The Next KVD

I personally like the old Shimano Cumara 7'7" Heavy. You can punch through mats and handle moderate cover. Not what I would use for lighter baits as the tip is just a little to stiff for that. I also employ a St. Croix Legend Tournament 7'6" MH for the lighter to moderate cover. If either of these rods are out of your price range a St. Croix Mojo 7'6" MH is good and Shimano Compre Flipping rods 7'7" Heavy and 7'11" Heavy are good options all three of which can be had for $120. If that's still a bit too much a Shimano Clarus 7'7 Heavy and 7'11" Heavy can be had for $99. I friend of mine use a Skeet Reese Tessera 8' Flip/Pitch stick and likes it ($89) but I personally don't like them. If he is going to use it for some offshore worm fishing I'd look into getting a 7'6" or smaller rod and skip the 7'11" and 8 fters.

The only major difference I can tell between the two on paper is the Silver Max has a flipping switch which in my mind is pointless. Yes you can use heavy line without issue. All reel manufactures print such and such reel can hold 12lb/150 yards, ect. Just a baseline. My mom is currently using 17 and 14lb Suffix on her two Black Max's.

I think one reel that most of us can agree on being overpriced is the W&M Skeet Reese Victory. At $79.99 its an attractive price until you handle one. I passed up an offer to buy one off a buddy for $20. Told him that was $20 I could go spend on a decent reel.

The only thing I can think of upgrading in a spinning reel that would make any significant improvements would to be 1) upgrade the drag and 2)replace any bushings with bearings. You could upgrade the current bearings to better ones to try to increase smoothness but by the time and money spent on upgrading bearings currently in use you would've been better off buying the next model or two up. There are no supertuning improvements that I can think of to make a spinning reel cast farther or better such as a baitcast reel seeing as how the spool does not rotate. How far a spinning reel casts depends greatly on how the spool was designed.

It can be good. My experience is this. I tried 8 and 15lb tests. The 15lb is good and have no complaints. the 8lb I have had issues. I spooled up two Shimano Sahara 4000 spinning reels. On one spinning reel it is like the greatest thing ever invented. On the other I've had the line break way up the line multiple times. I took it off and respooled with what was left of the spool. Worked great. So I think quality control is somewhat missing or I may have just got a bad spool. I have since however went back to P-line 100%.

Rod: 7'6" MH St.Croix Legend Tournament Bass Reel: Shimano Curado E7 Line: 50lb Suffix 832 braid Sinker: 1/2 oz Tungsten barrel weight but I go up to 3/4 in water deeper than 15ft, and 1 oz in heavy wind Leader: 15lb P-Line 100% Fluorocarbon (2-3ft) Hook: 1/0-4/0 Gamakatsu EWG Bait: My go to is a Brush Hog but a PowerTeam Lures Gator is a close second. Really any soft plastic works.

17lb-25lb mono for swimbaits and 10lb mono for jerkbaits.

I buy rubber folding chair tips and insert quarters and put it over the butt of the rod. Cheap, simple, and looks attractive.

Recoil guides are bad for making noise with braid, but not as loud as you hear on the TV shows.

You'll be hooked. Only drawback with the GYCB Senko is how easily they get torn up. You'll probably want to switch to a alternative that can last more than 1 maybe 2 fish.

I'd rather rip my treble hook lures free of the vegetation than spend the money to buy hooks that may possible lower the hook up ratio. There is a reason why they are not all that popular. If they were any good, you'd probably see some of the guys on the FLW or Elite tours using them. But I have yet to see any so....

I'm not a huge fan of screwlock hooks except for hollowbelly swimbaits. I can't ever recall having any issues using a 4/0 Gamakatsu Superline EWG and just rigging Horny Toads Texas style with the point skin hooked. Granted your never going to totally eliminate the issue of plastics sliding down especially when you've already hooked a few fish with a single bait. But that's why there is Mend-it soft plastic glue to glue everything back up good as new.

Some fluoros stretch just as much as mono if not more. Heres how I do it. I take and snip off about 3" of line and drop it in a glass of water. The one that floats is mono and the one that sinks like a rock is fluoro.

This although it the IPT varies from reel brands. It also depends on what kind of crankbaits your using. Lipless and squarebills I like a 6.3:1 with 27-28 IPT. For anything that dives deeper than 6ft I like a 5.1:1 with a 21 IPT.

Issues with a product that has almost legendary status are more user fault than the actual products. I've never had an issue with Big Game. Than again, I've never got a major backlash with it causing the line to pinch in areas. Respool and you'll be fine. The same thing happens with fluorocarbon, get a really bad backlash or a lot of them, your better off to respool otherwise it will break.

I tie a palomar knot, snip it off the tag and the main line, move the knot down to the gap and retie on my palomar and go fishing. Knot will never slip through or get damaged.

I never had an issue with the scissors from WallyWorld that are 2 for $3. Just put some tension on the line and they will snip through braid just fine.

The B series is where the Curado got its legendary status started!!! Definitely the greatest reel series ever. Some of the guys on the Elite Series still use them. They may not be as refined as the D or E series but they are better than the current G series. Parts are easy to get. I have a few and they are absolute workhorses that will still be in use YEARS from now. $80 is about what guys are paying for them on ebay so at $60 its decent price bordering great.

PowerTeam Lures 5" Finicky Tickler. In the fall I've had some killer days on smallies with a JP HammerShad.

This and stop doing whatever your doing to keep popping your inserts out. Either that or try a different brand for your guides. American Tackle guides have a feature called Ring Lock which should solve your issues.

When the E series first came out I got 7 or 8 of them for $80 each at a sportshow. For $105, I'd bite. Its about what you'd pay for some of them ebay. Under $100 would be a great deal but $105 aint bad and if you want one now get one.

Hey guys, PowerTeam Lures in doing a Free Shipping Promo on orders through their website. Just have to enter FBFAN in the Coupon Code at checkout. Min of $25 purchase, US only. Thought I'd share.

No atleast I don't think so. It goes back to almost where the tail section starts which to me doesn't make a difference because as long as the tail can move, its all good. I really like this grub compared to most because of the extra plastic rib like design on the tail, it just has to move water different than other grub tails. The forward rib design on the body also helps move the water around it differently making it something the fish probably are not use to. I also sent ya a PM by the way.

PowerTeam Lures makes a good one. I really like it in Green Pumpkin and a color called Blue Hue which is pearl with a bit of blue pearl mixed in. Although I mostly use it as a swimjig trailer, I have had success with smallies fishing it on a 1/8oz Buckeye J-Will Swimbait head which has a 4/0 Mustad hook.

You should look at the line they are using. Brent is using Gamma which is pretty expensive and sensitive. Skeet is using 100% Trilene which I consider midgrade. Fluorocarbon and braid make all rod more sensitive than they are designed to be. With that said, when I first got into fishing I was using a $30 reel from Kmart and a $20 rod from a local tackleshop. I caught a lot of fish on that thing. But I will say the more expensive equipment has made me a better angler. I can cast lighter lures farther and general stuff farther, I can feel more bites, ect. If you can spend the money and it makes you enjoy fishing that much more or if your a tournament angler than yes it is worth every penny. I love my custom built St. Croix SCV rod blanks and Shimano Chronarchs and I personally feel disadvantaged using a combo that cost me less than $120. But I that's my level of enjoyment.