Jrob78

Ideally, use your electronics to find humps, ledges, points, roadbeds, etc in deep water. Some of them should have bass stacked on them or around them. Use jigs, deep diving crankbaits, c-rigs, spoons, etc to catch them. This works better in theory than in practice sometimes though.

Agree with iabass. If you are fishing your frogs mostly in open water the mono should work. Just make sure to be very technical and precise with your hook sets. Mono stretches and frogs have big hooks. If you're fishing in or around cover, you're much better off going with braid.

This is like the 4th or 5th time with this guy. First it was the world record bass being caught in FL. Then it was spinning gear is better than casting gear, 2 or 3 times. The Quantum thread from the other day and now this. It's clear what the common denominator is.

The best part of your posts are the chuckles I get from the irony in your sig.

All 3 are good rods. I'm not trying to start an argument. I just wondered if you had owned all 3 casting rods in question and if so, why you liked 1 over the others. No need to get your feelings hurt.

Based on what? Have you actually used any of these rods?

I believe so. If your Ride will accept the previous raised Air Pro seat, it will take this one. $300 is a little steep for me too. It would have to be one hell of a comfortable seat for that.

So are you saying I should stop sprinkling lead in my cereal every morning? Is that bad?

I use an Okuma Guide Select and a custom.

CXX is very popular for swimbaits because it's tough as nails. Any good mono will work though. I've been using Sufix Siege in 20lb with good results on baits up to about 4oz. I would personally go with 17-20 for the smaller of the big baits. Check the diameters of the different lines too, you will find that some are much larger than others, CXX being one of the larger ones.

I bought all I could find on clearance when Tru Tungsten went out of business. I still have a lot. If I fished snaggy water often and lost a lot of weights, I would probably stop using it too.

It looks awesome and I want one. I heard right around $300.

I would consider either the Daiwa rod or the Okuma swimbait rods. The Okuma's are nice and I'm sure the Daiwa's are too. If you really get into throwing big baits you will want more than one rod, you can get a more expensive rod later. I would take a look at the Daiwa Lexa 300 for the reel. They seem to be well liked and won't break the bank.

I'm in north TX, none of our lakes are clear either. I had the same hesitations when I first started throwing swimbaits but I realized that bass have no trouble finding other baits in dirty water. They can hone in on a slim shaky head worm or a weightless Senko falling through the water column. They have no trouble finding a large swimbait and sensing the disturbance it creates.

This is why Quantum gets a bad rap now. When is the last time Shimano or Daiwa put out a stinker in the $100+ market? They have released reels that weren't popular but I can't think of any that were bad reels. Quantum can't say that. The Curado G took a lot of heat but that was mostly political, not based on performance. When Quantum has a better track record of releasing quality reels for a long period of time, their bad reputation will start to diminish. I believe they are on their way, it will just take time.

I agree, if this is your first baitcaster or you aren't very comfortable with them, use 12-14lb mono to start. I like Sufix Elite. I use braid for frogs and fluoro for everything else. It's a matter of preference though.

Oval split rings on all crankbaits, tied direct with fluoro. No split rings and mono, tied direct w/ or w/o loop knot on topwaters. No snaps or round split rings on anything for me.

I would try the pharmacy. That looks like more like a pill box.

It looks like a great drop shot bait. At 3.5" it will be somewhat limited though.

An exposed reel seat isn't going to make too much difference in a cranking rod, neither is an extra guide. Glass is much different than any mod or mod fast graphite rod I've ever handled.

I don't use so much backing that I ever get down to the knot. If I start getting close it's time to respool. FWIW I normally use a blood knot to attach my main line to the backing.

I'm going to say no, no one else does this.

It's a buzz bait that squeaks and doesn't have a clacker, when you fish one you will know it. Cavitron's are squeakers.

I prefer a squeaker over a clacker. I like the Cavitron, Booyah Pip Squeak and SK Tour Grade, usually in 3/8.

I like the Ocho's. SK's "Perfect Plastic" is very soft and makes for a great stick bait. Like you said though, the durability isn't very good. That seems to be the trade off for great action in these baits. I don't know if the flat sides help or not but the bait performs really well.