jonnyblazex

I drive a acura integra da body style in the summer. Small car! Also have a buick lesabre. Plenty of room in there! Anyways, I just put the passanger seat all the way back, and tilt it all the way back. I can easily fit a 7'6 flippin stick in there, and 4 other rods without issue, with my little boy in the back behind me. Roof racks are a little sketchy in my book, I try to avoid them in any way I can, especially if you have over $1000 in rods and reels on the roof.

That's why I'm saying, BUY AN NRX OR DONT BUY A G LOOMIS!!!

I bet half the guys that posted on this thread don't own a g loomis nrx. The rod is expensive, as I stated much earlier in this post, sure maybe the cheap rods and dead feeling, but you get what you pay for when it comes to g loomis. I bought a rep sample NRX, it was brand new, never Ben opened out of the package. I saved about $160 off retail, and have the wildcard in my hand. How can you be mad? The rod is unmatched in sensativity in my book, straight up awesome. The action of the rod and even the way it bends when you have a nice fish on are spectacular, best blank and guide terrain a guy could ever ask for. I'm going to go out and say better than a custom rod by most (not all) builders. But again, YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR!!!!

Cheap piece of junk IMO. Save up a little more, and you can have a much better setup. If you could save $125-150, you could buy a very nice sensative setup, such as a pflueger president or shimano Sedona reel ($50) and a *** *** rod ($99). This setup for spinning would be very very nice compared to that combo. I know that not everyone has a money tree, me included. But I have learned in the past that cheap combos never pay off, and you will be better off matching up your own combos, and will be 10x better, and last for years if you don't beat on your equipment.

Save your money and buy the best of the best, the NRX. The sensativity of the rod is unmatched, and when the rod flexes with a nice fish on the other end, it will bring a smile to your face. It is unlike any rod I have ever held before. It took a major dent out of the wallet, but I don't regret it for a second, and WILL BUY MORE.

It depends if it's a expensive rod under warranty, or any rod under warranty actually. If it's under warranty and cost more than $50, might as well send it in and get a new rod for the cost of shipping both ways ($20) if it was a cheap piece of junk, save it to possibly fix other broken rods later down the road. I have done this with a $189 Fenwick Aetos rod I bought a few months back. I lost the receipt, and couldn't get a replacement for a broken tip, 3 inches down. Luckily there was enough room to work with, and I had a broken $7 fiberglass rod I saved. I cut about a 2 inch piece of it to fit over both broken rod pieces to slip over snugly, like a sleeve. Then I applied epoxy to both broken parts, rod and tip. Put the sleeve on, line the guides up straight, and let it dry. I haven't noticed any weakness or loss of action or sensativity with the rod, no loss of length, and it feels good as new. I painted the sleeve black to match the guides, and it's almost not noticeable. The hardest part is finding the taper from the old broken cheap rod to match the taper of the rod in question. The first time I did this with an ice fishing rod, and it held out good so I figured I would give this a go. Don't lose your receipt like I did!

Pink color brake collars came factory, they are the lightest weight, with least resistance. The green are heavier, and offer more resistance, may be better for larger heavier baits. The smoke, I'm not sure. May be the same as green, just come with a slightly newer model reel. If you bought a new shimano curado e or g series, I know they came with pink and un pretty sure it was green "spare" brake blocks in the box. I'll have to look at mine again, but I know for sure pink is what it comes with installed from the factory, and the other weights are heavier.

I also picked up a Powell diesel 765 a couple years back, excellent rod for flip/pitch at it's price point. 7'6 med hvy x fast, it seems a slight but more toward the hvy/fast action though IMO. It's a very stout stick for sure. Best bang for the buck rod at under $70 right now.

I believe the drag washers are supposed to be coated in a light coat of grease, they should not be dry, and grease, not oil. The reel may have sat for a while with the drag cranked down tight. I have heard that the washers can get flattened from this, and loose surface pressure. = slipping drag. Not sure if this is your problem, just a thought.

If you are using a swim jig, or any other presentation where it requires sensativity, I defiantly wouldn't use mono, unless you have a very high end rod, I'm talking 500 dollar rod. You will feel the bite on mono, otherwise forget it. For a moving bait it's fine, especially top water or treble hook baits like cranks or poppers, etc. it's actually good to have stretch on a top water, like a popper as the hooks will get deeper in the fish, and not rip free when your fighting it or it jumps. I used to throw poppers 75% of the time, and used 12 lb trilene xl on medium heavy casting gear, and landed nearly every single fish. I switched to braid for some reason for top water, and kept loosing fish time and time again, due to the lack of stretch.

Finally another reason to break out the ice fishing rods that have been sitting in the corner of the garage!

My ol man throws it all the time, green colored one. He actually missed a giant on it last weekend, hit it 2 feet away from the boat. He has caught a few bass and pike on it that I know of, and it seems like if nothing else is working, he will get a strike on the ol bass rat

Any kind of quality in a rod starts around $100 IMO. There are tons to choose from, as well as reels in that price range. I bet a 100 dollar would blow your mind, especially sensativity department, if all you have fished was 30-40 dollar rods. Many of them also come with a decent warranty, not so much with the el cheapos. I would recommend saving a little money up, and buying a higher quality set up. You won't regret it.

