War Eagle 44

I've been using a new Cumara A umbrella rig rod with a Curado 301E for swimbaits in this weight range and have been very very happy. It is also a 7'9" H fast action rod with a weight range from 1 to 3 ounces.

It's funny you should bring this up, I love my four Citica 201E's and just made some upgrades to them this week. I replaced the spool bearings and drive shaft bushing with Boca Lightning 5 ceramics, replaced the stock drags with Carbontex drags, and added ceramic pawls to the levelwinds. I haven't been out fishing with them yet but plan to tomorrow but just from the few "test" casts I made in the back yard the improvements can be felt. Even though I have much more expensive tackle these reels are the ones I fish with the most by a long shot and I think these upgrades will only up my level of enjoyment out of these reels. Like I said I've not been out with them yet but I think the upgrade I'm going to like the best is the new drags. I know the ABEC 5 bearings will improve casting performance but I'm not sure that they will improve it more over the cleaned stock bearings as much as the new carbon drags will over their stock replacements. I'm perfectly happy with the stock handles on these reels so I didn't even consider upgrades there but I did think about putting 7:1 gears in my "frog" reel and 5:1 in my "crank" reel but in the end decided to just stay with the stock 6 ratio. I think these are about all the mods that can be made to a Citica E, I hope you find the ones you are looking for. Keep us posted on how this turns out for ya, I'm really looking forward to fishing mine.

Really looking forward to these myself.

I also set hard with braid, I haven't encountered any "hookup" problems. The times I have missed fish on the set I've noticed I've been using a hook that wasn't quite big enough. What I mean is the hook is the "correct" size to fit the bait but it still isn't optimal. Say for example most guys use a 4/0 straight shank for 420 Beavers, this hook fits the bait correctly but I sometimes miss a set here or there. Now if I just go up one size to a 5/0 I never seem to have any trouble. Take this opinion with a grain of salt though because this could just be me and not the actual way of the world so to speak.

My first "good" reel and first Shimano was a Chronarch 101A. Just upgraded it with Orange Seal bearings, Carbontex drag, and ceramic pawl this week, yet to fish with it but I'm really looking forward to it. I also have a 101B that I fish heavily and it's been great. The only upgrade I've done so far are Lightning 5 spool bearings but I do have a Carbontex drag and ceramic pawl waiting to been installed the next time I break it down. I've never fished with the D series but I know they have to be really good as well just do to all the great feedback online. I'm not as big a fan of the MG 50 as some, but they have their place as well to be sure. I'm going to pick up some of the E series Chronarch's just as soon as they put them on sale for the upcoming model. I'm kinda partial to the Chronarch line because as I stated before they were my first experience with good tackle and I very much look forward to seeing what the future holds for them. I don't think you can go wrong with any of the Chronarch family of reels, just have to decide what your intended purpose for the reel will be.

I've only had my scatter crank in the water once, didn't get a bite, but the first thing I did when I took it out of the package was change the hooks. I didn't like the stock hooks very much and I've had so much good luck using the KVD Mustad trebles that I have them on the majority of my cranks. So therefore I replaced the stock hooks with number 4 Mustads. I'm also really liking the Gamakatsu short shank round bend magic eye hooks. Don't have nearly as much fishing time on these as the Mustads but they've been good so far. I would change the hooks if I were you just to be on the safe side, I hate losing fish.

Ok gents I'm man enough to admit when I'm wrong, after retesting my rod the line will in fact come in contact with the blank when pulled on with enough force. It takes a lot to get it to happen though so I'm not sure if I've ever had it flex that deep while fishing. I'm sure its possible with the right size fish, the biggest I've caught on it so far is a 10# landlocked stripe. I REALLY wish i hadnt found this out though because now it's really bothering me. Seems to me Shimano would have caught this before production began.

If anybody has it's Goose, this is my third time saying it now but I never said anywhere that I didn't believe him so I'm not sure why he felt the need to restate his case. Also if I do it doesn't concern you now does it. Well in light of your findings I'm going to re test my rod, I'm fairly confident in my first test findings but if all these other models are doing it why should this one (umbrella rig) be any different. I'll report back...

You said "when they went to micro guides..." this is the reason for the line touching the blank, well they didn't just use micro guides on the one model you have so therefore you were implying that ALL the rods had this problem. Like I said earlier the 7'9" umbrella rig rod doesn't have line touch no matter the amount of flex and it's also a fast action. I also CLEARLY stated in my first post that I wasn't calling you a liar so there wasn't really any need for you to restate your case regarding your model.

After reading Goose52's report I went and tested my Cumara A and no matter how hard or which direction I pulled I never got the line to even get close to the blank. So this isn't a true statement for all the new Cumara's. I'm not calling him a liar, I'm sure the line does touch the blank on his model rod, I'm just saying it doesn't on ALL models like he suggests.

