the reel ess

Yeah, this. Once you get good at it you'll want a rod specifically geared toward it. The reason I settled on 50# braid is it has better manners than 65, but it won't dig into the spool as much as 30. Ido love 30 for the other BC rods. Sometimes I have to just yank the frog/fish out of the slop.

Just when you think you know what you're doing and have it figured out, the fish show you otherwise.

In my estimation, it takes longer than 47 years.

I use 50# braid. I've never had a need for any heavier. 50 casts more easily than 65. The neat thing about braid is, when it gets old and dull looking and you want to remove it, you can reel it onto another reel and you'll be using the new end. It doesn't go bad. You can also mitigate the cost by filling half your spool with some cheap heavy mono like Big Game before finishing off with braid.

With the frog, that's not much of an issue. They're heavy enough to bomb a long cast and the braid has excellent manners. I have it on 3 baitcasters now without any problem. And I'm thinking of putting it on the last 2 BC combos.

I used to use a MH 7' rod for frogs until I started using them a lot on lily mats. I found I was always cutting off a frog and tying on a T-rig and vice-versa. Once I got the dedicated frog rod, It was on. I caught more because of better hooksets and got more of them out of the salad. You don't need one, but they're nice to have.

black/blue

Check this out. Apparently, All Star and Lew's have some rods in that range. https://www.academy.com/shop/browse/fishing/fishing-rods/casting-rods?facet=ads_f10510_ntk_cs%3A"5'6\""&facet=ads_f10510_ntk_cs%3A"5'9\""&facet=ads_f10510_ntk_cs%3A"6'"

I'm starting off with the War Eagle gold shiner, which is gold tandem willow leaf. Since I bought this bait, it has replaced most of my SB's. I use it almost year-round, changing to a black/blue with Colorado blade in the winter or really unclear water. I think most fish I've caught on a SB would have bitten no matter the skirt color because it's such a reaction type bait. They don't know why they bit it. Instinct made them do it.

All but two of my main 7 combos has a rod more than a decade old. I don't think rods have advanced so greatly in a decade that i need to replace them all. They aren't broken. But I have replaced all my older BC reels. It was a big step up. I just yard sold the round Ambassadeur reels I used for bass 15 years ago. And i finally retired the Daiwa Procaster I got for Christmas when I was 13.

I have a 7'3" Cabela's Tournament ZX Frog model rod. It's a great rod and can stand up to dragging bass out of cover. But I don't love it for pitching/jigs/worms. I've tried and it's stiff as a pool cue. The Cabela's line of rods are on sale right now for $70. I use an older Falcon Lowrider 7' MH MF rod for those other presentations. It's my pitching rod because it has a great tip, but loads up in the first 1/3 of the rod. That, coupled with 30# braid is all the hooksetting power I need. I bought it for $50 from an older coworker. I looked it up and they still have that model rod. It's actually their Big Cranker rod. But the action and power are just perfect for what I use it for. I used to use this rod for both pitching and frogs and it performed well until I bought the Cabela's rod.

I've not had much luck with red in any lure. I have an older spinnerbait in red/black with gold blades and the obligatory red craw Rat L Trap and some small cranks. Nary a bite on any of them, but the gold lipless crank is killer in late winter here.

The reel I was replacing had half a spool of 30#braid on it with half a spool of mono backing beneath it. I reeled just that braid up on the new reel and it filled it. Boom! New braid (the new end).

It came in today. It feels like a very smooth reel. They didn't waste money on making it all shiny. It looks "murdered out" like the local Nova you never want to race for money. I'm going to spool it up right now. It's replacing an old, heavy BPS Johnny Morris JMX-1000 5.2:1 Features: Machined aluminium frame 6.2 oz. carbon fiber drag alloy gears carbon fiber handle\EVA knobs 6-pin centrifugal system-already adjusted half-way The spool looks shallow, but it claims to hold 100 yds of 12lb mono 7.3:1 retrieve, 30"/turn I hope to ge to use it this weekend

50 on the flipping rod is fine because you can use it to double as your frog combo. I use 30# with a heavy mono leader for the jigs, but the leader is probably not necessary. I'm going to use 30# braid on all my BC combos this year and see how I like it. After I use braid, it gets easy to not set the hook hard enough with mono. About the only things I really like mono for is topwaters and lipless cranks and I use the same rod for both of those.

My fav is Gold Shiner. But Mouse is so very close that I can't argue with that one bit. I prefer the double gold blades because they just seem to work well in the dingy water around here and there are gold shiners in my favorite reservoir.

I carry 6 to 7 combos with me (I rigged a crate with rod holders and the kayak has 2) when there's a possibility of many techniques and I think before long, I'll be using braid on all of them. If I need a different kind of line, I'll use a leader. You can make up for the lack of line stretch by using a lighter power and action rod. That said, you can make it simpler by using a M power rod for trebles and MH for single hook presentations. The only Heavy rod I have is specifically for frogs. Longer rods for longer casts, shorter for shorter casts. There are exceptions like using a longer rod for pitching/flipping. BC combos for heavier lures and spinning for lighter lures. If you only let me carry one all-around combo it would be a 7' MH / M-F sensitive rod with a high speed reel because you can always reel slower. That's the combo that will do the most. I'm actually almost finished replacing all my BC reels with retrieves in the 7._:1 range.

Yes, I'm a good swimmer. But I have hit my head on bottom before and needed to be pulled out. I do know that you don't want to be swimming wearing full clothes and shoes or boots.

I ordered it. I'll give a review.

Hello from Kershaw, SC, which is halfway between Camden and Lancaster. Or nearly halfway between Columbia and Charlotte on Hwy 521.

I have the Frog model as well. It is a very durable and sensitive rod. I fish the frog in some pretty thick vegetation and this rod can drag in a lot of salad with a little bass. The butt cap fell off but I Gorilla Glued it back on and it has stayed since. It would have been fine without it. At $70 it's a screaming deal, even if it has to be backordered.

I know why they do it, but I stopped. I just use a leader if I think it matters. Most times I don't think it matters. I heard G-Man say this about tag end of your knot. "Forget the tag end. If he ain't bothered by the 50' of line going to the bait, he won't care about the tag end." Well, I think the same about A-rigs, spinnerbait wires, weed guards, hooks, swivels, etc. They can see those things, but it won't stop their instinctive bite unless they're already very skittish. Disclaimer: I never fish really clear water.

Has anyone tried this reel? I have a large gift card there and I'm thinking of buying this reel. There aren't a lot of reviews on it yet. It replaces the Motive reel which had killer reviews as do their Mettle reels. It seems like it has some of the features that you'd find in reels that cost $30 more on average, including carbon fiber drag. Either way, I'm not very worried about it because I have an Academy store nearby that I visit regularly if I should have any issues with it.

LOL. I just checked my bag. Between the Trick Worms and Finesse Worms I have 8 colors as well. And several of them are very similar.

I think it helps. I don't fish much clear water. I've noticed its unusual to find a watermelon or green pumpkin worm without glitter. I've also noticed that a lure that looks a particular way to me will look different to me when viewed through water. On the other hand, a company that has green pumpkin worms with 4 different glitter options is just trying to sell 4X as many of the same worm. Case in point: Zoom Finesse worm in green pumpkin/orange glitter or red glitter. I have a hard time telling the difference, so I put them in the same bag.