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

^nevermind, turns out it's a very old reel ....retail $700+, local ad had for $200 new. looks like bpS stop selling the certate. it's a toss up for me right now between the ci4 and the patriarch. Or maybe i should wait for the daiwa ballistic.

gonna consider all these for sure. But I have an emergency post. There's a daiwa z 2500cu, listed in a local classified for $240. It has a sticker on the box of $700. Anyone know of these? Can't seem to find too much info on it. Is it a good buy? If so I should probably act quick b4 it's gone.

Closer to $200 is better, will go as high as $350 if the jump is worth it. Gonna drop it on a finesse NRX. Prefer Daiwa, shimano, or possibly pflueger, or similar. Must have compact body. 8oz max

Be careful about buying a st croix though. IMO, I find that their rods are overpowered, by a full step. So a medium, is more of a true med heavy. Best to handle one in store.

I don't own a custom rod, never seen one either. So my opinion might not be complete, but this is my opinion. Considering shimano/Gloomis is a multi billioj dollar company, colaborating hundreds of engineers to build a single rod, I don't see how a single man can outdo that. If you need a really specific rod (action, power, tip softness, handle, etc) to perform a certain task, that you cannot find on the shelf, then I can understand a rod builder will make you a better rod, because it's exactly suited to your needs. But if there does exist a rod on the shelf, with the action/power/tip/grip/etc. that you need, there is simply no way a single man can outbuild a team of 100 engineers with unlimited resources. A far analogy would be custom cars to exotics. A custom car builder can mold a body to your liking, build an engine with the specs you chose, and if that's what you want, that's all that matters because it exactly fits the specifications that interest you. But if a Ferrari has the engine you want, the looks you want, there is simply no way you can, or should, hire a single man (or a team), to outdo the hundreds if not thousands of engineers behind the design of a ferrari. So to sum the point of my post: If you need a very specific rod that you can't find on the shelf, a rod builder will make you the best rod possible for your application. But if there is a rod on the shelf with the right action/power/length/etc, get that because there ain't no way a single man can build a better one. But considering the thousands of rods on the market today, I don't see an application where you can't find a rod on the market that will do the job extremely well. I think people want custom because anything custom usually encompasses a mystique and uniqueness that one desires. But to each their own, as long as your happy with your rod, nothing else matters.

only reason I'm making a comparison is cuz I keep hearing about guys selling all their looomis rods, after fishing a dobyns. Not sure if it's legit though, can't believe everything you read online.

yea they felt great in the shop. Too bad you can't test drive a rod before you make a decision. But for $320 retail, havn't a picked up a rod in that price range that felt better than a DX701SF.

Ended up picking up my first NRX. Fished it all day today, and to me, it's the best rod I've ever fished, no question. Fished an NRX in short spouts before, but not enough time to conclude anything. I've fished (but don't own all these, actually don't own too many) high end kislers, Loomis, St. Croix's, Shimano's, and none of these can compare. GLX was my favourite prior to today. The best way I can describe how the NRX is better, is that the vibrations on the rod feels very tight, more so than the GLX. Not sure if that even makes any sense though, but can't think of any other way to describe the feel of a rod. Held, but have not fished a Dobyns or a Steez yet though, would love to get my hands on one of those.

also, anyone know how much an nrx 802s weighs, compared to a champ xtreme 701/702?

anyone own both of a similar type of rod?