PhishLI

On that rod, 13 Muse, I palm it with my pinky in front of the trigger. I have a larger palm, so it swallows the reel. P.S. I grip most of my reels like this after the cast.

We were in the single digits this past weekend. Ice is a foot thick at this point. Even the Great South Bay is frozen which is salt. Not sure our lakes will melt before March. A good freeze tends to renew a lake, so the prespawn bite should be fire. From Saturday

I have an ARK Gravity BFS. The frame doesn't bother me at all.

Cherry just boated a 4-10 at 2:40 according to Basstrakk. Gonna be hard to beat now.

Try the Gomexus store on amazon. Good deals there too. Amazon.com : GOMEXUS Power Handle Compatible for Shimano Curado SLX Tranx Daiwa Tatula Baitcasting Reel Handle : Sports & Outdoors

Books and pointers are fine, I suppose. However, there isn't a book written that'll shortcut you into achieving a blackbelt though. That takes a lot of time on the mats, azz whoopings, the ability to visualize and process data, and a degree of innate talent for the game. Without the latter and a developed instinct, catching bass, whether big or small, will mostly be the result of random dumb luck. Learn to be consistent, fish in lakes with big fish in them, and it'll happen. Once it happens it tends to keep on happening, if you have the head for it.

Neither. If you're mostly throwing senkos, flukes, small cranks and spinnerbaits, then I'd go with this if you're set on Shimano. Shimano SLX 70 Casting Reels - Tackle Warehouse If you're thinking about deeper diving cranks too look here: Shimano Curado 150 M Casting Reels - Tackle Warehouse 200 sized reels are not ideal for chucking weightless senkos, flukes, etc.

Mine just came on too.

I'd define it as USDM or what's available on TW. ARK, KastKing, Shimano, and Daiwa all sponsor pros and offer factory stock BFS reels and rods which I assume is what those manufactures would like to see represented by those pros if those pros would choose to use them at all.

No audio during weigh ins? Sheesh. When MLF folds BASS better scoop up their media team. It isn't close.

I've caught most of the recent tournament coverage over the past few years, especially the Bassmaster Elites, and I haven't noticed any pro using a BFS rig. Taku Ito is certainly a light line believer and a JDM bait tweak, but I have yet to see any coverage of him swinging a BFS rig. Same with Fujita. What does this say? Does it say that spinning rigs are simply more practical to fish with when $100K is on the line? Is BFS for Bass fishing just a boutique fad driven by YT content creators supported by their subscribers and some fishing forum regulars? Manufacturers have certainly stepped up their offerings, so the stuff is selling. Personally, for the way and where I fish most often it really isn't practical after late May. Weed growth here is spectacular after that point, so heavy line is a must if one's goal is to never break off, and I refuse to ride on the hairy edge of using lighter line that will allow for that. I don't believe bass are line shy in choked out water and leaving fish with hooks in their mouths really bugs me. That aside, I'm not sure I'm really sold on the BFS for LM bass fishing thing beyond the idea that it's interesting and that I prefer casting gear in general, even though I have yet another BFS rod incoming. A strange thing happened during this BFS experiment of mine. I ended up buying my first spinning rig in 8 years, and my most expensive one at that. Ultra-thin Japanese X braids have seriously flipped my opinion about spinning in general.

Hey, you can never be too ready for the apocalypse.😁

All told, between my brother and me, we have an obscene amount of swimbaits. A wall full, with many duplicates. I blew up my shoulder in '22. Rehab'd it successfully but I rarely throw anything above 3 ozs anymore. More like 2ozs typically. My brother needs shoulder surgery, so he's not throwing anything much more than a Toxic Trucha Masu and that's a bit of a struggle and not often. The lakes where we have ready access to are mostly very shallow and all choke out and, in many cases, top out or nearly top out, so wakes, crank-down wakes, and floaters are really the only practical baits we can throw past June until ice knocks down the grass. At this point, my top 10 fish between 6-8 lbs have all come on conventional baits like 4"-5" soft swimmers, flukes, bladed jigs, and big worms except for one 6lber I nabbed on a G2. The Shellcracker is by far my most successful of the types I throw, but I've whacked 'em pretty good on the lowly Gantarel Jr too, just not in the PB territory just yet. My brother does quite well on Wade Hoggs even though he throws huge Gill type wakes, slammers, Bucca 4X4s, etc. Still, his best fish have all come on jigs. Neither of us are discouraged though. He's really all-in at this point with bigger baits going forward whereas I'm dipping into BFS and will remain a middle-grounder. Once he retires in a few years and gets his shoulder repaired, we'll hit real lakes north of this island where we can take advantage of these investments instead of these millponds we call lakes around here. Catching big fish on anything is a rush, but catching one on a bigger bait is definitely something extra, ya know? You know.

