Big Hands

As I am watching the BASS Bassmaster Classic weigh-in, it is as obvious as the nose on my face, that the whole business of 'professional fishing' is simply a giant advertising opportunity. Good luck with that one too. The rea$on that'$ not likely i$ the $ame reaSon that FF$ i$n't likely to be banned anytime $oon at the highe$t level$. They want to be able to show off those fish with the advertisers splashed all over everything and everybody in sight like it is on the stage at the weigh-ins. Broadcasting is not a non-profit. Content is not the product, we are. More specifically, our attention is the product. Our attention is sold to the highest bidders. Fishing electronics are among the heaviest of hitters in the bass fishing business, sooooo. . . .

My son and I both reach for the H/F for toads and frogs. EDIT: I like EWG hooks for Zoom Horny Toads.

I have used that exact rod and found it to be fine. Decent even. Excellent for the money. If I had to buy a 7' MH/F bass rod for less than $95 MSRP, I would buy the Aird-X for $54.99 and be quite happy with it. The Procyon rod is nice too, and I like that it has a cork handle. Maybe worth the extra coin if you prefer the cork. I have also tried the Fuego and they are very similar as well.

Roland Martin claims he cast to the same bass something like 72 times before the bass finally blew a gasket and wrecked his lure.

The four leaf clover of the Bass Resource forums!

Blink twice if you need us, brother.

It sounds like you're using the term "rich guys" as a slur/insult. If someone else has the resources to drop some decent money on a jerkbait rod (or 114 jerkbaits), I see no reason to insult them. If you're not trying to insult them, please accept my apology for reading this incorrectly. For the record, I use a Shimano SLXCX610M for my jerkbait rod, which can currently be had for the princely sum of $69.99USD, with an ABU ProMax 3 (which sold for around $70 before being phased out recently). And I am the proud second owner of a 1648 Tracker Grizzly with a 40 hp tiller. I may, or may not be financially wealthy. I don't consider myself financially wealthy. Maybe you're just trolling, but on the off chance you're serious, the irony is delightful. Thanks for sharing.

A rod, reel, line and bait are all integral parts of a 'system'. The angler operating the equipment is also part of that system. Duh, I know. We also do not all fish the same water or the same way. There's also likely to be more than a single path up the same mountain. The way I fish jerkbaits (something like a Vision 110 or similar size), and I do not claim to be a wizard, is that I use a 6'10 M/XF casting rod, with a 7 to 1, or 8 to 1 gear ratio, 8-10 lb line. I like the combination of a 6'10" length medium power with an extra fast tip. My reasoning is that: 6'10" length: Makes it easier to fish with the tip down. medium power: This helps to counteract the negative characteristics of an extra fast action when fishing a bait with smallish treble hooks like those found on a jerkbait. An extra fast tip: This allows me to kill the forward progress of the jerkbait with a minimum of back sweep at the end of each 'jerk'. Seems to work well as I have observed when the water is clear enough. The higher gear ratios make it easier for me to keep sufficiently tension as I am working the bait back to me. 8 to 10 lbs line seems to be the sweet spot for good lure action and strong enough to land fairly big fish in the waters I fish. I have acquired some larger jerkbaits recently, such as the Megabass Kanata (which weighs 1 oz.). I can't say that I have a combo that seems as dialed as I do for the Vision 110 size jerkbaits for the Kanata. But I am working on it and I am excited to fish this bait more as the action of this bait looks like it will be a killer once I get it dialed in.

Does it click in exactly the same place on each rotation of the handle? Slip the drag a little, and then it consistently clicks in a new spot in the rotation of the handle? Did you possibly turn the handle hard and them click it into freespool mode to watch the spool spin at some point? I had this on one of my reels and replaced the drive and pinion gears and the click went away. I poured over the gears several times with a magnifier and could see no bad spots, but when I turned them against each other with the sideplate off, there was clearly a hitch on every rotation.

I have put 2500 spools on 2000 bodies and vice versa (Kage and Tatula LT) just to see if they fit. They do.

