Bass Rutten

Follow his setup instructions in this video and you’ll be good to go, start your main brakes at 12 instead of 10 just in case because your newish to baitcasters.

I feel the curado 200k reel is too big and heavy for a 6‘8“ plastics rod, consider the 70/71 series, lighter and more palmable. I use a curado 71 on my gloomis 804c for bank fishing.

I used one for 2 1/2 years b4 trading it, super sensitive but it’s got such a fast tip that it just is not a very good caster, do yourself a favor b4 you buy one and look up punchfishing on utoob and watch his review of the nrx 872s

Well if you want light it doesn’t get much lighter than nrx if you can get past the price tag. I use an older nrx green series 804c (6’8” Heavy) to bank fish, too stiff for any cast n crank moving baits imo so it’s not real versatile, I’ve done ok with swim jigs though. If it’s the only rod I take then I’m pretty much committed to jigs n plastics. Paired with a curado 71 it’s stupid light and accurate and the length makes it a breeze on those jungle treks through trees bushes etc

Can't speak to t-rigging but i bought 3 sizes of these hooks over the winter and have been fishing them all year, originally bought them with jika rigging in mind and it works pretty good but will probably stick to the owner twistlocks just for bait longevity. I discovered another outstanding use for them which is bubba/power/flip-shotting, tie to ring, tie your short dropper with weight. I find it to be a cleaner simpler rigging and less prone to tangling than the vmc powershot hooks which are actually designed for that purpose, and I have had no issues with line twist. Probably going to try t-rigging with them now too.

FYI their selection of plastics are cheap because they are factory blems, I ordered a huge lot of zoom, zman and misssile baits plastics, and to my chagrin all of them were deformed to an extent, some had dimples (some rather large), others were twisted, etc. That being said the vast majority of them will be mostly unaffected as far as how they fish, just a warning...

Black whopper plopper, ned rig, jig. I’m in Illinois and the plopper is getting bit.

More beef more good. Good to hear from someone who’s actually tore them apart, there are many people on the interwebz parroting that they are exactly the same aside from the T wing.

Just wondering if you can elaborate on the differences you seen between them.

The mojo rig rocks (I affectionately call it the mofo rig because it catches bass like a mofo!), deadly on pressured waters especially when combined with stick baits, covers water pretty good too. My go-to plastic rig right up to the spawn.

Used gloomis nrx ($350-400) + $100 reel of choice.

Thought I was the only one on earth rocking a gl popping rod for bass. I use a imx pr8400s, daiwa tatula 3000, 10# powerpro

Good thing I asked, based on you saying you’re going to wait for the DC version I assumed that you weren’t happy with the performance of it.

I have my guesses but would you care to elaborate on what happened? Also what lure/weight were you throwing and how windy was it?

I second these and will add shallow squarebills, wakebaits, and jika rigging your plastics, very similar to Tokyo rig, keep weights light 1/8 or 3/16oz and use plastics with no or few appendages like beavers, senkos, or tubes, good luck!

The nrx’s are underrated on their weight ratings imo, a while back I tied in a 7” senko with a weighted hook onto my nrx 804c didn’t think anything of it, weighed it later on and the senko alone was just over an ounce and that rod didnt break a sweat throwing it, caught a few nice fish too. As far as the op’s question I’m old school with jig rods and like shorter ones, I feel they have better sensitivity without giving up much power

The berkley power swimmer is also a step up in hardness and durability vs the strike king, the extra hardness comes with a slightly less aggressive thump and has that lovely powerbait odor to boot, makes a great swim jig trailer too.

If I did have to recommend one based on what you already own it’d probably be a mod-fast action rod of some sort for treble hooked lures.

I think you are approaching this all backwards, you need to find a purpose first and then select the gear for that purpose.

Just curious... is there a law that says thou shalt not operate a curado with an odd number of brakes on? Lol I just cleaned and lubed mine and found that with two brakes on and the external cranked up it would get a little squirrely into a good wind. I’m also trying the zero adjust thing on the tension control. I’ve had three brakes on for a little while now and it seems to work well.

I find my most versatile reel is the shimano curado 71hg (7.2:1), at 28ipt it falls in right between most 6.3 and 7:1 ratio reels, it’s slow enough that I can still shallow crank with it and fast enough for me to burn spinnerbaits too

On a more cheerful note... I popped four 4+ lb bass in the last week, and untold numbers of crappie. The eggs in the crappie are still pretty tight so the bass spawn seems to be running late this year. It’s been good fishing a day or two after rains then tapering off. Been doing really well neko rigging a zoom mag finesse worm and 5.8 keitechs. What say you?

Not working for me for some reason. It says exclusively for you, did you get this in an email or something?

If perch be catching perch, then it would stand to reason to use...

Power shot has been my jam this spring. Usually 4-12” from weight to lure, shallow cover, heavy gear, 15# fluoro. Just loving this technique right now, seems to do well in almost all conditions I’ve encountered so far.