northern basser

Over the years I have never thought that any of the spray on attractants I've used ever helped any.

They are VERY good! The house (italian) salad dressing is the bomb too and you can buy a bottle to take home with you.

The NRX's and champ. extremes of the world are just too expensive for me right now. "Bang for buck" is pretty important in my book.

Just got my 723c endurance Powell from TW the other day. Nobody in MN carries them so I'd never saw one in person till last week. I've fished w/ it twice now and really like it. I matched it w/ my newly aquired chr. d7. I'll be adding some pics tonite. I realize that there are better rods out there, but for $169 I'm really liking this one. My next Powell will be a 682c max and a 683c possibly later. The blank is light and pretty sensitive for a sub $200 rod.

Mines worked pretty well. Its not as nice as my chronarch or patriarch xt, but its $69.

You'll be happy. Its a solid little reel.

I'm guessing that he's hoping or knowing that his wife will see the listing.

What Chris said. It can't be explained any better than that.

I've been using one since our bass opener in may. Its a great reel at retail IMO. The braking adjustment is a little different than most reels, but it works good. It can be set at 2, 4, 6, or 8. I found that 4 works the best. Comparitively, I set my shimanos w/ 2 brakes on and my patriarch xt w/ 2 brakes also. I would really like to pick up another cayenne while they are still on sale. They're very worth it.

I used some of my dads reel magic over memorial weekend and really liked it. I hadn't used a line conditioner before and was impressed. When I got home I went to cabelas to get some and ended up bringing home some ardent line butter. IMO the line butter doesn't work as well as the reel magic. I'd really like to order some kvd to see how that compares.

Agreed about the curado. Set 2 brakes and occasionally adjust the cast controll. Very hassle free.

My cousin has supposidly caught several bass over 7lbs. (in MN 7lbs. is huge). Its always been when hes alone or with his wife and she will vouch for anything he says.

Sales= happy monkey

I've used the Lews and the SX. I would take the Lews. Have not used a Smoke so I can't comment on that reel.

I had a rod w/ cracked epoxy and used good quality womens clear fingernail polish/hardener. I read this off another forum. It seems to work well, but it hasn't been on long enough for me to know if it will last or not. I certainly know it didn't hurt anything and it looks good.

Just spent memorial weekend at my dads in the Walker area (an hour or more north of brainerd). We did excellent on small and largemouth. The smaller lakes seemed to be better because the ice was still on the lakes in northern MN not to long ago. By the 2nd week in june they should really start cranking up. The reeds and most other vegetation isn't quite up yet. Weightless senkos were the ticket last weekend, but we also did well on crankbaits and swimjigs. Surprisingly the big 7" senkos were hauling in the big bass. 5 and 6 inchers were doing pretty good too. There are so many good bass lakes in the Brainerd/ Walker/ Park Rapids area that you couldn't fish them all in a season. Good luck on your trip!

Went to my dads place in northern MN for the opener this last weekend. It was great to get after some bass again. Last time out was in november of last year. My dad lives near Nevis, which is right between Park Rapids and Walker, MN. There is a endless amount of different lakes to fish in that area. Our best luck came on some smaller, lower pressured lakes. Caught several large and smallmouths. I also got to put my new gripper scale to the test. My weekend bests were largemouth= 20.5"/ 5lbs. smallmouth= 18.5"/ 3lbs. Caught quite a few smallmouth that weren't far off the 3lber and several largies in the 2-3.5lb. range. There is pics on my new phone, but I have to download some sort of driver to transfer them to my PC. Hopefully I can get them on here within the next day.

I've bought/sold around 20 rods in the last 3 years. Only one problem. I sold a legend extreme on ebay usps and the guy contacted me saying it was damaged. He said it looked like they ran over the pvc with a vehicle 2' from one end, then taped it back up. Apparently the tape didn't fix the rod inside the pipe . It was insured thankfully. The key is insurance!

There must be something going on because the cayenne's are on sale all over the place. I just got a cayenne on sale and used it all weekend. Very nice reel! Even at the m.s.r.p. I think this is a great little reel. If they come out with something better I will be all over it.

IMO there are a lot of very good reels in the 1 and 2 hundred $ range. Since no 2 people have exactly the same casting technique and preferences, everyone is going to see a reel from a different perspective. I might have a problem with backlashing on a certain reel while a different person could take it right out of my hands and make it cast like a gem.

I haven't fished with any Daiwas so I can't comment on their braking system. I have fished a lot of different shimanos along with some revos and pfluegers. To me, the shimano centrifugal system works well and is "trouble free".

The old/new original floating rapalas are one of my favorite multispecies baits. You can twitch them on the surface, retrieve them, troll them for northerns and walleyes, use them for stream trout.....

These predictions come along more and more often these days. Remember when computers were going to crash on new years eve 1999 and looting would follow? Too many Nostradumb@sses out there!

I like shimanos braking system. It is easy to setup (2 brakes on for me) and is more forgiving than the Lew's. The Lew's isn't bad it just takes a little more setup and getting used to IMO. Shimanos reels have a history of holding up to the test of time while Lews are too new to tell. On the other hand, I like the smoothness of the retrieve on the Lew's and I think it has a better & stronger drag. The Lew's just feels more solid. IMO it looks a little nicer too. I would consider them to be pretty = as a whole, with each having its strong points. Both of them are great reels for the money.

I have to agree with ghoti also. I became caught up in the whole "balance" deal myself so I added some weight to the butt of my xc724 lamiglas senko rod. At first I was impressed with my work cause the 7'2" lami was a little tip heavy and the weight balanced it out better. Then the more I handled it I wasn't so impressed with what I had done. The weight I added was probably = to half the weight of the rod, now making my rods total weight signifigantly higher. Then another thing dawned on me. I can't ever remember my arms or wrists ever getting "fatigued", even after a whole day of chucking lures. My legs, maybe, from standing in a boat all day, but not my arms. The long winter was giving me too much time to over think and analize everything. So, I took out the added weight in the rod and bass opener in MN is a week away. Time to quit thinking and start fishing. Any rod under 5oz. is a pretty light rod IMO, so how tip heavy could a 3.5oz. rod possibly be?