BradH

Yikes! I'd call them. I think I was in grade school when I bought my first. Still love them.

I like Armor All

If you are tossing deep cranks you might want to use a differnet reel than you would use for jerkbaits. I use a fast reel for jerkbaits. I'm not moving the bait with the reel. With a fast reel you can take up slack between jerks. Deep cranks 5:1, shallow and mid cranks 6:1, jerkbaits 6:1 or 7:1, normal spinnerbaits 6:1, bigger spinnerbaits 5:1, rattle baits 6:1 or 7:1. Unless you are using deep cranks a six something to one (mid 20s IPT) will be the bast all around ratio.

I throw shad raps and flicker shads on a 6' ML BPS Crankin' Stick with a Curado 50E loaded with 20 pound Powerpro. Another setup I use is a Citica on a W&M 7' ML moderate with the same line. It's a rod I grabbed off a sale rack to troll with. Both setups do the job nicely. Removing extra grease from the reels and flushing the spool bearings helped too. Just about any medium spinning rod would do the trick.

Of the reels you have listed I have used the Curado E (Chronarch), Citica and Revo. You can't go wrong with any of them. To be fair I did add a BB to the driveshaft on my Citica and a Curado E handle. I've never had a Revo issue, been using them since 2007 so they are the older models. If your baits are north of about 3/8 ounce the C3/C4/C5 ABU would be a good reel. They are like the small block Chevrolet of the reel world, you can do whatever you want to them.

When we actually get to fall, jerkbaits.

All I know is when the one knockers were $1.99 I bought a pile and they work

I put some of those in a Curado E7 that I have been using really hard for a couple years. I dumped it in the bottom of a river a couple months ago and after a teardown I decided it was time for new drag washers and bearings. So far I am very pleased.

Yeah, I tried that. I was doing pretty good for 6 months until I stopped at a retailer a couple months ago that had 2 50e reels and 2 200E7s NIB for 125 each. They all went home with me. I don't even count the small purchases of cranks and plastics. Winter is the worst for me. I can go all summer without spending hardly anything but when the prices drop after Labor Day I get nuts. I don't need the latest & greatest so I'll hoard stuff on closeout.

Good call, you beat me to it!

You must have got a bad spool or maybe you've got a bad guide on your rod. It's about the same as any other braid. I use it and have no issues.

It might be less than ideal but it will get the job done in a pinch until you can replace the other reel. Did you break the Revo S? That one can be fixed.

1. 3/4 ounce spinnerbait with chartruse/white skirt & chartruse/brass willowleaf blades 2. 4" blue smoke senko 3. HJ12 or HJ14 Husky Jerk Glass Perch

http://www.stripersonline.com/t/498154/the-two-faces-of-abu-garcia-ultracast

That's what I do. When I'm in search mode I'll toss the light one out on the inside and the heavy on the outside and troll them with the electric. After I pick up a couple fish off the same spot I stop and cast, working shallow with the light rod and going deep with the other one.

3/4 minimum for this guy. I use lots of 1 and 1.5 ounce spinnerbaits to get deep. If you don't have a rod for those big ones downsizing the blades or running a single as Papajoe pointed out will get you there.

I hang a rod out of each side of the boat and troll with the electric. I try to follow a contour line on the GPS at a depth I'm marking fish. I don't let out much line, maybe 10 to 40 feet. If I'm fouling constantly I speed up a notch. 1.5 to 2 mph seems to be a good starting speed. You'll just have to experiment with boat speed and line out 'till you get your bait where it's hitting the weeds but not fouling all the time. Heavy spinnerbaits with willow leaf blades get deep and don't hang up as much. With two rods you have a bait working in the water while you are cleaning the other off. If I start getting hit in the same spot I stop and cast, letting the bait sink and bringing it in slow or switching to a different bait. On Okoboji in Iowa and similar lakes this works well for me on the deep, submerged weed beds.

Exactly. Match the rod/reel/line to the lure, not the fish. Even though I do catch a fair amount of bass on pike & musky gear I'm not sure I would go out and target them with it. It is a good workout if you want some exercise.

That's how I do it. I like the trailer not moving freely. That way I can drag it over timber without the trailer getting snagged as often.

I've got a 50E on a TFO 7'3" ML/F casting rod I picked up over the winter. Rod was pretty much free with cabelas points. I've been casting wacky rigged weightless or with a 3/32 ounce jighead finesse worms with it for a couple months now. Works great. I also have the same reel on a Fenwick 6'10" M/F Smallmouth rod. It won't cast the finesse worms as well but still does good with them and is a little better for 4" senkos. Both rigs are spooled with 8 pound fluoro. I flushed the bearings on one and put ABEC 5 ceramic in the other, that really woke them up more than anything for the lighter baits.

Between the pile of SK RES I picked up in kearney the other day and the 1.99 one knockers I ordered online I now have a lifetime supply of lipless cranks

That was me and it happens frequently with the normal sized musky/pike baits, not so much with the giant stuff that is popular these days. In fact, on some days I'll take a break from pike fishing and do some bass fishing with bass sized baits only to catch fewer fish. Switch back to big stuff and get right back into it. Go figure. That squarebill is over 5" and 3 5/8 ounces.

Okaboji in Iowa has it's fair share as well.

Revo S

I use it on casting reels for crankbaits, 20 & 30 PP with a fluoro leader. The small diameter helps it get deep fast and I can set the hook at long range with confidence. I'm using glass rods for that stuff. For Carolina and Texas rigs I like fluoro. I noticed braid gets tore up even with a soft lead weight sliding against it and I'm usually dragging it through some rocks which don't do it any favors either. Mono would be good too.