blckshirt98

It checks all the boxes for me. That Phenix spinning rod was the first "high end" rod I ever purchased and to this day it's landed more fish for me than all of my other rods combined. It's light, sensitive, indestructible, and being a 100% shore guy it's my jack-of-all-trades rod when I don't want to be burdened with multiple rods. I can often just bring that one rod and be fine with it. Dropshot, shakeyhead, Carolina rig, Texas rig, senkos, neko, ned, small topwater, and any crankbait up to 5/8 oz it'll handle just fine. I've even thrown 3/4 oz Red Eye shads on it (though that's as heavy as I would go). Just overall a great rod that will fish the dropshot and shakeyhead the OP was looking for, and, can be used other ways as well.

Phenix M1 MXS72M or 78M

I got some more Trokar hooks, hands down the best hooks I've ever used.

Here's a weird question - when I fish from the bank I have a habit of picking up lead (or other) weights that I find laying around to help keep the places I fish clean. Some of the lead can be reused but most of it is basically scrap. Other than throwing it in the trash to the landfill or finding someone local who melts lead into their own weights, anything else this stuff can be re-purposed for?

If you can find one on sale to get it under $150, the Phenix M1 MXS72M is still the rod that has caught more fish than all my other rods combined. As a shore guy I often only want to just bring one rod, and this rod does most everything I need except for throwing heavy stuff.

As a bank guy I keep my terminal tackle in the original packaging if possible and put them into a Ziploc sandwich bag. If I need to bring extra I'll put them in a larger quart size bag.

Store them in Ziploc gallon freezer bags by brand or type, then store those in the large 66 qt Sterlites.

Start collecting rare swimbaits. If you ever need cash you can always sell them, usually same-day for close to what you paid for it.

OP never stated if the reel was a spinning or casting reel. Do not put 15# fluoro on a spinning reel it'll fly off like a slinky. Like Tom said 8lb is the absolute max you want to go on a spinning reel if you want to use fluoro.

Agree with roadwarrior here, 10# fluoro will go flying off your spinning reel like a slinky.

Anything involving detecting bites on the fall. I'm horrible when it comes to looking at my line. I can't remember the last time, if ever, I've set a hook on a falling bait because I saw the line jump.

I've never understood the "panic box" for similar reasons, if you know something will catch fish why not use it. For me, it's that the confidence plastic I use is discontinued and I have a really limited supply. I imagine some panic boxes would have some of those old-school Wiggle Warts or other hard-to-find baits.

This is true. Exception would be for certain swimbait rods as long as you don't get them personalized - rods by LDC and MOAM hold their value very well.

For that money, custom for sure.

The Sedona is a great reel. If you closed your eyes you probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a Sedona or a Sahara.

I prefer the feel of Winn grips but I have concerns about durability. My brother uses Winn grips on his golf clubs and those things wear out and need to be re-wrapped fairly often. If it's a rod that's going to see heavy use I'd go with cork until we see more feedback on the durability of the Winn grips on fishing rods.

I've got a 300 size reel I'm about to spool with some bulk mono I have laying around, I've got CXX in either 20lb or 30lb that I'm trying to go through, but can't make up my mind which to use. The reel will be paired with a 8' Heavy rod designed for 2-7oz baits, but will stay on the lower end of that rating, 2-4oz swimbaits.

I like neoprene sleeves but the neoprene is noticeably heavier than mesh. All the mesh sleeves basically use the same generic sleeve material that you can buy at Home Depot in bulk for dirt cheap, and they just cut and finish them. If you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty there are YouTube videos that show you how to make them yourself, and you'll save a ton of money if you have a lot of rods to sleeve.

Dollar for dollar the Shimano Sienna is tough to beat, especially if you can find them on sale. I bought a couple of Siennas to use in the surf because I didn't want the salt/sand to ruin a nice reel and this way it would be cheap to replace the entire reel. I'm still using the first Sienna for several years now and it's holding up fine while the backup is still collecting dust.

Are your hooks kept sharp and if they're stout hooks like you said are you really driving the hook in on your hooksets?

I carry a couple of plastics that I feel if they don't get bit, nothing will get bit. Not a whole box, otherwise I'd just fish that box.

6-7lb FC leader led to a lot of knot failures. Upping that to 10-12lb FC has almost eliminated knot failures altogether. 8lb FC is now as light as I'll go.

I would dropshot Strike King Dream Shots in Morning Dawn or Brown Purple until my fingers bled.

As a shore guy who fishes primarily drop-shot for finesse, I'm shooting for a 50% hookup rate whenever I go out. Landing rate I'm aiming for 100% once I get a hookup and I honestly think I'm floating around the mid-90%'s for a landing rate. The hookup rate I could improve by not being so lazy (i.e. re-tying more often, or, even sharpening my tied-on hook that has obviously dulled). The landing rate I'm happy where it's at, as most fish that are lost is when they jump and are able to the throw the hook.

You should be fine, one of my favorite drop shot setups is an older Daiwa 1000 Fuego paired with an 8' Phenix UL trout rod. The reel has 8# braid that I'll run to a 6-7# FC leader. It's not only a decent drop shot set up, it's an incredibly fun drop shot set up when you're reeling in bass on such light tackle.