Teal

Vendetta. You can always upgrade later. The vendetta will serve you well. And like the others said, it will look awesome too!

I use Spiderwire Ultimate braid. Its awesome. Power Pro Slick8 is great too. I havent tried 832 or Kanzen. On my spinning reels i use the Spiderwire and i like it alot! But any of the above lines should do well. The only one i havent heard anything about is Kanzen.

I really think that alot of guys are so used to catching fish under 3lbs and not really having technique down that they are surprised and unprepared when it comes to a 7+ lb fish. Growing up striper fishing on med gauge tackle i think has done me the most good as far as preparing your set ups, drag and and your patience for a fight. Like tom and sam mentioned, i try to to position the boat so that the fish will escape to open water. And take the fight to me on my terms so i can just wear him out. On the same note tho, when the cover. Or matted weeds, or brush is really thick and every escape rout is a bad one, that when i decide to go for the home run. Cross his eyes and hoss his butt out of there... but when im doing that im usualy using a heavy frog rod or a heavy flipping rod that is capable of doing that.. I have lost more big fish by trying to play them when i should have used a power approach, but like i said early, theres a place for both approaches and that where mental prep prior to the cast or pitch comes in. P.s. i really enjoyed reading everyones responses.. its a good refresher course!! Tom and Sam had especially awesome posts.

The following rods are simply awesome at their price point of 139 - 169 Dobyns Savy, Ducket rods, Powell, The following reels are really good for their price as well. Lews Tournament, Shimano Citaca, Revo S. If you look on TW you can find alot of these on sale. I would also search ebay. 300 is a great budget for a combo. Any of the above combinations make an awesome combo.

Sniper is worth it. But the seagar lines are good too and cost less. No experience with yo zuri, but have heard only good stuff about it

Thanks grip

Numb, i would hope thats the case and that what i oringinally thought until i ran out to garage and measured a 6xd with a tapemeasure and its pretty close to three iinches. TW lists all of the strike king cranks length from nose to tail. At least by what i can tell. And with the 10XD being listed at double the weight (2oz) of the 6XD (1oz) it kinda makes sense for it to be 6 inches from nose to tail. I guess well will have to weight a month or so for it to hit stores and we will see. But it sounds like a Monster of a cranker.... JezziHogg, as it stands today id have to fish that on my swimbait rod. I dont have a cranking rod that is rated to handle it.

KVD LINE AND LURE. The stuff flat out works. It will help manage fluoro, your line will be a bit limper, lay of the spool better, and get a little better casting distance. It should take care of the line twist too. Ive never used p line fluoro but i do know that not all fluoros are good on spinning reels. I sayy all this assuming that you spooled the reel properly.

Good stuuff

X2. I do know that NC and VA, there are always good deals of all grades jons on CL. Id start there.

I saw the advertisement for the new Strike King 10xd crank bait and it got me thinking a little. This new addition to strike kings crankers is 6" long, dives 25ft, and weighs nearly 2oz. I am all for throwing big deep crankbaits. But this thing is like a swimbait with a bill. I dont really know what to think about this lure yet...mainly because its size and weight. Why beat your self to death cranking this thing when a fast sink Spro 6inchFat BBZ1 can get down there too and offers the big bait profile and types of lures need a magnum crank rod or swimbait rod. (A heavy action rod with mod action) General thoughts What are some of yalls opinions on HUGE crank vs. Alternatives What are some considerations to take.

Welcome. Nice to have you

Thats pretty much it. Just remember, the further the lure has to fall the bigger the splash. Think low trajectery, side arm roll casts. And practice, practice practice..and then practice more.

No matter the siize the first fish goes in the livewell, my 2 year old will play in the livewell all day if i let him

Fly makes a good point. Go up a size or two and buy the trailer also.

Use my debit card for almost everything. (Even for those little 2.00 purchaes) carry 20-40 cash most of the time -I try not use it unless i have to I have a couple credit cards that i rarely use. ( for emergencies ) Note: i did wear the credit card out back in december on TW. That was an isolated incident. Lol

Dont feel bad, about 5 years ago one of my pals and had just bought a bass boat and had just got into bass fishing. He called me on the phone yelling that he had a 10bit pounder and i needed to get down to the ramp with some scales and a camera. When i got to the ramp , he was tied off to the dock and as excited. He pulls this nice fish outta he live well and my heart sank...the fish looked like it weighed maybe 5 lbs. I shook my head and told him that the fish was not a 10lb fish and that i would still photograph it. He insisted that we still weigh it. The fished weigh 5.4 lbs. I kinda felt bad for the guy. But it was still a beast of a fish. Not related to the story but that guy is an extremely good angler on our home lakes now

My boy is not yet advanced as some as yalls. My son is 2and a half. I take him with me as much as i can. I finally got to where i can take him on my boat without taking another person and still get some fishing in. He loves to help me reel in fish. I posted in another thread but he was reeling in a popR that i casted out on his snoopy rod and hooked a 13inch bass. My son would rather watch fishing videos on youtube than watch thomas the train or cartoons! He also seems content when hes helping me organize tackle to spooling reels. I hope that he continues with his intrest in fishing. Oh and my son has a stuffed animal that he has to take everywhere with him,sleep with it, eat with it, you name it. It is a stuffed toy catfish. He tells the people at church that he caught it. Lol And to answer the op, my brothers and i learned to fish from our dad

I dont mean to hijack this but im glad that the fishing industry does do their due diligence to make products for lefties but the truth is not every reel that we want is going to come in left handed. I say this because i am left handed, but the when i was growing up, nobody cared that i was left handed (the especially my parents) so i learned how to do most things that guys do as a right handed person. in fact thethat only thingsa i doi left handed on aa regular basisl is write and throw a baseball. Heck i even shoot and carry a pistol right handed. And to this day i fish right handed, but when i see a great reel that iis on clearance because it is a lefty i buy it up. I know for alot of guys, this isnt an option but i encourage you to trying casting and fishing with your week hand. Besides, casting with your other hand opens targets that you didnt have before.

Good rods for the money. Its a great starter rod.

I have. They are decent baits but like most strike king hard baits def need to change split rings and hooks. I changed my front treble to the next size up to make it suspend a little better. The action on them is not as eratic as i like but they are still good baits.

Nice fish dude! Numbers are just numbers..that is a beast fish.

I agree, cast again.

the way i look at it, you bought it and its good stuff so why get rid of it for the sake of getting rid of it. Keep a little oil on rhem and you have suitable backups for tournaments. And if you have any old rods that are stacking up you can use them for technique specfic backup without fooling with yourr other rods. Or. Like others said they can be the loaners or whatever. I still have older rods and reels too that i dont use as much or any at all any more. Everynow and then ill sell one, when someone is interested and is willing to pay a more than fair price. (I say that because i just sold a reel and a rod that i dont use very often, someone else wanted it far more than i do ) All that said, keep the gear. Not wrong with letting accumulate as long as you have a neat place to store it.

The team daiwa td pro is a bass pro exclusive. Their normal price is like 119. (I could be wrong) but if you ask me it looks EXACTLY like a daiwa exceler. Which can be had for 89.99: retail and most places for 79.99. Now i dont know how that one is a value.