fishballer06

I went with Chad Morgenthaler in bucket E. The guy finished 2nd at the Elite event on Toledo Bend in 2014 and somehow only had 1.47% of the picks for bucket E. I thought I had a top secret pick for this one. He's currently sitting in 45th and is my worst performing pick so far. Bummer. Hackney, Van Dam, Evers, Chapman, Morgenthaler.

I jumped up to Costa's last year and there's no looking back. I've now got 3 pairs. Each one has it's own special purpose. 580G Green Mirror lens - great for super sunny days and general daily use. Gives great color contrast. 580G Silver Mirror lens - great for overcast days where it's not full sun, but it's still bright out. Has an amber base which is probably the best all around lens color for fishing. 580P Sunrise Silver Mirror lens - these were just released and they're only available in plastic right now, but man are they great for super low light situations. They've got a yellow base and a mirrored finish on the front. I wear them at first light or dusk and they cut down that low sun glare but still allow me to see in the water. You can literally wear these clear until dark. Wearing them on a cloudy/rainy day makes everything bright like it's a sunny day. They've still got enough power to cut down the sun that if I were to forget another pair of glasses on a day that got sunny, they'd still work.

I decided to spice up the old girl. Before: After:

And here I thought only teenager's used that word...

They all vary by how they're tested and by how much line is let out in order to reach that advertised depth. I've seen some lures advertised as 6-14' diving depth. If you cast them out, they don't dive deeper than about 7'. So in order to get that 14' depth, I'd have to assume they're letting out 3-400' of line trolling, using either light line (8lb?) or lead core trolling line, and/or putting on smaller/lighter hooks. I know a Shad Rap RS is advertised as 7-11'. This seems to hold true for me. I hit about 7-8' on a cast, and if I troll with a cast and a half worth of line out, I hit around 10-11'. The Rapala DT series is great because the name alone tells you what to expect from the depth. I fish the DT6 and DT10 extensively and I know what to expect whenever I throw those. The DT6 I usually get 6' exactly on depth, maybe 7' if I'm using lighter line or I'm able to get a longer cast with the help of the wind. The DT10 is where I can really play around with the depth depending on my setup. In general, it does dive 10 feet. If I throw it on 14-16lb. line, I'm going to get about 8-9 feet out of it. If I throw it on my Dobyns Champion 765CB with Sniper 12lb. fluoro, I can hit 12-13' if I drop the last foot of my rod tip into the water. Every bait is different and things like line size, hook size, how far you're casting (rod length can help that), can all change your diving depth a little. Do your research online and you'll probably quickly find what a certain lure will run. Or better yet, go fish it yourself and find out.

If it's jumping off your spinning reel when you flip the bail, it's because you spooled the line on backwards (9 times out of 10).

Pond fishing. If they don't bite a Senko or Baby 1-, then they're not biting.

Do you want a Benz or a BMW? Both are excellent reels that will both perform at a level that any fishing enthusiast will appreciate. I own both these reels and I enjoy them both. The 103 is highly regarded by the Daiwa faithful. In fact, some praise it as the best all around reel Daiwa has made, however it is heavier and is being discontinued by Daiwa for some reason. So if you care about weight or having a current model, I guess the MGL would have an edge.

I picked up the 736CB this winter for a great deal from the Dobyns factory... I haven't fished it with a chatterbait yet, but I normally throw 1/2-3/4oz chatterbaits because I prefer the heavier size for getting them deeper, and then controlling my depth with the reel speed and rod tip. I'm not sold on the glass being better for chatterbaits, but I knew this rod would work well for my larger cranks/squarebills as well. A lot of people swear by a 7'3" heavy glass rod for chatterbaits (including Hite), so it must work well for it. For reference, my 736CB weighs less than a half ounce more than my 735c. Pretty impressive for a glass rod when compared to a comparable graphite rod. If you primarily fish with 1/4oz. chatterbaits, I'd go the 735cb route.

Pointer Pointer & 110 Simple is sometimes best.

Going to give this SV stuff a try... I'm thinking of adding some cork knobs to this. I also got this bad boy in this week. Hawgtech handle with Winn grips is already in route.

I'm not sure how many of you read through the Bassmaster article showing what the top pro's used during the classic, but they highlighted what Steve Kennedy used to take second place. Check out what reels Steve is still using...

