The American

I have a Lews Tournament MG, and a Shimano Curado E series. I picked both of them up for ~$130 each. The Curado you were looking at in the store was probably a G series, and the Lews was probably the $99 Speed Spool model. As you can tell, I have absolutely no experience with either reel, but I love both my MG and my Curado E, and both manufacturers make great products. Many people hate on the Curado G series, so my advice to you would be to go on Ebay or the flea market and find an older E series Curado, or spend the $100 on the speed spool or a BPS Pro Qualifier and spend the rest on tackle.

Try any 4/0 screw lock. The thicker the wire the better, so it stays bottom-down.

7' MH spinning rod

I like horny toads, trick worms, swim jigs, and senkos from the shore. I can't avoid the nasty stuff where I am right now, especially on the shore, but this is just what produces for me.

Quantum 7' MH spinning rod. Senko's and flukes.

OK, so everyone hates on Berkley Vanish, but what about the Berkley Trilene flourocarbon? I've never used the Vanish, but the Trilene has worked well for me. I'm most interested in what the Vanish haters have to say.

Well now the monkey got me. Thanks a lot guys, i'm 161 dollars poorer now. LTBS69MLXF on it's way though!

KVD 1.5 in sexy shad

Not really, some are in vertical rod holders bolted to the side of the boat, and the rest are off to the side. I'll have one in my hand/on the front deck so it's only two or three that could really get stepped on, and they're out of my path btw the trolling motor and front seat.

Six total. four casting with a deep crank, shallow crank/topwater, jig/worm, and carolina rig. Two spinning, 3000 series for skipping, and 2500 for dropshot/shakeyhead. Six just seems to cover all the bases, but isn't too much to handle, especially since I don't have a rod locker.

Both the BPS carbonlite and crankin stick are on sale right now. Hard to beat either for the sale price.

The knife on my multi-tool

^^ Green pumpkin, sorry for the double tap..

Zoom. Made in GA, and the fish kill them

Haha that's too funny!

Not broken, just don't reel the wrong way and it won't come unscrewed on you on the water..

I bought them while they were on sale because I needed a 3 piece, and have no complaints. They're not the lightest, but they are very sensitive. Definitely a ways above a lightning rod.

Save your money

I've dreamt of fighting a 10#+ on a cane pole.. Is that a dream combo?

Gotta go with green pumpkin with or w/o sparkles

Spooks and toads for me

The shakey head is probably my favorite technique because it catches the most fish for me. I'm no expert, but it seems to me that the more a worm floats, the less salt is in it, and the less time I have to set the hook. Also, when I'm retrieving my shakey head, I'm more or less hopping it up off the bottom so the worm is totally upright on it's fall, and so I don't think a floating worm would offer any advantage. As for what size worm, I like the zoom finesse worm. I think it's 4 1/2 inches long. I've heard people call Zoom worms "floating" worms, but they sure do sink when you put them in a bowl of water..

1.5 squarebill and 1/2 oz red eye shad in sexy shad color. They slay.

Thanks! This is exactly what I was looking for.

What do you guys think about the Powell Diesel? The crankbait model on TW is rated btw 1/4-3/4. This is advertised as a "medium-heavy", and says it can handle deep cranks. Would you throw deep cranks on this rod? I'm talking deep cranks within the rods rating like a DD22, or a fat free BD7. How about more? Say a 1oz Strike King 6xd, or a crank that goes <20'