MassYak85

Such an underrated bait. Extremely weedless, can bring it over the top of the really thick stuff and then drop it into holes and let it flutter. Works pretty well even in open water just straight retrieve and then letting it fall and die it acts like a weedless flutter spoon.

My thing with frogs....I hate them in the wind. When the line bows I can't get a good hookset. Then when I keep my line low it gets all caught up in the pads and I also can't get a good hookset. So I use them sparingly. If I'm going into the thick stuff I generally prefer punching/flipping.

I like a faster rod than most probably do so I use my jig rod which is a Dobyns Champion 744. 40lb braid to 16 or 20lb leader. It is a fast, but it's got a pretty forgiving tip section so I still like how the rod loads. If you're looking to do that traditional "slingshot it out of vegetation" retrieve I'd probably go with a slower rod.

I've got 3 setups for swimbaits: For hardbaits up to 3oz (S-Wavers, Deps 175, small wakes, rats, small crankdowns, small crawlers) Rod: Dobyns Fury 795 Reel: Daiwa Tatula 200 w/ 20lb P-Line PF Original (copoly) For hardbaits 3oz+ (baits like bigger wakes, Cl8 baby possum, psycho trout/gill, Large MS Slammers, Deps 250) Rod: Dobyns Champion 867 Reel: Daiwa Ryoga 1520 w/ 25lb P-Line PF Original (copoly) For softbaits (Hudds, Real Prey, WCZ, Burrito, 3:16) Rod: Dobyns Champion 807 Reel: Daiwa Lexa 300 w/ 65lb braid to leader

My best days on the water usually end with 2 rods out and maybe 3 baits to put away. One the one hand, I wish I could start from scratch and simplify my arsenal. I don't fish 90% of my baits 90% of the time. I could carry everything I usually fish in just a small backpack at this point. But there's something to be said about the journey along the way. I know what I like, why I like it, and when I like to use it. But would I know all of that if I hadn't experimented and tried a bunch of things first? Probably not.

If the 7'2" was in stock for this sale I'd buy it in a heartbeat. I've been told by many it's an excellent spinnerbait rod and my current favorite (OG Tatula 7'2" MHR) is no longer made.

Does it still work okay with the original spool? If so, the aftermarket spool is incompatible with the reel.

You'll probably be able to cast smaller glides (assuming you're talking like S-wavers) on both assuming they have some tip to them. I'd probably want the bend of the 7'6 MH to play the fish, but depending what hooks you swapped them out for you may need that extra power of the Heavy to drive home a beefier inline hook.

Which is part of the issue with the whole thing. Customs was never meant, designed, or staffed to handle this volume of duty fees. With such broad sweeping implementation there's no hope of them properly implementing these ever-changing tariff rates especially on grey-area products. So we the consumer suffer the errors, like the ones people have talked about in this thread. It's super frustrating. Imagine going to do your taxes and the IRS told you that you actually owe 70% this year but couldn't tell you why you just have to pay it. So unfortunately on products that utilize materials that have one rate but "should" fall under another when they are fully manufactured there's going to be continuing confusion and mistakes. Throw in all the legal battles surrounding this and I feel for all the companies that have to try and keep all of this straight.

Like others said I have found their is a price to durability with spinnerbaits. I've settled on War Eagles and Megabass SV3s. I haven't broken many War Eagles but the Megabass definitely have a life expectancy of maybe a couple hundred fish I've found.

Usually a spinnerbait, jig or large T-rig worm, a larger wakebait (swimbait like a psycho gill, rat, crawler), and then if things are slow a dropshot.

I still like OG power pro for thick stuff. I want an abrasive braid to saw through the veggies.

I have a couple. I'm sure they work, but I rarely throw it. I imagined it as a Fall bait when they're chasing schooling baitfish. Being limited to 2 hooks doesn't instill too much confidence in me throwing it with most of the baits being dummies either.

They make great baits that's for sure. I think if you can bite the bullet they are worth it. The SV3 has become my go-to spinnerbait above all others. The vision 110 has cemented itself as an all-time legendary bass bait. The dark sleepers are a smallmouth killer.

