mjseverson24

I have used braid with a glass cranking rod and over all i liked it. i used 30# power pro, but now i typically use either 12 lb floro, or 15 lb hybrid line, I feel the strike to land ratio is just a little better. Mitch

in the $70.00 price range they are middle of the pack at best in my opinion. i would either pick up a BPS PQ on sale for 80 the lews laser MG for 80 the evercast military or college for 60-70 or a abu silvermax for 60. might be able to pick up a used citica for around 70 that would also be a good option. Mitch

The MH shock rod is a true MH I have fished it for buzzbaits in some pretty nasty stuff and it pulls fish up to 6 lbs out of bullrushes, milfoil and wild rice with no problem. I actually used this rod last year in a tournament throwing SK Bottom dweller spinners in the 1 oz and it handled them just fine. for the pricerange and moving baits it is hard to beat these rods. Mitch

I have had this problem with an inexpensive pflueger reel before, what happened to me was the main drive gear was just misaligned with the spool gear, and every couple of cranks the reel would bind then slip back into place. I fixed this by taking the reel apart cleaning it oiling it making sure everything was in position then put it back together. from the sounds of it you are having a similar issue. Mitch

I throw almost exclusively 1/2 oz spinnerbaits when i use them, and have never needed to go to a heavy action rod, even 1/2 oz with double collorado blades works great on my MH rods. try the berkley lightning shock rod 7' MH for $50.00 it will throw these spinners just fine for the price. Mitch

I think in the 150.00 price range the Crucial is the most sensitive rod on the market. their reel seat is the most efficient and non vibration dampening on the market. also the seat gives maximum contact with the rod for increased sensitivity compared to others in their price range. After the crucial the TFO tactical casting rod is probably the next best, great rod great price. I would still stick with the Crucial especially with the warranty program Shimano has. I liked the fenwick smallmouth ET rods too, they would be a close third. Mitch

I used floro last year with medium action rods, but I am switching to mono with MH action rods this year. i liked the floro, but mono is a little more reliable for me as far as casting relaibility, and strength. floro for all bottom contact. Mitch

I have two of the Navy reels from evercast, and I really like them for the price point, the cetrifigal breaking system is a little aggressive, so I usually have only set to one or two, but smooth casting, decently smooth retreive, decent drag, and good customer service. At $40.00 that is a good buy, both of mine were $70.00 each and I feel that is a fair price for the reel. I compare them to the skeet reese reels and the lews laser MG. Mitch

Pitt boss, subwoofer, crawfatty, these are all great baits that regularly are rigged up on my rods, the smash tube is a good bait also especially t-rigged. Mitch

i bought one of the 8:1 today for flipping and pitching, i am probabily going to avoid braid on it, and stick with floro. I think the t-wing system should allow for great pitching with less friction than traditional line guides. Mitch

it would be nice to have all one brand rod, I really like the new shimano rods, and would switch all of my bottom contact rods with either crucials or compre's, but that is not really an option when you have 30+ combos, that being said I use shimano, st. croix, daiwa, W&M, gander mountain brand, berkley, quantum, scheels brand, BPS brand, and abu gargia. If I could buy all them again I would stick with shimano for bottom contact and W&M for moving baits. Mitch

those were covered in the 7+ lb catagory, they are pretty rare here in MN and WI i would expect them to be a little more common in the New England states. Mitch

here is kind of my general rule of thumb for northern states nice fish: 3-4 lbs big fish: 4-5 lbs pig: 5-6 lbs donkey: 6-7 lbs giant: 7+ lbs trophy smallmouth 21"+ trophy largemouth 23"+ Mitch

when it gets cold and you have some depth like you are talking about a dropshot under and around the docks and boats is awesome, you will catch all sized from small to big, but a 1/4-1/2 oz jig like said above might produce bigger fish more consistently. Mitch

try a 7'7" MH shimano Compre for about 120. lifetime warranty, and pretty sensitive. Mitch

in my opinion dont wast money on having an expensive sensitive rod you should be able to see the strike so it just needs to be easy to fish, long, and have a pretty heavy action for fishing in heavier cover, the money should be spent on the reel. Try a 7'6" H lightning rod shock for $50 with either a lews superduty, daiwa tatula, or the abu rocket with the 9:1 gear ratio this is a beast for frogs and jigs. spend the money on the reel make sure it has metal frame and handle sideplate. if you are fishing in sparse cover try a rod more often used for jerkbaits(6'8" MH/F), and use mono like 15 lb should work, a high speed reel is still a good idea, but it doesnt need to be as beefy as the other ones, a lews tournament SS or BB1 would work great for this. Mitch

biggest discovery for me this year was creating custom jigs, I caught some really quality fish on my custom jigs. Mitch

they are good little baits, but for me they catch bass in the 1-2 lb range, except in dirty water then they do a little better for me, but spinners and swim-baits do better for me. Mitch

I line watch when the conditions are conducive for it, and typically in an 8 hr day i would say 2-5 fish are cought when line watching and not feeling it. now does this mean that i wouldn't caught these fish without line watching? hmmm... no not really, all it tells me that with this technique i did successfully catch the fish. i do think it does account for extra fish caught though. Mitch

I love how people bash these rods, I have a few and they are just as good if not better than any of the rods in there price range. Good enough to bring home an AOY title for chapman. For 55 bucks that is a good buy. Mitch

for five rods: 1) 7'6"- 8' H/MH flippin stick MF action ( use for flippin heavy jigs/ hollow body frogs in thick stuff) 2) 7' M-MH fast action very sensitive rod for jigs/t-rigs 3) 6'6" M-MH fast action for topwater/jerkbaits/ spinnerbaits 4) 7' medium power moderate action glass cranking rod 5) 7' ML spinning rod fast action needs to be sensitive for finesse techniques A lot of guys on here including myself run 15-30 rods on deck so limiting to just 5 is not an easy thing to do, but if I had to this would probably be the basic set up. Mitch

I switched recently to glass rods for my cranking, and I would not go back. I put floro on the spool for this to increase the sensitivity just a little bit, but also the 10 lb floro allows me to run the bait a little bit deeper. the nice parabolic action of the glass keeps proper tension on the fish and absorbs better the change in pressure as compared to graphite rods. I have found that the lack of sensitivity has a nice trade off with an increase in strike to land ratio. the hybrid rods like the shimano tc4 technology are a nice compromise of sensitivity and parabolic action. Mitch

I use some form of creature bait much more often than I do a worm. I use worms almost exclusively for dropshotting and weightless wacky rigging. I feel that creature baits look much closer to the natural forage found in the lakes, you can crawl it and make it look like a craw or swim/hop it and look like a bluegill/minnow. the worm unless wacky rigged or nose hooked on a dropshot just doesn't do it for me.(most of the lakes I fish are weedy bottom so a shakeyhead is not the best option, but i know that technique is great with worms.) Mitch

we do have a scsu bass club, and i think they do fish some of the events in the flw college series. i would like to be a part of the club, but I am an electrical engineering and nuclear physics major so taking time off to go fishing during school really is not an option for me. Mitch

it depends on the action of the rod. If it is a moderate to moderate fast action the stress of casting is more easily distributed throughout the rod so your chance of damaging the rod is less, but a XF action rod puts all the stress on the tip of the rod increasing the possibility of breaking it. most fast action rods I try to keep the lure weight close to the range on the rod, but if it is a jig or t-rig rod the weights really dont matter too much for me. Mitch