RichF

So many spawners right now. Turns my stomach. Hate seeing it right in my back yard. And seriously, I just want to see these guys actually fish again. No livescopes, no floggers, no mega imaging. Just friggin fish. Looks like spending that time with Mr. Clute of Gajo baits is paying off for Wheeler.

Midway has the new Simms ProDry Jacket (in Blue) for 50% off. All sizes appear to be available.

Those deals are at Sierra Trading Post.

I was just about to spread this news as well. Darn Lefties!

The gills seem to stay away from my big 3/4 oz jig;)

I think my sweet spot for both rods and reels is the $180 - $200 mark (the exception being my Legend Glass). It's really hard to beat the Curado, Stradic, Tatula SV, and Tatula LT. I definitely notice a difference in lower end stuff but not so much with high end. To be fair, I haven't used ultra high end gear (my highest end rods are pre-2020 Legend Xtremes and Kistler Heliums, highest end reels are Zillion tws, Chronarch CI4s, SS Svs, and a Luvias).

You can use whatever you want in a stocked, private farm pond hahaha.

That only happens to me when I go to Bass Pro or Cabelas. I took my nephew to Cabelas a couple weeks ago and couldn't believe how pathetic the selection was and how ridiculous the prices were. Pretty upsetting because I used to look forward to going there allll the time.

I grew up about 25 mins from Clayton, right in the heart of the 100 Islands. It's heaven up there. Not just the smallie fishing either. There are tons of small lakes nearby that are loaded with nice largies. If you ever get an opportunity to get up there, do it! If you can brave the colder weather, October is primetime!

I'm in the DC area and have fished the Potomac a couple times. Did a couple BFLs as a Co-angler and did really well. Can't say that I actually like the fishery though. Coming from upstate NY, I'm not used to the crazy community hole fishing that often happens on the river. Snakeheads are cool though.

I had a stretch of like 3-4 years where I was really crushing them on bladed jigs. They were getting me big bites during tournaments and helping me cash quite a bit. For some reason I haven't been able to repeat that success the last couple years. It still gets me bites but I tend to put it down much faster than I used to.

Totally agree. How have other line manufactures not done this yet!?

Def not worth it. You have to drop major coin to get something stable and comfortable. On top of that, more coin on all the accessories. With what you'd spend, you could get a decent jon boat with a small outboard and trolling motor. I dropped $1200+ last spring for a BigFish 105 and a bunch of accessories only to use it 4 times, uncomfortably. They're fine for playing on the water but not for real bass fishin.

That's the model I picked up. It would be good for some of those things but not ideal for all. I got mine for mid-sized cranks up to 6xd's max. I was surprised at how well it threw a DT6 so I would say it will probably work fine for squarebills (1.5 and up). 1/2 lipless - yes, bladed jigs - yes, ploppers - yes. I would say eh, for things like dawgs and poppers. It would be a bit cumbersome to work baits like that. I believe they have a 6'10mh which might serve you better if you're looking for that broad of range of baits.

I just got a St Croix Legend Glass this spring. By far the nicest glass rod I've ever used. I plan on replacing all my cranking sticks with these.

Gotta agree...that ain't no 12 pounder. Nice fish though.

Absolutely. It just has a much smaller frame. Different shape as well. It has smaller handle knobs too but the handle length is still pretty big.

Couple new toys to play with this summer. Man that MGL is the most palmable reel I've ever held!

I may not understand what you mean by "not directly across." If you look down the blank, the guides are straight, just attached a touch to the right instead of straight down Broadway. This is the only of the 4 Arks like that. I absolutely did not notice it while fishing, setting the hook, or fighting fish. It's honestly not really noticeable. It took my dad awhile to see it (he laughed at me and said "only you would notice that").

Yeah, like if you look straight up the rod, the guides are aligned fine (with each other), they're just shifted a tiny bit to the right up the blank. Again, nothing that messes with the performance. Just an annoying aesthetic thing. I actually caught quite a few on it over the last 2 weeks and it worked great.

Fair enough, lol. To be honest, I don't know if I even tried pitching with it. I was chuckin moving baits with it. Definitely strong stuff.

I've also been looking for a good copolymer line to pitch jigs with around hard cover. Mainly just looking for a cheaper alternative to fluoro. I've tried YHB and am not a fan at all. I've found it to have zero abrasion resistance. I burned through 600 yds of 12lb real quick because it couldn't handle cranking around rock. The 15lb wasn't much better. I tried Pline cxx too. Seemed better with the abrasion resistance but wasn't the most manageable. I might give the Sufix Advance and Hi Seas a try as suggested here. Anyone use McCoy Mean Green??

I have 2 Snipers and an Invoker Pro (replacement for a broken Sniper). The Snipers are nice little rods but not worth the $200 retail tag. I would say these should've retailed for around $120. I got all mine for less than $100 when they were on closeout at TW. For what I paid, they're fantastic. Strong, light, and sensitive enough. I broke one boat flipping a bass. My fault as it had an extra fast tip and I got a bit overzealous. I paid the $60 and asked for their 7'0 MH composite Invoker Pro. I like it a lot. It's stupid light for a composite rod. I really only have 2 small gripes: 1. It's much more stout than I thought it would be. I was hoping to use it for small cranks and squarebills mostly. It's a bit too stiff for those. It's an awesome spinnerbait/bladed jig rod. It will serve as a multipurpose, moving bait rod for me. Spinnerbaits, larger treble hook baits, lipless cranks, and maybe even a buzzbait every now and again. 2. The entire guide train is a touch off (shifted to the right, up the blank). Definitely a bit of a quality control thing, but it doesn't affect the performance of the rod. It just bugs me a bit. The Invoker Pros are a great deal at 25% off and Ark's replacement program is pretty good. I was going to get more before I put a new Levante and Legend Glass in my hands this spring.

Throw a 1/4 oz swimjig with a menace grub or rage craw trailer.

The brownies have arrived! The old man and I landed 40. My best 5 went 25 and change. his went almost 27. Our big 5 went 28.5. 43-47 degree water.