I was thinking maybe a Curado 300 or a Tatula 200, but I agree a Tatula 300 is overkill. The Curado will cast further and be less cumbersome to fish. For a rod, I would check out a Dobyns Fury 806SB. I know it's rated for up to 8 ounces, but I think I wouldn't throw much over 4 ounces with mine at most and it has a nice moderate bend even thought it's rated as a 'fast' action. I have a Tatula 200 on mine with 20 lbs Big Game monofilament.

You might already be ruined.

I held a Mojo Bass spinning rod with the Trigon handle at my LTS recently. I thought it felt good. Good enough that I was curious to feel it with a Daiwa Kage 2000 on it. Felt well balanced, but the reel foot would squirm no matter how hard I tightened the reel seat. I am always suspicious of fancy proprietary reel seats as I have had some . . . . 'interesting' experiences with them. The shop guy suggested a try a Shimano Vanford 2500 in it and the squirm was 99% gone. I think I could live with that. Great feeling combo.

Turkey Boat? ======================== I had a 14' Valco with a 15 hp Evinrude I named "Planin' Simple" I haven't found a name for my now three year old Tracker Grizzly that I like and that my censors won't peck my eyes out over.

Regular E-10 is at least $4.39 here in Idiotville. That's about as low as I remember in the past three or four years. E-Free is apparently contraband now. If only that truly made a difference here.

I have been using two Group 27 deep cycle AGM batteries on my 1648 with a 40 hp Mercury four stroke with a 70 lbs Minn Kota Edge. I tap 12v off of one of the Group 27 deep cycle AGM batteries to start my outboard. Had it set up this way for almost three years now. You could do the same with another Group 27 Everstart. Group 27 deep cycle batteries aren't usually quite 110 AH. Mine are made by East Penn with a Duracell sticker on one and a SuperStart sticker on the other. Same exact battery, but you pay $50 more for the SuperStart from O'Reilly's (that has a 12 month warranty) than you do for the Duracell from Sam's Club and the Duracell has an 18 month warranty. I had a 19 ft Ranger with a 200 Merc back in the late 80's/early 90's that used two Trojan 6v golf cart batteries wired in series for everything. It had a 12v Thruster trolling motor and it started that big Merc just fine. I know you're 'not supposed to' do it that way. Mine was rigged by North Hollywood Marine for one of their 'pro staff' boats because this particular fellow wanted to wring every ounce of speed he could out of it. The downside would be that if you run your trolling motor batteries down, it could not have enough juice to fire up your outboard. You could carry a NOCO jumper battery. I can use a cord to easily pull start the 40 hp if needed. JMHO.

Sublime

I have had several ABU reels over the years (9000, 8600, 5600, 4600, 5000, Ultra Mag, Ultra Mag Plus XL, and still have a Royal Express [4600] and I think a two speed 9000 somewhere). Oh, and I do also have a more modern Pro Max 3 as well. The ABU reals were fine reels in their time (except for the 1022 Plus, that thing was a major disappointment, especially considering what it cost), but modern low-profile reels from Japan are hard to beat out of the box. I know anglers like @redmeansdistortion and @bulldog1935 have some custom ABU round reels that are absolutely drool-worthy. A dear friend that helped me get deep into bass fishing back in the 80's was off the deep end for ABU round reels. He had a chest of five drawers about three feet wide and all of the drawers were wall to wall ABU round reels from 1500c to 10000 CL, plus several rod racks of the wall of his garage that held matching sets of rods with ABU reels both casting and spinning. Of all the reel collecting groups I have come across, none are more fanatical than those that collect ABU round reels. At any rate, welcome aboard and I am looking forward to you sharing some fishing content from your neck of the woods.

I lost a dear friend last year that I met through mountain biking that became a very good friend even outside of the sport. I still remember him proclaiming that "This won't last forever, so we should all appreciate these moments now." I spend a fair amount of time each and every day contemplating my inevitable mortality. As time goes by, each day becomes more precious than the previous day. Father Time and Mother Nature are undefeated.

