r83srock

I don’t flip but I pitch, skip and roll cast. I’ve have improved my backhand cast also. Anyway, my favorite soft plastic to “flip” would be a 5” senko, with a 3/0 Gamakatsu ewg super line hook rigged weightless , 30lb braid and a mh baitcaster. I use a 6” a lot too. A very close second would have to be a 4” pit bass with a 4/0 ewg super line hook, 1/8oz bullet weight, same rod/line as the senko.

I’m a big fan of shimano and especially the slx mgl 70. I have owned both models you ask about and while I liked the tatula ct, just from a comfort standpoint alone I much prefer the SLX mgl.

Yes ☝️

The suggestion about staying hydrated the day before is important. I get dehydrated easily and cannot drink alcohol anymore even though I’d love to have a beer here or there, it’s not happening. I drink 150-200 oz of water a day, sometimes more. I rarely drink soda and on days I fish in extreme heat I will bring one or two Gatorade/powerade zero drinks. Liquid IV is good too. Been trying to limit my caffeine so it’s one “good” cup of coffee for me in the morning. A little sunscreen if needed otherwise a good hat and sun shirt and I’m good to go. Sometimes the only time I can fish is in the middle of the day so I just try to prepare accordingly.

Curado 150 DC is the best frog reel I can think of. I have 50lb smack down on mine and it’s a frogging machine! Rod is a Falcon EVO 7’3” H

I am really liking the Falcon EVO 7’3” Heavy fast. Best frog rod I have owned. It works great for flipping also. I was throwing a buzzbait on it the other day and it worked great. It won’t be as lightweight as most $200-$300 rods but it does balance nicely with a Curado dc on it . Fuji reel seat and guides, it’s just hard to beat for $80.

I have used power pro in 30lb i on baitcasters for years and never had a dig in problem, unless I pulled really hard on a snag using the reel instead of a wooden dowel. I do remember using spiderwire stealth years ago and having that issue. It could be the line you are using. How tightly are you spooling it, maybe that’s it?

1). St. Croix Victory 7’3” HXF casting rod with a Shimano Curado 150mgl 8.1 spooled with 30lb moss green power pro. If I needed a leader I’d use 15lb Trilene Big Game in green. 2). St. Croix Legend Tournament 7’3” MHF casting with Shimano SlX mgl70 , 30lb power pro moss green. 3). I made the mistake of not reading before posting haha. Do my number 3 would be a spinning. St. Croix Mojo Bass 7’1” medium fast spinning rod, with a Shimano Vanford 2500 and 15lb power pro super slick in onyx black. If I needed a leader I’d use 6lb yo zuri hybrid.

I have used the AT grass master jig, Oldhams eyemax, Stanley grass jig for quite awhile. The hack attack is good too. I started making my own using a gambler jig head with gammi hook. I like a 3/4 but will use a 1oz on occasion. Have some 1.5 oz too. When the Mendota rig came out the punching craze took off and the whole “Texas rig” part of it morphed. I mean, guys up here were flipping 4” tubes but the the tungsten weights and heavy flipping hooks weren’t all that available 15-20 years ago. Now we have choices. RI sweet beaver was the bait for a good while. These days I use a tungsten weight pegged with a d bomb or pit boss a lot. If it’s clear and super thick I’ll go to a Christy craw. I prefer the punch rig due to efficiency, even though I’m a “jig guy”. Sometimes the big jig will out perform the punch rig so have both ready.

I agree! You can’t go wrong with either but the legends are my favorite!

I do not think the legend tournament is leaps and bounds better, sensitivity is close, but it is better in my hands. I will say I prefer the 7’3” h XF victory for a little heavier stuff, never mind the rating on the rod. I use it a lot for big Spinnerbaits and 3/4 jigs. It will do lighter stuff too, but the mh fast legend does the 1/4-1/2 stuff better. The mh is more versatile.

I do have the 7’3” HXF in victory. I have been told the equivalent model in legend tournament feels the same. That’s a unique rod for sure and also use for jigs. In the Victory line it’s about as lightweight but a tad more tip heavy. Mh tip with a heavy backbone. Like a very light flipping stick. It often gets thrown into the mix next to my mh fast legend tournament and both do the job perfectly fine. Specially with braided line I enjoy the legend tournament more. Those two models are hard to choose between.

The 7’3” mh fast is what you want. It’s awesome! Very light weight. I use it for 1/4-1/2oz bitsy flips a lot, but also with Texas rigs, spinnerbaits, light duty frogs/buzzbaits.

Not sure about DC, never used one. SV spools are a bit over braked imo, I prefer mgl spools. Matter of fact I think just a 6 pin centrifugal braking system and my thumb are perfectly fine. I also discovered that Daiwa baitcasters palm funny to me, I’m just not as comfortable using them as other brands. Not a knock on their quality though, as they are well made.

Definitely! I had an old Curado 100b (not cheap in its day) on a 7’m lightning rod slinging traps today. Light rod and great for crankbaits! Also was using my 7’ mh Lews Hank Parker rod with an Abu Garcia Max STX (matchy matchy) and 15lb big game mono casting chatterbaits, works great! I had no problems fishing the combos and picking up my legend tournament/SLX mgl on the next cast, then switching back to the cheaper combos. Sure the more expensive stuff is nicer, but not by a huge margin. I also really like the Aird X rods, black max/max x/max stx/max pro reels. The Daiwa regal might be the nicest spinning reel ever at $60. You do not need expensive gear to catch bass.