Here's a video that shows bass not understanding their own size. If theres even a chance it may fit in their mouth, they will go for it. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sKBmONt_dds

Try to watch the line as close to the bait as you can. It's not always possible, especially if there is a little breeze. Really windy, you might as well not even try, nearly impossible

Found a "factory seconds" ( blemish) rod, it was a fenwick aetos. 180$ retail, paid $60. Tickled pink. The problem with it was a blemish on the cork handle, by the butt. The rod fishes like a dream and I caught 5 hogs on it this weekend. I paired it with a pflueger patriarch , last years model which sold for $199.99, also got that for $60. Beautiful rod and reel, heck of a combo.

Don't rule out the fenwick aetos lineup. Top of the line sticks. I just picked up a 7'2 mh xf, and it is very high quality. Retail is $179.99 but can be found much cheaper

Top waters are ok (just ok) with fluoro, as mentioned before. They will work decent if you retrieve the bait relatively quick, but if you let the bait sit for a little bit ( poppers, spooks, other walk baits) the line will sink, and then it sux. You can't work your bait good at all, and it even makes the hook set more challenging. Mono dominates for any treble hook bait, be it top water or crank IMO. Both fluoro and braid beat mono and each other at other jobs, but there are certain things that each excel at.

Bobber stop. I like the bright green ones. Sometimes I think it may give me a slight advantage and catch the fish's eye. If the hole in the bullet weight is too big, you'll also have to use the matching green bead, or you could use a glass bead for clacking sound. The other nice thing about bobber stops is that they can slide up the line if they get a lot of stress. I can't tell you how many hogs I have dragged through big rocks, and the stop slipped, line was heavily damaged, but caught the fish. Best pegging or holding method on the market, and cheap too. Tighten it down good, then trim the ends nearly flush.

Texas rigged worm or craw Shaky head with finesse worm (if you cant catch them on this, nothing will) Topwater baits, Buzzbait, popper, walk baits, frogs etc. Weightless plastics, like flukes or worms Each requires a different setup (rod/reel/line) and technique however, for maximum performance.

A little longer rod is nice, especially with what you want in a spinning rod. For all around spinning, go with a medium action, if you really want to throw frogs on it, go with a Medium heavy. IMO, if your throwing frogs or fishing heavy duty, your better off with a baitcast setup. But anyways, a longer rod improves hookset power, and also gives you a little more leverage when fighting a hard pulling bass that's trying to get into heavy cover and shake the hook. -- A longer rod comes in handy. I would recommend a Shimano Sedona reel ($50) paired with a *** *** rod ($99 most places) This combo cant be beat for the price, and go with the medium for spinning, you wont be disappointed.

What reel you using and how old? A lot of times I have noticed this happening in the way that the spool was lined. You should run the line through all the guides, and have fairly tight spool drag if doing it at home. Most of the time you want the line to come off the top of the spool facing you, have an assistant hold the spool with a pencil and apply light pressure. Other option is having the tackle shop spool it on, the machine has the correct tension to do it perfectly imo. One other question, what line are you using?

The key is to find the correct structure, whether it be deep water rock piles and humps, or weedbeds, manmade structure, or on the edges of weedbeds in deeper water. I have had the best luck with the drop shot in water 10 feet to 25 feet of water, as long as you can find the structure, you have a good shot at it. I use a small size 2 Gamakatsu drop shot hook, and very very rarely loose a fish on it, and have hammered some decent largemouth and smallmouth on it. One smallie was even caught on a drop to a 25ft deep rock pile, and it was a really, really fun fight. I use medium weight spinning tackle, and 6 to 8lb fluorocarbon line. Use a sweep hookset, and don't have your drag cranked down all the way, you want the fish to pull a little line on a hard run. For baits I use small flukes, 4.5in roboworms, and if all else fails, a small tube WILL do the trick on the dropshot. I use weights from 3/16oz mostly, or 1/4 oz in really deep water, or really high winds. Remember, Drop shot is supposed to be finesse, if you use 1 oz weight, you could go deep sea fishing in 200ft of water and be okay, besides that, the fish will come off easier when shaking, with the heavy weight pulling down on the retrieve. Keep at the drop shot, and you will gain faith in it.

To respond to a question from aavery, my setup consists of a G Loomis NRX SYR 822 (spinning rod) paired with a Shimano Stradic CI4+, and 8lb Seaguar Tatsu. Unbelieveable setup, so sensitive I cant even describe it. I have used it for everything from fishing for Crappies, jigging for Walleyes, and Finessing for some Bass, all with wonderful success. For bass, my favorite bait on this rod is a 1/8 oz Owner shaky head jig, tipped with a 6'' Roboworm, or 1/8 oz drop shot with ds hook, and 4inch tube or roboworm, various colors. I can fish this at the bottom at 30 feet, and feel the lightest tiniest bite, slam the hook home, and still have enough back bone to turn a nice fish away, even from moderate cover. I guess you really get what you pay for. Im not saying you wont be successful with a much cheaper setup, but this one is da bomb.

Owner Ultrahead is my favorite. Has a special centering pin before the screw lock, gets the bait straight every time. Razor sharp sticky hooks as well. If a fish bites it and gets the hook in its mouth, you will have a hard time getting it out! Have been wanting to try some of the D&L Tackle shaky heads as well. Look a lot similar design to the owners, but a little cheaper.