Ogandrews

For braid my favorite is powerpro maxcuatro, best braid out there in my opinion. It is almost $30 for a spool so not cheap at all, if you want a little less expensive one go with suffix 832 it’s an awesome line.

I have 3 small-mid sized river systems within 45 mins of my house that have amazing smallmouth, as well as brown trout in the colder parts of the year. Last year was so wet that I wasn’t able to float them once, but this year it looks like I’ll be able to hit them more. The best one of these has puts out monsters in the 6+ lbs range every year as well as having a good population of musky with some fish in the mid 50’s, big walleye, and monster channel cats 36lbs being the biggest one I’ve seen pulled out. I fish there every chance I get. Everybody overlooks it because it is a fast pretty shallow river that is kinda difficult to fish, and everyone around here thinks the only thing you can catch out of it is carp. I’m glad it’s not popular as it’s one of the best rivers in Minnesota IMO, been written about in in-fisherman a few times. Nothing better than getting on a good river smallmouth bite.

There are areas by the dams that get around 20-30ft it’s just that most of the rest of the lake is around that, at least in the bays I fish the most

Not sure if I just had a bad batch but I wasn’t a big fan of the 70’s I had. Right when I got them they were incredible but after a few months all of them got pretty grindy. Could have just been me using them in the winter and probably having water freeze inside of them from fishing in -10 weather with braid. If they still felt the way they did day one they’d be awesome but I’d still prefer the DC for some things.

Hahaha I was having WiFi issues when I posted that then when I refreshed the page I noticed I posted the same reply like 90 times

If you read my original post my point is that a dc reel isn’t better for everything. In my use, and have heard others that have the same experience, a dc reel has more of a benefit the lighter the lure is. I honestly don’t get much of a benefit when throwing something like a bigger jig, a frog or a lipless. But when I’m throwing truely light stuff, like original floating rapalas, small balsa cranks, like you said weightless trick worms, or a 2.5” tube on a 1/16th oz jig than I do notice a difference. It became apparent to me when I was trout fishing this winter. I like to use casting gear just to make it more fun and I switched from a curado 70 to a curado dc, both had the same 20lbs powerpro maxcuatro. I throw a lot of tiny jerkbaits around 1/4 oz, like really small husky jerks or rapalas balsa bx minnow. That is where I noticed the biggest difference, better distance less fluff better control. It was a big enough difference that every rod I had a curado 70 on has been switched over to a dc. Any rod that is more power oriented gets a curado k, like I explained earlier. I also talked about how the dc does not outcast a tranx 300 in my fishing with the same bait. If I am doing multiple different presentations with the same reel like you were talking about than I would absolutely rather have a dc. On the 1 setting the dc barely does anything and it just acts like a K with loose breaks. If I want a little more breaking, 2 is enough for almost all my baits without sacrificing distance. 3 and 4 rarely get used outside of skipping light baits, but that is because I only fish braid to a leader. I really really wanted to hate DC’s, but after using them for awhile there is undoubtedly a real benefit to them in my fishing so I will continue to use them.

All of my bass rods have curados, K’s for more power techniques and DC’s for everything else. I really wanted to hate the DC because I thought that I’m so good at using a baitcaster that I don’t need it. I will say that I don’t think that it matters if your the best person in the world at casting a baitcaster there still are benefits to it. I never really backlash my normal curado K’s but I feel like I get better distance and control with lighter baits on the dc. With heavier baits I don’t think there’s much of a difference in casting distance. I notice a huge difference when fishing low density baits like balsa cranks or something like buzzbaits that catch a lot of air and slow down mid cast, that is where the dc really shines. Dc also makes skipping so easy, it’s not super hard with a regular reel but you don’t even need to think about it with the dc. I like the K better for power techniques like frogs and flipping because of the slightly bigger spool and for some reason it just feels tougher even though their pretty much the same reel. I did to a test 2 days ago and my tranx 300 with 65lbs maxcuatro braid could out cast by a good amount the curado dc with 40lbs maxcuatro while using a 1/2 oz swimjig. I will keep using the dc as well as the K, each has its place in my arsenal. What do you mean by this, how does a reel with more advanced and effective brakes have less control than a reel without that breaking system? Curious to what you mean by that

