bigturtle

Anytime you catch a fish, its technically a reaction strike.

Which model? Old old or new?

Nice necro, 10/10

Why do you need to replace that reel?

slower you reel, slower it rises

lol

4th saturday of june, because canadian regulations

Purple, pink and yellow.

I think he's asking for baits, not a new rod. For under 1oz, try Savage Gear swimabits. I personally use the glide swimmer(1oz) and lipless 4play swim&jerk(3/4oz). Both hardbody Livetarget also makes 2? hardbody swimbaits, never tried them but both under 1oz.

I use braid + leader on everything

i use them in heavy weed and lily pad fields. i put a 4" mister twister pink worm on the end of a 1/2oz gold or black silverminnow.

I use all the lines, up to 20lb of each, with tip guides with ID of 3mm

Megabass Pop Max, first in the water, last out.

my god, you people have to burn your line to get a knot to hold? wow.....

i throw my 3/8oz jig + 1/4oz trailer up to 30 yards no prob. 6'6" Med/Fast spinning rod with 30lb powerpro braid+12lb sufix elite mono leader

What does this do?

you can fish like any other worm rig. drag it, hop it, leave it, etc

if you want to tie any knot that you are unsure of, double the number of loops around the eye of the lure. this usually fixes the problem.

extra fast is most people's preference for plastics and jigs.

fluorocarbon lines loses much of its stretch if you stretch it hard once, but as a whole, nothing comes close to braid as far as long distance hooksets are concerned. If its close range, less than 20-30 feet, it doesnt matter too much.

7' will definitely be more versatile than the 7'3" because a ) its shorter, so it will be easier to cast accurately b ) its shorter, so its easier to twitch/walk/pop with c ) its a fast action vs the extra fast on the 7'3" Buuuut, looking at your arsenal, the 7'3" might be better simply to fill in a hole, as a dedicated soft plastic/jig rod.

too small

Fish up here are bigger than what you have down there if 2/0 is all you ever need. we have 30lb+ musky and pike that require 4/0-7/0 hooks up here in Canada. Large 7lb+ bass occasionally hit lures with 5/0 hooks too. 5/0 hook looks tiny to me if you are using it to snag alligator gars.

I would not recommend that combo at all. Instead, I would recommend you to get Shimano Sienna FD reel ($30), in whatever size you find appropriate, and either the new or old Basspro Bionic Blade rod when it is on sale($60-70). The difference between the new and old bionic blade rods are just the handle. Basspro has sale on their rods fairly frequently, and if you cant wait for a discount, then get the Berkley Lightning Shock or the Ugly Stik Elite. Personally I would choose the Ugly Stik for its durability, because I find the difference in sensitivity between those 2 rods to be negligible. Ugly Stik also offers more options for their rods.

you snag gators with a 5/0 treble hook? do you know how big a 5/0 actually is