TorqueConverter

I'll get one or two of the new Johnny Morris CarbonLites. Those rods are so light and balanced that they make a veritas feel like a tip heavy pig.

I didn't care about aesthetics until I ended up with a matching rod and reel and then everything changed. There's something about a well dressed rod and reel combo that gets me. I was like this in my paintball days where parts had to match colors or be of complimenting colors. If you're gear is just tools then it's not going to matter to you but once you cross the line into tackle enthusiasm then it changes IMO.

In a dock fishing scenario I use the shakey head to keep the bait upright once it hits bottom so I can dead stick it or slowly drag it for that soft cold water bite. In warm weedy water where I'm getting bit before the bait even hits bottom, then I prefer the texas rig.

Swimbait hooks paired to creatures are underutilized. Sisson's 'dangle berry' rig is neat too.

Veritas is a jig stick IMO and an excellent one at that but I'd want something with a softer tip for moving baits and 'all around use'. I'm also a braid guy so maybe it'd be fine with that clear plastic stretchy stuff. .Just my $.02

Here's some lipless crank 101 stuff that is almost never mentioned. Depth: Lipless cranks of the same weight want to live in different levels on the water column. To oversimplify it, wide wobbling broad baits want to run shallower than narrower, tighter wobbling baits. For example, the Super Spot is a breeze to keep up top and a Rippin Rap is very easy to keep deep. The neat thing about the Red Eye is that it can be made to run at almost any depth, from just under the surface to 20+ feet deep on a normal retrieve and is basically a 'countdown' bait. Falling action: Not all lipless cranks fall the same and the differences in the way 2 baits fall can sometimes make the difference between putting fish in the boat or not. Belly down wiggle: Red Eye Turn on it's side: RatLTrap Nose down glide: Rattling Rapala Sound Profile: Lipless cranks are pretty noisy things and there is a lot of variation the types of sounds the baits can emit Glass beads: high pitched sound Steel beads: lower pitched than glass Lead beads: soft low pitch Knocker: either a soft or loud low pitch depending on material I don't know of any guide that breaks the baits down based of depth, falling action and sound so it takes a bit of trial and error to figure out how a newly purchased lipless crank falls, where it like to be in the water column and what it sounds like. Even if you do figure out what type of bait you prefer, it still pays to have other types in the boat. I've seen days where I can either get bit letting a Trap flutter or burning a Super Spot just under the surface. Knowing how the baits behave, having a variety of bats and throwing them at fish to see what they want out of a bait is a pretty fool proof way to fish lipless cranks.

The TWS, low weight. Magforce 3D and the ability to engage the clutch by pressing down on the hood make the T3 reels (stay away from the ballistic) good Daiwa pitching reels.

Rod give matters a whole heck of a lot more than line give when it comes to keeping treble hooked fished pined. If you're rod is up to snuff then you can fish braid with cranks and hook the fish deep. I've got two 6.6 med moderates, one with braid and the other with the most elastic mono I can find and the braid stick d**n near gut hooks fish and the mono stick loses fish like crazy. The reason why? The braid stick is very soft for a med and the mono stick is a med broom handle. Rod give > line give.

Sounds like you're missing a shim in the cast control (spool tension) knob. Sender back to korea.

Top notch work.

Not something I'd be fishing out of a yack in a small body of water unless I had an anchor, a way of locating deep structure, it was mid summer, I was targeting smallmouth and there was no wind.

Both baits are the same bait design but with their own soft plastic formula. It's one of those bait designs that is thrown out there and any company willing to pay the price of admission gets to produce their own version of it. They're in production under Tight Lines UV, Big Bite Baits and Overstockbait house brand to name a few. A number of Ebay sellers pour their own using a mold kit of the bait too. I really ike the flappy beaver tails of the bait. Great bait design.

Do whatever gives you confidence. Stand on your head and clap your feet together if it gives you the warm and fuzzies inside. I fish in 20+ visibility with red power pro #50 so take from that what you will. I believe that fishing line is incomprehensible to bass and things such as boat visibility are what actually matter.

#30 832.

Brought the Fred Young Big O to the masses in plastic. Kind of a big deal at the time. RIP

Hey, I liked that hole. Those old junky Pinnacle reels offered drilled whiffle type spools, titanium nitride coated level winds AND centrifugal braking. I couldn't get half of that on Quantum for more money.

Only if you're fearless. Needs replacing asap.

Who's the OEM behind Pinnacle? Lews are Doyos and Pinnacles are ______.

Other wooden Rapalas in Baby Bass or Smash.

GYCB Flappin Hog II. Those jiggly paws on those things will sit there and quiver long after the bait has been moved. Terrible beaver bait but the best cold water jig trailer I've found.

How much cost would Magforce Z add to a reel? Little centrifugal bits inside the spool can't add too much to the cost. Same thing gos for Magforce Z 3D. Low and behold, the 3D is bits of plastics that allow the magnet to be moved toward and away from the inductor in 3 positions. Hypothetical Magforce Z Excelers and Lexas would have eaten up the a lot of the Tatula's sales but that's not such a bad thing. The Taula's profile and TWS make the reel an oddball, but very appealing, reel and at a lower sales volume at a higher markup the reel would still would have it's place in the market. Too many guys went Tatula only to return the reel after finding out that they didn't like the profile and there was no similarly priced Magforce Z reel on the market to keep that cash in the Daiwa camp. The Tatula is aggressively priced, but why? I think that had they had a Magforce Z Exceler and Lexa I doubt they wouldn't have had to price the Tatula so aggressively. There's not a lot of love out there for the Lexa and the Exceler EXE being a Magforce reel is going to be a deal breaker for a lot of guys, myself included. The TW sale pricing of the Lexa 100 is a little ominous.

Isn't the "Z" in Magforce Z just little bits of plastic jammed inside the spool? Joking aside, if the Tatula can have both Magforce Z and TWS yet come in at $150 then the Exceller exe can have Magforce Z just like it had in the previous gen and certainly the Lexa could have had it as well.

Micro guides on rods at this price point scare me.

Tatula if just for the Magforce Z. Magforce Z should be on the Exceller exe and certainly on the Lexa. Why Daiwa thought it was acceptable to use Magforce on those reels is beyond me.

Pretty much this, BPS is a contender due to the large variety of baits and color pallet they offer.