BrackishBassin

I use GX2s for a lot of my saltwater fishing. Just something to keep in mind is that they seem to be much more hefty than other rods with the same rating. For example, I have a 7ft MH GX2 and it’s about twice as stout as my Abu Garcia MH. It can easily handle fish I wouldn’t dream of landing with the Abu.

I tie them direct.

The FG knot has a simple way to tie it that can be seen on numerous videos online. It takes a bit to get used to, but it’s amazing.

Go for it. Like I said, they’re fun to fish. Just gotten spoiled by my frogs that I could fish in my backyard and not get fouled up.

They do have issues, but the Grass Burner is more apt to foul (in my experience) than my Whopper Plopper. I think it has to do with the blade being in the front vs. a prop in the back. I dont fish traditional buzz baits much, but I haven’t had the same issues with them when I have. Don’t know what it is about them.

I got a white/chartreuse one in one of my MTB/LTB boxes a while back. It’s a decent bait, but I’ve found that it gets fouled easily. The tiniest piece of grass or leaf is enough to tangle up in the blade and ruin the action. That being said, it’s fun and really easy to fish.

The mirror actually reflects light away from the surface of the lense instead of absorbing it (tint only). Believe it or not, depending on the density of the mirrored coating it can reduce light transmission through the lens anywhere from 10-60%. Ever seen the visors in the helmets astronauts wear? I doubt that mirrored coating is for looks. Although, you never know when you might meet some good looking extraterrestrial. Need to stay looking sharp.

In my opinion, the fear surrounding snakeheads is somewhat unfounded. We’ve been dealing with them here for quite a while. I think that concerns about their effect on small isolated ecosystems containing threatened species is warranted, but worrying about them in larger bodies of water is overkill. Studies done locally have shown that they haven’t had quite the impact that everyone thought they would and in fact, their numbers are on the decline. If I had to venture a guess, I would say that there are other factors at play in the lake that could have contributed to a decline in the fish population there. Aquatic ecosystems are very delicate things. Small imbalances in micronutrients can cause drastic changes (consider the red tides Florida coasts have dealt with this year). Anyways, just my two cents. I’m having difficultly providing the link to the study on snakeheads locally, but you can shoot me a PM if you’re interested and I’ll get it to you.

Best for freshwater (high contrast but not as good for blocking glare as other colors) would be a brown/amber lens with or without a green mirror. That color also works great for run of the mill stuff like driving.

I asked a similar question a while ago and the most profound thing someone said in the thread was something along the lines of if you’re able to cast to the targets you’re aiming at, then you’re casting far enough. Growing up, my baseball coach’s mantra was accuracy before power. Guess the same goes for casting. How far you cast a bait isn’t nearly as important as being able to put the bait where you want it.

I really like the Fierce 2 I have. Don’t know if you consider that to be “cheap”. Works great and I’ve had no issues with it. Fished everything from the Atlantic to a local pond with it. Still performs like it did the day I got it.

It was my first baitcaster too. Definitely not a bad set up. I actually really like the rod that came with it. Reel leaves a bit to be desired, but you can beat it up and not worry about it at that price.

I only have time to fish two local bodies of water that are near my house. Keeping my fingers crossed that changes in the next couple of years (have twin boys that are almost 2). Managing that many combos would eat up all my fishing time. I’ve got maybe a couple of hours most times I go out. So, I stick with those three and usually end up walking the bank with two of them.

I'm with @Dtrombly on this one. I'm also a bank beater. I go with a MH casting, M casting, and ML spinning.

I use the packages of small rubber bands that are designed to be used in hair. They’re cheap and come in packages that have mixed sizes. They work for a whole bunch of things (e.g. bobber stops, pegging weights, holding soft plastic swimbaits on hooks, wacky rigging anything, etc.). One of the most versatile things I’ve got stashed away in my tackle backpack.

I use the 3/8 for all of mine due to the amount of vegetation. Any heavier and they just get bogged down in the grass.

It’s a bummer that’s out of warranty. Those reels are solid. Caught a skate this summer with mine (5000 size) that took me 27 minutes to land. I had to estimate the weight, but I’m willing to bet it was easily over 30lbs. The wingspan on it was 3.5ft. Reel performed flawlessly throughout the fight. No issues with it since then. Hard to believe that it wasn’t a manufacturing defect that led to the teeth getting broken off the gear.

I don’t think it’ll be an issue. Repeated heating and cooling in very short periods of time could be a problem, but I’m not an engineer or a chemist. So, I’m not sure how the specific materials in rods would react to cold temperatures over an extended period of time.

Yeah, I’m a bank beater so I limit my set ups. I’ve got a MH for bottom contact stuff and throwing a frog (50lb braid), the M is used for anything that moves and anything with trebles (had 12lb on it but got annoyed with backlashes), and a ML spinning for smaller stuff.

That’s actually what I use for my UL panfish rig and leaders for my ML spinning set up that’s spooled with braid. May even have a spool or two of it in the garage. Thanks! I defaulted to Big Game because guys here mentioned it quite and bit and I have three 900 yd spoils of it in 15lb test for saltwater stuff. So, it cost me nothing to throw it on the reel.

Throw them and let me know if there are any big girls out there. We fish the same waters, so I’d love to know.

I’m planning on re-spooling my Tatula CT in preparation for the unlikely event that I can find some soft water in the next couple of weeks. It’s currently spooled with 15lb Big Game, but the last time I fished it the line was a mess. Nothing but coils. Tried throwing a jerkbait and the line looked like a slinky sitting on top of the water during pauses. I’d like to have it ready to go should the situation arise, but don’t want to spool it up and then have it sit for a while if things stay really cold. I’ll be dealing with the slinky effect all over again. I know I could go with braid and not worry about it, but it’s on my rod that I use to fish my moving baits (chatterbaits, cranks, topwater, etc.) and I feel like the stretch helps keep them pinned with trebles. So, I’m going to avoid going that route. Would there be any line management benefits to going with fluoro, or does it do the same thing when it sits? Does it really have no stretch in the same way that braid does? If I have to stick with mono, is there something I could use to prevent the line from coiling like that when it sits? Can you guys tell it’s been too long since I was able to wet a line? My tackle has been sorted, re-sorted, polished, sorted again, and inspected with a microscope. I probably should clean/service my reels, but don’t want to end up with a ‘bag o’ reel’. Please, for the love of God, give me something fishing related to do before I lose my ever-loving mind. Thanks!

Thanks for letting us know the reason behind that particular brand being censored. I never understood it. They don’t seem to be the type to aggressively hawk their goods and quite a few people who work with them closely have nothing but good things to say about the people there. It’s a shame that a few bad apples ruined things for the rest of us.

Not necessarily true. Watched Fluke pull in a massive black drum on a smaller spooled reel from a company that can’t be mentioned on here.

I don’t know about the 3700s, but my backpack holds them sitting upright without an issue. I use the 3601s.