HookRz

The closest Patriarch by weight to the 2500 Ci4 (6.7 oz.) is the 6.2 oz. model. The big difference I see is the slow 5.1 gear ratio. The Patriarch picks up 28' per handle turn. The Stradic picks up 35". In fact, if you really want light, the smaller 5.6 oz 1000 size picks up 31" of line P/T.

I gave up tournament fishing at about 41. I was very successful bit after a few years got bored with it. I missed having the time to fish for other species, and do things like wading small streams for Smallmouth, IMHO the most enjoyable form of bass fishing. Might get back into it when I retire.

I make my own spring bobbers using the spring that pushes up the flint in a box ighter. It even moves from the water pressure caused by a pannie moving close to my jig!

For bass isn't my spinning reel drags at "disaster" setting. Just enough to make sure I don't break a rod. Flip the anti-reverse and back reel. Bass aren't fast. Stay in control. Do not try this with Steelhead or Stripers though. The will eat you up.

Casting rods, Gloomis Spinning, St.Croix Reels, Shimano. Lines, braid for spinning Power Pro and Suffix nano braid for the really light stuff. For casting Gamma copoly. Soft plastics, Zman...with some Zoom and generic finesse tubes mixed in. Ditto Zman jig trailers.

Too much of what we use is proscribed by people that don't fish for fun. They fish for TV do they can sell us what they fish with. We get caught up in the feedback loop. I often pinch down my barbs on small jigs. If I lose a fish Im not going hungry, and I don't have sponsors Im paid to sell for. So who cares?

To each his own but I think you are only handcuffing yourself if you stick to one manufacturer. My favorites tend toward Loomis for casting and St Croix for spinning but there are a few oddballs I would never part with. My theory is to stick with a rod long enough for it to become part of you, and extension of your arm. I do find most technique specific rods are over priced and cause fisherman to switch rods constantly, so they never get in a rhythm. I have one rod for topwater, jerks, squarebills, and traps. It might not be perfect (according to the people that sell stuff) but in my hands it lays every cast out perfectly. Even more so my jig rod, and my finesse stick.

I can always tell a pike or Musky hit my spinnerbait. They tend to knock a bit of slack in the line as they run it down at high speed. Sort of a tick followed by a wump! Can sometimes tell when they hit a flipping jig to. A little tick, then you say "where did my jig go?" Lol.

Great! With all the tax money they will save when do we see the price drop on the rods?

Nice Fish! Not skiing them big girls for sure. But it's not a matter of size. Relatively a ten pound Smallie is going to fight harder than LM. A ten pound Steelhead will put them both to shame. And "typical" LM tackle these days is 5X to 10X heavier than what I use for 6# Erie Smallies, and my Steelhead tackle is lighter still. Nothing like a Steelhead hitting a spoon cast off the beach and taking off on a forty yard run! What we should celebrate about the Largemouth is the variety of tactics we need to learn to catch them consistently under various conditions. A thinking mans fish for sure. Fight? Meh...but then a big one in my neck of the woods is a five or six, and I'm yanking them out of cover on on 20# copoly that actually breaks in the mid 30's or 65# braid. The same line that's on my Muskie rods.

I should add there is a fight when it comes to Largemouth fishing, but it's either the cover, not the fish. On typical Bass tackle the fish doesn't have a chance.

The best answer to this question was the first. I love finding the fish, patterning, and figuring out effective presentations that get bit. And topwater fishing is a blast. But largemouth and fight don't belong in the same sentence unless you're using light tackle in open water.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I believe in the Shimano line the only difference between the 2500 and 3000 is the depth of the spool. The reels are the same size.

I don't keep those kind records, or even bother to weigh/measure fish often, but I'll guess.... LM: Jig and pig, Buzz-bait, Ten inch ribbon tail worm, Zoom finesse Worm, Finesse Tube. SM: Tube, Tube, Tube, Ned, Grub. Honorable mention, Spook, Chug Bug, Devils horse. Caught a lot of big topwater plug fish, I just don't think any would would make my top five outside of a few Buzz-bait monsters.

Tough question. Probably a finesse spinning rod cuz that's what I do most. But I couldn't live without a MH jig rod and topwater stick. The question being "just one" my final answer would be a GLX jwr 802. That's the topwater and open water jig rod.

Very nice work, and worth the money if they help with confidence. But on my waters the Musky would make fishing them very expensive.

The only thing that separates one rod from another is how it feels in my hand.

Whaaat? You think this is 1990 or sumpthin? Seriously, even in the 90's most spare spools were just that...cheap plastic spares, to be used like the donut spare tire in trunk if you messed up your line. Somewhere along the road spinning reels started to be made with seriously reliable drags, located in the spool. The spool became a d**n expensive part in high end reels. An extra quality spool would add 20% or more to the cost of a reel these days. The upshot is you can actually rely on the drag and not have to backreel. Some long time spinfishers like myself still backreel, but these days my drag isn't cranked all the way down. It's set at a "disaster" setting...and I know it's smooth and reliable should I not flip the anti-reverse in time!

The Cicada! I love the side-slip action. I generally remove the stock doubles and add a hand tied feather and flash treble to the rear w/split ring. No bottom hook needed.

1/16, 1/20, 1/32, only rarely go heavier.

Yup. That too! My simple answer, "Tube", works but Ned's and small swimbaits make an appearance on the business end of my line quite a bit.

Tube. Only the rigging and retrieves change. Once I'm on fish I might change to a jig.

Good deal! Now go catch some fish!

Usually a Keitech round head with a 1/16 to 1/8 with the #4 or #2 Katsuechi hook. Super glue the baits on. Really any head will do.

I bank fish a lot, and use a bunch of different rods, but when I'm fishing medium cover shorelines the one rod I carry is is a Loomis IMXjwr. I know it's listed as an XF, but it's really not that fast imho.