fishballer06

I have a local reservoir that the main forage is crappie, and I've caught numerous bass with a crappie in their gullet. Since crappie colored baits are hard to come by, I make my own skirts to match the hatch.

That skirt would be killer up in Canada where I fish.

I bought some of this for my spinning reels this summer. Haven't used it yet, but it feels nice in the hand.

I went to the bar to grab some dinner and watch some football and this guy was standing in the back when I was walking in.

I'm always amazed whenever a smallmouth will cough up a 5-6" bluegill or perch. It's amazing how aggressive these fish feed.

You know I'm in

I've been throwing mine since May. I love this reel. It's like a Curado K on steroids with the MGL spool. I'm likely going to buy another one over the winter.

Depending on the size of the bill on the crankbait, the higher your gear ratio, the more taxing it is on yourself to retrieve the bait. Sure, you could crank really slow with a 7:1, but it's going to feel like your dragging a wet towel through the water if you have a DD22 tied on.

Looks like you've still got it

You can always email him and tell him how much you're looking to order. He might take care of you so that you can get what you want now.

Our bank bite here was HOT two weeks ago. But the last two weeks our highs have been between 50-60, with nights getting down in the mid to upper 30's. Now this week, we had two straight days of rain, followed by a solid 24 hours of rain three days after that rainfall. Now it seems like all our fish have left the bank/weeds and moved onto their offshore winter homes for the year. It's a sad day for walking the banks of bigger bodies of water.

I've thrown spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and Keitechs on it, so I've only been casting with it. However, I do know this much - they make a flip/pitch model of this reel. To my knowledge, it's the same reel, but it's got a different spool designed to hold less line for flipping/pitching. So I would assume that it can handle those duties well.

Sounds like Fluke water to me.

I threw a popping frog this weekend on my Expride 7'2" H. It worked fine for it (didn't catch anything on it). I wouldn't want to use it in heavy cover, but for sparse weeds, its a great rod for the job.

As some of you may know from my recent posts on here, you'll know that I recently purchased the new Daiwa Tatula Elite Long Cast reel. I've finally got some time in on the water with this reel to really be able to make an assessment of this reel. Backstory - I've own(ed) numerous Daiwa reels, but I've always primarily used them for flipping/pitching because I felt this was a category that Daiwa reels were superior at, and that my Shimano reels are better caster's. I've even own a Tatula HLC (hyper long cast) model that I use for frogging, but I was never keen on that reel because it wasn't the most comfortable in my hand. So whenever I heard that the new Tatula Elite was modeled off a Steez on the Tatula 100 frame and was tweaked for longer casting, my interest was piqued. Feel - Every Tatula I have ever owned has not been the most comfortable in my hands, but this new smaller size Tatula is very comfortable in my hand. It's small and compact, but it feels very sturdy in the hand with the aluminum frame and sideplate. The clutch/thumb bar has a very positive feel, and the braking system is also a breeze to adjust. My one gripe with this reel is that the handle knobs are a little smaller than I prefer to use and I have ordered a replacement set of RCS cork knobs to replace them. The Zero Adjust spool tension knob is a little different than what I'm used to, but I've started getting used to it. It's still possible to adjust, but it's somewhat difficult to do. On The Water - My first trip out with the reel. I spooled it up with 14lb Gamma Polyflex and mounted the reel on my Dobyns 736cb. I threw some spinnerbaits and buzzbaits with the reel. During this first outing with the reel, I kept getting overruns and backlashes every time I made a hard cast at full power. I wasn't sure if this was the reel, or the line I was using (since it was a little old). But I was very impressed at the distance I could get with this reel at 75% power. I was getting the same distance with this reel with less power, than I did with my Shimano's at full power. So this weekend I went out again, only this time I re-spooled the reel with Suffix 832 braid in 40lb test. Immediately I could tell the reel was performing much better. It quickly became apparent that this reel doesn't like if you put full power into a cast. But once you get the settings dialed in, I was able to bomb a buzzbait significantly further than any other reel I owned when throwing at about 70-80% power. What blew me away was how quickly the line flies off this reel during the cast. I think this is how the reel is able to achieve such great distance. Every time I would push it and cast too hard, I would be rewarded with a backlash. So there's definitely a sweet spot on the braking system and how much power to put behind your cast. What's nice is that I can make a soft cast and still get good distance. I can see this coming in handy on a long day whenever I'm tired, or for another angler who might be older or have a medical condition that hinders their casting. I hooked into three fish this weekend and the drag performed great for me. It was silky smooth and gave me no worries at all. The reel remained smooth and I didn't experience any issues while fighting fish and the reel performed exactly how I would expect any quality Daiwa reel to perform. Overall - I'm very impressed with this reel. I think I've still got some learning to do on how this reel performs, but I think I've got a good feel for it now. The distance with this reel is super impressive. So much so that I think I'll probably buy another in the 6:1 ratio to go alongside this one. If you're on the fence about this reel, I highly recommend buying one. And if you have any questions on the reel, I'll gladly try to answer them.

I do not.

I ordered from them about a month ago. They had some Adidas tshirts on sale for dirt cheap, and they had Suffix 832 for 25% off as well. On top of that, they were doing free shipping over $25. I ordered two tshirts and a spool of 832. Wouldn't you know it, I received 3 different packages for my order as well. They had to have lost money on that sale. My total for the 2 shirts and line was $27. So figure they had probably at least $15 in shipping.

The scariest is whenever you aren't paying attention and your partner sets the hook on one and the line snaps on the hookset. I almost jump out of my shoes every time.

Last years sale started November 23rd at 8AM. Which was indeed, Black Friday.

I've only fished my one Bantam for one outing. I've bought both my Bantam's within the past month. So I don't think I can make that assessment quite yet.

That's definitely too thin of a line. Bump up to 40lb at least. I use 832 as well, and that's the smallest I can use on my casting reels with issues. It will happen intermittently, but a soft toss cast may not give you an issue as much. Bump up to 40 pound braid or 12 pound nylon/fluoro and see if it fixes your issue.

Long cast. I spooled it up with 14lb Gamma Polyflex and I'm hoping to test it out tonight.

The swimbait bug bit me.

New Tatula Elite Long Cast. Spooled up with 14lb Gamma Polyflex. gif hosting

I'm guessing that your braid is digging into itself and this is your issue, not the reels fault. What pound test and brand are you using? If you have some cheap 12-15 pound mono, spool it up with that and just see if it fixes the issue before you pay to send it away.