MontclairDave

My 31-year-old son still fishes with the Berkley Lightening spinning rod I got him when he was 12 years old and going off to summer camp. He also still totes around my first small accordion tackle box, adorned by my first B.A.S.S. stickers I got when I first joined. He said the day that rod breaks he will bawl like a baby—and so will I. For me, I’m too much of a tackle junky to have much old stuff left. But I do have a 20-year-old 6’ 6” St. Croix Premier medium spinning rod that has been my go-to Senko rod since the first day I got it. Cork and guides still going strong after all these years. And I bought a 20-year old G.Loomis 783 casting rod a few years ago that is by far my favorite junk-fishing rod. Anything between 1/4-5/8 it handles like a dream, both single and treble hooks.

Bought a Daiwa Tatula 200 from eBay and it felt bit dry on retrieve. Took off side plate and spool and it does look to my very uneducated eye that it could use some lube. I am a newbie when it comes to reel maintenance. Is there a specific type of lube I should use on this reel? What surfaces should I apply lube? I probably could find some YouTube vids but figured I’d ask here first. thanks!

My favorite all-around rod. It can do anything including pitching and flipping. I use it out of a kayak. Length is perfect.

You’re gonna love the Headturner. Most versatile rod in my lineup. The moderate fast action is perfect for most single-hook moving baits and light frogging. And it can throw a 6” Magdraft in a pinch.

I assume the OP has since moved on but for those of you who are still interested, I have the HD medium power and for $70 I can’t imagine doing any better than this rod, other than Daiwa Airdx, but I think the Airdx has micro guides, which I despise.

Have the Tour S3 and the Smoke X. Love them both, particularly when you can get them for $125 or so on eBay. I’ve got em on saved alerts on eBay and will pull the trigger on a 3rd when it comes up in a 6:3 lefty. Nearly as good as my Shimano Curados for a lot less coin. Casts far and very easy to dial in.

Ooh I’ve had my eye on that rod for a while. I have the 783 MBR in the IMX line—older model—and it’s my favorite baitcaster by far. In fact I’ve used it for smaller (3” new size) Deps Scat and it is perfect action for that (and so much more) Let us know how you like the GLX.

I use a spinner for poop baits. This one launches them like you’re surfcasting. Very sensitive and has power to spare to get them out of light to moderate cover: IRod Genesis II (IRG713S) Power Finesse Rod Medium Heavy Fast 3/16-7/16 ounce. 7’ 1. My favorite Senko rod as well. Length:7’1″ Lure weight:3/16-7/16 Line weight:8-16 Power Med. Heavy Action: Fast This is the perfect compliment to the 712S. Its a perfect rod for fishing senkos, jigs, tubes and skipping docks. Length:7’1″ Lure weight:3/16-7/16 Line weight:8-16 Power Med. Heavy Action: Fast

For BFS shallow spools with no holes in the spool, take the spool out of reel, tie an arbor knot with a big loop around the spool, tighten knot, twist spool and reloop line around the spool a few times. If that sounds confusing (it does to me, and I’ve done it a bunch of times!) check out this video. The new JDM Kast King bfs reel spool has no holes so this worked great for that reel.

Zodias 7’ MH $110 for members. $14.95 3-month membership intro. sportsman’s guide. https://www.sportsmansguide.com/productlist?sn=13288

Mini max chatterbait on G. Loomis 783, which to me is a Medium powered rod, is a match made in heaven (braid to leader yields slightly better hookup ratio than straight fluoro but not a huge diff)

Yeah they do helicopter a bit. I find that if I dial back my casting motion and concentrate on keeping the bait hanging vertically on my back cast, it flies a bit smoother. But definitely not winning any casting contests with this thing. The Shimano folding swimbait (Armajoint?) supposedly cures that but I have yet to drop the $$ on it. Yet another bait that never quite makes it out of the Cart phase on TW!

Yeah, I have my eye on the Tiny Clash for around $90 but every time I have it in my cart I can’t quite pull the trigger. I’m guessing that will change when I catch my first real hog on the G2. (Which I am guessing will be happening real soon!)

ALF flash sale 25% off all Dobyns rods

Bought one in bright gill color a few weeks back after seeing a video on it posted by one of the guys at The Hookup Tackle, claiming it was one of his favorite starter swimbaits. So I gave it a shot. At $40 it is the most expensive bait I ever bought. But oh man does this thing catch fish! It’s kind of a hybrid between a small swimbait and wake bait and a big crankbait. Most of my fish are at night doing a slow crawl on the surface. The wake it creates is amazing and the bait keeps moving even at the slowest of retrieves. But if you throw in a half turn of the reel it dives to about a foot or two and if you are over submerged weeds, hold on cause that’s when you also can get slammed. 5 outings and I have caught a fish on this bait every time. Pulling out 2.5 lbers from my local pond that rarely gives up fish that size. Dropped a HUGE fish last night almost at my feet, my fault cause I was using too stiff a rod with straight braid. Normally throw it on SLX 7’ 3” swimbait rod with straight 17-lb fluoro, keeps em pinned a lot better. This bait is hard to find in stock but there are a few sites that have em. So, if the bait monkey needs feeding, go for it. My #1 confidence bait now.

