newapti5

My experience with Mastiff is good, but not something that blows my mind. Its knot strength is pretty good, as I didn't have any knot failure so far. The stretch is normal for fluoro lines, similar to Sniper. Memory is not bad, almost as good as Tatsu. Abrasion resistance is OK, as I only had one breakoff, but I don't think abrasion resistance is its strong suit. So in summary, it's good for many things, but doesn't excel in anything.

Metal or plastic, you can just follow the similar procedures of painting model cars. There're little videos on the Internet about painting a reel, but there're plenty about painting a model car.

Some Berkley Stunna jerkbaits for about $4.5 each, a bunch of Dobyns football jigheads for $0.25 each, some Dobyns football jigs for about $1 each, some Berkley MaxScent lures for $3-4 a bag, and some fishing shirts for less than $10 each.

Amazon Haul has everything for 40% off, plus additional 10% off for order $75+, which is not that hard to reach in these days. They have quite some name brand tackles available. I guess Thanksgiving came early.

Berkley MaxScent series. Vision 110s and JHs are expensive but durable; these soft baits are very effective yet very "fragile" against feisty smallies.

It's winter time again I guess. This is like asking if you want steak or chicken, and my answer is: Yes.

If used with leaders, I don't think braid colors matter much. Unless you want to see it all the time, then hi-vis braids may be better. There're many different braid colors on the market: different shades of green of course, white, black, hi-vis yellow, gray, pink, blue, rainbow color metered lines for saltwater, ...

If it's a dedicated jerkbait reel, then mono or fluoro is ideal, depending on whether you want it to stay up or go down. But if you want a versatile setup that can do it all, jerkbaits, topwaters, light jigs, chatterbaits... like when you're wade fishing with only one setup, braid could work, too. I think Matt Allen from Tacticalbassin uses braid + mono leader all the time. With your description of braided line, Seaguar Smackdown comes to my mind. They are lightly coated and soft, very smooth, abrasion resistant, and they have both hi-vis green and stealth gray colors. 20# would definitely work on small spools like Pixy's. I use them on many different reels for light lures, OG Alphas, CV-Z 105, Tatulas...

HM blanks are supposed to be more sensitive but more brittle than LM blanks. That’s what I heard about the reason Gary Loomis uses LM blanks for MH+ power rods, because he wants his rods never break during powerful hooksets. I have a M power BW rod, which is still HM blank. I understand this is a controversial decision, which is probably why he just removed the HMX or LMX marking for the later batch of BW rods.

Will pray for you and save the good deals for you!

If you had someone else to clean it, you can send it to be fixed as well. If you want to do it yourself, that pinion bearing sleeve could be the culprit. Also check the pinion yoke and springs - part 40 and 41 in that schematics.

My normal answer would be jerkbaits, but my secret answer is jigs. There's nothing like a jig bite.

It's possible that this is a QC issue, as mine has had that gap since day 1. I don't think this is caused by the sideplate not being properly seated or misalignment, as my sideplate is firmly locked and the plastic ring latch closes normally, except this tiny gap shown in the photo. It is not making the sideplate loose or anything, but still, water can get in there. And my case is not an unusual case as well, as I did find others on the Internet having the same issue, some even worse. QC issue or not, I do hope it would be addressed in the new Ryoga.

I do hope they improve the non-handle sideplate, or go back to the old design. The '18 Ryoga uses a plastic ring to lock it in place, for easier access of course, but that leaves a noticeable gap between the sideplate and the frame. I also found some cases online in which that plastic ring broke after some usage. Mine hasn't failed, yet, but I have taken precaution and bought a spare ring.

If it is '21 Zillion we are talking about here, it's possible that the stock sv boost spool is the culprit. There's this small plastic part under the inductor that could crack after some usage. That's why the aftermarket has this metal part to replace it, but I'm not sure if you can still order it overseas with the tariff going on.

Very true, I leant it in the hard way.

Haha, let's just focus on the fish and not blow my cover. BTW, I know my musky is dwarfed by your 45" and others, but it still took both me and my buddy to land it with bass fishing tackles. Hard to imagine how to accomplish that solo. Actually the musky was caught with a bladed jig on 15# line. It nearly gave me a heart attack. The smallies were mostly caught with 1/4 football jigs. That's the Conodoguinet creek, a tributary creek to Susquehanna river. The water level is still dangerously low this year. Not a good sign. The spot I caught the musky is a relatively deep hole, but it's still only 3~4' deep.

Thanks! Not to boast, but it's actually not unusual to catch over 20" smallies in Harrisburg area rivers and creeks, especially during spring and fall. My buddy caught 13 smallies over 20" this year, and the other day one local guy told me his smallie record is 26". The muskie, on the other hand, is not that usual here, so I am actually more excited about that.

A couple big smallies (19~20"), and a muskie surprise (32"). Today is a good day for creek wade fishing.

I have the JDM one. Its handle is separated from the blank, so it's actually a 2-piece rod, just like other JDM "one-piece" rods. It doesn't affect sensitivity IMO, but some don't like that. Other than that, I don't think there's much difference between JDM and USDM ones. I use it for 1/4 jigs, jerkbaits, poppers, etc., and it handles them quite well.

The Veritas rods are still around $100~120. I was talking about the Veritas TE series, which is a little better. It takes the spot of the original Veracity series, which was discontinued I believe. Fenwick World series rods, which use Powerlux 500, have similar "slower" action. I guess that's one of the characteristics of Powerlux material. IMO it is a good thing: it keeps hooked fish pinned, instead of tearing a gap in fish mouths like fast or xfast tips tend to do.

That's what I thought, like no glass in a glass rod, or no silver in a Silverado. At least they're honest about the material. BTW, Suffix 832 is on sale from this website I ordered before, if you don't mind ordering in bulks. https://discountfishingdeals.com/shop/ols/categories/deals-of-the-week?page=2

Interesting deal, but why is it called "Magnesium reel" when both the frame and sideplates are made of graphite?

For those who like the Abu Veritas rod deal, purefishing website also has Hank Cherry and other signature series rods on half-off sales. Pretty sure they use the same blank, just some minor differences. Here's one example: https://www.purefishing.com/collections/outlet/products/hank-cherry-jerkbait-casting-rod?_pos=20&_fid=47dee8b04&_ss=c

I don't think I am allowed to mention certain brands here, but google "Green Pumpkin Goby" and you'll see which brand offers that color. Berkley MaxScent also offers a purple flake color: