Airman4754

Let me save you a week. Some will say Shimano, some will say Daiwa, some will tell you to buy a Lew's. They will all be correct. Any reel recommended to you in that price range will be awesome and do the job. Now go buy which one looks cooler to you because that will literally be the only noticeable difference.

That's like reaching into the pocket of an old jacket and pulling out a $10,000 bill!

I have the 7'2" MH/F, JM Signature. The ceramics in one of the eyes just fell out after about 10 days. The handle section is very long for a rod that short, but I throw Keitech's on it so it works out really well. I wouldn't want it for much else though. Not a horrible rod for $150, but something like a Duckett Terex is a better rod for the same price.

MGXtreme

Most of my salmon & steelhead rods are 8'6", but other than mag cranking I would never want that. A good reel and an 8' rod do pretty well with an XD10. I think this might be a new way to catch fisherman.

My step dad and all of his fly fishing buddies use it for leader. They use 6lb for salmon and I've seen them land all kinds of fish that would smash the bass world record on it. I've used it once as a bass leader and had a lot of problems with it.

I have three of the old Ryobi/Lew's reels. They are built like a tank.

Phenix UMBX 707ML with a Lew's Team Lite 7.1:1.

I seriously don't understand who buys Vanish more than once for Berkely to keep producing it. If you don't want to drop a lot of coin but still want some solid fluoro properties try some Yozuri Hybrid or some P-line CX. It's cheap and super strong. You won't need 17lb. I wouldn't suggest anything over .15 diameter as it will be harder to manage and you're not catching a bass that will require that much line strength.

Second that on the nose hook. During the end of the post spawn and summer I plug cut them on a drop shot and work them about 10-15' off the bottom then let them free spool back down and they do the death spiral down just like mooch fishing. It can be very productive.

Took Ned to lunch with me today.

I love their stuff. Well worth the price.

It's pretty reasonable. You figure they have to drive out, use their gear which isn't cheap, and take the time to find it. It was three hours of his day at $50 an hour for a specialized thing that's totally fair.

Um, no. You can fish a drop shot at any depth you want. I can already tell this is going to be an agree to disagree thing. We both catch a lot of fish so it doesn't matter.

So if you have more than two rods and don't fish next to the dock you don't know what you are doing?

Scuba Steve, d**n you! There will be divers in your area that you can pay to retrieve stuff. A buddy of mine lost a real high end setup last year and payed a guy $150 to dive and get it.

I was having a problem with keeping fish pinned on them initially too. It didn't have anything to do with the hook size (see fly fishing). I did three things; went from a medium rod to a ML. I would reel down until the rod was completely loaded up, then actually give a pretty sharp hook set. Haven't lost a single fish since on one which would be in the hundreds now.

I had about a 15" largie hit the trailer on my chatterbait yesterday and held on for about 30' while I reeled it in. It just swam in a straight line right towards me. Right when it got to the bank it let go and swam off. I've never seen anything like that in my life. I never had a hook in it at any point. I thought I was dragging grass so I was reeling it in as fast as I could. Odd stuff.

My neighbor told me he loves to bass fish and fishes his cousin's pond all the time but never catches much. This morning we went out there both were throwing Ned's. We landed at least 50 fish between crappie and bass in about 30 minutes. My six year old catches fish on it with ease. My two year old caught a bass on one. I've never fished anything easier to catch fish on.

Awesome fish!

I use the 3/16 and 1/8 cheapos they sell at Academy. For a trailer I cut a Senko in half, cut an X into the end of it about 1/2" up and remove two of the sides. It looks like a little crawfish pincher. It has to be a slow slow day before I pull one of them out, but they work.

Usually Loomis underrates their rods. Everyone likes to fish things a certain way. For me I will only use a weight up to where the rod starts to feel labored. If your rod is loading up under a normal retrieve detecting subtle changes becomes a lot harder. There is the flip side of going to light that creates the same problem. You have to find what your rod is capable of.

Casting out and reeling in a rubber worm won't get you anywhere near the production of a good drop shot fisherman.

The Megastrikes are extremely good quality and all I use anymore. They are a different animal than the light wire ball heads though.

I caught over 50 bass tonight and 4 huge bream. Most of them were on the Ned, I got some on a drop shot. They were all small fish, 10" average, but it was still a lot of fun.