Goby

Got the ink and upon further evaluation of the Fed-Ex website, I was able to take it to a local Dollar General and Fed-Ex will pick it up from there... So I got away with only about 30 minutes of total drive time and got it on it's way home. I needed to get it out of here before I started thinking about asking them to make me a deal on it lol I love my other one so much, it sure would have been nice to have two, but my lunch money has been spent for the year... At least my printer is now ready to rock for the whole 2 times a year I use it LOL Mistakes are made by everyone, no big deal, but a simple apology would have been nice, then I wouldn't have been bothered at all... I am hoping all this will lead to some good karma on the water this year. Calling Fed-Ex would have likely resulted in another 30 minutes of my time wasted, at least lol Last time I called them I spent 30 minutes on hold before I got a live person on the phone. I got someone else's package delivered here by mistake, I called to inform them, they said someone would come pick it up, two days later it was still here so I delivered it down the road myself lol

So I had the craziest thing happen today... I arrived home to see a rod tube in front of my door that had been delivered by Fed-Ex that I didn't order... The back story, a few weeks back I ordered a reel for a rod that was supposed to be available soon "the rod was not ordered from that retailer", a couple weeks after I had ordered the reel the rod company contacted me saying the rod would now be unavailable until next Fall, so I called the retailer and asked them if I could return the reel for store credit as I wouldn't have a use for this specific reel until next year without the rod I bought it for, which they were fine with since the box the reel came in was still sealed and I had never laid eyes or hands on the product. I exchanged the reel for credit towards a MegaBass Rod, which has since arrived and is one fine rod, let me tell you. Everything was good to go... About the same time I also ordered a couple other reels, a couple hundred bucks in line and another rod from them, I didn't add up the entire amount, but I spent over 1200 bucks with this company in the past 6 weeks. If Winter would ever go away, I could get out and fish these new toys... Back to today, I knew a mistake had been made, but I figured before I called them to inform them, I would see what on Earth they had even sent me, so I popped open the end of the tube and could tell it was another MegaBass rod, clearly something in their system glitched and they sent me a duplicate rod identical to the one I got from them a few weeks ago that I had not ordered nor paid for... Now I don't know if they would have ever caught on to this or not, but I am an honest person and I would never consider keeping this rod or anything for that matter and so I called the company to inform them of their mistake. Now this is where it got kind of crummy, I was put on hold so it could be looked into as to how this could have happened, after a few moments on hold the person got back on the line to tell me they were emailing me a return label to put on the tube and send it back, I then asked if Fed-Ex would pick it up off my porch or if I had to drive into town to drop it off. They then told me I would have to take it to Fed-Ex myself or if I wanted it picked up, I would have to call them and schedule it, which I am pretty sure, Fed-Ex would make me pay to have it picked up here at the house. To make things worse, I am out of ink in my printer so I have to buy ink to print this darn return label, making for TWO trips into town to return this thing... Now, I do not regret being honest one bit, but there was no apology made to me what so ever for the mistake, and then they expect me to drive my 1/2 ton pickup 20 minutes each way to drop this rod off at Fed-Ex, which I am going to do because, what choice do I have, but man, really felt like a giant slap in the face after they made a mistake sending me a $350.00 rod that was not ordered nor paid for and here I was kind enough to inform them immediately of the error... What is this World coming to... Rant over...

I have some 30 and 50 pound Sunline Asegai braid to use as well, I'll probably start with 30 pound with 22 pound shooter as a leader, as the weeds get thicker over the season, will go up from there as needed.

Thanks for the insight, very much appreciated!

So basically any soft plastics with up to 1/2 ounce would be good to go without overloading it? It claims it can handle up to 3/4 of an ounce which seems like a lot for a medium power rod...

Sounds like an ideal blade bait rod, will have to pick one up before next Fall for sure.

