Beetlebz

Another eBay sale just launched. P15HOME for 15% off Home Goods in & Sporting Goods for a single order of $75 or more. Not as good as last week's sale but still pretty d**n decent ever need some tackle to go along with that new Fuego ?

The sale is back! P15home is the new code, home and sporting goods. The downside is it only applies to a single order of $75 or more. So we can use it to get cheap tatulas but not so much on fuegos.

I feel the pain bro. I could very easily replace ONE more reel. Then they will all be new daiwas. The sale ending early probably saved my marriage

Lately I've been fishing 3/8oz Project Z chatterbaits. Good value and quick start up. Rarely I run them with twin tails or craws, sometimes it works when they're looking for something more compact or if I'm fishing it like a normal jig bit with vibrating hops. More often and especially in the wind I will throw it in and over vegetation and swim it. My favorite trailers are 4" creme reel screamers, they're very stiff so they have a tight wiggle that goes well with the chatterbait. I throw 3.8" Jackall rhythm wave swimmers... a little more floppy but tough as nails and a beautiful action on the fall. And if I feel like they want something shorter a 3" swim senko or double tail grub, but usually at that point I'll go to a square bill or MVMT depending on depth.

This is going on 2 years! Ive been putting off getting neko rig supplies forever now. Mostly because I have a metric crap ton of grass literally everywhere and it would get hung in the first 10 seconds. Same with a ned. I should try this though when I'm struggling to find bites on new bodies of water... shakey head too. I have some big 3/8oz 4/0 shakey heads that would be great for dragging on sand flats. Good ideas ?

I pocket carry my xds rarely and an lcp... but I have holsters for both. Not a big fan honestly. My daily carry used to be an XDM compact in .45. I love it, I still shoot it, but for the size and the weight I wind up grabbing either the xds 9mm with the +1 mag and a spare +2 mag in my pocket or grabbing the XDM full size .45 and the owb holster. No point in full size 9mm in Connecticut, I can only have 10 round mags ?

So I noticed an interesting phenomenon all last summer when the sun got high and the bite got bad. I typically resort to dragging C-rigs in the dog days of summer, usually with a 7" power worm. One afternoon walmart was out of normal colored power worms and had one bag of the ribsnakes. They were catching fish better on the C-rig than the power worms but only at a dead standstill... sometimes soaking for 1 or 2 whole minutes. I figured it was the power bait scent, so that's how I fished it. Dead stick c-rig. It worked, usually. This spring I have been fairly successful Texas rigging 7 inch power worms as long as I stay away from green colors. Pumpkinseed and motor oil mostly. Short drag, little shake, little soak. It's been working. Tried Texas rigging a watermelon ribsnake and fishing it the same way with about the same amount of success. I switched to a pumpkinseed ribsnake and boom. Literally. Every. Single. Cast. Different days, different conditions, same results. Even right after someone thoroughly fished the same area. I don't really get it. I guess I'm confused as to why it works. If it was the power bait scent it should have been working on my jigs which haven't been bit all spring (I have a bottle of the powerbait) and the worms. If it was the presentation then the worms should have worked I'd think, unless they wanted a bigger profile. But if it was the bigger profile, why haven't any jigs worked? All spring they haven't been eating much of anything off the bottom but they can't get enough of the ribsnake. I know bass can be picky but if it's just this perfect storm of size, profile, color, scent and presentation I feel like it wouldn't be as consistent of a bit as it's been. Or maybe I figured it all out. I've won bass fishing. Or not. ? what are y'alls thoughts

The problem is I don't have one that I know of locally. By the time I pay to ship the rod off, pay to have the work done, and pay to have it shipped back I could just buy a new defender for 100 or a lunkers tv edition for 130. I'm going to peruse the internet to see if I can find someone local.

I honestly don't know. I haven't fished one, only handled one. I can tell you at half the price the defender isn't overpriced. I'm even ok with the lunkers edition for 30 bucks more to get the black reel seat and black camo grips instead of the blue. Problem is the big sexy is double that ?

I'm super jealous pal. I found schools of crappie once before the spawn and once after which was just last week. I can't get them to bite to save my life! I primarily fish for bass but if I come across a couple good crappie I'll bring one or two home for lunch. This year? Nothing!

Personally I'm not a huge fan of it aesthetically. Bottom line is it's normal and the rod is fine. I have had a few that were noticeably bent in one direction or another, never made a difference. If it means that much to you call abu direct and ship it back. It's not going to explode.

Some folks rely on lower gear ratios to keep them from over burning their baits. It's not a bad practice really... me personally I don't have room for a bunch of different speed reels on rods on my kayak or the funds to outfit them all. So I stick with 3 baitcasters and do my best not to burn them too fast. For example a 5 or 6:1 for crank baits and most moving baits is ideal. An 8:1 can inadvertently burn the bait fast enough to turn off a less active fish. For a bottom contact rig you want a higher speed ratio to make up ground in case the bass grabs the bait and runs right at you.

