Ogandrews

How is the casting distance/ smoothness of that reel? Been wanting to try it a long time but I’ve never been able to convince myself to get it instead of a tranx and it doesn’t come in a 4-500 size. been thinking about trying to buy one on eBay but a lot of the time their more expensive than a brand new tranx anyway. Has anyone here used the okuma Komodo ss or the abu beast x or the Maxtoro? I’ve heard great stuff in the musky circles about both the Komodo and max with both being really strong, although I know the Komodo would be stronger with the stainless steel gears.

It definitely won’t ruin the spawn it will most likely just slow the whole process down. Be thankful that you can legally fish, here in mn I still have to wait until may 9th. Not like I could fish anyway as we got almost 14 inches of snow last night and it was 17 degrees when I woke up. In all seriousness throw I would just slow down and pull back out a little bit. They won’t have retreated completely because they know the water will warm back up, I don’t think they will be back in winter spots.

Good setup but I would strongly recommend to go with suffix 832 or power pro maxcuatro instead of that braid. The two I recommend will cast better and be a smaller diameter than that other braid. I’m not a huge fan of lews rods but that is simply because of how they look and that’s all personal preference so who cares, if you like it go for it.

For those of you guys that throw big swimbaits or those that fish for bigger fish species like I do, what is your favorite big bait reel. My main kind of fishing I do is pike and musky so I spend a lot of time throwing big stuff. Right now all of my rods either have a Calcutta D or a tranx on them. I would like to know what other reels you guys like, I’m a Shimano guy but I’m always down to try new stuff I know a lot of companies make good stuff. I’m trying to get into guiding this year so if I could find some reels that i can confidently have customers use without having to spend 300+ on the Shimano’s I like than that would be great. Let me know what you’ve had success with and what you guys haven’t liked.

Depends on how big of swimbaits your talking about. I have that exact setup with a Sierra 735c and I use 65lbs braid. I have caught a couple musky and lots of pike with some over 40”. It’s a great rod for throwing really small stuff for musky, but if you really want to fish musky than get a real musky rod. There’s a lot of options out there, I would recommend the chaos tackle assault sticks if I had to pick one. I would get the 9 ft swat telescopic which is an xh, will throw all of your regular musky baits up to 10oz no issue. 9ft sounds crazy coming from the bass world but you will understand after you throw big baits all day. The long rod also helps a huge amount when you are doing a figure 8, it helps you cover more water and not have as sharp of turns on the outside. I would pair it up with a tranx 400 and 80lbs braid, if you want to save money than the Cardiff will do fine. Get a couple single and double 8-10 buck tails, a couple bulldawgs or Medusa’s, and a prop tail top water like a top raider and you will be set. I have also caught a lot on big bass baits like 5.8-6.8 keitechs, bigger spinnerbaits, 3/4-1oz lipless, and bigger jerkbaits like husky jerk 14, just upgrade the trebles to strong ones like 3x or so. if you do decide to try musky fishing with the setup you have, don’t try to catch them without the proper tools. You need some really long needle nose pliers, some heavy duty compounding hook cutters for when they really swallow the bait, a musky sized deep net to let them recover while you are unhooking, a good hook sharpener, and a solid jaw spreader. You also need a quality leader. I generally use floro between 80 and 130 lbs depending on the lure weight, but a normal steel or titanium leader works too. Don’t fish without a leader, it will end with you disappointed and a musky with a lure in its throat. Don’t go fishing without these, musky need to be treated a lot better than bass especially when the water is warm. They expend a huge amount of energy when they fight so you need to give them time to recover. Part of the reason use such heavy gear is to get them in as quick as possible and reduce the amount of stress on the fish. Once you do manage to catch one, keep it out of the water as short of a time as possible. Once your ready to release it hold it in the water until it kicks off on its own, you don’t need to move it back and forth it will breath on its own. Musky are big scary fish but they are wimps when it comes to recovering after a fight. Give it time and it will kick off. If you have any questions any questions about anything regarding musky fishing than ask away, musky and pike fishing is my real passion in life bass are just a nice filler when I’m not chasing them.