I was going to comment along the same lines. You're going to spend almost as much as your reel costs new as you would on a new set of Boca Orange Seals. I would recommend upgrading the entire reel, rather than dumping money into high tech bearings. You will see more of a performance upgrade from a better reel than you will with your current reel with upgraded bearings.

Which is all the more reason to throw one on a pressured lake...

In a car/bus/train. Sitting in an office (doctors, work, bank, etc). If you're caught off guard in a public place (while sitting) like I mentioned, standing up is going to draw direct attention to yourself.

I'm currently at the 76th percentile. Every event I seem to do good, but I haven't had anything spectacular. I need a really good event to jump me up in the standings.

I've never used the A rig, so I'm not familiar with how heavy they are. I've heard of guys throwing upwards of 8-10oz. A-Rigs, which would really require a specialty rod. How heavy of a rig are you going to be throwing?

You're looking at 2 different rods for these applications. I have the Fury 795SB and it's definitely a swimbait rod. It's got a much stiffer tip than I would want for throwing big cranks. However, I think it's great for throwing large, heavy swimbaits like a big Huddleston, Gantarel, or the likes of. The Veritas model you speak of looks to be a cranking rod rated to 2.5 ounces, which the 10xd pushes the limits of. I suppose this rod would work for the 10xd. I use my Dobyns Champion 806CB for this bait and other oversized squarebills. However, a heavy umbrella rig or big swimbait would be too much for this rod. If you're on a budget and can only afford one rod, I would ask myself which rod will I use more? If you can afford both, I would be buying both and using each for its intended purpose.

On the first morning, Evers was working a walkway that went from the land out to a bunch of boat slips. He was throwing a Senko and he got it wrapped around the cross bracing between the walkway and the railing. He tried wiggling it off there, but he ended having to take his boat over underneath the walkway and putting one foot up on the platform and unraveling the line from the bracing. This bait was easily 5-6 feet above the water and Evers knew it was there because he had been fishing this spot for quite a while. This just goes to show that these guys are humans, just like the rest of us.

The faster the ratio, the quicker you will bring that bait in. If you're trying to keep a bait lower in the water column, a fast ratio is not what you want.

Found all of these on Saturday at a local lake: Z Man chatterbait with trailer on it (hanging on the garbage can at the ramp, still in fishable condition) Bill Lewis Rat-L-Trap 1/4oz. in Chrome/Blue (friend snagged some line while fishing a crankbait and brought it up, hooks were starting to rust but overall in great shape) 1/4oz. lead bullet sinker (I snagged a big clump of line while fishing a crankbait, this was attached to said line)

I've tried all the big one's. Zoom Toad, Rage Toad, Keitech Noisy Flapper. They've all worked well for me. I've also thrown the Zoom Z-Craw as a toad bait as well and it's worked well too.

While I can't comment on Kast King products, I can say this. Don't put all your faith into the quality of a reel just off of the amount of bearings in a reel. A prime example is the $200 Shimano Curado. This reel only comes with 5 bearings in it. On the other hand, the $79 Abu Garcia Orra SX comes with 7 bearings in it. Anyone who has ever held and compared these two reels would have no problem telling you that the Curado is the superior reel between the two. In the long run, you're better off doing research like you are doing and seeing what real world users are experiencing. The opinion of those people is far more important that what a bearing count of a reel is. I'm sure others will chime in here and voice their experience for you. In the mean time, best of luck in your search for a new reel.

I normally use 14-17 lb. fluoro, because that's what a majority of my reels are spooled with an it works well. If I'm fishing around heavy weeds or lily pads, I'll go to braid because I find it necessary to rip it through that stuff (or rip weeds off the hook). I've experimented with 12 lb. fluoro, and I feel like it's too weak for chatterbait fishing. I was either unable to rip it through grass, or I wasn't getting good hooksets. I'd get a lot of fish to the boat and the fish would either A. come off, or B. I'd net the fish and the lure would fall out of the fishes mouth. This tells me that I wasn't getting the hook driven into the fishes mouth well enough. Probably because the thin 12 lb. line and the stretch wasn't driving with much force whenever I was out at the end of a long cast.

Owner Stinger's (36 or 41) or I'll also use the Gamakatsu 2x's.