Russ E

that sucks. I understand how it broke now.

ouch! I have hit a lot of things with my trolling motor, but never had anything like that happen.

Something keeps raiding the bird feeders and eating my wife's flowers. Put a trail cam next to the bird feeders. we may have found the thief. looks like I need to set the date and time on the camera.

I have the gen 1 The gen 2 has a little better trigger and pretty rough grips. To me the grips were too coarse for a carry gun. It catches a clothing a lot more. Otherwise I don't think there is much difference.

that is about what I paid for mine. It is a nice little carry gun.

my fluke setup is is a Dobyns fury 733c with a daiwa tatula sv reel. I can pitch and skip a weightless fluke with this setup.

Yes. It sets up the same way. The only difference is you can lock it down for a baitcaster, so the spool is stationary. It is great for braid, because there is a tension adjustment, that allows you to fill the spool under pressure. That way the line is not digging into itself. First time you set it up is a little awkward, but after that it works good.

The op was wanting a comparison between KastKing and other budget reels. Here is my experience with KastKing Most kastkings are under $75.00. for the price they are decent reels. Do they compare to my tatula's or revo's? No, but you can buy 2 or 3 Kastkings for the price of one of those. I use them to fill out my arsenal on rods that only get used occasionally. I own a couple speed demon spinning reels and a couple sharky III spinning reels that are decent. I own one assasin baitcaster. It occasionally makes some strange noises. It gets used for bank fishing in nasty areas. I use a couple royal legend elites for crankbaits. For a baitcaster that cost less than $70.00, this reel is extremely quiet and smooth. It Does not do real well with light baits, but it will cast mid range to heavier baits a mile. Much nicer than the black max, silver max, or monarchs I have used. This is my choice for a budget reel. The royal legend elite runs about $70.00 on amazon. If you watch the promos on e-bay and Amazon, it can be had for a lot less. I paid around $50.00 for both of mine.

for a casting reels I hang the spool on a nail in my garage. for spinning reels I use this. it allows the spool to spin with the reel and nearly eliminates line twist. it is around $30.00 on amazon.

One thing that struck me on a recent blog of his. He caught a couple big fish at a local lake, but only a couple dozen total. He stated that he would rather catch a bunch of small fish, instead of a few large fish. He seemed disappointed over catching large fish. I am the opposite. I would rather catch a few quality fish over a bunch of dinks. Catching dinks all day gets boring.

there is probably a burr ot nick on one of the eyelets. spin a q-tip in each eyelet. any burrs will snag the q tip.

I would buy a premade keel guard. spray on bed liner would probably not protect much. When I bought my ranger I had a Hamby's keelguard installed at the factory. Its pretty tough. I have bounced off of a couple trees and beached it a few times. It still looks like new after 3 years.

Palomar is probably the strongest and easiest to tie. there are several you tube videos showing how to tie it.

I would check your drag and knots. If your drag is set correctly, and you have a good knot, you should be able to land a bass on 10 pound line in open water. I use 6 and 8 pound mono or copoly on my spinning reels. I have caught bass over 7 pounds and catfish around 20 on them. Can't recall the last time I had a break off that was not in heavy cover.

It depends on where you are fishing and the equipment you are using. No line works in every condition. You did not say whether the fish broke off in cover or open water. Without more information we would be guessing on what you need.

2016 chevy colorado Z71 with the towing package. It pulls my little 2017 ranger easily. It has 36,000 miles Both are paid for, which is a nice feeling.

Surprisingly she did not seem to surprised when I asked her to weigh it. It was at the Kansas City Kansas legends walmart. I am sure they have seen stranger things than that. The people of walmart site could stay busy a long time just taking pictures there. I didn't purposely pick pink. that just happens to be their color for 5lb weights.

if you are referring to the standard offset. that is what I use on a baby brush hog. 2/0 to 3/0 on the baby. 4/0 on the standard brush hog. I don't care for ewg hooks on anything but flukes. This is what I call a standard offset.

You are right the ct seems to cast a little farther, but when pitching, skipping or throwing light lures the sv is much better. It depends on what you plan to use it for.

Most of my spinning reels have braid. depending on where I am fishing I also use a leader. I am not worried about fish seeing the line. if a leader is used, it is because I am fishing around rock or Zebra mussels. The only time I use braid on baitcasters is frogs and ploppers. I prefer a copoly, hybrid, or fluoro line for everything else.

Pork butt smoked low and slow for 15 hours over a blend of hickory and pecan. Fresh green beans and honey gold potatoes out of the garden. The only thing that could make it better is fresh sweet corn. It should be coming soon.

their scale said 5.1 lbs. which converts to 5lb. 1.6 oz. I converted it, because my scale reads ounces not 100ths of a pound. my digital flat scale read 5.125 pounds. which converts to 5lb 2oz I am not too concerned about 1/2 ounce difference.

I have an 8.1 to 1 and a 7.3 to 1. they both work well. I prefer the 8.1 to 1 for pitching.

This is my scale calibration device. I use it around once a week to make sure my scales are still accurate. I bought it at Walmart for $4.00. Before purchasing, I asked the deli department to weigh it. even though it is a 5 lb. weight it was actually 5 lb. 2. oz on their scale.

if you are not in a hurry you can bid on a few auctions on E-Bay for a Diawa tatula SV. They usually run higher than your budget, but I bought 2 of them this spring, by bidding on auctions. one cost $140.00 the other was $130.00. They were both new. Simmons sporting goods is the company I usually buy from. they always have auctions running. I would use the SV for jigs and texas rigs. It is great for pitching and skipping. Put the CT on your spinnerbait rod.