NJBasstard

The Rapala Crankin' Rap CRR-3 & CRR-5 model squarebills that were discontinued a few years ago. I see a good amount of the 5's on the auction site but the 3's seam to pop up less and less. I have maybe 12 left between the two right now and I still throw them, but it's always disappointing when I break one off.

Can't comment on if it'll handle the 4.0's but Dobyns cranking & flipping rods use a different rating system than the rest of the line-up. What you're thinking of as MH might be different than the MH labeled on that rod. For what it's worth that rod will handle 1.5's no problem, but if you have doubts just do what @Heartland said and give them a call.

Most of my reels are 6.?:1 or around 25" per turn. The only time I really use 7's is when fishing lipless cranks in shallow water and topwater. I also have one 8 that I use for pitching jigs and plastics. If it were me picking one reel to cover squarebills and lipless I'd go with a 6 ratio. Only because the 6 feels so natural to me when fishing squarebills, I throw SB's more than I do lipless and I'd rather speed up than slow down

Arky jig w/ craw in black & blue Rapala Crankin Rap in helsinki shad & red craw Lucky Craft Pointer 78 SP in american shad Pop-R in silver/black 5" Senko in junebug or black & blue

Yes I'd use something heavier and preferably 7'3" or longer for cranks bigger than the 3XD. Most of the deeper diving baits are pushing the upper weight limit of the Fury anyway. Any added length helps casting distance which is always a plus when trying to get deep divers down to their desired depth.

The 3XD is the one I had in mind when saying the 10' range. The Fury will handle them fine but that's as big as I'll comfortably go on this rod. For the reel I've just always preferred a 6 ratio. I've used 5 when fishing deeper (12ft+) but I almost never crank that deep. I also think 5 feels to slow when throwing squarebills. The only time I like a 7 for cranks is when I'm throwing lipless. I'll use a 6 but I feel like it's less work with the 7 when trying to keep them off bottom in shallow water. When I need something to cover all the bases though I look for something that picks up around 25" or 26" per turn. For most reels that'd fall in the 6 ratio category.

What cranks are you throwing? I haven't used the newer Mojo Glass but I did use the older model with the purple blank and didn't care for it. I'm not sure if it was the weight or the blank diameter but it just never felt right to me. Not sure how the newer ones compare. I do have a Fury 705CB with a 6 ratio SLX that I really like. I primarily use it for squarebills and other cranks that dive around 10ft or less. It starts feeling underpowered with the deeper diving baits. Last time I was out I wasn't getting anything on the cranks so I tied on a Magnum Pop-R and it did really well too. If your looking for something for deep cranks I'd look elsewhere though..

Same frame the Curado 50E & Scorpion XT 1000 is built on except it's a magnesium frame. That Aldebaran is the JDM equivalent of the Core 50. If you've ever held a Curado 70 or SLX they're very similar in size but palm a little different and sit lower on the reel seat. I might be biased since they're a personal favorite of mine but I have some 50 platform reels and still prefer how they palm, how simple they are to use and how they perform compared to my newer Shimano's. For $125 I wouldn't hesitate and if you find out you don't like it than you'd be able to sell it fast without losing anything. I'd probably buy it just to have another.

You ever fish a Core 50mg7? Yes it's worth it.

I've lived in NJ (Gloucester County) almost my whole life and do most of my fishing within an hour from home. Most of my kayak fishing is done in the creeks off the Delaware River. There are some good fish here but you gotta go through a lot of dinks to find them. My only choices for smallmouth fishing here are Union Lake or way north on the Delaware. Back around 2015 I moved away for a year to a town called Lincolnton in North Carolina. I was around 25 minutes from Lake Norman and 45 minutes from Charlotte. I knew nothing about the area so I would just pick a direction and go find water. Lots of skinny moving water down there towards the mountains if that's what your into. Lake Norman was a learning curve for me. Theres some monster bass in there but the lake itself is bigger and deeper than anything I'd fished before. I learned a lot while I was there though. One thing I learned is that their idea of fishing pressure is different then ours. I'll take a crowded day on Lake Norman over an average day on my local lakes in NJ anyday.

