GetFishorDieTryin

A weightless 4" yamasenko will catch fish when many other baits wont.

My favorite is my 7'1 M F Muse. It recovers fast enough to make it good for deflecting, but is soft enough to keep trebles pinned. Its pretty light, sensitive and the reel seat is really comfortable which makes it fun to fish. The action is a slower fast, probably somewhere between a regular and F, which makes it really versatile. Theyre on clearance for 120 I think, which is a good price.

I prefer a reel in low 6's for most moving baits other then some topwater. If the reel has a power handle, that is definitely a big help IMO.

15lb InvizX is what I like as a do it all MH line. Its really manageable and thin enough to get a somewhat natural fall on a weightless senko, but has enough strength and durability to land a fish after rubbing against the inside of a piling pulling him out. As long as the line isnt damaged you shouldnt have breakage issues. Just try to make checking the line for damage, a habit.

It would either be a 6'10-7'1 M F for lighter single hook baits, like finesse jigs, flukes, mojo rigs square bills, JBs/topwater and lipless. The other possibility would be a MH modF or slower F for spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, swimjigs, T rigs and bigger treble hook baits like mid diving cranks and lipless 1/2 and over.

Crankbaits are harder on a reel, but I dont see a full size spinnerbait being easy. Decent amount of resistance with colorados and high cranking speed with willows. I dont everyone else, but I really lean into the hookset and my drag is generally locked down. You dont have to with anything crazy, but I like a brass main over AL, full AL frame and a ratio in the low 6's with a 100mm handle.

At one time I had a pair of copper, blue and grey lenses, now im down to just the grey ones. Both the grey and copper are good all around, especially for FW fishing, uness youre on a huge body of water. The grey lenses are MJ glass and probably have the sharpest clarity of all of them, but man theyre heavy. I do a lot of SW fishing and really liked the blue lenses, just not ideal in low light. Never had a good set of green glass lenses, going to try costa brines next. If I had to pick one for everything it would either be grey or green.

It definitely works and is much easier on both the fish and angler. The singles dont hook the fish that just slap at the bait as well as trebles, but once you get a hookup with the inlines you have a better chance at landing them. Once drawback to the inclines, that they can change the action of the bait, particularly baits with weight transfer systems. The loss of drag can make the bait have a tighter action.

Thats a tough one. The Robo straightail is more of a finesse worm where the plasma tail is more of a do it all. I like the Robo fats and IMO they compare better to the PT. I like the flat belly for SH, DS and free rig and I like a round worm for wacky and t rigs. I feel like the flat belly helps the bait glide where the round belly falls straighter which is what I like with a T rig. The action of the Robo is more sublte.

The older more opaque Bluegill and Baitfish colors that Reins used to make. They still have them, but the opacity has gone way down and it looks completely different. Green Pumpkin/Pumkin laminate

I remember hearing as kid that wd-40 actually can damage mono. Whether its true or not, IDK.

If youre in a boat its not too bad, but off the bank or around cover smackdown has a tendency to "desheath" and unwind if it gets impaled on briars or shrubbery. Not a big deal if its really close to a connection knot, but both times it happened to me its been deep enough into the spool that I had to strip the line and add the difference in backing and respool it. Ive used quite a few different braids and haven't seen anything similar. Its a good line otherwise and I'm going to use up what I have left and move on.

Youre better off with a 3k, especially if youre fishing bucktails or JBs anything where you have to take up slack before you set a hook. I use a fuego 2500 on a light suzuki rod for schoolie bass/blues and fluke. When I throw metal and get hit at the end of a 70 yard cast it feels like ihave to turn that handle a hundred times to get that blue in, which is fun at first but after 50 or so cocktail blues it gets old. Spool size on a 3k vs a 2500 is virtually the same, but compared to a 1000 spool the 3k offers a lot more then just a higher line cap. Casting distance is much better with a 3k and once you get a 3k size you can get a carbon drag stack instead of a felt in the 2500. You also get a longer handle and a T knob instead of the smaller I knob. I have a buddy at the inlet I fish with who uses a Laguna 3k on a older (purple) 7'6 mojo inshore and it works fine. IMO weight is second to balance. You could have a light reel, but if the rod is tip heavy its not going to as enjoyable as a balanced outfit. Most of the time with lighter surf set ups a heavier reel doesnt really hurt you, because the rods are often 7'6 or longer so they tend to be a little tip heavy. I have a 9' Dialuna thats tip heavy with any reel under 12oz. I put a rubber fuji gimbal cap on the end and then a Fuego 2500 balances well. As far as the reel holding up, youre just going to have to accept that any sub IPX5 reel especially under 60$ is living on borrowed time if it sees heavy use in the surf. Ive beat my fuego up bad in the wash and I'm really amazed its still running. All I did add a little extra grease in key areas and block the AR toggle gap with reel butter.

I like InvizX #6 for a 2500 or 3k , but you could go to #8 and it would it be worlds better then red label in just about every category other then price lol. I found that #10 works much better on a 4k.

