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bulldog1935, I actually bought a 6'8" Major Craft rod from Japan a few years ago for this very subject, a Major Craft SPEEDSTYLE 2 piece rod #SSS-S682L/SFS. I broke it first day just casting a glance at it! I actually don't even know how I broke it. That was ridiculous! I then had a rod repair guy repair it. He said he could but it could take several weeks because he would have to apply glue, let it sit overnight and do that over and over. Anyway, he fixed it and I broke it again the first time I used it in the same break spot. Again, I don't know how I broke it, I just picked it up and it was broke. Unreal! This rod has the smallest tip I've ever seen. It was recommended to me from an American JDM angler cuz I sure didn't know what to buy. The tip end is hollow and so tiny. Overall, super lightweight. Last episode on this... I am picking up this very rod today from a different rod repair guy for the THIRD repair. For the 2nd repair, this same repair guy put a new tip on it rather than fix the break but after his tip install, it didn't cast worth a hoot. I told him there isn't enough distance between the 2nd line guide eyelet and the tip guide (after the 1st break), so, I had him now move the 2nd guide toward the third line guide in hopes it might cast better. If this doesn't work, I guess it's trash can time. Bummer, the rod is out of production and I cannot buy the top half to replace. This rod was $218 and I have not had a good experience! I am back into this sometimes using very lightweight lure and I have had some success with cheaper rods but it's still not ideal. I even have a Shakespeare Micro Series spinning rod that does pretty good and that thing only cost $25! What I am after is casting distance. The lure is so light, it's going to have to be some magic going on. I think I need a pretty long rod and might have to use 2 lb test line, and probably a spinning reel. I don't know how expensive a rod, nor a reel, that it will take. But for this use, I am willing to spend if need be. Heck, I spent a ton on my bass frog rod/reel, so, I guess I could do it for this! If need be. FWIW, I also have an 8 ft Sam Heaton Super Sensitive crappie jig pole that I cast with and it does pretty darn well compared to my other ultralight rods and it only cost $65. And it doesn't even have casting line guides, it has jig pole guides. To me, it's fun to catch fish on a long rod.

Would it be spinning or spincast? I have read that, actually, a baitcast reel casts further than anything but that has to be for regular size or larger lures. This question pertains to super light lures, such as a Trout Magnet, which is only 1/40 oz total, plastic and jig. I guess that would be part of finesse fishing or trout fishing or panfishing. What do you think for these super light lures? I would think a spinning reel but I've been wrong before, lol!

Thanks for posting. I don't see any mention of a rod or did I miss something?

I like to eat LM bass, I don't understand when people talk bad about their taste. I think I have pretty discriminating taste and I love them! Around here, that means fried. I have eaten a bazillion of them. Fillets, mind you. Around here, everybody always mentions crappie as the "Oh, I so love eating them!" And, if anything, I find them a bit bland. Today, I caught a limit of 25 huge bluegill and will clean them tomorrow. Will be awesome! Bream are good eating. I like catfish, too. So, there's four local fish I like. A lot!

In nature, it is a never-ending quest about food. And not being food, yourself.

I saw the Aird rods at Academy recently and now I see what all the love is about. I thought it looked and felt great. I think all of my casting rods but one are MH and I seem to prefer 7 ft but I fish a lot of soft plastics and hookset pretty hard.

