WanderLust

Just Casting rigs: Curado 51E / G Loomis BCR803 GLX / 12# Tatsu - Weightless plastics Curado 201E / St Croix Avid 70MHF / 55# Samurai - Frog / Flip / Jig Revo Winch / St Croix Avid 70MM / 12# Big Game - Cranks, topwater Revo STX / Abu Veritas 6'6 / 40# Samurai - CQB universal Lew's Tournament Pro Speed Spool / Dobyns Champion 704 - 15# Hybrid - various

Berkley braid knot or San Diego Jam mostly.

Strike King 6XD.... Not the best but certainly cheap / effective.

Use a spot remover or a weedless tube jig... The stupid rig is also very popular. If you want to T-rig you can use a small bass casting sinker and cut a slot in the top of the tube for a better hookup percentage. In light weeds, the weedless tube jig is the easiest and most effective for me. Search BR / youtube / Google for "tube rigging"; there is a ton of good information.

http://www.***.com/Shimano_Stradic_FI_Spinning_Reels/descpage-SSTFI.html ^^^ On Sale. CI4 is awesome if you can afford it.

Hopefully its another slaughter in TD Garden... The B's need to step it up if the series heads back to Van though. Its like we're just waiting for them to lose by 1 goal.

^^^^ This how I understood it. Topwater bite in my area has sucked.

I use the school bus colored one and of course American Shad. Its a great bait.

Best jig and worm rod I've fished is the G Loomis BCR 803 GLX... $220 used but worth every penny. I have a Dobyns Champion, St. Croix Avid, Shimano Compre and a Abu Vertias currently.

I prefer 5.x for larger cranks and 6.x for medium \ small ones. As DVT expertly states, less fatigue on you and the reel is important. I like the control of a slower reel, for me its a confidence thing. That and the Abu Winch is a monster for larger cranks...

1st thing I do when cranks seem off is slow way down. Slow and steady, then slow and erratic.

Dobyns Savvy Spin Rod 7' Medium 703 is a great all around rod. St. Croix is awesome as well.

Without a price I would recommend Shimano Compre, Powell Max etc for around $100... My favorite crankin stick is a St. Croix Avid 70MHM but that's $190ish.

Awesome. Great pics

Another vote for swim jig trailer although a curly tail grub or a lake fork magic shad has been getting the call lately for me.

watermelon is always a good choice. Black / blue is awesome as well. Baby Rage Craw is deadly... The Thumper is awesome. Basically if its Rage... it works.

lol any pike that's not 36 inches or bigger. Big ones are fun but little ones are a pain in the arse.

Avid AVC70MHM is my favorite cranking rod by far... I used it for everything crank related.

Sammy's 85 and up have #4 hooks... If you short shank them you can go up one size but careful it doesn't affect the action. Should work fine though... I like the feathered Mustad hook for topwaters. I changed all my Strike King cranks to triple grips over the long, hard winter... Same with Daiwa Peanuts which has a shiza hook.

Leftie... Although I shoot a gun / bow / write / play guitar right handed.

That sums it up nicely. I bought a Champion to see what the fuss was about... Its a nice rod but didn't change my religion or anything. Last rod to make that sort of impression for me was the G Loomis BCR 803 GLX. The coolaid was strong with that one.

By hand for spinning and casting... Over the years I've worked out my own system for each reel and line type.

My jerkbait collection is almost as extensive as my topwater collection if that tells you anything. In my current lake conditions the obscenely colored (bright, bright and more bright or larger dark baits) ones are still producing although mostly toothy critters.

I have a Compre that I fish all the time. The sons both have Compre spinning rods as well... I don't have a carbonlite but I've fished with one, the Compre seems like a much better rod to me. But that's just my opinion. Compare directly for yourself and not matter what you pick its a win.

Excellent rods... Light, sensitive and balanced with a great warranty. Comparable with other $200 rods that people worship. But I also have a Powell Max and that is very nice rod as well especially since I got mine at cost.