jtesch

Vanish was next on the list

Ok, we have done a lot of the "best of" topics so lets try something different. What is the WORST product you have ever used My List Iron silk line Tuf-line xp braid any Ardent reel or line treatment

customer service is great also

love em, every order within 5 days

I went old school and bought 7 team Daiwa X's (different models) and rebuilt and tuned them. I sold 3 of them at a nice profit which paid for all of them and kept 4. also got a Tatula 7'2" h and a Tatula 7'4" frog rod and the usual $1000 or so of lures

I think it might be tough to throw poppers on a rod your gonna use for frogs and buzzbaits. Just my opinion

Quick update, used it again today throwing a 5/8 jig and the rod casts much better with the extra weight. The heavier weight loosens the tip up nicely, not a surprise considering it's rated up to 2 oz. I can definitely see this being a great all purpose heavy action rod but I have to say keep it a 1/2 oz. or more unless your pitching. I'm a Shimano rod guy mostly (Crucials and Cumaras) but their heavy action rods are a little tip heavy for my taste so the Tatula is a nice fit at that price range. I think they have a similar 'crisp' feel that I love in the Shimano's.

Alberto is about the best. Honestly nothing really works well with micros

Ice went out on my secret pond yesterday and I broke out the Tatula frog rod for the first time. Really wasn't expecting to catch any fish, just wanted to give the new rod a try. I had a gen2 Premier on it with #50 samurai and was dragging a 3/8 ounce jig. Nice and light (already new that), great pitching rod. Tenth cast in and I get bit (nice little 1 pounder) 10 casts later I get bit again (3 pounder) and 5 casts later (2-1/2 pounder) great start to the year and a great trial run for the rod. A few more observations, very sensitive and a ton of backbone.The 3 pounder wasn't even a challenge but water temps was like 32.5. I got this rod for an all purpose heavy action rod and I think it's just that. Fished it side by side with my gen 1 Cumara and sensitivity was not too far behind. It's got a really stiff tip so you have to adjust you release point for an overhand cast but I expected that. All in all I think I'm going to be vary happy with it. Good thing as their are a couple of lighter Tatula sitting home waiting to go out.

Ice went out yesterday, first 3 bass today. Tan Tabu jig with a brown netbait Paca craw on a new Tatula 7'4" rod and a Revo Premier with 50# Samurai

Revo gen2 Premier, This year it will be a Tatula 7'4" H(frog rod) , 60# samurai and either Spro or Live target frogs.

Yup, the bearing upgrade is a coolness issue. I do think the one area it really helps with is pitching. Faster spool start up, less effort, same old argument. I've changed about a dozen reels and some see no improvement at all (BPS Johnny Morris sig.) and some were way better Revo MGX. I do agree that a good cleaning and proper lube of stock bearings is probably all you need but there's no cool factor in it at all.

Elite Tech, Hands down

your fine with the rod you got. I'm in the same area and a true flippin stick isn't necessary by us. I just got the Daiwa Tatula 7'4" frog rod and figure that's about as heavy as ill ever need around here

Pro's- Increase of sensitivity(slight), I think they cast a little better, pretty hard to break Con's- Fishing in water with junk on the surface(cottonwood) or icy conditions is impossible, leader knots are also impossible. In the right conditions micros are great

stupid question, do copoly's float or sink??

Within 15 miles I have a BPS, Cabelas, Gander mountain and 2 tackle shops and not 1 carried KVD. Finally ordered some and WOW, great

Didn't even think about modern 8 strand braids, HUGE

all great thoughts guys

What do you all the think is the biggest innovation in bass fishing in the last 20 years. I was a hardcore fisherman until 1996 when stupid things like a wife, kids and starting a business got in the way. I was back with a vengeance in 2005 and all the innovations I missed was mind blowing. Wacky rigs, senkos, awesome casting reels, when I got back into fishing it was like starting over. I had to learn how to fish from square one. I now have an arsenal of at least 20 high end rod and reel set ups and a garage full of lures but my question is, what is the biggest innovation in the last 20 years. My vote goes to 2 things. 1-modern casting reels and 2-the Japanese influence on American fishing. Think about how many things we use today have their roots in Japan.

I can tell you for sure DO NOT BYE ARDENT LINE BUTTER. Greasy, sticky and just awful

the Coler red is the first to be absorbed and in best clear water conditions it is vid able to bass up to 5 foot. In stained and dirty water it may only be visable to a depth of a couple of inches. In most conditions red appears as dark gray or black. Can it be a trigger? Yes in a few conditions but generally it isn't seen by bass. For a while the lure market was flooded with bleeding this and bleeding that, Pure marketing ploy and I'll bet KVD made some decent cash for sticking his name on those lures

I don't know why but I'm gonna jump in this one. Look at the weights of after market spools for daiwa's. Light=finesse and Heavier=LC or long cast. More weight=more inertia and longer casts. Less weight=easier spool start up. He's a Sunline guy I believe so he would be using FX or SX as backing (a guess) which has a fairly large diameter for braid and not much coating (at least that's what I remember about it) so it may be lighter than mono allowing for a faster start up. Martens is more of a finesse guy anyway. I have to say I like J Francho's idea about keeping the weight close to the center of the spool, makes total since. You know it could all be simply that Martens is a little crazy about some of this stuff. He's the guy that fanatically organizes his boat to make sure he gets the fastest hole shot he can

Thanks guys, plan on putting an MGX on it and using it for poppers, jerks and see if I can fish weightless Senkos with it and light Texas rigs 1/8-1/4. Hope it will do some of the things I use a spinning rod for now. The rod I broke was great but was pretty limited to what you could do with it.

Anyone have the new 6'8 m cumara casting rod. Model is cuc68 ma. Just got e- mail from Shimano that they are sending me that rod as a replacement for my broken gen 1 6'3 m mf. Two week turn around by the way and I bought the gen1 on clearance at TW for like $90 . All in all, I win