Ogandrews

Might as well be with how much of their stuff I agree with

Personally I like a reel with a larger handle for flipping and punching. I love my curado 70 but I don’t like wrenching on it with as small of a handle as it has. I also don’t think that it would hold up over time as well as a K but I have nothing really to back that up besides owning both. If I could pick a reel in that class I would get a tranx 200, just like a curado K but built a lot tougher. The tranx is an incredible reel at every size.

Usually braid to a mono leader to give it some stretch and help the line from getting around the hooks on walking baits and poppers, but I will also sometimes throw straight braid on lures like whopper ploppers or buzz baits.

I like that the high end st croix rods are still made in Wisconsin, gives me another reason to get one of their top of the line rods. I know the less expensive ones are made in Mexico which I still like better than something being made in China. The rest is loomis which I think is Washington, dobyns which I’m not sure, and Shimano which I think is overseas.

Keitechs are my favorite chatter bait trailer around, the only thing it that you have to rig the upside down. Right side up the actions dont match up but if you flip it upside down than the action is perfect. Try it before you say it doesn’t work. Another great way to use a keitech on a chatterbsit is to cut the paddletail off of it right where the tail meets the paddle. It leaves a piece of plastic that looks like a tail but doesn’t swim in its own. When the blade moves it gives the soft plastic of the keitech action that matches up perfectly with the blade.

That’s awesome man. I’ve never tried a fluke on a jig but I do throw a senko as a jig trailer quite often. Either wacky or threaded on. I barely ever see anyone else do it and it works great especially on pressured fisheries. edit- nice last name, I don’t see other people with it very often

I’m not the guy your trying to reach but I am a very avid musky fisherman. I haven’t fished eagle yet but the guy that taught he most of what I know goes every year. Eagle lake musky, along with a lot of lakes with both musky and lake trout, do a lot of feeding in deep water. Back in the day Larry Ramsel did a tracking study and found that the majority of the 50”+ fish had 2 different habitats that were usually close to each other. They would have a deep water area where they could drop into 40 or so fow and feed on cisco and whitefish. They would be in this water when they were actively feeding. They would then go into quite shallow warm water to recover and digest. One of the results of the study was that the fish would digest in the much warmer water to speed their metabolism up and in part their digestion. They found that while these shallow water fish were easy to find and would once in awhile follow a bait, they would practically never eat a bait. It is really too bad that they don’t allow night fishing on eagle as that would be your best chance of hooking into a world record class fish. If you haven’t already booked a trip at eagle I would recommend looking into Rowan lake to the south. It is a little bit smaller ( still a big lake) than eagle but has just as good if not better fish of a lifetime potential and allows night fishing. It also doesn’t get fished as much as eagle which is a great thing for big fish.

Your overthinking it in my opinion. I don’t usually put too much trust in the rod weight rating. Depending on the company they can be way over or way understated on the recommended weights. I use almost all dobyns and st croix rods. Dobyns usually has a max weight a lot higher than I would throw on that rod, st croix is more spot on but a couple of my rods of theirs are the same way or I throw heavier than what they recommend with no issues. If your throwing 3/8-1/2 oz jigs with regular to stout hooks I think you would be good with any quality heavy 7’3”-7’9” jig rod. I throw most of my jigs that size on a dobyns Sierra 735c which they call a mag heavy (more like between a heavy and medium heavy) and rate up to 1 1/2 oz but I don’t feel comfortable throwing anything over 3/4 on it. That rod is amazing for throwing stuff in that 3/8-1/2 (advertised weight) range. I have also used it for frogs for a season but it’s a little soft for my liking to set frog hooks. What a great jig, especially for the price. I use the Bitsy flip model more but I’ll use the standard also. I pretty much won’t go bass fishing without a 1/4 oz bitsy flip in green pumpkin with a rage menace as a trailer tied on one of my rods.

Tranx 200 xg if you really want a tough reel. Super similar to a curado k just a little tougher, xg is 8.5.1. I don’t like really small reels for flipping like a lot of guys use, I prefer a bigger reel with a larger handle so you can get more power out of it. Tranx are indestructible, I know not everyone is a Shimano fan but that would be my first choice for a flipping reel.

Mississippi I fish a decent amount but the majority of the fishing I’ve done on that river was out of a 12 foot johnboat or 14 foot tin can you would find at a resort. You really don’t need a huge boat, never gets super wavy on the river channel itself. I do fish lake pepin which is a super wide spot in the Mississippi, a couple miles wide so there I would only go out if it was flat calm. A bunch of the time I’m out there I’m in the backwaters which, while covering thousands of acres in pool 4 alone, is quite small shallow water in most spots as it is little fingers and side bays off the river. I’d also really like to take this boat to the rainy river on the Canada Minnesota boarder which is just a little smaller than the Mississippi.

