Fishingmickey

Dumb question, but I got to ask. Are you using Fluorocarbon line? If so, It might be the line sinking on you or sinking enough to mess with the action of your topwater lure. FM

Falcon low rider 7' MH F or Kistler Graphite 7' MH F are both fine all around rods. FM

Hi Ammo, I really don't have enough "stick" time in on the Zillion HD to give you a good answer. Both the G and the HD are incredibly smooth and sweet reels both casting and retrieving. I got the HD about two weeks ago and fished it for the first time last weekend. I was prefishing for a tournament Friday and fished the tournament Saturday. I was switching rigs quite a bit and it will take more time to get a really good assessment of the HD. But first impression is like "Oh yaaah wow, this is sweet". I've never fished a Diawa Steez or a Shimano Antares. But I really don't see how it can get much better then what I'm using now on both sides of the fence Diawa's Zillion's or Shimano's Met's and Bantam's. FM

I have two of the Zillion "g"s and I just got a 22 Zillion 1000 HD. I have both Bantams and Metanium's. All of them are great reels. Both the Bantam and the Met's I've had longer. I've have been a Shimano fan boy for many years. But the Zillion G and the new 22 Zillion 1000 HD are very sweet too. Now I am really liking both the Diawa and Shimano reels I have. Almost all of them have been JDM. I got two of the Bantams a few years back when ALF had a combo sale. Bantam and a Gloomis IMX pro for 350. Fishingmickey

I fished and sailed a Sunfish at the pond/lake at mainsides, Camp Pendleton. I did catch a Bass or two if my memory serves. Fishingmickey

Finzzy, 12-15# Big Game, fill your spool 3/4th full first time and go practice your casting. T-rigged 1/4 oz worm, 1/2 oz jig, something you can cast well and practice your thumbing. Learn how it feels under your thumb and how to stop a errant cast with your thumb that is headed for the trees. Don't swing for the fences, accuracy counts much more then distance. Set your cast control so when you release the spool and the bait drops slowly and hits the ground the spool stops. Big game is cheap and strong and you can break it off if you get hung up. A spool of 12# Big game will fill your reel about 11 times for 11 bucks, 15# will fill it probably 10 times for 11 bucks and that's at Tackle Warehouse pricing. IMHO 12# Big game breaks over 12#'s easy more like 15#. Go with it, it's forgiving, cheap and has stood the test of time. Using heavy braid gives you the ability to destroy equipment and maybe seriously cut yourself when you try to break it. Happy casting! Fishingmickey

My 93SV gets removed before transport. I unplug the cables and I have a Hobie "H" rail/Ram ball mount that removes easily and stow in the vehicle. FM

IMHO ( I'll probably get flamed for this) Spinning reels and fluorocarbon do not play well together. Especially in 10# test or higher. I have used the braid to leader in with 15 - 20# braid to 8-12# fluorocarbon on spinning gear and it worked fine. Spinning gear might be just fine in the 4# to 8# range. I just have never gone that light with straight fluorocarbon on a spinning reel. When I used straight fluorocarbon as a main line. I got line "slap" where during the cast the line leaving the spool would "slap" the rod between the reel and first guide. Also I might have overfilled the spool a tad and then even before I could close the bail the line would keep coming off of the spool and a made mess. I feel fluorocarbon is just too stiff to play well with spinning tackle. I am going to revisit using it as a main line in the 6# - 8# range and probably under fill the spool a touch when I do. Now as far as the best fluorocarbon line out there. Tatsu and Diawa Samurai get my vote with Invisx being a good second. I have tried a bunch brands fluorocarbon and it truly is a you get what you pay for proposition. Hope that helps some and I eagerly await my flaming. Fishingmickey

