Beetlebz

I gotta go against the grain here. I used to throw all power pro last season before I discovered the magic of yozuri hybrid. I used red label for weeks as a leader, I had a ton of inexplicable knot failures and break offs not at the knot. Even on fresh leader. I thought I was doing something wrong until I switched to abrasx and all of my problems went away. I lost what I swear was a 9lber last year and swore to never use red label again. I had these issues on 3 separate spools, 6lb 8lb and 15lb. Leader knots were double uni, Alberto, and FG. All had unexplained failures. Lure end knots were improved clinch or palomar, had issues with both of those too but not as many. Currently I'm using suffix 30lb with a YZH 8lb leader and J-braid X8 15lb with a YZH 6lb leader. Alberto knots for the leaders and improved clinch for the lures. Zero problems (except for the Albert knot on the J-Braid but two extra wraps of the knot cured that) The moral of the story, I had a mountain of problems with red label.

Yep. Two days before payday lol I can't win. For those who dont know ebay site wide everything but tech 15% off orders over $25. Code PRIMOSALE

They tend to deflect well off cover but if they touch any kind of weeds they get choked immediately. The 90 degree line tie just isnt a style that lends itself to coming out clean. If it was me I would throw a belly weighted swimbait tied on with a uni-knot.... either that or a swim jig. The both will come through better than a scrounger.

Not for nothing but I always use PayPal for stuff like this for exactly this reason. I am hoping that he is just held up with his health concerns, I sure hope nobody would do that here.

I gotta make an order on Friday for some bits and pieces, I'll throw in the parts then and give them a test run come monday. Sunday Monday and Tuesday I leave work and have ponds to hit that are completely weed choked on big shallow flats. I'm excited to try it out... I'll report back.

I gotta say i love this thread. I've been hotly debating buying and or making teckel frogs, regular frogs just dont seem to produce for me for some reason. I threw white frogs, black frogs and popping frogs, all hollow body, a couple blow ups but no hookups. Time for an audible! Having the 3 way swivels, CPS springs and tails handy gives me another option for the ones I have.

And now I'm sad. Something came up and I had to can all of my July 4th orders except one, and that one was cut back to almost nothing. Sigh. I suppose i can wait till labor day and get to use it a couple times before we are snow buried again.

I could only find the daiwa bg3000 and it had a picture up of the bg60. I was super excited too... I need a bg2500 or 3000. Is the search feature so bad that I just dont see it?

I switched from power pro original to 832 on one rod and j braid x8 on another. So far I've been enjoying the 8 carrier braids, they handle the line twist better than the 4. I use 15lb on my finesse rigs and 30lb on my non-finesse spinning rods. 6lb yozuri on the 15lb braid and 8lb yozuri hybrid on the 30.

Lily pads are the bane of my existence come mid to late summer. Even if I get a heavy enough weight to punch them, I pull a bunch out by the stalks trying to get my rig back out. That's about the toughest thing to fish here, I stick to frogs on it, swimbaits and swimjigs near it, and Texas rigs next to it.

I use YZH.

You really need to experiment and see what works for you on your vegetation. I rarely use flipping hooks just because it makes a big hole in the fish which makes it easy for the hook to come out of. I throw regular EWG hooks when punching, superline EWG if it's really thick stuff. As for weight, I've never nor felt the need to punch with anything heavier than 3/4oz. It just works for where I live and what I punch. I've never used a skirted punch weight. Maybe if I was punching heavier stuff I might move to heavier weights on braid, but I've never needed to. Plus, I dont like the idea of weights on my braid so I use YZH.

sad... I have spent a ton of money in their fishing department over the years until the last time I stopped in about a year ago. The fishing department looked like the grocery stores after super storm sandy. I was in awe... there were more holes on the racks than there were baits. I hadn't been back, but after the whole AR15 debacle I've just sworn them off. The difficult part now is trying to source all these awesome supplies either directly or through an outlet like tackle supply depot or tackle warehouse. I hate not spending money at mom and pop stores, but the last time I was in one they had nothing I needed and everything was super expensive. Sigh. What's a redneck to do ?

I have caught, over a lifetime of fishing, one fish on a spinner bait. It was a pickerel on a booyah 1/4oz pond mini spinner. Just one fish. Perhaps it's time I buy a couple in a couple different colors and configurations and spend a day confidence bait fishing them until I fill the boat. They're just something that has never produced for me, but that's not to say I have given them a fair shake.

Get some Berkeley big game. You fill the spool with the big game (I usually go about half or so depending on the spool size and # test) then spool the braid on over it. You're never going to cast more than 50 yards or so on a light spinning rig, no sense in having 300 yards of braid on the spool. I use big game mono as a backer and in the same # test as the braid itself. Even if I hook into moby dick and he strips off all my braid I can still fight him in without fear of breaking off just because I ran out of braid. I try to plan to get 2 fills out of a 150 yard spool.

I use my drop shot rod, a 7'3" ML/F favorite usa balance. Runs around 100 shipped if it's not on sale. It's my second one, I gotta say I absolutely love them. I just got a daiwa fuego spinning rod in medium for senkos and big ned rigs but the jury is still out on it.

I gotta say I've found the catch co saw craws to be pretty much the same thing but a little tougher. I use the two interchangeably depending on which I can get cheaper when I'm shopping ?

Looks like I need to spend some time frog fishing ? I've been considering getting another 7'6" heavy and rigging with braid for punching and flipping. Seems like it would make a good rig to have around for frogs and big ploppers! Throwing frogs on my jig rod with 15lb YZH was painful.

I too have been considering replacing a bass pro spinning reel (wind knot city) with a fuego, or another bg or another shimano sahara. I have to say, this thread didn't help one bit ? when I choose one I'll post how I like it. So far my sahara 2500 and my bg5000 have been great.

I decided I was tired of having a box of topwaters in my backpack because I was supposed to. I never throw topwater. Never had confidence in it. So today I got up stupid early and headed out with my tack, determined to not throw another bait until I caught a limit. It was overcast, humid, sun had just come up but hidden behind the clouds, and it was dead calm with stained water. I tied on the lucky craft gunfish in black with yellow spots. It took a while, but once my first bite I couldn't stop if I wanted to. The first blow up missed, I followed up with a senko and belly weighted jackall rhythm wave, nothing. It didn't take long for the next blow up though. In total I landed 6 or 7 bass in about the first hour or so... man those topwater bites get the juices flowing. I had such a blast that I'm swapping the line on my worm rig from YZH to Big Game so I can walk the dog easier. I'm hooked. Next.... the whopper popper and buzzbait.

Excellent. I was just sitting here trying to figure out which one of the holiday sales I was going to ravage. Problem solved.

I did once. I almost caught a hook in my.... wait what? I'm confused by the question.

I've never fished the big sexy but I have a bunch of favorite defenders I use and absolutely love them. The reel is a no brainer, but the rod you will love if you give it a chance.

Honestly I dont think it matters. There's no senkos living in my reservoir either but they get bit. On a side note I fish a reservoir regularly, I've never seen a crawfish and I've looked extensively. The other day I have a jig fish that had pincers sticking out of its throat. You never know!

Is the guide mounted off-set or was it mounted correctly and got bent in shipping? Especially light hardware on light tackle, I've had guides on UL and L rods years ago show up a little wonky from the bustle of shipping. Worth looking at anyway.