I’ve been looking for the last 6 months or so and I keep coming back to the idea of that tracker xl. I know I want a 16 foot aluminum boat because I do a lot of fishing in rivers and smaller lakes, as well as I don’t think anything over 16 would fit in my garage unless I got a folding tongue. I like tillers for the space But a single console is good too, not picky either way. I want something bare bones with a decent amount of casting deck space for the size of the boat. Rod lockers aren’t super important to me as a bunch of the time I’ll be musky/pike fishing with 8-9ft rods which won’t fit anyway. I’d also preferably have a 40 or 50 horse 4 stroke, good balance of power and weight/fuel efficiency. For what I want I think that tracker classic xl is a pretty good option, it’s not as deep a V as a pro V obviously but with me mostly fishing smaller water and rivers it’s not very necessary. I already bought a boat last year just to buy a boat and although it worked and was super fun because it was a 17fter with a 140 horse on it, I have thought this through a lot more and know what I want. If you guys have any suggestions based on what I want I’d love some more feedback, thanks.

That’s a sweet boat. Motor on the one I looked at was sweet but everything else was trashed, definitely not worth the money. Hard to find anything in my area worth buying right now, really thinking about getting a 16 foot tracker xl. Not much more expensive than what I’ve been looking at for used stuff and I get a brand new boat. Who knows tomorrow I’ll probably want a different boat, need to make my mind up quick the seasons almost here.

Hey everyone I’m in the market for a new boat. I just sold my cheap old bumblebee bass boat this week and I have my eyes set on a 96 Lund pro v 16. It has a mercury 100hp 4 stroke on it and the interior is in super good shape. I know it’s definitely not a bass boat but with how much multi species fishing i do and fishing on the Mississippi I think it would be perfect. Anyone here own a 16ft pro v at some point that can give some insight and some Stuff to look out for?

Use any know you want as long as you put your line through the eye of the bait twice. Once you put it through the first time just go back and go through again the same way it went in the first time. Once I started doing this I’ve never had a knot slip with braid. Generally use the palomar, but I will use the uni also especially if I’m fishing 80-100lbs braid.

Only lews reel I own is a tournament pro, awesome reel. Very comparable to a curado k, not quite as smooth but it’s a solid reel that casts a mile. This is coming from a die hard Shimano fan, I would have no real issue if I had to replace all my curados with tournament pros.

Yea it’s not the fight of the fish that warrants the big reels it’s handling the lures. When it comes to anything but big double bladed spinners most baitcasters with enough line capacity to run enough 80 or 100 braid will do. The biggest pike I’ve caught in my life have all been on regular bass gear not even swimbait setups and they handled it perfectly. I wouldn’t be surprised if the ambassador 6500 has caught more musky and pike than any other reel on the market.

I have actually always been curious why big salt water reels don’t have level winds or thumb bars. The thumb bar thing isn’t a huge deal, a lot of guys fish musky with the high end abu reels without thumb bars. With the lack of a level wind do you have to lay the line on the spool with your hand to keep it even? I’d imagine it would get lopsided in a hurry without some sort of correction.

That is one bad reel, that’s definitely a Diawa I would like to have. hows the drag on the SD wide? I know it’s not as strong as the 300 sd but idk if it’s noticeable.

I saw they updated them. If the new ones are more refined than I would give them a try but when it comes to the HD my issue is it’s the same price as a tranx so I don’t see much of a reason to switch.

On bassresource? Am I missing some swimbait section?

I know a lot of guys have good luck with them but I also know a lot of guys have had the same experience as me. I’m not saying their bad reels, I easily could have had a bad one but that was just my experience. At some point I’ll probably try another one with them being cheaper than tranx. What ratio are you throwing with the 300’s and have you noticed a big difference between the HD and the winn?

For bass sized baitcasters it would have to be the curado k in 7.1. Super dependable, easy to use, smooth and doesn’t break the bank. For bigger stuff no question the tranx 300, 400, and 500. I really want to try some higher end bass reels but every time I look at the price I think that I could buy another tranx or Calcutta d, or finally buy a Calcutta conquest.

Took a look at those and it doesn’t appear any of them have a level wind, or a thumb bar for that matter. Would make it difficult to cast for 12 hours straight but I’m sure it would pull them easy.

You get the 50 or 60 and what gear ratio?

I had a lexa 400 with the the win grips that I bought from a pmtt pro musky fisherman I know last year and it started grinding terribly after 2 months of throwing big double bladed inline spinners. That was most likely the last lexa I’ll buy but if they really beef them maybe I’ll try them again. For the price though I think I would rather just stick to a tranx or Calcutta. Musky sized inline buck tails are incredibly hard on reels, it’s been hard for me to find anything outside of the tranx/Calcutta that I feel comfortable using with the really big ones. I know abu makes some really solid musky reels, I’ve been tempted to try the toro beast 60 as it comes in a 4.9.1 gear ratio. For buck tails the best reels in my opinion have really low gear ratios and giant spools, both of which help with moving these high resistance baits as fast as you can with minimal fatigue. Outside of the tranx 500pg, I haven’t fished a reel yet that makes those easy. The reels I’m looking at buying will most likely be used with big rubber, jerkbaits, top waters, and smaller 6-8 size single buck tails, none of which are super taxing on your gear.