MN Fisher

I'd offer - but an 850SqFt house barely fits the wife and I.

Are you just straight retrieving it, or are you 'walking' it back?

Or two - and a trash bag to take the line you WILL cut off to replace when the backlash creates the mother of all bird's nests.

Only stat on that which gives me pause is the speed - and they don't even tell you what the IPT is. I prefer an 8-speed (33+IPT) for frogging cause when that bass hits the frog in the middle of a lily-pad patch and dives, you want the speed to get him/her out of there as fast as possible before they wrap your line around the stems.

It's not required - but it is a good idea. I'm slowly moving all my BCs to metal frame...I've got two Fuegos, a Supreme and a Patriarch - all Aluminum. My President and President XT are the ones on the 'chopping block'.

Rest of my BCs are Pfluegers - Pres, Pres-XT, Supreme, Patriarch - if I wasn't broke, one of those would be replaced by a used Patriarch 7.1 currently available. I LOVE my Patriarch.

Rod - add $5 to that (MSRP - low as $45 some places) - Aird-X H/F. That's what I'm using for frogs/flipping/pitching/etc. Reel - Check sales - go a little more and get a Diawa Fuego CT-XS 8.1:1 - that's my frogging reel. Occasionally you can find them for around $80.

I'm kind of scared that Pflueger is going to go away. Dunno if you've looked, but the only BC they have left is the President XT - Trion, President, both Supremes and both Patriarchs are no more. Wondering when the hammer is going to fall on the spinning line-up..and it makes me sad. I've been a Pflueger fan-boy since the 640 I bought back in the 70s. And I spoke too soon - new models of the Supreme and Supreme XT spinning reels are out...guess what...they removed the switch. If you want Supreme spinners with the switch, buy the previous models before they sell out.

I've always been partial to Mepps Comet - same idea...bass, walleye, panfish, northern, trout...all have 'fallen' for the Comet.

My PB Northern was caught years ago on my Mitchell 320, a medium power rod, and 8# Stren...took a while to get into the boat, but well worth it.

Na - just different. I grew up with spinning, even walleye and northerns were targeted with my old Mitchell 320. When I first went to BCs, it was primarily for trolling. It's all what you're use to.

I have two rigs set up for crankbaits, and they always have one tied on Fuego CT-H on a Fury 705CB MH/MF Avocet RZT-2000 on a Okuma Stratus VI MH/MF While I do use the Avocet mainly for the lighter cranks and lipless, it's my prime squarebill rod...and that includes KVD 2.5s

There's a reason I still have Rapala Original Floaters in my jerkbait box...they work.

Course you could go with this...

Weightless plastics I skip with my President XT-LE 30 and Fury 703SF...as well as other lighter lures.

Sure - two things off the top of my head. I've mentioned multiple times that I can't skip with a BC to save my life - so I set up a MH/F spinning rig to handle that issue for jigs, spinners, chatters. Flip/pitch/punch/frog? Dobyns 705SF (pick a model) with a 4000 size reel (mainly for the IPT) - I do all that with a 7' rod now, so it's not a 'step down' even though most prefer a longer rod for flipping-etc. Like I've said in the past - I could go all spinning and not lose out on any technique I already use.

I could debate that given certain equipment - and no, not inshore gear...but I'll refrain for now.

Pflueger's removed the switch from the Trion - just a matter of time before the rest of their models do that.

I don't think the single weed-guard is the problem - was it an 'off-brand'? Strike King Tour Grade and Outkast Perfect Ned both come in weedless with a single weed-guard...and both are touted as being very good.

That's part of it - but also if you look, spinning rods have much larger guide sizes close to the reel...this is because of how the line comes off the reel.

Being that my arsenal is 50-50 baitcasting-spinning - my answer would be no. Learn the water - find contour maps of where you fish. Then learn the things you've already stated - baits, colors, etc. Plenty of bank fisher-people catch bass with spinning rigs - it's finding out where the bass are and what they want that makes the difference.

Sounds like my experience. I filled out the 'Contact Us' form on their site a couple months ago asking if the President XT was going to be the sole BC left in their line-up...couple weeks, no answer, so sent the question again...every two weeks I fill out the 'Contact Us' form - squeaky wheel and all that. All I've heard is crickets.

There's some decent waters down in that area...and it's only an hour to the Mississippi River in Winona...so lots of good fishing.

Ya - 'juicy waters' could be anywhere between the Canadian border to the Iowa border...that's several hundred miles.

Not only that, but the articles section too - lots of good write-ups by experienced people including Pros.