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A good reel is a good reel, regardless of wheher it's a lake, river, or stream that you're fishing. I'd recommend scouring the net for deals on Shimano, and maybe consider bumping up the target price range a bit.

Flyrod. Grasshopper flies and small deerhair poppers with legs.

I would recommend both hard and soft plastic jerkbaits. Lipless cranks might be the very last lure I'd recommend in frigid water, because they are anything but slow. :-/

Drop shotting is more of a vertical presentation, not the ideal shore fishing lure. Try tossing the lures you mentioned Texas rigged instead.

When I saw it I couldn't believe it had made it to 5 posts w/o being locked.

Try the back half of a chewed up Trick Worm. The point of using bucktail is to have LESS action in COLD water.

These seem to have been forgotten in the recent waves of fancy new plastics, but they still catch fish as well as ever. Maybe even better now that the fish rarely see them. 3-5" curly tail grubs on 1/8-1/4 oz mushroom heads have always been a solid producer for me. Watermelonseed and smoke with red/copper/gold or silver flakes are my favorites. Plus, they give you an excuse to break out the lighter spinning tackle for a good battle!

I picked up a pack this last weekend from Cabelas. 3/16 oz, grn pumpkin with the stud. Quality

That's cool. Thanks. I'm thinking one of these new St. Croix 7' MHXF might be my next rod. I currently use the Avid 7' MHF for CR/TR. This is a very useful multi purpose rod, but I'd like a little softer tip than what this one offers for the sake of casting accuracy with lighter T Rigs.

I see. Still a slick deal. I coundn't care less about cosmetic issues on most products. I'm all about function over fashion.

:o :o Buy all of them and sell them in the Flea Market. Agreed, especially if the issue is purely cosmetic. This is a situation where you could make a few bucks and still be hooking people up big time. $100 bucks shipped and they'll be lining up. I'll take a Slop and Frog 7' HF and a Finesse Jig 7' MHXF............seriously.

The pitching setups have the brakes off. All others are set in the 10-30% range, unless I'm throwing bulky lures like spinnerbaits and buzzbaits into the wind, then I'll turn em way up.

Thanks for the info, RW. I'm going to have to give the InvisX a shot on my spinning reels, because I just have not found a fluoro that I'm pleased with on spinning tackle. I've been using braid with a fluoro leader for the last two years, but if I can get away with straight fluoro and not have to deal with a leader knot, I'm all for it.

Nice post. Do you own all of those rods? If so, how do you like the Avid 7' MHXF? I use one of those to weigh lures, and sometimes I'm surprised by how heavy they are. For example, a 1/4 oz Booyah jig with rattles and a 4" Chigger Craw weighs 3/4 of an ounce.

When you see some followers that are short striking or won't commit to a faster moving lure, try quickly following up with a subtle soft plastic presentation if you can, like a finesse tube jig, Senko, or weightless Trick worm.

Wading will open up a whole new level to river smallie fishing. Felt bottom boots are the way to go, and you don't even need waders, just long pants to conceal and protect your legs. Here's some lure tips: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1267221562

In order: 1/8 oz. Strike King Mini King Buzzbait - White 1/16 - 1/8 oz. finesse tube jig with light wire hook - Watermelon, green pumpkin/gold, smoke/red flk. Zoom Super Fluke - 3/0 red EWG - White or Ark Shiner Rapala X-Rap and small lipless cranks - Ghost/white/bone/silver, gold shiner with orange belly, clown 1/4 oz spinnerbait - Gold shiner or olive, with gold double willow. White with white tandem willow.

I tend to throw Carolina rigs around deep structure thats below the weedline in 20+ of water. Same places I'd toss a football jig and often I alternate between the two.

Epic Backlashes & slippery knots? :-? Yep, remember when people used to glue their knots before they learned which ones worked and which ones might slip? Anybody who has used braid extensively should know how difficult it is to pull a serious backlash out.

Heck of a deal there. You can even sell the rods if you don't like them and still come out way ahead.

I think once a person gets past it's disadvantages and annoyances, like the noise it makes in your rod guides, the epic backlashes and slippery knots, they realize it has plenty of advantages and begin to appreciate it as another tool that you can exploit to make you a better fisherman.

They're my favorite trailers for finesse jigs for smallies. I like that they collapse and don't seem to interfere with hooksets like some trailers do on small bass jigs. I also tried them on a Spot Remover last year and hooked a few nice ones on it.

Xcaliber Zell Pop Xz3 - light colored.

I can't comment of Powell and I've only tossed a dozen casts with a Kistler Magnesium, but as far as Dobyns goes, I'd say they're worth a look. I picked up a used Gen 2 Champion Series 766 flipping stick this winter that I haven't fished with yet, but I was immediately very impressed by the weight and balance of it. It doesn't feel the least bit tip heavy. We'll see how it handles on the water, but so far it's a big thumbs up.

I use clips on all lures with split rings. On some, like spooks, I remove the split ring. I feel the improved clinch works better if tied to a snap rather than straight to the split ring.