txchaser

6th sense hangover (fast sink). It's a big soft bait but not giant, and has a lot of presence in the water. Bigger fish just engulf it - usually the treble is in the top of their mouth. Great covering water, great on scope. Cool thing is, everyone hates it so it's on sale all the time. Keitech on an owner flashy swimmer underspin. It just gets bit. Flip it, hop it, slow it down, OH NO!

Also these cutters work great - look how much leverage there is with the hinge right by the cutting area. Murphy says I won't be able to reach the spot, and it'll be with my off hand. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01018D2CS ------------------- FYI in a pinch, pliers work the same as braid for the hook pop. You have to commit though, and it's not quite as... comfortable. But not much choice by yourself.

This same reel is now on the other end - appears to be stuck on "20" - cast distance doesn't change at all even with cast control set on zero. What's the procedure to fix this?

TW just got Megabass Kanata+1 jerkbaits in so I had to get one ...this is a 1.125oz 6" bait, and the big girls around here eat big gizzard shad. This should be fun as the water cools way off. Original +1

My test results from a polycarbonate box, which is what zman recommends. For what it is worth, I moved to just making a dark bag a light bag, and using the original bags for that. One tip though, don't mix zinkers in the boxes - there's a bunch of salt in them and over time it just sort of dehydrates the others, for lack of a better way to describe. Doesn't make them useless, they just don't look new anymore.

The best comparison I can think of is bowhunting vs rifle hunting. They are just different approaches/styles/etc. You lose a lot on one and gain on the other. Being in a canoe or a kayak I feel much more a part of the ecosystem, moving stealthy, noticing the micro. But also limited in how much water I can effectively fish, and how fast I can figure out if I'm in the right place at all. Everyone wants to think FFS is like hog hunting from a helicopter... every now and then it kinda is. But mostly it's like seeing a lot of targets at 800 meters when you are carrying a brush gun. Power pole/raptor - so far, they are nice for dropping the boat at the bank with the nose on land. Other than that? Meh. But our weed edges run out to 10-12 ft so maybe on other waters it'd be more useful. They sure are loud to me. Spot lock - most impact by far of all the choices. Usually if I'm on a fish there will be more nearby (within a cast length) and not changing angle, drifting, etc etc when I get a bite is great. Mashing the button to get a drink is great. It's just great all around. I wish I had waited just a tiny bit or gotten the Kraken - the new Garmins have a reverse on them which settles down the spot lock and the noise a lot. FFS part 1 - it's a live mega 360. can figure out bait presence, weed edge, TSOT (That Stump Over There) very quickly, and on the move, without driving over it. I use this heavily; it is always on. Every now and then you notice a fish that you would have seen on 360 too, but it might not have been obvious it was worth throwing at. FFS part 2 - actually scoping a specific fish or a school. I do this some, I try to balance and not get stuck on the screen, but it is kinda fun, except when you can't get them to bite, then it's easy to spin out. Learning curve is very steep on this but I learn more than just how to scope fish. Behavior, how they want to eat (up or down), aggressiveness, fish in places they shouldn't be, how deep the biting fish really are (this is a big deal - last weekend 80% of the fish that wanted to eat were 10-14' deep and that was true everywhere not just those fish). Very common to learn things like "Today they want it ripped; today they are eating down, oh look they are face down on the bottom but will come up to eat." 50% of the time I get a bigger 'big fish' from the ffs. 50% of the time I wasted time messing with it and should have hit two more points. One other thing that's really kinda fun about FFS is followers, when they move to eat - you know that vibe you get when a fish starts to shark wake on your topwater? Feels the same.

Thanks. Do you have a JDM favorite, assuming I'm value sensitive but not terribly price sensitive? As an example, love my Zillions, Steez SV is nice, but I don't get much value for the price increase. The point about the okuma was that it just seemed to punch way above it's weight on the two core priorities I have. In fairness though, I fished a spinning rod mostly only under duress before FFS. I think if I were to add priorities, yeah a shallow spool would be nice (these should be a US option too) and line lay probably makes a difference I'm not tuned up enough to notice.

Ah that's interesting - St Croix legend mod/f feels about the same to me in the other daiwa 'R' actions.

It's light and not hot, and that means I always wear it. Oh, and Tatsu.

Top is a Dobyns Champ XP H/F Glass, bottom is the combat stick which has the same action as the super combat stick. Video is at Omnia.

