hatrix

Of course speedbead nailed it. What your talking about is almost a 2 different rod type of thing. The productions are great rods but I think they are a little weak when it come to top hook baits. For the price they really can't be beat. You can find them used on SU but I have not seen anything but XXH come up for a while. I am sure if you asked someone has it though.

Since does Walmart sell Diawa Tatulas? I have never seen anything Diawa except that black spinning rod with the eva grips. That's a sick deal on the rod. Almost 50^ off. I was looking at those rods and wanted to get one when the tatula series came out.

You should be able to do just fine with what you have now for the most part. I am not sure but if there getting in the pads and your trying to hold them there and troll over to get them free (I think thats what you were saying) your going to have a bad time doing that regardless of what your using. You need to not play games with these fish. As soon as you set that hook start burning it back towards you and get them up to the surface. You should be able to pretty much ski bass them back to you the whole way. Even if they do get caught in the pads keep trying. Your line should not break with it being braid and your drag is going to give before your line will. Those Berkley are not a bad rod for spinning rods and I am sure the casting are just fine as well. As for a casting reel I unless your fairly experienced I would try to find one with centrifugal braking. That Lews reel is not a bad reel but being only magnetic if you start casting lures that helicopter or grab wind you can start having some issues if your not fairly adept as casting. It can become frustrating to someone and slow the learning curve down.

Yea it is not really a great reel. For someone starting of you should for sure try to find a reel with centrifugal brakes. That will really help out when you new and have a lapse of concentration or just did something wrong. The Black Max will make you pay for that in a big way since it is not getting any slower on its own. Once you get it down it can become a ok reel i suppose. I got one recently and it is a casting machine for what it is and can keep up with all my reel. Although I totally broke it down and cleaned and lubed it properly before I ever used it so they are probably not on the same level but in theory yours could be just as good with a little love.

This right here ^^ It is basically impossible to ruin. I never met a backlash I couldn't fix pretty quickly. Just keep backlashing as much as you can. You will get really good at getting them out I promise! Lots of people do that thumb thing and it works but I have never been a fan. of it. I just don't pull hard so it doesn't tighten down on it self. Eventually you can probably just look at it and know instantly what to grab and its out in a couple seconds. It is a bit or a art to getting them out and not tearing up your line or making it worse. Like J said its only one or two loops you really need to pull if you get it right from the start.

All you can really do is try them out and see what happens. A good rod should be able to throw over or under the weight it has listed. Well probably any rod really. I have some rods I throw way under the listed weight. I can bomb a 1/2 oz on a rod that is rated at 1.5-5 oz. and throw up to 6.5 or so.

I think taking line off is more of a problem then putting it on. I have used a drill tons to take line off. If you wanted to keep it suffix spools work great cause they are wide. I have some with braid I for whatever reason put on a reel and never used. As for putting it on and the pencil thing I think we all did that and it blows but your looking to solve that problem in the wrong way. Your better off putting it inside something then trying to run a pencil through it. It can help to keep it in the box also. It might sound weird but i have used my shoe I don't even know how many times to spool a reel. You can also stick it in between a couple bait boxes if it in the box and it will just spin inside the box. Necessity is the mother of invention or so they say.

I have been saying that for a while now on here. It's not even just the Deps although it maybe the best big bait ever made. All of the good glides have magic power to draw fish from everywhere. I have been throwing glides like crazy this year and I fish a lot of clear water so it's that much better. @Raul and this will apply to others as well who have not had the luck they thought. You need to buy the good stuff. There are baits that will get them for a decent price. But there is a reason the other baits cost $50+ I mean ever $100 is pretty ordinary. I read people posts say they ever had luck and were using some XXX bait. The difference is like say a LC jerk bait vs a whatever brand just think of it in a bigger scale. You can pretty much buy any expensive bait and if you don't like it or whatever there will be someone in line to but it off you. It's a big market selling and buying swimbaits. It's puts adds people have for like a coupe packs or plastics and a few cranks to shame. People but them up non stop also. People post a 250 SS and say its 9/10 asking $220 shipped and its gone in a day. That is just a example.

I did not say I threw it out. I just could not find the body to it. I think it is somewhere... I just thought it was silly how they made it seem like I was trying to get over on them with a fishing lure. My first e-mail was only saying I thought it worked good but duarbility was a problem and mine only lasted 1 fish. They responded saying send us pictures of it so we can see it and replace it.

