Dan:

I got the Stradic for $89 I would definitely pay more for it.

this is kind of a continuation of my old thread but I wanted to focus the topic a little more and I figured I'd get more attention if I made a new thread. I'm looking at pairing either an Avid or Premier rod with my new Stradic 2500 reel. My question is, what is the difference between the Avid and the Premier? I've felt a Premier but I don't have any experience with Avids. Before I spend the money I just figured I should know what makes the Avid more expensive and if it is something that I would be willing to pay the extra money for. I'm probably going to get a 7' MLF 2 piece version of either rod. Thanks for any info, fellas.

lol, she thought she was being soooo smart!

I've never used it but I spooled it onto someone's reel at work and it felt very stiff and thick. That really put me off of it.

^yeah, lots of people call species of sunfish perch in certain regions.

Nice fish! I've often thought I was caught on something when hooking a smallie. Lots of times they'll just bull dog straight towards the bottom in one direction before they start to move side to side.

Definitely a quality fish.

RW pretty much covered it but look for any change, current, depth, bottom. I mainly look for changes in current and depth though in my rivers. If your river has bedrock, lots of time there are holes or troughs on the downstream side of them, cast out onto the rock and let the current sweep it down into the trough, that's a very successful tactic for me.

Me and a couple guys from work decided to try out a new spot on the Potomac River on the Maryland side of Great Falls Park. After hiking for a while over some really tough rocks we found a spot below a little waterfall that emptied into a small pool near the side of the river. We fished this pool for a little while and I got a bite on my shaky head worm. The line just started zipping out so I set the hook and pulled a fish up from the bottom of the pool. When I saw it, it looked like a decent sized fish (we were fishing for smallies) but as it got closer I discovered it was a walleye! I had never caught a walleye before so I was pretty excited. Anyway, I was about to throw it back but one of the guys with me said he would take it home to eat it. The other guy said he had a stringer so we hooked the fish up to the stringer, left him in the little pool under the waterfall and left. We had tied the stringer around a stick and jammed it between two rocks to keep him there. So we hike upstream and fish for about 2 more hours and then decide to go home. So we start hiking back to the walleye to get it and head home. When we come over the hill by the waterfall we look down at the pool and see a big blue heron with my walleye in it's mouth! This was about a 4lb fish so it was a funny site. The heron with the fish in its mouth, the fish with a string coming from its mouth running down to a stick on the bank. Well the guy who's stringer it is starts yelling "HEY, HEY, HEY!" as loud as he can and the the guy who wants to eat it starts running down to the heron to try to scare it away and grab the stringer. The heron gets spooked and tries to take off but the stick holds in the rocks and he gets jerked back down. Then he tries to take off again and the stick comes loose and he gets away. So my buddies are yelling "MY STRINGER!!!" and "MY DINNER!!!" because they were each angry about losing their gear and food. They are pretty upset but I am laughing hysterically. At this point, the stick tied to the stringer swings around and wraps around the heron in mid-air. The heron falls into the water and starts to squirm to free himself and his one wing is obviously tangled up. We start saying stuff like "*#$%, that bird's gonna die!" and we get pretty solemn pretty quick. Fortunately, though, the heron quickly freed himself and flew away and left the walleye and the stringer and the stick to float down the falls. So the bird was ok, the fish most likely died but he was gonna get eaten anyway and the whole thing was hilarious. Oh yeah, we each caught a few smallmouth as well but as you can see, that wasn't the most fun part of the trip.

just got back from testing out the stradic for some river smallies. Caught 5 and the biggest was maybe 2lbs. Not bad for the river I was fishing but still not quite a test on the new reel. I hooked into a very large fish but it broke off after talking off under a fallen tree and going airborn. Didn't quite see it very well but it was either a giant smallie or a carp. I'm still adjusting to the drag system on the Stradic, it has a lot more increments than my previous reel and I haven't gotten a feel for the settings yet. Overall I've been very pleased though, I've noticed less line twist and a greater casting distance. These two facts raise some questions for me. What is it about higher quality reels' mechanics that allow for greater cast distance and reduced line twist?

