Hooligan

Far and away my favourite gun is a Browning Superposed B25 in 28ga. It was purchased by the original owner from the custom shop, sold relatively shortly thereafter. It's got 29.5" barrels, and I'd assume it was for that reason that he sold it. It's the love of my shotgun life.

The tear drop under the eye is more tell tale than pores. The OP is a pike.

NRX blows away the Dobyns in terms of sensitivity and feel. It's remarkable. Point of comparison would be NRX853C and 703C. My money would go to the NRX.

You're hard pressed to call the new Crucial anything, particularly since I'm willing to guarantee you weren't at Icast. To my feel they're definitely not underpowered in the IM10 blanks. They're spot on. My opinion of the St Croix Mag Cranker is not very favourable. It's quite tip heavy and felt like it took banging a DD22 into large chunk-rock in order to get any feel out of the rod. Typically I'm rather fond of St Croix Crank rods, this one is one that doesn't feel right to me. Unlike other opinions, I felt like the rod never did load properly at any point. There was never enough load that the rod could recover when banging off structure and cover that the bait would rebound. The rod was almost too fast and too heavy, picking up immediately. My preference in a big crank rod is one that will load into the blank correctly, not just the tip, that's part of the whole purpose of a Moderate action rod. If you haven't ordered it, I'd sincerely encourage you to look into the Crucial, as you'll likely be very pleased with the way they perform. If the benchmarks for the Cumara are anything to consider, which from all accounts they're very similar, the Crucial Crank rods will fish beautifully.

Maybe I'm odd man out, but the two applications in question are totally and completely different. So different, in fact, that they're fished on entirely different rods. My squarebill and shallow crank rod is either a Loomis CBR843 or a Cumara CUC77M. On one rod is 15lb Tatsu, on the other is 12lb Tatsu. Jerkbaits are fished on a Loomis MBR783C or a St Croix Legend Elite 6-8 MXF. In some cases I drop back to a spinind rod in the Avid 6-8 MXF. In all cases my jerkbaits are fished with copolymer; most often Silverthread AN40. If you want to fish jerkbaits with fluoro, fine with me, I feel they don't fish right, however. I can't however encourage you to fish the same rod for squarebills and jerkbaits. They're so vastly different that the rods best suited to the applications for both are rods that won't work well for the other.

Definitely not light line with the BBZ. They helo so bad on light lines you'll pop it relatively quickly. I throw mine on a Cumara 7-11 MH XF. While it isn't optimum, the rod also works very well for other tactics such as Traps and hollow bellies. On the rod is a Chronarch D7 with 15lb Tatsu or 20lb Tatsu. Heavier line does help with casting characteristics, but they're still pretty flaky on pulling the whirly bird. If you want a rod to pull double duty, the 7-6 Crankin Stick in MH Xfast wouldn't be a bad rod at all for it. It will crank, rip traps, as well as fish other swimbaits.

Most of my swim jigs this year have been trailed with a single tail 5" Kalin's. Bluegill, Clear Holo, and a couple others.

It's a bit of a misnomer saying that 832 was designed to sink. It's designed with properties that allow it to sink with a lure, not much more than that. It still doesn't sink like a fluorocarbon. The primary way it sinks is through capillary flow, not as though it's weighted. Keep in mind it is still a hydrophobic water repellent line, as is all braid minus Fluorobraid. In terms of it's use as an all-round braid, it's one of the best for that very reasons. It's got very good characteristics across the board. It has very fine behaviour for walking the dog, as well as any other topwater presentation. Don't let your own hype about braid sinking fool you.

It isn't personal preference at all. Compare the point and the metals just once and you'll never look back. If you want a quality hook go Gamakatsu or Owner. If you want to pinch pennies, miss fish, and break hooks, feel free to use cheap hooks.

I didn't see that. Thanks for the heads up.

BPS has the KVD Tour Crank rods on clearance for under $120 right now. Not sure why, but I'm interested in how this one plays out.

The DC is worth every penny. I'd bet on a 30% increase in casting distance when you get used to the reel, as well as far fewer backlashes in goofy situations. I don't remember the last time I even backlashed my DC. It's lighter than the TE, it looks better than the TE, and it feels better than the TE. If you can score one for that price, I'd hop all over it. I've got two DC, one Calais, one Calcutta. I'm always in the market for another.

Couldn't resist. Ran across a St Croix Mojo 7-8 for $25 and snagged that up, too. It feels a LOT lighter than the 7-4 KVD Tour. Had fun with it on the pond throwing SSR9s today...

We've cooled down, today. Yesterday was 107, the previous four days have all been triple digits. Couple that with humidity in the 50-65% range and it's been nasty. One day was a heat index of something like 123. It's a positively glorious 91 with 45% humidity now.

I wasn't overly fond of Samurai, though, either. Granted I'm a braid hater and overly particular about it, but both the spools I got were blech. I had both 40 and 55, and both were noisy, both felt like they contributed to a more mushy hookset than with "outdated" lines, and I don't mean Power Pro. It had a fine break strength, but it didn't have the same casting behaviour and manageability as other braids. I feel like I gave it a fair shake and it just wasn't for me. (It also turned one of my cork handles pink, should have taken a picture of that one, because it was pretty funny. My wife has claimed that GLX as hers now, "It's pink, therefore it's mine."

Classic man. Classic. I was throwing a spinnerbait this spring at a tournament and it was BRUTALLY cold. We were both face down in full ice armor gear, gloves and the works.I was moving as little as possible so I didn't let the rain in, and wasn't looking up at all, really. We had been staying a consistent distance from this weedbed and were running blades through it. I cast once, put the "usual" on the cast and never heard it hit the water. I said to my partner, "We're closer in than we were, aren't we." Looked at my reel and it was shredded. Looked up and the lone tree on this stretch of water was wearing a brand new NorthStar 3/4 ounce bait thirty feet up it's branches. Funniest thing I've done in a LONG time.

Well, I ordered the SR705R and a Dobyns 764 today. Should be a fun comparison.

I prefer fluoro for everything except the nastiest of nasty. I pitch almost everything on 20lb Tatsu. It's a preference thing.

I tie both bucktails and craft hair in various sizes from 1/80th to 1.25. As bass jigs go, I tie mostly 1/8 and 1/4 with a few 3/8 every year.

Thanks for the heads up. I've looked around for that rod for at least a year, I've been intending to get a good glass rod for a long while, have just always been happy with my graphite rods, though. I'll find one I suppose.

I had a hellish time working down there at first. Now though, I've picked up enough French and Patois that I can hack it. A lot of the old timers speak it, and a lot of the business in the woods takes place in French Creole Patois. It's a really cool language, which I'm glad to have learned a bit of. More and more, though, it IS coming back. In schools, in homes, in business. It's neat to see.

I don't have a lot at home, most of my guns are elsewhere, as is my ammunition. I have one .40 at home, one .380, one .45ACP and one 12 GA. Total I have probably under 400 at home, and most of those are in clips in various, key, places around home.

I knew I should have snagged that Lamiglas in the Flea Market. That rod comes so highly recommended...

The Rage baits take very, very little motion to have maximum action. I'm sure the grub will be the same as the rest of the baits in that sense.

Help a guy out. I'm a certifiable junky when it comes to rods, as most anyone that knows me will tell you. I've got in excess of 90 rods from various manufacture. One thing I've never done is get in depth in glass rods. I'm doing that now, after fishing a friends glass this weekend. I'm after two rods, really, a 7-0 to 7-4 and a 7-6 to 7-11. Shoot your opinions, and should you care, why you prefer that particular rod. Thanks in advance.