The big sexy is gorgeous... I only handled one but it was a gorgeous rod. Sadly it's cost prohibitive at this point. I mostly run the defender rods and they're perfect for me. Maybe I'll have to see what sales come this summer. Do you guys remember the balancing system that used quarters and slipped on to the butt of the rod for balance? I was thinking of something like that but like 3" long. Oh well. I guess I have an excuse for a new rod. ?

Ive been having fun lately with a regular jig head and the tony 2" vibe swimbaits. Mostly perch but the occasional bass and crappy bite them... tons of fun and it's all chuck and wind so you don't get bored watching line. I had to go look it up. Eurotackle micro finesse b-vibe

So I replaced my moving bait rod this year with the new favorite sick stick. They did a great job keeping everything light but in doing so they made the split grip shorter than they normally do. I prefer a longer handle so I can support the rod with the length of my forearm. I would just sell the rod and move on, but i genuinely love the rod with the exception of that one facet. Is there any kind of purpose built slip-on extension available to give the handle a little more length or do i need to suck it up and buy another defender? Google has been less than helpful.

I few places offer public safety discounts... it's often a headache to jump through all the hoops. ID me is trying to come up with a uniform centralized system but it's not catching on very fast ?

I've jumped up on my kayak and did a full jet li super full half twist ninja roundhouse hook set on a teener double digit log. Reel is still good to go lol My only concern would be the drag material, I don't know what it is on the baitcasters. I know the Fuego spinning reel uses felt, daiwa isn't very forthcoming on their website about these things. If it's felt on the baitcasters then I would get some upgraded carbon drag washers. I just don't know what's in there. Having your drag over heat and seize with a 30 lb striper peeling line is a sure-fire way to break off.

Sorry I didn't see this thread sooner. I'm a local boy, 10 mins or so from candlewood. I used to live on the lake over by millstone ridge. Unless it's the absolute dead of Summer and you can find them on a dock bite the fish are all over the dam place. Get it? Because it has a dam? *ahem* anyway... I've always had a tough time finding a pattern. I had a buddy go out last year and caught a 7lb 7oz dragging a t-rig... that's literally the last good bite I've heard out of there. Way over pressured. When I had my own dock Outback I'd sit there all day on the dock, never once caught a single bass. Ever. Only crappie. I might try it again when I break down and finally buy a boat but I'm not going to go out there in my kayak anymore, too many full throttle jerks. I do plan on hitting squantz in the yak though. That bite is supposedly more predictable.

I use 7:1 and 8:1 and just slow down when I need to. Torque hasn't been an issue. I even throw chatterbaits and mag squarebills on an 8:1 fuego... no issues. As for salt, I honestly don't know how they are sealed, if at all. My knee jerk reaction would be that they should be fine as long as you rinse well afterwords and have them serviced every year... but I just don't have any first hand experience. When I fish brackish I have an older kastking stealth so I don't have to worry about it.

Yes! Tackle supply depot (they're local to me, so I prefer them even though the selection is a *little* smaller) is doing a 15% of memorial day sale. I don't know off hand if they do a .mil discount though. Also thanks for the heads up. I just canned my shopping cart at TW and started one up at TSD.

The first thing I thought of was keitechs and flukes over the grass. Man what a wild ride! Big reaction bites are just crazy exciting on spinning gear.

Alpha2omega on the ebays has the tatula for 89, comes out to 76 bucks with the pmemday code. I just grabbed one. I didn't check their price on the Fuego but It would be around 58 or 59 bucks with the code. I haven't fished the tatula yet but I've fished the tatula SV and the fuego a ton this spring. Between the two they both feel fantastic in the hand, and important to me is that they feel very similar in the hand. My only gripe... and it super minor... is that the thumb bar on the Fuego looks and feels cheap, but it functions flawlessly. Im willing to bet under the chrome paint its the exact same part as the tatula. Plus thumb bars are usually stupid cheap to replace anyway. If the extra 20 bucks is a big deal or if you're worried about the t-wing (mine has given me no reason to be suspicious of it) the Fuego is a fantastic choice. If you got the 20 bucks to burn and the extra 18 centimeters casting distance that the t-wing gives is worth it, the tatula is also a fantastic choice. I've said it a bunch in posts lately, there's no wrong choice here! ?

I run 7:1 except for my flipping rod, and I throw moving baits on it anyway most of the time. That ones in 8:1 and it churns in chatterbaits just fine. If I want to slow roll with either one I just slow down. I'm sure I would feel differently if I had a boat but since I can only fit 4 rods on my kayak I make do! That silly pmemday code just cost me money too. I sprang for the tatula for $76 bucks to replace my 6 month old casitas ?

I'm personally a big fan of the berkely ribsnake on a 1/4 t-rig. It feels like cheating sometimes. Best part, it let's me do the stand up in the kayak, Elton John style hook sets ? lol

I had a whole big order ready for TW.... my first actually. I normally order from TSD because they're local. But I don't think I can pass up a tatula for $76 ? who wants a slightly used casitas?