fishballer06

Be careful with those Statos' around that time frame. There was a recall on the hauls because the transom on them was falling apart. My tournament partner just bought a 2000 Stratos back in October and it's currently in the shop getting the fiberglass on the entire back end rebuilt. Thankfully the insurance company is eating the $8k bill to get all that done.

I saw photo's of this back whenever it happened. Pretty cool to see it happen on video.

Another vote here for the Curado I

Seaguar or Albright for me.

A rod for ~$50 that will handle a weightless wacky rig and a 14 ft. deep diving crankbait.... I'm not trying to degrade your budget, but (ideally) you're going to need 2 different rods for those purposes. In order to use a crank that dives 14 ft, you're going to need a MH rod at least, with a moderate action.

Damiki air craws will also stand up because the claws on them are hollow This is an air craw on a Gamakatsu Alien Head jig. And here's a better photo of the craws and the claw design.

I have only used the Fluoroclear and it has worked great for me. I have a spool of the CX but I haven't used it yet. From the talks of others on here, it is also a great line. As far as the differences, I"m not quite sure what all is different other than the available colors they come in.

It was one of the original colors whenever they first released the DT in 2003.

Thanks for the report. I'm getting very anxious to go. It seems you guys are right about where we are here in Pennsylvania. Water around here is between 66-73 depending on the lake.

I know the old green tiger DT's are going for $25-40 a piece, and I don't even feel that it's that good of a color.

Rapala still shows that color in every size except the 10 on their website, however from the way things have looked for the past year or so, I have also been assuming that the standard "perch" color has been discontinued. I have been buying up the one's that I find whenever I find them.

For $130, you can pick up a St. Croix Premier (or even less during most holiday sales, like Memorial Day... hint hint)

Braid: Trilene or Palomar FC: SD Jam, Trilene Co-Poly: SD Jam, Trilene, Palomar Leader: Seaguar, Albright (just learning this one)

In my opinion, Shimano has great spinning reels at every price point. If I were you, I would look at the Saros. If you want to save a little bit, the Symetre is another solid reel. Or if you can get lucky and get a Daiwa Ballistic on sale, those are also great reels, but they retail for $200.

Known for their extreme vibration, classic lipless crankbaits include Bill Norman’s legendary Rat-L-Trap... I believe you mean Bill Lewis?

I have also thought that this would be a good idea for this website. I know a few other online message boards that have a "deals" section where members can post and talk about online sales that are going on. Most of them use "rules" as well to govern what can and cannot be posted in that sales section.

I've been wanting to get a 685cb. I have the 684cb, but I think the 5 would be better suited for larger squarebills and larger jerkbaits.

I saw the photo on Facebook. That's all I know so far. I'm sure it will be nice and will retail around $200.

PM'ing you

Works for me now. Good job!

IPT = inches per turn while turning the handle of the reel In this case, he's saying he prefers a reel that brings in 21-23 inches of line per full rotation of the reel handle

Bill Lewis has the floating traps, and yes, they do still dive down (just now as deep). You could always buy those and put suspen-dots on them.

I ran a 56# Motor Guide on my 202 Blazer (20' with a 200 Merc on it) for years and it did fine. Speed wasn't the greatest against a strong wind or current. I'm now running an 80lb xi5 and I'm much happier. Long story short, 65# should be enough to power your 18.5' Skeeter around just fine.

The Ford truck ad before the video plays flawlessly. The video however, does not work at all.

Craw Chartruese Bluegill Perch Shad