shimanoangler

I have had rods arrive from shipping carriers folded in half, with a boot tread imprint right in the middle of where the rod was bent. Some carriers are better than others at knowing/tracking who handles rod tubes, but suffice it to say that because these rod shipping tubes are irregular sizes, they don't fit "the normal" workflows for these carriers and it ticks employees off and they are allowed to do stupid ignorant things to valuable packages with little to no discipline or recourse (union protection, tough employment markets) and the end result is the goods that we are looking to receive are destroyed and in some cases unreplaceable. Don't even get me started on how crappy a person you have to be to destroy someone else's property intentionally.

that type of damage is INTENTIONAL by the carrier. Seriously, that type of destruction is NOT accidental. FedEx has an employee that handled this package that intentionally destroyed it and they can ID exactly who that is, as they know every person who touched that package in the distribution process.

As we move into the heart of fall smallmouth fishing here in the Northeast, I started to wonder what was the water temperature that smallmouth really get active feeding up for the winter, the depth of water you target these smallmouth and the techniques you use to catch big smallmouth in the fall here in the Northeast.?? I have watched a lot of YouTube content and have read a lot of different publications that talk about the best fall techniques being crankbaits (lipless & squarebill), paddle tail swimbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes and drop shot. I can't seem to get bites on anything but a drop shot this time of year and I can't seem to find fish in anything other than 30 ish feet of water. How about you?? I fished pretty hard the last three times out, water temps around 60 degrees, and the only consistent bite I was able to get was in 25 to 30 feet of water on a drop shot. I was finding schools of baitfish on my graphs, and then I would shut the motor off, drift past the mark on my graph, cast back to the area I believe the school was located and I would catch fish (and some really big fish). Seemed like any time I got the boat right on top of the fish, or the school of bait fish would swim under the boat, I couldn't get the fish to bite. But as soon as the school/fish were away from the boat, and I could cast my drop shot 20 yards or so around the boat, I would get bit. I am just interested in what other anglers here in other parts of the country are seeing when they hit the water now that air temps and water temps have started to fall and how they approach this time of year to get bites when they hit water chasing smallies. For us here in Maine, many of the waters around me will be closing down for the season September 30th, and honestly, water levels are so low right now, many boat launches will become unusable if the water levels drop any further. So I am trying to make the most of what is left of smallmouth fishing season 2020!. Look forward to hearing what others are seeing/doing.

Due to conditions, I didn't throw anything lighter than a 1/4 oz all day. It threw the quarter a mile, and it handled the 1/2 oz weight I used for a little while when the wind and waves picked up. Was like fishing Millacs at time today. 3 and four footers rolling at me most of the afternoon.

Well I can report this, that I fished that 7 ft medium Expride all day today as a drop shot rod and I caught and landed six fish over three pounds and the rod handled all of them beautifully and I had no problem casting my drop shot rig at all. The Expride rods are super sensitive and I could actually feel fish picking up the bait and on my other rods that I use for drop shotting, I can't feel that. On my other rods all I feel is heavy when I start to pick up the bait with the tip of the rod. With the Expride I can actually feel the line jump or move when a fish would pick it up. I LOVE that rod. Best value in fishing. ? And super versatile to boot!!

