Beetlebz

Hmmm... bubba shot into the shallow cover I'm thinking. 7 feet deep probably won't be deep enough when the sun is directly overhead, they're going to be in shade. Second would be a swim jig, 1/4oz fished fast near the surface. That would be my first round picks.

I dont really see a benefit to bullet weights over flipping weights, I stock 1/4, 1/2, 1oz and 1.5oz flipping weights only. That covers me for pretty much everything I do. I buy from siebert, tackle supply depot or tackle warehouse when I'm ordering other things.

I would spend the money on good weights. You never know when the weight will chafe your line and break off on a bite of a lifetime. Good tungsten weights pay for themselves by not breaking off. Saving a couple bucks on cheap weights costs more in the long run because you lose them. For line, the spool rating is just for capacity... and braid is way thinner than monofilament. 20lb braid is normally around 6lb diameter. I'd personally go with at least 20lb braid for Texas rigs, though I fish my Texas rigs on 15lb monofilament.

Man suggestions are super all over the place lol I'm going to try trimming the legs on my popping frog (which I think is a booyah)... I'm no closer to choosing a frog. I suppose the river 2 sea bully wa 2 has the river 2 sea reputation behind it, im leaning towards that or the snag proof Bobby's perfect... or the pad crasher.... sigh

Theres a bunch of rods that will work, your budget is the deciding factor. People get their underoos in a bunch but you can spend $1000 on a rod for a $30 reel if it does what you want it to do. It will depend largely on your budget. Where it will get interesting is those presentations tend to prefer different rod actions. Crankbait and jerkbaits typically do better with a moderate or moderate fast tip, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits I tend to prefer a faster tip. Personally if I were going to use one rod (and I do) I would go for a slightly softer fast tip. 7'2" to 7'5" MHF personally, the longer rods TEND to have softer tips.

I dont typically do well with Carolina rigs anymore. I like them for bank fishing do-nothing baits like power worms because I can launch them a mile. For covering bottom, I just dont get bit. I dont know what it is. I can cover the water a little slower with a Texas rig hopping it quickly and get bit. Who knows man.

I switched to the piscifun spooling thinggy that spins. So far its worked perfectly, no twist.

I have a fuego spinning rod that I've been playing around with for a month or so now. I have no complaints yet but it's far from the forum favorite. I love the reel, just got another one in today. If you're interested in keeping the cost down you could get the reel on Ebay along with a Berkley lighting rod shock or a daiwa Aird-x for around the same money as the combo sells for.

So I've been playing around with a Daiwa fuego spinning rod with an old bass pro tourney special reel lately for bank fishing mostly. I decided to swap out the reel for a Daiwa BG so I can use it for bass but also to throw hair jigs in the surf while I'm cut bait fishing on my surf rig, plus I just wanted a nicer reel. Every forum ive been on and every person at my local shops (which is actually quite a few) all warned me that daiwa reels run significantly bigger than shimano of the same "number". I wanted to keep that 30/3000 size, so I ordered a 2000 size BG. Man, this thing is TINY. Like, its dwarfed by my Sahara 2500 tiny. I'm not super concerned, though I felt kinda silly re-spooling the 30lb 832 onto it lol I just wanted to get the word out that in the case of the bass sized BG, they do NOT run large at all. I'll probably keep the reel as a bass reel and get another rig for moving baits in the surf. In the mean time I'm sure I won't be able to throw a 1/2oz hair jig far enough to spool out all 100 yards of braid ? I'll try to get some pics for comparison tomorrow in the daylight.

I'll try it again on heavy braid rather than heavy mono. Still going to upgrade with a couple new frogs tho ?

I've tried that. The popping frog is just a popping frog, but the two others I have were whatever was on the rack. They just kinda.... skip through the water in a straight line. I'm sure frogs have come a long way in the five years or so since I bought those

Ay man you do you. Keep us updated, I wanna see how the reel works out for you in the long term. I've been eyeballing the speed demons for a long time and I love the new frames.

