blckshirt98

There's a few out there, one that comes to mind on the top of my head is the SPRO Little John series.

All warranties on reels are pretty short, I'm assuming since they take the most wear and tear of any piece of gear. The only "lifetime" warranty I've seen is on the older Van Staals, but even they went to a 1-year warranty on newer reels.

I look at the graphite numbers simarly to speaker manufacturers who call their speakers like "400 watt speakers" vs "1000 watt speakers" = no relation to actual performance or quality.

Sweet, Cabela's has marked these down before but never this low. Thanks for the heads up I just got a gripload!

So wait, you have almost 900 jigs?!?!?

I don't think it's unethical, but I do think it's kind of cheese. It's like hunting for birds by camping out next to bird houses after they've laid eggs. I'd be okay with not allowing fishing for a month during spawning if it means the fishing the other 11 months are greatly improved.

The new Yum dropshot baits (Sharpshooter/Kill Shot/Warning Shot) are all amazing dropshot baits and economically one of the best at 15-30 cents per bait.

I look at warranty because I like the thought of "I'll never have to buy this rod again for the rest of my life". I'll fish it now, I'll fish it when I retire. 30 years from now when I'm retired if I fall and snap the rod in half I won't have to spend $225 of my retirement money on a replacement rod. Brand wise I've become mainly a Phenix convert just because every rod of theirs I've fished has been light, sensitive, and indestructable. St Croix has also delivered but I think they run a little stiff.

I have some of the neoprene ones and the only negative I can find on them is that they're heavy, and whenever I try to put them on a ML rod i feel like the rod might snap if I'm not careful. If you fish in the rain and they get wet they would probably be horrible to deal with. They're really nice though. For the mesh ones you can make your own for dirt cheap, and they'll be custom fit for your rods. The branded rod sleeve companies just take generic cable sleeves and stick a label on them. You can also find some generic ones for cheap on eBay if you don't want to do the cutting/sealing yourself. http://www.boatus.com/fishing/articles/rolling-your-own-rod-sleeves.asp

I know a guy that fishes the LuckyCraft LV500 in Clear Lake and all he does is bounce them off the bottom as he brings it back to the boat and kills it.

As a shore guy, heavy rains covers up a lot of fishable shoreline and turns the first 10-15 feet of water into submerged plants that your stuff can get hung up on! But actually I look for where the water runs into the body of water, because my assumption is the bass are aware of the where new water comes in, and will be hovering there expecting the rain runoff to wash down and carry food. Bugs worms, frogs, small fish, and whatever else gets caught in the water.

+1 to straight out, "testing drag" by high sticking could break your rod tip.

If all my rods burned down to the ground and I had to start from scratch today, I'd go all Phenix and St. Croix, with more Phenix rods than St. Croix rods. Both companies make rods that I currently own and fish but Phenix has a lifetime warranty on all their rods, and, I'm in their HQ area a couple of times every year so no need to ship rods in a tube if something ever happened. St. Croix lifetime warranties are at a higher price point, but they also have a nice upgrade program if you do ever break a rod. I used to be a Shimano guy because of their OTC warranty but their new (lack of) warranty on rods means I'll never buy a Shimano rod again. If Phenix and St. Croix both went to Shimano 1-year warranties I'd probably stop using St. Croix, but would still use Phenix. If the entire industry went to 1-year warranties I'd go Phenix 100%. Their M1/Elixir/Crankbait rods have been absolute iron workhorses for me that should have snapped in half ten times over already. Warranties seem like a silly reason to base brand selection on but I like to know that "it's there" and not be something to worry about. If you've ever had to go a period without medical insurance when changing jobs you might know what I mean. Those few weeks when you know you have no coverage you're just a little more careful and weary; and if I'm fishing a rod where I know if I break it I'll need to replace it, that caution/weariness in the back of my mind takes away from my fishing experience some.

Main thing is get it back into the water as quickly as possible, so have pliers and camera handy in case you need to use both, and, try not to grab the sides or drag/place the fish on the ground where you might remove the slime.

CALL St Croix and get some of the Rage rods on clearance right now. People have posted if you buy at least 2 rods you can get them for $50 each. I don't think you'll find a better deal than that anywhere, but, again you have to call the factory to get that pricing.

I used bubblegum Reigns Bubbling Shakers on this one lake nearby on a dropshot last year and it killed them. Not so much luck on other lakes but they were chomping that thing at the one place. As for man card, I'll fish a pink rod and reel if it's all I had to go fishing. I might even get a Trait Crist spinning combo for myself lol.

This, and Baby Bass, are the two GYCB colors I use 90% of the time. Something about the gold flake in both colors that seem to trigger bites for me.

I think you mean other topwater/spook type of baits?

No matter where they're made most of these hardbaits are just molded plastic and probably cost no more than 40 cents to make.

I know this reel just came out at the Classic but I'm wondering if anyone has been around to a tackle shop and has had a chance to hold it in hand and can share their impressions of the reel? For $100 it looks sharp but might end up just being a cheap hunk of plastic with a nice finish.

I use a Phenix XG3 crankbait rod and wouldn't use anything else, or at least anything but a similar moderate action glass rod. The most important thing for me is ease of casting, because you're going to be launching that crankbait again and again and again. The moderate whippy action of the glass lets me lift the crankbait out of the water, pull it around and back, and launch it right back out like a slingshot with little effort/stress on my arms and joints.

I always start fishing plastics with something in a watermelon or green pumpkin with some type of flake. I'll throw that for about 10 minutes in 2-3 spots and after about a half hour of that will start changing colors/size every 10 minutes or so. If the water is clear I'll go to more of a clear/ghost plastic, if the water is murky I'll go to a reddish or black color. But I'll always start with something watermelon or green pumpkin since those seem to work at every lake around here.

Tungsten is pricey! I always get my dropshot weights through eBay, you can get 25 lead weights for about 7 bucks delivered (unless you're in one of those devil states that have banned lead).

IMO I think Shimano and St Croix rods tend to run stiffer/heavier, in that the lure weights indicated on the rod could be higher.

I'm more curious about bag sizes of when KVD was winning vs his bag sizes now. Are his bag weights consistent with what he was catching back then, and it's just that the rest of field has gotten better at fishing for those 6-7 big bites?