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Does anyone know how long this was running for? Did I miss my chance?

You could buy them and sell them on for profit.

Walmart has followed the Amazon model and has products on their website that are sold and shipped by another company. So make sure you look at what company is actually selling the item. You can filter to only items for sale by Walmart

When I saw this the fist thing that went through my head was "BY THE POWER OF GRAYSKULL"

if you know where it sank you could have someone with scuba equipment dive for it. See if there are any scuba clubs in the area. I have a friend that is into scuba diving and he had a couple of guys that contacted him to retrieve some shotguns that sank when the canoe they were using to duck hunt capsized. He ended up retrieving 3 shotguns and some other gear they had lost. He wasn't going to charge them but they ended up paying him around $150 for his time and expenses. The word must have got out that he could help and he gets a couple of calls a year to help find lost shotguns and fishing poles. Even if it costs $50-$100 to get someone to retrieve them it would be worth the cost instead of replacing a ~$450 setup

Another option to save a little money would be to buy the cheapest reel you can then trade that in at BPS. I saw a cheap spin cast combo at a local Walmart. You would still be saving $20 total and you would be helping some young kid to start fishing

Catt, I have learned so much from reading your posts. Especially your advice about fishing jigs or t-rigged plastics at night to improve your ability to detect strikes. I think I have finally found some information that hopefully you will find useful. instead of just adding bassresource after your search on Google put "site:www.bassresource.com" without the quotation marks. This works for any website and I have found that the results are much better than using the search feature on any forum. This is how I search any forum. By adding the "site:" then the website it will only search within the website specified

I agree with carrying higher end lures. Initially, you probably will not make much money on the tackle. I think you could use the lures and tackle to help draw customers in. I think targeting the higher end lures, especially popular lures that are not readily available locally will bring potential boat customers in the door. I don't think there will be much benefit in carrying a bunch of cheaper lures. Cheap lures require the same amount of floor space but generate much lower profit per item. Plus we all know how hard it is to resist picking up a new bait that you have heard about but have had a chance to use. People dropping off or picking up their boats for service will probably take a stroll over to the lures and you may pick up some impulse buys.

I have been wondering about this too. I haven't heard anyone confirm that they are built on the same blank. I know they are built with the same material(scIII) but my understanding is that there is more to a rod blank than the type of carbon that is used such as scrim, tapers and resins among other variables. There are a couple of different companies that use 40ton Toray blanks but have vastly different performance.

Have a friend that bought one of the Shakespeare alpha combos and asked me to see if I could cast with it since he couldn't. I tried using it and struggled to get it to cast even with a 1/2 oz weight. By no means am I an expert with a baitcaster but I have been fishing with baitcast reels almost exclusively for the past 2+ years. If I had started with the alpha combo I would have probably gave up on using a casting reel. I understand that money can be tight and $40-$50 may be all you can afford right now; but if that is the case, do yourself a favor and save more money for a better set up or spend it on something else. If you can come up with $99 in the next 2 weeks the BPS Pro qualifier with a Carbonlite rod combo would be an amazing starting combo that would last you for years.

I pretty much do the same. Adjust the spool tension to it is just shy of backlashing when bait is allowed to fall from the tip of the rod. If I'm tossing something a little heavier I'll run the spool tension just a little more than it takes to prevent side movement

I usually carry a benchmade mini griptillian but sometimes swap in a Kershaw or spyderco. I also keep a bright orange SS Mora companion in the tackle box. I carry a Zebralight H52w flashlight every day and will bring the head band with me when I go fishing. It runs off of a single AA and can run for several hours on the lower settings. It even has some low settings that are so dim that they will not effect your eyes adjustment to darkness. You can also rotate the light in the holder on the headband.

I stopped into one of the local DSG stores and the guy working in the fishing section was wearing a tackle warehouse long sleeve t-shirt. No wonder that store never has any good lures on clearance, they have a fellow addict on the payroll with first shot at all of the good stuff.

