Chance_Taker4

Scent. I thought it was gimmicky until I started using it. Now I don't throw a bait unless it has scent.

The Gander Mountain by my house always has them on sale for $100. The house brand GSX Elite (made by ***.) which is in between the *** Black and Envy Black by ***. retail for $160 but every time I go in there they are 84.99. I have a couple and they are amazing rods.

Ardent Apex Elite. That's the reel I use for frogging and flipping. It is smaller than most reels and the lightest reel I have ever used. I have it spooled with 40# braid and never had any issues with it.

I bought into the gimmick when Howell won the Classic on the DMC squarebill. I bought a handful of the DMC, Lipless and Wakebaits. Now I have sold off all but one DMC, Lipless and Wake but I am still trying to unload them. I'll stick with my Strike King and River2Sea.

Abu Garcia Black Max $70 or Lews Mach 2 normally around $150 but can be found on sale for $100

x2 on the KastKing lineup.

I have the tackle warehouse backpack that's $69 but the new Daiwa Tactical Backpack that was announced at ICast this year will probably be my new bag if I can convince myself to pay the price they want.

Rods break. To come on a forum and bash them without even giving them a chance to make it right is the wrong thing to do. That is how a company gets an undeservingly poor reputation. I have a few friends that own multiple Favorite rods and have never had an issue. LFG and the Googan squad also seems pretty happy with them. Maybe contact Favorite and give them a chance to make it right.

From reading the responses I'm glad I live in NW Ohio. We have one type of Crayfish in my Area, the Rusty Crayfish. The only go through two colors. Green Pumpkin and Orange/Brown. They are mean little suckers and grow to about 5". They are also invasive. We had 6 different species in 2005 but a 2015 study by ODNR reports the Rusty Crayfish is the only one left up here.

I have a couple Veritas 2.0 spinning rods I'd sell to ya. Message me if your interested. For the reel I'd opt for either the Ardent Arrow (just released) or Ardent Finesse. I use the finesse for all three of my spinning setups and love it.

I personally do not leave my plastics in my Plano Box. I have what has been dubbed the "Wall of Plastics" by my friends. I have a 4'x24' wall of pegboard and hooks and I keep them organized by brand, type and color. The day before I go out I grab what I need and store them in one or two Plano 3731 boxes then back on the wall when I'm done. I have never had an issue with the Plano boxes since I have used them. This also helps me keep track of inventory.

Not to highjack the thread but how long has the Colt been available? I never knew Dobyns offered a $80 rod.

If you are regarding to the company that sponsors me you are wrong.

I fish co angler tournaments or from the bank for fun. I bring at most 5 rods with me when I got fishing but my bait monkey has made me has 14 setups right now. He is so hard to control.

I have caught to fish of the exact weight so both stand as my PB. The first on was caught on a 1/4oz shakey head with a Zoom Mag Shakey Head worm in Mardi Gras color. The Second was caught on a 1/2oz River2Sea Bling Spinnerbait in Albino Shad.

I would pair it with a 7' Med Hvy Fast rod. There are tons of rods that meet that spec you can choose from.

Doesn't much matter now since you ordered and received your Daiwa. But the Revo X spinning and casting line is the same as the previous gen Revo S with better parts, confirmed by Justin Lucas.

I think it comes with trends. When I first started on the forum majority of the replies about reels were in favor of the Gen 2 Revos by Abu. Then the opinion shifted to the Green Curados. Now as I read through posts it seems that the general opinion is moving towards Daiwa. I'm not saying there are not brand loyalists on here because clearly there are but I also think a lot of opinion comes with who has the latest and greatest product.

That's how I say it

I have only used S-Wavers and Bass Pro brand glide baits. Comparing those two I love the S-Waver and the 120 does good for me in Ohio where the bass aren't giant sized.

Denali and Enigma are actually not part of NPS or at least a google search shows all you would have to do is apply though their website. I know Carrot Stix is part of NPS. As for mom and pop shops I always buy my equipment from the company direct. On very rare occasions I will buy from a tackle shop or tackle chain. Would rather have the full msrp go to the company that makes the product to keep them making products.

I have an original E21 Carrot Stix that I still have as a dedicated cranking rod myself to.

Thank you guys. I appreciate it. I knew that there would be a lot of backlash for writing something positive about this company. But I feel that the issues from the past were amplified by people who never dealt with the problems first hand and were just reiterating what they were told. I am not trying to force Carrot Stix on anyone I just wanted to do a fair assessment of a brand that gets a lot of hate and maybe help out other anglers who never gave them a thought because of their reputation from 5+ years ago. I also use a lot of Ardent products and they too seem to get a lot of hate on here because people disliked the Edge series reels but their Apex reels are great.

I know most everyone has heard of Carrot Stix rods. I also know that there is a reputation on them for easy breakage, poor customer service and long warranty claims. I want to do this review because I have went back to using Carrot Stix again and want to let everyone in the community know my experiences I have recently had with them. I want to start by saying these are not the same as E21 Stix. Customer Service- I ordered three Wild Wild Orange casting rods 6'6" Med Mod Fast, 7' Med Hvy Fast and 6'9" Med Hvy Fast. A couple days after ordering their customer service called me to let me know that they were out of stock of the 6'9" MH did I want to swap it or get refunded. I ended up swapping it for a 7' Hvy rod. I got an email from them the next day saying that the 7' MH was also out of stock and that since there was a delay in shipping and an inconvenience with the out stock rods they were going to swap the 7' MH with an upgraded 6'9" Wild Wild Black MH. To me this is great customer service on their end and did everything in the power to make up for the inconveniences. Rods (Pros)- When I first received the shipping tube and got the rods out I was immediately pleased to see they came with their own rod cover to help protect the rods. Upon inspection I noticed that the guide rap seemed different than on my E21 Stix. Comparing them their seems to be more epoxy and less thread on each guide. This change makes me feel more confident when I was told that the breakage issues came from guides being wrapped to tight on the old rods. These rods are just as light and sensitive as they always have been. I enjoy the split reel seat on the Wild Wild Black over the One piece on the Wild Wild Orange. I have used all three rods for about a month now and really appreciate the lightness and sensitivity of them. They balance really nice with different reels but I feel the lighter the reel the better it balances. As for sensitivity I can feel little things that the baits are doing especially when I am using a moving bait ( I can feel every wobble the bait makes). I gave my boater one of the rods to use (I was fishing Co Angler) and he was also really impressed with the sensitivity it had. When fighting a fish I never once felt like this rod was going to fail me. I never boat flip a fish however because I feel like that is guaranteeing a broken rod at some point so I can't speak on the durability when boat flipping. Cons- With all three rods there is only one negative I have found and that is that the micro guides bend easily however I find that to be the case with all rods with micro guides. Carrot Stix also offers their rods in Microwave guides and I think the next time I buy a rod from them I will be using the Microwave guides. Warranty- You still get a limited lifetime warranty on all their rods. You have to pay $49.99 for each warranty claim however you don't have to fight with sending a broken rod back to them. I cannot speak on anything else about their warranty since I have not needed to file a claim. All in all I feel the rods that Ontario Technology Group has brought to market look and feel like the old Carrot Stix but they have made some serious strides of improvement to bring a better product and reputation to the orange rods. I would not hesitate to pick up another Carrot Stix in the future.

In my event yesterday I caught a limit (4) walleye one being 23" all on a drop shot, three yellow perch 2 over 15" on a 1.5 squarebill and 2 catfish flippin docks. I caught everything but the bass I needed yesterday.