I bought one of these even though I had known they are prone to eventually taking a dump in a short amount of time. I was whatever I still want to check one out. I was not worried about keeping the things for years or even a full season. I just wanted to fish it a while and see how it was. Well tied it on and it looks sweet even though it seemed like the legs looked upside down when fishing it in relation to the paint on top and underneath. I tossed it up next to a dock in the American Pond Weed that lines the shore and got a 3# first bite and I hooked it. It was only my 3rd cast and I was like ok cool. Well not cool the thing was totally destroyed after that. The hook pulled all the way through the body. After looking at it though it seems like that was not really a issues. But the legs were gone. One of them was totally MIA and the other was only half a leg and one of the legs hole for the missing one had a tear in it now on the underside. So that was a bummer I guess. I did not expect much lifetime out of it but I would of like longer then 5 minutes for $8. I have had some lures crap out pretty quick and it happens we have all had a defective product or your just unlucky. That was the fastest lure I have ever had destroyed. It literally only lasted 3 cast and 1 fish. I am not the complaining type and most the time it is just how things go. I mean **** happens sometimes but even with my very low expectations on durability I was annoyed. So I ended up sending them e-mail about it and they wanted me to take pictures of the broken thing so there "Quality Control Team" could make a decision on if it was defective. I found that funny being as its not like a hardbait that leaks or swims funky. If you think about it what can really be defective? Its not like a Hudd or something with bent fins or tails that swims on its side. Any ways I could only find the hook and half a leg. I have no idea where the body part is even though I swear I had kept it somewhere. I looked through a bunch of boxes and bags and just everywhere with no luck. It could be in the coffee can on the floor of the boat but I didn't check last time I was down there or even go fishing. I don't think I threw it in the garbage can though so I doubt it is there. I ended up just taking a picture of the hook and leg and said sorry it was all I could find and cant locate the body section. Hi Jack, I apologize for the delayed reply. Without the body of the frog our quality control team can not make an assessment if the frog was defective. We apologize for the inconvenience. Best Regards, Is the reply I got from them. It is fine and I don't expect anything special but don't came back at me like mine situation was some freak occurrence like it was some rare deal and you actually want the whole thing to determine the cause and try to fix it. I was just annoyed by it and them not responding back by e-mail. Then when they finally do it is with that. As soon as I saw I had mail from them I almost knew it would be something like that. Trying to play it off somehow or whatever it might have been. I would of been amazed if it actually said they were sorry and wanted to send me a new frog or something. I pasted that e-mail and it changed my font size for the other stuff I wrote ^^^^^ LOL

Only on spinning and I use a glass rod. I have been known to throw traps with braid on casting gear cause it rips grass way easier.

I am not saying it cant be done. I think somewhere around the 12" mark is probably optimal though.

10 casting I think thats about right but I don't use them all and made some changes so I am not sure exactly. I have many more rods though. LDC M/H - Diawa Lexa 300 is the most used of all my casting rods. 3 spinning Pflueger President - Fenwick Elite Tech or HMG for the rod. I don't use them much but the HMG has been used more this year since I have done like 0 drop shotting or anything of that nature and it was new this year. This I know for sure but that is only counting ones I would actually use. I have way more all over the place that are never used or for other people. Then more I leave on other people boats for out on the lake. Those are usually a UL or something light I have some fly rods I have not used in ages also.

You don't leave your self much room for casting. Only 4-8" I can't imagine it loads to well. Maybe with 8 but I am not sure about 4". I think any where from about 12-18" is ideal for getting the most out of your cast. Also micro guides are crappy for leaders and I do not really know a good way around it if there even is one. A knot should not damage any rod though unless something was wrong with the guide to begin with or your tie small rocks into your knot somehow. It is the lightest little tic tic tic as it goes through and makes like no difference.

Yes the tension is under the drag star on the same side as the handle. Just make sure it is tight enough that if you try to move the spool with your finger it doesn't move side to side. That will still be free spool without having any tension reducing your cast. The outside dial on the opposite side of the handle is mag brakes. Those help in slowing a cast down at the end of it. On the same side under that plate with the mag is the centrifugal brakes. Those are basically like your thumb. The faster the spool spins the harder out they push against the race to slow it down. Those work all the way through the cast unlike mags that mostly only work at the end. Mags are also used in winds to slow the spool down if like your lure gets blown and all of a sudden slows down a bunch those kick on to slow down the spool also.

I am a big fan of them in pearl so you can track it. I usually fish them as a subsurface almost topwater bait. I use a thin wire off set worm hook to make it weigh as little as possible. Work it somewhat fast but at the same time don't twitch it again if it is going to mess up its glide. Twitch it according to what it does if you can and not in some kind of cadence. When worked fast it will pop its nose up out of the water and that is deadly. It also super good over light mats of through pads if possible worked fast. I just try to watch it and make twitches according to what it is doing. They look sweet and dart all over but if you ever pay attention some jerks make it dart at weird angles and stuff. Like straight down for example. It still catches them but using visual cues to time your twitches will prevent a lot of it and works far better I think.

Lunker Punkers Baby Wakes and Wake Jr Buzz Frogs I haven't fished them much but I am liking the GYCB Spook and the Sebile one. I could not find the Sebile one though on TW so I do not know what it is called.

Great minds think alike. If its not braid on my reels it's a copoly. They can do anything and are the best lines with regards to.... Well everything.

I think you would learn to cast with only cent brakes on and maybe a little mag. Don't use any tension as that will only force you to cast harder. I have not used every reel on the planet and I do not claim to be psychic but I don't think there is a reel with cent brakes that will backlash it self with them all on. Just make a regular cast just do it a little lighter and you shouldn't have to touch the spool. Get the feeling for the spool on your thumb and keep taking them off 1 at a time till you get down to 1 or 2 and your all set. Don't ever use any tension to learn how to cast. Or for that matter after you become good. Tension IMO is a last resort. I have taught a couple people with this method and it takes no time to learn really.

I did not post those thinking it was the same reel. I had watched a few other videos before like the shimano ones. The videos I linked the guy gets into detail with it.

I have some of the best success with a stop and go. Reel like pretty fast a few turns and stop a half sec or full sec. Also Ripping weeds works good sometimes like with a lipless.

That oil will work but like DVT said its not optimal. You want something thin like that oil is. They have a Lucas Oil at Auto Zone or Advanced. It is a gun oil and I grabbed a bottle a long time ago to try on reels. I used it recently to test it out and it works pretty good. It is red and I guess they also make one specifically for reels and that is blue.

It has to be very minor tension. In my experience nothing will bring a cast to a end faster then tension. Once the spool starts to slow tension just brings it right to a halt.

How is 20# pushing it? That is the same size as 6# mono. I use 20 or 30 on spinning and 10 on UL. I would also maybe look into a good co poly line. Yo-Zuri, Izorline, P-Line

These are the best I have ever seen on the net.