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Looks like a winner. The money in my wallet is about ready to fly out now!

How are you fishing the dropshot? Casting it or vertical? My first guess is that you are leaving out too much slack line to begin with in your presentation, and then not knowing when the hit happened. I don't want to assume that you are letting these fish hit for like 10 seconds before you realize that you have a fish on. Really not too much you can do about it though, there's some days where fish are just wanting to choke down whatever plastic you throw at them. Possibly you can change your line to straight fluoro, or braid with a fluoro leader for a bit better feel vs mono. (not necessary) Keep at it, you'll get a better feel for everything.

Own a 795 and held a 745. I think Dobyns has one of the best tip actions for pitching, and after hearing lots of praise for the 744, I wouldn't mind getting it. Next question is what reel is going with it?

I've been playing around with 20# Toray Superhard and am just as frustrated as you. The coils you're getting are right after the cast, right? I found that with these FC's you need to thumb the spool the entire time during a cast, and actually spend the time to dial in your cast controls to the point where your baits slowly descend. I'm sticking with the FC because I'm not throwing 40 dollars into the garbage - I'm sure I can overcome and eventually reap the benefits of FC.

Of the 2, I think I'd take the Cumara - just because I've held it vs the ***. Depends if you like recoil guides too. For anyone that complains that they're too noisy though.... what's there not to like? the sound of the guides screaming is the sound of catching fish. lol. Another option you have at the price point is the Dobyns Champion 734. I've owned the 733 (Which would be light for what you need it to do) but it was arguably the most accurate pitching rod I've owned to date. I do believe sensitivity is below the cumara though.

In the last couple of years, I've had temps that were between 4-15C. (39 - 59F) The water is basically cooling with the air temps and the fish know it too. I feel that they have started feeding by early-mid September, and by the time I go and get them, they are pretty fat for the most part.

Read about it just before the weekend, fished yesterday night and this morning. Had one feeding frenzy at about noon today. Otherwise, there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Not sure when the peaks were going to be, fished and didn't think about it. The most important part is that you have to be on fish to get them..... Not sure if I was on fish all day for both days. In conclusion, count on your skills and fish finding abilities more so than any moon phase.

So what do you guys on BR think about the differences between a cast that made a splash or one that is pitched so that it silently enters the water? Personally, I'm not sure what the answer is to me anymore. Splashless entry is important to me when fishing less than 2'. But for fishing weedbeds, I had times where I caught both while bombing a cast in from a distance and times where they hit on pitches within 20 feet of the boat. I also had a largemouth jump on a senko as soon as the splash happened from the bait. Anyways, would love to hear what you guys think.

Every once in a while, I do a jumping hookset just to screw around and let the guy at the front of the boat to know I've got a fish. No real term for it though.

My favourite bait from them has to be the cane stick by dean rojas. I've got lots of confidence in them - and their prices are really good. Do I think they replace GY's? No, but they will do the job. On the other hand, I dread throwing their flipping baits such as the fighting frog, yomama, and brush hog imitation. I'm sure they work, but I haven't had good luck with them.... yet.

Thanks for the fantastic writeup, and congrats on the money. The one part I don't like is #4. Losing hooks to docks means you've pretty much put a whole bunch of people in danger, whether they walk on it now, or when they put away the dock over the winter. The usual etiquette when I do it is that if you were to make a bad cast into someone's dock, break off only if you can get the hook back without your line. If not, you're out of commission until the other person is done picking through that dock and you guys can go in and retrieve it afterwards. You might be thinking - oh it's ok I'm fishing for money right now, but hearing people's children getting hooked by big 5/0 hooks doesn't settle well in my stomach.

I own a 684 dobyns rod that I very often confuse whether it will be a jerkbait / topwater rod or a jig / texas rig rod. When spooled with mono, it works great for trebles, and when spooled with braid, I have no problems horsing fish out of weeds. The new school of thought says 7' and less isn't the way to go, but 15 years ago, people were fishing jigs with much shorter rods as well.

Looks like there's lots for me to try for this coming fall. Thanks for the advice! Only thing that gets to me is that I need to put away the Sammy's and Gunfishs' to go add some other brands and baits to my already overfilled tackle box as a non-boater. lol. I'll definitely post and report back what works later this year!

