Swest18x

I played with the spool tensioner knob on my new Zillion, before learning it's factory set. Any advice on how to get it back as close as possible to factory specs?

I'm wondering if we can get some comments comparing rod tip stiffness of various rods like the 6'10 Expride, Megabass Orochii, Levante, Zolo 6'9, any other rods you like. I have a P5 Windbuster I use on the bank but I'm jerking from a canoe more often now so I'll be trying out some shorter rods. I'm starting to realize I like a crisper tip for comfort and control over the bait, shorter the rod the better since I'm 5'8. Especially wondering how the tip on the Expride compares to the ALX Zolo. I read somewhere that the Zolo has a bit of a stouter tip.

My first full year back fishing in 2+ decades. I watched a video on the donkey rig, went out and caught 5 doubles in an hour on double flukes. I watched a Tacticalbassin video on lipless crankbaits, went to a hole where the fish weren't biting on the burn, switched to a bottom hop and caught 3 keepers in a row. I talked to a guy about trolling the canal near where I live, tried it myself and me and my daughter caught a smallmouth big enough to qualify for a New York State angler award (man that was cool seeing her name on it). I caught a 26 inch pickerel trolling in to the canoe launch after a totally fruitless day just because I refused to pull my line out of the water til the day was absolutely over. I had lots of bad days but I'm proud because I didnt give up and I'm proud because I learned. I caught my biggest smallmouth of the year on the last trip out fishing in the snow when my buddy told me I was crazy. This is an awesome sport and I'm hooked. Thanks for anybody who ever responded to one of my posts to answer my questions.

LOL thanks! BIG learning curve and lots of experimentation coming this summer!

Thanks again for all the responses. Obviously there's lots of opinions on line for swimbaits. As far as my situation, I was out of fishing for 20 plus years, got back into it a year and a half ago. Last season I made close to 100 trips, virtually all with spinning gear and 20 lb braid to 8, 10, 12 leader. So braid to leader is what I've become most comfortable with, I like the ability to change leader from fluoro to mono as necessary. My goal this year is get better with a baitcaster, I'm pretty good right now avoiding backlashes with braid but my understanding is birdsnests are more common and harder to pick out with fluoro and mono. That would be first strike against those two options for me, 2nd strike would be not having the ability to go back and forth between mono and fluoro if I wanted to use one line for say a wake bait or big topwater, but another for a bottom crawling plastic. So that's why I leaned towards braid for swimbaits, feel free to contradict any of my assumptions, I'm learning from this whole conversation and appreciate the comments. Also understand I have no plans to throw the really big stuff, I doubt I'll be casting any baits heavier than 2.5 ounces.

Jediamoeba, what leader knot do you tie? I use braid to fluoro for everything else and a blood knot is what I use, it's the one knot i can tie good consistently, my near sight sucks for tying complicated knots.

I wish. I fish from a canoe so it's the Erie Canal and some of the smaller Finger Lakes for me.

Like I said, I'm a newbie on bigger applications, but thanks for clearing that up. Can I ask what the purpose is of 50 lb braid if you're down to 10 or 12 leader? If the leader would snap first anyways, why such heavier braid? I know there must be a reason I just dont understand the big discrepancy. Also understand I'm a northern guy, the fish I'm catching up here aren't the hogs some of you guys are used to. Maybe the heavier braid saves you from breaking off on a backlash?

I'm diving into swimbaits and glide baits this year searching for bigger fish. The lake where I'll be fishing them is clear and although there is a limited largemouth population I'll be targeting smallies. I'm guessing the "big" smallies in this lake max out 5 pounds. I'll be using a rod that's rated 1-4 ounces, hardbaits in the 1- 2.5 ounce range, but also some soft baits like a 6 inch magdraft. That would be my biggest bait, or maybe a 6 inch Triple Trout. Braid to very long leader. Probably maxcuarto braid or plain Powerpro. I'm wondering what weight fluoro to run, or any other advice on line. The deal is, I want to go as light as possible on the fluoro because of the clear water. I posted a similar question on Tacticalbassin's last swimbait video, and actually got a response from Matt that only partially answered my question. Here's my post and his comment for reference. I like the Tactical bassin videos as a newbie because its straight information without the extra content which I dont have time for. But I recognize they're just one source of info/ opinions and there's hundreds of experienced anglers on these boards I always appreciate hearing from. I was especially confused with his response of 40 to 50 braid compared to his earlier comments in the video about running fluoro as light as 10 or 12 pounds for smallies in clear water (50 braid to 12 fluoro??). Thanks in advance for your opinions on this. Since I'm tying leaders my line choice also affects reels, my knots on 15 braid/10 fluoro slip through Daiwa T wings just fine but I'm thinking something like 40 braid/20 fluoro and heavier would limit me to Shimano (I tie a bloodknot). 13 hours ago Hope someone can answer my question. Near the end of the video Matt talks smallmouth, that's my fishery, very clear water. On one specific bait (pistol pete) he mentions really light line, 8, 10, 12 fluoro. I'm probably going to try the Pete, vitallion, 168, gantarel and 6" magdraft braid to LONG fluoro leader. What line size would you all purpose on a dedicated reel (probably a bantam or curado 300) for these baits? TacticalBassin13 hours ago No need to go 300 for these because none of them put a heavy burden on the reel. 200 size with 50 lb braid and tie leaders. Some of the baits would be fine on 40, but not all.

Thanks, I will have to reset that knob then, maybe that was the problem. Does anyone have a link to a good article or video that will help explain this reel? Obviously I dont have much experience in baitcasters. I have a couple shimano SLXs I played around with last year, they seem nice but I wanted a super nice reel to maximize my casts from shore. I was concerned about the t wing on the Daiwa because I use braid to leader, sometimes a real long leader, but my knots ran through fine.

