Boomstick

Well I think the E6X is more like the 2 series, so I guess this would be the M2.

I have the 6'8" M/XF and my youngest son has the 7'1" M/F. They are pretty similar, the M/F has a slightly longer tip to it and a little more backbone, more like a M+ and the 6'8" has less tip but is a true medium so the rod bends all the way through. They both work for a lot of the same things, but the 6'8" is great for jerkbaits and poppers and about the right length as well especially from a kayak and the 7'1" is good for lightly weighted or weightless soft plastics and finesse jigs. Considering you are mostly looking for lighter soft plastics, I would think the 6'8" would be fine.

Even assuming the dealership was correct in what it needs, it's usually beneficial to fix it then sell it, or even trade it in. Dealers will offer a trade for a vehicle that needs a lot of work for $2-3k and then fix it, change the oil and put it on the lot for $12-13k or whatever often, but fixing it can get your money back in a trade.

What do you think about the medium light rating? I recall @J Francho mentioned on one of the zoom calls that he had one and it was a solid medium, which would probably explain how it isn't great with the NED rig. My experience with the Victory rod, the Full Contact Finesse that I got to use has been very good. I would say that the sensitivity is well above its price point no question.

I pretty much use higher end rods for vertical presentations where the extra sensitivity is beneficial. I have a Daiwa Steez AGS 7'5" MH-H/F bottom contact rod, a Tatula Elite 7' M-MH/XF for finesse jigs and t-rigs and a Tatula Elite 7'1" M/F spinning rod for drop shots, tubes and shaky heads and whatnot. Then Tatula rods for everything else, I don't feel I need a $200+ rod for most moving baits or topwater, I mean you know when you get a hit or not and a flipping stick lies somewhere inbetween, but for as much as I get to use it doesn't really make sense. I got that Steez AGS rod off Amazon around black friday for a pretty solid discount, I believe I paid $440 for it which beats the normal 20% off. That said, I wouldn't put too much into it. A high end rod is nice to have, but not necessary to catch fish. I got my youngest son a St Croix Victory, and the sensitivity on that is also quite good and those retail for $200. It's not as good as the Steez, but I can feel the same vibrations although not quite as distinctly and I can feel whatever I'm dragging it over etc. So I would buy what you need. For example, if all of your rods are lower level, a pair of nice rods for finesse fishing and T-Rigs and jigs might be the way to go.

You are not supposed to snug it until the end. It seems much easier if you snug it first until your knot slips.

Car prices go up so fast since the end of 2009 and on that it may be worth fixing believe it or not. I bought a car before the prices started skyrocketing later in 2009, drove it for 4 years, put all sorts of miles on it and traded it in because it was RWD with fat tires when I bought a house on a fairly steep and narrow road because I needed something that could make it up the hill in the winter and still got a large chunk of what I paid for it back. A few years later, I bought a Dodge Charger, everything on that car besides the engine went near literally and a year later I traded it in when the transfer case went right and the warranty was expiring, and got what I paid for it. I bought a '14 GMC Sierra with 26k on it in 2018 from a local dealer. I probably could have saved a few grand if I was willing to leave Massachusetts (which has the highest used car prices in the world) but I opted to keep local as I was undergoing chemo at the time, plus this dealer is very good. You may pay more, but they replace brakes and rotors if they're 50% and feel a shimmy. I'll probably have this truck until 2034 at least. Now they have a near identical short box (aka not long enough to fit bass rods) '14 with 70k on it and the asking price is the same.

Honestly, people will cut locks if they're going to steal it. Your best deterrent is having an easily visible security camera pointing right at it. Add in a cable and they'll know they're gonna be on camera for a little but and maybe they'll say forget it. A couple of visible shotgun blasts to a nearby tree never hurt either.