I really like how those KVD rods feel in the store, never fished one though but I have fished many cheaper Lews rods and always liked them. But for $250-$300 I do think SC Avid is very good if you like old school full grip cork, timeless rod that was recently updated a bit, used to be a staple for SC and I wish they would come out with a full line of powers/actions like they used to have. otherwise I think SC Victory is really hard to beat at $200, although they don’t have a 7’ rod specifically 7’1” MH. Fishes as good as any $250-$300 rod that I have experienced.

Welcome to the dark side. We will patiently wait for our leaders Tbilly and Dodgeguy to show up to this revolution you are experiencing. I do use some mono, but that’s it. I’m mostly braid. I use 10 or 15lb for wacky rigs, 30 lb for general purpose, 40 or 50 for frogging/light flipping, and 65 for punching. I’ve even gone straight braid on neds, just set your drag a bit looser.

Money is correct. When I started out not so long ago (25 years) St. Croix had 3 lines of rods: Premier - Good Avid- better Legend elite-best G-Loomis GL2/GL3 - Good IMX-Better GLX- best Kistler Graphite/california - Good Magnesium - better Helium - best Berkley Cherrywood - good lightning rod - better Series one - best Fenwick HMX - good HMG - better Techna AV - best Shimano had crucial and cumulus rod which are now long gone a nearly forgotten, some of the best rods ever made, that I sadly never owned but had fished. Shimano had reels Citica - Good Curado - better chronarch - best calais - super best lol Marketing changed. The 7’6” flippin stick became 7’11” or 8’, and as the 5’6” pistol grip became the mighty 6’6” full handle “bass rod” along came All Star/castaway/Kistler to market “technique specific “ rods. Falcon too. 6’6” mh fast became 6’10” mh mod fast, and later the standard 7’ mh fast became 7’3” mh XF. It didn’t take long for loomis to come out with bronzeback and mossyback series, and St. Croix to come out with legend tournament (technique specific) and about 5 years later (2008/2009) mojo bass (budgetish technique specific. I could be wrong but I think All Star (wr1/wr2)/castaway, Kistler/American Rodsmiths/and the not related at all Falcon made technique specific rods popular. Other brands followed and soon reels/reel ratios and spool designs changed. Brilliant really, as technique specific is now “normal” In bass fishing equipment. Companies can capitalize on everyone’s budget. The 2008/2009 era (recession) forced companies to provide decent gear for good prices. The $100 rod was never more popular and you got a lot of bang for your buck at that time. Boyd Duckets departure from E21 to start his own brand and Skeet Reese to market his own rods, and of course KVD and his name on everything, made guys like that more money than any tour win. Today’s gear is awesome. It can be expensive, but the budget gear is better than anything we had 20 years ago. The amount of choices can be overwhelming for a newcomer. I do like simplicity, but I can choose to be simple, that’s easy for me, having choices is a very nice thing to have however.

I have a St. Croix Bass X 7’4” Heavy fast (first gen) the I primarily use for punching but have thrown frogs and light Texas rigs. It’s got a lot of power for sure! The 2nd gen had reel seat issues. It looks like they put a better reel seat on the 3rd gen, so worth a look. $120 I also picked up a Falcon EVO 7’3” Heavy Fast from Walmart last year. This rod has completely exceeded my expectations! I’ve used it for A rigs, punching, frogging, jigs, t rigs, big spinnerbaits. This would be the Amistad model in their higher lines. Very nice rod for $80 and I’ve had no regrets, punches way higher than the price would suggest.

I have never used NRX or P5 but have used legend extreme and elite. I own SC victory and legend tournament and find them to be very sensitive. I really like my victory 7’3” HXF for pitching in heavy cover with baits that work well on a standard MH. Great rod for T-rigs and jigs but more versatile than the XF suggests. It’s like a MH+. It’s also got a quick accurate tip but it loads up nice on the hook set. This rod is available in legend tournament and physix.

My dad bought me 2 of these with the XPS IM8 rods as combos when I was 14. I was elated as all I had was a hand me down wel worn Shimano 10sg from about 1984 and a pistol grip lightning rod from the same time frame. Our line of choice was Trilene xl or BPS excel. I saved up and bought a Curado, amassing several over a year or two, all of which I still have. The extremes were great to learn on and start out with and I got about 5 years out of them. The design was very close to the Pfluger trion. I also had some BPS Rick Clunn rods and reels from that time frame and found them to be a nice upgrade.

Shimano SLX MGL70XG 8.1 ratio reel mounted to a St. Croix Legend Tournament bass 7’1” mhxf. That rod is now discontinued and a fast action works well too.

Shimano Curado 100b followed by 200b. The SLX MGL 70 is right up there though.

Tatula 150 is a very good reel, just large. Curado 200k is great too if there are still some left on shelves. I still use a Curado 200B for dedicated flipping. My number 1 though is the new Curado 200M. It’s everything the K series was without the fuss. It’s awesome.

This is my thought exactly! I liked my Diawa’s but much prefer Shimano. I had the same issue with both SV reels I had. One of them was an older model and it seemed to perform better. The SLX MGL is a sleeper that is so friendly to use and quite versatile. If you like lighter mono/flouro or braid it is excellent!