DCales84

I'm using 30lb braid with the drag locked down for now and the jig is a strike king football jig. The weedguards aren't to stiff out of the box and the hooks on the standard football jigs are fairly light. I've got a box of Siebert jigs ready to go just havent tied one on yet so hopefully that helps with the hookup ratio. After I was able to get my gear unpacked from my last trip I noticed that the hook on the jig was slightly bent out as well. I'm glad to have landed a good number of fish for my first time jig fishing but am a bit in doubt of the long term durability of the strike king jigs i purchased over the winter.

So I finally got the season started off here in VA. I do alot of fishing out of my kayak and have recently taken up jig fishing. My normal selection of rods I take kayaking are all 6'6" in various actions and power. I'm looking to see if stepping up to a 7' rod may increase my hook up ratio when jig fishing. I have no doubt the fish have a good bite on the jig since most of them have smacked it hard just seems like i'm not driving the hook hard enough with my current 6'6" MH fast action Quantum Accurist casting setup.Looking for opinions and other ideas to help me land the big ones this season. thanks!!!

I used my LR Shock 7'6" some last year and its good for throwing an a-rig or a frog in the nasty stuff. Its not great by any means but its affordable. If your going to use a heavy action often spend the extra money and get something nicer as deals are still out there and you could possibly find a vendetta or even a 1st gen veritas floating around someplace. Both of the abu models I listed are lighter and balance better in my opinion from what i've seen when checking them out in person.

I've seen a large majority of Timmy Horton's shows on WFN and he has used a 6.4:1 reel for a ton of techniques. As an example the last show he was flipping grass and using a 6 ratio reel. Guess it's what works best for him and you will also see that he uses his 7'3" signature series rods for a large majority of what he does. I don't recall a single show where he has had more than one rod on the deck.

Like most quantums they are probably heavier and overall more bulky than other reels out there but I have had zero issues with the two that I have. I have the second most recent model. The ones that are sort of a gunmetal gray color. Also check ebay I just saw a few of the same models I have on there for 60ish brand new.

Same here. I'm right handed but feel more confident with a left hand retrieve model. The only major drawback is that many reel models I'm interested in are not offered in a lefty model.

When is the online sale going live??? Anybody know?

Its a four hour round trip for me to the nearest BPS. I try to drop by when I'm near one but its a rare event. Tackle Warehouse is where I do most of my browsing and luckily they have awesome pricing and selections. My local Gander is decent but pricing is all over the place. Its not unusual to look at Ganders clearance items and find two exact items priced completely different. Every Dick's Sporting Goods I've been to has been fairly limited on fishing items but I have found several great clearance items lately...... Stren 30lb braid buy one get one free in store and with a $8 rebate on top of it brings it to about $3 for two spools.

Your going to get a million different answers on this. If your buying it for the very first time I'd say your best bet is to hit Wal Mart and grab a spool of Seaguar red label. Pretty sure its about 12-13 at most retailers and that will get you 200 or 250yds. I ran 15lb red label for awhile this summer and it held up great esp. with some line conditioner added before every trip. The Bass Pro XPS is also decent for the price and you can snag some one sale fairly cheap. Around my area 20$ will buy about 200yd of InvisX or Trilene 100%. I will say that I do have 12lb Trilene on one reel at the moment and it casts well and has held up great but if it wasn't for being a great buy on clearance I would still be using the red label or XPS brands.

Like anything else that's mass produced some rods are never right in the first place and others are so badly abused its only a matter of time. My very first trip of this season a fellow fisherman broke his Veritas rod after doing some "tree fishing". While he falls into the abuse category I've had two quantum rods that have had the reel seats come undone this year from normal use. Anybody that fishes long enough will eventually have a defect or make a bone headed mistake and break a rod. Duckett is a hot brand right now of course people will be letting everyone and their brother know if something breaks or isn't the greatest rod on the market.

I live in the Strasburg Va area and the Shenandoah can be a very fun place to fish. Whenever you get back this way all you need are simple lures to have a great day. If the water level is good and the temp is up you can fish nothing but top water all day and easily catch 30-40 smaller fish mostly smallies and blue gills. I landed my personal best smallie earlier this season in the Shenandoah and it weighed in just under 3.5lbs. A tournament held in March produced a limit over 20lbs from the Riverton area so nice fish are here just not in huge numbers. I'll do a quick list of what we usually in my area. Poppers (smallest and mid size Rebel Pop R) Zara Puppy Grubs rigged on a VMC Rugby jig (Zoom Fat Alberts fit perfect on a 1/8oz VMC Rugby Jig) Curly tail worms in natural colors (Berkley Havoc or Powerbait) 3-4" Senko Rapala XRap's (Hot pink, glass ghost, or olive green) KVD 1.0 (bluegill and any red or orange craw colors) Tube baits (Personal best was caught on a Cabin Creek 3.5" green pumpkin tube)