I use to do a lot of carp fishing at night from the bank. Using little ultra light rods was fun but a 6' medium spinning rod, 2500-3000 size spinning reel, straight 8lb mono or 15lb braid to a 8lb leader and a 1/0 or 2/0 circle hook worked great. Corn and bread work but I had the most luck with corn meal. Make a batch by boiling 1 cup of water and then add in 1 cup corn meal, 1 cup flour, some vanilla extract and stir til it's like dough. About $7 in ingredients will make 6 batches so it's inexpensive. I'd make a dough ball around the hook covering everything including the eyelet/knot and cast out weightless. Use my backpack/rod holder/stick to prop the rod up and pinch a small dough ball the size of my pinky nail onto my line to make line watching easier. I'm not an expert and I've never caught anything huge but had a lot of 10+ fish nights with fish ranging from 10lb-30lb.

Thanks to this thread I picked up a couple of the Real Tree long sleeves from my local Walmart. Been wearing them the past few times I went fishing and they seam to work really well. Found them in the fishing section for $15 each.

Depending on what you consider MH I'd describe a 4 power Dobyns as a MH+ or a light Heavy power rod. I've used the Fury 704c and currently own a Fury 705cb and the Sierra 704c. The Sierra is definitely a little more parabolic than the Fury but I wouldn't call it mod/fast (atleast conpared to the mod/fast rods I've used). I never fished a Fury 734c to compare, but in the Sierra line the difference between the 704c and 734c seamed to all be in the tip.. The 734 having the softer tip. Biggest difference between the Fury & Sierra 704 when fishing side by side was the weight. Never had either on a scale but the Sierra is noticeably lighter. I've used mine for a little bit of everything but most the time it has a 3/8oz jig tied on.

The Falcon Lowrider Travel rods are right at your budget. They're 3 piece rods with a case and come in a 7' M/M spinning or a 7' MH/F casting.

Brake light switch stopper

I'm interested in that same rod. Stuck between that and the Falcon Lowrider 6'10" Heavy/Fast on SO for the same price. Can't make a decision and unable to get my hands on either model. Curious to see any feedback on the Curado.

Same frame but yeah they're already similar in size to the Curado 70. Basically a SLX XT with a different paint job and a 70 size MGL spool. They've been available from Japan since last year but looks like they might be coming to the states. I got one recently and it's a sweet little reel for the price.

Anybody have info on this yet? https://www.gloomis.com/content/fish/northamerica/us/en/homepage/Shimano_Product_Page.P-CURADO_MGL_70_K.html

I hope you're right. I have some of the standard 3600 Edge boxes but I've been wanting a smaller version of that jig box since I first seen it. Wether I have my backpack or kayaking the 3600 size is just more practical for me. Problem is nobody makes a line of specialty boxes in that size yet.

Rod ratings can be very different from one manufacturer to another so it really depends on what rods we're talking about. I throw jigs in the 3/8 range on a Kistler rated MH and a Dobyns rated H.

Strike King Rage Swimmers, Baby Menace & Baby Bug. Yamamoto Zako, Biospawn Exoswim and Netbait Paca Craw. Lots of others out there but that's what's in my tackle bag at the moment.

