tkunk

Definitely not with a Tranx 500. I have two, so I can speak from personal experience. I've also had a 300 and 400 for less than a season, so it's hard to speak to the longevity of either, but they've both held up to quite a bit of abuse.

I know two guys who've had problems with them. Also check out some musky forums to see what people who've owned them for more than one season say. In the musky world, fish don't damage reels: lures do. Rip jigging 12-16 oz baits, burning big, hard pulling baits, and the occasional backlash with big lures can wear reels down quickly if they're not well-built.

You won't feel anything on slack line, unless the fish absolutely murders it and starts swimming away from you. Also, it's easy to cast a jerkbait a mile, so you probably won't see most strikes when you watch your line, either. Most of the time, you'll start your next twitch, and a fish will just be there. I wouldn't worry about it. Without ever doing any kind of sight fishing, I've had many 50+ fish days on jerkbaits (because fishing by me can be really good, not because I'm good), and I don't think it's ever been an issue. I'm sure that keeping your hooks sharp is extremely important, but I lose so many baits to pike that I don't have to worry about it.

Yes. It's happened twice to me with the same line of rods. The first time it happened, I thought it was a fluke, and I exchanged the rod for a new one. When it happened on the first cast with the second rod, I asked for a refund, and Tackle Warehouse was cool with it. Some rods actually come with a warning not to pass a leader knot through the guides, but this particular rod didn't.

The guides on some manufacturers' rods can't handle braid-to-leader knots. They'll tear off of the rod on your first cast. I've never had any problems with Loomis, St Croix, Power Tackle, or Dobyns rods. It's always good to check before you buy.

I've heard quite a few musky guys say that the Lexa 400s aren't as durable as Shimanos or Revo Toros.

Spinning reels are actually blazing fast. Most 2500 sized spinning reels (at least the ones I use) are just a bit slower than a revo rocket or metanium xg. A stradic 2500 is about 34 IPT, and a rocket is about 37 IPT.

If you put the tag end through the loop the wrong way, the knot will easily come apart when you tighten it. So either you didn't tighten it hard enough (if you had, the knot would've pulled apart), or you actually did put the tag end through the loop the right way, but something else went wrong. Besides tightening the knot hard, the main thing is to make sure that when you're wrapping in one direction, the loops don't overlap; e.g., when you're moving downward, the third loop shouldn't be above the second loop. One thing that helps prevent overlaps is to make sure that the wraps are far apart when you go down and far apart when you go back up. In other words, the knot will be "long" before you tighten it. Then, tighten the knot slowly to make sure that the loops going in same direction don't overlap. Someone else can probably explain that better, but that's what works for me. Finally, I'm not sure if it applies to you, but FG knot seems to work much better for very light braid. I can't get an alberto knot to hold on 2-5 lb braid.

They can end up clogging your bilge pump if you put them on the bottom of your boat. I found that out the hard way. I keep old soft plastics (mostly Keitechs in my case) in a huge zip loc bag and use them for drop shotting. When the bag gets too full, I dump half of it into the trash.

I'm not familiar with Lake Erie, but I do fish Lake Michigan. You said you were out of the wind. For smallies, you should almost always fish the wind-blown side of any structure, assuming you can do it safely and water clarity isn't an issue. If the water's turbid, find a different wind-blown spot with clearer water. When it's windy, burning spinnerbaits and fishing deep cranks and jerkbaits aggressively is usually a good idea. If those presentations aren't working, point your bow into the wind, try to keep your speed at 0.8 with your trolling motor, and troll a tube or drop shot across the bottom. Try to stay on the windy side of every piece of structure. Wind is your friend once you figure out how to fish it. I don't think I've ever had a huge day in the summer in anything less than three footers.

My kids won three Zebco dock demons in a raffle a two years ago, and two of the combos have survived to this day (one is at the bottom of Lake Michigan). The drag is not in any way buttery smooth, but the reels are durable for how cheap they are. I use 8 lb yo-zuri hybrid line, because of its low memory. We mostly use them for small fish, but my kids have landed many 3+ lb smallies with them. Nothing over 5 though. If your oldest kid is coordinated for his age, you might have some luck if you have him use a baitcaster with all the brakes on and spool tension set high. Kids (and many adults) seem to have a lot of trouble with spinning reels. For my 7-year-old I use a cheap rod with decent reel. Make sure to tape a foam noodle to the rod butt so that it floats.

Went with the Dobyns. Thanks guys.

Right now, I'm using a 7'6" H/mod fast Power Tackle flipping rod for deep cranks and spinnerbaits. It's rated for 0.5-1.75 oz lures. I love it for 3/4-1.5 oz baits, but I have trouble casting smaller lures with it. Plus, I'd like something longer. Ideally, I'd want something with the following attributes Lure rating: 0.25-1 oz lures; the sweet spot should be around 5/8 oz. Mostly, I use DT10s, DT16s, and 5XDs, but I occasionally go as big as a DT20. Length: around 8' Guides: I don't really care, but they should be able to handle a braid-to-fluoro knot; normally I use 50 lb braid with a 15-20 lb fluoro leader (for zebra mussels and pike), so the knot is pretty big. Action: As fast as possible while still being able to keep fish hooked. I dislike slow, whippy, noodle-type rods. Lifetime warranty would be really nice Price: Hopefully not more than $300 Does anyone have any ideas? Thanks.

