Bass Rutten

If you thought that was a blast, bfs might blow your mind, it takes the fun factor to another level. I've caught fish up to 5lbs on my medium-light/fast bfs setup.

This might be a crazy idea but I'd contact the reel manufacturer https://www.lews.com/en/service/parts-repair--warranty-service

Well it's been just over a year since my post above about my first kistler rod, I just the other day received my 4th one, a 7'3" hmh helium, my last purchase was a 7'0" hmh helium. Spot-on perfect taper for power fishing 1/2oz+, it's even got enough power for light punching, that mh tip mated to a heavy backbone/butt is just dang versatile #BassRuttenApproved. I liken it to a middleweight fighter with the ko power of a heavyweight, or conversely a heavy weight with the speed and agility of a middleweight, yes I love fighting sports lol

Zoom mag finesse worm. I used to think so too, but I eventually came to think of it as an alternative to a shakyhead/Texas rig rather than a variation on a wacky rig, which makes more sense to me considering it's rate of fall is more suited to bottom contact rather than targeting the whole column as with wacky/jig wacky, I've caught fish pulsing it horizontally off the bottom as well. It's value for me lies in being far less prone to getting wedged in hard cover and picking up vegetation than shakyhead, which in turn also allows it to be fished faster at a given depth to cover more water and be used as a search bait.

I have a hard time believing the guides on kistler rods are more prone to having issues and breaking than the guides on daiwas, gloomis', st croixs, and dozens of other rod manufacturers that use more or less the same guides. Was it one particular rod series, or one type/brand of guide you had issues with?

Dislike frogs, can’t stand frogs, can’t catch a bass on a frog. And I’m pretty sure the feeling is mutual.

Water exiting a body of water has been good to me as well.

Their warranty terms and replacement costs are clearly stated online. https://kistlerrods.com/pages/warranty-claim-information-form-old Are you sure your rod damages were covered by the warranty?

Yep, repackaged and rebranded rage rig, more or less. I made my own back in the day by adding weight to hook shanks, it definitely offers a different look with a gliding slow fall presentation but I was never able to use it to my advantage and figure out where it shines. I'm over it. Hope it works out for someone.

👆 👇

Trying to use one rod, reel, and line to cover that breadth of techniques and species is going to be an exercise in frustration and compromise. That said I find that a medium power rod is more versatile than a medium heavy for multi species fishing, for line I’d go with a 10 or 12 pound mono/copoly. With this setup shallow/mid depth cranking will be no problem, texas rigs and swim baits will need to be kept on the finesse side of things with lighter wire hooks, but you probably won’t be doing any panfishing on this outfit.

It all boils down to your personal priorities, personally I wouldn't compromise especially with one's highest confidence presentation, I'd first use or buy another setup for topwaters which really doesn't require high quality gear. That said, with yzh at about $7/spool it'd be a cheap scratch to itch.

That was the first thing I checked, again I'm getting notifications for threads I have not participated in at all, For instance, there's a current active thread named "New Electronics restricted Bass Tournament in the works ?" that I just suddenly started getting notified of comments about, I'm not subscribed to that particular thread nor the tournament fishing forum either per the follow/unfollow box at the top of the page. Just strange, not the end of the world, just a slightly annoying first world problem.

@Glenn Lately I've been getting notifications for posts on threads I haven't commented on or subscribed to.

Zero adjust is simply the amount of tension applied to the spool via the tension knob. You can zero adjust any casting reel with a tension knob, not just daiwas. In my eyes it is marketing as they're making it seem like a daiwa only feature, but that's not to imply zero adjusting doesn't work for some.

ZERO ADJUST is daiwa marketing speak, you can "zero adjust" any reel that has a spool tension knob, it is not an actual mechanical feature. Just a smidgen of spool play has worked for me from 1/8oz on bfs reels to 2-1/2oz swimbaits on my tatula 200 among many other daiwa reels including my zillion.

Budget needed to make reccos, how much of your $550 budget did you use on the reel?

Not to be a stick in the mud, but it's been proven that largemouth have dichromatic vision and can only distinguish two colors, red and green.

This thread was started because there was rods n reels being posted in the "Bait" thread, now we're posting baits in the "rods n reels" thread...l love it lol 🤣

I don't think that's right, the shorter rod will give you more leverage for lifting power, not less. Many people confuse a first class lever (think pry bar) with a third class lever (think shovel or fishing rod) when discussing leverage. Longer is more leverage only when the fulcrum is between the force and the load.

Z-Man Neko Shroomz Wacky Rig Nose Weight, works great, slides right in to elaztech baits, a little pricey but worth it to me.

These are great, but if you don't want the weight exposed get a nice sturdy pointy toothpick, one of thick old school ones not the newer flat wimpy ones, and "pre-drill" a hole in it, about and inch or so long or a little longer than the nail style weight you plan to insert, then insert the weight with your fingers about 3/4 of the way then use the toothpick to push it in the rest of the way and "bury it", then use a dab a superglue to seal it off.

Just like getfishordietryin, I think of it more as a shakeyhead alternative than a wacky rig variation. It's much less likely to pick up weeds or get wedged in hard cover.

The pop max does fine on the medium light Feider. Lately I've been using it a lot for sniping targets along the bank or in tight quarters with small cranks.

When I encounter light to moderate vegetation which is almost all I fish here (central Florida), I use a Kistler helium 7'0" light-medium-heavy (3.5 power) and 30lb braid to a 10-12lb copoly leader. It's designed with a medium tip and a medium-heavy backbone. It's got enough power to pull bass out of cover but the softer tip makes it super versatile and allows me to get pretty finessey with it especially when paired up with a daiwa sv reel. I can pitch a 3/16 finesse jig and trailer no problem or a 1/8oz trick worm shakyhead, right up to your standard 1/4 and 3/8oz Texas rigs. That said, any medium-heavy can do the job just fine, but if the monkey's calling this rod will shut him up real quick.