Delaware Valley Tackle

Welcome Andrew! I live across the river from Sussex County, NJ which has a tremendous amount of good fishing water. Let me know if need any local insight.

Welcome Brandon! You'll find the membership here very accepting and helpful. "Ready" or not, I'm sure you'll enjoy meeting the members. I wish I could make it myself.

Welcome aboard! The NE and Smallmouth forums (not to mention the rest) are both full of great stuff for you. River smallies are a blast!

Welcome to THE bass forum. Where are you in Eastern PA? I'm here in NEPA at the top of the Water Gap. I here you about being addicted to bass, but don't over look those carp when bass fishing is slow. They pull like crazy.

A swimbait rod will make all day casting easier. For once in a while use a flippin' stick will do in a pinch.

I think you make a valid point that not all aluminum is created equal. I'd defer to an engineer that could explain the precise differences, but my opinon as it stands is Magnesium<Machined aluminum<graphite<cast aluminum as far as strength to weight is concerned.

The 50E casts pretty well right out of the box and I've tuned a number of them. I haven't had any feedback about being unmanageable. You can always use lube viscosity and amount to fine tune spool performance in addition to the braking. It may take some trial and error to get it exactly right. Check with me in the future, I could have saved you a few bucks on the upgrade parts.

If it's brand new just exchange it. Get a good one, put some hours on it and have it deep cleaned and properly lubed down the road.

They're both good quality. Whether the features are worth the difference in price is up to you same as Curado vs Core or SX vs Premier etc...

Not sound like a broken record, but before dropping $250> on a factory rod, look into a quality custom build.

They are nasty little buggers but are like crack for bass.

A heavier reel won't do much if anything since you palm the reel right where the fulcrum would be. A slightly larger spinning reel can have an effect, depending on your grip. The problem with inseting weight into the blank is that it can come loose and slide further in if you're not careful. Also, it requires more weight than if you position the weight further back. A cap of some kind is probably the best after market solution. The main consideration is why you want to modify at all. If the goal is to achieve a feel that YOU PREFER by all means go for it. There is no right or wrong balance point since the rod is used on several planes and with different lures. My personal preference is to not add weight anywhere.

There's also some nice second hand tackle in the Flea Market forum.

Welcome to the forum. The Orra sx is ok as a budget reel but I'd steer clear of the others. Value wise, there's a big difference if you could hold out and save up a little more for a Revo S, Citca or even BPS PQ on sale. There's been quite a few reviews of the Vengeance rods and Vendetta rods and the concensus seems to be that the Vendetta is worth the extra $.

What are the two models being compared? If feasible, Shimano can answer the question and send the part: Shimano American Corp. 1 Holland Irvine, CA 92618 On site customer support - Irvine office 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday - Friday Pacific Standard Time Customer Service: 877-577-0600 6:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday - Friday Pacific Standard Time

The 2500 size class spinning reel will work well especially with braided line or mono/fluoro in 10lb and under. If you'll want heavier line, you might have better luck managing the line on a 4000 size spool.

Welcome to the forum Wilonso. As far as a multi purpose rod goes, a 6'6" - 7' Medium Heavy power, fast action is probably what you want. Casting distance is the most relevent performance aspect related to rod length. A longer rod also helps in situations where you want to take up line quickly on a hookset. A shorter rod may be easier to handle shore fishing around trees and brush. As for a first baitcast reel, I'd suggest spending just a little more for an ABU Revo S, Shimano Citica etc. A better quality reel will be more user friendly and will last a long time if cared for. Hope this helps. Good luck!

An Ambassadeur C3 on a used swimbait rod might be worth looking into. You might be a little over $100 but still reasonable.

Graphite has a higher stiffness/weight ratio than glass. The decreased weight is where the increased performance is derived from. The trade off for the extra stiffness of the graphite is a degree of brittleness, not necessarily fragility. Graphite is more susceptible to damage from rough handling, but barring that it is a strong and light weight material ideal for many rod blanks.

Are you using braid by chance? What you're hearing may be the braid through the guides. Especially since the noise changes with the rod orientation.

Taper has no official definition in regard to rods. It's another subjective term used several ways. IMO Taper is a relation of the tip to butt diameter. It affects action but is not the same as action. A rod described as having a fast taper would be one with a combination of fast action and more back bone relative to another rod with similar ratings. It really doesn't mean much at all. The marketing of the particular rods you're looking at may be making the correlation that the faster taper is a faster action but I don't know since there are no stadardized ratings. As for picking your new rod, stick to the ratings of lure weight and action and match that to what you want to do with it.

I think I know where you're going here. There is a lot more to being on a Pro(as in promotional)Team than taking free or discounted equipment and wearing a patch. Pro fishing, Nascar, x-games and all the rest are really advertising vehicles. If you can't help the sponsor move product, they don't care how much you win or anything else. Of course winning or placing well brings attention but that must be parlayed into product endorsement and sales or it has no value. The opposite is true to a point as well. You may not be placing highly but are holding your own and are very outgoing and charismatic with good contacts, you will have value to offer.

You can probably do away with the leader altogether in most cases. Other times snug the Albright down tight and you can trim the tags right up flush. The knot should pass anything down to a size 4 with no problem.

First off, make sure you have a schematic in front of you before disassenbling any reel. Keep close track of the order you remove parts as the schematic does not necessarily show the disassembly order. All the parts should be thoroughly cleaned and degreased using hot water and Dawn or Simple Green etc. The bearings should be flushed with acetone or carb/brake cleaner. The teeth of gears and meshing parts should get greased. sliding parts such as the clutch should be oiled or greased very lightly. bearings should get oil. One drop on the race for spool bearings. You can go a little heavier on crank and pinion bearings since they don't spin fast. Lightly oil the levelwind worm gear. Grease will collect dirt and gum up due to the exposed nature of the gear. The AR clutch can be flushed and oiled lightly with a swab. Don't go crazy with the lube. Less is more in most cases.

A branded exclusive is different from private label. Also, just because a certain company produces a private label does not necessarily mean it is the same product as the national brand.(or that it isn't for that matter)