Chris at Tech

Hell yes, they are. In my experience, schooling fish love 'em.

What do you see breaking down in the Revos?

Is it worth the effort?

I have a Winch for my deep divers, and I also have a Toro on my swimbait rod. I only throw SBs 2 oz or less so far so the Toro wasn't a need, rather I bought it to also pull double duty for light saltwater. As long as you're not planning to move up in swimbait weights soon, the Winch will be just fine

Pointer in Chartreuse Shad Gunfish in American Shad, Aurora Black or Ghost Minnow Sammy in American Shad, Aurora Black or Ghost Minnow

Wear the Ga Tech gear proudly! Where do you fish?

3 STX, 2 Premier a Winch and a Toro -- no surprise who my vote went to Second place is to Daiwa for my 2 Zillions Shimano can bugger off. Even if they do get off their butts and make all their reels available in LH retrieve, they'll still have a ton of ground to make up in my eyes

That'll do the job. Personally, I'm a fan of the G3 boats But either hull would give you plenty of opportunity to install decking, etc.

There's always a chance for fraying with any line. I see no reason why you cannot use braid for the situations you mention.

ATL's shut down today, and will likely remain so til Weds due to icy roads.

So what's going on with Takahiro? Just curious how that impacts a reel preference If you're comfortable doing it flipping and pitching, why not just do all casting in same hand?

Zillion, St Croix Avid or Dobyns Champion would be my choices.

You still have Minnesota for the automatic win

If you're set on the Daiwa rods, you owe it to yourself to take a look at the corresponding Daiwa reels. I have a Zillion rod paired with a Zillion reel and it's a match made in heaven. They're designed to be paired up, and so are the Fuego rod and reel.

Don't discount the soft swimbaits. Get yourself a pack or two of the Shadalicious 5.5" and some weighted hooks.

Get yourself an Avid 66MF casting rod and be done with it To me, this rod is freakin' fantastic as a topwater rod. Long enough for long casts, short enough to be able to walk the dog with tip down. The rod has a fast action with a soft tip so it allows you to work the bait effectively, but the soft tip helps me to not rip the bait out of the fish's mouth. But when you need to get the fish away from cover, the backbone is there to do just that. This rod also is tremendous when throwing smaller cranks and hard jerkbaits.

Another vote for the STX from me.

Eh, I like my jonboat rig better

I've only fished out of my old 1548 and my new 1652, so I'm certainly no expert. But the pics lead me to believe it would be an adventure to have 2 guys standing at the same time in that rig. All the other comments on here are spot-on. Mod V with at least 14 ft of length. It may take a while to find one in your price range, but it'll be worth it.

Isn't BR member Tom Redington involved with that show?

I have 3 J Morris sig reels and love them but others don't so oh well. I used an revo sx last yr. and fell in love with it. I am going to order a stx right now. You will NOT be disappointed.

Sounds like what a guide did on a sailfish trip I took a year back Open the bail and secure the line through a loose loop of wire that's connected to the rod. It's strong enough to not release when bait is swimming, but light enough to release when a fish picks it up.

Maybe I missed something, but I don't recall the new STXs being any different in weight or profile over the pre-2010 version

This summer, I had the same decision to make for my jonboat rig. At the end of the day, I went with a HB 898 for a few reasons: 1) only 1 transducer for normal sonar, SI and DI (Lowrance requires 2 separate transducers) 2) some of the horror stories I'd heard about Lowrance service. Mind you, I never experienced any such issues myself, but I felt there were enough reports out there to warrant concern. In fairness, I had heard that Lowrance has improved lately 3) my personal preference of the HB controls and layout 4) a few hundred $$ cheaper Bottom line is that both products will be great additions. What I will recommend, regardless of brand, is to purchase the largest screen size you can. You may THINK the normal 5 inch screen will be sufficient, but I'd wager you'll be wanting to upgrade soon after the purchase.

X2 This is not the first time Shimano made a reel that I would have tried, had they made them in lefty. Oh well. 7 Revos later, Abu now gets all my reel money