Bass Rutten

Not as bougie as your above mentions but I picked up a majorcraft benkei 6'9" mh/f last summer and it quickly became one of my funnest to use rods, t-rigs and jigs no prob, I throw spooks on it too, can't beat the price.

Caffeine shads and Thunder crickets are two faves of mine, and they work great together as well!

https://daiwa.us/pages/contact (562)375-6800 I’ve ordered several parts direct from Daiwa, haven’t had any issues.

I’ve been using my off season this year to upgrade my Illinois lakes to Florida lakes, I have a feeling it’s going to work out just fine.

Definitely versatile even though I only use it for spooks and skipping caffeine shads, it’ got more backbone and turned out to be a little on the faster side of mod-fast than I expected, but that’s a good thing when you hook a good’un under a gnarly snag infested pier.

I picked up that exact same mj benkei model earlier this summer, I think you’ll like it. It’s my main spook rod, also like it for skipping, I paired it with a daiwa svtw.

The term “zero adjust” is daiwa marketing speak, any casting reel from abu to zebco can be “zero adjusted” by simply turning its tension knob, it’s not an actual mechanical feature exclusive to daiwa.

The 7’ m/f casting is a real gem from the avid x series, I’d buy a back up right now if I wasn’t in the middle of a move, asteal at $135

Ergonomics/comfort><sensitivity/action>balance>weight

I think you meant to post this... ^8

Big bite baits craw tube, tilapia color.

As previously mentioned it changes as the year progresses. Early in the year a zman baby goat on a 1/16 or 1/8 jighead was killing it for numbers, swimming it old school grubbin' style. T-rigged z-hog did well too, caught my biggest fish of the year. Throughout late spring to mid-summer the chatterbait took over. In the mid to late summer months I had a 1-2 punch combo of a spook/soft jerk that was really working for me, an evergreen justine and a strike king caffeine shad. Fall was unfortunately a bust for me, got no reliable patterns going.

The large print giveth and the small print taketh away.

Interested in the name of that ff add on. I almost forgot, welcome!

Nachos baby!

Don’t overlook the classics, spoons and spinners are proven baits for toothy critters. In my water for some reason I catch near as many pike as bass on chatterbaits.

My 610ml expride with jdm stradic cost me well under $400 (with discount), great value imo. edit: disregard, won’t cast 1/16 well.

For my waters which is mostly submergent vegetation most of the year my best 5 would be inpo: swimjigs, weedless plastics in 2 forms; jika rig and bubba shot, chatterbaits in light to moderate cover, and topwaters if the weeds are subsurface obviously. I also use shallow cranks and spinnerbaits early and late in the year. Can't really comment on the 5 worst but obviously deep cranks are out, otherwise the vast majority of presentations can be adapted for shallow water bank fishing.

There is that, just don't miss. I'm only out 6 combos since I adopted this, the upside is I can now pick up my next rod and make another cast before the flying rod even hits the water 25 yards behind my boat, just gotta keep a few extras on deck, and in your rod locker, and in your truck, and at home, and...

This new hookset method has been a blessing for me, it will be the next big thing, mark my words! Side note: I've found screaming "THIS IS SPARTA!" helps with hook penetration.

DT's are not silent, they have a subtle rattle in them but are quieter than some others, same with the spros. The lc's, kvd's, and bagley b's are my favorite silent ones.

@softwateronly How's she treating you? I assume the honeymoon is now over lol I was considering one for my 7'3" xh expride for casting 3/4-1.5oz swimmers and occasional frogging, likely .37-.40mm copoly line, 5.8/6.8 keitechs, real prey gills, nachos etc similiar I think to your usage. What line you using and are you finding the line capacity sufficient for bomb casting and fishing them effectively?

Svtw: sv spool, good for skipping and light lures. Elite: tuned for medium to heavy lures and long casts. Limited: svtw with carbon fiber handle & silver paint.

The term swimbait referred to hardbaits in the early days and over time the soft swimbaits got lumped in to create one big category. Opinions vary on what constitutes a true swimbait, hardcore swimbaiters use size as the main metric and generally don't consider anything under about 5 to 6 inches to be one. Outside of the hardcore swimbait bubble what most people call small swimbaits are the soft plastic ones ranging anywhere from 2.5" to 5". Swimbaits, soft swimbaits, softies, swimmers, paddle tails, boot tails, take your pick, the terminology is all over the place.

Medium size river. My biggest smallie last year, 4 1/4lb, came on the 120 in the abalone shad color, had a musky roll on it a couple weeks back, was on for 2 seconds then just came off.