12 hours ago, evilcatfish said:

I highly suggest you try using the black rose for fishing a football jig. I swear this rod is almost magical for the application, well at least in my hands anyway. I sometimes wish I’d never taken a step in to the world of Evergreen lol. Had been hoping we might see some of their JDM rods stateside via The Hookup Tackle, but nothing yet

I’ve had zero luck getting bass interested my

big paddletails so for the most part I’ve been using it to fish swing-head craws though shallow pads.  Based on how well that worked I would believe that it’s going to be great for FB jigs as well.  
 

 

These are 3 of my favorite rods currently.

 Lew’s Pro Ti Rod & Reel 

 Shimano Metanium/Fantasista Premier 

 Shimano Antares/ Fantasista X 

 

 

On 11/30/2021 at 10:29 AM, fishwizzard said:

With the Black Friday sales I just couldn't resist another couple of these combos! Poison Adrena 73MH & Adrena 76XH with a couple 2020 Metaniums. 

 

The rod fairy showed up with a twin-pack from Japan. Glorious 7'H and 6-11 F2.5 P5.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

9 hours ago, KP Duty said:

The rod fairy showed up with a twin-pack from Japan. Glorious 7'H and 6-11 F2.5 P5.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

great rod choices

12 hours ago, KP Duty said:

The rod fairy showed up with a twin-pack from Japan. Glorious 7'H and 6-11 F2.5 P5.  

 

Very nice!  What are you going to do with the Kasumi Six Eleven?  I have been on a popper kick of late and have been looking at the PopX Stick but I don't have any exp with an MB "slow" taper rod and don't know what to expect. 

5 hours ago, fishwizzard said:

 

Very nice!  What are you going to do with the Kasumi Six Eleven?  I have been on a popper kick of late and have been looking at the PopX Stick but I don't have any exp with an MB "slow" taper rod and don't know what to expect. 

Doesn't feel slow to me at all.  Bumping my palm with the blank to show its taper illustrated a med/mod fast rod that was responsive and not the buggy whip I thought it might be.  It's crazy light at 91g (3.2oz) but I guess it should be.  I wanted a rod for small cranks/tiny topwaters and I think it hits the mark.  Feels like you could drop shot with it .  I'm excited enough about the taper that I already want to order the 'one ten' stick, which also claims to be a slow tapered rod in a 6'5" F4 package.  

likewise, my Valleyhill 67MMM all-range BFS will cast 1/16 to 5/8 oz, and feels fast even toward the heavy lure weight end. 

 

Finally starting to feel like the winter here in socal, time to dust off finesse stuff. Alphas Ct with ktf finesse + Heartland SPR610

 

[url=https://postimg.cc/LhQr0Cz4][img]https://i.postimg.cc/kX7qGLGS/20211220-103425.jpg[/img][/url]

On 12/20/2021 at 12:39 PM, 4g63power said:

Finally starting to feel like the winter here in socal, time to dust off finesse stuff. Alphas Ct with ktf finesse + Heartland SPR610

 

 

here, you just need to post the Direct Link that ends in .jpg

The board software will automatically embed that link. 

 

@4g63power congrats on the KTF spool - the most desirable BFS spool out there.  Original price on the limited edition spools were reasonable, but ebay re-sale listings triple the original price. 

1 hour ago, bulldog1935 said:

here, you just need to post the Direct Link that ends in .jpg

The board software will automatically embed that link. 

Got it. Thanks!

 

13 hours ago, 4g63power said:

Got it. Thanks!

 

How do you like the alphas ct?  I need a couple of casters for 8lb line cranking.  Alphas ct/air and curado/scorpion bfs are in the running.  I bet you can cast all the line off of that ktf spool with your heartland rod ?

1 hour ago, KP Duty said:

How do you like the alphas ct?  I need a couple of casters for 8lb line cranking.  Alphas ct/air and curado/scorpion bfs are in the running.  I bet you can cast all the line off of that ktf spool with your heartland rod ?

Alphas ct is a casting machine with smaller baits. To me it casts as good as steez ct, they are awesome little spools. Yea the ktf finesse doesn't hold that much, i don't go above 8lb fluoro since i try to whip it out as far as i can when fishing.

A few Christmas gifts....

 

 

My new medium swimbait setup

 

Daiwa SV103HL. Swapped out the stock spool for a Steez A G1 spool. 50lb Berkley X9 braid to Yo-Zuri 20lb T7 flouro, and put a 100mm gomexus handle. I have it mounted on a Phenix feather 7'3"XH rod. Can't wait to try it out. 

