Bazoo

Great stuff Katie.

Surely it had to have been some issue other than a general quality issue. I flexed several of the rods in the store and there were no issues. There was a rod, of a different brand that had a broken tip in the store. Another of the Diawa Laguna rods was missing a guide insert. Makes ya wonder what rods go through before they are purchased.

It won't hurt anything to try it, then you'll see how it reacts. It kinda depends on how you use the spinning rod. If you're using it for very light stuff you'll see a decrease in casting distance and line manageability. If you're using the combo in place of a baitcaster, throwing heavier stuff, 1/4oz or larger, then you probably could get by with it. I've ran 10 pound mono occasionally, but I stick to 8 pound or braid on spinning normally now. When I was a kid, I ran 14... but I would throw spinnerbaits and crankbaits, and rarely throw anything light.

You can, but you'll end up limiting the casting distance a fair amount. I would keep with 8 pounds if it where me.

Thanks, Keith. Part of this endeavor is just to learn something I haven't learned. I do a little mechanic work, so figuring out what's wrong with it should be easy enough, then to see if I can get the necessary parts.

I think bass do identify the target some of the time. They might not go "man look at that Tennesee shad with hooks", but they certainly see a baitfish, and if they want to eat a shad, the color needs to be close. If they are keying on shad and you have a good bite going with a shad crankbait, and you switch to another color, it's possible they might keep hitting it, and possible they will stop. That tells me they are deciding to hit it based on visual cues. There is a range of colors for fish, so some might have more or less blue or chartreuse. So that normally isn't a factor. Now, if you throw a lure of any type and bonk the critter on its head, sure, they swipe at it. That's a different type of fishing where you throw your lure in the bass's home. A third type is when you have a crankbait that bounces off the log that the bass is sitting on. He sees a Tennessee shad with hooks coming, eh... not interested, but let's see what happens. Then that crazy shad bounces off the log and the bass eats it out of reaction to the motion. The 4th type, is a plastic worm or craw when the fish sees it and decides, this is a fat worm, or a fat craw and I sure do want to eat it. Tricking the bass into thinking that the lure is food upon close inspection. The 5th type of bite is when they hit a lure because it's annoying them. Throw a crankbait to the same log 30 times and it'll get annoying enough that the fish finally swipes at it to get it out of his face. The 6th type, as I see it, is the curious bite. If bass had hands, they wouldn't hit lures that they are unsure of. Fish that get old, have probably been wise all their life. They probably have only been hooked a few times and learned from it, and thus, they are harder to catch. Rarely do you hear about some kid that just hooks a 10 pounder with poor casting skills, poor lure presentation, and close to shore.

I appreciate all the advice here. Let's say the motor ran good, what's it worth about? I know without pictures, it's hard to say. But I don't know if it's worth $200 or $2000 since I've never dabbled with outboards. It's a 40hp Evenrude in poor cosmetic condition. So is it worth anything for parts? And if I get it running good, what might it be worth?

I have been using a knife to cut my fishing lures free of the line since I began fishing. I have carried a knife of one sort or another for 31 years, and I make it my goal to be adept and deft with my knives. This particular knife is a Case Folding Hunter, pattern number 6265. It has wood scales and stainless blades. It comes from Case's working knives lineup, but this happens to be an excellent example of the pattern. It came about when I had made some knife display boards. I traded one of the boards to a knife guy who worked at the local Ace Hardware. He offered me 2 knives out of the case in trade. One of the knives was the Folding Hunter. It's a pattern I'd thought about trying for quite some time, but I never was able to commit to purchasing. This pattern pre-dates the ubiquitus Buck 110, and indeed was extremely popular until the Buck uprooted it in the pockets and belt pouches of hunters and sportsmen. The knife when it was nearly new. Well, after the acquisition, I started carrying the knife constantly. I used multiple times a day for 4 years. Last night I was at the lake fishing when the park employees came around to lock the gates at dusk. It had been a good evening. I caught a 3lb6oz bass and another weighing about a pound on a Rat-L-Trap. Upon leaving, though, I was hurried, and after cutting a lure off, I ended up leaving the knife on the roof of my Tracker. I often set the knife and other things up there, but I rarely make the mistake of leaving anything there. I didn't realize until about an hour later when we were in Academy Sports, looking at lures and rods. I had the boy with me, and we mentally retraced my steps. The last place I'd known of to have the knife was cutting that lure off. We left Academy and went back to the lake, parking on the entrance to the parking lot outside of the gate. The gate is more of a formality, so we just walked around it and looked in the parking lot to no avail. On the way out I looked in the road, taking the same path I took the first time leaving. I was pretty upset, but we had to go to Walmart, and then we went home. I said a prayer about it, and asked God that if I couldn't get it back, at least someone would find it and give it to a kid who loves knives. I know I would have loved to get a knife like this when I was a kid. Early this morning, I made a beeline for the lake... scouring the parking lot. There, I found it. It had slid off the car roof and sustained only minimal dings, though having landed in gravel. It had not been run over either, or snatched up by any hawk-eyed park goers. I got down on my knees and thanked God to have my trusted companion back. This is the last known photograph of the knife, taken only a few weeks ago. My phone is down currently, so there aren't any celebratory pictures of the newly-found knife. I proceeded to fish a spell and caught a couple bass, both on the trap again.