You will be so happy if you get a tranx 300, they are my favorite reels around. I have 300’s 400’s and a 500 and they are all amazing reels, but the 300 is so comfortable to use. If your going to use it for cranks I’d say go with the low gear, it’s a 5.8.1 ratio and still have 30” per turn so you will be able to get them moving quick. Such a smooth reel, I use a lot of curados and curado DC’s on my smaller rods and they feel like can openers compared to my tranx. I have friends who bought the superduty 300 for their small bait musky setups and were very disappointed. The tranx is a little more money but it will last you and is built like an absolute tank, can’t say enough good about them. to anyone thinking about getting a cheap big reel, run far away from the kastking it is a piece of trash. Not a fan of the 13 reels either but their not terrible. If you want a cheap bigger reel, than buy a abu maxtoro off of eBay for like $80. Super tough reel, not the smoothest reel but it will stand up to throwing double 10 musky blades for more than one season so it will hold up to anything in bass fishing.

If you already have a MH, I’d honestly go with a g loomis imx pro 844 mbr. I’m a huge fan of st croix but the mbr has one of the most universally good tapers around, if I could only bring one rod out on the water that’s what I’d grab. If I was going with st croix id probably get the 7’6” mh moderate fast or just the 7ft mh although I generally prefer rods 7’3” and above for most techniques but that’s just what I’m comfortable with.

I think it depends on the rod you get. I have a champion xp 734 as well and that rod is light, super sensitive and super well balanced. The sierras I have are incredible bang for the buck i think but then again I haven’t owned any zodias’s. Especially the 733 and the 735 Sierra are so well balanced that it barely feels like you’ve got anything in your hands. Really hoping the champion 736 i bought is balanced and light like the couple good ones I’ve bought, not the 766.

Fished the 100 acre reservoir I usually fish today and water was clearer than I’ve ever seen it. With the weeds growing in and just about touching the surface every fish in the lake seemed to be in the two bays I fished. I spent the first hour trying to sight fish for pike, got 2 in the lower 30” range and saw the biggest of my life. Drove up to it in my boat and thought it was a log until I got closer and then I just lost it, fish was significantly bigger than my thigh. It was in 5 fow and could see it clear as day, could not believe how thick of a fish it was. Looked to be very very similar in size to the 47” musky I caught a week or so ago but much fatter, had to easily be mid 40’s. Didn’t want anything to do with my bait but it was still so cool seeing a fish that could have broken a state record potentially. I also saw a couple bass that were in the 6-7lbs range. Fishing was slow, but did land a 4.0lbs on the dot on a musky sized buck tail going for pike. This body of water never fails to amaze me every time I come here.