I do an annual trip 3 hours up north to fish a deep shield lake every first weekend of October (Lake of Bays in Ontario, Canada). The lake has minimal weeds, lots of rocks, boulders, humps, shoals, and sand flats. Water temps usually are between 58-63F. Most fish are caught in between 8 - 20FOW. Of 6 fishing days, I've only ever had 1 day where the fish were actually biting topwaters well. (100 sized sammy) All of the other days, I would get fish jumping at the bait, but completely missing it. Usually on a Gunfish 115, Sammy 100. Haven't really had success on poppers, and haven't used a prop bait there before. My only solution that I've thought of so far is to use a slimmer profile walking bait (Ima Skimmer), but even that seems kind of far fetched. What are some remedies you guys would recommend? Cheers & Thanks in Advance!

First off, what size of spinning reel are you trying to fill? And second, what kind of line are you trying to spool up? For bigger sized reels (Shimano 2500+ sizes, Daiwa 2000+, Pflueger 35+ sizes) do not worry about putting up to about 1/4 or even more into the reel as backing. Reasons are, by the time you get down to that spot, your casting distances are greatly reduced to the point you'll feel like respooling anyways. And if you use any braid 20# or less, keep in mind they are really quite thin. I rather respool again half way through the season than putting a ton of line on in the first place. When you put too much braid on, you put yourself in a spot sometimes where there's plenty of braid left, but casting distance is hindered and you need to take off the braid, add more backing and then put the braid back on. It happens to me once in a while, and I much rather just spool some fresh braid on than bother with all these extra steps. And my optimal amount filling seems to be about 1/8" to 3/16" away from the lip. Any more and I find I usually find some way to knot up the first little bit and waste that line within the first few trips of using it. This is also why I am beginning to truly believe that the Japanese people have it done right with shallow spool options.

Just wondering, which split ring are you tying to? I've been making my own with the Picasso dropshot weights in 3/8oz and a 4/0 owner EWG. Have yet to hit the water with them yet, but bass opens up in my neck of the woods this weekend.

I'd say similar to how you'd present a Texas rig, you gotta mix it up and see what works better for the day. I prefer just twitching and pulling them forward little by little. And read that article on the BR homepage. I think pauses are more important than how you walk it!

Completely up to you and what you're more comfortable with. I find with my RH baitcasters and LH spinning gear, I'd prefer to use the arm that is less tired for the day. That being said, I think the BC gear gets more use.

After 2 trips with the reel, I am absolutely in love with it. Casts fantastic, I've so far used 10lb mono for jerkbaits and 50lb FX2 for fishing bucktail jigs for walleye. I love that it catches up with the jerkbait so fast that between each twitch you'll only need half a crank on the handle. Like most other Shimanos, the reel is pretty much set and forget in terms of brakes / SVS. There is a slight downfall though. After 2 trips, for some reason 2 of my brakes are making a very loud whirring sound when a lure is lightly casted / pitched. The sound isn't there if you're making a long cast though. Turned those 2 brakes off, and turned 2 new ones on and the problem was gone. The sound also disappeared if I turned my SVS from 1 to 2. How is everyone setting their braking systems?

I've had problems with the previous generation of Sahara's. I'm glad I'm not the only one that's ever had it bind after being wet. BUT at the same time, I casted that very Sahara into the lake last week after hooking it with my other rod during a cast LOL. After that dunking though, I couldn't explain why it felt smoother afterwards! In the end though, I still think Daiwa's are better in the spinning department. In the casting department though, All shimano for me from now on! That metanium is smooth~

On the 4th picture, it looks like the words 'TWS' on the body of the reel which was what made me speculate that. Anyways, it sounds like a great iCast to come. Hopefully it won't make me feel like burning another hole in my wallet

So this might be the T3 MX series coming over to USDM. Black reels are always welcome

For the longest time, I used 2/0 mosquito hooks, 2/0 Owner Downshots and haven't had problems. I don't know what the impulse was, but I started to buy size 1, 2, 1/0 hooks for this season. Might be less for the fish to see, harder for them to throw the hooks. Let's hope it works for the better and I don't have to dump all these hooks to go back to my 2/0 hooks.

As far as micro top waters go, I once had a tiny siglett by megabass, that thin was like a mini jitterbug and caught tons of sunfish, rock bass, and smallies. Super hard to find now though. In the dead of summer, the smallest sized chug bug wasn't bad either. I never seem to get crappies on topwater though. Another alternative is the rapala original floating in its smallest size. You'll need 4lb test or lighter to throw that though

I had a buddy see a bunch of deer on shore, and when he went to use his camera phone to take a picture of them, the rod between his legs just slips out. We spent another 15 - 20 minutes dragging trebled baits around trying to get it back, and eventually I snagged it by the guide. Later, I find out that his combo is practically cheaper than the jerkbait he had on it. LOL. It's not very good, but seems to put tons of fish in the boat for him though.