Bass Rutten

The zillion is made in Japan and offers better build quality and tolerances vs made in Malaysia reels. If you're looking at the 70 because you want compact and low profile you can get a jdm Alphas svtw (free floating spool) cheaper than the tatula 70, a complete no brainer in my book.

Yes, I could make do with this one, that one, that one over there and one of those too..

Actually all social and pack animals have hierarchies and rules. We are animals, just smarter, in most cases lol

Who makes that? --- I like fishing moving baits parallel to and across the corners of docks, usually cranks in the form of squarebills. For skipping I use plastics; flick shake finesse worms and soft jerks, caffeine shads mostly.

I got it setup with an alphas 800hl fitted with a kkr bfs spool and loaded with 15lb yozuri braid. The lightweight spool lets me effectively cast 3/16oz lures on it too which would make for difficult casting with a typical medium power jerk rod. Also small cranks are a blast on it. If you stay mostly in the 1/4-3/8oz lure range you can't go wrong with the feider rod, if you exclusively throw jerks right around 1/2oz you're probably better off with a medium power rod.

Vote #2 for the daiwa feider jerk/topwater rod. It's a medium-light mod-fast but works great for lures up to 1/2oz. It's probably a bit softer than most people typically like for jerkbaits, but I use it with braid to up it's power and responsiveness. It's also an amazing small popper/walker rod.

You can get the jdm ss air for around that same price.

If cut down a little that would probably make a great micro or finesse jig trailer.

The FG is better in every way except for convenience and speed of tying.

Jig, spook, crankbait, chatterbait, flick shake, ned rig, I could live with any 5 of these 6.

Bfs is not just ultralight rods, they can be anywhere from ul to medium powers, don't make me sic the bulldog on you 😉

Kistler rods are made in Texas. The blanks are sourced from a Korean manufacturer.

I have the same rod in the helium series, not sure if the tapers are different but it has difficulty loading with 1/16 total weight lures, imo the rating on it should be 1/8-3/8oz. They also make a rod series call light n fast that doesn't get talked about much, it's a power down from the ML and rated 1/16-1/4oz, it's on my short list for my next rod. Link: Light n' Fast Fishing Rod – KISTLER Fishing (kistlerrods.com)

I love my 7ft Kistler Helium ML for ned rigs and flick shakin'. It feels slightly softer in the tip than your typical medium lights, casts well down to 1/8oz, plenty sensitive and light (3.5oz) for the 2 techniques I use it for. Mine's a casting rod paired with a bfs reel. Great value if you catch them on sale, which they are on half the time. They're not as sensitive as nrx but imo they're on par with the exprides, both of which I've owned before and frankly I don't miss them.

If you're on iphone check out overcast, it's an excellent podcast app.

Numerous biological studies have confirmed that giant lips are a known turn on throughout the animal kingdom 💋

Looking to expand from shallow to mid depth cranking. Already loaded up on some dt6 and dt8’s, would like to find another brand that’s a good compliment for the dt series.

A wise man once said "Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity". I spend a fair bit my free time tinkering, preparing, and organizing which prepares you mentally through visualization and fosters a positive mindset, habits I've carried over from my days as an athlete. I spent 25+ years fishing in an around Illinois, then moved to Florida in 2022 and have since only fished monthly tournaments due to my busy work schedule. I tried learning to fish the "Florida way" at first, aka super mega power fishing, and after months of very mediocre results and getting schooled I decided to ditch that and go back to what I know and have supreme confidence in, sneaky Japanese influenced finesse fishing, and was met with immediate and resounding success which continues. And that leads to answering the crux of your question; I fish my best after getting my buttocks handed to me because those are life's learning moments.

Disclaimer: I'm not a master jig fisherman and more like an ewok than yoda, but I've figured out what works for me, for now. For thick heavy mats/pads straight braid, I don't do this much anymore. For everything else I use 10-15lb yozuri hybrid, I find co-polymers to be at least as abrasion resistant with stronger knots than the fluoros I've tried. I fish light to moderate cover in mostly stained to muddy waters, and it's all very short range pitching/roll target casting with jigs for me so the sensitivity and visibility difference between fluoro and copoly are both negligible and a non-issue.

You’re going to get a lot of recommendations for a MH baitcaster. I personally think the medium/fast power is more versatile (especially a st croix) as you can power fish or finesse fish with it; you can go from shallow/mid cranking, topwaters, and jerkbaits to pitching and casting plastics and jigs, albeit on the lighter side (relative to a MH), not to mention you’ll get more bites with smaller lures, if that’s what you’re going for.

I fished Lake Harris in central Florida last Sunday, morning temp was 36, I'm not sure I actually fished with my partner, I think it might have been Kenny from south park because he looked just like the pic below. Meanwhile, as a recent transplant from Illinois who's endured 25 years of Chicagoland winters, I show up in a beanie, a base layer, khakis, a fleece vest, and a light but windproof jacket and was fine, ain't my first frozen rodeo.

Weights designed for clamping onto hooks, 1/16 to 1/2oz sizes available, best part is you get to choose the hook, get them at bps.

I got a pile of tiki's from a friend years ago who had to to quit fishing for health issues and I've only used a couple of them, they ain't got that booty shake on the drop that the senkos have, none at all actually, they just glide, no wiggle, at least the few I tried were like that.

BPS stop today; the new Yamamoto fat senko, booyah one knocker, squarebull 7.5 & 6.5, Zman mulletron in junebug cuz florida. For those who are curious, 14.5 grams on the fat senko, she gonna fly!

Copy pasta’d from their website: “Extremely High Modulus Blanks - 100% Japanese Carbon by Toray.” The blanks are made by a Korean manufacturer from what I’ve read.