Aaron_H

Isn't the Fenwick Eagle over twice the price? I can get an Aird-X at Academy for $49.99, Eagle is on TW for $119.95. Unless you're still finding previous gen ones at closeout deals.... The Aird-X is IMO the best widely-available rod at the 50 dollar price point. I do wish they'd throw a couple more guides on them, though. I have a 7'3" MH casting rod and under load the line rubs the blank in a few spots with only 7+1 guides.

Traditionally have thrown my 5" senkos on a MH spinning rod, but for the last couple of years I've been throwing them on a 6'10" M/XF casting setup and I have been deeply enjoying it. Still throwing my wacky rigged senkos on a medium spinning rod, though.

Full disclosure, I don't have the Curado DC. However, I fished an SLX DC for ~4 years paired on my lipless setup, which has the same IDC-4 braking system. I also have two Curado 150 MGLs that I've been fishing for the better part of a year now. I would take the 150 MGL/new 150M every time. Unless I was skipping or struggled in the wind, I haven't seen any real benefit to my fishing with the DC.

The 4-pack on TW is a good deal, brings the price down to just 7.50/ea. I've been going through my tackle trying to reorganize it since I moved to Tampa and this looks like it might be the move. Thanks for sharing!

They've been rebranded in the current gen as the Max X, Max STX, and Max Pro for a while now, which I felt was a misstep since the BlackMax branding had more market presence IMO. The ProMax 3 was my first foray into casting reels when Amazon had it on sale for 50 bucks. The chromed plastic thumb bar cracked in half after a year or two, ended up replacing it with a black one from a BlackMax and it's been good since, if a bit rattly and janky.... Have generally retired it in favor of better reels but I owe a lot of what I learned to that reel.

You've already received a ton of excellent advice and varied answers, but I'll throw my two cents in for whatever it's worth. I throw a lipless a huge percentage of the time I'm fishing. I love them, I have too many of them and I'm constantly on TW's lipless section looking for standouts. I've tried them on a handful of different rods from MH/F, M/F, M/XF, and finally settled with a Dobyns Fury 705CB. Threw it for a long time with braid and caught a lot of fish but lost a lot of giant LMB on it as well. Paired it up with 15lb fluoro and she's right as rain now. The graphite is snappy enough that I can still pop the bait pretty aggressively but it loads deep enough to keep those fish pinned. I fish mostly open water with some sparse vegetation but typically tick the tops of it. If you were in thick vegetation and really needed to rip it, a stouter rod or braid could be a better option for you. I've been playing around with squarebills a bit and I throw them on a 6'9" M/MF currently, and my topwater rod depends on what I'm throwing. Poppers on a 7' M/XF spinning rod, walking baits on a 6'10" M/XF or 7' MH/F depending on the size.

Too late, I just bought out TW's stock.

Just gonna tag our resident spinnerbait nerd @LrgmouthShad

It's an autocorrect filter that applies to a certain brand of popular bladed jigs. It can make discussions like this confusing, but it's not my playground.

For me, slowing down was the key to getting bit on the plopper. If it sounds like a sprinkler, it's too fast. Really need to get it hitting that whop whop whop sound. I throw the 110 size exclusively these days, on a 7'2" M/XF with 30lb braid.

Yes. I believe it is to help prevent it from rolling when coming over/through wood.

I'm not discounting your experience, Tom, but I saw it first hand with the bass I was catching using the TK130. I have had bad hook damage with other hooks, and sadly have killed my share of bass that choked a lure and caught a hook in the gills, etc, but nothing was as consistently damaging like that Trokar was. I don't feel bad when I hook into a fish, but I felt bad when I was using that hook.

I tried the TK130 flipping hook for a while and I will never use another Trokar hook again. Every single fish had obnoxious wounds from it, a few of them it looked like I had given them one half of a Glasgow smile. Wounds so big that even aside from how I felt ethically, I also felt it would be much easier for the fish to throw the hook.

My only round reel is an Avet SX 6/4 MC Raptor, but that's for winching up big grouper off the bottom. Nothing round for freshwater in my arsenal, but seeing many of @bulldog1935's builds sure does make them look tempting.

Didn't you have a whole mess of Quantum Exos as well? That's a serious pile of Bantams.... Per the OP, I don't have anything crazy but I'd have to go with one of my Curado 150 MGLs, the 7:1 if it could only be the one.

I thought the same thing about a senko the first time I saw them. It's just a nothing stick of plastic how can it work? Buddy swore by them but I didn't see any success at first, and then one day it just worked.

I don't want to be the guy that suggests a different product when you are looking for info on a specific one, but take a look at Seaguar BasiX. I've got 15lb spooled on my lipless setup and it's been good to go and very inexpensive.

You should be getting plenty of distance with those lures on that setup. I would consider playing with brakes and spool tension before I swapped lines out. For reference, I am running 15lb Big Game mono on my bladed jig set up, 7'2" MHMF Shimano Intenza glass with a Curado 150 MGL and can bomb a 1/2 oz or 3/8 oz bladed jig out there. I know the K doesn't have the MGL spool, but unless you're throwing very small sizes in these baits, I don't think it should be an issue. If you are throwing very light weights, your rod may not be loading properly, and I would consider a medium over a MH in that case.... As stated by others, definitely no fluoro for topwaters.

You're talking about the base model SLX, which has the 6-pin VBS with no external adjustment. The SLX XT and SLX MGL (or newer SLX 70) have the SVS brakes like the Curado.

The SLX 70 and the Curado 70 both have 4-pin SVS brakes with external adjustment. I prefer the larger external dial on the SLX 70, personally.

There were some good suggestions in this thread:

If you had only shown me the picture of the setup, I would say you were crazy and I would think the wire coming off the back of the first frog would impede hookups unless the fish got it from the side. Having seen your results (nice double!), I may still think you are crazy.....

I asked for advice on jerkbaits, @Bluebasser86 mentioned Academy's H2OX jerk shad.....glad he did! I've got a couple dozen of them now.

The fish in my profile pic was caught on a green pumpkin baby brush hog; she was the first big bass I ever caught at 7lb 5oz, fished it weightless and she picked it up off the bottom. It used to be my go-to soft plastic, I ended up throwing the standard brush hog more after a while, then transitioning more toward senkos. That downsized profile is killer, though.

Got a 40 pack of tungsten weights from Academy that they had on clearance for 19 bucks. Been using that, haven't used any lead for bass fishing since.