I have had the 7'4" Phenix Classic BFS rod for over half a year now. I throw small/finesse (not so much true BFS IMHO) plastics, jigs, chatterbaits, crankbaits, spoons. . . . all kinds of stuff. A three to four pounder will give you a fun workout. It has enough backbone to set a treble hook and lighter wire worm and jig hooks. It has 16 guides so it takes a minute to get the line through them all. They are very small diameter guides but I haven't had any issues with braid to leader knots. I have a Shimano Curado BFS and a KastKing Zephyr BFS reel that that I have used on the rod. The Zephyr and Classic BFS combo weighs around 9.5 ounces and is well balanced. I am not that interested in pushing the boundaries of the lightest weight baits it can throw TBH. I am most likely to be throwing baits that weigh between 3/16 to a 5/16 of an ounce, maybe 3/8 of an ounce, and this rod does that quite well (even though it's only rated for up to 1/4 of an ounce. And although it is rated for 4-10 lbs line, I would only use 10 lbs braid (not straight mono or fluoro of that size). The 7'4" length works for me since I mostly fish relatively open water. I do occasionally fish some tight quarters and one of the shorter lengths might be more desirable for that, but I opted for the longer casting capabilities of a longer rod, your needs might be different. I have a 7' Shimano Expride L/F spinning rod with a Daiwa LT 2000 Kage and for the baits I throw, the 7'4" Classic BFS / Zephyr BFS bait cast rig has been generally outcasting the spinning setup, sometimes by a lot on all but the lightest baits. On the lighter side of things, I'll just say that I haven't been great at it with the BFS baitcaster. At least some of that is a "me" problem. I don't have a lot of experience with other rods of this type, so there may be other rods out there that will work as well or better.

I tried keeping logs back in the 80's. For me, at best, it's interesting to recollect what I was doing in the past. I think there so much more to it than a handful of data points that it's not really all that relevant to day to day conditions. Way too many variables in effect. Environmental Conditions Water temperature Air temperature Clear vs. Cloudy Time of year Time of day Moon phase Water level Water visibility Conditions affecting water visibility Short term water level fluctuations Long term water level fluctuations Current wind speed and direction Recent wind conditions/patterns Barometric pressure Fishing pressure Food source conditions Baits used: Brand Type Size Color Rigging Hook type Hook size Line type Line size Technique Retrieve speed/details What does my Color C-lector say? "Pop" I know there are folks that love compiling and analyzing fishing data. To each their own and that may be what some folks specifically enjoy about the sport, but as much as I love a good spreadsheet, that's not how I want to approach fishing. That's my idea of how I prefer to do it these days.

I was going to mention that one since the OP specified around a 7' length. I have the 7'4" version and have been getting along with it quite well. I does have a solid tip, and I have had no issues with it detecting strikes so far, but I have not fished a true BFS rod that didn't have a hollow tip so maybe I don't know what I am missing. My feeling on the 7'4" Classic BFS casting rod: The Phenix Classic BFS works best with relatively light gauge single hooks and treble hook baits that are appropriate with BFS presentations and line sizes. It's rated for up to 10 lbs line, but although I might use 10 lbs braid with a leader, I would not use more that 8 lbs test mono or fluoro for a leader or main line. I have two reels that I use on it: KastKing Zephyr BFS Shimano Curado BFS I am currently using the rod with 6 lbs monofilament and it works great for my uses. Tackle Tour tested the 6'8" version and showed the rod weight at 2.9 ounces. I have the 7'4" version, so I imagine the total rod/reel (with the KastKing Zephyr BFS at 5.6 ounces) total combo still has to weigh less than 9 ounces and balances very well with either of the reels I have used it with.

I have two Tatula 200's and a Curado 200K. The Curado 200K is one of my favorite reels. I use it to thro 3/4 oz to 1-3/4 oz hard baits mostly and it it excellent for that. If I am throwing heavier baits, I prefer the Tatula 200. The Curado 200K casts a little further. The Tatula 200 is beefier larger, and has a stronger drag. I run 12 or 15 lbs Big Game mono on the Curado 200K and 15 or 20 lbs Big Game on the Tatula 200.

I got one last year. Took a couple of weeks. Good quality shirt too.