I took my fly rod that I bought to fish for trout, bluegill, with the occasional bass. (I don't have a dedicated bass rod yet.) I couldn't believe I could not get a hit on a popper. Nothing! Not even a bream? Crazy. I put on a black streamer kind of fly and promptly caught a nice bass and that dude broke my line when he ran under the boat. I figure he was 2.5 lbs. I dunno if he snagged something rough but I had to let him go anyway (slot fish). I tried various sinking flies/bugs that I thought bass and bream might hit. Nothing after that for hours. I finally chose to change tactics. I went to another spot and just began throwing an ultralight spinning rod, casting a tiny gold spoon. After drifting closer to shore, I had a hit and the fight was on. I couldn't wait to see the fish because I wanted to see what it was. Coppernose! I finally caught one! These are huge bluegill. Biggest I have ever caught. I had a lot of fun until my anchor came untied and the wind made it not so fun but I managed about three more and then I had to go. I must learn how to die a dang anchor knot, that makes me mad! I am going to find that anchor, it's only about three feet deep. Maybe I can see it on sonar. Speaking of sonar, after I caught these big bream and was leaving, I made a pass through with my sonar and, wow, what beds! Beautiful sonar image of a bream bed. Those big uns must be working alive in there, it was really cool to see that image. Reason it was so striking is because in other spots on other days, I had already seen what I thought HAD to be bream beds but I caught nothing. But this one today, there is ZERO doubt, it's a bream bed. But I found it casting. It was cool, I caught about three on the small gold spoon. Then, on two back to back retrieves, I had a hit and a miss not too far from the boat, so, I thought, wow, that has to bream doing that. So I grabbed my fly rod that I had tied a trout magnet on. First cast caught a big un and then the fun began. Cast after cast. I didn't miss getting one there for awhile. I must've lucked up and found the heart of the beds. The trout magnet wants to ride up on the tiny jig, I will see if super glue will hold it better. It has to be straight or they won't hit it. Also, you gotta get to the bottom or close to it or they won't hit. I mean, bedding bream. Can't wait to take my older brother, he doesn't bass fish, just likes to fish with a pole, lol, for panfish. Although, I am sure I can talk him into using a fly rod, he has done some of that. I meant to weigh some of these big ones; I wonder if you weigh them after they have been iced down for later cleaning, if they will weigh properly. Pic attached.

This thread brings back memories from very long ago, over 50 years! What's funny is the local drugstore in my small town, that is where I got fishing supplies. I suppose because the assistant to the pharmacist was a fisherman. But he also sold me my guitar strings, and he didn't play guitar, lol. Black Diamond brand strings. As for fly fishing stuff, in addition to poppers, he even got me that little fly line eyelet that you could stick into the end of the fly line and tie your mono leader to that. I guess he ordered out of a catalog or maybe a traveling salesman came around, I dunno. I thought that eyelet was the only option, but when I bought my fancier fly rod rig at Bass Pro Shops a few years ago, they had a fly fisherman guru that managed the fly fishing section and he bout had a cow when I asked for the little eyelet gizmo. "Oh, no, we can't have you do that, you will make your line sink where they join; I will have to teach you how to tie the knot to tie the leader to your new line." And, of course, I promptly forgot the knot because I can't even remember the name of it! As far as that goes, I think I still have his well-tied knot on that rig. EDIT: I just remembered something else -- mayflies. They would hatch, I think it would be in early summer, and the bream would feast on those things. I saw a mayfly fly today; I bet that fly would get 'em, it looks just like a mayfly! There was a steep, clay bank on a local lake (big pond) and that is where there would a bunch of them right near dark. I guess they would die because they would flutter down to the water and that's all she wrote. I need to brush up on my mayfly biology.

"Foam hopper," does that mean grasshopper style fly? I googled boogle bug and that type of fly is what I used to use as a kid fishing for bass. For bream, I used smaller poppers. Bass ate those small ones quite often, too.

Any bass fly fishermen here? I have a few fly rods and none are heavy duty. I use them for bream and if the occasional bass hits, you just hope you can get him in. Always fun to get a bass but I've not caught a real big one. The flies I use are targeting bream and they're small. Now when I was a kid, I used to sometimes put big poppers on for bass, so, I must have had somewhat of a general purpose rod back then. That was decades ago. What about flyfishing actually targeting bass? You'd need bigger flies and a stouter rig. What? Anyone know about this, what type/size/rating of rod would be good? And mention of flies, poppers, streamers which work would be helpful. I don't see anyone using a flyrod around here targeting bass, so, the flies would be something different that the bass would see! I bought this for trout and I would have told the guy I also fish for bream and the occasional bass... Hobbs Creek rod hc9064 9' #6 LINE K14 4-piece White River reel HBC56 I also have a budget rod; these are $40 currently... Eagle Claw featherlight fly rod fl300-8 8' fly parabolic line wt #5/6 2-piece I have seen this rod called a 'medium' and also a 'light.' I also have an old bamboo rod, Montague Sunbeam 3-piece. I bought it and the Eagle Claw at an estate sale. If one were targeting bass, I am thinking none of these are stout enough but I am no expert!

That is my frustration with a fluke and a senko!

