jbrew73

this whole topic has always seemed odd to me.. two of the most popular colors for plastic are black and green i assume because the fish can see them and yet we color our lines those colors to keep the fish from seeing it.. i always struggle trying to understand this concept. can any explain why this makes since?

like catt said, the settings for "your" reel is totally up to you.. nothing wrong with asking for recommendations but at the end of the day just try a few different settings and see what works best for you.. i wouldn't get too hung up on how others set up there reels..

all my reels are lews. i have the $100 lfs up to the $200 bb1 pro.. honestly i think the rod is more important than the reel when ot comes to casting.

not at all. i may pick out a backlash or two on any given day but its not a problem to me.. i feel like im better off picking out a backlash here and there than over tightening my brakes and feeling like im loosing distance when needed or even worse having to work hard for every cast.. i'm no expert at all when it comes to casting.. maybe im just lucky being able to cast with little to no brakes. now if i could actually caught more fish that would be great!!!!!!

i rarely use the magnetic brakes unless its windy and i'm throwing crankbaits but on some of my reels with the internal centrifugal brakes i will occasionally turn on 1-2 brakes for centain applications. . i usually just set my spool tension just tight enough so the the spool doesn't overrun when i drop the lure to the floor/water.. as long as my lure is matched to the proper rod i feel brakes are not needed in most circumstances.

i cant seem to get the zoom gatortail to run true.. always trys to roll over and twist my line.

bb1 pro!. ive tried several reels and the bb1 will launch a frog without ever having a backlash.

sounds like the rod has a defect.

i think most of the other rods and certainly the upper end rods are made in the usa.

i spoke to someone at falcon and it is my understanding that these are in fact build outside of the usa. that said he was very confident in the build quality and consistency of these rods for the price..

road warrior, do you get paid to push this product? it seems like they must or should be compensating you for all the free advertising..

hoosierbass,. stick with lews casting reels if you like them and the shimano and daiwa fan boys can stick their reels......oh nevermind. lol. i will say that lews spinning reels are not nearly the quality of similarly priced daiwa reels. i have a few cheaper shimano spinning reels that are about the same quality as lews though..

i have a falcon jason christie 7'3" heavy rod that is perfect for my frog fishing.. walmart has them on clearance at some stores for $25.

That jig ships really well but I found that it hangs up in cover more than an arkie style for my liking.

i find that certain crankbaits require me to adjust how far the lure hangs from the rod tip when casting.. 6",12", 18" ,etc.. to avoid helocoptering..

The bps carbonlite med works great for me. I have the med and med light in 6 1/2 ft . The med light is too soft to set the hook for me but the med is perfect and cast un-weighted trick worms with ease. I guess they offer it in 7' as well.

this or maybe a catfish rod

i just use my pocket knife. its not even a nice knife,just something i tote daily for work.

from what i have encountered loosing 3-4 inches off the tip of a rod dramatically changes the action. it may function but i doubt it will still work for the application you were using it for.

this!

is it possible that your braid is digging into itself?

i use 12-14lb mono most of the time. if its a smaller size popper i might drop back to 8-10 for casting distance.

bubblegum.. its the only color that i have success with.

you may want to find some lews rods on the shelf and try them yourself. i usually fish falcon rods and have found the lews custom rods run quite a bit heavier than their ratings compaired to falcon..

the rod could be cracked. i had a rod that was cracked from an accident and i didnt know it.. i had inspected the rod but didnt see the crack. next time i went fishing i noticed the casting distance and feel was off.. about 5 cast and the rod snapped.