I stink at fishing

welcome to the forum. You should check out a place called Whip poor will lodge. It is in Northern Ontario My friends and I go every year.

floating rapala lc sammy skitter walk

whatever you do dont get a penn captiva I have had 3 of them break on me after one day of use.

IMO I never used one but I feel they put KVD's name on a low quality setup . I have no respect for pros that put there name on things they dont even use themselves. It misleads people

I was reading in a magazine that swimming a tube is very effective on presured smallies in clear water. Sometimes you gotta change it up to get the fish curious again.

I use a diawa zillion with a left hand retrieve . I think most of the diawas and shimanos you can get in left or right hand retrieve.

diawa L&T offers a few split grip rods in your price range.

actualy You get a 5 year warenty on the L&T I don't know where you got that info from, not from Daiwa web site. Since I own a few hight end Daiwa reels I keep in touch with them frecuently. Only the Cielo, Tierra and Steez metioning a Limited Life Time Warranty, there is not such a thing for the L&T....I contacted them before I bougth my swimbait set and I was told this very clearly, that they will only covered 1 year......Go ahead and take your chances and let us know. http://www.daiwa.com/Rod/freshwater.aspx The tag that came on both my L&T rods said 5 year limited warranty

actualy You get a 5 year warenty on the L&T

I would say BPS extreme rod or a daiwa light & tough are the best bet for a nice rod without going over $200

I have a diawa light & tough topwater rod its a 6ft medium action and I love it!

I like to tie everything directly to the lure. I think it helps the lure performance and its good practice for tying knots.

I have a BPS extreme rod and casting reel and I Like them alot . For the money BPS makes a great product

we used to rig shinners on a bobber setup for non moving water.

Thanks for all the help guys ! I will definitly take Reel Mech's advice.