The weedy waters close to my house are FULL of Pike so swimbaits and crankbaits are something I would essentially never fish as you are going to lose a lot of them to teeth. With gas prices the way they are, I figured the half dozen or so lakes within a couple miles of my house would be nice to fish more this year versus driving to the bay, etc... plus would allow me to learn more about Largemouth fishing in shallowish cover, something I have never done a ton of other than a fair bit of frogging as a younger lad... In comparison to the spinning rods I am used to, this rod feels like a meat stick in hand lol It's going to get used with jigs, perhaps I will have to keep my casts shorter and fish more vertically, which this taper may be great for being a little softer and all. Time will tell, like I said I do have a 73 XH Expride on order so maybe by the time it becomes in stock, it will align with the weeds getting denser and then I will switch over to it. Eventually as others mentioned, the 7'6" Heavy Fast rod may be something I will consider, it's not in stock anywhere though so this one will have to do for now lol Thanks for your responses!

Does anyone own this rod here? I was thinking it would make a nice rod for tubes with heavier weights, finesse jigs and other similar types of things for Smallies... Just curious if anyone owns it and what they use it for. Thank you

Thank you very much guys for taking the time to respond! Hopefully will get to get out there this week and give her a go...

Interesting, well, will just have to wait and see, hopefully will get to use it this week. Worst case scenario, will make a good blade bait rod for Lakers on the bay in the Spring and early Summer and maybe a nice heavy football jig rod for deep water gravel humps for big water Smallies. Thanks for the replies!

I just picked up my first Expride B "first Expride ever" and must say, I am very impressed. Quick question, I ordered the 7'7" Heavy Mod/Fast model and the intention I had for this rod when I ordered it was flipping and pitching jigs. Mostly 3/8 and 1/2 ounce models with trailers, maybe a 3/4 at the heaviest. I was planning on taking Seth Feider's advice on a video I seen and trying 30 pound braid with a 20ish pound fluoro leader like he uses a lot. I also have some 50 pound braid to use as well if I have issues with the 30. The rod showed up and has "Swim and Big Baits" printed on it so it was obviously designed with swim baits in mind, which differ from what I had in mind for it, now I know that this doesn't mean you can't use the rod for anything else, but I was curious if anyone else had this model in either the A or B series and what you used it for. I also have a 7'3" XH on order with frogging in mind, but not sure when that will be in stock and ship. I would also like to get a MH version, but not sure if I want the 7'2" or the 7'6", either way nobody has one in stock anyway lol Does anyone use the 7' 11" XH model for jigging the "slop" in Michigan, is it overkill? Thank you for your time

I have decided to spend a fair amount of time learning about and practicing fishing jigs this year in Northern Michigan for Largemouth Bass. I have mostly fished for Smallmouth over the years and find myself wanting to try something a bit different. The theme is really about learning more about fishing heavier cover and finding fish in it during the Spring and Summer and targeting larger fish. Other than frogging this is not the type of water I have spent much time focusing on in my life and even frogging was never something I did a lot of, but also plan to do more of this year. Anyway, I was curious if anyone would be so kind to share any knowledge they had on the subject. I bought a new Expride 7'7" Heavy rod, some 22 pound Sunline Shooter, a bunch of 3/8 and 1/2 ounce 6th sense Hybrid Jigs in a bunch of different colors and a bunch of Big Bite Bait "Chunks" in both sizes and a bunch of colors. I figured if need be, as the weeds got thicker I could switch over to braid as the season goes on or maybe a braid to fluoro leader, but heavier fluoro seemed logical to start with. I also figured that as the season went on I may want to order some heavier jigs and/or tungtsen weights and soft plastics without the use of a skirt to fish with as well, seem logical? Obviously once the water warms a bit I will throw some frogs too, but I really want to practice and learn more about flipping and pitching jigs. Any jigs or trailers you guys suggest that would be a good addition to the arsenal other than the ones I already bought? Is there a time when you feel like jigs with skirts are not as good as a soft plastic with a tungsten weight and hook? Do you think that the extra bulk of the skirt helps attract larger fish? Thank you for your time!

I ordered some of these Owner hooks in size 5 and 6. The Daiichi Death Traps in size 6 were quite a bit smaller than the stock hooks and the size 4 were a fair amount bigger. Thanks for the suggestion!

Love my Lund Pro Guide, sweet video! If I ever moved away from tiller steer, your boat would be the one I would get, for sure.

You know, I just thought to myself, why not look at the package the lures come in, LOL Right on the package it says #6 hook and #3 ring. Here's your sign haha They are a larger hook than the #6 hooks that come on the Husky Jerks though for sure, so will see which size Daiichi is the closest in size when they come in.