I had to look up line capacity estimators and the thickness of lines in question too

That's pretty much all I use and I virtually never have my knot break on fluorocarbon. It was the first knot that I learned, then I learned the palomar (which I will occasionally use on braid, it cinches down tight on braid but not nearly as good on mono and even less fluoro) but I found that for some reason the uni was easier to tie if there's wind, so that's what I use.

This one: There was actually another a few days ago as well. Basically I did the math assumed Shimano would use fluorocarbon line (they don't give line diameters, but Daiwa does so I figured they may do the same) and figured to get two spools of Shooter, I would need minimum 23 cranks on the handle of backing line, actually put on I believe 33, and it still went way past the blue dyed half spool marker, which tells me I assumed the wrong line thickness for 14# line.

I would try the biggest frog you can. But yes when it gets this thick and there are no openings, the frog bite can be a little tough so you might have to break out the punching setup on an extra heavy rod.

My youngest son has a Regal, it really is a good reel no doubt. It's sort of like the BG on a budget. If you can swing it (or maybe find a deal, I got mine for $70 not counting the $30 on Amazon points I had on my card), get the Daiwa BG. That is a killer reel for the price but still retails for $100.

There will be a big difference depending on the thickness of the line that the manufacturer assumes "14# mono" to be. I just posted on another thread how typically Daiwa's line ratings are in fluorocarbon diameters, but Shimanos are in fat mono diameters, so the Shimanos hold much more like than the numbers would say. But with 20# mono, you're going to want a larger reel.

Yo Zuri Hybrid is good line. The 15# is as fat as any 17# mono but the other ones are inline with typical fat mono lines which is odd, but it's quite strong.

Daiwa's line ratings are usually for fluorocarbon thickness, where Shimanos seems to be for fat mono. I always suspected but confirmed this year that the Curado K definitely holds more than 110 yards of your typical 16# fluorocarbon, such as Seaguar. I use a Tatula 150 for braid for frogging and flipping cover.

The only poppers I bother to carry anymore are the Megabass PopX (1/4oz) and Pop Max (1/2oz). They're expensive, but it's very hard to snag and lose them and they do everything well. I do usually prefer 1/4oz especially early and later in the year (very effective later in the year as the water gets into the 40s!) but 1/2oz produces well later in July and August and earlier September.

Anywhere where the fish aren't 20' deep or hiding in the weeds. You can fish it over weeds, along weeds, in 10-12 feet of water where you work it above them and see if they'll bite, or in 3' of water alike. They're thought of as cold weather lures often, but they work year round.

westmarine.com still lists the Garmin Echomap with the GT54UHD either the 93sv or 73sv at good prices. I have the 93sv, it's a good unit.

Not on the same day, but I caught a fish my kid caught maybe 4-5 days earlier. It was clearly caught several times and had very unique scaring on the jawline, so no doubt it was the same one.

^10! Up the irons!

A bit heavy. You would probably want a 704C or 734C for all around T-Rigs or a 703C or 733C if you don't throw them around cover and use light or no weights.

A lot of the handles are a little longer, but regardless I don't have much of a problem controlling a rod around 7' in most situations. Sometimes a rod that is a little shorter can be beneficial, like for throwing a jerkbait or a popper.

I use fluorocarbon whenever possible, mono for topwater and braid for frogging and thick cover personally. For this year, I've been using Daiwa J-Fluoro Samurai on a couple of rods, and it handles absolutely amazing. I also have 12# Shooter on another reel but the J-Fluoro handles better. I bought it late last year for $20-22 on ebay, I'm not sure if you can find it for much less than $30 now, but it's definitely worth considering. I also picked up a spool of Tatsu for $34 on ebay recently too, which I haven't spooled on a reel yet.

I got my hands on some Favorite rods around the $150 range. I was not really impressed. I was wacking the tip on my kid and I couldn't tell when it hits, normally I would expect to feel some vibrations at that price point. I'm convinced that a Berkley Cherrywood would have faired better for well over $100 less. I've heard that hear their higher end rods around $300 are actually pretty good, but my experience with lower end Favorite rods turned me off from the brand.