It's new to me and FWIW, here's my thoughts. Maybe someone will find value in reading. $31k, Xpress X17 Pro with 115hp Yamaha 4-stroke only about 1.5 yrs old. Pulled the trigger. I have a '99 Progator with 150hp Merc and it died a few weeks ago. And my '97 Tracker is always hard to start. Tired of not having a reliable motor! Over the past few weeks, I missed out on two fantastic deals by an hour. Saw the ad, responded, and rather than say, "I'm coming now," I delayed an hour. And that hour each time cost me those two boats. So, when I saw this, I jumped. Actually, I'm glad, because I like this one better. $31k is what I paid; NADA Marine showed $34k low retail, $36k high retail. I spoke to the mechanic (whom I know) that serviced this boat and he vouched for it being a great boat, the owner being very meticulous. Hope I got a decent deal; I thought it was ok and it was immediately available. Based on this being a seller's market with high used prices currently, I thought his price was a good deal for me. I figure this boat brand new might cost $43k or more. It's 'only' a 17 ft boat but my thinking was... - It's used, so, I save new boat sales tax. - I don't fish big water. Runs I make on lakes I fish is, generally, 1-5 miles. - It's wide! These modern boats are FAR wider than yesteryear's. You should see this next to my 1997 17 ft Tracker! - Width is great for room, storage, stability, ride. Bad for getting between Cypress trees but that's ok. - I actually priced a brand new Xpress the night before on the Xpress website; I was wanting Xpress. Seeing this ad was unreal! - I sometimes fish some very shallow water. Aluminum boat, lighter compared to a big boat, can access shallower. - It has a 6 in. jackplate, which allows shallower water fishing. - If high winds are kicking up big waves, I probably won't be fishing because I, generally, do not like high winds fishing. - It's not new but it's hard to find a new boat these days without a big delay. - It's decked out well. I might add a 2nd shallow anchor. Maybe a spot-lock troll motor down the way, unsure on that. - It has a 4-stroke motor, which I wanted. And I favor Yamaha. - It has two decent sonar units and they are Humminbird, which I like. - Brand new Fortrex trolling motor. I like Minnkota. - It looks great, has been well cared for. I like the Seadek. - Seadek makes cleaning it easy. - A test ride showed it hit 50mph with two of us. That is plenty fast for me. In no hurry, 30+ is fine! - It is very stable to fish off front deck. I am no young buck anymore, that helps. - The trailer is awesome; has real nice, double-wheel jack dolly. - The boat loads really easy! - The trailer and entire package is not super wide like my 19 ft Progator, too wide for my liking while driving. - Plenty storage and it's lighted. At first, I was concerned about getting my rods in the rod lockers of a 17 ft boat but I did it. Even a 7.5 ft rod. - Nice livewell system with oxygenators and CO2 vents and auto-circulate feature. - I would prefer a livewell at front deck but that's not very common. I was first thinking that all things being equal, down the way, if I were to ever get another, I might prefer an 18 ft one or 19 ft but that would weigh more and this one might be just fine all the way around. I don't care for the traditional nav lights, having to find those and insert them into their sockets; I would prefer permanently mounted lights. Stern light atop the Talon. 2020 Xpress X17 Pro Package Yamaha 115 HP SHO (135 Hrs) SS Prop Brand New Minn Kota 80# Fortrex w/Downscan SeaDek Decking Humminbird Helix 9 at Console Humminbird Helix 7 at Bow Minn Kota 8’ Talon Aluminum Trailer Fulton F2 trailer jack Hot Foot 6” Atlas Hydraulic Jackplate BayStar Hydraulic Steering Oxygenators in Livewell CO2 Vents on both Livewell Lids Center Seat (3rd Seat) Lighted Storage Boxes

I have a friend who recently bought a Nitro and he is very knowledgeable, I will ask him about it and why he chose it. Price is certainly an issue but if it's crap, he wouldn't have bought it. But I don't perceive them as the quality of the top guns. I saw a decked out new boat in Basspro a few days ago and it was $80k and I am pretty sure it was a Nitro, so, not sure how much you 'save' with their brand. I stopped to check it out just because it looked pretty much like any fully decked out boat and I was curious about the price.

