Bass Rutten

It's is about all I do, my main power-finesse dropshot rig is a light/medium-heavy casting rod (yep), and a finesse casting reel with 10-12lb fluoro line. Ignore the pushback op, by the logic above, only ultralight and extra-heavy exist. Power and finesse do in fact exist on a spectrum, which has an infinite number of points by definition, not two fixed ones. Bfs is the literal, tangible embodiment of the power-finesse concept. Gotta go, the missus has lunch ready, JUMBO shrimp!

Alternate timeline: The op hasn't responded because they were busy catching bass on Texas rigged senkos and their hand got chewed up from lipping 181 bass in a single day. Due to the resulting infection they're now completely loopy because of the antibiotics. We wish you a speedy recovery hampter. Could be true....

I like to say... Never say no to a 30 minute fishing trip, those 2 hours could be the most exciting 8 hours of your life.

Hey y’all Just wanted to share an experiment I've been toying around with on 2 of my bfs setups for a while now, I've been running a 50 foot (not yard) 6lb fluorocarbon topshot/leader, and frankly I'm completely sold on it. It fishes and feels just like straight fluorocarbon, and you still get the benefits of braid backing, and you only have to replace 50 feet if/when it gets beat up or compromised. A 200-yard spool gets you 12 "respools". Honestly, I haven't found any major downsides yet. A short leader probably squeezes out a little more max casting distance, but not enough to matter for the way I fish. If anything, it's given me more confidence in my presentations, and that alone can be priceless.

Good stuff indeed. A small historical note: the roots of light line/Midwest finesse go back to the late '50s, but the creation of the og Ned rig (half a strike king zero on a mushroom jighead) dates to 2006. I've also really appreciated that Ned and Z-Man have always humbly acknowledged the Midwest finesse pioneers and has never taken credit for the Ned rig.

The answer is obvious, they saw a small hole in the market, and their bean counters calculated they could fill it using a whole lot less r&d and resources than it would take to make a brand new reel. That's all there is to it.

The zillion 150 has almost 10% more line capacity than the the curado 200, and more than every other 150 reel that exists, seems more like a compact 200 to me. And looks didn't stop the 21 zillion from becoming the best in class.

What kind of cover, structure, depth and baits are you fishing? These will dictate rod power, line, hook size/gauge etc

Yes you could, you could also move a fridge in a honda crv (I've done it), but everything I mentioned is better done on a reel with more line capacity than a 100 imo (assuming 15lb+ line). Bigger heavier lures that require long casts, especially hard pulling one like big cranks are better off with bigger gears + bigger handle = more torque, it's simply better for the types of things I listed above. Not even to mention that ipt nosedives with big line on a 100. Everything you've mentioned there can be easily done on the zillion tw 150 😉 But for me a 200 is pointless since I don't swimbait anymore, and there's no musky or pike near me.

Not totally pointless, anything needing thick plastic line and/or bomb casts. It's a little niche, but I can think of a few things it would do a lot better than a 100: Oversized cranks A-rigs C-Rigs Football jigs Swing heads Long range frogging 1-3oz swimbaits Light pike/musky

In your ear with a can of beer. Welcome back.

The Zillion TW 150 was dropped a few days ago https://www.daiwa.com/jp/product/rn0d8x7 In other news, I have this old American Rodsmiths David Fritts 7'11" cranking rod that's been sitting in the corner forever that just suddenly started randomly twitching and I can't figure out why.

The dt-6 is Florida staple for that depth range, it's got a subtle rattle. Although in the conditions you describe I'd probably go straight to a trap.

Worms don't get much tougher than elaztech, Strike King and Z-man both make a 7" finesse worm. I can't ever remember a neko rigged one being slung off, no rings or doo-dads needed. I also just bought some geecrack neko hacks I'm looking forward to trying on non elaztech baits.