T-Billy

I used to fish them on MH F rods and lost alot of fish. Switching to a moderate MH or H made a world of difference. I fish them on braid. I think in addition to letting them get it better, a slower rod also slows the hookset and helps keep the blade from interfering with hook penetration. That's my theory anyway. At any rate, braid and a fairly stout modfast gets me an excellent hook and land ratio.

I think the term "locked down drag" gets misunderstood alot. The drag will still slip, but it's maxed out.

Drag is only locked down on my flippin sticks with straight braid. Even then they'll give to a big flathead or musky and protect my rod and reel. Those KK vault reels with no drag are a bad idea in waters that hold big fish.

It was a good thing with XT. Still tough mono but way less memory.

Saturday morning the wife and I fished a shallow grassy flat about 5 acres in size. It was slick calm and not a cloud in the sky. We caught lots of dinks and saw several good fish but the big'ns were super spooky and showed zero interest in our baits. I went back and fished it from about 2am-5am this morning. What a blast. Caught a 4-8, a 3-14, five between 2 and 3, a pile of dinks and had another really good one jump off. The crack of dawn shut it down cold, but what a fun 3hrs. All on a chatterbait. Couldn't get bit on a topwater or the Ol Monster, but they were hit'n that CB like it had bad mouthed their momma. 20" eye too that'll get released to the peanut oil. Terrible pics are better than no pics I reckon. Unfortunately the hatlight doesn't make me look any brighter.? 4-8 3-14 Beautiful sunrise. This flat has some interesting features. It comes out to a 150yd long point at the mouth of a cove then drops off into 28', has another deeper 10' flat off the other side of the point before dropping off, several weedlines, and some scattered wood. It's gonna be big fun learning it at night the next couple months.

The Dobyns Sierra 705 or 735 might be a good fit for ya. They're on the slower side of fast for sure, still pretty light and sensitive.

Good point Glenn. They're consistent in my local lakes. Shallowest lake is about 25' max, deepest is around 40'. Thermocline sets up around 15' in all of them every year, but as you stated, that's not gonna be the case everywhere.

Busy bridge a hundred yds downstream from where I took that 45 degree swim. Trust me when I say, nobody was gonna see anything at that distance. Like a button on a fur coat!!! ?

A dedicated frog rod isn't a rod that needs a lot of sensitivity. Most anything with enough backbone to haul 'em out of the slop will get the job done. One thing to consider is, most heavy/fast rods at 7' and under tend to be pool cues and don't cast great. You might consider going with a heavy mod/fast blank. It'll cast better and absorb some shock when setting the hook, while still driving them home fine, and your hands will thank you. If you can live with just a bit more length, the Dobyns Fury 735 and the BPS 7'3" H crankin stick both work well for me. Don't let the name fool ya, that model crankin stick isn't a noodle, it's very similar in power to the fury, just a bit slower. Both those rods leave lots of room in your budget to buy frogs, or even a reel for it.

Are you saying there's no difference between XL and XT except diameter per # test, or no difference between the new and old formulas except XL is slightly smaller diameter than it used to be?

No experience with the cordless, but my corded Bubba is awesome. I can burn through a pile of crappie or white bass in a hurry.

I usually start in 6" and work out from there. Lol. Shallow heavy cover is where I do best on the lakes I fish. Sometimes I move out to structure around the thermocline depth and drag a TRD Bug or finesse worm around. That usually results in a dinkfest with an occasional good fish. I have a buddy who catches more big smallmouth than anyone I know locally. His results are just flat impressive on our highly pressured little reservoirs. He gets most of them at night on a TRD in 15' -25' on rockpiles. Basically from the thermocline down to the deepest part of the main lake basin. You know, right where the "experts" say they shouldn't be. He hauled a 23 1/2" the other night. Didn't have a scale in the boat. Kinda skinny, but over 6# for sure.

Yeah, just turn up the gain on your sonar until it appears. It'll be obvious when you see it.

Same here in my part of OH. Its unglaciated here with lots of rocky hills so we have a pretty good bat population. The skeeters get bad at dusk sometimes, within a half hour afterward the bats are everywhere and no more skeeter bites.

Been there brother. Took a swim in 45 degree water once. Hey at least the drain plug was in right?

Well... I just bought a 3K yd spool of 6# XT if that tells ya anything about how I like it. Tough as any mono out there, low stretch, great knot and shock strength, really abrasion resistant and pretty low memory since they reformulated it. 10# and under are fine on spinning. It handles all my finesse work in 6# and 8#. It's also great in higher tests on casting, but I'm running mostly straight 832 on those rods these days.

Used to be Abu. It's Ark these days. When I order one from any of their lines, I know exactly what to expect. Not that I'm brand loyal, I just found rods that I really like and think are a solid value with these companies. I look to Ark first and if I can't find what I want there, I look elsewhere. I just recieved a St Croix Avid X 6'8" M XF today. It's exactly what I was looking for. Perfect for shakeys, mojos etc. It's my first St Croix. Nice rod.

Hard to go wrong with an original Culprit or a Zoom Mag II in the summer. Fish it on the lightest weight you can. I use a 1/8 sinker the most and rarely go over 3/16. They love that slow squirming tail.

Nah. It's nothin a pack of crappie jigs and a bag of worms won't fix. He'll be OK.

Especially at night!!! Shadows can really mess with your depth perception. I've rocketed a few baits WAAYYY back into the woods. Left standing there on the boat deck, half a spool of braid strung through multiple trees with a chatterbait snagged in one 30yds deep... Gotta make up new swear words for that one.

Tread lightly, you don't wanna end up with a skunk in your mail box.

I'm takin this free bag of Trick Worms and that's all I need. ?

Caught my PB LM, 6lb 10oz that way. Cast a jig up against a big limestone rock straight into a stiff wind and had a pretty good overrun. Pulled it out and started reeling out the slack, and reeling, and reeling, when it came tight the fish was straight under the boat. Set the hook and the fight was on. Steep bank, the boat was in 20+ feet of water. That fish swam 40' or so with my jig. Made me a believer in Megastrike Crawfish.

This soon to be 53yrs young guy smoked 'em last night. Chatterbait on shallow weed edges again. Slick calm and couldn't buy a topwater bite, but they were choking the CB. Nothing over 3# but a few dozen 12"- 18". Thought I had a piggy for a minute until I felt it roll and my line pop over it's pectoral fins. Dang, channel cat. They're spawning in the rocks. Ended up catching 5 of them between 5# and 10#. Stayed with that until it died as it was getting light. Picked up a BFS rig and went to catching them on the TRD Bug on chunk rock banks. Left 'em biting at 9am. Nobody else there again until daylight. 1100 acres all to myself. Gotta love the night bite.

Alberto with an extra pass through the loop to finish has been perfect for me. Never broke one, always breaks at the trilene knot or somewhere in between.