fishwizzard

I think they just hit most stores a day or so ago and I have not found any feedback about them yet. They certainly look a lot better than the previous generation. There is also a bunch of new JDM Levante rods, some of which look really interesting. https://www.megabass.co.jp/site/freshwater/levante/

The reason casting reels have brakes is to control the spool’s inertia, there is no benefit to ever having a heavier spool. Having it spin longer isnt going to propel the lure further, it will just increase the likelihood of a backlash at any given braking force.

It absolutely helps when trying to cast lighter lures, I notice less difference when lure weight gets around 1/2oz. It would be great if more reels had shallow spool options but braid seems like the lightest way to fill up space on a spool.

I do this for flukes and it works super well. For larger stickbaits it works great for wacky rigging them, I run the CPS through the plastic and then run the hook through the spring. With 5” senkos it has not worked out as well, the spring seems go weaken the plastic enough to ruin the effectiveness. I keep meaning to pull the tiny spring out of a lighter to see if that will work better, but I’ve never actually got around to doing it.

Most of the higher-end brands have that verbiage but to the best of my knowledge Megabass is the only one that never seems to go on sale.

I suspect that Shimano isn’t making a huge profit per each Curado DC sold. The patent on thier DC system like 5-6 years left on it, I think the Curado DC was made to introduce a broader group of consumers to their tech before $150 DC reels start hitting the market.

I prefer a slower reel most of the time. Other then buzzbaits and toads, I never feel the need to retrieve a lure very quickly, even when "burning" a spinnerbait I never feel the need to crank as fast as I can. The high ITP comes into play for me only when trying to get a lure back in quickly to make another cast. Most of the time I am trying to make myself slow down so a slower reel is a better fit.

I am still trying to find a good tungsten football head for them. The Kietech ones look perfect but at like $3 per head it isnt much cheaper then just buying a Dark Sleeper.

Me too, I didn’t figure they would actually do much but since I started putting 1 to 2 per 3600 box I haven’t noticed a single instance of rust.

I back my casting reels with braid to save weight and so it’s there as emergency line if I ruin my mainline. I use my nail or a blunt-tipped needle to bury the connection knot. Or spinning reels I usually fill up about half to 3/4 of the spool with plumbers Teflon tape and tie my line around that.

There is no standard, other than generally smaller number = smaller reel. The only way to get a sense of one brand versus the other is to ask around online to find someone with both reels who is willing to take a picture or find two people each with one reel and get them to take a picture next to a commonly sized identifier.

Topwater for me. I *know* that it is effective but I *feel* like it's never going to work so I rarely tie one on. There is a great pond by my house for learning them on, tons of grass with a few inches of water on top. I need to just leave everything else in the car until I spend an hour or so with the popper each trip.

Yea, I have some and like them, but every one so far that I have lost has been to hook-setting it into underwater wood. They are really nice for scoping out new, smaller ponds. You can move them pretty quickly while keeping them on the bottom and they don't seem to gather weeds/grass/muck much at all. It's funny, if they were $5 per I would buy them 4-5 at a time but somehow that additional 99 cents gets me all worked up. I am going to try to replicate them myself with tungsten football jigs and 2.8" Keitechs but I am not convinced that it will be that much cheaper.

The trick is to find a M or MH rod with a tip soft enough to easily throw and twitch them but with enough backbone to set the hook at the end of a cast and get them out of cover. The two rods I like the best for them is a Avid 6'2" M/XF casting rod or a Loomis mbr783c MH/F. The Avid is way better for them in my hands so long as I am not making bomb casts.

Are you making sure the drag components are both in the correct order and the correct side "up"? That matters as well.

They are a marked quality of life upgrade if you fish out of a backpack and don't carry much tackle.

The hook rusting issue seems to be entirely dependent on what exact hook is used. I have had some where the hook up really rusted through to the point where I could snap it off with my fingers but I've had other rigged Neds that are literally years old with no sign of rust if I push the plastic out of the way and examine the hook. I keep my rigged Neds in a plastic and foam fly box, with a couple of z-rust tabs thrown in there.

To build on this idea, you have 21 of them, so be fearless in throwing them into the gnarliest laydows you come across. If you fish them aggressively you might loose a third of them in short order, but you will learn exactly what you can get away with and it will take years to lose the rest of them.

I think the 784c was made on all three blanks, but I have only ever seen the IMX and GL3 for sale and never in good shape or for a good price. There is even a mbr785C GL3, but I wouldn't buy that one blind. I also have a new-model 783c GLX and it is just an amazing rod. I wish the handle was 2" shorter but I know why they made them that way. Apparently the old mbr782c and the old mbr842c were pretty different rods in terms of power/action, I don't know if that holds true for the new ones but it might bear looking into. I had a custom spinning rod made up before I discovered the old Loomis SJR line. Like the CR and MBR rods they have a really nice taper and tip that makes them very versatile.

I use 3600 and 3500 trays, I prefer a very small pack when I am on foot so that rules out 3700s. This is most of them, maybe a half dozen more in my car from the last few days' trips. I pack them two ways, first, around a lure, plastic, or general "theme". So like this is my "craw-imitators in the 1/2oz and up range" box: Some 1/2oz jgs, some wobble-heads, some Jikas. The plastics are mostly Rage Craws at this point with a few random plastics thrown in to use up the ends of bags or to "audition" them for regular use. The second way I pack them is for a specific combo. These two boxes are for a Loomis mbr783, which is one of my general-purpose walking around rods. I have worked down to a few presentations that the combo casts and works well that I know will produce in the waters I fish the most. So the first box is a few 1/4oz jigs, chatterbaits and plastics for trailers. I also carry assorted TT to rig the trailer plastics a few different ways. Then it's a few swimjigs and trailers, plus the same alternate rigging supplies. Rounded out with some trickworms for when I need to go shallow and subtle. Then a box of cranks, spinners, and topwaters that work well for the combo. This makes grabbing tackle very quick as once I figure out what rod(s) I want to take on a given outing I can just grab a few pre-loaded boxes and hit the road. It also gives me something to do nights (like this one) where I can't get to sleep. Tackle-sorting is very soothing work and it really helps some times.

Hah, you are not alone. The BBZ Rat 50 stock hooks are a good example of this.

The old model CR and MBR rods are ideal for kayak use and can still be found on eBay for pretty reasonable prices. I'm still on th hunt for a 784c but they seem more rare.

This is my full kayak squad, with 2-4 going out on any given trip. —Loomis 6’ cr723 imx - single hook moving baits, trickworms/weightless plastics in cover —Loomis 6’ cr723 glx - jigs, jika-rigs, 3/16-3/8oz t-rigs, t-rig senkos —Loomis 6’6” mbr782 glx - light t-rigs, shaky heads, wacky rigs, some small cranks, some dropshot —St Croix Avid 6’2” M/XF - non-frog topwaters, flukes, jerkbaits, small squarebills —Custom 6’ ML/F MHX-Shooter spinning rod - Ned Rigs, small tubes, small weightless plastics —Loomis 6’ SJR720 IMX MagL/XF - dropshot, inline-spinners, hair jigs. —iRod Fred’s Magic Stick 7’6” XH/MF - frogging, smaller glidebaits

You know, I do that exact thing with Easy Shiners to help keep them on jigheads, no idea why it never occurred to me to try it with a drop shot. Love the Easy Shiners but man I wish they were a little more rubbey like Roboworm’s plastic formula.

How durable are they? I use 3” Easy Shiners as a dropshot plastic and they will sometimes rip off just from a light snag in cover, nevermind when a bass grabs them. Using a CPS spring helps a lot but it makes them sink nose-down too fast.