TorqueConverter

I got fortunate enough to nab some gear at sponser prices and bought what I thought was a big bad flipping stick only to discover it was a cranking stick so now I'm the proud owner of a 7'11 extra heavy Veritas 2.0 Winch rated 3/4 oz to 2 1/2 oz. Kid in a candy store glee blinded my vision apparently. I did break my KVD 7'10 MH Launcher deep cranking stick a year ago but his badboy is way more stiff than that thing making it useless for the DT20s and DD22s I fish on the deep side on things. Too stiff even for my bigish wake bait presentation too. Already have a pike and a musky stick but maybe I can use it for those species as well? I can't see myself throwing the 20+ monster cranks but maybe I keep it around if I decide to? There's got to be something I'm overlooking that can make this thing worth pairing a reel to and have up on the deck. What would you with on this rod? .

Tried as in tried on the rod? Are you sure it's a weight problem and not a balance problem? A borderline tip heavy spinning rod is easily upset by a reel that is less than perfectly balanced. I'd rather fish with a heavy perfectly balanced combo than a light weight tip heavy combo. In this day and age of fan freaking tastic rods at low price points I have no patience anymore for tip heavy rods. I have no familiarity with that rod but to help balance out a Daiwa Procyon I went with one of those ultra short/wide spool BPS reels because everything else felt too front heavy. I currently use a 7'6'' Veracity M paired to a Revo SX for bombing dropshots and serving as a general purpose finesse stick. I love the casting distance, tip action and power that long rod gives but if I was looking to save some cash I'd go 7' Veritas 2.0 and a Pfluger President. If you're talking size 20 reels then plastic framed reels are still relevant and the president is a d**n good one.

I like a lot of the BPS stuff but Gamakatsus are my go too cheap hooks and when I'm too much of a cheapskate for even those I'll go Matzuo America.

I fish with some cheap $100 junk and It's a toss up between my T3B, Pro Q and Accurist. Love the way the T3B casts but hate the way braid sounds going onto it. It sounds like someone rubbing steel braided cable on an empty 5 gallon bucket. The Pro Q and Accurist are fairly evenly matched with the Accurist being a little bit better in every way but has these gross little rubber nubs for handles and the spool tension knob is rock hard to turn.

Been doing a mix of clear water Iowa bassing and murky state pond hoping. I've done well on the clear water side uder docks fishing shaky heads paired to BPS Flicker Worms and a mix of weightless and weighted wacky rigged BPS Stick Os. Some bigger fish have been caught punching mats of curly leaf pond weed that have been real bad this year using Lake Fork Ring Fry worms in shallow 'canal' areas. Smallmouths have come on drop shots paired to Havoc Money Makers and Powerteam Lures Hammer Shads on rocky reefs and boulders. Pond hopping has produced fish early season on shallow cranks such as the Rapala Scatter Rap Shallow and DT4 with more recent fish being caught on a mixed bag of weightless plastics and split shot rigs due to the abundance of dead veg still lingering around in the state ponds. As we transition into summer and the weedbends reach towards the surface I expect the state pond bite to move to wake baits followed by frogs once the weeds reach the surface. My summer is going to consist of lots of frogging and if I can swing another trip up north then some spinnerbaiting, swimgjigging and cranking on clear water main lake structure laden with weedbeeds and rock piles.

Are you absolutely sure it's breaking and not simply coming untied at the knot? I've lost many a bait with brad to sudden spool stop before I started tying unit knots with a bunch of wraps I have a reel with a 'flipping switch' that I sometimes forget I have engaged when I decide to fire off a long cast and the reel will engage the clutch mid cast when I relax on the thumb bar causing the reel to suddenly stop sending the lure to a mid-air halt and I have NEVER lost a bait since I switched over to the uni knot. All those previous mysterious no shock absorbency break offs have now been written off as the very obvious knot failures that they were.

Nope, but I like the look of some of their deep diving cranks. Their musky glide bait and their bass walk the dog stick baits look good too. Hope I get some in my MTB boxes

This, or just be lucky enough have an old acquaintance in a position to sell you fishing gear for 70% off at sponsor prices. I bet they still made a profit off me at that price. The markup on this stuff must be insane.

