, the 7'11" XH is rated for lures from 1 to 3 oz. Unless your tossing 1 to 2 oz swimjigs, I also would agree it's probably over kill.

Don't have their spinning rods, but I do have 3 XT casting rods. Weight is fairly light compared to even higher priced rods. Action is pretty good considering the cost. I think they are a good value.

Under $ 200.00 is the Shimano Clarus rod and the Shimano SLX reel. Rod is $ 89.99 reel is 99.99.

Lunker Punker.

We actually looked at homes in Texas about 12 years ago, but never did go any further than just looking. Thanks for the offer, but at this point, no thanks...

At my age, nothing comes easy any more ..lol

I agree with the Diawa reels being more sensitive than the Shimano reels. In the past I only used Shimano reels, now I have all Diawa except 1 Shimano, and found it took more to get use to the Diawa breaking, but after some time I finally got the Diawa reels to where backlashes, stopped..

Well, don't forget, I'm in So. Cali. where everything is priced higher than the rest of the country.