You make a good point but many would say that those are not high quality boats. In glass boats, I was thinking more along the lines of Basscat, Triton, Skeeter, Vexus, etc. I assume that these quality brands sell for about the same, advise if that isn't the case. And I assume that Tracker sells aluminum only? I really was referring to fiberglass boats. I suppose it's a given that aluminum is going to cost less.

Do we all agree that bass boats are incredibly expensive these days? It's becoming rather common to see guys with $80k boats. My question is, why doesn't some manufacturer offer a great boat at a decent price and scoop up sales? Can we assume that this has caused a rise in the number of aluminum boats? They are less expensive? It just makes me wonder why this hasn't happened... if in capitalism a market with a lot of competition causes innovation and drives the consumer to find the best price, why hasn't this happened? (Perhaps it's caused more aluminum boats to be sold.) I will assume that there is no collusion among manufacturers to keep prices high. Share your wisdom on why the prices remain SO high! Mind you, part of the price in a decked out boat is a 21 ft length, shallow anchors, multiple computers on board (sonar), spot-lock troll motors and 250hp motors! The hull, even at 21 ft... I wonder how much hull price is actually is in the final tally! It's real common around here to see 21 ft boats with 250hp motors, fully decked out. So... one thing that could be revealed is that people are buying these boats. Is there an end to this? EDIT: Mind you, some of these big decked out boats are awesome; if someone has one, congrats!

OMG, that is hilarious! I have never heard that before, lol. That's my belly laugh for the day.

If you wanted to try fluorocarbon, what model would it be? This would be mostly for fishing soft plastics, both weighted and unweighted. I've only tried fluoro during one summer and that was it, lol. I didn't like it. It might have been because it wanted to coil up and was harder to handle than braid I am used to. I also use Berkley Big Game mono and it's pretty good. Would like to try fluoro again. I see that I have Seaguar Red Label 20 lb and also Sunline Shooter 25 lb lines. I would have bought these based on online recommendations because I sure don't know anything much about fluoro. I can't tell for sure but it looks like I may have tried them both based on the boxes look like they were opened and maybe there is some line missing from the spools. This would have been probably five years ago. I wonder if these remaining spools of line will be 'worse' than fresh line, such as making line memory worse? I have both baitcast and spinning reels.

Just an FYI, for sake of any reader that is interested in what we post, and especially future readers when the image link is dead (that is, if your photo is on an external site), it would help if we all write the name of any bait we tout instead of "this." How do you fish it? Do you just cast and reel it in with a steady retrieve?

What is your favorite bait(s), Scott?

Has anyone been enduring a slow or non-existent bite and gone to ned rig and been happy with the results? I haven't used it much. Problem is all the cover here; need weedless and I never did find a great solution to that when I was trying it. I was thinking of not letting the bait hit the bottom, just keep moving all the time and have less hangups. Thinking being that the bass on my main lake are seeing Senkos go by about every hour, lol, and a ned rig would be something different!

This happened to a friend of mine while he was mowing his yard and hit him smack in the head and killed him. He never knew it, instant death. One of the freakiest deaths I have ever known about. Life is short and shorter for some.

Sheesh, that is amazing but what's even more amazing is that if I saw it correctly, when the big 'un spit the 2lber out, the 2lber was still alive and even more amazing, just lazily swum around and didn't get the hell outta there from that big 'un! That is wild.

Holy cow, that is a big fish! I would think he would have weighed more than 10-12 lbs at 34 inches but that is just an assumption. We have "grinnel" or "bowfin" here and they look like your snakehead except they have solid color skin. Yep, puts up quite a fight. Why did you sell so many rods, Tom? How did you sell them, did you ship, and if you did, where did you get boxes!

Just thought I would post about this tackle box, one of the Plano Guide Series boxes, because I have used it for several years and it's still working flawlessly, all the latches and whatnot. I use it to have a pretty universal assortment of the baits and rigs I use. The top bulk compartment is very useful as a catchall storage spot for lots of things. The flip-up tray on top is useful for hooks and weights, tools, whatever you need regularly. Reason I wanted a tackle box in the first place is in case I do not fish in my boat and use my Pelican pondjumper boat or jon boat or someone else's boat, or bank fish, I can grab this tackle box and go and this serves as all I need or a good start. I can add other pouches, cases if needed. Have you found a good tackle box? Here's the one above... Plano guide series tackle box

Never heard of that brand, that looks great, thanks for posting!