iabass8

You sir have clearly not fished MN/WI waters. MN dnr are the last group of people you want to see on the water. They write you tickets for anything and everything. Highly unlikely he would be written a ticket during a tournament but they do not mess around with people have fish over their limit.

getting snagged and losing jigs is just part of the jig fishing game. you will have much better luck using football style heads in rocks. they are less prone to snags than the typical grass jigs that will just shoot down into a crack and wedge itself there. i wouldn't want to use a football head as a swim jig. the heads design isn't meant to come through grass or cover like your traditional swim jig. you would be better off swimming a grass jig if you had to choose between the two.

it has a much wider spool. it is built to cast baits, namely smaller ones, further lots of walleye guys love these reels for small jig/plastics.

20 min to launch on my home river pool. 40 min to either pool 11 or 13. every pools launch is about 40 min apart. have access to a private pond that thankfully nobody but a handful of people have access to about 30 min away in a neighboring small township.

ah you beat me to it. i just saw that on my facebook wall. good looking reel.

xcaliber one knocker/red eye shad

ya i had that problem earlier. send them in to strike king and you get lots of replacements

i agree with dwight. unless you are throwing the 10xd you will get more depth running the 10lb braid or even a 10lb fluoro and won't really risk the chance of snapping off the bait during the cast as long as you tie correctly.

agreed

if you fish any sort of cover, get the 745. if you are pitching 1/4oz or 5/16 and below + plastics into sparse cover or under trees and such and don't plan on going over a 1/2 oz jig that often, get the 744. the 744 still has quite a bit of backbone.

another vote for the dx745. FANTASTIC pitching rod. I believe the rod weight is 5.6oz. that may sound high but I use a chronarch 51 on mine and it balances just above the reel seat. the dobyns rods have the most ridiculous balance for rods over 7' and feel extremely light weight. I own the dx744 as well and while it is a great jig rod, i prefer it for trigs. the dx745 is just a more powerful 744. if you are pitching jigs into brush that you need to haul them out of or weed cover then the 745 would be the best option. i've used 1/2oz jigs + rage craws on a 744 and it felt fine but i still prefer the 745 if you are almost always throwing 3/8oz+. the 744 does have a ton of power but the 745 is just a more beefed up version.

i assume what you said was you lost your rod and reel in the water while asking what quantum will do for you. they won't do anything unless you get the reel back.

yes it is well worth the investment. the xtreme scV blanks just feel alive in your hands. you won't be disappointed.

for casting lightweight baits like a weightless trick worm you are looking at spending your budget on the reel alone. finesse specific reels are pricey. i.e 50 size shimanos in the curado series will run you about 150 and will need the correct rod to throw very light baits. i still wouldn't want to throw a totally weightless trick worm on a 50 size shimano. that is really much more ideal for a spinning set up. if throwing your standard 4-5in senko is what you want to do primarily, then as long as you are proficient with a casting reel you can throw weightless senkos with really any reel easily.

i only just saw it on facebook. could be interesting. their copoly wasn't that bad.

blue craw

i had the same issue with my ci4. i did not like it at all. very rough on the retrieve. i tried 3 different ones and each time i took it out on the water it just felt rough so i gave up. traded it in for a 1000fj(thank goodness for cabelas). couldnt be happier. in my experience with shimano spinning reels, there seems to be a "break in" period for them to really get buttery smooth and they really only bet better over time. if you're price range is 250 i'd strongly suggest the sustain. a walleye friend of mine does have a ci4 that is incredibly smooth though so i may just have had a bad string of duds. shimano is supposedly coming out with a new ci4 with xship at icast this summer which is why the previous ci4s are being discounted. you may want to just wait if you can.

swap hooks out. what you experienced just happens with smallies. they love throwing hooks. i usually always sweep just a little harder than usual if i'm into smallmouths on the river and it seems to work. i use a casting rod for 1.0s /w a moderate action.

i've usually throw pearl white and sometimes lightning shad 95% of the time the water is more than stained. when it's muddy i seem to have better luck /w a green pumpkin/watermelon red in grass.

even a 7:1 will work for squarebills. I use a a reel /w 25 ipt which is i think a 6:3. i use shimano 50 size reels for squrebills and shallow/mid depth cranks. the 200 works fine in the 7:1 for shallow cranks but I just like 50's more as I don't need to slow down as much.

every gander mountain i've been to always has spro cranks. i've never seen the cranks at dicks. only frogs and mcsticks. otherwise tackle warehouse is your best bet.

7'-7'6 mh or heavy rod depending on if theres cover rod. just get what you are comfortable with. i prefer longer rods. 7:1 reel will enable to you pitch baits and reel in quicker but it isn't necessary. I used to use 200 shimanos because of the faster gear ratio but switched to 50 size reels for comfort and the amount of pitching i do and haven't noticed a difference. it's so much easier palming smaller reels and pitching. my rods balance out really well with 50 size reels so i was able to make the switch. 15# fluoro will get you by in most situations.

I've watched a small excerpt of aaron martens saying something about using fluoro for topwater as well. whether it's some super secret pro thing or sponsor hype is beyond me but i've toyed with fluoro on topwater baits and it was what i expected with a sinking line. I did not like it at all. I use an xf tip for topwater baits and have never found a reason to stray from mono. I've used braid before and it is incredibly easy to walk spooks after a super long cast but I still prefer the benefit of mono with possibility of ripping hooks with the rod I use. I do love fluoro for the majority of things though.

As said above but the best quality rod you can for bottom contact baits. I prefer a 7'4 rod for pitching. some like even longer. 7'2 is about as short as I would go especially in clear water where you want to make longer pitches.

I've caught countless frogs on hollybelly frogs on mats. Last year I caught a giant snapping turtle on 7# fluoro casting a drop shot near some weed lines. I just felt a tick, leaned back and just felt dead weight. I thought I had a log until this massive shell surfaced and started thrashing. He had the whole dang thing in his mouth. No idea how the line didn't break. I promptly cut the line as I didn't see me winning that one.