fishwizzard

I agree, a Loomis 4-power works great for a lot of frogging and is about as powerful as a lot of other brand's "MH" rods. I don't catch many bass over 4lbs, but catch plenty of snakeheads in the 4-6lb rang and I have rarely wanted for more power then an 844 or equivalent for most openwater/weedline/closerange frogging. I do use heavier tackle when I want to fish deep in the pads or when I want to cover water with a toad or paddletail frog.

I don’t have the travel rods, but the normal BLX line is incredible for the money.

It's not a worm, but a 6" Zoom Lizard is a perfect match for the 1/16oz-3/0 Pro Head. It floats to the bottom slowly in a slight head-down position with just enough speed to get the limbs/tail moving. For wind or current I switch to the 1/8oz version.

Sadly I live it is fairly saltwater dominated area so to hold anything above “middle of the road” it’s a 6h round trip and anything even a little exotic will be a two or three day road trip. I’m always buying more or less blind which is why resale value matters a lot more.

A few issues with a custom: 1) Lack of resale value 2) Unless you already know a lot about blanks/components and can get hands on the blank beforehand, you are still “buying blind” other then cosmetic choices. 3) It’s riskier to buy from smaller business, a lifetime warranty is useless if your builder gets hit by a bus.

I have a length of 50lb Power Pro that is just finishing it’s 5th season of use. I keep bouncing it to shallower and shallower spools as it gets shorter, but it’s never let me down.

I am a Plano box addict and probably have two dozen of them packed and ready to go. I either pack them around a specific presentation(s) or more rarely a specific combo. So I have a 3600 box with three colors of 5’ Senkos and TT to rig them a few ways. In addition that box has enough room for a slot of 3.75” Fat Impacts and the TT to nail-weight rig them. Those two presentations are both fished with basically the same tackle and complement each other well, so I like having them together in a grab and go box. I do a lot of my fishing from the bank and only bring a single 3600 box with me, generally with a few hardbaits or a couple ancillary bags of plastics. Having a bunch of them pre-loaded means that I can pick a destination, grab a combo, grab a few boxes, and be on the road within minutes. I also tend to leave a fair amount of tackle in my car, changing it out as the seasons change. I’m constantly re-packing my little kits as I switch up plastics/terminal tackle or just because I’m having a bout of insomnia and fussing with something helps me relax so I can get to sleep.

I do a lot of cast-n-crank fishing with a DS rigged with a small paddle tail, the idea of making a mini A-rig out of it seems interesting. Losing three rather then a single 3" Easy Shiner per hit sounds a lot less interesting though. EDIT: Some of the 13fishing filters are still up and running it seems like.

All the time. I keep my drag pretty loose and my palming grip puts my thumb right on the spool with most every combo I have.

The first toe I dipped into tackle addiction was getting a custom rod made specifically for the Ned. I wanted something short with a short butt for yak fishing. Got a 6’ MHX M/F blank with Microwave guides. Paired with a Ci4+ 1000 and 7lb Sniper, it’s perfect for what I wanted. For wading smaller creeks I use an SJR6400 with a 1000 FJ and 6lb mono. Despite being deep into bfs/finesse casting, the Ned is one of the few presentations where I prefer spinning tackle. I do throw the Ned on bfs gear from time to time, but I use spinning rods far more often.

How is Coppertreuse non-standard? It's like the second best color!

Maryland marsh ponds are easily 75% of my fishing, so muck bottoms are all I know. If you have not already, try a DS rig with a very short dropper line, like 9-12". From the bank the plastic will either skim the bottom or be an inch or two above it. A t-rigged 6" Robo and a 1/8 to 3/16oz weight will cast well on heavier line but will be light enough to not get fouled too badly. I fish it cast-n-crank, stopping to shake when I hit something solid or snag the weight. The best part of this presentation is that sometimes the weight snags and while I am shanking/pulling to try and free it, a helpful bass will swim over and do the job for me.

If you fish it on the bottom it is incompatible with most wood and soft cover. With a light head and a crank-n-glide retrieve, you can fish it most anywhere. For me the limiting factor is the mid-column cover, I fish the Ned on light tackle and have to be careful around spots where a bass can bury itself before I can move it out and up.

That’s how I try to explain it to people. The reddit nfs sub is notorious for conflating the two styles.

Not being argumentative, just curious, but what lines are you thinking of? They are a little higher at $350, but the Poison Adrena I have is insanely good and compares favorably to the US Destroyers or GLXs.

Yep, it’s amazing how fast it happened too. The rods are so different it’s ridiculous to lump them together.

Good to hear. I got like 75% of the way through making adaptors that will let me mount one, then they all went out of stock and my work picked up. I am 100% committed to getting one installed before next spring, being able to keep the yak up there for days/weeks will be amazing. Clear water killer!

I have two “frog” rods, one is 6’3” and the other is 7’5’. At the start of the day it takes me a bit to get used to switching out between the two of them.

I would guess about half of my rods are under 7’ and maybe a quarter of them are under 6’6”. I do a lot of hiking/fishing trips and a 6’X”rod is vastly nicer to bushwhack with then a 7’X” one. Most of my bank spots are marshy and overgorwn, so there again a shorter rod lets me make more casts from more angles then a longer one will. The only real disadvantage to shorter rods is line movement on the hookset, but I have trained myself to pay a lot of attention to slack line management, which has improved my hooksets overall with any length of rod.

How are you liking it? I’m sort of shooting for the same idea you have, being able to leave my yak on the roof for weeks at a time. I’m working with an ‘17 Outback and with the yak up there I can’t open my hatchback which is obviously unworkable for a lot of reasons. In addition to the ease of loading, a Hulivator would let me just pop the yak down to the side of the car so I can access the hatch when I need to.

The main thing I care about with coffee is freshness and since I’m lucky enough to have a couple good roasters in my area I’ll generally just grab a bag wherever I end up driving by when it’s time to re-supply. I drink a pretty obscene amount of coffee over the course of a workday and generally start with just a splash of cream and then slowly add more with every cup until by the end of the day it’s maybe 20% cream.

What loading system is that?

I for the most part never get an unrecoverable one unless I am hot dogging or just being careless in general. But in general I am a cautious caster and don't put myself into positions where a 'lash is more likely.

I can't speak to any given video, but some of the JDM trout plugs he uses are pretty heavy for their size, 3-5g lures seem to be common. They also tend to start at like $15 and go up from there, so there is some good motivation to get those casting skills sharpened up!

Very interesting, thanks for the info. A 3'8" two-part rod will pack down to 2', which from my (silly looking) testing, is the max length rod I can stick in my pack's water bottle holder and be able to bushwhack with. I have a coworker deep into 3d printing and we have an idea for a rod holder he will print me up. Basically a plastic "taco" that I will line with foam so I when I break the rod down I can slide it into the holder, leaving it rigged w/o the chance of the line or guides snagging on the underbrush. I use a telescoping rod now and it's too slow to bring into action.