Hooligan

Without a doubt the 580 lens is the best there is for clarity and reducing eye strain on the water. It's unreal what it can do for your fishing. Are others sufficient? Probably, but when it comes down to seeing the most you can without having a headache at the end of a 16 hour day, the 580 takes it.

They're also on Clearance at Bass Pro Shops.

7' MH Pro Qualifier is what you'd be after for 1/4-1/2 ounce spinnerbaits and jigs.

Curado.

You're not comparing apples to apples. The CUC72MH and CUCX72 are completely different beasts. The MHF is tailor made a senko/Ika rod. The XF is the jig rod, and it will beat the pants off every Dobyns I've ever handled in terms of moving a jig.

Both rods will work fine, really. I've fished the JBR with spinnerbaits before and it makes a nice rod for 1/4 ounce baits. The tips are really, really responsive in that series, they do really well with Spooks and Sammys.

I disagree. The 6-9 Cumara isn't a rod that I'd fish bottom contact rods on at all. It would take a 3/4 ounce weight to load it to cast, it's got way too much power for jigs and such. The CUC69MH is purely a spinnerbait rod. It's a very, very good rod for casting short to mid length of spinnerbaits in 1/2 ounce and up. It's a very, very accurate rod for that purpose. The CUC70M is a super rod for fishing midd and shallow cranks, it's a perfect squarebill rod. It's very good for fishing 3/16 and 1/4 spinnerbaits when fan casting or casting grass lines, it's also a superb Wiggle Wart and Fat Rap rod. It will handle baits up to a Deep LIttle N with ease. It's a great rod for any sort of small to mid sized moving bait in and around wood. If you're looking for the rod in the bunch that's an "all around" it's the Pro Qualifier. It will handle the combination of baits better than any of the other rods you've listed. The Cumara reaction rods just don't fare well with bottom contact baits, the action of the rods aren't suited to it at all.

I believe you, but I'll have to track down the year I saw; it was almost like you said, 2 to 1 on a jig compared to "other".

It's always interesting to see those things, for sure. I maintain that the #1 big-fish bait is a jig and trailer. I don't recall the exact stats but the overwhelming majority of the 10+ fish in Texas last year were jig fish.

There's no doubt of that, the growing season is longer, the introduction of Florida strain fish into a lot of those waters, and the reduced winter mortality all play a part. In the Midwest and MN, WI, I've caught a total of 11 fish 7# or over. The remaining have all come from CA, TX, and LA. I fished a tournament in TX last May that the winning weight for a ONE DAY total was 37 and change, the big fish was 8-4. The right time, the right place, the right situation you can lay into the big fish. If you look at some of the guys that are REALLY good on Lake Fork, for instance, they catch between 75 and 100 ten pound fish a year.

No, it's not underpowered at all. It's on the verge of being overpowered for 1/2-5/8 ounce jigs. It's positively beastly for deep jigs because of how much line speed and force you can generate; the rod has a huge amount of power and lifting strength in the butt, with a solid enough tip to fish a heavy jig efficiently. The thing I didn't like about the Dobyns is that it isn't fast enough to hop a jig, the tip is too soft and you end up dragging the jig, or you have to hop it a great distance which becomes a pull. The cumara will hop a one ounce jig in 25 feet of water moving only minimally, the Dobyns can't do that.

Meh, I'm pretty low on the totem pole. I have friends that have edged into the 1000 mark. I have one friend that's pushing the 150 mark on ten pound plus. Heck, I'm sure Big O is edging the thousand mark himself, if he's not already surpassed it.

Vision 110 Pointer 100 Spinnerbaits Jig+trailer Little John DD Total number of fish over 7lbs is 219.

Cumara all the way. I've got both of the rods mentoned and fish the CUmara. I actually fish the Cumara over my GLX 854.

Favorite for jigs/weights of 1/2 or more is Core 100MGFV or Castaic201 that's been tuned. For lighter weights, Ch51MG.

TR19 is a solid rig. I fished out of a TR19 for four years, then went to a 20. I wish I had the 19 most of the time now. 40 hours on a 12 year old ride isn't out of the question; I had 2 hours on my 225 in two years from running on no wake and electric only lakes. It's not uncommon to see low hours on the big motor and still have a boat that's been fished.

I haven't been able to find them for a couple years now, switched to a Yamamoto product instead.

Drop shot, slider rig, T-Rig, Mojo, Carolina, Shakey... You get the idea.

I'm not fond of most hollowbelly baits, including the Shadalicious and the Bass Magic, as well as Berkley. I've really grown to like the Grass Pig this year, it's got a lot of action on the drop and you don't have to move it fast to get the tail to thump, unlike the Yum and others I've mentioned above. I've also been using the Swim Senko a lot, as well as the RI baits.

The difference is noticeable, experienced or not. A single ounce is enough to throw a rod completely out of balance. I'm a shimano guy through and through, but the Veritas still edges the lower end of Shimano's line.

I'd take a PopMax over any of them.

I very rarely change baits when tournament fishing. Most often, I'm going to be on a pattern and after those active fish. I may switch here and there, but not often. What I will do is use different baits as a follow up, or switch to a silent crank, things like that. I've always got a jig on 2 rods, a 10" worm on one or two rods, a Senko, three cranks, and one spinnerbait. At certain times of year it will vary with different baits, but ice-out to ice-up there's always some form of 2 jigs and at least two cranks.

They aren't the end all, but man do they work well for banging cover. I've also had very good hook up rates.

The only hard and fast rule that I have for my flippin' stick is that it needs to be a mod-fast. I have had other rods that aren't and I'm falling back to the St Croix and my 904IMX more and more. I don't really fall to the need of HVY for it, we don't always flip the heaviest of cover here, a MH will sometimes suffice.

There was a discussion about this some time ago, the two fibers are essentially the same. Spectra and Dyneema are just brand names for ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene. The finish of the end product is essentially the difference. In short, they're both Gel-spun polyethylene. In terms of the braid, too, I never have gotten my hands on it. I've quit looking, too, because I found Kanzen.