Beetlebz

I fish 1/4 weighted Texas rigged power worms ALOT.... I'm not going to say they never twist but its never been a problem. I might suggest using ewg hooks to keep more weight away from the center axis so the worm swims with the hook shank down... I suppose if it isnt broke dont fix it.

I think everyone here has great suggestions. You need a solid hookset for sure, but also and especially with braid you have to keep that rod tip either higher or to the side like these guys said. Braid has little or no stretch, and in every clip your rod is majoritively pointed at the fish. You need that rod to load up with the fish to keep them pinned. With your rod pointing at the fish there is very little "shock absorbtion" going on. They can throw trebbles no problem.

My choice lately without fail has been the daiwa fuego ct, the tatula ct if you want a little more refinement. The SV model is great for unusual presentations that require extra braking. I personally feel that the learning curve is a little steeper with shimano SVS brakes but they're fine reels too. In the price range the AbuGarcia makes a fantastic reel, but imho you gotta spend a ton of money (over $150) to get a reel with serviceable brakes, but they're well built. Below that price point they all have pretty anemic magnetic brakes.

Mildly amusing observation, I do well if the fish are active (regardless of water color or clarity) on a pb&j jig with a natural craw colored trailer like the catch co saw craw Texas craw color. If the fish are more finicky I do well with a black and blue jig and a black or black and blue trailer... again regardless of water clarity unless its gin clear. I've tried crossing over with a dark jig and natural trailer with limited success and a natural jig with a dark trailer with almost no success. YMMV.

I'm in the same boat. I even finally broke my frog curse, but even when I wasn't catching, the frog was still getting hit. The WP not even once. I still try it now and again, especially now that I have a heavy rod with braid for it. Just one of those things.

It's the braid coming through the guides most likely. Sufix 832 is a fantastic 8 carrier braid, I use that and daiwa j-braid 8x for my spinning reels. I enjoy both, the 832 holds a knot better, but the x8 feels smoother in the hand. Both are comparatively super quiet. The power pro, while noisy is a great performer though. It won't let you down, but it may get on your nerves.

That's actually super cool. I'd love to see how this develops as a product.

That zipper like noise? That's absolutely normal with 4 carrier braid like power pro, and one of the reasons that I'm not a big fan of 4 carrier braid. Does it only make the noise while retrieving the line? casting? Does it FEEL ok during operation?

A-jay, hows your British accent? I feel like I can picture you as a Dr. Who ? anyway, I haven't heard a peep about these max scent baits until really recently. I've always thrown the 7" worm Texas rigged as a confidence bait but now with all the hubbub I need to try them out. I've always used gulp minnows for drop shotting but they're so inconsistent and dry out instantly.

I gotta agree with these guys. I dont see a ton of difference from color to color or brand to brand as far as the ability to see through surface glare into the water. Some are more comfortable than others, some cut glare a little better in relation to their darkness... for example I have costa del mar with 580g lenses, they aren't that dark but do a great job at cutting glare, relatively speaking. The strike king ones work fine, so do the other walmart ones that come polarized... I'm thinking its Foster Grant. They work well too.

My fuego spinning rod is quite a bit heavier than I would expect for its rating but I too have heard the opposite about the aird. I would agree. I think the range of finesse fishing really does cover Light for some weightless presentations right up through medium for weighted wacky presentations and everything in between. I personally think that going with a medium that's on the lighter end will be as close as you're going to get to a best balance. You may feel under powered for heavier stuff and a little over powered for some stuff, but that means for the majority you'll be spot on. You can always upsize too... instead of wacky rigging a trick worm on a 1/16 jig head you can go up to say, a 3/16 jig head to cast it easier. If you're doing a neko rig you can get a beefier worm and go up a size in nail weight. Things like that to make it easier to handle on a heavier rod for what I would normally use a medium light.

I throw most of what you mentioned on a ML favorite balance 7'3". A heavier wacky worm like a senko is alot for it, but I can manage. My medium fuego rod is really fast, it's a bit much for alot of things but that's not the norm. A more moderate medium or a faster medium light would strike a great balance between the two.

My only medium rig is currently a spinning rod, and it only gets used for small poppers and weightless senkos. You certainly don't need to change up to a baitcaster, but you already hit on the most important factor. You WANT to... so go for it!

I have been having a heck of a time with finesse presentations this season. I can't get on a pattern finesse fishing to save my life. This season my finesse fishing spinning combo got 15lb braid to a yozuri hybrid 6lb leader, even using the spin-shot style hooks are twisting my line all to hell. The baits helicopter on the way up. Now I spend alot more time fishing a shakey head and a ned to avoid it. Neither have been very effective. To be honest I have alot more success down sizing and slowing power presentations than going to finesse.

Finally! After a battle that cost millions of dollars and thousands of lives... I finally got on my first frog bite. Tons of little blow ups, but the topwater bite has been rough here lately. I tossed the frog up on a shallow bank around some rocks that were only a couple feet under the surface. Is that a toilet? I thought... who's flushing a toilet way out here? This 4 pounder got wrecked on the black terminator walking frog.

