tkunk

I have the Revo Toro Rocket, which is sort of like a 400-sized Revo Rocket, and I'm very happy with it. Many guys I know use it for ripping 12-16 oz musky baits, and they say it's held up well (many reels don't). I use it for lighter applications, and it's awesome for burning baits above shallow weeds and picking up line quickly. I'd imagine that the regular Revo Rocket would be similar.

I agree that if you check your spool before each cast, you won't get them. They seem to happen most often when you're casting light lures into a heavy wind (which is most days on the Great Lakes).

I love fast reels. They make it much easier for me to pick up slack quickly and keep fish buttoned down. Every bass reel I have is over 30 IPT. Two of my three musky reels are over 40 IPT. When I use jerkbaits in warm water or do any kind of rip jigging, I hate having to reel super fast to pick up slack. When I use swimbaits, on the other hand, I don't mind reeling super slow.

I've never fished Puckaway, but Big Green Lake is a nice smallmouth lake, and it's really close.

Once a Keitech gets too beaten up to be used as a swimbait, it makes a great drop shot bait if you haven't lost the tail.

In spring and fall it's common to big schools of aggressive smallies. Once you've found these schools, if you want to focus on catching the big ones, big swimbaits work really well.

Even top of the line musky rods, which tend to be around 9', are tip heavy, unless you hold the foregrip instead of palming the reel. They're great for swimming, cranking, and twitching applications, and they cast a mile, but jigging with them isn't fun. I'd buy a long bass rod for swimming applications but not for bottom contact.

As a smallie fisherman, I typically start with three rods: drop shot, bottom contact, and swim bait. If, at any point of the day, I have more than five rods out, I should probably just go home, because it means that nothing's working.

You didn't mention a budget. The NRX893C with a Metanium XG is a nice setup.

For those who are asking, the purpose of a wind sock is to slow your boat down when it's windy. It's very difficult to catch bass when your boat is moving fast. The idea is that you figure out the path you're going to follow, and you line your boat up so that you're going to follow a ledge or pass over a bunch of good spots like humps, weed beds, etc at a manageable speed like 0.5 MPH. It's also difficult to find fish when you're not moving, so a wind sock is better than an anchor when you don't know where the fish are. On a big, windy lake, if I didn't have a trolling motor, I couldn't imagine fishing without a wind sock. But if you do have a trolling motor, you can point your bow into the wind and use it to control your speed.

The regular drop shot works really well, but it's also super versatile. You can put a paddle tail on a drop shot rig and fish it like a swim bait. When fish are suspending off the bottom in deep water, you can also use a long leader and fish a drop shot like a senko.

In my experience, in July, they can be anywhere, but they'll still relate to structure. If you get the wind blowing the same direction for a couple of days, they'll often be sitting on the wind blown side of any kind of nice-looking smallie structure. Wind's your friend, because it makes them easier to find, and you can burn spinnerbaits and cover tons of water. If it's a calm day, I seldom bother going out. Late fall is pretty textbook. They're often near steep breaks that have quick access to the main basin. But with the insane fall winds, it's often impossible to fish the bay, unless you're willing to beat the crap out of your boat. I mostly fish for muskies in the fall, but I've had some awesome days fishing for smallies in November.

I fish Sturgeon Bay all the time. The best time is May through early June, but there's tons of fishing pressure. At some point, usually August, the smallies become pelagic, which means "practically impossible to find", because they stop relating to structure and there's so much water to cover. In late Fall, though, they get bigger and easier to catch.

Thanks, everyone. All the info helps a bunch.

Thanks, guys. I plan on using the rod for some saltwater applications, so you'd recommend going with the SIC titanium guides?

For some custom rods, I see quite a few guide options. Sorted by price from low to high, the list I usually see is standard, SIC, SIC titanium, and torzite insert titanium. Can anyone explain the benefits of moving from cheap guides to expensive ones? I see that more expensive guides tend to be lighter, but from what I've seen, the total weight savings is less than 0.25 ounces, which doesn't seem like much for a ~5 oz bass rod.

There are two sources of friction when you cast: The friction caused by the line unwrapping as it leaves the spool, and the friction caused by the the line as it turns around the spool. For spinning reels, the former is by far the biggest source of friction, so increasing the spool diameter increases casting distance.

I mostly use spinning gear, because the lakes I fish tend to be very windy, especially in spring and fall. On the rare calm day, I'll use casting gear, because I get much better distance with it.

Great lakes guys fish 1/16-3/32 oz hair jigs all the time. You can get good distance with a 7+ foot ML rod, and a 2500-size spinning reel with light (less than 6 lb) braid. The ML Daiwa Steez rods are the best thing I've found for throwing light lures. Smaller reels translate to less casting distance, so I'd wouldn't use anything smaller than a 2500.

Guys who have never encountered zebra mussels or other sharp things say there's no need for a fluoro leader. Guys who have say otherwise. To the OP: There are a couple of drop-shot specific reasons for using braid with a fluoro leader. First, the drop shot rig causes tons of line twist, so you can't just use straight fluoro. Second, when you drop shot, you often skin hook fish inside their mouths. The stretchiness of fluoro helps keep fish buttoned when your hook doesn't penetrate anything.

I'm pretty sure it's a Revo Toro NACL.

I have the NRX 872. In the summer, I use 3/8 oz heads 90% of the time, and the rod handles the weight really well. When I go heavier than 3/8 oz, which is rare, I use a baitcaster.

MSRP, I believe, is $500, but you can find them for less than $400 on e-bay or musky fishing boards, if you look around. Not sure of the year; I bought it new last winter. I'd be interested in seeing the inches per turn stats on the 400s. It might be over 40 on the 400HGs.

I use the Tranx 500 PG for muskies, and I can attest that it's an awesome reel.

I use 4 lb fireline with a 7 lb fluoro leader. Braid is key for long casts. I use a 7' ML/F rod rated for 1/64 to 1/4 oz lures. I've caught tons of 6+ lb smallies in spring on hair jigs. I wish they'd work in warmer weather, because I'd save a lot of money by not using soft plastics.