tbone1993

I like to use about 50yds or enough line to make a long cast and not cast the knot out of my reel. If I'm running braid on a jig or chatterbait its usually on 50lb braid. If youre using braid on a chatterbait or just using a chatterbait in general its best to have a forgiving rod. Most of the guys that I know fish them on a 7ft heavy glass or or a 7ft medium heavy graphite rod. Just something that is a little bit more forgiving. Then dont seem to run right on a straight heavy action flipping stick.

Light line and light baits. Our stocked trout seem to be bobber shy. Couldn't buy a bite after we lost our small thill bobbers.

Sad but true. If I picked one up I would switch the handles. Much prefer the old paddle style handle or even the handle on the pro mag.

They're good as far as baits go but this hits the nail on the head. Won't get the same action on K/O baits. Would much prefer a naked model of a bait painted.

I prefer the highest speed I have available. Yes you do not want to pull the bait away from the fish. When you get a blow up stop and change your game up. Fish that cast back to the boat. But when that casts over I want to rip the bait back in and get back into the game. I also prefer the highest speed because I don't always have 15 rods with me. I'll use the same reel to flip and frog when I'm bank fishing.

My Lew's have lasted a lot longer than my abu reels. I'm pretty biased but after working in a shop I've had the chance to try out pretty much every reel manufacturer. If its Lew's vs Abu casting reels I go Lew's all day. Don't reel like their (lew's) spinning reels which is unfortunate. Much rather have a Diawa, Quantum, or Shimano Spinning reel. Tested out the Smoke reels, feels weird but once you fish it feels different. Have a sterling silver diawa tatula en route. To answer your question my tournament pro outcasts my stx by a mile. Not a fan of the last model stx if you look at my post history lol.

Robo worm with some sort of mosquito or drop shot style hook. I try to stay away from the octopus hooks but they work in a pinch.

Fishing for small mouth I will usually toss around some sort of finesse bait. Finesse jig, shakey head, wacky rig, darter, ned rig etc. Then move to a drop shot if its really tough. If Im going for large mouth I'll flip a jig 99% of the time. Depending on the weather/water ill move to some sort of a treble hook bait. If I'm not getting anything I'll switch to a finesse presentation. My bank fishing setups are usually a med heavy to heavyish flipping stick, medium spinning rod, medium crankbait rod, and a variation of an everything style spinnerbait/topwater rod.

Do yourself a favor and just keep both of the poles. Even after selling them for what you paid for you won't find a rod of that quality for $129

Take pictures as you take a reel apart and have the schematics handy. Sometimes pictures are easier to follow than schematics. Abu and Lews have a similar break down but diawa and shimano are different. A few more springs involved.

Oiling them up will remove the noise. There is a catch though. You can oil bearings such as the boca orange seals but its going to reduce your casting distance while removing the noise.

15lb is one most of my flipping setups and if I need heavier i have a rod spooled with braid. I can always throw on a 20lb leader and I'm going to give that shot this year. Just feel I can cast a lil further with 15 over 17/20 but we will see how this test goes. I jumped up from 6lb invisx to 7lb sniper last season on my spinning setup and I like it a lot. Have super clear water but tons of zebra muscles so the 6 was getting destroyed. 8lb worked but again fishing is about learning and trying new things and the 7lb seems to do it. Crankbaits and the like go on 10/12lb

fenwick hmg

Spinning split grip always, casting is 50/50 cork 100% of the time. I like how it ages and also how you wear into them.

Its sitting on my 735c right now my go to rod for most of the fishing I do. The superduty is designed for big baits and heavy cover situations no issues in heavy slop. The bb1 pro sits on my 765cb glass but I have the older model with the multi-stop anti reverse. IF you can find one I highly suggest it. The addition of the magnetic brakes allowed me to really fine tune my casts when bombing into wind. I usually run 50/50 braid to fluor so in a pinch I can always retie lighter or heavier leaders. On the heavy slop its straight braid.

I would look into getting a small suv. Aside from tearing apart the Impala you could also kill someone if you have an accident towing it. Don't think any insurance company would ever cover anyone towing beyond the manufacturers limitations. Had a friend tow with a car before but it had a big v8 and it was a smaller older tracker.

Deep crank I use a 765cb glass and its a beast. Unless you want to run 6xd/10xd. I have a DX703sf on the way, ill update when I get it. You're missing out if you don't have a lews tournament pro somewhere in that list as well. Superduty should be your punching reel.

Thanks for all the replies on my four year old post lol. Lot has changed since then. Honestly I still don't have a ML casting rod I prefer to just use spinning for light applications. I was looking at getting a ML to run finesse presentations but still have the power of a bait caster/ accurate casting etc etc. I was interested to see if anyone was running shad raps on casting gear.

15lb fluorocarbon because I like a little bit of forgiveness. Might pick up a new chatterbait rod something in a 7fth glass to throw straight braid and have a sweeping hookset.

Lots of tournaments launch out of the Grand Glaze arm at PB2. Lots of MLF events shown there as well and you can probably follow their parents and get an idea how to fish it. If my memory serves me currently we were able to run from PB2 to the mouth of the gravois arm in just around 45min which we were only able to go 50-55 with a 150 on a light load. Depending on water temps I would have a crankbait/jerkbait on, texas rig, finesse jig, senko/ned rig. Also early morning topwater whopper plopper. Missouri craw is a popular color, bone etc etc. You can run docks all day in the Grand Glaze arm and catch fish.

Jigs can replicate a vast variety of forage. Everything from brim to even small rodents. It just depends on your color selection and skirt style. Try throwing those craws on standup jig heads and see if it improves the bites you get. Jigs allow the craws to stand up as designed. Trigs tend to fall over.

I've found that certain manufacturers tend to have plastics that conflict with each other. I mainly use spro, kvd , and booyah. I cannot remember which frog had the reaction but the skirts were toast. The plus side is you can easily replace the skirts and there are many videos on youtube showing you how to do it. In the future I would keep each brand in its own spot.

I was able to pickup a Mustang HIT a few months back for $80 and its honestly my favorite purchase. I can wear it fishing, hunting, or even pleasure boating. I've been wanting to purchase a HIT for some time now and I have found them for $100 off which I would even buy at full price. I've been in a boat when the motor has cut off and the water temps are above freezing and the waves are knocking you around. I've been on the trolling motor and have had to kneel because I just couldn't keep balance. I can 110% see a pleasure boat wake knocking someone off balance. Imagine falling out, trying to turn and you hit your head on the gunnel getting KO'd. If you make the purchase you may be more inclined to use it, especially with how light they are.

https://charlotte.craigslist.org/boa/6113022656.html Still an old boat but maybe some wiggle room

dont use gorila glue lol