FishTank

We have one at work and it is great cooler but not worth the money. My favorite over the years was a metal green coleman cooler. It was rusted, beat up and it always kept things cold.

Looks like an awesome rod and the $200 price point will put it head to head with G.Loomis E6X, Shimano Crucial and St. Croix Avid. Got a love companies competing against each other.

I love my shimano reels but this one seems kind of pointless. We will see. Maybe it will have it's place.

I have been giving my check away to Sierra Trading post for quite sometime. I usually get most of my stuff there and my wife shops for herself and the kids there as well. They have tons of stuff that I would never pay full price for in store but I feel better when I get them at about half the cost.

I have been eyeing this one from Gander Mountain. http://www.gandermountain.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?pdesc=Gander-Mtn-Fishing-Tackle-Bag-Blue&i=778152

Ya, I am looking at the Sidewinder or the Alpha SV for winter hiking. They are built like tanks. I just can't bring myself to pay $600+ for coat but I will eventually give in.

The Stella if you are going with light weight baits. What rod are going to pair it with? Hopefully something that is equally as awesome.

Vanish=bad line...... Worst line I have ever used.

I would say that for $300, that is an awesome deal. I would grab it in a heartbeat. I use to have a Calais 201a and it was the smoothest reel I have ever owned.

Hiking/tech gear Monkey gets me all the time. He is trying to get me to buy an Arteryx Gore-tex jacket....

Senkos and shallow cranks

Speedo Surfwalkers for the pontoon boat and Asolo Powermatics for bank fishing and hiking.

I figure out what the drag issue was. When it was spooled with line, a piece of stray line got stuck under the drag knob. I was not able to get to tighten properly. Took the line out and I was good to go.

Sort of. My issue was not that bad. I would just get line wrapped around the bottom of bail just below the lip of the spool. I would then get line twists like crazy. I would have to watch out for line and fix it as I went. It was not a good way to fish. My issue with the finish was just random little spots were coming off. It was not like I was abusing it. It was mainly in areas that I did not touch. And your right, at $40 you would think it was a no brainer.

Where are you at and what lake? I fish a lot of small town lakes and state park lakes. I went today and caught 12-15 fish in about 7-8 hours. The lake I was at gets fished heavily and we had a heavy rain yesterday so I am surprised at how well I did. I don't think I have ever gone 12-15 hours and only caught one fish on my favorite lakes. For me when the bite slows down, I fish slower, mainly weightless soft plastic (senkos and fat ikas) Not sure why this works, but it has been my general rule of thumb for years. It sounds like the fish have moved away from the bank and are gathering around one area at the time you are out there. For me, when this happens, I get there early, 6 am'ish and fish till noon. They seem to be chasing bait fish at about this time during summer at most of my honey holes. I also fish off the bottom and again slowly. It may take me 5 minutes per cast.

Maybe this will help http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-videos/choosing-lure-colors.html

Having not fished any of the rods you picked but I have seen them side by side on the shelves, I would go with the G. Loomis. As others have mentioned, the warranty would be the factor for me. I have one of the older crank bait Crucials and it is a great rod. It works better than the G.Loomis crank bait rod I have. If the warranty is not the issue, the Zodias hands down would be the pick. This rod has that it factor. It balances well and it feels like it would be more sensitive than the others you picked.

It is actually more than half the cost of most FC. It is pretty good line though. I like the 10lb and 12lb for most baitcaster applications. Take a look at Tackle Warehouse's website for comparisons to other lines. They will also give you a good description on the line itself.

Well, I took the new Symetre out for an 8 hour test today and it behaved flawlessly despite the wind. I set it up with a 7'3"Fenwick Elite Tech M Fast Walleye Rod (the same rod I had for the Supreme). As far as a comparison to the Supreme, the Symetre was just as smooth but just barely. It casts better and has an overall better balance and feel but the drag, despite being smooth, was under powered compared to the Supreme. So in the end, if the Supreme had not malfunctioned, I think it would be the better bang for the buck when it is on sale but Symetre, IMHO, is the better reel. It really is an apple to oranges comparison on these reels. Only time will tell. Here is the reel's first catch. I caught 12-15 this size and smaller today on just green pumpkin senkos.

I kind of thought that too but the shaft seemed secure and the line below the spool was only happening occasionally. I wish I had taken a pic but I got frustrated and took it back before I could think of taking one. It still cranked smooth and felt awesome. I am still working it out in my head. I have never had a spinning reel do this, this badly. I have had it happen with FC line on an older Shimano Sahara but I it was an easy fix by removing one of the shaft washers. On this reel, I tried three different lines with the same result.

Let us know what you think of it and how it compares to the Stren you have been using.

Colts fan here. All I can say is,

It is the diameter of the 12lb that is too large for most spinning gear. For instance, that line on a 2500/30 size reel will be unmanageable. If you want to try FC, I would go with 6lb or 8lb Trilene XL 100% FC or Invizix. Both have worked well for me. In the end though, the Stren you have been using is pretty good stuff.

I was out fishing today and my Pflueger Supreme that I bought back in February started spooling line below the bottom of the spool. I tried taking out the loan washer on the spool shaft and put in a thinner one. It did get better but it still spooled line onto the bottom of the spool. I then took out the thinner washer and same result. You could actually see the roller bearing occasionally going below the spool. I don't know what caused this all of a sudden. I have only fished this reel 7 or 8 times. I did try respooling it with some new and different line (Trilene XL 6lb) just to see if the line on there was causing it. I also trolled it behind my boat and reeled it in. I got the same result. Also, the finish on this reel was starting to come off but only a little. I took it back to Gander Mountain and they were nice enough to exchange it. I would have picked up another one but the old timer working there said they have had an issue with this reel doing this. So I picked up a Shimano Symetre to replace it. I know this is a popular reel> Has anybody else had this issue?

Fat Ika with a 1/2oz+ punching weight.