T-Billy

My Grandpa Sweasey bought me a rod and took me fishing when I was 4. I caught an 18.5" carp that first trip. It's been my favorite pasttime ever since. One of my earliest memories, and I still recall it vividly 48 years later. Thanks Gramps, I miss you.

That's awesome. That things a chunk. Congratulations to you both. A day you'll both cherish.

CONGRATULATIONS @Catt!!! You've been CATTegorized!!!

Got to spend about 7hrs with my new Sierra 766 in my hand last night. My experience mirrored yours Dave. Like you said, sensitivity is very good. Was fishing a 3/8oz T rigged beaver. Casting distance was a shocker. This thing is a rocket launcher!!! It'll outcast my ARK 7'11" Guntersville Special by a good margin. Wasn't expecting that. PERFECT tip for braid IMO. It pitches 3/8 great. 60' easy, with the flick of the wrist. Lighter and less fatiguing than the longer ARK with ZERO loss of power or control. If anything it has more power. It'll throw 15 inchers over the boat with the best of 'em. Straight up manhandled a 4# smallie, and ski'd a 3.5# largemouth to the boat. If I was limited to one flippin stick, I'd be very content with this one. Fished the 765 for about 2hrs. Everything I said about it's big brother applies to it, with a step down in power. It'll pitch 1/4oz very well, and has enough power for most situations, but it won't just flat out overpower 'em like it's big brother. The pair make a GREAT 1-2 combination. I'm impressed, and there are more Sierra's in my future as well.

Not much difference between the two with a big bait. Pretty big difference with a little finesse bait. Size matters. Sometimes. I carry and use both

This was pretty much my experience with some other braids, but 832 has proven itself over and over. I fished a 3/8oz T rig through chunk rock and wood tangles for 7hrs, and caught a couple dozen bass last night before it started to get fuzzy and I felt the need to retie. Awesome line.

Y'all jinxed me. Hit a deer on the way to the lake this morning. Truck is fine. Can't say the same for the deer. Fished for 9hrs. Now I'm gonna have a snack, and watch fishing on tv. Then take a nap and dream about fishing. Tonight I'm going to go fishing AGAIN!!!

^ Dunno what happened there. That quote ain't mine.^

I whole heartedly disagree. Glad you don't set the regulations.

My mind wanders 24/7. I have the attention span of a gnat. Wait... What were we talking about?

I vote Dobyns Sierra 5 power in the length of your choice, though I'd recommend 7'3" at least to get enough tip for moving baits. The Sierra series has a great taper IMO. Enough tip for moving baits and braid. Enough backbone for flouro/mono. Plenty of sensitivity for bottom contact. I just bought two, so I'm still in the honeymoon phase, but I'm impressed so far. As are most others who own 'em.

You're welcome. I have 5 impoundments within 45 min. of me. All between 1K and 2K acres. MWCD lakes. I've been fishing them since the late 80's. I basically just started looking around this year out of boredom with fishing the same ol spots. It's been an eye opening experience. Some nothing looking shore areas have some great structure and or cover under the waves, and that stuff sees way less pressure than the obvious stuff. I intend to do a LOT more graphing early next spring. I'll share something else I figured out a few years ago, that made a BIG difference in my fishing. We all watch the pro's fishing big waters, talking about seasonal fish movements, creek arms, secondary points, flats etc. Those big impoundments have bays bigger than my lakes. So... One spring day a few years ago I thought, what if I looked at my lakes like they were just a bay? Look at the smaller bays without a good size creek as just little cuts, and focus on the main lake areas, and the few larger bays they have. BINGO!!! I quit searching the bays looking for those prespawn fish to move into them, and started focusing main lake structure and cover. Numbers and average size went WAY up. Turns out most of the fish in these little lakes spawn in the main basin. In fact that's where most of them are year round. So, by treating treating my little lakes as big bays and focusing on the main basin, I do much better than when I looked at them the way big lake guys look at their lakes. The best action can be in the upper, middle, or lower section, but it's happening in the main lake the vast majority of the time. This might be a simple way to explain my thinking. Think of the dam or deepest end as the mouth of the bay, and the shallow end as the main creek. Everything between is secondary points and cuts, bays, flats etc. I hope this makes sense to y'all. I know it's kinda ramblin.

I haven't fished any spiderwire other than trying Easy Braid once years ago. That stuff was terrible. Dug into the spool worse than any other braid I've used. 832's fading rate is about average far as I can tell. I bought permanent markers in green, brown and black but rarely use them. The fish just don't seem to care. Faded green doesn't seem to bother them any more than dark green. As I said, I fish a lot of rock and one retie a day is average using 30# and 40#. Far less than flouro or mono, that's for sure. That's with a T rig. With a jig where the knot takes more of a beating 2 or 3 times.

FWIW I've fished 832, jbraid grand and regular, super slick 8, and X9, and 832 is the best of the bunch for me. I fish lots of rock and wood. 832 has been the most abrasion resistant, and best handling. I'm content to stick with it, and quit wasting money trying other stuff at this point.

Thanks for the reviews Dave. I just picked up a couple Sierras myself. 766 and 765 flippin sticks. Standard guides. Very nice rods. I went with the sierra line because of the slightly slower tips. They are excellent tapers IMO. Moderate enough for braid and fast enough for Flouro or Mono. Fit and finish is excellent and plenty sensitive as you mentioned. I've been on a rod buying spree this summer, replacing my fast rods with more moderate tapers as I'm fishing straight braid exclusively on my casting gear now and much prefer a mod/modfast rod with braid. These Sierras are the fastest rods I'm currently using. There are more of them in my future. I now have all of my baitcasters spooled with 832. Awesome line. Handles great, great abrasion resistance, quiet through the guides. Nothing about it I don't like.

I've spent considerable time this year searching out "new to me" areas of my local lakes. Either fishing areas that I never bothered with before because they didn't look good when cruising by, or places I hadn't fished in years because they didn't produce for me way back when. It's paid off well, not only with some good catches this year, but also some spots I think will be good come next springs prespawn/spawn. I now have several good spots that I don't see anyone else fishing because there's nothing obvious there to draw people to them. I've also been working on the weaker aspects of my game, fishing heavy grass, and offshore stuff. It's been a rewarding year.

Dunno about the abraision, XT is tough stuff. Might be a wash there, but Big Game is famous for it's shock absorbing ability. At it's price point, I don't know of any line that can hang with Big Game. There's a reason it's so popular.

The version I have on my tablet doesn't have this feature. I'll have to look into it. They draw my local impoundments down 5'-8' in the winter for flood control. It'd be nice to look them over at winter level when the waters clear.

I have a carbonlite with them. Several years use with no issues, but I prefer EVA or cork.

I just use the free app. I believe there is one where you can pull up pictures from different dates, and get pictures with different water clarity and lake levels if they fluctuate, but I've never messed with that.

Lotsa fish caught on mono before flouro came along, and todays mono is better than ever. Big game is good mono too, but more stretch and memory than XT. Leaders are no big deal. With a little practice the Alberto is easily tied out on the water, and plenty strong. Don't be afraid to give straight braid a whirl. It's been my experience that we fisherman are more line shy than the fish most of the time. Wish I had ignored the marketing hype and figured this out sooner.

Depending on water clarity, google earth can show you some shallower structure, areas with a lot of laydowns, weedbeds etc.

That little swimmer catches EVERYTHING.

7' Shimano SLX ML. Penn Spinfisher VI 2500. Pair of 'em. Happy with both rod's and reel's.

Should serve you well. I have a couple with a few seasons on 'em. Solid reels.