 

 

On 12/20/2021 at 1:39 PM, 4g63power said:

Finally starting to feel like the winter here in socal, time to dust off finesse stuff. Alphas Ct with ktf finesse + Heartland SPR610

 

[url=https://postimg.cc/LhQr0Cz4][img]https://i.postimg.cc/kX7qGLGS/20211220-103425.jpg[/img][/url]

Great setup.  I've been wanting a KTF spool for my CT but they've been out of stock for a bit now.  On that end, how do you like the KTF?  I have a SV700S in mine and love it, but from my understanding the KTF is one heck of a spool.

even Ray's Studio is OOS, but I got the KTF look with Ray's... 

I suspect the performance is also equivalent, but will never be able to compare. 

I do have KTF spool bearings in all my baitcasters for salt resistance. 

The other parts are ZPI star drag from Carolina Fishing, Momo zero adjust, and Avail handle. 

This has become my full-time ML, and the performance with PE#1 braid never lets me down. 

 

ps - last visit to KTF, they still have Finesse spools for '14 Chronarch. 

I have an AMO in my other Alphas CT right now, great spool for the small creeks I like to fish.

This may not be one of my highest end combos, but I think it just may be my best looking one. 

8 hours ago, redmeansdistortion said:

Great setup.  I've been wanting a KTF spool for my CT but they've been out of stock for a bit now.  On that end, how do you like the KTF?  I have a SV700S in mine and love it, but from my understanding the KTF is one heck of a spool.

I don't have any other custom spool in same size to compare to, but I'm pretty sure they all perform about the same. Some fixed rotor, some air rotor, guess all comes down to what you want to get out it. Ktf finesse runs good in alphas ct/steez ct. I only target bass so i don't throw super light stuff. 1/16 oz texas/jig head plus amall soft plastics are about the lightest i go. It has quick start up, decent control, can get a lil finicky around the winds.

7 hours ago, bulldog1935 said:

even Ray's Studio is OOS, but I got the KTF look with Ray's... 

I suspect the performance is also equivalent, but will never be able to compare. 

I do have KTF spool bearings in all my baitcasters for salt resistance. 

The other parts are ZPI star drag from Carolina Fishing, Momo zero adjust, and Avail handle. 

This has become my full-time ML, and the performance with PE#1 braid never lets me down. 

 

ps - last visit to KTF, they still have Finesse spools for '14 Chronarch. 

That's awesome. I recently picked up a blue zpi pg to complete one of my steez A that i put together with zpi parts a few years ago. SV spools work great in steez A so i had been holding off but finally gave in.

 

[20211218-141742.jpg](https://postimg.cc/K1YSchDH)

[](https://postimg.cc/K1YSchDH)

34 minutes ago, 4g63power said:

...

 

Here you go, I was able to pull the image from that link - looks great -

- always use the direct image link that ends in .jpg, and the BR server automatically embeds it. 

ZPI got out of the parts business, and only sells their reels and rods now. 

Where you can find those odds-and-ends ZPI parts still in stock, they're awesome. 

Here's my Alcance, which I just bought a Valleyhill 7'5" MHF rod for it that was shipped today - I'll report on the combo later...

Magnesium spool with titanium spindle, tuned mag-brake cam - I'm more impressed with this reel than any other I've cast. 

 

15 minutes ago, bulldog1935 said:

Here you go, I was able to pull the image from that link - looks great -

- always use the direct image link that ends in .jpg, and the BR server automatically embeds it. 

ZPI got out of the parts business, and only sells their reels and rods now. 

Where you can find those odds-and-ends ZPI parts still in stock, they're awesome. 

Here's my Alcance, which I just bought a Valleyhill 7'5" MHF rod for it that was shipped today - I'll report on the combo later...

Magnesium spool with titanium spindle, tuned mag-brake cam - I'm more impressed with this reel than any other I've cast. 

 

Thanks! Alcance looks great. I've been curious about their casting performance, this and shallow spool RGC. Is that an avail handle?

3 hours ago, walleyecrazy said:

This may not be one of my highest end combos, but I think it just may be my best looking one. 

Good looking setup. What reel is that?

@4g63power yes, I ordered the Alcance NS, and they sent me the XS - rather than send it back, I put a longer handle on it, and the stock Alcance handle ended up on my raced-out Ambassadeur 4600 (6.3-gear) - after set-up, nothing to adjust on this reel, and backlash-proof. 

Dr. Jeckell and Mr. Hyde compared to stock Ambassadeur. 

 

This is a fun reel that I was showing a friend yesterday will cast 2g without wind backlash, though I fish 1/4 to 1/2 oz with it.  This is the AMO spool, Valleyhill LW, Mike's zirconia pawl, Mike's BB spur gear, Kagawa BB idler gear, and Avail mag brake. 

Braid Ambassadeur

1 hour ago, FrankN209 said:

Good looking setup. What reel is that?

Daiwa Tatula SV limited.