bwjay

Yeah I feel you. Clones are sometimes close enough and cheaper. In this case, a Ballistic LT isn't any cheaper than a Stradic Ci4+ (or Vanford for that matter). But at least you get almost the same reel whether you're a Daiwa fanboy or a Shimano fanboy. I wouldn't consider myself a fanboy for any brand but I only have so much money to spend on fishing gear and have tended to spend my money with a few brands consistently because I generally enjoy the quality I get for what I pay. One brand I keep wanting to love but every time I get a rod from them I'm unimpressed.

Pretty sure Daiwa copied the Stradic Ci4, actually.

Any technique where you take up slack (like bottom contact) benefits from a higher gear ratio. I also like it for frogs; when I've covered the area I want to cover or I see a blowup, I burn it back in and cast it back out. It's not a night and day difference from a 7:1 ratio reel but it's definitely a better option. It is a bit fast for chatterbaits/spinnerbaits/cranks though and it takes some concentration to slow down. I prefer a 7:1 as an all around ratio.

I get your thinking, but my thought is more like this... I'm hopping and dragging or twitching something light. I don't always have my hand on the knob. I'm working the rod and then taking up slack, sometimes leaving my hand by my side, or near the reel but not on it. Regardless of the bait, I still need a firm grip on the knob when taking up slack, and when I feel a bite, I need to move quickly to set the hook and take up slack and start fighting the fish. Like I said before, sometimes I miss the knob and end up half-slapping it with my hand just so I can readjust my grip and start taking up line during the fight. With bigger baits yeah I might appreciate having more of my hand on the knob when reeling just so I can apply more force, but spinning reels are really more for taking up line than they are for winching in baits, so usually you're not feeling tons of force while reeling (on a spinning reel). In this case, it doesn't matter too much whether the bait is a little 1/16oz jig or a 1oz spook. In the end it's personal preference, but I find the larger handle helps me find the handle and get more purchase on it regardless of the size or weight of the bait.

I used to like the regular knob but I was curious about the T, as sometimes I "miss" the knob when reaching up to take up slack, especially on hookset. I ended up getting a 3000 Ci4+ and found that I like the T more. The T is larger and makes it easier to find and grab.

If you can get a Ci4+ for closeout prices (around $150) then snag one of those. You'll get a little better casting distance with the FL, but not that much more, and the startup inertia on the Ci4+ is noticeably less. It takes almost no effort to turn the handle which helps take up slack quickly. It just feels crisper to me. I don't think the Vanford will be that much different than the Ci4+ - better, almost certainly, but if it's between a $150 Ci4+ and a $240 Vanford, the Ci4+ wins in my mind.

Here ya go fellas. http://fish.shimano.com/content/fish/northamerica/us/en/homepage/Shimano_Product_Page.P-VANFORD_F.html

I use rod socks, reel covers, and gear ties. Those rubber gear ties work wonders!

The Kistler rods that make up the majority of my collection have a bulbous butt that basically requires you to drill into it to place weights inside. I am not willing to do that or tape some weights to the butt either. The Tatula LTs are just a little bit lighter, but anyway. I'm not using my reels to balance my rods, I'm just using reels I enjoy using (like the Bantam) which just happens to provide better balance. The 6'8LMH-S Helium3 with the 3000 Ci4+ still balances a little further forward than I'd like, but it's not bad, so I don't worry about it. I'm not going to try to shave weight on my reels though.

None of my rods are balanced enough such that an LT would be more enjoyable to fish with, unfortunately. I don't mind a little extra weight. I just bought a 3000 Ci4+ at 20% off back in April which I don't regret (initially bought the TwinPower and was disappointed, returned for Ci4+) and I am still pretty interested in the Vanford. I will likely wait until fall to pick one up at a discount (hopefully), otherwise I'll wait until spring. I have no use for a 3000 size reel between the months of Nov and May but I'll still want one!