If you stick to heavier crankbaits, you can make a longer heavy fast rod work. It won't be ideal for the cranks, but I've done it in a pinch. Its actually kinda nice having so much rod for deep cranks and mag cranks. While its not my go-to solution, I often throw 3/8 and up chatterbaits on a heavy fast rod when I'm trying to cover water. It'll be perfect for 3/8 and up jigs, heavy texas rigs, Carolina rigs... with the right reel and the right line a long (say 7'4" and up) heavy rod you can do an awful lot.

Nah just reinforcing your decision, with the exception that I would personally go regular tatula gor moving baits for 1/3 the price of the DC.

So I have been trying to gain confidence in frog fishing and it hasn't been going real well. I have a few things I want to try, I just got a lunkerhunt prop frog, things like that, but I'm having a super tough time walking my regular old frogs. I have 2 regular hollow body frogs and one popping frog, none of them can I walk to save my life. My live target sunfish walks like a champ, so I don't think it's me or my gear. I'm not real sure how I'm supposed to fish them other than walking the dog. Which frogs can I get a few of that walk well? I'm just now building a dedicated frog and flipping rig, I want to set myself up for success.

That's definitely a possibility.... no video came through with your post though. Can you describe the noise and when it happens?

Some folks match the rod length to the particular technique so they don't smack the water with the rod tip when fishing tip-down. I fish from the bank and primarily from a kayak, I much prefer longer rods for the extra reach. My two spinning rods are a 7'3" medium light and a 7' medium, both fast. They have never been too long for me. As for guides, the smaller guides supposedly help with accuracy, I've been told. The real benefit is smaller guides weigh less so the rod balances easier. Really doesn't make THAT much of a difference. My personal preference in rods are from favorite USA. I have Balance and Dedender rods I absolutely love... but any of the rods these guys have suggested are fine. Fenwick makes a great rod, so are the dobyns fury and st croix. There are some solid options if you wanted to go a little cheaper too. I almost sprang on that prime day president deal. I grabbed a Daiwa BG off Ebay during the primo code, but that pfluger deal was awfully tempting!

Wow, it really is small. I've been going back and forth getting one to try for my flipping rig... but that's money that I could be saving for a steez sv or zillion sv for the same rig. I was kinda turned off when Milliken's died... how have yours held up?

Imho Daiwa has licked the problem without any electronics at all. The magforce Z brakes are about as simple as it gets! Remember hearing about all the time and money the US spent to develop the space pen, and the Russians just used a pencil? Same principle ? To answer the original question, I would avoid the tatula SV variant for moving baits. The extra braking isnt necessary. The regular tatula gets this honor in my lineup. For flipping and pitching the SV would genuinely shine though. It can still cast well, but the SV braking is dreamy flipping a bank. I have no doubt that the curado DC is a great reel, but I dont know how well the DC would do flipping. That's where a lot of braking systems fall on their faces. For moving baits it should shine, but it still feels like a $25 solution to a $5 problem. Just my $0.02.

Which vendor?

Yeah im about to order a BG and a fuego. I dont even need the fuego lol

Ebay 20% certain vendors through 7/21. Code primo

Sigh, I broke down today. The bait monkey won! I grabbed a 5 pack of blue fox flash size 1 spinners and a couple 1/8 rooster tails to try out. The Mepps were significantly more expensive... if these work out maybe I'll upgrade. I'm especially intrigued at the idea of adding a swimbait and swimbait hook on the back of a big spinner. Crafty crafty....

I wish I had read this thread before I started mine. I started throwing inline spinners yesterday for the first time in literally years... I threw some south bend spinners that I've been hanging onto for literally years inexplicably, looking for smallies in the river. Now that I've been reading peoples experiences with them, I'm going to go buy a bunch more today.

So I finally got on a smallie bite at my local river. The problem is that its shallow with a quick current and lots of large rocks. Everything on the bottom gets snagged. Mini square bills work and inline spinners work... I caught the hell out of them yesterday. So the trick has been using super cheap south bend inline spinners because if I get snagged I can bend the hooks out by pulling on it and get it back. But what happens if I catch a 3 pounder? Or what happens when I bend the hooks back so many times they finally break setting the hook on a biggin? I'm hoping someone has suggestions so I can throw maybe some better quality spinners without worrying about getting snagged so easily.