J-B

Cool deal. I should find out next week if I get to take the vacation days during the week of the roadtrip. If I am able to use them, then yes, I will want to take you up that spot. Thanks.

The Avid and Mojo are great rods. For the price range you cant go wrong with the Mojo. I personaly like the carbonlite due to the weight, sensitivity and I found the handle much more comfortable in my hands. After feeling the carbonlite, the mojo just felt too heav to me. It is what you like when you choose your rod that counts though.

I have put in a request for vacation time for the road trip. I dont know if it will be aproved yet. If it is, is there anyone else from the Atlanta area heading up there that I can join up with and anyone that has a spot left in a room or cabin? John

I have 3 triumphs. They are great rods with decent sensitivity. I have no complaints about them. For the $70 price range, the St Croix Triumph is an awesome rod and hard to beat. If you really want an "ultra" sensitive rod with a very good backbone I suggest you try to get a BPS Carbonlite. They run $90 for a 6'6" ($70 if it is still on sale). It is a rod with the feeling of a $300+ rod for under $100.

Welcome Marc.

benito, A forecast that far out will be highly unreliable. If you wish to look into the future a bit, a 5 day forecast for Alabama will be about 70-75% more reliable than it is here in Atlanta, GA where we can barely rely on a 24hr forecast to be accurate.

I have one of the Roland Martin Tournament Grade MH 6'6" rods. It is built well but I am not impressed with it at all. It seriously lacks sensitivity. I rarely use it at all any more. There are many other rods in its price range that are worth looking at instead. When I got it, it cost around $70 and for that price you can get a nice St Croix Triumph or for about $20 more a BPS Carbonlite.

I have been using a clinch knot like you described since I was a kid and I can only recall ever having an issue only once or twice. I use it on all my lines, braid and all. If it is a bigger bait I tend to feed the line through the hook eye twice before doing the knot. I wet the line a bit and then give it a good strong pull to get it good and tight. I agree, it sounds like something might be different with the line.

Welcome from another shore angler.

Welcome to BR. Glad to have you with the family.

Welcome from Loganville, GA.

That monkey gets around. He got me a couple of times this past week also. Got a Carbonlite rod and a Johnny Morris Signature silver reel (JMX20HA). A couple days before that I got another St Croix Triumph rod and a Shimano Citica 200D reel (on closeout for $79) and a few new rapala cranks. I am going to be selling my triumph rods to get more BPS Carbonlite rods soon.

lol..I like that.

I would use a shakey head or a tube bait tossed up towards the bank and slowly walked down the drop off. With the shakey I would pull till it finds a rock or something and start shaking it. For the tube I would fish it slowly by dragging a bit and then raising the rod about a foot and letting the bait fall down on a half slack line. If you find fish suspended you could also put the tube on a bobber and suspend it around the depth of the fish.

lol. I just cant wait till the wife gives the ok for the bait monkey and me to go a buy 5 more of them.

x2 Same blank as the Mojo and Premier, but only $70. It's lacking the "lifetime" warranty of the Shimanos in that price range, but after dealing with the Atlanta BPS over the warranty on my Crucial this past weekend, I know I won't be buying any more Shimano rods. According to them, the lifetime warranty is now a 1 yr over the counter replacement. After that, it has to be shipped back to Shimano on your dime. To me, the over the counter replacement was the best part of buying a Shimano rod. Without that, they're no better than any of the other rods in their respective price ranges. I'm sticking with St. Croix from now on. St Croix Triumphs are great rods. I have 3. The Carbonlite I just got blows them out of the water on sensitivity and weight. I will be replacing all of the Triumphs soon with the carbons. The 6'6" versions run $89.

x2 on the carbonlite. Not sure if they are still on sale or not but BPS had them all marked $20 off last week.

I feel pretty sure that you will be very happy with it.

My goal is LMB 12lbs + from GA.

M or MH should work fine. MH will have a bit of extra bite for the larger worm hooks. If you get that Carbonlite, I think you are going to love it. I do mine.

IMO, getting a good baitcasting combo for $100 or less might be tough. Granted that there are many good rods for the $50 and under range to choose from, getting a good baitcaster for that price range can become a challenge. BPS, Cabelas and many other sporting good stores sell quite a few rather nice combos for the $100 range. Personally, I would up your target range to at least $150, and then get a good rod in the $30-$50 price range that feels good to you and it will open up many very nice reels that are in the $70 - $120 range to choose from. I feel that many baitcaster reels with cheaper prices just do not cast as well and can take away from the experience that you are probably looking for. Shimano offers the Citica for around $120 and it is a great b/c reel. Abu Garcia offers the Revo-S reel in a similar price range and it is an excellent reel too. Quantumm, or Berkley sell quite a few lower priced rods that give nice performance. Just my opinion though.

Take a look at the new BPS Carbonlite rods. For the money they seem to be realy nice rods and in the $70-$120 range. They are very light, very sensitive and strong rods.

That the lure has to be in the water and tied onto a line that is attached to my rod. Otherwise, I just never seem to catch a fish.

Citica

Ok, here is my review. I gave my 6'6" MH the test today on the lake. I am very happy with the rod. It is incredibly sensitive to say the least. It felt like I barely had a rod in my hands it is so light. Basically..I loved it. Not a single problem with it and it did great when the fish were on. I will be replacing my other rods with the Carbonlite rods soon, even my St Croix rods (only the Triumph versions but the Carbonlite blows them out of the water). The only thing I would like better would be smaller guilds but the ones it has work great.