The Adrena seems to be a slower taper from what I've read, and the TW listing says it as well. I've been using my 73XH as a heavy cover frog rod and so far it's been great for that. I'm talking yanking fish through 2ft thick mats. I was concerned at first because it seemed to be a bit of a pool cue, but it turns out it's great for working frogs and has just enough power for what I wanted. If you are also in need of power, I don't know that the 74H PA is a replacement for the 73XH Expride.

For bang for the buck with a good screen size, it's hard to beat Garmin's echoMAP Plus units. I got a 93sv for $600 last fall, which has sonar, down imaging, side imaging, and a touchscreen, and it does it at power consumption quite a bit less than the competing Humminbird options. To get a Helix 9 with Mega DI/SI (no touchscreen I might add) is $1500. Don't even think about a Solix 10... $2500 for the same features with a touchscreen. I should note that the Mega imaging will grant you higher resolution imagery than the GT52HW transducer that the Garmin 93sv comes with, so the cost increase for the Helix/Solix is somewhat justified, but you could get an echoMAP UHD unit if you really want the higher res imagery. I've found the 800kHz images from my 93sv to be just fine though I do wonder about the UHD transducers. My recommendation would be to try to find a Plus 93sv for the bow and a Plus 73cv (ClearVu/down imaging only) for the console, though that'd probably be hard to accomplish for $1500 without finding some nice deals. If you managed to get 2 93svs for $600 then it'd be a no brainer especially if you can just get the head unit without the transducer. The touchscreens make them great for looking at maps. You can network them together so that's not an issue either. A fun option would be an echoMAP UHD 93sv for the bow and a Plus 93sv head unit for the console. I think you can network the UHD and Plus units but the UHD transducer has to go into the UHD head unit. That'd call for a call to Garmin (who has been very helpful to me every time I call). I hope this helps!

Well, that is both disappointing and comforting to hear. Disappointing because I would LOVE to be able to rely on my maps to get to structure I want to fish, but comforting knowing that I can probably skip the $1500 Humminbird unit I was considering because the maps aren't going to more accurate across the board. I know I can do my own mapping if I tool across every single lake which just isn't an option. What blows my mind is how inaccurate some of the maps are.... like, where did that data even come from? Some of the topographical features shown don't even exist in the lake, and I find it hard to believe that the lake bottom has changed that significantly in, let's say 50 years, if they were mapped that long ago. I'd love to understand more about the mapping process, but it wouldn't change the fact that sometimes I pull up on some flats that break out to deeper water and the break line is 50-100 yards further into the flats than it looks on the map, or that the flats that are supposed to be 8-10ft are more like 4-6ft.

I got an echoMAP Plus 93sv last fall with the 2019 maps, and have updated it to the 2020.0 maps, and have found many lakes to be inaccurately mapped. Some lakes it shows me paddling on land. Some lakes it shows humps where there are none (or the hump is 50 feet to the side). Sometimes it shows dropoffs where I'm supposed to be in 30 feet of water and I'm in 10. Some lakes seem spot on, and others seem wildly inaccurate. I'm 95% sure the issue is not with the GPS in the unit, as it shows me close to some land-based features like docks, ramps, and river/creek channels that enter/exit the lake, but the actual lake topography is inaccurate in many spots. Has anyone else observed this to be true? Minnesota has a lot of lakes so I'm not expecting every single one to be perfect, but I've been pretty disappointed by map accuracy and basically consider them guidelines. I can't trust them for putting me "on the spot" which is really sad. The Navionics acquisition was supposed to give them even better maps but they seem really hit or miss. I love almost everything about my 93sv except the map accuracy. It's making me consider trying a Humminbird just to see if the maps I can get are actually accurate, which I don't want to do because I think their units are incredibly overpriced and I enjoy my 93sv. I just want to be able to go to a point, hump, or ledge that's on the map, and actually be on it when I get there. Any thoughts from anyone else? I'm having a remarkably hard time finding anyone else talking about this.

Try to get a 7'ML Helium3 for around $200 on sale and grab a President XT for ~$75. It'll be the most sensitive setup you can get for ~$300. The Stradic Ci4+ is a nice reel no doubt, but for finesse, the rod makes more of a difference. The President XT is good enough to where you can tell the difference between it and a Stradic, but it's not a giant difference, and the price is more than double.