I’m from Rochester not the metro so I can’t really help you with specific metro lakes but I have been bass fishing for awhile in this state. Like any other fish I go after I only really try to target trophy fish, never really try to go out to get numbers. Here in the south we have some incredible bass waters, if there were more people fishing them I’m sure the state record would have been broken down here already. One piece of advice I will give is don’t overlook smaller shallow body’s of water, especially ones with less fishing pressure. Now I don’t mean little drainage ponds but all of the biggest bass I have ever seen in my have been in 80-120 acre reservoirs in the Rochester area. These waters are mostly 15-25 ft deep at the deepest, with most of the lakes being 8 feet or less and quite silty. Very weedy and support an unbelievable amount of forage fish. Was out on my favorite of these reservoirs today and saw 4 bass that I would bet my life on were over 6lbs, as well as the biggest pike I’ve seen in my life which was significantly wider than the 44.5 I pulled out of that place last fall. One thing that really helps with the 2 main body’s of water I fish is that they have a low density of bass as well as a high population of forage. Generally low density of predators and high forage will have the best trophy potential regardless of what species of predator it is. If your fishing a lake and catching dink after dink than you might want to find a new lake in my opinion. I also have more confidence in lakes with a forage base that is made up of stuff besides sunfish. My favorite lake around here is mostly full of perch, suckers, and shiners. All of those are a lot easier for a bass to eat compared to a bluegill which is a pretty hard forage fish to get down although they obviously still do it. Last piece of advice is that in lakes with a strong base of pike, musky, or walleye I will find largemouth in shallow cover pretty much year round. The better offshore spots are usually dominated by the bigger faster predators, which can eat the bass a lot of the time, so I will find them quite shallow in areas where they are more protected pretty consistently. gonna add a couple things bait wise. For me in general if I’m flipping cover, a Texas rig will get more bites than a jig but a jig will get bigger bites. All of the biggest bass I have caught while targeting them have been jigs, with a lot being swim jigs. I like dirty jigs, but there’s a lot of good ones out there. I fish a lot of swimbaits as well. Swimbaits are a super broad category and there’s a lot of good info on here about them, but I’ll add one thing, throwing a big swimbait, 7-10”, isn’t a,ways going to get bites but very very regularly will some of the biggest bass on a spot follow the bait back to the boat similar to a musky. Not really sure why it is but they do. It’s a great way to find fish, I have caught a good amount of fish in the 4-5lbs range finding them with a swimbait then coming back with another bait to catch them. Last one is in the summer my biggest fish come out of the heaviest slop, and are always on a frog or a punch rig. Frogs are the most fun bait around to fish but they do draw a pretty big bite and have a good hookup ratio as long as you have the right gear. Good luck man

The slx, or the slx xt for a touch more, is by far the best reel at that price point in my opinion. It’s really amazing Shimano made that good of a reel for that cheap, especially with the xt. The regular slx is $99, the xt is $129 and I would for sure say go with the xt it is worth the extra $30 for the upgraded braking and other internals. I love my curados, but there’s not a huge difference between a curado k and a slx xt.

My main flipping stick is a champion xp 766 and i like it for what it is. It’s got way more than enough power for the heaviest punching you could do but still doesn’t have a super fast action which is great imo for flipping and punching. Not the lightest rod but it’s not heavy, only thing I’m surprised with is that it’s definitely less sensitive than a couple sierras j have even when throwing straight braid. It’s a great rod, but I’ll end up replacing it with an expride at some point most likely.

Owner makes a pretty good tiny weedless jig, can’t remember what it’s called but it has a dangerously sharp hook. I’ve used it to throw little trout plastics around wood and rocks when I’m fishing for se Minnesota’s wild browns in the winter. One of my favorite plastics for that is a 3” jackal crosstail Shad, or half of a strike king dream shot. edit- found it, comes in a football head too

Maybe to try to get people to buy them instead of the senkos that work better. I know senkos are more money, but I’ll keep paying the difference for a better performing bait.

southern during the week and way northern Minnesota on the weekends Largemouth - 1/4 oz dirty jigs finesse swim jig yellow perch with a 3.8 sungill keitech - 5/16 oz dirty jigs compact flipping jig with a rage menace or a paca slim -1/2 oz rattlin rapala gold black burned over growing grass and edges Week or two and a frog will be on there smallmouth -2.5” power tube green pumpkin - rapala shadow rap in perch - 4” kalins baby jerk minnow snap jigged on a 1/8th or 1/4 oz vmc mooneye jig, started out as incidental catches walleye fishing but I’ve realized this is an amazing smallmouth technique. Let it hit bottom, snap it up about a foot off of bottom, let it fall on a semi slack line. Always hits on the fall. pike -5.8 or 6.8 keitech on a owner beast hook - 7” floating suick thriller with a 1/16th oz bell sinker attached to each split ring, gives it a much more erratic action compared to buying a weighted one. - buchertail 500 tinsel in-line spinner

Well the bait monkey really took its toll on me today, placed an order for G loomis imx Pro 894 fpr for jigs, t rigs whatever I want really dobyns champion Xp 736 split grip for frogs curado dc xg for the loomis curado k hg for the dobyns humminbird helix 5 gps with side imaging for my boat 50 and 65lbs powerpro maxcuatro for the reels 6 different river2sea bullywa2’s 8 dirty jigs pitching and compact flipping jigs 2 teckel sprinkers and of course the free tackle warehouse shirt to remind me that I spent too much i really need to get myself not to buy anything fishing related for awhile now, this order kinda hurt but I needed it all. Or at least I’ll convince myself I needed it all.