I have the 7'9" Umbrella Rig Cumara A and love it. It's more sensitive than the first gen and lighter as well. The short grip did take some getting used to I'll admit but once I did I don't even notice it anymore. That's about the only "bad" thing I can think of about this rod, I plan to pick up at least 3 or 4 more this year. I'm also impressed with the power this rod has when compared to its weight. I'd tell you to go ahead if you're thinking about picking one up, you'll have to adjust to the grip but you will no problem.

I've personally had more success with the twitch, twitch, twitch, pause method than walking the dog. Granted I have caught a few walking the dog, just not anything consistent. I would say that 75% of my bites come when I twitch the bait fast 3 times pause then give it a single twitch. They blast it as soon as I give it the single twitch.

In MHO that's a steal! The DHSV is the best Curado to date to me. Yes they're a little heavier than some guys like but man are they solid and they just flat out fish well. Wish I had 4 or 5 more myself. Although I do love my Citica E's as well.

Favorite hollow body is the Spro Bronzeye Jr in the Outback color. Regular size Bronzeye in Killer Gill is a close second though. My favorite toad bait is the Gambler Cane Toad in Bullfrog color.

No, a straight shank hook is what a snell knot works best on. Now having said that I use Owner TwistLOCK flipping hooks. You can't use a snell with these hooks but it hasn't mattered in my experience. I was having horrible luck getting the hook set using straight shanks and the snell knot but when I switched to the Owner TwistLOCK my hooking problem went away. These hooks really helped my flipping a lot, I know plenty of guys use the snell and straight shanks with great results I just wasn't one of them. I use a 4/0 for 95% of my flipping. Make sure you learn to tie the snell correctly if you go that route. Either way good luck to you

I mostly fish them on a 4/0 Owner Beast weighted swimbait hook, 1/8oz, but I have also tried them as jig trailers. They've produced for me very nicely by themselves on the swimbait hook in a pond I fish. I haven't been able to get bit on the lake using one as yet though. My best color so far has been greenpumpkin, with the tip of the tail dyed chartreuse of course. I don't like them as much as others here as a swim jig trailer because I have to cut my skirts so short in order to get the correct action out of them.

No not at all.

Not a problem. I've never had braid break during a cast myself, I've seen a couple of buddies break off while using casting gear before. They would make really hard casts get a backlash and snap there goes their bait off into the blue yonder. I've experienced really bad wind knots while using braid with an older spinning reel that I was able to untangle that I feel later contributed to the line breaking on a hard hookset. If you've had bad wing knots that may help explain the breakage issues but it's still pretty thin. If you've already checked your guides and found them to be defect free then I'm out of ideas to try and explain your problem. Whatever it turns out to be I hope you get it sorted out soon, good luck to you.

Yes those are very informative videos.

I really like the KVD baits, especially the 1.5's. I've caught tons of fish on these lures and they aren't so expensive that you feel horrible if you lose one. I only have three colors of this bait that I fish routinely; Sexy Shad, Chartreuse Black back, & White Black back. If I can't get bit on one of these then usually they aren't hitting squarebills with the exception of one bait, the RC 1.5 in Copper Green Shad color. This bait is my all time favorite squarebill, I really wish SK made a color similar to this but they just don't right now. I guess the only drawback I can think of for the KVD bait is that you need to replace the trebles as soon as you take the bait out of the package. The stock ones are garbage, especially on a body of water like Guntersville where there are lots of big bass.

I have the Loomis 845CBR and I've never had any problems keeping fish hooked up. I also use a Powell Max 806CB a lot and don't have problems with it either. I like to be able to feel my bait while I'm fishing so I've never even tried a fiberglass cranking rod so I have zero knowledge of how they hook and hold fish. I fish squarebills all the time and I can't remember the last time I lost a fish using either of the two rods I mentioned earlier. As I said though I have no experience with a glass rod so I'm not sure what "problems" might arise when making the switch from it to an all graphite rod. Loomis also makes a deep flex series of crankbait rods that are suppose to fish more like glass rods (I think) but they're only offered in the GLX blanks so they are fairly expensive. The Powell rod is less money than a Loomis and I've been very very happy with mine over the years. I fish everything from 1.5's all the way to 6XD's on it and it handles them all just fine IMHO.

Well I thought he may have been talking about the ceramic inserts in the guides but I just wanted to make sure. I'd never heard them referred to as "eyelids" before.

5 wire rig with Mustad swimbait hooks, one 1/4oz on the center arm, four 1/8oz on the outside arms. I've used lots of different plastics on it so it's really up to you in this department. I use a Cumara A umbrella rig rod with a Curado 301E spooled with 25# P-Line CXX.

Well most guys that live in states where they limit the number of hooks you can use usually try and do their best to make the baits with the hooks stand out so as to increase their likelihood of being the baits eaten. Either they simply use larger baits on the arms with the hooks or different colors, just something that makes them stand out. I know some guys shorten the arms that can't use hooks so the baits with hooks hang back farther. There are plenty of different ways to go about trying to cut down on the frustration of not having hooks in all the baits, these are the only few I can think of at the moment.

I'm seriously asking this as nice as I can, I'm not trying to start anything. What are you referring to when you say "eyelids"?