War Eagle 44

I've mostly used green in the past (and still do) but I've started using white with good results as well. Either of these two are good in my opinion.

No, clear and gray/smoke are two different weights. The gray/smoke colored brakes are the lightest - period. Then the clear is somewhere in the middle, I'm not sure if they're lighter than the pink for certain but I think they are slightly. If you look closely at my pic you can see that the smoke brakes are "slimmer" than the clear and the clear is slimmer than the green.

Smoke is the lightest brake block Shimano USA currently offers. In hand you can clearly see they are thinner than the red/pink blocks.

I've been doing this for a couple of years now. I too had to try it after seeing his video and I've been very pleased with the results. I love to tinker with my tackle as well so this was a great little "project" to occupy some time and one that I truly believe helps.

In my opinion this is something only you can answer. I guess it depends on what you're planning to use the reel for, some guys (myself included) love the 50 size for almost everything whereas others only find it suitable for "finesse type" fishing. I fall into the camp that likes the 50's for multiple techniques, especially when pared with braid.

Also there is very little difference between the Chronarch E and the Curado E. I wouldn't personally describe the Chronarch as an "up scale" version, especially in the 50 size. Fantastic reels just not that much different from the Curado E.

This...

Nice!! I've been waiting for more info on these. I'm kind of surprised to see that they went up to a 6 power on the new frog rod, the old 735 has plenty of power for frogs in any situation I've come across.

I don't have a ton of experience with JDM products as I only have two but I haven't found the build quality any different than the USDM counterparts. I've compared my Alphas to my friends Sol and they seem exactly the same as far as build quality, I don't find my Alphas to have "tighter tolerances" than his Sol. My other JDM reel is a Scorpion 1001MG, I do believe this reel came with slightly better bearings than the US Chronarch MG but I'm basically guessing as I've never owned nor fished with one. The big difference between these two was the Scorpion had an adjustable brake dial on the outside of the reel whereas the Chronarch was like all US Shimano's at the time (none DC) and you needed to open the side cover in order to make braking adjustments. I haven't fished with either of these reels in a long time so I haven't given them much thought so some of my "knowledge" about them might be a little fuzzy but as far as I can remember right now that was about the only major difference in the Shimano's.

I only use one on my Shimano reels, there's no issue.

Power Pro (original & S8S) and P-Line. I'm really looking forward to trying their new 8 carrier braid.

Well lets see here, first off do you squeeze the water out after every couple of casts? If not that may be your problem. Secondly make sure the lead weight that's "molded/positioned" into the back of the frog is still in it's correct position. If you've added any additional rattles make sure they're still able to move freely inside the body. After this I'm pretty much out???

I was basically going to post the same pic but I opted to use three different brake weights because sometimes one smoke isn't enough but two is too much, imo. By having three different weights I can for instance on a windy day use one green brake, instead of two smoke brakes, and regain complete control over my spool. Two of any color block provide more braking force than a single green and I've never encountered a situation yet that the one green block wasn't able to handle. The clear blocks are "somewhere" in the middle, I can't remember exactly where in the order they fall. I too, just yesterday in fact, installed Core 51 gears in this little guy. I can tell a slight difference in hand that it's a bit lighter but as you said not on a rod. Also as an interesting side note, I'm not sure if you guys have read about my previous pitching "problems" with this reel but the Core pinion gear seems to have fixed my problem. Even though I polished the inside of the pinion that came in the reel there was always a slight "lag" in spool start up while pitching but it doesn't seem to be there anymore with the Core pinion gear. I polished the inside of it as well before installing it and just playing around with the reel in the house last night after I was finished my free spool time seems to have increased a good margin. I've "inspected" the stock pinion as thoroughly as I can but I can find a single spot on it or the spool shaft where they were rubbing together but they had to be doing so slightly somewhere as the "lag" is now gone. Either way I'm a happy camper as I killed two birds with one stone, made my 51E lighter, faster, and lag free.

Yes the blue thread wraps on that rod would clash so bad with the red accents on the Stradic CI4+.

Never tried them on trebles.