I do a ton of drop shot fishing and I have been on the search for the perfect drop shot rod and up until this year, I have yet to find it. The reason I think I haven't found it was because I was searching for one in the wrong power. Everyone says drop shotting is a fairy technique and you need the lightest power possible to feel those finesse bites, but those super light sticks are whippy and often just not enough backbone to truly handle larger fish, especially smallies who get mad that you are trying to take them out of the water.... And, I have always thought (been told) that the perfect drop shot rod is less than 7' long, ie 6'10", 6'11" max..... So I stumbled onto a Shimano Cumara Medium Power rod that was presented to me as a drop shot rod. I decided to try it. When I got it was WAY heavier in weight than any other drop shot rod I had ever held and the balance with today's lighter reels was AWFUL (ended up putting a Shimano Exsence 4000 on it to balance it out). And it was longer, 7'2". I immediately, without fishing it decided it wasn't going to work. But I thought it would be a good Senko rod, as it was rated 1/8 to 3/8. I got out on the water last Monday and decided as I was going to try the Cumara out, what the hell. Man, was I wrong! The rod performed flawlessly. Caught 15 fish, never lost a single fish, never felt under powered, never felt like the rod was overpowering the technique and the extra length helped with casting and controlling fish around the boat. I was so intrigued by this whole Medium Powered Longer Rod for drop shotting that I tried a Daiwa Cronos 7'3" 3/16 to 1/2 oz Medium Powered Rod yesterday and same thing, it performed flawlessly. Hooked and landed three fish, *** lb bass and bonus fish, a 20" brook trout. My point with all this babbling is that I have fished the Expride 6'10" ML rod and the 7' Light+ Rod, and both are WAY to soft to be a good drop shot rod. They are way TOO light in the backbone, it is almost a moderate feeling action, and because of that it is way too soft in the tip and to me that made accurate casting difficult. I have the 7' Expride Medium, and historically I would never grab a Medium powered rod for drop shotting, BUT based on my recent experience with the Cumara and Cronos, I would go there first before going to something softer. The Exprides are super sensitive and I think through the entire rod lineup, they have pretty great actions (the ML and Light+ aside). And too your first point, having really expensive rods hanging around for a technique you won't do through most of the season, a 7' Medium Expride is good for Senkos, small swimbaits, small swimjigs, top water and jerkbaits. SUPER versatile rod that can fish many techniques. If it were me (and I am going to now that your post got me thinking about it) I would try the 7 medium first, before trying anything softer. Good luck and let us know what you decided to do and how it goes.

If you go Steez AGS ML, I may have the stick for you. ? Great stick!!!

IMHO the Avid X line is like the Shimano Expride line, they punch way up above their price category. I think the Avid X line of spinning rods is exceptional, with the only drawback being the micro guides for us Braid to Leader guys. But from a sensitivity and action standpoint, I think the Avid X line is way more responsive and sensitive than the Mojo line. Not sure if that matters enough to you to pay the price premium one over the other, but I can tell you the Avid X fishes like a rod that costs $100 more than it does.

As we move into the heart of fall smallmouth fishing here in the Northeast, I started to wonder what was the water temperature that smallmouth really get active feeding up for the winter, the depth of water you target these smallmouth and the techniques you use to catch big smallmouth in the fall here in the Northeast.?? I have watched a lot of YouTube content and have read a lot of different publications that talk about the best fall techniques being crankbaits (lipless & squarebill), paddle tail swimbaits, jerkbaits, spinnerbaits, tubes and drop shot. I can't seem to get bites on anything but a drop shot this time of year and I can't seem to find fish in anything other than 30 ish feet of water. How about you?? I fished pretty hard the last three times out, water temps around 60 degrees, and the only consistent bite I was able to get was in 25 to 30 feet of water on a drop shot. I was finding schools of baitfish on my graphs, and then I would shut the motor off, drift past the mark on my graph, cast back to the area I believe the school was located and I would catch fish (and some really big fish). Seemed like any time I got the boat right on top of the fish, or the school of bait fish would swim under the boat, I couldn't get the fish to bite. But as soon as the school/fish were away from the boat, and I could cast my drop shot 20 yards or so around the boat, I would get bit. I am just interested in what other anglers here in the Northeast are seeing when they hit the water now that air temps and water temps have started to fall and how they approach this time of year to get bites when they hit water chasing smallies. For us here in Maine, many of the waters around me will be closing down for the season September 30th, and honestly, water levels are so low right now, many boat launches will become unusable if the water levels drop any further. So I am trying to make the most of what is left of smallmouth fishing season 2020!. Look forward to hearing what others are seeing/doing.

Depends on the application. I don't use anything by Sufix Nano Braid, on my spinning reels. It is the most manageable (no wind knots or nests on the reel), longest casting, durable and it takes a knot really well (I am a braid to leader guy) braid I have found for spinning reel applications. It is available up to 14lbs, which is truly all you need for 90% of spinning applications. That said, you can't go wrong with Sufix 832 or standard Power Pro braid. Both are outstanding. That said, I can say based on personal experience stay away from Daiwa's high end braid (frays and wind knots like crazy) and Sunline's high end braid (same experience as with Daiwa). By high end, I mean their 8 carrier, plus, line of braids. Just my humble opinion based on thousands of casts using many different rods and reels.

