PGA Dropout

The Auburn Hills, MI Bass Pro is lousy for high-end stuff but the Rossford, OH store is sweet. They had lots of St. Croix, Daiwa, and some Megabass rods.

Lexas are solid reels. If it was a gift, I'd consider fishing with it.

Metanium for Shimano. OG Zillion for Daiwa.

I bought a pack of those Xcite Raptor Tail chunks in Green Pumpkin. They look ridiculously good. My girlfriend bought me something stupid for our anniversary. I'll post pics when it gets here.

Custom is a good way to go above $250. Mike @ DVT does nice work and he's a lot of help if you're new to the process.

Veritas. Abu's customer service cannot be beat if you're on a budget.

That thing about the brake drum is a mistranslation from the Japanese manual iirc. Don't worry bout it. Also two SVS brakes seems like a lot. Try one and mess with the dial. Also check the bearings. Lots of bros were reporting over greased bearings from the factory. I was also underwhelmed but that's not a fair statement because I fish Conquests and some pretty wild stuff.

Price range?

Should take a week or so. I had a Veracity with a bad guide and it was handled quickly.

No shipping necessary. Warranty claims involve lots of pictures.

Youtube is awesome. There's some stupid stuff for sure but there's also a lot of great instructional videos, not to mention some very entertaining fishing channels.

I wouldn't worry. Abu's customer service is crazy good.

Considering you can find sub $100 Tatulas, that's certainly some bang and not a lot of bucks. Omens are solid rods and the blank is one of the best you'll find sub $250. However the build quality is inconsistent but that's not unreasonable at $100. The Phenix Maxim has good components but it's new and I have not seen any reviews. I'd probably buy an *** for jigs and a Tatula for jerkbaits, depending on your preferred power, taper, and length. I do a lot with a MH ***.

Epic Meal Time, mostly because my girlfriend is a vegetarian and it's fun to harass the herbivore.

832 may not float. Sunline SX2 does not float (great line otherwise). Power Pro floats nicely; I walk baits with the 50 lb and the results are great.

Also, as someone who looked up that song/video thanks to this post, I'd recommend maybe avoiding it. It'll leave you bummed out for one reason or another.

Yeah, that was alright. I mean, I can't listen to death metal all day.

Needs more Priest and/or Maiden.

I'm experimenting with it. If you trim the weedguard, it becomes stiffer so you need to offset that by removing a few fibers, which is a pain in the behind. On a related note, I am considering cutting the weedguard completely off on some of my finesse-y swim jigs.

Fluoro does not necessarily have low stretch. Fluoro coating supposedly adds abrasion and UV resistance and usually makes the line slowly sink. P-line CXX is a good copolymer and it's in my rotation, but for the most part I don't see any point in using copoly over pure Fluorocarbon unless you have to save money.

I didn't have memory issues but I didn't go above 12 lb.

I think Dick's sells 330 yd.-ish spools of Sufix for like $7, if you have one of those in the area. Siege is a monster but it runs a bit thick diameter-wise (.356mm to XL's .33mm in 12 lb. test).

8 lb. Fluoro with the stock spool. I have a 105H spool in it now that will be getting 6 lb. as soon as the ice melts. So, June.

What did you get?!

It depends a lot on the weather. Southeast Lower Michigan is usually a May spawn. Northern Lower Michigan can be weird; I caught some Largemouth outside of Gaylord last year that still had eggs in June. Experiences will vary depending on lake and location. For Smallmouth, you can't beat Grand Traverse Bay.