BankBasser

I fish from shore the majority of the time. The four rigs I use the most are... *St Croix LTW - 7' Medium Light/Fast - Spinning... Ned Rig... Daiwa Tatula LT 2000 *St Croix LTW - 6'8" Medium/Extra Fast - Spinning... Wacky, Neko... Daiwa Tatula LT 2000 *Dobyns DX 744C - 7'4" Medium Heavy/Fast - Casting... Jigs, T-Rig, Rage Rig... Daiwa Tatula 100 *Dobyns XP 735C - 7'3" Heavy/Extra Fast - Casting... Frogs... Daiwa Tatula SV TW

I use both reels on my LTW's and really don't have a preference. They're both nice. I guess I'd answer it like this... If, for whatever reason, I had to replace my Ci4+, I'd get another Daiwa Tatula LT and save a few bucks.

I picked up a Dobyns Champion 705CB graphite off their refurbished page earlier in the summer and it's worked great. There's one on their website now for $170. I have five Dobyns rods from the refurbished page and they all arrived in near new condition.

I tend to stick with same brands for some reason. ATM, all my casting rods (that I'm using) are Dobyns. All my spinning rods are St Croix. Reels are Daiwa. That said. All the Dobyns were bought off their Refurbished page. All the St Croix were from their sale page (I don't find it on their new website) or deep discounted from retailers selling off old models and the Daiwa reels were all either from ebay or TW sales. No need to buy full retail. There's always a good deal to be had.

Ha! Yea, guitar pedals are the guitarists version of crankbaits. Too many of them sitting around in boxes not getting used. Those old Randall solid state amps were brutally loud. Right up Dimebag's ally. Great player who had a lot more to give when he was killed.

Thanks! I "think" it was a Vox AC30. It could have been a Twin Reverb or Suhr Bella, too. Those are my small gig amps. I bought that Strat new in 1983 and of all the guitars I've had through the years it's the one I always go back to. The pedals used were a Dover Drive and Carbon Copy. Pedalboard is below...

Nice! Just 8 years? Sounds like more to me. I've played for 45 years and made a big chunk of my living at it doing both studio work and gigging more than I cared to. I don't have any complete songs, but here's a blurb from an ELP song from the last gig I played about a year ago. I finally decided I'd rather be at home at night than playing in a bar.

I use 1/15oz and 1/10oz + TRD on a ML/F rod with the same ratings as what you list above and it works fine.

I would do the ML/F if it's a dedicated Ned Rig rod. I've tried a Ned Rig on a M/F and it just feels better on the ML/F, to me. I've had a number of the Pflueger Presidents and prefered the 25 size on whatever rod I paired them with, medium light or medium. Hope that helps. GL.

I guess he didn't see it coming...

It's interesting that 8lb is as heavy as I care to use of both the original and crystal Fireline. Original does limber up after some use. Hopefully this does as well. Thanks!

7' M/F spinning would be my choice. With the appropriate weight lures you could cover everything you listed.

SC LTW 6'8" M/XF with a Daiwa 2000 size Tatula LT seems to be getting a lot of use this summer.

Thanks for this. I've used Original Fireline (mostly 6lb and 8lb) forever on spinning gear and have been curious about the Ultra 8. The stiffness on the original seems to go away after some time. Maybe the same is true on the Ultra 8 as well? Thanks again!

Besides fishing? Guitars, shooting, roasting coffee (and drinking too much of it), cooking (and eating too much of it), walking (counters the effects of the cooking) and searching out new music (I rarely listen to anything radio).

Using a uni-uni knot never presented a problem with 10lb braid to 8lb fluoro, for me.

I used 6lb or 8lb (mostly) Original Fireline for years on my spinning gear. This year, I tried using 10lb Power Pro with an 8lb fuoro leader and haven't noticed a difference in the overall number of fish caught. Although I thought at first being able to break off the line at the uni knot was a good way to save line/money, it only took losing a couple $6 lost lures to decide that wasn't the case. I'd rather replace a .75 bent hook than the whole $6 lure. Soooo, I'm back to straight Fireline. Straight Fireline has never presented a problem with hooksets. It's spinning gear with lighter/thinner lures/hooks. I just apply a little back pressure and the hooks basically set themselves.

I've caught more fish pond hopping with a 7' m/f spinning outfit than any other outfit I have. That'd be my 1st choice. Edit: Whacky rig, small t-rig, tubes, neko, small finesse jig.

No, I don't think it makes for a better angler. Just better access. An analogy I'd use is this... I've played guitar almost my whole life (since I was 5) and have done tons of studio work and live gigs, it being my only source of income at one point. I have better than average gear, but I'm not a gear hoarder. I know guys that have rooms full of guitars and amps WAY more expensive than what I have, but if you ask them to play anything other than "Smoke on the Water", they can't do it. A boat does not an angler make, but it'd be nice to have.

The majority of my fishing this year has been from the bank with either a m/f spinning outfit or a mh/f casting outfit. But, on those days when the bite is slow I grab a ml/f spinning outfit and fish a ned rig (I don't like ned rigs on a medium power rod). During the summer a LOT of the waters I fish are ringed with 6' or more (sometimes the whole pond) of slop. It's nice to grab the h/f outfit and fish a frog when that's the case. When I fish lipless or squarebill (1/4oz RES, KVD 1.5 or Mann's -1) I like to use a m/mf casting. If I had to use just one outfit it'd be the m/f spinning (for where I fish) and I'd be fine with it, but options are nice and can turn a bad day to good.

I'm using 10lb Power Pro with an 8lb fluorocarbon leader this year. In the past I use 8lb Fireline with no leader. I'm thinking about going back to that as I'm not noticing any difference in catch rate using a fluoro leader and it'd be one less knot to mess with.

St Croix LTW 6'8" M/XF Daiwa Tatula LT 2000 Power Pro 10lb braid w/8lb Tatsu leader

I have no experience with the Loomis. I do have two Elite Tech 2pc spinning rods I keep with me in a case for when I have some time to kill between work appointments. I like them as much as I did my St Croix Avids, for what that's worth.

Great bags. I have the 3700 size and if you use the 1.38" shallow boxes (like the 3771 custom divider) you can easily get 4 boxes to fit.

3/8oz Siebert Arky in green pumpkin w/rage chunk trailer.