I've fished both line of rods, and both are good solid rods. That said, fish with what you know/like. If Dobyns have been good to you, stick with them and add another Dobyns to the collection. I personally have three different models of Dobyns and love each for the purpose they were purchased to fish. Dobyns Xtasy for my power finesse fishing, Champion Extremes for my heavier moving baits and just picked up an XP for even heavier moving baits. Really like the line up and the rods that Dobyns is putting out right now.

What do you see as the problem? I'm just curious on your thoughts.

I think this is something that all fishermen at all levels struggle with. Sometimes it depends on how much time you have on a given body of water. By this I mean, if I'm only fishing for 3 hours in the afternoon I might have more of a running gun approach where I'm on the trolling motor at high throwing baits that allow me to cover water to find active fish. If I know I'm fishing all day, I might spend some time just motoring around the lake and using my graph to see if I can identify or find pods of fish before I start to fish. On days that I'm going to be on the water all day I might focus on an area where I know fish should be and if I'm not catching them on one bait after 30 or 40 casts, I might switch out Bates lures and techniques several times before I leave that area. Once I leave an area where I really believe fish should be and didn't get a bite, for example shallow, I'll switch my approach and start moving out to deeper water to see if I can find suspended fish on the graph and start fishing those fish with drop shots and other types of finesse techniques that allow me to get to those fish. The reality is there's not a right or wrong answer to this because as others have said, there's so many factors that go into the decision about where to fish and how to fish on a given day at a given time of year. For me, the fall has always been an extremely tough time of year to find fish. I have little to no confidence in anything outside of a drop shot, so I often find myself moving to offshore structure and deeper water to fish because that's the only technique that I have confidence in. That said this year, I've challenged myself to be a little bit more diverse and open-minded and the methods I use to catch fish in the fall. Great topic, great question and I look forward to reading the feedback of others cuz I do think this is something that all fishermen struggle with at some point in time.

I'm with ya. ?

I am eager to hear other's responses on this topic, as I have really struggled to like the Ci4+ HG reel. It has been a TW best seller since it came out, yet to me its just blah..... Don't get me wrong, I love Shimano products, and the FL is an unbelievable reel. Just wonder why so many have taken to the Ci4+??? Looking forward to reading the comments on this post (sorry, not trying to hijack, I promise, just trying to add to the conversation)....

Let me start with saying I fish spinning reels exclusively chasing smallmouth bass and as such, I have tried no less than one hundred different spinning reels over the years. I have settled into Daiwa and Shimano products, really liking the Shimano Exsence in the 4000 size, Vanquish in 3000 size and the Stradic FL in the 3000. And with Daiwa I have settled on pre LT Luvias 3012, the JDM XFire 3012, Limited Edition Sterling Silver Tatula 3000 CXH and the JDM Caldia LT in the 3000 and 4000 sizes. These are all really nice reels and I know both companies make very nice reels in other models. That said, what I have yet to figure out is all the hype on the Stradic Ci4+ reels. They were TW Best Seller before the Vanford came out recently. And often times sold out on TW. I just picked up two brand new Ci4+ reels to put on a couple of my back up rods and I had a chance to fish them yesterday and I have to say..... I just don't get it.... Am I missing something? Anyone else have experience that would speak to why these reels are so well thought of? I look forward to hearing others experiences.

A fish the new body of water today that I had never fished before and actually had a pretty good day. Fish scooter lake and although I still think the fish haven't gotten to true fall feeding as the water temps are still high sixties, they're starting to make that transition and they're feeding up. Every fish I caught from 10 in to three and a half pounds were thick with bellies. I think about two weeks from now if the nighttime temps continue to stay in the 40s and 50s will get water temps in the low 60s high 50s and I think things will really take off.

My two favorites are 3.8 keitech paddle tail swimbait, fished on jig head (no underspin) in Ayu, Sight Flash and Pro Blue. My other is a Bass Magnet Twitch in Smoke Purple Chartreuse and Clear Water Perch fished on a drop shot. Honorable mention would be a GY Senko, 5" fished wacky or neko, green pumpkin, baby bass and natural shad. This ALWAYS gets bites...