I got a Zodias 6'8" ML/MF spinning rod a few months ago and have really enjoyed fishing it. It's got a whippy tip that allows you to cast baits a mile and the rod is soft enough to keep fish buttoned, but there is enough strength to handle bigger fish and it's unbelievably sensitive given the cost and taper. It's great with moving baits but also great for small jigs and I presume small jerkbaits and drop shot. Don't leave this one out of your search! I love mine. It is just plain fun to fish with.

I got some 15lb Tatsu FC on sale over Black Friday which is the only reason I bought it. It's dang expensive. My main plan for it was to use for football and flipping/pitching jigs, though obviously I would use it for other things but that was my intention. My previous history with FC as a mainline was 14lb Sniper which blew up on the 10th cast and I had to cut over half the spool off, so I was still pretty hesitant to try FC as a mainline again. (Trying 12lb Assassin right now and it's behaving, just not as tooth resistant as I'd hope!) I spooled up the Tatsu on my Bantam HG last month and started using it recently. I was not impressed by the amount of memory in the line; quite a bit of coiling right off the spool. It didn't cast great either, and it took me a while to dial in my reel to avoid backlashes/overruns at all costs, which meant less casting distance of course. After I got it dialed in, though, I was able to start backing off the spool tension a little, keeping braking on the higher side. Then I took it out for Memorial Day weekend and ended up throwing jerkbaits on it the entire time. I would have used 12lb Assassin from my other combo, but I didn't have that rod with me. The Rerange 110 casts like a dream with it, and you know what? All that memory works itself out within the first 10-15 mins of fishing, and the line actually becomes fairly limp. I was surprised at just how pleasing it became to fish with straight fluoro. Working a jerkbait was no problem with no guide wraps to speak of (except 1 or 2 in maybe 10 hours of jerkbait fishing). I found that the line has just the right amount of stretch and pairs nicely with with my Helium3 (6'9MHXF) which I THOUGHT was too soft of a rod for jerkbaits (how wrong I was!). I didn't observe much memory/coiling causing the jerkbait to move when I paused it, and the Rerange suspends basically perfectly with it. I did also nut up and finally threw my precious Vision 110 (risky biz in pike territory) and though it didn't get as deep as the Rerange, I caught 3 species in 5-10 mins on it. It was a dreamy setup if I'm being honest. I haven't used jerkbaits before due to being limited to the bank, but now I am love with them. I'm officially sold on Tatsu. Once the coils work themselves out, it becomes very well behaved. Even though 15lb line is a bit heavy for jerkbaits, it worked great and gave me some extra confidence that I MIGHT not get bit off by a pike. I will likely still use the 15lb Tatsu for jerkbaits in the future because of how well it performed. Two thumbs up for this truly premium fluorocarbon.

I've been throwing most of my topwater on straight braid or braid to leader, but straight braid works fine. Some stuff like walking baits can be annoying depending on the bait and how you work it - sometimes a treble will get caught on the line. I haven't had the issue much with what I have so I don't worry about it. As for tying with straight braid, if you use the Palomar, go through the eye again from the same direction a second time before you go back through the eye. I didn't have an issue before I started doing this, but it doesn't hurt.

I agree with the suggestions that 20lb is too light. A lot of people do use thin braid on baitcasters, but it has its drawbacks, like potential for line dig. I haven't gone below 40lb and haven't had an issue. I can pick almost any backlash out and I don't worry too much when trying to pull the line to fix a backlash since it doesn't weaken the line like it does with mono/FC/copoly. As for using braid on baitcasters in general, I love it. It casts great and adds responsiveness to every technique. You just need to tie leaders... that's nothing new for braid users. For moving bait applications, braid is still great. Just don't use an XFast rod with braid for that, get something a little softer. A MH-Fast rod with a decently soft tip, 40lb braid and a 10-14lb leader, can do bottom contact and moving baits without a problem. As you get up in power for cover applications, you lose some versatility for spinnerbaits/chatterbaits/cranks as they don't load the rod as well and/or transmit the vibration of their action as well, unless of course they're big baits in which case you should be able to feel them working. Remember that you don't need an award winning home run hookset most of the time when using braid since it has basically no stretch, and a moderately swift hookset will usually do the trick even with thick wire jig hooks. Keep throwin' that braid especially on a do-it-all baitcasting combo. Just step it up to 30-40lb, stick to a 10-14lb leader, and you should be fine, even with lighter baits like weightless flukes. You'll probably want to decrease your brakes and possibly loosen spool tension when throwing lighter baits, obviously putting yourself at more risk of a backlash, but heavier line = less distance so you'll want to play with it.

