Fat Ika

I have a St Croix Victory 7'3" M/XF, DC 762SF, & DC 792SF. I can't speak about shorter rods. Dobyns DC702SF seems like the best choice from the models you named for neds and dropshotting. I've thrown shakeyheads on the DC 762SF in a pinch. I'm sure the DC702SF can handle shakeyheads, if your hook is sharp and on the lighter wire end.............and not in undesired/heavier cover, but a 3 power/medium rod would be ideal for most shakeyhead scenarios. I think it will be hard to find someone with an opinion & sufficient experience with a similar action GCX vs a Champion. I have no idea.

@JoeDeal55If your looking for a casting reel for 1/2 oz jerkbaits, I'd personally go with the tatula sv tw. For spinner bait/chatter bait, IMO anything from a 100 - 200 size will work depending on your preference. Lots of variables. Sometimes I use an sv reel on chatters or spinnerbait if I'm expecting to throw against the wind and/or if I'm using less aerodynamic creature trailers rather than a zako type trailer. They all perform well with spinnerbaits and chatters......Fuego, CT, 100, SV, Elite, 150, 200. I know were not talking about Shimano much here and it sounds like you want to to try out Daiwa, but a DC reel that has the line pickup speed your looking for will make fishing a chatter and spinnerbaits in windy conditions silly easy.

@JZpowered I find sometimes a #5 nano g finesse on the front 2 hooks plus a #6 on the back can get a particular 110 to suspend perfectly for me in cold water. If I want an ultra slow sink, and that configuration doesn't do it, I'm usually wrapping a little lead wire around the middle hook. I'll use #5s on all 3 hooks and depending on the produced bait and water temp, this can result in perfect suspension, ultra slow sink or slighter faster slow sink. For me personally, in faster paced warmer months, when pauses are 1 second > almost no pause........... in the structures I'm fishing, I just throw on 3 - #5 nanos and start fishing. I've also messed with the owner stx 38, but not as much. From my experience they seem just a hair heavier than gammy nanos. I've had some baits with 2 # 5s and a 6 on the back work perfectly for whatever pause action I was looking for. I've had some 110s work well with front # 5 and 2 - #6s on the back hooks......then adding a little lead to get the desired result. I've played with Daichi's. Too light for what I was looking for. I've also played with gammy round bends & owner st-36s with desired results............but it's been a while and I do not remember what worked for me personally. Probably not much help considering what's in stock. If I personally needed to find a hook other than the g-finesse nano, I would go back to tinkering with the gammy round bends.

@whitehackle Welcome! I just met a nice English guy that I sold a few rods to locally.

Thanks for the knowledge. I'll have to try out 90s to build my confidence with stroking. I currently use 60s but only have decent experience with dragging tubes on hard bottom, almost exclusively with a fat goby head.

I feel ya. Grateful to catch a few in Dec. Never even attempted prior to this year. I'm still going out next Wed or Thur if there's a decent pond with some open water. If not, I'll go after the witty pike in the nearby river.

What size tube and what specific tube jigheads do you use? Sorry in advance if this is supposed to be exclusively regarding ned tubes.

Thanks for the recognition @Hammer 4 I feel so neglected sometimes.

Morning Fishing Gents and Ladies. Anybody ever have a custom rod built for Thorne Bros? I'm a fan of the legend elite blanks and I believe I've heard a little chatter on this forum regarding there croix predator blanks. If so, what did you have specifically built, how's the rod performing/what do you use it for, and how was the overall experience with Thorne Bros?

@Dpatches Also, St Croix Victory series is a diverse rod line. If I were in your shoes, I’d call up St Croix & Dobyns and consult with them.

So many to choose from. Another Tatula would definitely get you by. For 200 and below, I would definitely consider the Dobyns Kaden 7’3” med/heavy moderate/fast action. Incredible spinnerbait rod for the money. If you’re not target casting in tight quarters with cranks, it will work well for squarebills to your lighter deep divers that don’t pull too hard. Poppers might be tough on a 7’3” depending on your height and your popper technique. Another great option would be Tatula Elite 7’2” medium heavy Randy Howell…..might be hard to find.