I've seen fish that are similar but not the same in a local pond. I know there are gold fish and carp in the pond and I believe it is an offspring of the two species. I'm no fish biologist but that's my best bet.

Alright, after checking out the Quantum Energy and not being able to find a Tierra, I went with the Stradic. So far I've been very pleased. Now I just need to get the St Croix order form and in two weeks I'll have a nice setup. Thanks for all the advice guys, I really appreciate it.

the difficulty that I have with identifying snakes is that their patterns vary so slightly between species and that the markings on one species can vary so much from snake to snake.

Has anyone heard anything about or tried the Quantum Energy or Catalyst reels?

Yeah, the only problem with that is our store doesn't have many Daiwas (including the Tierra) so I have a limited amount of reels I can feel. I think I'm going to go to another Dick's in the area that has a bigger fishing section to see if I can find and feel more reels there. I'm really leaning towards the Stradic and the Premier or Avid rod though. And I have to buy the reel from Dick's because I get a 25% employee discount. The St Croix discount is also through Dick's.

I work at Dick's and we have tons of those things. From what I've determined they seem like pretty nice reels. We've sold a lot of them lately and have had people come buy the new ones because they liked them so much.

are you sure that second one wasn't a largemouth? looks like a LM to me. Nice fish though, congrats.

Skillet, I've heard similar reviews about the Stradic being quite similar to the Symetre. Anyone own both or have anything more to say about that comparison? BTW RW, thanks for the detailed recommendations. I will look at the Legend Elites. It might be hard for me to put up that kind of money in addition to the new reel so I may end up with an Avid or Premier. Either way, I'll have a much nicer rod than I do now (and personalized with my name on it as well)

Yeah, I was mainly looking at Light or Medium Light actions for just the reason you mentioned but I just wanted to see what people had to say. Thanks.

as a fellow river wader I have similar trouble with cameras but I just got a waterproof camera. It works pretty well and I love being able to record my catches now. They are pretty cheap as well. Once I finish the roll I'm going to get it developed and digitized. Where is the Rivanna? It sounds familiar. What do river chub look like? I think I may have caught some on the Rappahannock here in VA a couple weeks ago but I'm not sure, I've never caught them before.

lately my go to has been a Case Sinking Salty Shad which is a soft jerkbait much like the Zoom Fluke. Also I've been using a lot of finesse worms on shakey head jigs, specifically a Case Jack's worm or a Zoom finesse worm in brown and green colors.

I'm finally looking to buy a pretty nice spinning setup. I've decided that I'll be going with a St Croix because i get 60% discount on their products. Now, I need advice not only for what type of St Croix I should look at and also I need reel suggestions. I've been looking at the Pflueger Supreme and the Shimano Stradic, mainly. I own a Pflueger already and I would have liked to stay with their brand but after feeling the Supreme and the Stradic, the Stradic is much smoother. What I want to know is if there are any other comparable reels around $120 that I should look at before I pull the trigger. BTW, I'm looking for a light setup for 6-8 lb test for mainly smallmouth but also a little largemouth fishing and I want to be able to get a rod and reel that can handle multiple types of baits (ie cranks, tubes, worms, spinners, jerks, etc) as best as possible because I do a lot of wade fishing and I can only take one setup with me most times. So basically I'm looking for any advice about light spinning reels in the $120 range (specifically any info on the Stradic) and some advice on what types and actions of St Croix rods would be good for my situation. Thanks in advance guys.

I always thought bass didn't have much of a taste at all. When I ate them it seemed that they just acquired the taste of whatever you cooked them with. There are many much better eating fish

the BIOS is a very serious part of your computer and if fooled around with by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, it can very easily damage your computer's function

wow, i'll bet you thought you had a new world record smallie on for a second. Never caught a drum, are they popular game fish?