These are the first two things that came to my mind when I was reading the post. His judgment of "40 yards farther" may not be totally accurate but I still get his point, the difference between the two were of enough difference to at least feel like 40 yards at the time. Like you said though there are just too many variables to get a good grasp of the situation without being there.

Yes I have actually tried these and you're correct they do work. Depending on the tackle you intend to fish them on it might take a little trial and error to get them positioned "just right" for the best possible hook set but yes they do indeed work and are worth looking into.

While I wasn't sure on exactly which hooks I was going to suggest I was at least going to point you in the direction of Owner, it does seem that WRB is very sure about the hooks he recommends and I know he has a ton of fishing knowledge so those would more than likely be the hooks I'd go with. Though I've never had any trouble with Gamakatsu trebles either. I don't personally have any experience with the STX-58TN hooks however I do use the ST-46TN hooks quite a bit and have found them to be fantastic. I'm sure the 58's will be the same if not more so. Owner trebles in general are very very good replacements for any bait that you want to replace the hooks on. I've even taken it a step farther and while I'm changing the hooks I change the split rings to Owner Hyper Wire split rings on all my baits as well. Of course this is far from necessary I just choose to do so.

Really nice looking combo you have there, I'm one of those guys that can't stand for their gear not to match color wise so there's no way I'd be able to put a Stradic CI4+ on that rod from that stand point.

I've never had one break but then again I don't fish my spinning reels all that much and to further the point, when I do I'm still only using them for bass so the drags don't get "stressed" like they do by hard fighting salt species so it's nice that the salt guys have this option available to them.

No 99% of the time these days I'm fishing with braid, I add leaders as needed. I only had 2 set ups that I wasn't using braid with; my crankbait rod and my umbrella rig rod. Just today I picked up some 65# S8S for my umbrella rig so now I'm down to just the single outfit without braid. I'm much more comfortable with braid than I am with anything else. Especially on spinning tackle.

Hey watch it, I like grits!

Depends on a multitude of factors, quality of the line, cover or obstructions for the fish to run through, if you have you drag set properly, if you've properly tied your knot, etc. All in all a good quality 10# fluoro is pretty strong stuff but I'll have to admit I'd be pretty nervous myself if I knew there was a chance of a fish of that size on 10# line, ha ha ha. Also there's absolutely nothing wrong with fishing smaller jigs in clear water, I do it all the time and catch fish just fine. Also 10# fluoro is where I was going to suggest you start even before you informed us about the quality of the fish so you may even want to go up to 12 just to have a little extra "cushion" so to speak. My favorite is P-Line 100% Fluorocarbon.

You wouldn't believe the times I've tried to actually physically show guys my Curado 51E spooled with 20 to 30# braid and leader of anywhere between 10, 15, or even sometimes 20# fluoro in action and they won't even take time to watch. I don't mean I'm trying to get them to watch me fish for 30 minutes, I'm simply talking about making a few casts or pitches at the ramp just so they can see that a properly tied leader connection knot doesn't interfere with fishing like they think it does. I can definitely attest to the bias that southerners have toward smaller reels and using braid with a leader. I'm not sure why or where it comes from though? I've grown up in AL my whole life and I wasn't the least bit hesitant to try it and I haven't looked back since, I love it. It's the only way I fish spinning tackle anymore. I'm not even sure people really realize just hoe bad it really is down here, now I realize not everyone is this way but there is still a good number of guy thinking this way, I still see plenty of guys using Abu Ambassadeur 5500 & 6500's on their flipping sticks! I'm not joking, filled to the top with mono or fluoro. I'm puzzled as to why they feel they would ever need this much line but they do.

X 1000!!! Of freakin course I do, it's a great bait. I love the fact that it sits so far down in the water ( practically flat or level with the waters surface) as this gives it a totally different look than any other frog style bait that's out right now. If you can half way walk a frog then you don't need to be able to "tell what it's doing" because trust me it's doing it's thing. My #1 color is Spooky Shad - it's a stone cold killer. #2 Wicked Perch #3 Nasty Shad #4 Killer Gill I think with these 4 colors you pretty much have all your bases covered.