buzzed bait

my absolute favorite "all-around" rod that i own is a 6"10" MHF daiwa tatula from the first series of those rods. bought it for about $100 and it competes with most of my higher end rods and is easily the best "all around" rod i've used, a second close is my dobyns DX 703, but the tatula beats that one easily.

they were sold out everywhere that i looked as soon as that sale started. it was the first rod in that series i tried to snag... couldn't find one anywhere and i looked pretty hard! i'm looking for a new jerkbait stick myself, i've been using a 6'8" MF cumara from the gray blank series and i'm not certain it's the rod for me for jerkbaits. it's not bad, but not great....

agree with that. i have the bill dance one too, but bought the frabill pole one last month. in my last 3 trips out fishing swimbaits the pole has paid for itself and then some having retrieve 2 hudds and a s waver all of which were about barb deep in a log!

hahaha well said! she didn't just do it on a whim, she may have had a little assistance in the form of a list, but she hooked it up nonetheless! I did however snag that Pflueger President myself... with the 40% off one item at Dick's plus a $10 thing i had for there i got the reel for $41 shipped. perfect match for the daiwa ardito travel rod i have and i love me some Pflueger spinning reels!

what a beauty combo! '15 Metanium DC with avail 90mm handle that i already had and Orochi XX spinnerbait special my wife bought me for Christmas! I'll be slinging spinnerbaits into the wind like it's my job come spring time!

My wife hooked it up for Christmas! Only problem now is finding time to use it all with the baby! I'd been wanting that spinnerbait special for a while now and the $100 off deal made it a no brainer to put on the wish list for the wife!

lastchancetackle

Dick's is doing 20% off today only

did this a while back on my 101B and i think i got some parts from avail for the drag star and spool tension cap replacements. if you want a sweet aftermarket handle for them, check out hawgtech handles.

i know a guy that's got one for sale.....

not sure on most of those, but i have owner st-36 hooks on a lot of my swimbaits. i think size 1 is what i have on the s waver 168's.

dayuuuuuuuuuuuuum that's a solid bag! well done!

when you have a 3 month old baby you don't see a lot of water.... when the wife says you should go fishing today YOU GO! nevermind that it was cold and wet.... i was in heaven yesterday, had the whole lake to myself and couldn't have been happier. also managed to land about 6 fish, all on the spinnerbait or s waver. great day!

not entirely sure what all you'd use them for.... that said i have 2 NRX and 1 new model GLX and frankly i'd buy the GLX again and again over the NRX. the guides are so much better in my opinion and it feels just as light and crisp to me.

that owner deep throat hook is my favorite for the jigs. mike does great work is great at customer service as well!

I have zero experience with them so I just can't speak to them. I do love my original daiwa Tatula rods and they're close to the zillions. The 3 most popular entry level swimbait rods seem to be the irods, dobyns fury and okuma guide select.

i have 2 of the irod jr swims and a dobyns fury 795sb. i think the irod is perfect for those baits you intend to throw.

don't worry, i think st croix was on the exclusion list....

every single time..... if ever in doubt, see if TW has that same exact model and they will price match if you call them.

i just snagged a genesis 2 swimbait jr and after 1 trip liked it so much i found a good deal on another which is en route to the house now! no experience with the fitzgerald, but the genesis 2 are nice rods for the money!

double check that your line is actually going OVER the line guide bar and into the line guide and not UNDER the line guide bar and through the line guide. i did this on one reel a couple weeks back and couldn't figure out why my reel was suddenly stacking line to one side of the other. a quick check of the situation revealed i had gone under the stupid line guide bar and then through the line guide which was causing all sorts of issues!

major craft makes some excellent BFS rods that are reasonably priced, i'd check them out. as for the reel, i'd look for a 50 series shimano and maybe an aftermarket yumeya spool or a daiwa sv reel.

for spinnerbaits, if you want to fish with braid, that's no issue, but i'd probably drop the leader and just fish straight braid. i fish from a kayak myself. my primary spinnerbait setup is a daiwa tatula 6'10" MHF rod, lew's pro z reel and 15# big game mono. i will at times use 30# braid as well, especially if fishing in a particularly grassy area where i want to be able to rip the bait out of the grass. braid also helps on those really long casts where you get bit as soon as it hits the water, the no stretch tendencies of the braid let you get a solid hookset even from a long distance. the rod is the important part of this equation if you ask me. i want something with plenty of backbone, but a soft enough tip to let me cast the spinnerbait with some precision. good luck with it, it's one of my favorite ways to fish when they're on a spinnerbait bite!

best thing is, just like in real life, there's more than just 2 options even! and contrary to the current climate, you can enjoy things from each! i have shimanos, daiwas and lew's and love them all. Shimano i have cores, metaniums, aldebarans, curados. Daiwa i have alphas sv and steez sv. Lew's i have pro z. All of them perform very well for what i wanted them to do. i think the 51 series shimanos are the best palming reels i've used, the sv reels are the best suited reels for skipping and throwing into the wind and my metanium DC is just a freakin joy to use and hear her "whine". All that said, you don't have to be in one camp or the other, you can in fact mix and match and the fish won't turn their noses up at you!

recently picked up a jr swim in the gen 2 and really like it! only used it on one short trip and caught zero fish on it, but it's super light and perfect for the 1.5-3oz baits i intend to use it for. very happy thus far with the purchase.