Russ E

the reviews that I can't watch are rod and reel box opening reviews. they open a box and rave about how good or bad it is, without even putting any line on it or casting it. in my opinion a good review is someone abusing it in the field. Then showing the results.

My favorite cranking rod is a dobyns fury FR705CB. it is medium heavy moderate fast action. 7ft long. designed specifically for crankbaits. costs around $109.00 dollars. you can buy it at tackle warehouse, amazon, etc. this is a graphite rod and very light. . Glass is heavy in my opinion.

I use a crankbait around 5 percent of the time. most times around here there are more productive baits to use. most of my crankbait fishing is searching for fish. once I find them I often switch to something else. At least for me,cranking in Eastern Kansas catches more drum and catfish, than bass.

stren is the only 100% flourocarbon, I am aware of, that comes in blue. from my own experience stren flourocarbon line is poor quality. P-line sells a clear/blue hybrid.

the prices bounced around a lot this week. the right hand seems to stay a lot cheaper than the left hand model. they must sell fewer of them. that is fine with me. As a lefty, the right hand reel works great for me. you can still buy gen 3 sx's on amazon. i had a gen 3 sx. Did not care for it. The gen 4 fits my hand a lot better and the braking system seems to work better.

i bought 2 last week. used them both already. they work fine. I already had 2 others that I used all summer, but they cost me $159.00 each. the Revo 4 SX HS is my all around favorite reel. It fits my hand perfectly and once you get both brakes setup, backlashes are very rare. plus at 7.3 to 1 it can pickup a lot of line in a hurry

amazon has had some crazy prices lately. last week I bought a couple revo 4 sx hs bait casting reels for $106.00 a piece. I noticed today they are only $96.00. I looked up Tackle warehouse and Cabelas. they are both selling them for $159.00 https://www.amazon.com/Abu-Garcia-1430427-Profile-Baitcasting/dp/B074WJ3YKH/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539444671&sr=8-1&keywords=revo%2B4%2Bsx&th=1

to each their own. I have 2 fury's with revos on both. the revos have red accents. they balance well together and are comfortable to use all day. could care less if the colors clash, they are my favorite combos.

my 55 year old knees don't like bouncing in rough water all day, while standing on the deck. I am not a sit down fisherman, but I may have to re evaluate that decision on rough water. first time my knees ever ached after fishing.

I have had a couple, larger summer bass caught in 20ft of water, that were bloated and floated on their side when I tried to release them. I had to degas them. Then they swam away.

I agree with @Bluebasser86 . On most waters around here anything over 10ft. Is considered deep water. There are a couple lakes that I can catch bass in 20ft., during summer, but they are the exception.

I don't usually add a trailer. It just gives the drum something to bite off.

As everyone else here said, I don't think it matters. The spinning tail is what makes noise. Until this post, i did not know there were rattling whopper ploppers. honestly don't know which ones I own.

after getting 10 inches of rain in the last 5 days, I was itching to get out on the water. A cold front and 15-20 mph were not ideal conditions, but i was determined to go out anyway. spent about 5 hours riding the waves and cranking rip rap, with a kvd 1.5, on my favorite power plant lake. caught 7 bass these 2 were the biggest. 3lb 14oz. and 3lb 6oz. of course a day of crankbait fishing, in Kansas, is not complete without a couple drum hammering your bait and taking off like a freight train.

I use all three,depends on the application. The third being flourocarbon. Doesn't really affect my decision on magnetic or centrifugal brakes.

i agree. my kastking speed demon pro has a good magnetic brake system where I can do the same thing. With my revo's i can set the centrifugal brake system just enough to stop the backlash at the beginning of the cast. set the spool tension at a minimum, then lightly set the magnetic brake, just high enough to eliminate backlash at the end of the cast. they will cast a mile.

inside the brass ring of the side plate, is where the brake pads drag, when the spool speed goes too fast. you can usually see a black ring around the inside where the brakes are dragging. i run a light coat of oil around the inside of this ring about once a month.

I agree with the black max as being one of the worst braking reels. I know a lot of anglers that start out with that reel. when they move up to better reels, they are often amazed at how well they can cast. i have a couple abu-garcia revo's that are centrifugal/magnetic combos. they are very easy to cast. I have a couple lews that are magnetic only and they take a lot of thumb control to keep from backlashing.

I have caught 4-4.5 lb smallmouths that did not fight at all. Bigger fish pull harder, but don't always fight with as much energy as smaller fish.

pound for pound a smallie usually fights with more vigor, but a 1.5lb smallie is nothing like catching a 5lb largemouth.

I am heading to a reservoir south of Kansas City tomorrow. I suspect the water will be high and cloudy. The bass will probably be shallow. I plan on throwing a whopper plopper, squarebill, and a chatterbait, around shallow cover. if that does not work, I am going to pitch creature baits and Jigs into any new flooded brush and weeds.

an alligator was spotted 3 miles west of my house in Kansas, on Monday. it was someones pet. with all the water from this weeks rain, he decided to go on walkabout. its funny in parts of the KC metro it is illegal to own a pitbull, but here you can own a 4ft. alligator. here are a couple links to the story. https://fox4kc.com/2018/10/09/kansas-alligator-caught-on-camera-spooks-neighbors-law-enforcement/ https://www.kansas.com/news/nation-world/national/article219733695.html

Color is the least important thing I consider in a rod. Bass don't care what color it is. I own 2 fury rods. both are good quality for a budget rod. here are a few threads on the subject. looks like dobyns may be the benchmark to judge rods.

I prefer a magnet /centrifugal combination. like @BaitFinesse mentioned if you have the centrifugal brake adjusted properly you can loosen the spool tension and eliminate the backlashes at the beginning of the cast. I can cast lures much farther and with less backlashes with the centrifugl/magnetic combination over the magnetic brake only reels. Once the centrifugal brake is set, I don't touch it again. I also do not adjust the spool tension. if I need any adjustment for lure weight or wind compensation, it is all done with the magnetic brake. one bit of maintenance I do once a month with the centrifugal brake reels. is to wet a cotton swab with reel oil and lightly oil the brake ring. this keeps noise down and improves casting distance

I am fortunate to spend a lot of time on the water. I will try new baits if they look like there is a potential for catching fish. there are a lot of fad baits designed to catch fishermen more than fish. I have been guilty of buying a few of them. I have much more tackle than I need. Some of it does not get used very often. Most of the waters I fish are shallow stained lowland lakes and reservoirs, so i choose baits based on those conditions. I personally don't use rigs like dropshot very often. The bass stay fairly shallow in most of the lakes I fish, so there are usually more efficient baits to use.