Those stupid cigar worm things like the Senko, Stick O and Flat Dawg rigged wacky. They're a pain in the rear and I've avoided them for years but when I have to slow down and put fish in the boat bank beating then they are a proven winner. They're way too deadly under docks in clear water along with the BPS Flicker Worm on a shaky head for my own good. Havoc Money Makers and Powerteam Hammer Shads have been good to me on drop shots for smallies as well. Stupid worms. All I want to do is power fish.

I read something a few years ago I found interesting. A lab study was done using bass that have never seen a lure in witch they presented live crawfish and craw soft plastics to the bass in a controlled environment. Long story short, the fished preferred the soft plastics and live craws with one claw missing, indicating that the crawfish prey item with one claw was more vulnerable than one with two claws. I found it funny that fisherman desire a bait claws that float upwards in a 'defensive posture' when the study showed that bass are most likely to strike the complete opposite.

I love the shallow version right after ice out fished so slow it won't scatter. Something about that slow tight wiggle that cold water bass just want to eat. As the water warms I can fish it a bit faster to get some of that scattering action and get fish come up and grab it before the DT4 and DT6 take over as my cool to warm water baits.

I'd rather have a Revo SX over a BPS Pro Qualifier. Pro Qs are great but they are showing their age. Just sticking to $100 give or take $30 I'd rater have a Curado I, Tatula, Carbon lite, or save a few bucks a clearance priced Nitro Tournament Z if if I could get my hands on the good one.

Got my father a Sellus worm/jig paired to a spinning Pro - Q because he can't into baitcasters and its been great. It's got a fast tip paired to a long backbone with a shortened handle length making it excellent at working worms and jigs. EVA foam grips are rock hard too witch is something I prefer over that gross soft kitchen sponge material a lot of rods use at and above that price point. If they could just balance the thing out a little better to alleviate tip heaviness then it'd be the best thing out there for $50 -$60 bucks.

I've got a secret soft spot for Silstar reels. When are they going to make an Optimus Primus because I would totally buy that.

It's more than just being made in the same factories A lot of the reels out there are the intellectual property, as in they are designed, engineered and manufactured by a handful of OEM reel companies. It's a mater of opening a manufactures catalog and selecting a reel frame with components A-Z and marketing it as [insert name here]. If you like Lews, Purefishing and some of the good BPS stuff then you actually like Doyo Engineering reels. Shimano and Dawia are in-house as far as I'm aware and Daiwa fancies themselves as a OEM of the Cabelas stuff sometimes.

I don't like any of my MH Veritas rods for frogging. They're 7' broom handles that do not want to load up properly to launch a frog, are too stiff to get the bait to break into a wide glide and suffer from poor hook up ratios witch I assume stem from them being broom handles. Maybe the 7'6'' rods have some tip but the 7' rods are too much of a broom handle for frogging IMO.

I used to use "Brass and Glass" T rigs in days gone by. It's an old school thing that I haven't done in years but once a fish catcher, always a fish catcher, in my book.

I use a 7'6'' M Veracity spinning with #20 high vis braid paired to #12 trustworthy high clarity mono/fluoro such as Big Game or Sunline Sniper. I'd go with the medium powered spinning if you're weightless wacky rigging it.

I've found that 99% of 'breaks at the knot' faults with braid are actually 'my knot came undone'. Try a uni knot with a lot of wraps on it. I'm not a fan of Palomar knots and braided lines,

I've lost many a Yamamoto plastic without ever getting bit. Things just come flying off the end of my line or jig.

Best way to alleviate line twist is to stop using that stiff plastic stretchy stuff. #20 braid is your way out of the plastic nightmare.

I'm rediscovering these baits too. These ring worm baits have some clever engineering to them. The small diameter 'spine' of the baits allows them to have excellent action while the rings bulk up the profile without compromising action. I've been punching, dropshoting and wacky rigging the Lake Fork Ring Fry Worm with good results.

They're a Korean Doyo reel like Pfluger, some of the BPS stuff and the Lews reels. Great reels..

Special buy BPS Nitro Tournament Zs go for $60. Aluminum frame, 10bb, externally adjustable centrifugal brakes, Korean built, ect.

The old molds were destroyed. The post rapalas that look like he old ones are not carbon copies of the old warts but post rapala warts made to look like, at least on the outside, like the old warts. They are far more stale and have different sound profile than the pre rapala warts.