Nobody fishes these jerkbaits? I ended up just ordering size 4 & 6 Daiichi Death Trap hooks, figured one of those two should work.

The other night I happened upon a flash sale on Fish USA, buy 2 get 1 free Yo-Zuri 110 3DB jerkbaits, so I bought a few. I cannot for the life of me find the hook size of these baits online, wanted to order some replacement hooks for them, straightened some out on some Pike yesterday. Was also wondering what brand/model you guys suggest for this? Always had good luck with VMC, was thinking their Barbarian model. Thank you in advance.

Their Ground shipping is as slow as molasses to be processed, but they offer 2 day shipping for cheap and that will process/ship same/next day. If they say it will be May 10th, it may be due to the fact something you ordered is not actually in stock?

Ahh Pike Minnows! Used to catch the heck out of those on the Eel River while steelhead fishing. I sure do miss the Redwoods, happy to be back here in Michigan, but the couple years I spent living in Humboldt were an amazing time in my life. I have a Vanford reel which replaced the CI4, best spinning reel I have ever owned. You could probably find someone selling a CI4 used in good shape if you looked in the classifieds or ebay.

Update: I sent the rods back via UPS, they arrived to me late in the day on a Friday, within an hour of getting them I had already emailed ARK Rods explaining the defects I was unhappy with. I immediately packaged them back up as they were sent to me and printed a label. As soon as UPS opened Monday morning, I dropped the package off. Shortly after, ARK called offering to send me a return label to swap out for new rods, but I had changed my mind on wanting them replaced, I just wanted a refund anyway and like I said, I had already shipped them back myself. The rods just were nowhere near as nice as they look on the website, as I know others have mentioned on this forum. Thursday they were delivered and UPS had literally snapped the tube and both rods in it, apparently I did not properly declare the value and now I am only going to get a $100.00 back out of the $700.00 I spent. I had never printed a label myself before and obviously made a $600.00 mistake. I originally called UPS and was told by UPS the package was not delivered damaged and there was no way damage that bad would have been missed, the driver would have noted the damage, but I later found out UPS was wrong and the driver had noted the damage. I admit, when I thought my leg was being pulled, I was very frustrated with ARK Rods and I wasn't the nicest guy, but as soon as I found out that UPS had in fact mislead me, I apologized immediately. Where it really gets frustrating is, ARK accused me of having used the rods and that none of my claims about the defects were accurate. They literally were telling me I was a liar and was trying to rip them off. They went on to say because I had removed the rods from the packaging "a plastic bag they slide them inside", which I had put the rods back inside the bags prior to shipping but obviously the bag was no longer sealed and the fact I had taken the plastic shrink wrap off the cork, I would not have got a refund anyway even if the rods weren't broke. How else are you supposed to inspect a rod? I took great care to put the bubble wrap back on the rods and made sure they were packaged up just as they had came. I never so much as put a reel on either rod, I didn't have to, I saw all the flaws and had no desire to use their product after giving it some thought. Right or wrong, as a customer, I think I have the right to return something if I don't like it and have not used it. In a nutshell, my thoughts on ARK Rods, out of the two rods I have held, they are not nearly as nice as they look on the website and the attention to detail/build quality is horrible. I never got to experience the performance part. I spent $700.00 and MIGHT get a $100.00 of that back from UPS, got called a liar by ARK, disrespected and let down. Maybe someday I can write a song about it and recover my money. If you don't take anything else away from this, always make sure you insure your packages for the proper amount before shipping.

Hey A-Jay, is that a Go Pro you are getting those still images off of? Nice fish!

Hey guys, quick question. When you apply U 40 cork seal, if it runs over on to to plastic or metal winding checks, reel seats, etc... a tiny bit during the application process, is it easy to just wipe off and you can never tell it was ever there? It would be difficult to tape some of the winding checks on my rods and get a tight fit so there is no way I wouldn't end up getting some U 40 on them, but was wondering if you just wiped it off with a rag real quick if it would be gone or if it was very sticky stuff. I don't want it to look like there is any sort of film over anything but the cork if you know what I mean. Thank you.

Yes sir, originally from SW Michigan, now residing near Traverse City.

3/8 for snap jigging darters and minnow shaped plastics. 1/2 for dragging Crayfish type plastics.

Blade baits until the water warms a bit, then Erie Darters.