jdr99a

For carry? Shield ez, j frame, p938, p365 are all winners. My wife loves a full size s&w model 19 with some soft shooting wad cutters.

My 6’10” ml expride has been a fantastic Ned rig rod for me. My next spinning rod will be the 7’ m for sure.

I’ve been loving my Shimano Expride ML 6’10” rod.

I’ve got the 705c and the tp black (although in 7’mh/f). My tp rod is a fantastic do-all rod, but I’m really liking my 705 for squarebills and lipless.

I did some damage last year fishing one like a fluke and as a trailer on a swim jig.

I’m a bank angler looking to dedicate a baitcaster combo to squarebills/lipless/medium divers (maybe 6-8ft or so). I’ve got a variety of reels at my disposal (low 6, high 6, 7s, and 8s) so what gear ratio would you choose if you were throwing one around?

The darts work well. Not any better or worse than other flukes, but just as good. The durability of their soft plastics aren’t the greatest. I am a big fan of their 10 inch mondo worms. Those were big producers for me this year and did better than other similar sized worms for some reason.

I use a st croix bassx m/xf 6’8” for my soft and hard jerkbait needs. I feel like it’s been a fantastic choice for me.

I caught 730 bass in 2021. My top 5 baits for 2021 were as follows: -ZMan Ticklerz (119 bass caught, 57 on junebug and 54 on black and blue) -SK Rage Swimmer (55 caught on both the 3.75 and 3.25 sizes with 39 of those on the pearl flash color) -Zoom UV Speed Worm (51 caught on a relatively even mix of black sapphire, junebug, and California 420) -Zoom Superfluke (43 caught on a variety of colors, but pearl white and bluegill flash among the top producers) -Bobby Garland Baby Shad (35 caught mainly on The pearl white color) The Bobby garlands were kind of an accident. It was something I threw when using night crawlers for bluegill with my kids. All but a handful of the fish I caught were on neighborhood ponds where I live. I caught a total of 3 fish from a boat, the rest from shore. Nothing big by the standards in this site (biggest 4lb 13oz), but still a lot of fun.

I’ve used an ugly stik tackle backpack with 2 rod holders for the last year and a half with very heavy use. It’s been a good bag but I’m wondering what else is out there. Anyone aware of any other backpacks out there with at least 2 rod holders?

I use invizx on my baitcasters almost exclusively. I find a get fewer issues with tatsu on my spinning reels. Both are fantastic lines so either way you win.

On my straight fluoro spinning setups I only use Tatsu.

Under $200 for a small Shimano - look at the slx mgl 70. Fantastic reels for $150. I’ve got a bunch of lews and Shimanos with a smattering of daiwa in my arsenal and the slx mgls feel as good as any of them in hand.

I got the tac 40 rod and a tac 40 reel on my 40th birthday just for kicks. Turn out it’s a fantastic rod (reel is decent, not particularly special). I got the 7 ft medium casting model and I’ve been impressed. I use it as a topwater setup and it’s performed admirably. I was concerned that the grip would be slick when wet but I have had zero issues at all.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I ended up with a zodias. Now I just need to get it on the water.

I’ve narrowed my choice of a new casting rod down to a Shimano Zodias (7-2 mh) or a dobyns champion (734). I don’t have the opportunity to try either before I buy. I plan it to be a general purpose rod but mainly tx rigs and other bottom contact techniques. I throw a lot of paddletails and swim jigs as well, so this might get used for that as well. anyone with experience with these two rods? Which do you prefer and why?

I’ve got the gamut of rods from $50- $250 and reels from $60-$500. One of my favorite combos is the lews lfs and tp1 black combo (7ft mh/f). It is my paddletail/swim jig/chatter bait combo. I use this one more than my curado/dobyns and my tatula/st croix combos by a margin of 3:1 or so. For the money the tp1 black is fantastic and the lfs is near the top of the heap at its price point.

I’m a fan of consistency in my other hobbies. My golf clubs are tuned and fitted to feel the same when moving from club to club, my competition pistols are consistent when moving between divisions/leagues, etc. Now I’m beginning to think of chasing that consistency in my rod/reel setups. I’d like to experiment with moving towards a single line of rods for all of my applications and I think I’ve narrowed it down to two in the same price range: the Dobyns Fury and BPS Carbonlite 2.0. I’ve got examples of each and both have performed well for me in the few months I’ve had them. For those with experience with both rods, if you were moving to one line of them for all (or most) of your combos, which would you pick and why?

If you just want to catch a bunch of little bass, I’ve had tons of luck with a 1/32 oz jig head and some sort of soft plastic made for crappie/panfish. When I take my kids out that’s what we’ll throw just to keep their attention. I throw mine on a light spinning rod with light line. Most of the fish we catch on this setup are half a pound or so, but it’s amazing how much fight a 1.5 pounder puts up on ultralight gear. The smile on my kids face is worth not catching the giants.

Tilapia makes sense. Thanks everybody!

I have been seeing balls of pink baitfish in the ponds I fish in the last week or so. I have no idea what they are. This pond normally has lots of shad and bluegill. I’m in SE TX if that helps. Any idea what they could be?

My lews LFS has been getting the most use recently out of my arsenal. I use it for paddletails, swim jigs, chatterbaits, and spinnerbaits - so I’m making a lot of casts. I would not hesitate recommending one at all. No problems and I can flat out bomb it out there. SLX gets my 2nd place in that price range.

I’ve got a dobyns champion 703c and I use it for lots of presentations. Light trigs and jigs are the main purpose, but I’ll throw paddletails, topwater, flukes, and lipless/squarebills. it may not be perfect for everything, but it’s pretty darn good for lots of applications.

For $50 I’d go Airdx or carbon fire. Shimano sellus is good too, but the grips are too thin for my hands. if you can stretch to the $100-120 range dobyns fury or st croix bassx would be a great one.

Maxima ultragreen is my mono leader of choice.