PhishLI

Received this text from a pal a few weeks ago. Airline refused to pay. Blamed t s a. Probably isn't commonplace, but....

Big Game over 12lb test for practical purposes. Painless when I need to re-spool, and it's as tough as a $2 steak. Sufix Advance 6-10 lb test for lighter line stuff. Nice and smooth.

The nice feature with the Simms gloves is the extra material on the palm side for the middle and pointer finger. Great for grabbing your line.

30lb is fine in an eight carrier braid. I'm not sure what you're used to, but that reel has a very fast spool. You can fire out a 3/8 oz bait effortlessly with just a flick. Start off with 4 brake blocks engaged and use the external dial to tweak until you get your bearings.

Are you comfortable removing the handle and gear side cover to expose the gear set and clutch mech?

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I don't know that either, but they're quite different. The Airtail Rattler is heavily ribbed and completely floats, not just the tail. The Macho is twice as heavy and sinks like a rock.

Yup. I got to slip in a quickie between 4:30 and 6 pm today. So nice to feel some warmth without being wind blown. Had to step over thick rock hard shore ice to wade in. Not a whiff throwing 5 presentations, but was able to get a feel for the working range of a new rod. Cormorants were busy about 200ft offshore, so that's a good sign. Saw a dude I know when I was exiting. He got a small Pickerel on a splitshot rig with a night crawler. Dropping down into the 20s yet again again over the weekend, but things should start crackin' next week.

They just came in. They're totally buoyant in my cold water sink test. Weight is 8 grams without a hook, so they'll fly on MH casting gear. Hopefully I'll chuck 'em later. Deep freeze heading our way for the weekend. Uhg.

or a nice sandwich?

These are coming today in watermelon seed. Getting rigged on a shakey head. https://grandelures.com/collections/5-airtail-rattler

At this very moment, with Daiwa reels beginning at the $269 Tatula 300, then going up in price, you'll get a version of their best gear train platform. Metal framed reels with a metal gear-side side plate and a metal set plate on the palming side plate. Starting at the $279 Shimano Tranx 300, Shimano gives you their best gear train platform and a metal gear-side side plate. It only gets better with their all metal Core-Solid reels starting with the Bantam. Objectively, and on paper, these are both brand's best built low profile reels, and the best you can buy today. These reels will probably outlast anything else out there. That's what rigid builds with fully bearing supported gear trains will get you. How long the lower priced Shimanos with plastic side plates, and Daiwas and Shimanos without a dual supported pinions will hold up over time is up for grabs. Seems to be hit or miss. Going back to both brands higher end offerings, it's possible to get a lemon, or one with a defect. While rare, they're not immune. Nothing is. Whoever thinks one blows the other away during actual use is just blowing smoke. Subjectively, one or the other is just a better fit for one person or another. Some people have both brands and appreciate what each brand does in a particular narrow window. A Goldilocks zone. Fishing reels are not above the laws of physics, so the different approaches employed by both companies yield different results in different hands. Ultimately, choosing one or the other is a conservative choice. Hard to go wrong with either. This doesn't mean they're perfect, because they're not. You may even tire of ones idiosyncrasies and switch brands, or look elsewhere altogether. It just so happens that my two favorite reels to go fishing with right now, today, are the Quantum Tour S3 and the Lew's Tournament Pro LFS. Both are $200 retail. Both are fantastic in different ways. Both are versatile with a nice range of baits. Both are supreme distance casters. Both are easy to adjust and not too temperamental. Both palm great. Both have stood up to good fish and tough terrain. Both have proven to me that the gap between "other" brands and the Big Two are slim indeed. Remember, different approaches yield different results. In fact, I prefer these reels to their D&S competition in the price range. Their braking profiles jive with my casting style, even though they're quite different. I'm not concerned about what might happen someday, or down the road, or supply chain theories, or even ultimate durability. I'll enjoy them today, and as long as I can keep them running. They're great performers, IMO, and I own a slew of the newest stuff out there for comparison. I've posted the pics. I'm not posing. Other people out there have their own non Daiwa or Shimano preferences, and they're valid to them. They're valid period. Both companies have continued to set the bar, then raise it, and the other players are stepping up their game insofar as actual on the water fishing performance is concerned. Just don't buy their cheapo reels and extrapolate that their better offerings are subpar performers. You'd be mistaken. The good news is if you're not an analytical nutcase it's hard to go wrong these days with whatever you choose above $150 or so.

I have the same rod as @Catt. More often than not the reels I use on it have straight 30lb braid. I fish choked out and snaggy rod killing water. 3 years without a hiccup. Nice and light stick with decent sensitivity.

I have all 3 K models. Only the 300K has grooves on its knobs.

Aint that the truth!

Most here are pretty good, but the one connected to F&S is great. Huge fishing section. JDM baits, St, Croix, Dobyns, Loomis, Daiwa Tatula ,etc, rods. Great terminal tackle section. The top salesman in this section is a hardcore freshwater fisherman. Lots of goodies.

I'd worked things out last week to have tomorrow off. 22* at 7am with 23mph NW winds. WT....Looks like another mean NE spring again.

Yes, makes sense. It's a horizontal back hand cast. Shorter rods like 6'6"-ish work better for me for this if the pitch is perpendicular to the yak.

Can't comment on that rod. I have mostly Dobyn's Champions. Just got an Irod Gen III Swimbait Jr., but no time on it yet, but it's surprising light in hand. If you're comfortable with the Lexa's Magforce braking, then jump up to the Tatula 300 for up to 6 oz baits. I have it. It's a beast, quite refined, and it's built to a higher level than the Tat 200 as it has a double supported pinion. The T-Wing is larger on the line guide section, so it'll pass a leader knot which has been an issue in the past.

Same lake, last week. They flash some bigs within the 1st few minutes. Double A-Rig shot.

Anytime anyone calls a pitch a flip I wanna go on a rampage. Instead I say the magic word: GoosFraba.

All I have here is shallow water. They get smashed.

If crocodiles, alligators, or venomous snakes invade my home waters, I'm out. My new screen name will be NeedlePointMan.

I think we'll all get further clarity on the line shy issue very shortly due to the mixed array of electronics some pros and others are using. Someone will take the time, over time, to test it out. It's nearly live video now, even at stupid depths and distances. If you don't think something new can't be learned in bass fishing, you might be mistaken. Plenty of seasoned pros are now saying that so much new info about bass behavior that they never understood before like movement, location, etc, is now coming to light because of the latest Garmin, Lowrance, and Hummingbird.