Nice footage. Did everything clear out of there when the musky showed up? Sometimes I wonder if that's what's happening when I'm on a big school of bass and they suddenly disappear. I've followed up by throwing muskie baits in those situations but never had any luck.

The guys who've been around for a long time say that gobies, which provide an all-you-can-eat buffet for smallies and walleyes, are the best thing to happen to the Great Lakes. Plus, now that I think about it, salmon were introduced to the Great Lakes to eat the invasive alewives. So overall, fishing's really good by me and probably much better than it used to be.

As other mentioned, you need to consider spool size as well. For an extreme example, a 6.2:1, 150-sized Shimano reel does 26 IPT, while a 6.4:1, 500-sized Shimano reel does 43 IPT. For any kind of bottom contact presentation, fast reels are good, because you often need to pick up slack quickly. Most of my plastics reels are at least 33 IPT. In this case, I'd make the blanket statement that faster is better. Cranking is more complicated, because you don't want to have to work too hard retrieving baits. Lower gear ratios and/or bigger reels make it easier to retrieve hard-pulling baits. I personally can't stand slow reels (less than 28 IPT, say), so when I need more power, I just use a bigger reel, maybe with a power handle.

If you're using the transducer on your trolling motor, it's likely under your boat. If you're using the transducer on the stern, it's definitely behind your boat. When you see something like that, immediately drop a waypoint so that you know exactly where it is. You can pull 20 fish off of something that looks like that. Always keep a drop shot ready for moments like this. If I saw this while moving fast (so I wouldn't be able to drop directly onto it), I'd cast a drop shot 5-10 feet behind my boat, get my speed to about ~0.5 MPH, and drag it through all those fish with my trolling motor.

Many guys I know use flipping sticks for light muskie lures, so you'll be fine with your rod. I use a H/moderate fast rod with a Curado 300E for small bucktails, twitch baits, and jigs. That Rocket's very small and fast, though, so I'd be a bit careful not to use big and/or hard-pulling baits with it. I'd imagine that even small bucktails like double 6's could do some damage to it. It'd be great for tiny, single-bladed bucktails like Mepps Musky Killers though.

I followed Rich F and J Francho's advice and got some #1 and #2 Gamakatsu drop shot hooks at my local tackle shop. WRB said to try bigger hooks for bigger soft plastics, but I didn't have time to order them, so I switched to Jackall crosstail shads, which are much thinner than Senkos. I went 15/15 with the different tackle (22/22 if you count fish I hooked under my boat), which is pretty awesome. I was hoping to get a bigger sample, but the fish didn't cooperate. Thanks everyone.

Thanks, I'll try a different hook set as well. I was thinking the vertical presentation was giving me a better hook set angle than the horizontal presentation. I hadn't considered the loss of power with more line out. Like you, I'd rather not have to cast a drop shot. But where I fish, zebra mussels and snot weed often make drop shotting the only viable bottom contact presentation.

That's a big reason for me. On even moderately wavy days, it can be hard to keep a light weight on the bottom. The other reason is that I often drop vertically to fish I see on my graph, usually in 10-40 fow, and I want the bait to get down there fast and vertically so that the fish can see it. Lighter weights drop slower and can be moved by current on windy days. I also use a very long fluoro leader because it comes off the spool much faster than braid does when I'm dropping vertically. I catch tons of fish doing this, so I don't want to do anything different with my weights or leader length. On a final note, thanks everyone. I'll try some different hooks and hook sizes and report back once I've caught enough fish for a decent sample.

When I cast a drop shot rig, I only tend to land at best 70% of my fish. With just about every other single-hook, finesse technique (including vertical drop shotting), I'm well above 90%. I've noticed that the fish I do manage to land tend to be hooked very well. For gear, I use a dropshot-specific rod, 10 lb braid with a long (usually 20+ foot) 7-lb fluoro leader, #2 VMC spinshot hooks, 3/8-1/2 oz weights, and 4" senkos (usually with a wacky ring). I set the hook with the reel. I've tried setting my drag anywhere between very loose, which makes me lose fish because they can create slack so easily, and very tight, which makes me lose fish because I tear the skin. I lose fish in the air and in the water and at the beginning and the end of fights. This time of year is probably worse than usual, because the smallies I target jump more and run harder now than in any other time of the year. Am I doing anything wrong?

Thanks, I should've mentioned that I want something where I'm not casting half the spool off as well. I think the Tranx is only about 10% heavier than the Curado 300E, and I often use much heavier reels for non-bass applications, so I don't think I'll mind the weight.

I'm looking for a reel for 0.5-1.5 oz baits like spinnerbaits, swimbaits, jigs, deep cranks, etc. I've been using an old Curado 300E, and I like it a lot, but it's starting to show its age. Plus, it's slower than I'd like it to be. I'm looking for something versatile that can burn baits that need to move fast but still has the power to handle hard-pulling crankbaits. I also care a lot about casting distance, and I want something I can palm. I use a Tranx 400HG for small- to medium-sized musky baits, and I love it, so I was thinking of going with a Tranx 300AHG for bass. Has anyone used one, or does anyone have any other suggestions?

I use a 7'3 M/XF spinning rod. For line, I run 8-10 lb braid with a 12-15 lb fluoro leader. I can't use a lighter leader because of zerbra mussels. My line gets nicked up on just about every cast. I retie, tear my bait, or lose a head about every 5-10 minutes, so tube fishing is painful and expensive, but it works. Most of the time, I use 1/4-3/8 oz heads, but based on some of the comments here, I might start going a bit heavier and break out the baitcasting gear.