I don't know what part of Minnesota you are in but there is a Loomis GL2 on Craigslist in Bemidji for $35. Same seller has a couple Lews reels for 35-75 depending on model and ratio. You our could have a pretty good rod and reel set up for ~$70. I would probably look into it if I wasn't so far away

Your best bet to get the best rod for your money is definitely buying used. sounds like you are going to be starting out with one rod so I would recommend something along the lines of a used G Loomis MBR843 IMX or St Croix Avid 7' MH/F. Both are great multipurpose rods and I have seen them both sell for under $100 If you don't want to buy used there are a bunch of similar threads covering this topic:

@Worm Man 2020 I have looked up many of the topics that you started and just wanted to offer some friendly observations Several of your posts are difficult to read. The grammar and punctuation makes it a little harder to understand what you are trying to say or ask. The thing that creates the most confusion for me is when you start adding some comments that are almost like you are narrarating your own post. I'm guessing that you are probably posting from a phone and having some autocorrect issues. I am honestly trying to help you here so don't take what I'm saying the wrong way. Read the first paragraph that I quoted. Read it out loud slowly and accurately. It doesn't make sense. It does seem that your thoughts are all over the place, similar to how many people with ADD come across . Myself included(especially when I don't take my adderall) In one post you talk about getting a custom rod built by DVT then something about satin pillows and then you transition into explaining why you didn't purchase some other boat. This didn't have anything to do with anything that was being discussed and made me think "what in the world is this guy rambling about." I am fairly new to this site as well and everyone has been extremely helpful and very nice. I think the issues you have been having are due to the fact that it is difficult to understand what you are saying. Try making shorter concise posts. (I am still working on that part myself)

There is a bunch of good reading in this topic. It is even broken up into different price ranges and numerous topics for rods under $150

I learned with a Silvermax and was pretty happy with it. I didn't really have any issues until I hooked up to a couple of bigger pike. I think there was some frame flex that caused some of the internals to get misaligned and it developed some grinding in the gears. I also had some problems with the thumb bar sticking that I was able to fix with fine sanding and lubricating of the contact faces of the thumb bar. It it was a pretty good trouble free reel for about a year and a half.

I would recommend avoiding the graphite framed bait caster. I started with a Abu Garcia Silvermax and after about a year and a half using it 3-4 days a month it developed some issues. I think it was after hooking a 30" pike that was fighting pretty hard. I'm guessing the frame flexed causing the issues. The next reel I got was a BPS Pro Qualifier which feels a lot smoother, casts further and has landed a 38" and 33" pike with no ill effects. As far as most sensitive rod for under $80 go the used route. Check craigslist, eBay or the flea market here. You can get a way better rod for less money if you are patient and look around. I found a G Loomis IMX MBR 843C for $50.

I did almost the exact same thing with the first cavitron that I bought. I cut a lures off and put it away in the tackle box and when I was starting to tie the cavitron on my wife askked me to hand her something out of the tackle box. After I handed her what she asked for, I tossed the cavorting over the edge of the boat and realized what I had done before it even hit the water. I quickly grabbed my rod and unsuccessfully tried to snag it as it sank. All I could do is sit and watch as it sank out of sight.

Well, I waited too long to make a decision and when I went back in on Saturday to pick up the GL2 SBR both GL2 rods were gone. I think I'm going to hunt for something along the lines of a used St Croix avid in the 6'6" MF

Great advice!! I have seen some great deals in the Flea Market on barely used reels. Probably the most bang for your buck going this route

I'm just going by what I have read about the GL2 series on the internet. I'll admit that I don't have any experience or first hand knowledge to back up that statement and probably shouldn't have made the statement in a way that implies that I do. Do you have any experience with the GL2 812c SBR model specifically? If so, how do you think it will handle lures under 3/8 oz? What I'm mainly concerned about is lures like the Rebel Pop-R which is 1/4 oz

I handed the rod in the store and the grip did feel very comfortable. If I was paying MSRP I probably wouldn't consider this rod and would probably just pick up an Avid but I don't think I will be finding an Avid under $100 very easily. I was also thinking that the lack of sensitivity wouldn't be such a big deal since it would be used for moving baits.