War Eagle 44

My oldest, and first, baitcaster is an Ambassadeur 5601 C4 I bought in late 2001 or early 2002 (can't remember exactly). Learned to fish baitcasting gear with it (obviously) and still have it today. I "tuned" it last year just for fun, haven't fished with it much since moving on to low pro reels. It's stupid fast now with all the upgrade parts and bearings, actually it's pretty difficult to get a handle on. I really have to pay attention now when using it. With lures 1/2 oz and up I can get some really impressive (to me at least) distance. Not long after becoming a fan of casting gear I moved on to a Shimano Chronarch A, still have it as well. It was my first low pro. I've also done a few upgrades to it as well. Seriously considering getting an Avail spool for it. Both reels still perform great and can hang with my newer generation reels as long as the lure weights stay around the 3/8 to 1/2 oz and up mark.

In my opinion the D series is the "best" most solidly made Curado I've fished. I haven't fished the new I series yet so I, like many other in this thread, can't give any thoughts on it. I'd rank them as follows: D E B G. My personal favorite series is the E but I really really regret selling the one B SF I had. It was a very good reel for it's $150 price tag. I was very surprised at the post here from the gentleman that stated that he felt the D series was only good for casting heavier weights. I've found mine to be the equal of the E series in every aspect of casting/pitching performance. I'm referring to the 200 size of course.

I use (and have been for years) 10# CXX for all my cranking. I fish a squarebill more than any other type of crank and I never have any problems. I fish grass and wood cover with zero issues.

While you are technically correct, arkie jigs are versatile, the jigs pictured above aren't arkie's.

My preference is also Power Pro. I do however think the price difference between PP and S8S is a worthy investment. I still use more regular PP than S8S but there are certain things that I much prefer S8S for over PP. P-Line also makes a nice braid. I'm excited to try their new 8 strand braid. I've fished Sufix Performance and 832 and while there's nothing wrong with these lines at all I just don't enjoy using them. They never let me down while I was fishing them though. I've also had really good luck with Spiderwire products. The most coming on Stealth. I also like their Invisibraid. SunLine braid is also a very good line I just don't like the way it fishes.

I've been using my Cumara umbrella rig rod for the 10XD. Does a great job.

Also another fantastic reel I'd love to see again.

First off I have zero experience with "toothy" fish or Y-Z hybrid. Having gotten those two facts out there I'll suggest CXX. I have tons of experience with this line, I use 10# CXX for all my cranking. Square bills to 6XD's are all fished on this line and I can't recall breaking a single fish off. I'm sure it's happened a few times over the years but it's been such a rarity I can't recall a specific event. I'm a huge fan of P-Line, especially CXX, and I'm positive there's "better" lines out there now days but this stuff has been so good to me I don't ever even consider trying anything else. It does have memory but I've gotten used to it and I don't even notice it anymore. I've found a few casts is all it really needs to relax anyway.

I use 50# on two different 7' rods, one a mh fast and the other a mh x-fast, for all types of techniques. Some of the more common are swim jigs, spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, buzzbaits, top water (other than frogs of course) etc. 99% of the time I fish these lures with the braid directly to the lure. For other lures such as t-rigged plastics or pitching/football jigs I'll add a fluorocarbon leader. I don't feel that I'm missing strikes either but it has been a very long time since I've fished with straight fluorocarbon so I might be wrong about this. If it turns out that I am missing strikes I'm pretty sure it's a small number. 30 or 40# braid could be substituted for all of the above, though I'd feel slightly "under gunned" with 30# using the swim jig or chatterbait in the places I sometimes fish them.

Agree with this 100% with the addition of 15#. 15# CXX is pretty strong stuff.

Even though I'm a Shimano guy I'd have to say the Daiwa TDZ as well. Used to own one and it was a very nice reel. I'd add carbon fiber drag washers and a faster 7:1 gear ratio. While I'm thinking about it I'd bring back the Fuego as well with the same upgrades.

X2

The Crappie Dirty Jigs Cali swim jig on the end is a great bait, you'll really enjoy it.

I almost always use the same set up, an Owner 3/16 head, 2500/3000 Shimano spinning reel, 20# braid (usually PP in either white or green) with a 10 or 15# P-Line 100% fluorocarbon leader. About 80% of the time I go with the 15# as I'm usually fishing around some sort of wood (docks or sunken trees) but in the rare situation of super clear water I'll drop down to 10#. I don't really play around with any other leader strengths because one of these two always gets the job done for me.

