jtesch

I do it too now and again with 10 or 12 pound leaders. It's the hook set, you just have to back it down a little. no stretch from the braid and vary little from the leader equals a lot of force on that leader, especially if the fish is swimming away from you. Sometimes they sound like a gun shot when they snap

Daiwa millionaire from the late 70's, great reel followed closely by a Shakespeare Sigma I think,not so great

possibly you may be running your cast control a little loose. Happens to me with a couple of reels, when the lure starts to lose forward momentum during the middle of the cast but the spool is still rotating at a high rate it will loosen up the line on the spool and you get a stray loop that will backlash and lock up the reel and cause a backlash. I just have to play with the cast control a little to resolve the problem. T3 should handle braid like a dream

I just got a couple of Tatulas 7'2" H xf and the 7'4" frog rod and have to say so far they are great rods. Light and vary sensitive. A 7'2" mh or h should work great for you. I have a bunch of crucials and also great rods either brand would be a great choice

at worst it will cost you 10 bucks to send it to Shimano and they will replace it no prob. You can cut it into 4 pieces to make it easier to ship

elite tech smallmouth all the way and the Daiwa Aird . Should be able to get them both for around $200

Really don't need the line capacity for one thing. Unless your using like a Daiwa 100 series they are way to heavy for today's bass rods for another. I bought a Daiwa Luna 253 when they came out And it didn't take me long to realize it just wasn't a reel I wanted to use for Many bass applications. Now it is my big swimbait reel and sits in the rack most of the time. Bottom line is low profile reels are lighter, more comfortable and handle most bass techniques better than round reels. The few high end smaller round reels that would work will cost you a fortune compared to low profile reels. The one exception being the old team Daiwa x which was kind of a small hybrid round reel and a favorite of a lot of bass guys

I've lost most of the biggest fish I've hooked due to casts out in the 50 yard range. Including several 8-10's that easily would be my biggest. It's a long way to fight a big fish. However in super clear water or if you see them blowing up bait fish it may be your only choice so being able to make the long cast is a good thing you just don't need to do it all the time

18# Samurai and a 10# fluoro leader should do you we'll for a finesse rig. If you go all fluoro on a spinning reel make sure you go high quality and a lot of KVD L-L or you will become a Fluoro hater. Once you tame the fluoro beast you won't turn back. Took me a while

As do I, and the Avid have become a true bass rod but the line as a whole is the next level up from the premier as an all purpose rod. Mojo's and the legend's being the pure bass lines. St. Croix is a northern brand and need the all purpose lines for their customer base, same with Loomis.

It's funny because if you look at some of the real top of the line rods and JDM stuff the shorter rods are still there. I suspect part of it is to cheapen the manufacturing process. I'll bet Shimano uses the same 6'8" and 7'2" blank on spinning and casting rods. Not a slam at Shimano I love my Cumaras and Crucials I just think less sizes probably cuts costs a little. I get the advantages of longer rods and a 6'8" rod almost feels short to me now. Funny because I'm old enough that I grew up with 5'6" rods including a couple of 5'6" musky rods. Those were the days, 5'6" musky rod and Daiwa millionaires with no mag brakes. You had to learn the lob cast real fast

Since your close to me (DILLIGAF is so south side) maybe we could get together in the backyard and practice pitching and long casting. Maybe even a backyard fishing Olympics. That should send my neighbors over the edge with me

My point is that compared to 5 years ago there are far fewer shorter rods made. I have several Crucials and Compres at 6'6" or less but in Shimanos current lineup there are NONE. St. Croix does make quite a few still but remember the Avid and Premier lines really aren't bass specific. Daiwa used to make a bunch of them and the Tatula lineup lists just 1 6'3" drop shot spinning rod. I'm not arguing that no one makes a shorter rod just that they are not nearly as common as they used to be. You can look At the older series of rods (Mojo, Zillion etc) and find some but in the newer series (gen 2 Shimanos, Tatula) they are either rare or not there at all. I still use my 6' TD-S casting rod as a small spinnerbaits (sniper) rod and my 6'3" crucial for skipping Senkos so I feel there is still a market for these rods

I broke out my trusty 6'3"crucial 1st gen spinning rod today (still one of my favorite rods) and realized that there are vary few high quality rods made in the 6' to 6'6"range anymore. Is it just a market swing toward longer rods or is there a good reason for it. Shimano doesn't have a single rod in the Cumara, Crucial or Compre lineup under 6'8"

What do you all think is a truly long cast for bass fishing tackle. I've been seeing comments like 70 yards and I have to think that's a crazy long cast. I'm no rookie and I throw hard and I think 50 yards is pretty long. I cant bring myself to go outside and measure long casts in the yard. Neighbors already see me practicing pitching in the yard in the winter and think I'm insane

Daiwa Ballistic on the auction site for 140 would be my choice, and I have the stradic and the Procyon and a smoke. Ballistic is my favorite

I use 15 or 18 pound Daiwa Samurai, thin, strong and casts like a rocket

Funny isn't it, I'm 50 and 30 years ago a 7' rod was long. 5'6"-6' was the norm. I don't know how many pistol grip 5'6" rods I had but it was a lot. How times change

To go even farther, Daiwa's magforce system is a hybrid magnetic system. You have external adjustment that moves the magnets closer for more break and also a sort centrifugal system that adjusts the magnet distance depending on spool speed. Great system

Check the gear ratios compared to your other reels. If the new reels have a higher ratio, lures with a lot of drag like a spinnerbait will feel harder to reel in. I came across this last year when I got a couple of 6.2-1 reels after years of using reels in the 5-1 ratio

In northern Illinois we don't really have a lot of the cover that would require an XH or even heavy rod. I use mostly 6'8"-7'2" m-mh casting rods. I carry a couple of heavy rod for frogging and football jigging but really it's not like we are dragging 10 pounders out of heavy cover on a regular basis. So I guess we use what the cover and fish size call for up here in Yankee land

I forgot about Vicious Fluoro it makes my list, like fishing with a slinky

Just got the Tatula 7'4" frog rod and it would easily double as a heavy jig rod

Ardent line butter is without a doubt the worst crap ever. sticky and slippery at the same time. It was so bad it gummed op the edges of the spools and worked its way onto the brakes on my MGX's. Total pain in the a** to clean

No matter what knot I used it would strip a layer of the line off. very inconvenient when you have it on 3 reels and you just started an 8 hour day on lake Erie. Maybe I just got a bad spool