TNBassin'

Had I not seen that you were from WV, I'd would have sworn you were here in TN fishing on Douglas Lake. Had this same experience a couple weeks ago, and after BASS or FLW has their tourneys out here, the fishing turns to a nightmare.

Never fails. Any time I get some new gear it rains, or storms. Had my Curados for a few days now, and finally my weekend off arrives....and storms are littering my state right now. Tomorrow? Same deal, and Sunday I've got a ton to do so a no go there too. Looking at these Curados is torture.

Red Label is darn good. I used to fish mono because it was so manageable and soft, and because I'd had a bad experience with SpiderWire fluorocarbon. Taking the advice of some on here, I picked up some Red Label in 10# and I've stuck with this line ever since. Never had a knot fail, and I've never had any break offs as I'm diligent with checking my line for knicks or kinks. Treat it with some KVD Line and Lure, and it's even better. I have not notice any stretch myself, and I do a lot of deep cranking with 6XDs. Academy might still have it for $9.99, so if they do and you have a BPS in your town, pull up the price on your phone at BPS and they will price match it. I just bought 2 more spools a couple days ago this way.

You can nab 2 Shimano Crucials for around $200 right now. That IMO<is the best bang for your buck at the moment.

Anyone ever use the Damiki Hydra Evolution baits? They look like twin tail Hula grubs but they have these little balls towards the top of the bait. I've always meant to try them, just never got around too it.

Gave my Curados a good cleaning today, and they do feel much smoother. The amount of lube in these things is ridiculous. The lube on the pawl and the pinion gear lol....wow.

Well it's not like someone is gonna over lube it if they follow the directions on that sheet. Obviously if you clean the brake pipe you will have to add a drop afterwards. I keep a very thin coat of oil on the brake race in my Chronarchs, as the brakes are a tad more consistent and Shimano actually recommends this. I can always tell when it's time to clean that race and add another coat of oil as my casting distance will fall off a bit. They never make any noise, but performance is affected so I'll stick with my maintenance routine I have for my Chronarchs.

It says it has to be cleaned every outing and lubed every 5 times out.

Walmart has Vendetta 2 rods on sale for $64

So the noise the brakes makes out of the box pretty much means that you should put a drop of oil on the brake pipe right out of the box. Some reels may come with it already lubed and some not, and reading the yellow insert that comes in the box, you have to clean it after every outing.

As I've said, the I feels geary to me after fishing Chronarch Es for awhile. It's still a darn nice reel. You can feel the quality.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying they feel horrible or junky, just a different feel from my Es that I've had for over a year. I'm assuming its just the difference in the gears, as the Curado uses smaller teeth on it's gears for a tighter mesh. I'm sure that's all I'm feeling.

Try some Yo Zuri hybrid. Great line that is actually much stronger than it's rating.

Mainly because they are out of stock in a lefty everywhere around here, plus I had $50 in rewards points and another $20 off. So I figured I'd get a 3rd for $109 since I just ordered another Crucial worm/jig rod. Been doing some reading, and apparently the gear teeth are smaller and allow for a better mesh, so maybe its that I'm feeling? But yeah, I may have jumped the gun on them a little but Bait Monkey made me, plus they are Shimano so I thought the risk would be minimal that they wouldn't perform better than my E reels.

Get something with centrifugal brakes. Most user friendly and forgiving baitcaster.

I hope they smooth out. If not they are going back.

I ended up picking up a 3rd Curado I yesterday, and to me all 3 feel "geary". My Chronarch Es are very very smooth, and have been right out of the box. Do these new Curados have a different gear type that needs to broken in?

Personally I'd use a baby rage craw. Have u tried the Rage Tail Menace as a swim jig trailer? It's pretty awesome. Same goes for the rage grub.

I trim mine right at the tip, or a TINY bit past the tip of the hook.

I'd say for that price go for it.

Yeah Bait Monkey is kind of a b hole. He's never satisfied.

I like to keep them the same brand. When u fish shimano though, that's not a bad thing. Nice rods and reels.

Yeah. It seemed a bit D-baggish to me. Glad I'm not the only one that noticed it.

Stick a Rage Tail Menace or a Rage Grub on your swim jig. Havoc Subwoofers are money too.