AnonymousSoreMouther

I've only been gone a few years, but it has to be 635 right? I avoided that road like it was the plague. DFW traffic for the most part really isn't THAT bad, considering the size of population.

Dobyns has some rods on sale. 794 swimbait rod for $150 is a good deal, even for Dobyns. https://dobynsrods.com/specials/

Like so? https://www.flatlandscustomtackle.com/store/p173/Open_Eye_Jigs.html

Looks like a take on a buzzin' frog. I can only seem to find stock images, but I don't think it's meant to be fished on a frog hook. Anyone seen one of these rigged up? I could see this being cool.

Update. The rod was starting to bounce around the country again. I opted to spend $20 with USPS on "Package Intercept". I've used this before to direct packages to my local Post Office instead of home or office for pickup when I'm out of town. It automatically upgrades the shipment to Priority Mail, and I thought this might do the trick. It did. As soon as I made this change, the package was immediately re-routed to my post office, and I got it (2) days later. It's a good solution for others if they find themselves in this situation. It did cost me an additional $20, but it got the rod to me, and after 3 weeks of watching it travel back and forth across these United States, I think it was worth it. Rod tube was bent, but best I can tell there was no damage to the rod.

I’m with you. I don’t like throwing around super heavy baits in search of bass. But I do own and fish a smaller rig. I experienced it a bit before deciding on a setup. I intentionally limited myself in several ways. My swimbait rod will not comfortably throw baits over 3oz, which is good because neither will I. I mostly use it for 1-2oz baits, and while I’m not interested in throwing it all day, I do like having a rod to toss some of the 6-7” soft swimbaits around. I usually have a Daingerous, Magdraft or weighted swimbait tied on. I also I’m not super keen on rods that start to approach fly fishing length because I own a kayak and they’re just cumbersome to have around. So I went with a rod below the 8’ length everyone seems keen on, but it works for what I’m doing. And lastly, I don’t enjoy large baitcasting reels. I found a 200 size reel that works well enough for my purposes and isn’t too large. Shorter rod, smaller reel, lure weight limit. These helped me not hate Swimbait fishing. If I lived in California, I would invest in multiple rigs and simply deal with the things about those setups I don’t like. It’s REALLY fun when larger fish are eating those monstrosities. And honestly, you can get used to anything if it produces.

I think @venom made a great point with the model number of the previous generation, since that price point matches their pre-discounted price elsewhere online. Likeliest scenario. Still a great price for a $170 retail rod.

Sounds like you’re just looking for a deeper diving 2” squarebill, which are plentiful. There’s no rule against throwing something that is rated to dive deeper than the depth of the water you’re fishing. I do this to ensure contact with bottom and/or structure deflection. I would pickup a few balsas rated between 7-10’ dives, and then work my reel speed and rod tip to keep it where I wanted in the water column, deflecting off the tops of rocks frequently without diving into cracks, ideally.

$270 - 275 to my door for my last (2) Zillions from Digitaka.

I’m sure Sierra is great. I meant no disrespect to them as a retailer. This particular listing just doesn’t add up. My guess would be a formatting error in their data upload caused an issue.

I’m not sure if this is bougie enough for what you’re looking for (no judgement, I too fish several top tier setups) but my primary frog rod is a Dobyns DC 736C. Everything you need in a frog rod, and it’s also a fantastic flipping and pitching rod for when you need to invade the muck. It’s considered to be one of the better sticks they produce for good reason. It never leaves me wanting for anything more.

Definitely curious what shows up. The Elite Bass heavy cranking rod retails for $300. This rod is marked down from $169.95 on their site. Also, the cork in the pictures doesn’t match the Elite Bass series from the pictures I see online. I’d probably reach out and confirm before they ship. More of a hassle for everyone if they ship you the wrong SKU. They definitely paid more than $70 on their end for a current production $300 rod, so they’d be choosing to lose money to sell at this price.

When pattern searching, I cover water. Once I’ve discovered what the fish are relating to at that time, I’ll move around to similar topography/cover until that patterns dries up. As an example, if I’m finding fish on secondary points in shallower coves, I’ll keep fishing those areas until the pattern stops working. Then it’s off to pattern search again. Unless I’m hunting big girls. At which point, I’ll stick to an area I believe in much longer, and fish much slower. I’m okay with getting only a few quality bites when I’m hunting weight. I probably spend more time doing this than I should. I’ve forgotten more 3lb bass catches than I remember, but I can probably give you a solid recounting of most fish I’ve landed over 6lb. That’s seems to be the breaking point for me when they have those shoulders we all love, and what I consider to be a big bass. For a shot at a quality fish, I’m definitely willing to pick apart water.

It definitely only turns on when the driver is close, or the delivery window opens. I do think you have to have an account, and then signup for the services, which I believe are free . For UPS it’s called “My Choice”, and for FedEx it’s called “Delivery Manager”. USPS has something called “Informed Delivery”, which will show you incoming packages and mail with a delivery window, but does not give you the map functionality. I utilize these apps all the time but as previously mentioned, the map functionality is somewhat hit or miss depending on the incoming packages.

I use Grand Max almost exclusively. It is much more prevalent in the fly world, but I use it for everything. I’ve not found another leader that performs as well, though I haven’t tried them all. That poon migration around the tip of Florida is a fun time! There isn’t much in life that gets the blood pumping more than watching a 100+ lb missile wrecking your lure.