webertime

Rainman

15 for shipping though.

It's got a pretty small spool for 20lb. 17lb Tatsu or some thinner high end line might be workable.

Sooo the slippery slope with them is taking too many out and their viability. Up on Champlain the ice fisherman and shooters (yes shotguns, yes it's a thing) take so many breeders out it's hard to catch a good one. They leave them on the ice or just to float and rot. Add in the pickrel spawning with them creating hybrids (yes it's also a thing) and it doesn't take much to damage their population. Final thing, they don't protect beds (none of the pike family do). On Champlain we have this invasive called a Tench, St Lawrence has the gobies... they go in and wipe out entire nests of eggs. Now it's super rare to get one over 40" when a decade ago you would get a teener a year. I caught 2 pure pike all this season which is shockingly low for up here. Yes they're annoying but for those of you fortunate to have a fishery with them, treat them well, they are very important.

(Pulls credit card out again...) dang it!

How to catch a pike... Tie on a brand new expensive spinnerbait. Put the receipt on as a trailer. Cast Retrieve Set hook Fight Bring Pike in boat Unhook and release Cut off ruined expensive spinnerbait and throw it down. Don't repeat

I fully admit to being a meatball sometimes with hooksets but I was snapping Sunline D-fier 9lb at or above the leader knot waaaaaay too often. It was the braid snapping not the fluorocarbon (caught a fish with my old bait, 6ft of leader and 3 inches of braid). Old style or new style braid, I'll stay at 12lb minimum.

Not saying it can't be done but, the chance of one rod doing both a 1/2 football and say an s-waver 168 well enough to not make you regret the purchase in the long run is fairly high. Especially if you are dragging a football vs flipping a jig, those to me are even different rods. Holiday season is coming get a St Croix Bass-x heavy 7'10" for your glides (80-100$) and one of the Daiwa DXB 7ft 5in bottom contact rods from tw for ~$100. Even a Tatula XT is a great rod for 100. Don't have to get those rods but it gives you an idea of what to look at. If you Have to have a single rod, the Megabass Perfect Pitch models or Evergreen Combat Stick 73Hmf (feels just like a Perfect Pitch) are really diverse in what you can do with them.

Raid and Northland

Rebel Redneck.

Physically the important parts are basically the same and won't be too different reliability wise. The brakes and spool are different (Magforce Z) and I feel that's a superior brake.

Zoom Raspberry Shad

I was dumb lol. It was great but I got caught up with "could it be more sensitive?" Which of course is yes, but was the improvement worth the cost? I'm not 100% sure.

I have a Levante Brailist with a Zillion. Liked it a lot for dragging footballs and 5-6" swimbaits. Sold it and branched out to a new Zillion rod for dragging.

Megabass Perfect Pitch goes on sale for 150ish fairly often

Up in my neck of the woods 50 degrees is when we intentionally start to throw them.

Megabass Perfect Pitch or Evergreen Combat Stick 73Hmf.

How far is Ben's tackle shack from you?

Zillion G Or Find an OG Steez

The balance of the weight locatio in relation to the blade resistance is pretty particular. This thing falls flat like a senko when killed. A spinnerbait would probably nose dive.

I "dragged" a 3/4 on the Lawrence in 25ft and it stayed down and caught them pretty good.

I LOVE those. Tiny one dude operation.

I like them a lot. Definitely not a waste of money.

My zillions looked very used after their first bumpy boat ride as a co. Order the thumb bar, fish the rest of the season then send off to get repaired.

Better? Maybe the same in outcome. Definitely more expensive.