Pick up a can of this at the link below or at your local auto parts retailer. Spray it into the assembly and manually cycle the inductor several times. Repeat if necessary. Doing this will probably solve your problem if the stickiness is due to grime or fines and not a greater mechanical issue. Amazon.com: CRC 05110 Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner - 11 Wt Oz. : Automotive

Welcome aboard, J.

Google is very wrong. @Peacedivision is right.

Safe bet. Can you imagine the static a random person might receive on any given fishing forum after having claimed to be running 30lb braid mainline to a 16lb fluoro leader on a ML rod throwing finesse baits? The scolds would come out in force. The mythology in fishing dressed up as logic or common sense is something to behold. For sure. Leaving hooks or baits stuck in a fish's mouth is a real mood killer for me. I can't slough it off easily.

I'm pretty sure Mercer said Fujita claimed that he was using 16 lb J-Fluoro Samurai. As for the rest, I don't recall exactly. I imagine the braid was probably at least 20lb or more with the way he was horsing in big fish in that particular tournament. Ah, found the vid where Fujita expands on it. 30 lb Daiwa Saltiga 12. SALTIGA x12 BRAIDED LINE – Daiwa US

Kyoya Fujita runs with a 15 or 16lb leader for his finesse spinning setup where he boat flips SM and LM. Dude is a monster on the Elites.

Glad they work for you. I threw them to where I think I lost cartilage in my shoulder with very little reward. I'm talking about everywhere on this island. Even at Yaphank where they consistently chew buzz baits, no luck. They're noisy. Switched to silent wakes and have been killing them ever since. Try the Livingston Bullnose. Comes through topped out weeds beautifully and will crank down to a foot on a fast burn when they won't come up to bite. Bull Nose – Livingston Lures However, if you can fish Ronk after dark between the Victory ramp and Parsnips and you find bait fish boiling right at the shoreline when you flash a light on them, chuck the Minus parallel down the bank into a foot or two of water. Grind it down into the sand. Walleye will kill the bait. Big ones too. When they're schooled up and corralling bait they fight like crazy when hooked.

Not crazy to me. I use clips on everything from big swimbaits to Ned rigs.

My brother bought 3 of the previous gen in '22 when a seller on the naughty list was running a great sale. I have my doubts that Dave lubed his reel as he's not one to take things apart, but my brother did out of the box even though he said they came decently greased from the factory. They are still as smooth as they were then and he's often throwing crank down wakes with them in the 2.5-4 oz range. My 150 is also still out-of-the-box smooth bought at the same time, and I've put a whooping on it fishing heavy cover. Not saying they're brand-new zillion G smooth, but none of them are anywhere near distracting while cranking under load. My '17 Tat SV is another story. Had to do a gear swap 2 years in after heavy fishing with braid, but it's been OK since. Strangely, my two Fuego CT 8spds bought in '18 haven't changed much, and they've mostly been fished with heavy rods in serious junk, and they're not geary. Totally acceptable. Go figure.

I do. It's my only swimbait reel with spooled with heavy braid. I use this rig for running baits in heavy pad fields or open lanes therein. Wake baits are bound to snag up here, so dragging up pads by their root happens a lot. The reel has remained quite smooth 3 years in, and I haven't had a single backlash/lure break off. Unlike most big swimbait reels whose fully loaded spools are heavy therefore limited to heavier baits, I can tie on a typical bladed jig and cast it effectively. I like the versatility.

When the first promo vid came out, they flat out claimed it has a metal side plate. I screenshotted the image from that vid at the time because the text at TW didn't specifically mention it which they sometimes do. TT had them in stock at that time and whoever I talked to couldn't tell by doing a fingernail tap test. Perhaps it actually being plastic is less of an issue with the new gear cut? I guess we'll find out over the course of time.