Thanks, I think I'll have to try them.

Either of you two guys think the Hawgtech's are noticeably better than OS7's?

I've had very good luck with Boca's so that's the reason I tend to stick to them now days. I have around 10 sets of Boca's, both their 5's and 7's, and I've only had one single bearing that wasn't up to standard. When I contacted them about it their customer service was outstanding as well. I'd like to try a set from HawgTech as well as ZPI. I can tell a difference between properly cleaned and oiled stock bearings but the difference between them isn't nearly as great as the difference between stock bearings the way they come from the factory and when they're properly cleaned and oiled. Max distance isn't the area that I can tell the Boca's make a difference, the effort needed to make "regular" pitches and casts is where I can tell the biggest difference.

I can't believe I forgot the Trick worm, wow. It could be a case of Zoom plastics not being quite as effective in the waters you fish as much as anything else. I just want to state that this is totally my opinion and I have absolutely no facts to back this up. I want to like Rage products (and do especially the toad and the menace and craws as jig trailers) but I can't get nearly the number of bites flipping a Rage craw as I can with a Paca craw, Zoom speed craw, baby brush hog, or D Bomb. Therefore I've decided that different baits work better on different bodies of water. I came to this conclusion after giving the Rage craw plenty of opportunities to produce for me. So I'm not sure if this would hold true of anyone fishing on my home lake or if it's totally just me. I'd like to think it'd hold true for anyone but as I said I have no facts to support this theory.

I agree with you 100%. I buy orange seals because I want Boca's ABEC 7 hybrid bearings not the orange shield. I always take the shields off my bearings so that's another added bonus to me that the orange shields come out so easily. I haven't tried HawgTech bearings but I have Smooth Drags. The bearings they offer are junk, I've personally had 3 sets and 2 of them were bad. I bought a set of their ABEC 5 bearings and when they arrived both bearings were "bad" straight out of the package. The cages were so poorly fit to the balls that they (the cages) were almost falling out of the race. I contacted them and they replaced them with a set of their ABEC 7 bearings. These too were affected by the exact same problem. I didn't even bother to contact them again and the bearings are just sitting in their package unused. I did however receive a pair of their ABEC 5's for my Abu C4 that work fine. Both of the above bearings were for Shimano's.

I don't think it's in your head, I'm 100% sure that quality hooks (trebles or otherwise) make a big difference in your fishing. One thing I will add here though is that I think you're really missing out by dismissing Zoom plastics. I'm not saying that they are the absolute best there is but I can tell you that quite a few of their baits are very very effective eg. baby brush hog, lizard, super fluke, etc. I know that angler confidence in a lure is super important to that lures effectiveness for them but I've just had so much luck with Zoom plastics that I just thought I'd say that you might want to give them another shot.

As with everyone else I too like to have quality reels and rods but I don't spend as much as I used to on either. Lately it's been "upgrading" the reels I already have that's been more interesting to me than buying new ones. I never mind spending a little extra on hooks or other terminal tackle. I know this doesn't really seem like a big expense, and for the most part it really isn't, but I always like to change the stock hardware that comes on most hard baits. I'm very high on Owner split rings and trebles but I also use Mustad and Gamakatsu. Spro power split rings are nice as well. I've never tried any rings from Mustad. I started this practice a few years ago when I noticed a dramatic improvement in my bite to land ratio after upgrading the stock trebles on a KVD 1.5 to the KVD Mustad trebles. Since that time I've had a couple bad experiences with stock hardware on a few baits so now I always upgrade every new hard bait. This goes for "worm/plastic" hooks as well, I use an assortment from both Owner and Gamakatsu so that I have what I consider to be the best hook for a given lure or technique.

Smallie Beaver

I know exactly what you mean, I have this thing with jigs, I just can't stop buying them even though I have WAY to many already. Case in point I went by the shop last Fri to just "look around" and picked up two more. Also picked up a little terminal tackle for some finesse fishing and the bait I'm really looking forward to fishing the new Jackall plug.

Reels Shimano Rods Loomis, Shimano, & Powell Line Power Pro & P-Line Tackle Owner is my favorite hook/terminal tackle brand. NetBait & Zoom for plastics. Dirty Jigs for jigs(obviously). Spro & R2S for frogs. Envision & War Eagle for spinner/buzz baits. I use a lot of different cranks but Spro, Lucky Craft, and Strike King are my most used brands.

I'm with you 100%, and he told me I need to learn how to read...