Sufix 832 on my baitcasters. Smackdown on my spinners. I love Smackdown so much I might switch to it for everything but it definitely is more $$

I throw 1/4 to 3/8 swim jigs so don’t need anything real beefy. I use a Dobyns Kaden 713 with a Zillion spooled with 12 lb fluoro. But if I am using straight braid in murky water I use something a tad softer—a G. Loomis 783 MBR. The 6’ 6” length is great for target casting. One of my biggest confidence baits. Kind of the ATV of lures, can throw em through anything, and lately I have had lots of luck throwing them across Lilly pads and dropping into open pockets. That’s when they slam the lure as it falls.

$50 for Lew’s LFS on Dick’s. https://www.dickssportinggoods.com/p/lews-speed-spool-lfs-baitcasting-reel-18lewuspdspllfs68ree/18lewuspdspllfs68ree?sku=19250399&camp=CSE:DSG_92700080072644510_pla_aud-359064049599:pla-2299943029666_58700008710130941_71700000118653384&segment=&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADv4bTbKJnD2HhLg58_pMfPGo6_oO&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh7K1BhCZARIsAKOrVqFfItZyvGlIDRXCBCO2bA7HKYxXad6KmXk1UZEX1aj6F7CDUZuRnxcaAtDCEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

This

Got me a Quantum Smoke PT baitcaster new for $115 eBay. Retails for $200. Virtually same reel as Tour S3, which I already have. Great under-the-radar reels, especially when you get them for near 50% off, which is not hard to do if you just save the search on eBay and get notifications when one posts. Easy to dial in, casts a mile, big line capacity. I use em for frogging and mid-sized swimbaits.

x2. Love my SLX 70 last gen, only second to my Zillion but no way would I spend $230 again on a Zillion when I get darn near close performance from a $150 SLX. And that’s without the new MGL III spool.

Damascus launch.

Epic day today with the Ark Gravity bfs reel. Did a guided trip on Delaware and caught 75 fish between myself and my son. Used the Handing Magic ML 6’ 3” rod with the reel. 90% of fish caught on a 3” white Keitech Easy Shiner on a 1/8 ounce Eagle Claw Pro V jighead with the weed guard cut off. Rest on a 2.75” Big Joshie swimbait (my addition to the party) after the guide ran out of Easy Shiners, and also a 65 Whopper Plopper. Most of the smallies were around 1 to 1.5 lbs, a few to 2 lbs, so this setup made the catches a load of fun. For the bigger fish, the drag could not quite muscle them through the fastest current and so I had to put a bit of pressure on the reel with my thumb to gain more control and get them into the net. Worked great! Also was able to pinpoint casts to current seams a bit more accurately than with the guide’s spinning setup (Vanford/Fenwick). Sure, the spinner casted a bit farther but I didn’t find that to be an advantage. Also: being able to press down on thumb bar and free spool for a second or two to drop the bait and make it look like a dying baitfish and then re-engaging the reel caught me about 20 of those fish. So much easier than opening and closing the bail of a spinning reel! Not a single bird’s nest all day—until I hooked my son’s line on a cast and bam, instant blowup. 100% user error. Tried picking it out for about 5 minutes and then gave up. Only an hour left to the trip so no biggie. Love love love this reel!

Day 2: started off with a Whopper Plopper in the 65 size. Thing is itty bitty! Reel handled it great but I wasn’t 100% happy with distance so I backed off the tension knob just a smidge and got an extra 10-15 feet or so. Not huge but an improvement. Left it there and caught 7 fish in about 2.5 hours and… wait for it… my son got skunked on Senkos! Water was super dirty due to torrential rain last night, so maybe not idea bait choice. Until water clears not sure I’m gonna be throwing anything smaller for a while so will update later.

Vacay on the upper Delaware in PA. Friday going with a guide but until then using my kayak at a put-in just down the road from the house rental. Using a JDM Handing Magic ml rated from 5-17 grams. Liking the rod so far. My first foray into bfs so I am by no means an expert but I think I’m on the power bfs side of things with this set-up. ironically I walked down to the river from the rental house today at high noon, waded out to a rock and caught more—and bigger—smallies in one hour than I did in 6 hours in the yak yesterday. Biggest one was a 2.5 lber. Landing that fish from shore in pretty honking current was fun! Just casted upstream, let wacky rigged Senko float down river on semi-slack line, bam, kept hooking up between 12 and 3 o’clock on the casting “clock.” Made up for being outfished by my son yesterday about 3-1! He threw Senkos all day long; I wasted too much time cyling through paddletails, topwaters, underspins, chatterbaits, jerkbaits, blah blah blah. I get bored fishing Senkos and prefer moving baits but the Senko is apparently what they want. As long as it has copper color in it, that is…. (Crayfish imitator maybe?) Yeah, I’m a bit worried the 8 lb J Braid I am using might be a tad on the heavy side for throwing 1/16 ounce baits but jeez it feels hair-thin to me, based on the 50-lb braid I’m used to fishing on my other baitcasters!