@XtremeBass I have not tried that with my 21 Antares. Even though it has an mgl spool, I'm assuming the spool speed with the X setting will increase the likelihood of a braid lash...........especially with lighter casting braids. I'm not willing to try this as I fear a non-recoverable backlash would result. Even on PE mode with the settings set a bit too aggressively for a given scenario, will lead to frequent backlashes. I'm probably not the best person to ask. I only use DC reels to bomb nylon line from shore fishing scenarios to get to certain areas that no other stock reels can.

@Egomaniac247 & @Mike L I 3rd that motion. Whenever my basshead friends from back home talk to my twin brother and I, they like to make fun of our slug go phase in the 90s. They still ask us every year "What did you catch em on today? A watermelon or white slug-go? Still carrying all your tackle in that fanny pack?" This may not come off as underrated to some. Over the past 10 years, I've underrated the husky jerk even though it was the first jerkbait that increased my confidence in cold water jerk baiting. I plan on throwing a husky jerk 10 vs a 110 jr & a husky jerk 12 vs a 110 silent during ice-out/early pre-spawn next year........... Not really for the sake of putting them against each other. Just to obviously give different looks and help me decide to keep throwing or go to another technique.

Thanks guys. MN and WI approval....that's precisely what I was hoping for.

What about hardbaits in a cold garage? Any issues with altering the integrity of hardbaits in 20-40 degree temps?

It is nice that someone took the time to compile this. Useful for those that are just starting out. As @WRBmentioned this is very subjective. I’m not throwing a Jika rig with a light wire # 1 hook plus a 1/16 oz cylinder weight with a whatever finesse plastic, on MH casting gear with minimum of 15# test.

Gotcha. I have some jigmasters too. Hey, they look good in the water, right!? I was testing out the cast ability on shore this past week. After committing for an hour I went back to plastic to get the only bite of the day. I’m sure I’ll experience the same on big water next year and resort back to the confidence plastics as well……….probably same goes for 90% of Black Friday order. You’d think I’d learn from the same experience every year. Oh well. On winter days, it’s fun to stare at the board of new baits when we’re froze over and then lay in bed and strategize about next year while my wife blabs about some meaningless bs.

Might be a reason for the price slash? I've never heard of Shimano or Daiwa having a sale on a new flagship reel. Peace and love. Just thought I'd share. - Fast forward to 2:30 - Braid wrapped in rotor, but wind was howling. This happens twice in the video that a recall. This video was launched pretty close to the Zenon debut, but they never mention the reel once in the video. Talks about all sponsored tackled, but never mentioned Abu rod and reel. Who knows.....but it's interesting that Abu is not mentioned.

Thanks for the idea. Huge fan of mojo rig, especially for easy length adjustment. I'll see if I can configure a good aerodynamic setup and lasso far enough to get to the smallies from shore in April. Love/hate relationship with the c-rig ?

Phew. Yep. That's what I plan on doing like a traditional exposed hook neko.

@GetFishorDieTryin Excuse my ignorance....... How do you get the point to face down on the bottom? Do you place the nail weight at the hook bend/point end of the plastic? I seriously lack quick critical thinking skills ?

Shoving extra hooks in packs at wally world in the 90s. Stupid. I was a teenager. The worst crime I ever committed, yet never caught. True prior specialty. 10,000 hours of fanny packing tackle.

Sorry for the miscommunication. Elaztech for buoyancy and increased casting distance.

@smalljaw67 Yes. A marabou dressed drop shot hook, but I have only casted on a traditional dropshot setup. Was not planning on a float-n-fly for a set depth. I've used the casting drop shot to maintain the same depth above the bottom while maintaining bottom contact. At the only lake I have access to smallmouth fishing on a boat, it works fine without tipping the hook with plastic for casting distance. The plastic tipped hook is specifically for maximizing distance will shore fishing a local man-made smallie water, as I'm intending to minimize the weight of the dropshot weight. Sorry, I'm probably just being silly with the brain. I've caught largies shore fishing this place with plastic tipped, but no smallies, and I'm usually catching 50/50 with other techniques. I'm definitely interested in float-n-fly for it's niche purpose. Feel free to school me.

Yeah. This year I went a bit out of control for my liking, for 2 main reasons. I now have access to a decent smallie lake with a bunch of hard bottom. I've never been able to fish sand/gravel/rock prior to this year....and I was physically out of commission and could not fish from May - July. Dobyns 765 CB for deep cranking smallies and a bunch of other stuff I'll probably never use. Never deep cranked in my life.