Rozante 77sp Duo 85sp Duo100sp Duo120sp MB Vision 110Jr MB Vision 110

The OG PP is stiff and can be really loud going through the guides. It wears in and softens up a little after a while. If the line is twisted you'll notice a big difference between the texture of the first 20 feet or so and the line deeper in the spool. You will notice it wanting to twist around the tip if theres a decent twist in the line. The stiffness of OG PP resist twisting, but if you rig something crooked and dont realize the bait is spinning right away it cant twist fairly fast. Its an easy fix if it is twisted. Cut the lure off and put the line in a stream with current, open the bail and let the twisted line feed out in the current. Once you get to straight line close the bail and let the twist work itself out in the current. You can do the same in a boat too.

Anytime Im fishing vertical, using a light swimbait or fishing in any kind of current I prefer to use a loop knot. It allows the bait to articulate freely without a fixed anchor point on the eye. I do feel like loop knots arent as strong as a fixed knot. I just try to keep an eye on every so often and make sure theres no damage or hard kinks in the loop. Used to use the Rapala Knot, but found the non slip loop to more then serviceable even for big plugs and the downward facing tag means you don't ever have to pick grass out of it.

If it was my rod, I would be ticked if he didn't offer to replace it. Ive had the same thing happen to a few rods and losing just a couple inches can dramatically reduce the sensitivity, especially with faster actions. The EMFT may not be as adversely affected by losing some of the tip section because its softer, but its going to make a difference.

Never handled anything over an Orochi and Im sure the X Bites is outstanding, but I got to catch a few fluke on a buddys steez(7'6 ML M) last fall and was really impressed. The sensitivity and action is awesome and surprisingly powerful for the rating.

13 makes some great rods in the Muse lineup. Very competitive @ retail, but unfortunatley I think 13 is doing away with them in order to push the Swindle rods, so there on clearance for 130. I really like their 7'1 M F as a do it all M. Its not a super fast F, but its crisp and great with trebles. Its got enough sensitivity and speed for lighter single hook baits/Trigs. They make a 6'7 and a 6'10, obviously the shorter the faster the action. I just like the 7'1 as a do it all.

Early in the year before theres a whole lot of grass, a SH is a good choice IMO. As lily pads come in and vegetation starts to fill in I go with a T rig or mojo rig. A T rig gives has similar look to a SH, its just more weedless. Using the lightest weight possible is important. Local water is shallow so I get away with 1/16 or 3/32 90% of the time with a SH. With a T rig I go a little heavier, an unpegged 1/8-3/16 most of the time. Most of the time a bite comes on the fall or as the SH starts to pendulum back when you fish from the bank anyway IME. Ill throw it to the best peice of cover slightly ahead of me and either let it sink or take up enough line to get tension and let the bait pendulum, al,most like im swimming it. In either case I shake it once or twice (depending on how much time I have) and if I dont get bit I do it all over again. Theres a seam or transition under the boat or no good targets for a distance ill let it drag behind the boat a little bit. A ned rig is ideal for this too, although I feel can fish a SH or T rig more efficiently then a ned rig when the boat is moving faster. Ive had a lot of days where Ive caught a limit and my buddy up front has struggled to get bit at all. There is a cutoff though. Ideally you want to be under 3kts for it to work the best and 2kts seem to be perfect. Once you get over 3.5kts it becomes inefficient, you can still catch fish, theres just a whole lot of space that you're missing between casts.

I use an Alberto for 20PE-40lb mono or 50FC and it works really well. If youre surf fishing with bait I would suggest a barrel swivel over a connection knot. Sometimes that bait can roll in the current and really twist the line.

Its difficult to draw conclusions about a blank just from its dia. The older (pre IPC) SC blanks had a considerably thinner dia. I didnt like the ergonomics or looks of the newer blanks, a M power as slightly thicker then the older H power. Ive got a pre IPC and post 6'6 MH F Tidemaster. If anything the later model with the thicker blank is more sensitive. At the same time you can look the explosion of slow pitch rods up here in the NE. They dont look or feel like they would be strong enough to be an effective jiggin rod, but the backbone in those thin blanks is deceptively strong.

Man, I hope they can keep the doors open. Past few years have been awful hard for small business owners. S&S Bucktails just announced theyre closing their doors, which for anyone inshore angler in the NE is hard to believe. At least the site is supposed to be back online in the near future. Haggs has a unique product, particularly with that 8". I could see how the profile may not be ideal for Florida with all the grass, but I would think they would be perfect for Cali and Mexico trophy bass.

Holy crap...I stand corrected, for some reason I thought the Haggs was like the coontail and had the diagonal ribs in it. Thats why I thought that was a GB. Not only is the color spot on, but the mold is practically identical. The only visual difference is that Haggs has 2 small rings at the head vs GBs 1. Not sure who came first, but hard to imagine its a case of parallel thinking. I really like the GB Rattlesnakes wacky rigged, but not so much on a T rig or SH. Im gonna have to add a few packs to my next order. I apologize If I got your hopes up. It looks like the easiest way to get the 8"s is through Haggs. Wish they had a better sight, Id like to see al of their colors. Thanks for the lesson lol.