bigturtle

Having experienced rods and reels at pretty much every price category that the fishing industry has to offer, from $10 spiderman combos to $800 Megabass/Daiwa limited edition offerings, if I had $150 to buy a setup for a friend, I would spend $30 on a Daiwa Crossfire or Shimano Sienna reel, and the remainder $120 on a used or discounted Daiwa Tatula, Fenwick Elite Tech, or St Croix Mojo Bass/Bass X. The rod is so much more important in my opinion, and justifies spending the majority of your budget on it, especially at low price points.

Hey, this might not be the answer you want to hear, but this topic pops up very, very often. I'l redirect you to a few other threads you might find useful, the answers you'l get will most likely be a repeat of the ones found there.

Ah, heres the thing with shore fishing and topwater. If you are fishing from shore, you want to cast as far as possible to expand the amount of water you are able to fish. This means a longer rod. A topwater lure is mostly fished with downward twitches of the rod, which means a shorter rod. I dont know how tall you are, but generally a 6ft6 is good for topwater. I personally like a 7ft even when fishing from the shore, but thats up to you, you have to decide whats the most comfortable length for you. As far as power and action, you want a medium power fast action for crankbaits and topwater, unless you are throwing bigger baits (5/8oz-3/4oz), in that case move up to medium-heavy power.

You are right that combos are geared heavily towards beginners and many experienced anglers avoid it. I dont know what your max budget is, nor do I know your level of experience, so I can't really say whats good and what's bad. I do believe in buying the rod and reel separate, but a combo can be good as well. Im pretty sure the Summit/Tourney Trail combo is better than your uglystiks, so its an upgrade at the very least.

I use 1/2 and 3/4oz a lot. I like to fish my baits fast, but still keep it deep

bent? as in the rod blank is bent? That's the manufacture's fault, and Its not going to get fixed by hanging it.

Any opaque color will be fine

Bought one recently, hoping to try it out when the water warms up more

doesnt matter, just use your #30

I had it on my reel for a few months, took it off because I was getting way too many tip wraps. Im not a big fan of soft braid on baitcasters. I do love my J-Braid on my spinning reels though.

water and wipe, maybe a bit of soap

Good beginner rod for topwater and moving baits.

Another Megabass X7 for 1/4-3/8oz stuff, paired with my Daiwa Alphas

Lews out selling Shimano and Daiwa? Good joke

I dont know how big the inner diameter of your tip guide is, but I use an alberto knot to connect 30lb braid to 14-20lb mono/fluoro on my rod. My tip guide inner diameter is 2mm and I can cast and retrieve flawlessly

Do you guys know why China, and other asian countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, has a bad reputation for bad stuff? One is that in the past, quality control was not as high standard as domestic companies were, and whether it be due to worker skill deficiency, lack of damns given by the parent company or the factory itself, or just bad practices, some stuff just werent good. The other thing is the sheer volume of stuff. We all know that defects turn up in pretty much every form of mass production, and we accept that as a fact. The thing is, because we are exposed to soooo much stuff made in China, the frequency of defects turn up much more often. This, combined with the first point, gave China a rightly due reputation for low quality stuff in the past. This has changed a lot over the past few years, and quality and standards are just as high as parent factory/companies in most cases. If Megabass, one of the few companies that specializes in super high end stuff, uses Chinese factory to produce one of their best selling rod series, we can be sure that other companies are also doing the same. Hating on made in china stuff now a days is rather silly if you ask me

Nope, go take one of your hardbaits out and try it for yourself. With a hook that isnt inline, the back point is always a bit off to the side, and when you reel it in, it will shift its position slightly and basically go into the same position as an inline hook. Also, with an inline belly hook, it will ride lower and may cause your bait, say a squarebill, to get hung up more if you dont put it on in the right position.

This is to promote better hook up. Imagine you had one of the treble points pointing backwards on a belly hook hanger. Imagine what happens when you reel the bait in. That hook point will be pushed against the belly of the bait, making it essentially useless. This is very important thing to do if you have a hook with an inline line tie. Rear hook isnt as severe as a belly hook, but having a single point face directly upwards promotes a good hookset. Imagine using a deep diving bait and setting the hook upwards. would you rather have 1 hook point sticking high or 2 points laying low, and to the side? This very rarely matters, but it doesnt hurt to do.

Out of the 50-60 jerkbaits iv bought in my life, maybe 10-15 of them truly suspended perfectly out of the package. Some of the baits, like a few Lucky Craft pointer 100 and 78, were pretty pricey, but had a pretty fast float. This also happened to one of my Deps Balisong, but I honestly dont care. You may not see it this way, but floating jerkbaits is a plus for me. I prefer my jerkbaits to have a slow float right out of the package, so I can tune them to suspend, float or sink according to the water temp. If your baits suspends, or worse sinks, its hard to tune them to suspend in cold vs warm water. As far as vision 110s are concerned, I honestly havnt noticed anything inconsistent with mine, they all float very very slowly, same with my Duo 120SP.

What store was this by the way?

The guy who told you that is stupid.

Did you know that Megabass Orochi XX rods are also made in China? Did you know that Orochi X4 rod blanks are made in China? Did you know that so many high end stuff are made, or partially made in China now? I always find it funny when people tries so hard to avoid made in china stuff.

I fish both. Perch and T1000. 90 for small fish, 130 for big fish

http://www.tackletour.com/autopsymbvisionx110.html http://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Megabass_Ito_Vision_110_Jerkbait/descpage-MB110.html

vision 110 has a fast floating, slow floating, and suspending options in their different models. I personally like the slow floating. If you dont think they are premium, dont buy it. They all catch fish just fine.