I have the OG Tatula 7'2 MHR with the gold accents and it's my favorite and most versatile rod to this day. It's my "spinnerbait" rod right now but before that it was my true all-purpose rod. Anything from jigs, worms, cranks in a pinch, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, topwater, jerkbaits. It toes that line of fast but not too fast where it can do pretty much whatever you throw at it. It just doesn't have the backbone for heavier things like frogs or flipping. But it's always in rotation with something tied on.

I try to adopt the "leave it better than you found it" mentality. But usually that aligns with what you said, picking up old fishing line I see on the shore. I'm generally not picking up people's beer cans or worm containers and putting them in my backpack unless I made a specific trip to pick up trash.

There's some lakes that just have a better shot than others. Here in MA there's a shot at a 5 in basically every lake, but that step up to 6 and 7 narrows things down a bit, and again for 8s. If you're hunting for a 9 or 10 you better be doing your homework and mixing and matching every superstitious trick in the book. Of my "local" go-to's there's really just a couple lakes I consider a "big fish" lake with a shot at a PB. One is very secluded feeling because the shoreline is undeveloped. Lots of nature there, tons of vegetation and cover, they stock it with trout. It gets a good amount of pressure so it's usually not a numbers lake but that shot at a new PB is there and I've broken/tied mine three times there. The lake isn't everything but I think for us northern anglers it's important to be honest with ourselves about the lake's potential before we start trying to target a PB or else we might be wasting our time a bit. As far as baits and technique I think there's value in upsizing. Swimbaits are prevalent in MA, and giving them a larger presentation of their typical forage is a good place to start. For me that's rat baits in the summer, crawlers, larger jigs/worms, golden shiner/perch/trout baits.

Got out today, wasn’t expecting too much with the cold front coming in. Ended up not too bad got like 9 bass on a variety of baits. Nothing big. Water temps were hovering just below 70. Fish were NOT on beds. All the ones we caught were in what is considered summer spots and were pretty skinny. The bluegill seemed to have begun their claim to the shallows and a couple seemed to be actively guarding nesting areas. Helped a snapping turtle who had swallowed someone hook. Thought he was dead at first but he was just exhausted. The line he was attached too had gotten tangled in a submerged tree and he looked like he had just given up. After a few pokes he showed he was not dead and we were able to cut the line and free him and he swam away.

Hit the Nip as promised today. Super tough bite I only got two. My dad struck out. One was a bit over 3lbs. Both fish on spinnerbaits and both were skinnier than I would have expected this close to the spawn. Eat up!! That was it though. Both those bites were definitely reaction strikes and we couldn’t buy a bite the next few hours. Couldn’t trigger reaction bites either. Usually we kill it with pickerel at least here but didn’t catch a single one. Can usually convince a few to hit jigs as well in the shallow rocks but nadda. The weeds were higher than I expected for this time of year, water temps were 57-59. I don’t think they liked the south wind today. It was pretty stiff at times and we were in and out of light rain showers.

Thanks man! Looks good enough to me.

I warrantied a Fury Spinning rod a couple years ago with them it was fairly painless, but I just trusted in their generic instructions and cut up the rod and sent it in I can't speak to their responsiveness to email.

Look at it this way....they aren't gonna get any cheaper lol.

I don't think I've ever actually tried the Zoom curly tails. The Ol' Monster is definitely a trusted classic.

Only 6?? Lol the copperstate BOGO on the 10" power worms should have me set up until I'm 40 lol.

This is probably an important thing to bring up now. Especially since people are probably going to be scrambling to stock up on "deals" from some of the overseas bulk distributors. There are two "types" of tungsten weights. One is a polymer with tungsten fill, with a density of around 10g/cm^3, closer to lead. This is the "cheap route" some brands go while still being able to advertise their product as tungsten. Then there is sintered tungsten which is a tungsten powder that is sintered together, with a density of about 18g/cm^3. This is the tungsten that gives you those truly special properties we seek out, and also the one that is about to become completely uneconomical to manufacture for fishing products. So if you see a "deal" that's too good to be true, it probably is. At that point you might as well be buying lead.