I’ve got both the lews tournament pro and a couple curado k’s. They are both awesome reels but I think the curado is better. They both have benefits but I think the curado will last you longer as I’ve already had to have my pro repaired after not even a full season of use. Lews does have the best customer service in the game, blows Shimano’s out of the water. You’ll be happy with either but I think that Shimano is overall better, a little smoother and tougher and last time I checked it was $20 less.

I get people not liking braid, everyone’s got their own way of fishing. But braid does hold knots really well, definitely better than floro maybe even than mono. You can use any knot you want really as long as when you put your line through the eye of the lure, you come back and put it through a second time so there is a loop around the eye. This stops the issues with slipping. If you don’t do this, especially with slick super lines, than yes there will be issues with knot slippage. Tied correctly than it’s as strong as a knot can be, and the advantage with braid is it won’t burn itself while tightening it down like floro and mono to an extent does.

I can’t remember the name of it but it was an early 2000’s low profile shimano my dad bought me. It was chrome silver, kinda looked like a Calais but it wasn’t that. It was a cheap real and was quite hard to learn on but I got a bunch of use out of that thing. Glad my dad got me started with the right company haha.

Small hair jigs like this are a really solid bet, I use them all the time in my river for both smallies and walleye. If I’m targeting you walleye specifically I’ll either use a fathead if their not feeding very hard or a grub/fluke style bait if their a little more aggressive. If I’m more so targeting smallies ive done great with both a single tail grub, rage menace, or a paddle tail. I bet a regular craw would work too. The great thing about hair is that it slows the fall of the bait allowing you to fish a heavier jig but still get a slower fall rate which means less snags and usually more bites. Also gives the bait some secondary action that is really hard to imitate with anything but hair.

I agree with whoever said earlier that there really aren’t many sub $100 rods I’ve been impressed with. I had a couple 13 fishing rods, I think they were omen black, that were $100 regularly that I got for $50 each. They were pretty good for a $50 rod but every single one of the broke on either a hook set or while casting a regular sized lure. If I had to get something under $100 the dobyns colt isn’t a bad rod. Honestly if I was getting a cheap rod like that I would most likely go with a store brand rod like cabellas, bass pro, or scheels because they usually have a pretty good return policy, and rods like that are usually pretty dispensable

Which curado was it that you had? I’ve owned 2 revo x as well as an sx and both of the x’s handles kept getting loose after a couple weeks of heavy use. I will say they did cast well but were not as smooth as an slx, not close to a curado k. Both of the shimanos had better breaking systems too, and overall had a better feel for me. The sx was a pretty good reel but it just didn’t have the casting distance for me of the shimanos and again didn’t have that good of a breaking system. The sx was definitely smoother than the X but still not as smooth as a curado k. Not saying their bad reels just in my experience of owning reels from both companies I think that shimano beats the abus at every price point. Abu makes some great musky reels too, the toro beast and the beast 40 are awesome reels, but it’s a similar story as before because I think you get a better reel for your money with the tranx but it’s pretty close. If your an abu guy then use abus, their still quality reels I just think you get more for your money with shimano. With abu and lews being almost the same thing on most fronts I would also always go with lews simply for the fact that they have the best customer service I have ever dealt with from a reel company. I’ve had such good experiences with lews when I need parts or a reel fixed that it really makes me want to buy more of their reels. Great company to deal with.

Thanks for the info

It could be line burn or the knot not being perfectly tied, but one other thing I would consider is using mono as a leader. Fc100 is incredible leader material with some stretch which doesn’t have quite as many issues as normal floro but mono still takes a leader knot better than floro does. There’s a lot of options out there for mono and some are super low stretch like suffix advanced mono. There aren’t really any lures I use floro for now unless I’m around toothy fish than I will go to a little bit heavier floro, like 14lbs floro instead of 12lbs mono. I think that the stretch from mono and that it takes a knot better really helps when fishing braid to a leader, and I fish braid to leader 100% of the time unless I’m going straight braid. The other thing I will say is try the blood knot. It’s not super hard to tie, super strong, and has a very small diameter. Give it a try, I’ve been using it a long time and I never break off at the leader knot, I’d say it happens maybe once every 25-30 break offs.