The curado DC, yes. I agree with you, most people dont and that's ok! But one brake setting isnt going to be optimal for every bait is all I'm saying. Of course I'm referring to traditional combo brakes, not the DC. The DC just electro-mechanically does what the daiwa does magnetically. For what it's worth when I ran reels with traditional combination brakes I often didn't change my brakes every time I swapped baits either.

That's just plain inaccurate. The centrifugal brakes work with the magnetic brakes, they both could need adjustment at any given time. If you only needed one centrifugal brake setting you would only have one brake setting, not 4. Different lures fly through the air differently. What works for a big, fat crankbait may be miles away from what's needed for a slim swimbait kn a darter, for example.

I tried using 20lb power pro when I was newer to bait casting. I had alot of problems with digging in on the spool. One of the most annoying things was getting tiny knots in your line that you dont notice right away while you're trying to pick out a backlash... its like a wind knot but worse. I have had to cut off entire spools. At the time I didn't realize that it was as simple as going to a heavier braid. User error! I still use 65lb braid for frogging, flipping and punching, and I have gone back to braid for all of my spinning gear. These guys I think have pretty good suggestions, I think 30 or 40lb power pro for most applications would be as light as I would go on a baitcaster.

Gotta agree. 99.9% of the time you can run your drag locked down without an issue but it doesnt take much. You can have a bass you're about to flip or about to lip (while you're rod tip is in the air trying to hold the bass close) turn and make a run. With your rod tip vertical like that it doesnt take much to snap that baby off. Even the best extra heavy frog rod still has a flexible tip that can snap off. If I'm trying to fight a bass out of heavy cover and my drag is slipping I just use my thumb to feather it for a bit more control.

I've been doing some reading since I started this thread, about alewives. I have to admit that I'm not convinced that that's what it is as for all of my time spent out there I have never actually seen, with my own two eyes, a species that I couldn't identify. I have seen LMB, crappie, yellow perch, and sunfish (that are all the same, but I'm not sure which one) in all life stages from fry to adult. A shad that gets reportedly up to 16 inches I feel like I would have to have seen HOWEVER... after years of fishing this body of water and never having seen a crawfish before, I caught a bass a couple months ago with pincers sticking out of its throat. I suppose anything is possible! Funny enough last year I had a guy tell me he catches smallies in there and didn't believe me when I told him that there weren't any. He started yelling about 30 minutes later that he got one! I paddled over to him and his smallie catch to find him holding a 10" largie ? anyway, I think I'm now inspired to start taking alot more photographs when I'm fishing.... for SCIENCE!

I'm a big believer in the good old fashioned 7" power worm in motor oil or pumpkin seed. They get bit sitting on the bottom doing nothing at all. The only variation I make is I will sometimes switch to a rib snake to try to upgrade my bite if its lit up. I have spent hours looking at and researching these max scent plastics but the last thing I need is more styles when I only have one or two color choices for half of my plastics. This review helped alot! Theres alot of good info right there. Thanks.

I was going to stay away but.... Neither conventional magnetic, magforce z or centrifugal brakes are set and forget. A 11/16oz frog requires different brake settings from a 3/4oz Texas rig. A 5/8oz square bill requires different brakes from a 1/4oz darter and 3.8 keitech. If you aren't changing your brake settings, you're missing out on casting performance. Period. This is why I recommend daiwa magforce z reels. For example I have a 7'5" MHF that is spooled with mono for light topwaters, finesse jigs, light Texas rigs.... maybe a chatterbait or swimbait in a pinch. I loved the reel and its performance, but I had the side plate off of my casitas 3 or 4 times a trip adjusting my centrifugal brakes while I was out on the kayak. I could have gone to an extra shoe to keep from having to adjust them constantly but I would be losing out on casting distance. With magforce Z brakes I'm rarely under-braked as is often the case with conventional magnetic brakes but I still have the convenience to rapidly and accurately adjust the brakes on the fly with changes to lures and wind conditions. Those who choose to run more brakes to keep from having to adjust them aren't wrong... if it makes you happy go for it. Just dont confuse it with set and forget brakes. Edit... thicker line is harder to backlash but thick line is often stiff line and stiff line is easier to backlash. As long as you use a good quality mono you shouldn't have too many problems.

I think I've decided to give the Domin8 a try. It's that or 832.. might as well try something new and they're the same price-ish on tackle warehouse. Thanks!

Well now I'm curious. Once I saw the price of the seguar flippin braid, I was all set to order some camo green 832 but I started looking at that TUF Domin8. I've never even looked at it before. @Catt why would you choose Domin8 over 832 if I may ask? In 50lb the domin8 is thinner by a hair but theres no difference at 65lb.

I'm currently using two.. A favorite usa balance 7'3" ML/F with a daiwa BG2000 for neds grubs small shakey heads and inline spinners and a daiwa fuego 7' M/F with a shimano Sahara 2500 for weightless senkos. I'm having a ton of fun with both at the moment.