MassYak85

Spro bronzeye gets a lot of use by me. I also like Booyah Pad crashers. I did get a River2Sea Bully Wa over the winter but haven't been able to fish it yet. I really like it out if the box, not as rigid as the spro and much beefier and more easily exposed hooks. We'll see how it is in practice. It's a larger frog but I have high hopes for it. My hookups with the spro have been a little less than desirable so I'm just trying to improve on that.

Ill give Zoom a shout out as far as soft plastics go

The 130 definitely does a better job of it though. A single blade of grass will foul the 90, and even when it's not fouled on a fast retrieve they can be prone to rolling over and spinning with the blade. I'd think so too. If you look at TW though they don't even have the 90 size listed anymore for the normal version (not silent). Only reason I could think they would do that is they won't be carrying them in the future and they don't have any left. If it was a simple out of stock they should have a date listed. So it seems possible. Outdoor Pro Shop has the 110 available for pre-order and has it listed at 0.4oz. That's barely any heavier than the 90 is, and seems to me more like a replacement than a true "in between" of the 130 and 90. We'll see though, I still like the 90 a lot for smallmouth and calmer days.

Recently I got some Owner Beast hooks to fish them on and they work really well. If I want to add more significant weight I wrap some wire around the shank of the hook. But I also have some tiny nail weights. Haven't used those on the Keitech's yet though.

Didn't they design it primarily as a pike lure?

I think I'll pass. It came to just over 100 when I factored in shipping and their "surcharge".

Since trying it it's all I use for anything other than braid.

Very tempting.... I do have a BPS Tourney Series MF I could replace, but I don't really need to, hmmmmm.

Haha, woops

Alberta or FG for me. I trust the FG more if I need as much strength as possible.

Good to hear. I'll probably grab one to at least try. Hopefully it's just a smaller version of the 130 with none of the issues of the 90. I'd hate for it to be the other way around.

And I use it as soap

Last year, made a roll cast and the lure clipped the water right at my feet as I let my thumb off the spool. A full spool of Sniper down the drain. If it's braid I can pretty much always get it out, mono or fluoro not so much.

Had a good day on Maspenock today. A lot of dinks but was able to get a 3lber and a 5lber! The 5lber was really fat, likely full of eggs, and hit on a small football jig right where the weeds and rocks meet on a drop near some shallow sandy areas. Looking back I almost didn't catch the fish. I initially felt a tap, set the hook and nothing. I aaaalllllmost reeled back in for another cast but decided to let it sit there and drag in back in. A few seconds later...tap, and this time the hookset found her mouth. Probably the most satisfying hookset I've ever felt, unlike the other 5's I've caught I knew immediately the fish was nice, it didn't budge a bit initially. The bass seemed mostly pre-spawn although I did see a couple on deeper beds. Water temps were 55 - 56. And that will conclude my season up here, good luck everyone! I'll let you guys know if I get any big ones down south.

We launched from the public launch on Nonantum. That section of river can be kind of a pain if there is a lot of rowing activity (which there usually is). And I feel the same way about A1, it's got to be the "fishiest" looking place I go to, and I've had enough good days to keep me coming back. Plus I've had a few close encounters with some good ones. Had a good one break me off a while back with sheer strength wacky rigging (my fault from not retying after like 10 fish) but I got to feel it for a couple seconds and it turned my kayak before snapping my line. And then last fall I had one crush a Matlures bluegill and knock about 5 feet of slack into my line before torpedoing off and leaving one hell of a wake. But it's always been I either crush them or catch maybe 1 or 2. Two summers ago I had multiple 20-25 fish days targeting the clusters of lily pads with a wacky worm. And I've had some really fun days fishing with a frog back at the osprey nest. But like you said, it all kind of looks the same so if you can't put together some sort of pattern with the stumps or the pads, it can be tough. I rarely fish by the dam myself either unless it's from shore. But I would definitely recommend giving the spot right off the launch some time. The drop off on the left where the tall grass is can be good at times. I'm leaving for Virginia Sunday for the summer so I won't be able to fish A1 again until the fall. Catch some good ones for me!

@DogBone_384 I was on the charles (watertown) Tuesday afternoon for a few hours and they were cooperating then, I wonder what changed. I only got two largies (both a little over 2lbs), one was on a bladed jig, the other on a red eye shad, but my dad was killing them on a gold bladed spinnerbait. Biggest went 3.2 on the scale. They seemed to be slightly off the bank on the first weed edge or piece of cover in areas where they had access to shallow water (seemed like pre-spawn). The steeper banks that usually produce for me in the summer didn't yield a thing, smallies didn't show any interest either. @Janderson45 A few years back when I was still fishing worms on a 5' ultralight ugly stick and 10lb braid I had some killer days at A1 with a wacky wormed stick-o. I wish I had known a little better because I probably would have caught double if I had been using more appropriate equipment. I had so many take it, peel drag, and wrap me around 20 lily pads and I'd lose them. Oh and did you notice that someone threw in a home-made brush pile on the northern side of the dam? It's like 50 branches wrapped in fencing and it just barely breaks the surface of the water. I'm sure it will be great cover at certain times of the year but I'd be careful around it with treble hook lures especially. It looks like a snag waiting to happen.

There's a lot of tutorials on YouTube for cleaning reels. Usually reels will come overlubed/greased to get them past the warranty period so I wouldn't worry about the reel not having enough to start, but you can certainly go in and clean out the excess and add some of whatever you prefer. I think for most of us a once-a-season deep cleaning is adequate. If you are going out on fishing trips multiple times a week or fishing in some really nasty water then you might need to do it more.

They're the worst aren't they? The only thing worse is that tiny tiny TINY little spring and pin that is used for the clicker drags on some reels. First time I saw it I thought it was a metal shaving not an actual part.

This, you could change the pawl itself in about a minute, but to change the worm gear requires a major strip down of the reel which you may not be comfortable doing. If you are comfortable servicing reels definitely give Lew's a call and tell them you need to replace the two parts. I wouldn't be surprised if they give the to you for free, they gave me the whole assembly for the magnetic brakes on my LFS free of charge when I called last year, I believe I even told them it was my fault that the part broke.

I just don't see the point. You have none of the advantages of a boat (other than speed) for the price of a used boat....and if you wanted it just for the thrill, buy a jet ski. I just don't see who would buy this.

Yea if you don't mind OP I would as well. I have the 610MLXF for dropshotting and finesse soft plastics and really like it. At that price I'd definitely consider replacing one of my other spinning rods. I think you'll be happy with the ones you got. The 610MLXF is very sensitive and really fun to fight fish on.

It's definitely cool but like @S. Sass said, it's not effectively targeting the kayak crowd. At that price and weight...it's basically a boat. A trailer is almost a must at that weight, and it will need to be registered. I'm also not sure how that would be classified legally...because I know some bodies of water ban jet skies, and let's be honest, that's a jet ski in disguise of kayak.

Haha same with me. Now you can argue working the rod is fine motor skills as well so again it's all down to preference. Me personally I can twitch and work a rod with both hands it doesn't matter to me, but the small wrist circles you do to reel, I can't for the life of me do them with my left hand, so I use righty reels.

I'm right handed and reel spinning and casting with my right hand. It's purely personal preference so do whatever feels natural to you, if you can try out one of each. I always chuckle to myself when I hear the "use your stronger arm to hold/work the rod". I don't know about you, but one of my arms isn't strong and the other a twig. The thing that makes an arm or hand "dominant" is not strength, but fine motor skills.

d**n I don't need anything but that's really good