I have the Super Combat stick. It's great. And it's my fifth (6th?) bladed jig rod, hunting for the perfect one. If your use case is covering water, using 1/2oz to 1.25 oz chatterbaits with zako-weight trailer, I haven't found anything better. It reminds me a good bit of a deep cranking rod. I thought I'd hate the glass because it would deaden the rod but ... nah it's good. For shorter range/target/lighter stuff the Kistler Nitranium has it beat - it's much lighter and much shorter. In both cases they pin fish far better than a fast rod. My complaint, in both cases, is the action that makes fish pinned also makes it tough to clear heavy grass off of it. Couple of busted casts vs a couple of lost fish is an easy trade. I can't prove it, but I do think there's something to the difference in how a ripped bait accelerates on these rods to trigger a bite. Oh the rod says mod-slow which I don't believe at all. In fact the Hook Up has an image showing it as an "R" action, which is Daiwa's all-around action(pretty sure daiwa makes these for evergreen), and that feels much more right to me.

A story in three parts:

Thanks everyone. Not hearing any JDM must-haves on the spinning side. Surprising!

The warmer packets really work. Bought a case last season. I have some cold damage to my hands. I've found that the absolute most important thing is cutting the wind and keeping them dry. Don't seem to need much insulation. NRS makes some very thin neoprene gloves that were really good last year. In fairness, it's texas winter so like 30's-40's. But pretty windy. 1/2 mm thickness, has holes to stick fingers or thumb out. Agree on just taking gloves off to re-tie. And I take a break every now and then to put hands in pockets with warmers in there too.

The two rods I'd be likely to put a new reel on: 6'9" lite-medium (not ML) for minnow/hover (Kistler "jig head minnow") 7'6" Abu Veritas Tournament M/F for neko

100's have held up well over time, too @Banned User And the new 150/200's with the digigear feel the same way so far.

As a result of the sales thread, I now have another spinning rod, and as such I need a new reel to go with it, or to swap out for another. I have one (last model) Stradic, and two Okuma Epixors. All are smaller spool. Braid/leader; trying out some sinking braid this go-round. Honestly I can't tell much difference between the Stradic and the Epixors, which are now discontinued. For a while you could get them for $40-$55 on amazon, but now only in a 3000 spool size. It has a clicking drag, and the drag seems very smooth, otherwise I would put carbontex in there. No flex complaints. I've been reading about people moving to larger spools? When and why? If there's a good reason for it I could make this purchase a 3000 or 4000 spool. Is there a current 'killer deal' like the epixor was? JDM is fine if there's a solid case for it like there is on a Zillion. Current lineup: Minnow/jig rod, stradic. Most used. Neko rod 7'6, second most used. Misc duty rod (was the old neko rod) - not sure what I'll use it for yet, if anything. Maybe small jerkbaits. Panfish rod - don't really use it much - bought it to learn about what I was seeing on the livescope.

TW has the gen1 bass mafia boxes on sale for about $15 with the mailing list discount. There are a few complaints here and there about the gen ones, mostly if you drop them they don't do well. But just about all the newer hard plastic boxes have the same issue. Anyway, hard to beat it at that price, it is on clearance and the sale is stacking. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bass_Mafia_Bait_Coffin_3700_V1/descpage-BMBC.html

I do this in a pretty painless (if I have multiple of the same kinds of reels) or painful (if I only have one spool that's identical) - I spool on the desired amount of topshot on the bottom of the spool, then just fill it up with backer. And use that to fill the other reel - it goes on the right way then. If I only have one, I have to spool it off by hand to an empty spool, then to another empty spool, then on the reel. Once I've done all that nonsense, it's easy to reload. Unless of course I change line size or type. I probably need to take a shot at the calculator, now that I type this all out.

should they be built curve down or curve up when there is a slight bend? Seems like left/right are not great in comparison.

I'm going to try the g-soul SS since it's pretty available at TW. 80 yards should be about right per reel, or any reason I shouldn't try to get two reels done with one spool? Anyone know if it happens to be marked at the midpoint? @Team9nine

Not the direct comparison you were looking for, but perhaps some things to consider: 1) if you are punching there's no added sensitivity benefit - you're on braid 2) if you are punching or frogging you are going to be hammering hard on that rod, maybe in this case having a US warranty is worth more than it usually is

Titanium guide train? Hmmmm. How do these fish vs their rating? Thinking about the 7'6" M for a neko rod. But really can't tell how it would do with a 1/16 oz weight and a roboworm.

The specific one I mentioned to look for is the tatula elite (non-ags) in 7'2" MH-R. Might have a similar one in less expensive lines.

Often one of the first things I do on a pattern is start switching around to see a) what else will work b) what else might work better. I enjoy the learning that comes with it, but it is at the expense of covering more water. So it often costs me fish to fiddle. If they aren't biting at all, if I can see them on the scope I'm more likely to change how I'm presenting before I change baits/rods though.