Sounds like it might suit my purpose.

Yes, yes I will. I stood there staring at them in the store for quite a while earlier.

Interesting discussion, thank you all for sharing. I am not seriously considering buying a $500+ rod. I am just wondering about it because all I have ever done is held one in the store. If I had any friends that fished sort of stuff I could probably get a bit of stick time with one. If I did buy one, it'd be at tax time, but I'd probably be more inclined to buy a $150 rod as that price point seems to be very good, just from store comparison.

I was at the local Academy and they had this rod. I am looking at the 6'6" MH/F, which feels more like a M/M in my estimation. It would be sort of an in between rod between my Abu Black Max 6'6" M/M and my Lew's Hank Park 6'10" M/F. I could see it becoming my favorite rod. Anyone have experience with this specific model? They also had the 7' of the same ilk, and it was a bit heavier powered, and the tip not quite as flexible. https://daiwa.us/collections/freshwater-rods/products/laguna-rods-icast-release

This evening, I got to the lake with about an hour to fish before they close the park at dusk. The spot I was fishing is a good spot, with a creek channel and some brush. Others undoubtedly fished it before I came. I started with a Fat Free Guppy in citrus color, then tried a texas rig a bit, then went for the trap; gold black back. A few casts in I got a decent one on. The scale read 3lb6oz. Had it choked too! I got another before leaving. I am a BELIEVER in traps now. The bass there must not see a ton of them, or they wouldn't bite, but I tell ya, they are going to start seeing more of them!

I meant a fluke and texas rigged. Weightless fluke.

This makes a lot of sense, thanks.

I appreciate all the responses. So, let me ask this, since I primarily use mono, would an NRX give me a similar experience? For me it would be baitcasting, and it would be a fluke and texas rig rod. In other words, would the use of mono negate the increase in sensitivity?

Interesting replies.

I certainly don't mean to call G Loomis out, I just am unaware of any other high end brands out there.

If you haven't used a baitcaster before, I'd say it'll be difficult for you to learn to use due to the rod being stiff. A moderate action rod is always easier to cast than a fast action rod, in my experience. Assuming this is a MH/F rod. Honestly, the easiest rod to learn to cast with is a cheap fiberglass rod. Because it's fiberglass it doesn't have a lot of backbone, as it's called. It will have a soft tip. No, it's not great for horsing bass out of cover, but it casts good. So for practicing in the yard, I suggest getting a cheap 6' zebco rod from walmart or the like. I've seen a Lew's combo at walmart for $70, with a basic Lew's reel, but the rod was what caught my eye. It was rated on the low end for 1/8oz lures. It was more of a Medium Light power, and moderate action. It would be great to learn baitcasting with. Regardless, a moderate action rod with a soft tip will allow you to really understand about loading the rod with the lure, and how that affects baitcasting control. Once you are able to cast well with that, put the reel back on the MH/F? rod. When using a moderate action rod, you use more length in your stroke to cast with. When using a fast action rod, you're not required to swing the rod as far to get the tip to load, so the motion is shorter, but with the same power. It is less intuitive in my opinion, especially if you've ever fished with a zebco rod and 33 reel. Those rods load up great, and thus they cast good. Baitcasting is not hard in itself, but the choice of rods is very important to your initial success. A moderate action rod is much more forgiving to technique than a fast action rod.

I have never owned or used an expensive rod. I checked out an NRX rod in Cabelas, and it was nice, light and balanced, but I can't really say it was "better" than my $50 Lew's rod. I have used rods that cost up to $100, but never used a high end rod like a G Loomis. That's the only brand I know that is "high end", so bear with me. What are the advantages of a high end rod? When I compare a $50 reel to a $200 reel, the differences are more obvious to me, but that's not the same with rods.

Why do you differentiate between backing between casting and spinning? Why did you choose Cajun?

I throw whatever I have handy there. Occasionally I do get a fish from that spot. I normally try to hit the spot.

Dang, I didn't know that. Now, the question, which bass spawn deeper? Is it bass that normally stay deeper all the time? Or does some of the shallow bass go deeper?

I've heard of bass spawning in like 8 or 10 feet of water, which is deeper than what most folks think of when they think spawning bass. But do some bass spawn in 20-30 or deeper water?

I picked up a used one of these boxes to try. We'll see how it goes. It'll probably take me a while to integrate it into my system. I'll have to change my bag to make it work. It might be just the ticket though for keeping flukes from getting scrunched and bent-tailed. Still don't have my phone going, but when I do I'll get some pictures of it in use, when I figure out how to make it work for me.