superkamikazee

Don't tease me like that

To be fair, the daiwa airdx is way too good a rod at $50.

I bought it at the end of last season, Oct/Nov and only had a few trips out with it. Caught one fish (1.5lbs), felt smooth, casts nice, its light, and I'm impressed with the build quality for its price point. I haven't been able to fully put it through its paces, so I'm hoping to find out what it's really all about this year particularly how reliable / trouble free it will be.

I throw jerk baits / crank baits on spinning setups, and frogs on my bait caster in the thick stuff. I personally prefer the spinning setups, and have no issues with accuracy, casting distance, or see any difference with which bait is tied on. I use the lightest weight spinning setups I can, 6-7 oz spinning reels at size 2000, and they feel great all day. My spinning setups are 6:2:1 ratio and 31"-32" of line per turn which exceed my bait casters 7:1:1 29" of line per turn. 10lb / 15lb braid on the spinning setups, and 50lb braid on the bait caster. My bait caster is a left had retrieve since I didn't want another variable to deal with when learning the bait caster. I only have 4 rods, 3 spinning, 1 bait caster. One of the spinning rods is a trunk setup I keep on me, and the rest are for kayak fishing. Just some info, and my experience. Regardless, I enjoy both styles, I prefer spinning, but I also can't ignore the bait casters muscle for pulling fish out of the thick stuff when I'm playing in there.

Booyah poppin pad crasher. I have a hard time walking a frog sitting in my kayak, so pop and pause it is for me with good results. Best frog has been the Sprinker, easy to use, everything smashes it and gets hooked up.

I alternate between the WP and a Sprinker frog for most of my top water fishing. I primarily fish small ponds and lakes with heavy vegetation. If the weeds are a little bit below the surface I stick to the WP, and when the weeds are right below the surface / touching the surface I stick to the Sprinker. I love the WP because I can just retrieve and throw it all day as long as the hooks aren't grabbing vegetation. The Sprinker takes in water and needs to be squeezed fairly often. My first WP was the 90, caught a boat load of fish on it, but then got the 110 and realized how much better the 110 is designed than the 90. The 90 has a hard time staying about the surface enough to "plop" when cast too far out. And ploppers can be cast far regardless of size lol. Haven't tried the 75 but it seems a little on the small side.

Just picked up this setup and spooled it during the snow storm. Buying gear helps with dealing with winter. Daiwa Tatula LT 2000 + Daiwa Airdx 6'6" M/F And the rest of the fleet. My original ugly stik from 15 years ago is the trunk setup, can't believe how stout that rod has been for this long. Bottom to top Ugly Stick 2pc 6' Medium / Penn Fierce II 2000 Daiwa airdx 6'6" M/F / Daiwa Tatula LT 2000 Daiwa airdx 7' MH/F / Piscifun Carbon X 2000 Lews Speed Stick tp-1 7' MH/F / Abu Garcia Pro Max Low profile I fish from a kayak, and primarily use jerk baits, crank baits, and frogs. Need to work on some finesse stuff this season.