Thank you for the reply, I was actually hoping someone would compare the intenza to the zodias. well I ended up going with my gut and getting the champion 736 split grip paired with a curado k and 65lbs maxcuatro. I know I like how a dobyns rod balances and I know that I will like the power of a 6. Also ended up getting a G loomis imx pro 894 as a jig/t rig/ whatever rod and paired it up with a curado dc and 50lbs maxcuatro, definitely excited for my order to come in.

I will usually have frogs with different length legs depending on if the fish are short striking or eating the bait. If their really eating it, then it won’t matter much but if their short striking then start to trim them some more to shorten the profile. I have gone as far as cutting the kegs completely off and still had really good success with a frog. Shortening or cutting off the legs will change the action, with some frogs it will make them walk better but not with all. As a general rule of thumb, I like to start with the legs equal to the length of the body if you flip them back along the frog.

I’m amazed at how many people like the booyah. I pulled out a couple today when I was going through some tackle and I forgot how light wire hooks they have for a frog. I think that was the reason I stopped throwing them. I remember bending out a hook on a frog and losing a 6+ pounder in heavy slop, thinking back on it it was a pad crasher. Frog definitely catches fish, but if I’m fishing somewhere where I have the possibility of catching a big one I’m going to grab something with better hooks.

Thanks man I’ll look around some

There’s another one I like that I forgot about, never was a huge fan of the terminator walking frog but I’ve killed them on the terminator popping frog

I have done a good amount of deep cranking on a 7.1 and had no issues with it. It does give you the benefit if really being able to speed up your retrieve if you want to. 6.1 is a great compromise though because it is easier to retrieve and also still has enough speed to get the thing going. One thing I never hear people talking about with deep cranking is using a bigger reel. Look at a tranx 300 5.8.1, one of my favorite reels I own. It has a low gear ratio which will make pulling high resistance baits easy, but still has 30 inches per turn, which is the same as most bass sized 7.1 reels, so you will be able to get the bait moving really fast when you want to. A tranx 300 will bomb a deep crank as far as any other bass reel, I have even thrown weightless flukes on mine with no issue just to see if I could. I know it is a $300 reel but if you really want a great setup I would strongly consider a tranx 300, you can even get a power handle for it and really get some horsepower out of it.

For my medium and medium light spinning rods I use 8lbs suffix 832. 10lbs is good too, I just like that 8lbs is that little bit thinner and casts just a touch better. Never have broken the braid or leader just from the strength of the fish, with proper drag you can land whatever you hook. 2 weeks ago I just landed a 47” musky on 8lbs braid to 8lbs mono, that thing was bigger and stronger than any bas you or I will ever catch it’s all about the drag and how you fight them. I have never had any issue with light braid leader knots, I’ve switched to an Alberto knot and with 8lbs I will just do an extra wrap or two. Almost feel more confident in those really light line knots than I do when I’m towing 65lbs braid to 20-25lbs leader although they are the same strength. If you are planning on using a heavier leader than yes you could step up to 15lbs but if your going to a 14lbs leader than you might as well be fishing a baitcaster. I really don’t understand people saying that braid has no slack line sensitivity when in reality it does. If you have a bunch of slack line piled up floating on the surface than yea you might not feel it, but if your tending to your line and not letting too much out you will feel the bite just as well as with floro which is terrible to try to fish on a spinning reel. The other great thing about braid is that with the lack of stretch and how thin it is you can notice the tiniest movements of the fish through the line, which I would argue is almost more important than slack line sensitivity.