PhishLI

Not really, and here's one of the reasons. During the first year and a half that I got back into bass fishing I didn't go online to read anything or to shop. I had an "in" at a local retailer who allowed me to purchase and fish with several different brands of rods up to $220. As long as I applied a painter's tape gasket around the ends of the plastic wrap on the cork handles to keep them from getting stained I was allowed to "work them out" for a few days and return them if they were otherwise unscathed and the tags were carefully re-attached. Long story short, I'm dumb, so I ended up liking and choosing several different models of 13 Fishing Omen Black 2s. I fished them in tough conditions and treated them poorly because of that. I was often sure they'd break when I'd be jacking a 5 pounder through 100' of dense lily pads, but nothing happened. Snagged roots and tree branches on the back cast, etc, nothing happened. None snapped. Didn't loose an insert. No loose handles. Nada. It wasn't until I found fishing forums and learned that there was such a thing as Tackle Warehouse where upon reading reviews I found out I'd bought 8 junk rods that would snap or fall apart if I looked at them crooked. Meanwhile, 5 years later I'm still fishing with them all without incident. I read similar nonsense about Quantum reels before I bought any and, for me, once again not a single problem out of the 6 I have. I must be the luckiest dumb guy ever.

I just had some new gear fast shipped in hopes of catching that mini weather window. Hopefully the ice will cooperate and give me a break, or else I'll be back to living vicariously through @N Florida Mike. Dude is down there catching fish in a T-shirt and underwear. You must be down at your MD chalet. Nothing but lure hockey up here at the moment.

Besides a few blips, that'll be as good as it gets for some time. A whole lot of at or below freezing night time temps until the end of the 1st week of March.

Weeds are often overwhelming, sometimes nearly impossibly dense affairs in this part of the country. @cyclops2 is posting during happy hour methinks.

If you have the spare cheese then get the Zillion. If it doesn't spread your funds too thin it's worth it.

That's a lot to ask of someone who needs to keep the lights on and depends on sponsorship bux to do so. I imagine pros simply screen out items they don't like and use what they do. In that case they're being honest about liking, using, and promoting an item. The type of honesty we'd all appreciate would probably come at too high a price ultimately. Sponsorship deals change over time. If you were a manufacturer would you pick up a pro who had a history of broadcasting to the public that something in a previous sponsor's line was rotten? Ideally a truly independent reviewer is the best you can hope for, but there are grey areas there too. Many reviewers will kick a dud item back to a manufacturer without ever mentioning it. This happens a lot in the real world, especially if a reviewer hopes to get review items in the future.

The Bill Lewis MR6 will tick 8ft on a long cast with light fluoro.

Me too. Every time. On a PC. Hit the submit button on a post and it's vaporized. However, it'll auto-reload once I can get the login to stick.

Playing a hunch and getting it right, whether that's bait choice, location, or timing.

Some Daiwa CTs were delivered nearly bone dry. Type Rs haven't been produced for a few years, so throw shelf time into the mix. If stored in heat at any point, whatever grease that might've been present could've easily migrated away from where it needs to be.

usdm

A quick-check thing to try is to depress the thumb bar, then put a bit of oil on each side of the thumb bar(thumb bar pads) where they meet the frame. Cycle it a few times. If nothing changes you'll need to pull the gear side plate to lube the clutch mech and kick lever trough. 10 minute job. Might as well grease the gears while you're at it.

Cool, man. Normally I'd say the "great minds" cliche' thing, but I have the IQ of a tree frog.

I use braid. Take two twist ties and wrap the skirt up and around the jig head, and around the hook in order to keep it out of the way. Lay a 12" length of 20lb or higher braid flat on the table. With the hook facing up, lay the jig centered and perpendicular on top of the braid's length with the braid between the band and the jig head. Wrap the braid around twice, then cinch it down with a single overhand knot. Adjust the tension of the wraps by pulling on the tags until the skirt flares and you feel it begin to lock down. It will not cut the skirt. The single knot usually does not slip, but if it does, it and the second knot will keep the wraps tight. Once adjusted, top it off with 8 more overhand knots which will create a knot tag. Put a dab of superglue on the knot tag, then wipe off the excess. Cut off the flying tags, snip off the band, and you're done. Maybe a minute total time.

13 Fishing Omen Black 2 7'1" MF / Shimano Chronarch CI4+150HG / 10lb Sufix Advance copoly Daiwa Tatula XT 6'6" MF / Daiwa BG2500/ 15lb PP SS to 10lb leader

I wouldn't expect the prices to drop going forward. One workaround would be to buy a lead pot, lead, a few molds, assorted hooks, assorted powdercoat colors, an oven, stick on eyes, and don't forget to include a quality fume extraction strategy in order to avoid brain damage and other assorted horrors. You'll break even someday, perhaps.

