DocNsanE

hold a BR tournament and put it up as the trophy! in all seriousness that's a nice rod to win! congratulations!

This makes sense -- and at the same time I can build another bag in parallel that I can force myself to use to build confidence in baits I never seem to use!

Umm... I am pretty sure the Tatula only has MagZ brakes, no centrifugal pins. I am new to baitcasters though so I could certainly be wrong... 6.3 is probably more of an all around speed, but it is true that it's generally easier to slow down than to speed up.

I'm not sure if I should go get some popcorn or if the show is over. Opinions differ fellas, if you don't agree with someone that is your right. If someone doesn't like something it is also their right. In the end, it'd be nice if the discussion was constructive though.

Why exactly besides lews? Regardless I went with a Tatula when looking at this myself and don't regret the purchase, but Lews would have been my second choice otherwise. Just curious why you don't want a Lews.

Pretty sure you can find the tatula around $100 if look hard enough, another one to consider. I don't think you can really go wrong with any of the recommendations in this thread, just grab your reel, go to the store, put it on some rods and find the one that feels best to you.

you can definitely fish for bass with that rod. In the end it comes down to what types of lures you can throw and without knowing too much about the specifics of that rod, I'm sure it would do well with soft plastics and top waters as well as maybe some light crankbaits.

I am not familiar with the rod, any clue what lure rating it has as well as power and action?

Didn't realize catfish would hit a top water! I never really fished for them but most of the waters I fish have them. I'd be pumped as hell to catch one incidentally.

Was it sitting on the bottom when he took it?

I'm just jealous you were able to wet your line. Everything is still covered in ice and snow here

I once scouted a lake nearby and found what seemed to be an abandoned and decaying dock next to the main road. Not too far from there there was a house with people outside. I made my way out onto the dock and waved at them and they didn't seem to care so I proceeded to fish the area. About an hour and a half later, someone parks on the main road and comes straight for me. He looks like he is ready to punch me in the face. He starts lecturing me about how this is private property and that dock belongs to him and he's super ticked about my trespassing. I just did exactly as you described A-Jay: put on my most pleasant demeanor, explained to him that I had already picked up litter on the spot and would be leaving it nicer than when I arrived, explained that I thought it belonged to that other family and they didn't seem to mind so I thought I was okay. I remained hyper polite the whole time. Meanwhile some other guy shows up in a boat and I quickly understand that this is the first guy's friend and he's the one who called his buddy to tell him someone was trespassing on his dock. He's also looking for a fight from his attitude but I just remain calm and super polite and eventually the guy tells me I can fish from there today but never to come back. Being super nice and smiling really disarms someone who is looking for a confrontation, it's even better when you know you are 100% in the right like in your case OP. Best of luck!

Same as others: watermelon, green pumpkin, perl/silver and smoke. Colors you can hold up to the sun and see through are usually pretty good. Someone above mentioned purple smoke and I can't agree more. On a sunny day, nothing produces for me as much as a purple smoke color like the Ozark Smoke for a Yum Dinger

In my area, Northern Pike fishing opens in mid-May and bass only open around the third week of June. I called the Fisheries department to ask them "what happens if I catch bass when targeting pike" since they can often hit the same lures. They basically told me as long as I didn't have any bass in the boat I couldn't get in trouble. I'm not certain if that explicitly meant I could practice catch and release but it's basically how I took it

most others have already covered the baits and techniques I'll go to as well. One thing I'll sometimes do in a lighter aluminum boat is move the boat to one end of a weedline and then let the wind and current bring me down the weed line until I am out of the zone and then I'll reposition and start again. Often times there will be two or three spots on those weeds that I know are more likely to catch but if it's really blowing, it gets hard to keep the boat in place.

Why are you recommending he stay away from XF rods? Is it because he plans on using braid? I thought that XF were a good choice for bottom contact like jigs for the added sensitivity, but I can understand that the combination of XF and braid would not allow for much give in a hookset or a fight. Although I have braid on one of my XF spinning combos and I've never had any issues. For OP: I just bought my first baitcaster as well; a tatula 7.3:1 and tatula 7'1" MHXF for pretty much the same applications you have listed. I'm pretty sure you can find both the rod and the reel around $100 each if you look hard enough.

completely frozen still

Sorry -- newb quesiton here -- what doess the baitclicker do?

Not sure if people will be able to help you or not, but I am pretty sure that they can't unless you provide more info. Like a model number or company name for that rod, and probably some pictures. Good luck

I agree with this selection, however I wouldn't grab the type-R unless you need the 8.1:1 ratio. The regular Tatula comes in a 7.3:1 and according to most there is very little performance benefit between the regular and the Type R so you're mostly paying for cosmetics.

Lews and Tatula were my two top choices when I was shopping around not too long ago. I think you can't go wrong with either of these.

I have 2 Supremes. Wouldn't have bought a second one if I didn't love the first one.

Thanks for the ideas

That's why I'd love something that could also be secured to the side of a boat (my friend's boat is a tiny little thing and when we both bring 3-4 rods it becomes mayhem)

Another good candidate, but I can't figure out what product this is from the picture.