I just received a new Diawa Zillion reel today. I have 2 concerns, wondering if this is just a result of new reel break-in: first, brake dial is insanely tight, especially as I approached where I needed it for slow drop of the lure. In fact, I had it pretty much maxed out. Second, 3 or 4 times in the first 10 casts, I went to reel in and the reel just spun free. I had to push the lever and reel again to get it to engage. Next 20 or so casts, no problems. Apart from that, this is my first Diawa and only my third baitcaster, by far the nicest ive purchased and wow it casts smooth!

Yep, I was thinking the same thing, the EMTF in particular appeals to me because the longer length / longer casts which I need when bank fishing my fishery. But the Madbulls are really hard to find right now and so when I came across one last week I jumped on it. My only question now is if the 5 power will be too much for the smaller to medium treble baits I throw (TN60,70 Jackalls, Luckycraft LVR, medium topwaters). I bought a medium power 7'6 Zodias to compare, it hasn't even arrived yet and I'm wondering if I should have tried a MH glass expride instead.

I bought a P5 Madbull, probably overkill for my LVRs and 3.8 Keitechs but who can regret a Destroyer purchase. I also have a Zodias 7'6 Medium on the way: I fish a lot on a canal and need to have maximum casting distance, we'll see how these rods work out. I'm sure I'll be trying other suggestions before the search is complete.

I talked to Alex at ALX rods today, he recommended the Zolo Dream. Anyone have experience with this rod? The power/action sound like my windbuster.

Thanks for all the feedback. Lipless and topwater really needs to be a priority. I should have mentioned my fishery is pretty much weedless so I dont rip my lipless. There are a couple Levante rods (diablo and emtf) I thought about too. Any Exprides you'd recommend?

I canoe and bank fish so I prefer to carry no more than 2 rods. I spent the money on a Megabass P5 Windbuster last season for that reason and I love that rod. I use it for hard jerkbaits, flukes, dropshot, and other lighter bottom contact stuff too. Now for my second rod I want a baitcaster that will be able to fish lipless cranks, topwater, small to medium cranks (so a moderate action for treblehooks), but also with enough power to set the hook on smaller paddletails, chatterbaits, small spinnerbaits. This is exactly how the megabass P5 Madbull is advertised and it sounds like it would fit the bill, but I dont want to drop another $500 on a rod. Does anyone have any ideas on a more affordable casting rod that will do the same thing, $350 or less would be ideal.

White flukes, nose hooked with an EWG. I use a 5 inch on the mainline and the shorter line gets a smaller 3 or 3.5 inch. White or pearl has worked best for me, same color I use for hard jerkbaits. You don't need to rig up two, but I like having more weight for longer casts, plus the chance for hooking up doubles. I've been fishing Orleans and Monroe county, but I'm hoping to get on the canal closer to Tonawanda Creek and the Niagara River to see if the fishing gets better as you go west. Are you east or west of Lockport?

I've been fishing a double fluke rig for about a month now, almost exclusively because where I'm fishing (Erie Canal in NYS) the bass are really going after baitfish, cast across a blow up it just seems a twitching fluke can't be beat. Anyways, I've never actually doubled up, then yesterday I had the day off, woke up at 6 and on a whim decided to fish for an hour or two. My first spot the road was closed so I continued on to another spot and man am I glad i did. I got there around 7am, saw a blowup and started casting. Make a long story shorter, in the space of an hour I doubled up not once, not twice, not thrice, not four times, but 5 times! Even managed to do it on two consecutive casts. For where I fish, catching 3 or 4 is a pretty good day; catching 16 and making it home for breakfast is about once a decade and makes up for A LOT of bad days!

A few minutes later in shallower water my daughter caught her first fish ever, the only fish we caught but that smile made the night!

Trolling the Erie Canal in NYS last night I came across this spectacular ribbon of fish in 12 feet of water. It stretched on for a few hundred feet, probably mostly baitfish (?) but still a beautiful sight!

I fish the Erie Canal in NYS, shoreline cover and structure is few and far between, but the sides are 45 degree banks of chunk rock. The bass like to hug the rock halfway down the water column and I was having luck tempting them with worms on a dropshot but lost lots of weights getting snagged in the rock. Pencil weights seem to work best but I was still losing too many so I tried this and it works pretty good: cut off a small piece of plastic worm to a length slightly shorter than your pencil weight, poke a hole through it lengthwise with an awl or even just a paperclip, insert pencil weight with line tie sticking out at top. I also leave a bit of weight free at the bottom for bottom contact. So far this has resulted in fewer snags b/c the plastic is flexible in the rocks, if it gets snagged anyways the weight pops out of the worm chunk and then just slide another piece of worm on next cast. Remember to work the weight in and out of the plastic a few times to get some play otherwise the weight sticks too tight and the whole rig can still break off.

It is a trout stocked lake...but it looked like this in most places 12 feet or less and I only had one bite all day. That bite came on a lipless crank I was hopping over an area where I clearly saw a fish hugging the bottom. So vegetation makes sense to me. BTW, water temps were low to mid 40s, just a real frustrating day overall! I'm hoping to figure out how to use this fishfinder so trips like this can be more productive.

Garmin striker 7sv. My first fish finder, lots of this on the screen saturday, I've seen pics online where fish appear more like an arc, but do you see any fish here? If not, what is this stuff?

Thanks for the replies, I lost the post for a bit since it got moved. I've since got to thinking, what if some of what I was seeing were carp? I only got a good look at one jumper, looked like bass to me, but I read somewhere active carp can mimic bass.