Threading on a big, nasty, struggling night crawler is nasty enough for me. I'd projectile vomit trying to hook a slug.

Being stuck on the back means always remaining conscious on the backswing of a motor, power poles, or both. My solution is a short rod and practice roll cast skipping, backhand skipping, and pitching. As soon as the boater is around the front of the dock you'll be able to skip the back side of it without too much worry about clipping anything.

Now here's some review info that's useful to me. I want bigger guides for the model I'm choosing with the idea being that I may use a leader on the spot occasionally, and I'm not about removing my shoes and socks to tie a FG knot while standing in dirt or a pile of leaves. U-40 will settle the cork issues good enough for me, and all I ask from the gods is that any rod I'm eyeing will have that exact hook keeper. I fish lots of skin hooked plastics. It's perfect for me. Thanks!

Probably, and that would make sense. I caught one of his vids where he was using Omen Blacks 3s and the Z-Slide reels and hinted that's what he'll be using on the Elite tour, but in another vid he went on to mention a Gman signature line in the works for iCast '22 and showed some prototypes without graphics. I've had several Omen Black 2s in heavy rotation over the past 4 years. Not a single issue at all after rather unkind treatment, and I'm quite happy fishing with them. Lots of solid fish caught in tough conditions. Had they retained the full cork handle I would've considering adding a Gen 3, but they went to split grip and, horror of horrors, they put the hook keeper in the worst place imaginable: On the handle. Oh well.

I've told myself "never again" with certain baits, but ended up going on great runs with them after I tried them "one more time", and at times they shouldn't have worked at all. I'd whiffed 100% with the Whopper Plopper for 2 years, but that all changed in early March of '19. While frozen and blanking badly in 42* water I tied one on in desperation and broke the curse. The floodgates opened, and for the better part of the rest of the season I did really well throwing the WP75 in perch. Nearly the same thing happened with the Gantarel jr. and chatter bait. I'll never throw a blade bait or heavy trap from shore into a super shallow muck and filamentous algae bottomed pond. Besides that, nothing's off the table if I can get it through.

Normally a bunch of kids with shovels would be out by now knocking on doors with $ signs in their eyes, but it's really wicked out there with the north wind blowing at about 10 mph. Not a soul is out there. If the roads aren't too treacherous Jr's coming over later to save the day with his monster snow blower. Usually the snow is powdery when it's this cold, but this stuff is dense. Forget the mess blocking the driveway and pitched onto the sidewalk.

Brrrr. Huge snow drifts from the nor'easter and the plow jockey kept looping around in one direction which pushed a huge berm onto my side of the street blocking in our driveways completely. I think I'll just lay here in my feet pajamas.

My eyes roll into the back of my head each time I read or hear a "reviewer" mouth the word "workhorse" in reference to a reel.

All kidding aside, I'm a gear and gadget enthusiast, so it's rare that I don't click on a review out of curiosity. If I already own an item being reviewed, and have formed my own opinion, I like to see if the reviewer specifically highlights performance aspects that I've keyed in on. Perhaps due to the short form nature of most online reviews that rarely occurs, but occasionally I do get a dash of affirmation. Interestingly, this has also happened on these pages, and sometimes comes from someone who had previously rendered the polar opposite opinion from mine on another piece of gear. But that's because a total system consisting of an individual, rod, reel, and line is somewhat unique. An opinion expressed from a specific point of view about a complex system is a special type of subjectivity. Unlike having an opinion about a movie, which resides only between one's ears, it's far more sophisticated because of several aspects occurring simultaneously with variables stacked upon variables. I'd guess that it's quite often that a single component inserted into the a mix either gets blamed for failure unjustly or praised for success. Personally I've found unlikely synergistic mixes when mixing gear that I'd previously dismissed. Feel is more than how a rod/reel combo fits in your hand and its action and sensitivity. People have differences in their center of gravity (balance), arm length, body type, hand size, etc. Even when those aspects are nearly equal in two people their preferences might be vastly different, and often are. Aside from static measurements, people often have different body mechanics(casting technique) which helps to explain different preferences in casting reel brake types. In the end it's hard to know exactly how transferrable one person's experience is to my own, and vice versa. Also, the level of rigor it would take to even attempt to identify every pertinent virtue of a piece of gear isn't practical, so granular details rarely if ever show up in fishing gear reviews anyway. First, that may be hard to do, and ultimately might be unappealing to someone who simply wants to go fishing. In the end I'm content with hearing whether or not there were acceptable flaws, or glaring mechanical defects which showed themselves over the duration of the review. The rest is left for me to find out on my own.