jayo123456

whats better? Im thinking a higher quality little stiffer fluorocarbon would be best? for vertical jigging a spoon deep, watching for twitches on the downfall.

1. Spinning 2. Stiffish tip, no softer than bsr803 tip 3. atleast 7', but 7'3" is sweetspot, max 7'5" 4. Titanium recoil guides (prefer non coated like GLX, but could live with coated NRX). Could live without titanium guides if first three conditions met thou. does a rod like this exist? Prefer Shimano or GLoomis only. I'm willing to give them my money, but can't seem to find a rod like this. based on the description, a 853 spinning would be it, but they don't make it. why???????????? looking to throw 3/8 to 3/4 oz plastics in deep water 25-50ft, 30+ yrds of line out.

Was about to post something similar. Paul is well respected guide/pro around here, too much for him to lose by faking something like that.

i've never caught anything on these neither. I know your an Erie guy too...... what kind of depths are you fishing jerks with? any other information you can share? got myself, from a recommendation, a few megabass visiosn and livex-Revenge, and some LC pointers. Not sure if I'm not fishing them right or what, I hear people say they kill it with these on Erie all the time, but I can't buy a bite for some reason.80%+ of my fish come off dropshots. from the other recommendations: I'll pick up a few stickbaits, and some hair jigs. Never even threw these even, ever before.

Really? Never caught a fish on any of those. I'm guessin it depends on the lake you fish out of? I fish mainly lake Erie, tried spinnerbaits n swimbaits, never caught a bite before.

Lol yesir

Shallow/med crank Deep crank Light tube jig rod 1/2oz+ tube jig rod Dropshot rod Jerkbait rod possibly jigging spoon rod? That's all I can think of for SMB. anything else? I know you can never be 100% complete as the search never ends, but given the rods listed, is pretty much every application for smallies covered!?

I never knew Erie is known as possibly the best SMB fishery in NA. Erie is all I fish. Considered the slowest day this year, we caught 5 SMB a piece, and averaging out at 3.5-4lbs per fish. Best day had over 100 SMB's in the boat, averaging probably just under 4lbs. And it's not even fall yet, when they get huge and bite at everything. And we're relatively new to bass fishing, don't even know how to use the sonar properly. Can only imagine how much better the lake can produce, with 4-5years of experience under my belt. I hear of 7's 8's and 9's being caught here, but never seen any myself. Biggest is 6+ i've seen. Dunno about breaking the size record, but with the infestation of gobies, who knows in 5-10 years. but no mention of lake Simcoe in this thread? To the locals around this area, Simcoe and Erie put up SMB numbers equally, but supposedly, as of recent, Simcoe edges out Erie in size avgs.

I've used a spool of that....the copolamar one right? if so, I didn't like that line feel wise at all. The stretch absorbed too much bottom feel and light bites. Try sunline guide special (i think it's called). Expensive, but worth it imo. It's very hard and crisp. Doesn't come off your spool too well, but with some thumb manipulation, it's manageable.

what about dropshotting, on a super cautious bite day? I'd attest I get more bites using a high quality fluoro (sunline), vs. my friend who uses braid with fluoro leader. could be the shadow casted by the braid, or if the fish comes behind and sees the braid from a horizontal dropshot presentation, or since braid floats so it creates a bow in the line at greater depths? I'm not sure.... but I definately notice I get more bites using fluoro on really slow bite days. agree that it's a pain to use, hate how it comes off my spinning spool.....but as long as I keep a finger on the spinning spool, and let the line come off in a controlled manner, I think the tradeoff is worth it. I was an all braid not too long ago, but I now believe each of the three types of lines has it's time and place. just my opinion... though my opinion on fishing changes constantly as I learn.

???? all I know of is cold fronts, and the associated atmospheric pressure. Not perfectly clear on how to predict or analyze weather patterns to discern this yet though. but also, aside from that, what else makes bites 'sluggish'?

Higher paid employees will not *always, but will *comparatively on the whole, build more consistent products than lower paid workers. That is a fact. Any company outsourcing manufacturing to a lower wage company, will always suffer some form of quality control issue. You pay someone good, assure them a bright future in your company, they will put their heart and soul into your product. You pay them barely enough to get by, suppress them of any opportunities to advance, they won't give a crap what how your final product holds up.

That's the problem though, specifications are not always followed, quality control is a serious issue. Any product that was once manufactured in a high wage paying country, moved to a low wage paying country, will always suffer some form of quality control issues. It's not the engineering specifications itself that is the issue. Source: worked in manufacturing for 5+ years, a current senior industrial engineer college major, and 100% Vietnamese (not joking about any of these)

I use a cumara reaction crank, and fished a loomis GLX crank. Handled most of the popular ones in the shop including dobyns 704. Honestly, IMO, any crank rod isn't exactly better than another. I think you should pick the one that feels good in your hand, balances with your reel, has the action that you prefer and the power that you need. Then spool with fishing line based on how much it stretches, to fine tune the amount of 'give' your rod will allow depending on the severity of your hookset. Most important would be to determine the reel you want first. A light unbalanced rod, will feel heavier than a balanced heavy rod. This is the advice I've been given by a local pro, and I think it's solid advice. $300-$400 dollar rods are better spent on applications where sensitivity is paramount.

??? will always be tying a fluoro leader