Lots of awesome pics in this thread!

 

Right now, my rod arsenal consists of:

• Custom 5'8" 50-100# stand up rod. Built on an old Shakespeare blank painted black, black shrink-wrapped EVA foam grips, black aluminum reel seat and gimbal, six black ceramic turbo guides, silver and black wraps. Using this rod for land based shark fishing
• Custom 6'6" 30-50# stand up rod. Built on another old Shakespeare blank painted black, black shrink-wrapped EVA foam grips, black plastic gimbal, black graphite reel seat, six chrome ceramic turbo guides, black and gold wraps (this one is still at my builder's shop, but it should be finished up soon). Will be using this on the boat to fish for pretty much everything that can't be caught on a 3000 spinner
• (2) Penn Squadron 7' medium spinning rods. Got them for like $40 each, so I don't care if I beat them up too badly. Using these for inshore fishing from the boat, as well as the kayaks and docks I fish from
• 9' Star Aerial surf spinning rod. Rated for 1-4 ounces I believe. Nice rod, especially for the price. Haven't gotten to use it more than a few times, but I will mostly use it for bait fishing in the surf - although I think it could throw artificials pretty well, too
• 5' Field and Stream Inferno ultralight. Gets the job done, and it was on sale at Dick's for $10. I use this mostly for bluegill, but I've targeted bass on this rod as well - it's pretty fun
• 7' medium Abu Garcia orra spinning rod. Using this for all of my bass fishing right now (also using the inshore rods for frog fishing). Came with the Orra, so I never ended up replacing it

And the reel arsenal:

• Custom Penn 9/0 Senator. Powder coated externals, mostly stainless steel internals, custom 8-disc carbon fiber drag stack, handle upgrade, few other things. I am still working on this but it'll be done soon - it's my land based shark fishing reel
• Custom Penn 980 Mag. Just bought this reel, but I will be doing the exact same thing as I did to the 9/0 - I will use this on the boat with the 30-50# rod, as well as for heavier surf casting
• (2) Penn Battle 3000's. Inshore fishing is the game with these, and right now I am using one on the 9' surf rod as well
• Pflueger Trion 20, great ultralight reel for the money
• Abu Garcia Orra 30, used for bass fishing right now

I want to add/get rid of:

• Get rid of Orra combo, I have a friend who wants to get into fishing so I'm selling it to him
• Get rid of F&S ultralight rod and replace it with a custom 7' or 7-1/2' ultralight rod
• Add a custom 11' 3-8 ounce surf rod, to use with the 980 Mag. I'm looking for a blank to do this with right now
• If I get a little bit of money to play around with, I want to replace the Penn Squadron rods with Star Aerial rods - great value for the money
• Add two Johnny Morris Signature Series rods - one 7'2" MHF baitcaster and one 6'8" MXF spinner, for my bass fishing. Will be adding some kind of Speed Spool to the baitcaster and a Trion 35 to the spinner

I am respooling all of my reels soon, so I'll have to get a picture of all of them out and post it. I will post a few pictures shortly. 

 

Phew, that was a lot to type!

I agree with the Star rods, they fly under the radar and are a heck of a rod for the money.

First catch on my latest addition  

 

 

Some new stuff that according to flea bay is worth it weight in gold....lol

8 hours ago, Leftymuk said:

Some new stuff that according to flea bay is worth it weight in gold....lol

 

 

Are those the frogs with the boot tail?  

I was cleaning some stuff up in the tackle room and respooling, so I thought I should take a picture since it's been a while..

 

Yes that would be them......

On June 22, 2017 at 2:57 PM, rippin-lips said:

Can't wait to get this back in my hands. The factory paint on the Megabass Zonda stinks so why not have it custom painted and swap some parts. 

Who did you use to paint them

BFS has lot of fun 

16 minutes ago, hzzhangc said:

BFS has lot of fun 

Shhhhweeeet!

A few outside pics and a nice chunk on the MB giant dog x to break it in.  

On 6/14/2017 at 3:34 PM, Leftymuk said:

Couple of pics from a tackle *****

 

 

Why is your name Leftymuk when all your reels are righty??  

i picked up a 7'1" MH Tatula casting rod a few weeks back and hadn't used it until tuesday night.  wanted to get it slimed up so i could get the @Goose52 two thumbs up approval!

went to the pond near my house and convinced one little guy to chomp on the booyah popping pad crasher!  i had the 7'2" H version of this rod, but it was a little heavier than i wanted so i picked up this MH version and am very glad i did.  it was the perfect balance of tip and backbone for my style of frogging!

 

1 hour ago, buzzed bait said:

i picked up a 7'1" MH Tatula casting rod a few weeks back and hadn't used it until tuesday night.  wanted to get it slimed up so i could get the @Goose52 two thumbs up approval!

went to the pond near my house and convinced one little guy to chomp on the booyah popping pad crasher!  i had the 7'2" H version of this rod, but it was a little heavier than i wanted so i picked up this MH version and am very glad i did.  it was the perfect balance of tip and backbone for my style of frogging!