If it was between those two I would get the lews but personally I wouldn’t buy either. The curado k is $179 and blows both out of the water. If you don’t want to spend that much on a reel than the slx xt $130 or the regular slx $99 are both awesome reels and still better than the two your looking at imo. Another great option is tackle warehouse has a sale on the curado 70 right now, I think it’s around 140-150. The curado is smoother and will last longer but they all are great. For braid I would recommend power pro maxcuatro in 40lbs. It is much thinner than regular braid so it is the same diameter or smaller than regular 30. It casts better than any braid I have ever used and cuts through weeds super well, rarely backlashes. It is around $30 a spool so it’s not cheap, if you want something cheaper go with suffix 832 it’s great line just thicker than the other. I’m not sure if you have a rod picked out but my top options in your price range would be the shimano slx/st croix bass x $100, st croix mojo Bass $130-140, and the dobyns Sierra $170. All are pretty much the best you will get for the money

That’s awesome I’ve never thought of using toothpaste to clean a reel. I’m sure it worked, it’s made to clean already

65 lbs maxcuatro in green. It’s a very thin and coarse braid which does a really good job of cutting through slop on the hook set. I noticed a significant difference of how much stuff I brought in with the fish when I switched to maxcuatro from suffix 832 which is another great line. It being a pretty coarse line sounds like a really bad thing but it casts farther than any line I’ve ever used. It is a little louder on the guides when your fighting a fish but that’s not a bad thing, just something to point out. It’s not cheap at all which is why I don’t think it’s very popular but it’s about as good as you can get in my opinion.

For $100 bucks it’s really hard to beat the shimano nasci, it’s my go to spinning reel. If you want to save some money, I have had a couple diawa regal lt which comes in at $60. That is an awesome reel for the money. You get a super smooth drag and smooth reel for the money. If you don’t want to spend the money on the nasci, I would just go straight to the regal as I don’t know if it would be worth the extra 20 to get one in the $80 range as the regal is such a good product for the money. Not as good as the nasci but it’s close. I know we’re not talking about casting reels but if it was casting reels under $100, there’s no competition with the slx. So much reel for the money. I know guys will argue for the revo x and the speed spool but after owning a lot of reels at that $100 price point there’s no point to get something besides an slx in my opinion. It’s not a curado k, but it’s really close for $80 less.

I use maxcuatro on almost all my rods, but I have a 9ft h st croix legend tournament musky rod with a Calcutta 400d with 80lbs masterbraid on it and it is absolutely incredible line. It’s a lot thicker than the maxcuatro I usually use and way smoother. It works super well for the really heavy baits I’m using while musky fishing. I bunch of the time I’m throwing this stuff around some really jagged rocks that would eat up most braids but the masterbraid seems to be quite abrasion resistant. It is quite a thick line but that is in no way a bad thing in this application as I am already using a big reel, and the thickness makes it super manageable. Also I’m going on the 3rd season with the same spook and there’s no signs of me needing to replace it, and I fish hard. Give it a try you’ll be happy.

Does anyone here have a 908? I have been curious about the rod for years now for musky fishing and I’m seriously thinking about getting one. Most musky rods have very fast tapers which for some things are great, but if I could get away with it I would way rather have a swimbait rod style taper to help with the giant head shakes that musky have. What I’m curious about is how heavy of lures can it actually throw. I know it’s rated 8-30 oz’s, but I know by owning a bunch of dobyns rods that they sometimes over rate what their rods can do. I would most likely be using it for big swimbaits like the 12 inch Poseidon which is In the 8-10 oz range, mag or pounder dawgs/ monster or husky Medusa’s which are 8-16 oz, jigging bondy baits which can be up to 13 oz I think, and possibly some big bass style swimbaits. If anyone has any info on the top end of what this rod can throw I’d appreciate it, and what the taper is like. If it has a pretty moderate action that will be good but if it’s too slow than it will make it hard to give all these baits action.