So I've been putting it off for a while because I only really open the side plate a handful of times a year, but getting the side plate off on my 50E is getting tough. I disassembled that side and checked that the clickpin for the turnkey was working properly. With the plate open I have zero issues turning the key. I cleaned up the brake case checking for any wear on the tabs that lock onto the frame. I inspected and cleaned the grooves on the frame where the brake case locks onto. Everything is assembled as it should be and yes I made sure the plastic spacer was installed between the case and turnkey. I ended up putting it off since it wasn't that big of a deal. This week I was bored and decided I'd give it another look. I did everything I said above again and still couldn't find an issue. I tried with and without the spool installed and no luck. I decided to remove the brake case off of my newly acquired XT1000 and install in on the 50E. Works perfectly. Install the case off the 50E onto the XT and now that reels doing it. I removed the case off each reel and looked over each of them side by side to the best of my ability and besides the different bearing they're identical. No burrs or signs of wear on either one. Thankfully this part is still available and I don't mind having to replace it if need be, but my question is what exactly would cause this and it there anything specific I should be looking for? I've had other reels just as long that have seen as much use and never had this issue. I tend to baby my gear and this particular reel has never seen saltwater. The sideplate isn't that hard to close but when it comes time to opening it I feel like I'm going to break the turnkey. Besides this issue the reel is fine and I'm still using it. If anybody here has any suggestions before I spent the $30 or so replacing the part it'd be much appreciated.

I just got it so I've only been out with it twice. I fished it right out of the box side by side with the other reels pictured and so far I'm impressed. Gave all of them a good cleaning last night and went out this morning. The 50E & SLX MGL are spooled with 20lb J Braid, the Curado 70 with 30lb Seaguar Smackdown and the XT 1000 with 12lb Big Game mono so I can't give a direct comparison, but casting and pitching baits down to 1/4oz it did very well. I haven't tried throwing anything lighter than that yet. It palms nicely for me although I still prefer the frame the 50's built on. The knobs feel great and are shimmed perfectly, no play at all in the handle and this thing is buttery smooth. We'll see how it holds up the rest of the season but so far I'm happy. Can't say much more until I spent more time with it. Just so you know the price went up a few dollars but I did order it from Asian Portal Fishing. I ordered on Thursday night and it arrived to my house in NJ on tuesday. Total cost was $127.

Just wanted to bump this thread with some pics incase someone reads this at a later date. I ended up getting the Curado 70xg shortly after starting this thread and just received my SLX MGL. Here's an inside pic of a 6.3:1 SLX MGL..

What @WIGuide said is spot on. I have no problem skipping sidearm or backhanded with any of my casting setups but I feel I'm more accurate with rods in the 6'8" to 7' range. Never spent time working on pitch skipping so can't help there. Not sure if I can help but here's some advice that worked for me. Others here might disagree but.. 1. Learn without making any changes to your reel(s). Some reels may be more forgiving but you don't need a specific setup and you shouldn't have to make changes everytime you want to skip a bait. If you keep your reels with minimum brakes set and loose spool tension then that's the same way you should skip. 2. Use a bait with some size and weight to it when starting out. A 1/2oz jig is easier to skip than a 1/4 jig. Something like a 5" senko or a soft swimbait is fairly easy to use too. Once you start getting use to that then start downsizing little by little. 3. I learned using 12-15lb flouoro and 30-50lb braid on multiple reels. Can't say that one made it easier than the other. I do suggest you pull about 10-15 yards of line off and tape the spool to prevent backlashes from getting too deep. You'll likely backlash a lot at first. 4. Don't be like me and whip the heck out of the rod trying to skip. I was so use to doing it on spinning gear without any consequences that I paid no mind to it at first. It wasn't until I started paying more attention to the pro's and how easy they made it look that I decided to ease up and relax a bit. This was probably the one thing that made the biggest difference for me. It's hard to describe but I focused on being more smooth or fluid rather than being forceful and couldn't believe the difference it made. 5. Once you learn the trajectory (something you should probably get use to on spinning gear first) it really all comes down to thumb control. When I'm skipping I have my thumb just barely feathering the spool the whole time it's skipping. It's not enough to really slow the bait but its enough to stop overrun. Another thing that really seams to help with overrun is to lift the rod tip at the end of the cast. Keep in mind that whatever direction the rod tips pointed is where your bait is going. For what it's worth you don't necessarily have to be on the water to practice skipping either. I probably gained just as much thumb control by skipping baits in my driveway than I have by actually fishing.