Jrob78

Those are awesome blanks, I have a custom on the 7'6" model, wish I would have gotten one of the 7's while they still sold them. Nice work!

Patrick Walters Matt Arey Keith Combs Jeff Gustafson Jake Whitaker

Lucky Craft RC 1.5 and 2.5 Zoom WEC E1, Wobbler, Hickey XCalibur XCS 100 and 200 Lucky Craft Fat BDS 1 and 2 Spro Rk Crawler 55 Megabass SM X Spriggan

I'll 2nd the Seeker SBS706

I can't agree with this more. I have 2 H3's and a couple of customs on NFC blanks, excellent rods. Also American made if that's important to you.

I would have liked to see them complete the initial elimination rounds, (first 4 days) on the same lake, then the Saturday round on a different lake and then the final round on a different lake. At least that would have been a whole new competition for each round and would have stopped guys from conserving fish and "practicing" during the event. I realize having 3 or 4 new lakes might not always be an option at every stop but it would have kept things fresh. This is the first year and it is incredibly fun to watch and follow, I'm sure they will tweak things as they go.

Megabass makes great baits but if I could only fish one hard bait brand for the rest of my life it would be Lucky Craft.

Lucky Craft Pointer 78 and 100 Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 97 and 112 Lucky Craft Flash Minnow 85 and 110 Megabass Vision 110 and 110 Jr Megabass X80 Trick Darter Spro McStick 95, 110 and 115 XCalibur XT3 and EE Shad

If you're going to fish bigger baits a lot, you should get a more appropriate rod. If you're just wanting to fish this one lure some, the rod you have will be fine. Just don't try to muscle it when you cast, use a more gentle lob cast. Also, big baits and braid, especially lighter braid, don't mix well. Don't be surprised if you make a cast and see you lure snap off and fly away.

Everything

Congratulations to Jacob Powroznik! That was a nail biter! Congratulations to Edwin Evers too, a 2nd, a 1st and a 4th in the first 3 events, pretty solid.

The top 4 guys are still within range but Wheeler is going to have to hit a lull. This could get interesting....or Wheeler could just run away with it. ? Also, it would be crazy to know the amount of weight that's been caught on Jack Hammers during the first 3 BPT events.

Mike L is right, this is where KVD L&L is worth every penny. It really helps cut down that memory. I spray the spool really well the night before a trip.

The longer rod is a flipping rod and the other is probably a mag bass, they are rated differently.

It's rated up to 1 1/4 oz so you can definitely go heavier than 3/8. I don't know how heavy you normally pitch but I would imagine you would be fine up to 3/4 oz weight or so, maybe more. You will just have to try it out to find the upper limit of the rod. When the rod starts flexing a lot just to move the weight, you've gone too heavy.

The first one is a pitching/flipping rod but can also be used for c-rig, t-rigs, big spinnerbaits, big bladed jigs, 5"-6" paddle tail swimbaits and probably many other things. The second rod is a multi purpose rod that can be used for t-rigs, lighter jigs, spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, bladed jigs, etc... How does one buy 2 rods and not know what to do with them? I never understand these questions. Tie some baits on and see what works.

If you're in New England I imagine the water is still really cold. It's tough this time of year up north. Practice with your baitcaster, fish slow baits and be patient. Also, don't get too hung up on using a baitcaster, obviously learn to master it but if you feel like it's frustrating you, use what you're comfortable with until you get more practice in. In other words, don't let it ruin your day, you'll get the hang of it.

I mostly fish Daiwa reels, all with a decent amount of side to side play. I always keep spool tension pretty loose with all reels and rely on braking and thumb to control the spool.

Nobody needs expensive rods. Amateurs are way more hung up on expensive gear than pros who do it for a living. A good portion of the top level pros use mid level gear. That said, I like nice gear as much as anyone, nothing wrong with that but it doesn't make you a better fisherman.

Ned rig, Whopper Plopper, Spybait, Neko rig, Tokyo rig, Float and Fly...I'm sure there are more.

It looks like the handle on a lot of the Zebco spincast reels can be switched to either side, like spinning reels. You might be able to figure out a way to attach some kind of larger knobs to the existing knobs and make it functional. As far as making a whole new handle, you would probably have to get a reel and see and how the handle attaches and go from there. Good luck!

So tense! There's been so much movement at the cutline of every event when it gets to the elimination days, you couldn't script it any better.

I appreciate you taking the time to provide a real world example and I agree that balance point isn't the tell all when comparing rods of different lengths, with different components, some of which are on both sides of that balance point. All of those things play a role in how a set up will balance, as will grip position. I'm simply saying, as @BaitFinesse also stated, anything that moves that balance point closer to the reel seat is going to lessen felt tip heaviness on a given rod. This is especially true when you grip a reel with all fingers in front of the trigger, close to the reel nut, as I do. Adding weight to the butt of the rod is going to be much more effective than adding a heavier reel but it isn't nearly as easy or convenient to accomplish.

You are correct. This topic comes up pretty frequently and people love to argue over it, call each other "weight weinees" some even say the reel has nothing to do with balance, which is absurd. I think people just get bored waiting for spring. I've only ever had one rod that I felt I needed to add weight, it balanced out way ahead of the reel seat and was a tip up technique rod. Adding a cap with weights in the butt made the combo much more pleasurable to fish even though it added several ounces to the overall weight of the combo. I've never worried too much about balance as most of my setups are custom and I build them with what I consider acceptable balance based on the technique they are intended. I never worry about it for tip down, cast and retrieve presentations as it doesn't really matter (to me.) Tip up presentations it becomes more critical (to me) but as long as the tip heaviness isn't extreme, I'm good with it and will use a heavier reel to act as a counterbalance if necessary.

Good grief, numbers are down a little on Falls Lake but size certainly isn't! There have already been a few 8's and a bunch of 6's and 7's and it's only a couple of hours in.