Jrob78

The original meaning of OG is original gangster. These days in this context it just means the original or first in a line of something.

I've got several OG Zillions, an OG Fuego, a Sol, a couple of Alphas, and Curado D's and E's still in my lineup. Those reels work just as well now as they did then if taken care of. Love that Coastal! I never had one of those.

I've been carrying a knife everyday since I was 16 or 17. I'm a big Spyderco fan, lately I've been carrying a Chaparral but I have a pretty large rotation.

I use Bass Assassin Shad Assassin and Flukes for fishing fast close to the surface and D Shad or Caffeine Shad for dead sticking and fishing deeper.

I would go with the 5.8 or the Curado 300k in 6.6

The 1 in Shimano model numbers indicate left hand retrieve. RH is 300, LH is 301.

I love fluoro for all bottom contact baits and a few other random techniques and I use braid for topwaters, pitching/punching vegetation and frogs. There is no way I would use either for big swimbaits. 20-30lb mono or copoly will give you the least amount of trouble and the lowest chance for random break offs.

The term "BFS" refers to casting gear only. What's your budget? There are several ways you can go at different price points. You can use a bfs specific reel or use a drop in spool for non bfs reels. The rod may be more important than the reel though. Without the proper rod your reel won't make much difference.

I can't help you with why it's happening but if anyone finds it happening a lot you can always smash down the barb and keep needle nose pliers close by. Learn the "through the gill" method and hopefully you can release some of those fish back relatively unharmed.

Same for me. If I fish a reel faster than a 6 for moving baits it's harder for me to keep it as slow as I need to go. Speeding up is easy, slowing down is tougher for me. I do fish 7's and 8's for bottom contact baits, pitching, frogs, etc.

This is what they mean in this case. What everyone has said about the actions, lengths and powers of JDM rods is 100% dead on but I think the appearance is generally what they mean in this context, especially in lower tier rods. Fancy reel seats, locking nuts, grips, winding checks and woven carbon fiber on the blank are generally "JDM style."

Yep, JDM is the only way to go right now.

The HD is next on my list but I need to make sure I can swap gears for a slower ratio. If not a 7:1 will do.

That's crazy, I didn't know they did that anywhere when these mag capacity laws went into effect. Oh well, at least you can sleep easier at night knowing criminals in NY don't have high cap mags now. ? I live in TX so my outlook on things is definitely a little different than yours, which is a shame.

I do throw all of those baits and weights on casting gear. I'm not missing out on any techniques by not using spinning gear.

I won't comment on the political side of this but if they impose a magazine capacity limit it will be on new magazines going forward. All old magazines will still be legal and grandfathered in. I have a lot of magazines for everything I own but I'm thinking about stocking up now for guns I don't own yet but might buy in the future.

I have a bunch of newer reels but my favorite is still probably the OG Zillion. I have several and I love using them. The new Zillion is definitely moving up the list though, awesome reels.

I usually use 20lb fluoro mainline to 12-16lb mono leader.

The Hook Up Tackle actually commented on one of their Sleeper Gill videos, in the comment section, that they wouldn't get more until fall and a tackle reviewer on YT said the same, although who knows where he heard it. Thanks for the heads up @RDB

I'm hearing they did one big run of Sleeper Gills and there won't be any more until the fall. If you find some, buy them!

I don't know why people get so defensive about this specific topic, happens every time. I only fish for fun and spinning gear just isn't that fun to me, so I don't use it. There aren't any techniques that I can't comfortably fish with the casting gear I own. I also wouldn't tell anyone my way is the right way, it's just the way I like to do it. Use what works for you.

I would assume you're doing something different with your hookset on the faster rod. Maybe you're easing up a little because it feels like you hit resistance faster, where with the slower rod you have more give and feel comfortable laying into it more. I don't know, just a thought. If you're using the same type of baits/rigs and everything else is the same besides the rods, I couldn't imagine the rod itself is causing you to lose fish, it's something you're doing different. I think the mono might solve your problem. Good luck

I would try mono or copoly on your St. Croix and see if the added stretch helps balance out the x-fast rod a little bit. I also agree that using leaders in your situation is probably unnecessary and just adds additional knots that can fail.

Daiwa rods and reels Lucky Craft hard baits Zoom soft plastics

I've never ordered from Amazon Japan but Digitaka is my first stop for JDM reels. I've placed orders from Digitaka and TW on the same day multiple times and the Digitaka order normally arrives first. Great prices and free shipping on reels, can't beat it.