Zelmo, Mike L. and Bankc, IMHO have it spot on. Retrieving large deep diving crank baits, slow rolling a 1 oz spinner bait and high water resistance lures. Having a lower gear ratio reel makes life much easier on you. Where you'd like a higher ratio reel is (again IMHO) is bottom contact baits like jigs, T or C rigged worms. High speed baits , burning a buzz bait or spinner bait on the surface, ripping traps. Maybe even Senkos or weightless soft plastics where the resistance is low and your fishing it very slow. Once it is out of the strike zone/sweet spot you want to retrieve quickly and cast again. It also helps for quickly taking up slack or catching up to a moving fish to set the hook solidly. FM

Might look into Vicious Fluoro. I've heard good things about it. Decent reviews (82) mostly favorable on TW. I've tried it. Stiff line but strong and abrasion resistant. Diameter is much higher then Seaguar Tatsu or Diawa Samurai. Vicious cast on TW is 15# @ 800 yrds 46.99. FM

It could be small gar. I have had this happen to me and was in clear enough water to see the culprit (after I set the hook). Long nosed Gar are pretty abundant down here. FM

1/2 oz mostly, I do use the 3/4 oz quite a bit too for slow rolling in the mid-depth 8-12'. I also use a 1.25 oz for deep water 15-20'+. FM

I believe you'll love it! I honestly think that is one of the absolute best reels out there. I have two 20 Metaniums also. It is hard to tell the difference between the two performance wise. FM

In my lifetime... Probably about the same as the budget of a third world country. FM

Thanks MN, Seven headed my way... Fishingmickey

Running a 93SV side mounted w/1.5" ram ball. FM

Order placed. FM

I'm running the 23AH Dakota Lithium with my livescope GLS 10 box. I run the 93UHD head with a 17AH FPV battery. The Dakota runs my livescope all day 10hrs+. I use the separate battery so if my livescope battery drains I still have my 93 UHD working. FM

I believe it is a MH fast or the Heavy fast. 7'2 or 7'3 length. I'm not at the house though to verify. The bigger crank baits I mentioned are well above comfortable casting weights of a medium rod for me anyways. FM

I have used braid for deep cranking big crank baits for several years now. Deep to me being in excess of 18-20'. I have gotten 6XD sized baits down to 25' and 8XD sized to close to 30' using braid and long lining. I use 30# braid with about a 1/4 spool of mono backing underneath. The big advantage is how deep you can get a crank bait with braid. It is significantly deeper then with Mono or Fluorocarbon. I do fish with "softer" rods and use a lighter drag. I use a couple of Kistler's Feel and Reel rod's. They are a hybrid rod with a glass tip spliced onto a graphite base, Dobyn's champion crankbait rod is another one I like a lot for this method too. I think a Victory glass or Shimano Curado glass rods would probably work very well too. I use a sweep type hook set and play the fish with a fairly light drag. It works well for me and I have no plans on changing anytime soon for my deep cranking needs. FM

This might be a workable possiblity. I've been toying with the idea for awhile. This is a dynamic dolly. They also have trailer kits where you can use the dolly also.

I in the same camp, I have three St. Croix Mojo's and a bunch of Dobyn's. I think the Sierra series is one heck of a step up better then the Fury. I like the Mojo's better then the Fury rods also. Both St. Croix and Dobyn's are quality rod makers. I really don't think you can go wrong either way. I just feel that the Fury isn't as nice a rod and the Mojo bass rods are. FM

PA14 w/tournament load cruising speed w/turbo fins is 3.2 - 3.5 mph. With the Torqueedo 1103ac is about 5mph at half throttle. 6.2 full throttle. FM

I'd like to add to MickD's post if I may, I agree also that all Fluorocarbon lines stretch. I also think that Fluoro stretch's differently then nylon monofilament. I feel that FC's stretches later pound for pound then mono does. By that I mean it takes more weight or pull to get them to stretch and that Fluoro doesn't recover the same or as well as mono does. The above is mere speculation on my part based on forty years fishing experience with no data what so ever to back it up. Fishingmickey

I've gotten three 20 Met's from Digitaka and all have been butter smooth out of the box. FM