 

 

Yeah baby - THAT's how to break in new equipment...  

Washing off my gear after a saltwater kayak flounder trip.

 

 

25 minutes ago, wet_dream said:

Washing off my gear after a saltwater kayak flounder trip.

 

 

 

 

Bucktailing for flukes is so is so much fun!  Ocean finesse is funny to adapt to from freshwater finesse!

12 minutes ago, Master Bait'r said:

 

 

Bucktailing for flukes is so is so much fun!  Ocean finesse is funny to adapt to from freshwater finesse!

 

It's definitely one of my favorite types of fishing! I started in saltwater (just a few years ago) and just recently took up freshwater fishing this year. As much as I've enjoyed freshwater, saltwater fishing this time of year is so much fun.

My NRX 894 arrived about two weeks ago. Very happy with it especially for the price I paid for it. Pairs very nicely with my Met MGL. 

Finally got that Major Craft Benkei solid tip 1 piece rod I've been waiting forever on!  

 

Put a Daiwa BG on it and wow...  Match made in heaven!  Perfect balance point and perfect color match.  Reasonably priced too, hard to believe how much this setup *didn't* cost.  This is exactly what I was looking for in an ultralight with backbone! 

 

I'd post a pic but the attachment is apparently too big.  Oh well.  

 

1 hour ago, Master Bait'r said:

 

I'd post a pic but the attachment is apparently too big.  Oh well.  

 

 

Post it to imgur and give us a link.  

 

Also really interested in hearing your thoughts on it once you get some hours in.  I have a Trapara and while I like it for spinners and micro cranks, it is too soft for plastics.  

2 hours ago, Bunnielab said:

 

Post it to imgur and give us a link.  

 

Also really interested in hearing your thoughts on it once you get some hours in.  I have a Trapara and while I like it for spinners and micro cranks, it is too soft for plastics.  

 

 

This thing is anything but soft.  Extreeeemely fast for something that bottoms out at 1/64oz.  I am going to cast a 3" slug-go over the moon with this baby.  

 

One thing that kinda scares me though- that solid tip is mounted just a newt hair off kilter.  Line guides are fine and epoxy is mint but I can see just a smidge of difference.  I don't want to send it back but it's got me wondering.  

4 hours ago, Master Bait'r said:

Finally got that Major Craft Benkei solid tip 1 piece rod I've been waiting forever on!  

 

Put a Daiwa BG on it and wow...  Match made in heaven!  Perfect balance point and perfect color match.  Reasonably priced too, hard to believe how much this setup *didn't* cost.  This is exactly what I was looking for in an ultralight with backbone! 

 

I'd post a pic but the attachment is apparently too big.  Oh well.  

 

 

MB - I can post a few photos for you. Shoot me a PM and we can swap emails.

11 hours ago, Master Bait'r said:

 

 

This thing is anything but soft.  Extreeeemely fast for something that bottoms out at 1/64oz.  I am going to cast a 3" slug-go over the moon with this baby.  

 

One thing that kinda scares me though- that solid tip is mounted just a newt hair off kilter.  Line guides are fine and epoxy is mint but I can see just a smidge of difference.  I don't want to send it back but it's got me wondering.  

 

The tip issue is a bummer, but hopefully it will not affect how it fishes.  

On ‎6‎/‎29‎/‎2017 at 5:23 PM, wet_dream said:

Washing off my gear after a saltwater kayak flounder trip.

 

 

 

What rods do you have them paired with??

 

I have been pretty impressed with how well my 3000 FK holds up to saltwater use. IT currently has about 15 hours of wading the gulf under its belt with zero issue at all. It even got fully submerged when I took a spill on my last trip and all I do is just rinse it off after each trip.

2 hours ago, PatrickKnight said:

 

What rods do you have them paired with??

 

I have been pretty impressed with how well my 3000 FK holds up to saltwater use. IT currently has about 15 hours of wading the gulf under its belt with zero issue at all. It even got fully submerged when I took a spill on my last trip and all I do is just rinse it off after each trip.

 

For this particular trip:

-4000FK paired w/ Shimano Teramar SE

-2500FK paired w/ St Croix Mojo Inshore

-2500Ci4 paired w/ Shimano Zodias

 

And I too have been impressed with their durability in the salt. I was using heavier penn reels but after switching to the Stradics, I don't think I'll be going back. It's held up well with minimal maintenance. Just a quick freshwater rinse after each trip, and occasional grease.

 

I have a 5000 Saragosa that I use for the surf. Takes a ton of splashes, never been submerged, but spins like it did out of the box.

On 6/29/2017 at 10:50 PM, kickerfish1 said:

 

MB - I can post a few photos for you. Shoot me a PM and we can swap emails.

I can't post pics anymore either, erased almost all my attachments in account and still only allows 500Kb. They had to change something, probably getting to be too much storage for the server.