No experience here, but I imagine any characteristics of a specific Avid blank would be the same as a corresponding Avid Pearl blank, so you could just read up on the Avid you're considering.

The St. Croix Premier line has been pretty good for me. They are a little more expensive, around $150, but generally well made, reliable, and not insensitive. They have a 7'MF and 7'MLF. They tend to under-rate their powers a bit (meaning a M is closer to a MH) so if you have the ability to check them out in the store, the ML might be more what you're looking for. They do tend to be a little tip heavy as most St Croix rods are, so if you can get a heavier reel on there, or deal with a shorter rod, or both, you can get a decently balanced rod. Best luck in your search!

You are correct. Same thickness at the handle, but tapering at different rates as the blank progresses to the tip. The deflection behavior will vary based on the taper - a fast taper will deflect less than a moderate taper.

You got it. It's hard to cast anything with a stiff rod that doesn't load up and help you whip the lure. With light stuff, it helps to have a softer rod (lighter power and/or slower taper) that loads up and slingshots the lure for you. In addition, stiffer/heavier power rods just take up line more rapidly because they don't flex as much, so you can end up pulling the lure out of the fish's mouth, and in some cases, you can bend out hooks if your drag is too tight, on a stiffer rod with heavier line than you should use for light finesse baits. As for moderate actions for light baits, moderate is too slow and generally is only used for cranking and maybe spinnerbaits/chatterbaits. If you mean moderate-fast, then yes, I've seen many people talk about liking slower tapers for jigs and topwaters and lighter baits, because they load up nicely so you can sling baits far, detect bites visually with the soft tip, and get a sort of delayed hookset when fish slap at a topwater bait which is nice because it can be hard to delay the hookset when you see fish blow up. Personally I have come to love slightly softer rods because they sling baits far and make it easier to see/feel bites due to the tip deflection when working bottom contact or worms. Soft rods generally aren't as sensitive as stiff rods because they don't transmit the vibration as well, but you can still have very sensitive rods with slower tapers or soft tips. The Kistler Helium3 line is a great example; they have a softer tip and sling baits pretty far, but are still pretty darn sensitive for the money.

I'm just starting using Assassin for this season, having used Sniper last season, and from what I can tell, Assassin is definitely more supple and is a little easier to tie knots with as a result. I will say I had a toothy critter bite off a newly tied Rerange on the third or fourth cast on 12lb Assassin. Had some fray on the line near the end, wasn't a clean break, so I'm 99% sure it was due to the teeth and not a poor tie. Was pretty bummed. I had 16lb FC100 with me (and some titanium leaders) but no more jerkbaits so I couldn't try to go after that fish later. I don't know that 14lb Sniper (what I used last year) would have fared any better, but so far the 12lb Assassin doesn't seem very abrasion-resistant to me!

Sent you a PM, but the 73XH with the product tag on it weighs 4.73oz on my scale. I intend to be fishing it about 2 months from now once the frog bite turns on here. With a Bantam on it, it balances about a half inch in front of the lock nut. I'd love if it was an inch further back, but considering its length and power, I am pretty impressed. As for taper, it is fairly fast, and with the stiffness of the rod, there is some real power there. I am actually a little concerned with how stiff it is, but to be fair, it is exactly what I was looking for after finding my 7'HXF Helium3 a little too soft last year when ripping jigs free from weeds and dragging 2-3lb bass with a couple pounds of milfoil. I hope this helps!