My two cents on this topic is it depends on what you are doing with the rod. If you are looking for a rod that is sensitive where feel is really important, ie bottom contact baits, worm fishing, texas rig, etc, than the Expride is hands down the better rod. If you are looking to fish moving baits, I honestly find it hard to beat the Action of all of Gary's rod lineup. Dobyns truly are some of the best moving bait rods you can buy for the money. If crankbaits, paddle tail swim baits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits or anything you fish that is moving, it is hard to beat a Dobyns rod for those applications. The actions of the Dobyns line are just dialed in for moving baits. Just my two cents...

I find the Cal Coast Cali Clip to be THE BEST drop shot keeper available. It has both a hook keeper and a drop shot weight keeper depending on how you store your rods when not in use. You can take your weight off, which works, but I am too lazy to do that, so I slide the line into the weight keeper and wella, everything stored and packaged up nice and neat. You can find these on TW and they are not very expensive and work really well.

I've fished them all, and I have landed with Dobyns Champion Extreme HP for my moving baits, Dobyns Xtasy for my heavier finesse baits, Shimano Exprides for Jerkbaits and Walking Top Water baits and Daiwa Steez for my finesse baits.

The answer to this question is simple, largemouth are just easier to catch and more plentiful.... Anyone who chases Smallmouth knows that they fight harder, are harder to catch, often requiring finesse approach, making their lb for lb fighting ability seem almost superhuman. Its the very reason I target smallmouth as my primary and preferred bass species. Largemouth are fun to catch, get bigger than smallmouth, are more plentiful, but they simply aren't as fun and challenging to catch as the fiercest fighting warm water species alive..... IMHO

So I had the opportunity to put into action your feedback/statement blank making the biggest impact on sensitivity and guides really not having that big of an impact on sensitivity, and I would have to say that you are spot on. I was able to test the Daiwa Tatula Elite with the AGS guides to the Daiwa Cronos with Alconite guides/SIC tip, both rods 7'6" (on a ML and the other MML) fishing the exact same size/weight tube and the exact same line (braid to leader) for an entire day on the water and wella, the answer is in..... I could tell nary a difference between the impact of the AGS guides versus the Alconite guides. The Elite has the SVF blank and the Cronos the HVF blanks (which I guess Daiwa would tell you is a step down from the SVF blank) and I can honestly say that I could tell absolutely NO difference in the sensitivity of the two rods. In fact, I would go one step further and tell you that sensitivity in each rod was "average" in that I could not feel a single slack like bite/pick up of the tube and I caught several fish on each rod. That is NOT the case with my Dobyns Xtasy 723 rod. I feel slack line bites and pick ups ALWAYs on that rod, and my guess is that it is because that rod's blank material is just better (Dobyns Xtasy Torray 1100), despite it having the Torzite guides. My belief now after this weekend's fishing experiment is guides make little (not none) difference in sensitivity, and the blank is the engine that drives the quality of sensitivity in a rod. Thank you for sharing your feedback and thought I would share mine, which supports your opinion/statement.

If you take your time and you just get your screw holes in the right place the rest is actually pretty straightforward and simple. my tracker had two sets of boards on each side a thicker board on the outside and a thinner board on the inside and I replaced all four and less than an hour and a half. And honestly they are great in terms of getting your boat on and off, not nearly as much resistance and drag as the carpeted bunks have so it's easier to get the boat on and off the trailer especially when is water skinny.

Well I helped enough to get me to buy him, ? Truly a small world, when you see somebody post a video about replacing bunk boards and then literally a couple months later you're actually communicating with that person about a It completely different video on a completely different forum. Anywho, thank you for sharing the fishing video, those were some great fish catches and that first smallmouth you got was enormous, on a ned rig to boot. That's one technique I have no confidence in but I watch videos and see people catch monster fish. I've got to figure that method out. I'm trying to decide whether or not I keep the elite AGS 7 ft 6 in rod that I have right now. Taking it out for a second trip, but one thing I noticed immediately is that it's just not stout enough to fish tubes above 1/4. I caught a couple of fish on a tube with a 3/8 oz jig head in it and I feel like the weight of the tube basically muted all the feel in the rod cuz I couldn't even feel the fish pick up the tube. What are the applications do you use that rod for, or is it really just Ned Riggs and hair jigs? Thanks again and look forward to your reply. This was my 5 plus this spring during the spawn.