Boomstick

That is amazing! She could probably make some real money doing this professionally. Back in the early 90s, my mom used to make wedding cakes for people, and make a few hundred dollars per cake, but nothing like this. I'll take a finger.

A few years ago, one of my kids bought me a KVD knife from Mustad that I would bring with me fishing and camping. It's small, fits well in my pocket but was surprisingly sharp - especially if I ever bother to sharpen it. And it has hook sharpeners in it. Unfortunately, I seem to have misplaced it a few months ago and haven't seen it since

We're in the same boat mostly. I usually use 16# Daiwa JFluoro. If I had more wood, I would use 20# but don't have the extra reel. If I fished only open water I would go with 14# (or if I'm feeling brave, 12#). 16# has worked well for me fishing open water, around wood and moderate milfoil. We do have some heavy cover, and for that I'm using 50# or 65# braid.

^ If you want to go with a glass rod, the Daiwa Tatula 7'2" MH/R glass rod would be a solid option. The first gen is actually nearly ideal for both, the second is a little softer tip but it still works well. I wouldn't throw a chatterbait on the St Croix Mojo Glass 7'2", that is a little bit too moderate but it is a good cranking rod for sure.

It's designed to be first and foremost a frogging rod. It's also good for baitballs and even mid-sized swimbaits since it has a higher weight limit. You could definitely flip heavy cover with it s well. I only have the Tatula version, but it's a really good frog rod, has all the power to pull them out of the thick slop and casts the 2.25" LiveTargets quite well too (which is my go to frog).

I have Tatsu, Shooter and J-Fluoro Samurai on two different reels and personally I think the J-Fluoro handles the best of all three. I can't really comment on what's better for longevity, strength or abrasion resistance as I haven't had any issues with any of them yet.

That rod is perfect for chatterbaits with flurocarbon, although I did use braid and didn't have a problem losing a lot either.

This rod is probably about as good as you'll get that can handle a chatterbait and a crankbait.

I picked up a few of the downsized Nichols spinnerbaits last fall and they were quite productive for me. I haven't really thrown them this fall, but hope to this Friday.

They have left the shallow water in my shore fishing spot maybe 3-4 weeks ago. They were everywhere this year!

I had seen a few places that Aaron had passed earlier but nothing looked too legitimate, glad it's just clickbait.

I had a few of the SK KVDs, I think I lost them all in snags but I got a few fish, no complaints about them really. The 110s are also good. My favorite jerkbait has been the Berkley cutter, catches me a ton and doesn't break the bank.

You're a bit south of me too. I remember driving to Baltimore in April, leaving mid day with the heat on and arriving around 2am and blowing cold air on me.

What I really meant by that was 3 years. In my case, we get iced over, so seasons and years are interchangeable in this context so that was a brain fart.

Good point - and even if they have them they might be sold out. Like last year, only worse.

To clarify, I don't really feel I have to buy anything, and likely won't. It's just the first year I feel this way. If you know me, I see a deal and a need and usually jump on it.

I would love to build my own, but I think I would have to buy a bigger house. My larger problem is what would I order (or even build) right now?

When you consider I get about 3 seasons on a spool of braid, that's not too bad!

Most of my rods retail around $150 or so and I've paid significantly less than that. In the past year, I added a few higher end rods for vertical presentations. I still opt to use cheaper rods for moving baits and really have no reason to upgrade those. I just made another post how I'm fairly content with my rod setup right now and for once Black Friday is approaching and I don't have a whole lot to buy this year. So I did pretty well without going too far down the rabbit hole too badly. Fortunately I have had a lot of input from a lot of other users on several of these rods so I knew exactly what to expect for power and action so I didn't buy a rod hoping it would have a certain bend and end up with something different. That said, I got my youngest son the St Croix Victory Full Contact Finesse 7'3" H/XF rod and I am really impressed with this rod for the money. It's a bit better balanced than most St Croix rods, the fit and finish is also better than most and it's quite sensitive as well. As the carpal tunnel and arthritis in my hands gets worse, it's possible that I might find myself using a Berkley Cherrywood someday in the near future and not knowing the difference.

+1 for Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai. You can get it for under $30 a spool on ebay and I have reels with Tatsu and Shooter and I think the J-Fluoro handles better than both personally. If that is still too much, InvizX is pretty solid line.

So over the past year, I've upgraded my rods/reels a bit. I added the 7'1" Tatula Elite M/F Ehrler dropshot rod for larger dropshots and also great for tubes and sort of a utility spinning rod (already had a decent ML/XF), the 7' Tatula Elite M-MH/XF "finesse" rod which is generally my T-Rig and finesse jig rod, and a Daiwa Steez AGS 7'5" Bottom Contact rod (the older one with the foam handle which I think I prefer) paired with a Steez SV reel for jigs. So other than a soft plastic and monofilament line resupply and a small list of lures to try (River2Sea Tactical DD and maybe a couple of Jackhammers), I don't know what to buy. I might pick up a Tatula Elite reel for crankbaits. For rods, what should I do? Some candidates are my flipping stick, frog rod, cranking rod, topwater & jerkbait rod or my spinnerbait/utility rod. I could also add a general purpose heavy power rod that's a little shorter, which would see some usage but with my MH-H jig rod, I'm able to throw that in the typical lighter cover I often fish. If I upgrade anything, I'm leaning towards the spinnerbait/utility rod, although of all my "cheaper" rods, it's my favorite, a 6'10" MH/F Tatula but it's the first generation and more sensitive than the second generation rods (or perhaps the 6'10" is just more sensitive than the rest of the line).

As long as they don't wreck their hollow body frogs, I'm happy. Their Hollow Body frogs get more more bites and lands more fish than virtually any other frog, and the 2.25" is a good casting weight and perfect in side for most situations except the thickest of cover where I want the larger one.

I have a Bonafide SS127, and I installed the transducer on the bottom of the dry pod, put the battery inside the dry pod and the head unit on top. Then I can take it out and put it inside my truck for safe keeping. My oldest son has a Kaku Voodoo, and we got a YakAttack cell block that mounts to the rails. My youngest has an Old Town Topwater 120 that has a transducer mount. We run the wire into a dry bag in the hull that has the battery, and run the wires back out the hatch - no holes drilled! I would go on Youtube and search for your model and see what people do.

Honestly, the Expride is probably also worth a look here. They are a good bang for their buck, and have a warranty although a bit slow.

I know that Matt Allen loves the Brailist for 3/8oz and 1/2oz jigs. If I was looking for a rod to throw jigs on, I wouldn't hesitate to buy one. The EMTF might as well be named the moving bait special, but you're not going to be using that for 3/8oz+ jigs. If I was going to look for one rod to do all of these techniques almost equally well, I think I would go with the Tour Versatile though.