Mine is hands down the river 2 sea bubble walker. It’s a popper style bait that is designed to also be able to walk. It’s a really loud bait and it literally leaves a bubble trail in the water when you walk it. You can fish it like a regular popper and if you do it with a little slack it will kick out to the side making it look different than most poppers in the water. Comes in 2 sizes, The smaller is 1/2 oz 3” and the biggest is around 5” 1 1/4 oz and has 3 trebles on it. If you haven’t fished it give it a try it’s an awesome bait. If I want to fish a popper like most people throw a popper I’ll either throw the r2s bubble popper or the Rapala x rap pop, both are good baits. I very rarely use a normal popping retrieve, I usually walk poppers. You can walk any popper really, you just need to make very small taps with your rod with some slack in your line, a lot smaller taps than fishing a spook style bait.

I would strongly consider getting the Shimano expride if you can afford it. It’s mid 200’s but fishes like a rod that costs over 400, truly an unbelievable rod for the money. Id recommend either the 7’2” medium light +, pretty much a medium, or the 6’10” medium. You will be happy you went with the expride if you do I promise you. If you want to step up in price than I would go to the g Loomis glx, don’t need to say how good of a rod they are. Not trying to diss on you wanting to try ark out but there is a reason these rods are so well known for being good. For reels go with Shimano, if it’s in your budget obviously the Aldebaran is a sweet finesse reel. The metanium mgl or dc is another good option, so is the chronarch mgl. If you want to get something cheaper the curado 70 is a good reel but not like the others.

I got my girlfriend a medium slx, I think it’s 6’10”. Great rod for $100, find myself stealing it all the time when I’m shore fishing. Not crazy but it is sensitive for the price. I think your for sure best option is either the st croix mojo bass or premier. I had the mojo 7’1” mf spinning rod for awhile and it was great. I use the bait casting version of the 6’8” mxf as my jerkbait/shakey head/ really finesse jig/ top water rod with a curado 70 and it is hands down the most fun combo I own to fish with. It’s incredible how light of a rod that is for the price. Super sensitive, and it has the perfect action I look for in a jerkbait rod which isn’t easy to find, and can actually be used for a lot of finesse baits. They make that same blank in their spinning line up. If you want to spend a little more the dobyns Sierra is 170 ish and is a huge step up from the Fury, I have a bunch of sierras in my collection and every one of them is awesome to fish with. Not quite as good, but I would say the Sierra is almost compareable to a g Loomis e6x in sensitivity.

Blows mine out of the water. I fish out of a 12 ft field and stream sit in yak I bought for $100, have a $100 trolling motor mount I got off amazon that sticks in the rod holders, a 12 volt minkota I bought for $40 used and a probably 60lbs marine battery that I can run the motor for like 20 hours on with one charge. Got a cheap garmin striker that sits in my lap and the ducer screwed into the side. Definitely not a fancy or pretty setup, but it’s definitely been worth the money. Got a lake record northern last year that was .5 inches off the state record, and I even started doing a little yak guiding for northerns by borrowing a buddy’s when someone wanted me to take them out. Can’t really get myself to upgrade it, caught so many nice fish out of it that it would feel weird getting rid of it.

It depends on the situation. I can see realism making a difference if you are fishing a swimbait ultra slow on the bottom trying to imitate something like trout. But in the majority of situations I just don’t feel that it has a positive impact. I believe in matching the hatch, but I think profile and action is waaaaay more important than the lure being perfectly realistic

If you want some solid ringworms look into bfishin tackle, it’s a company out of the Midwest here that makes a bunch of different walleye soft plastics. They have a huge amount of different colors of ringworms, even though they are technically made for walleye it’s the same thing. Caught a huge amount of walleye on them and a good amount of smallies too, even had some good success with them on a dropshot. They also make a super unique grub for you guys that like to fish grubs, displaces a lot of water and the tail moves with the tiniest amount of movement.