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She outfishes me almost every time out, but won't admit that my great guide service is the reason.

I have seen a thread now and then asking about the Powell Timax but I haven't been able to find any reviews using the search function. I bought a Powell Timax 734 HCF in December of last year and this is my review of the rod. I know some of you could have used this earlier but I don't like to review anything until I become accustomed to its idiosynchracies so that I can determine if such things are faults, or something that may be to my benefit once I become familiar with it. First of all, the rod is built of high quality components and my rod doesn't have any blemishes whatsoever. The rod is 7' 3" long with a heavy action and a fast tip. Of the 10 line guides, the last 9 are micro guides. I tie a fluorocarbon leader to braid on this rod using an Alberto knot and, surprisingly, I have had no issues with the knot hanging on the micro guides. At first glance, some have complained about the aluminum handle but I like the look, myself. This blue rod looks absolutely brilliant with my green Curado 200 E7. (LOL, not.) I have been using the Timax for soft plastics and jigs, and for me, the functionality of this rod makes one forget about looks. I place it in a class with the G.Loomis GLX series for plastics and jigs, which, considering its price, is to be expected. In fact, I think it might be slightly more sensitive than my MBR 844C GLX rods. I can feel everything my lure touches and until you get used to the rod, it can sometimes be a bit disconcerting. I am so used to my Mag GLXs and how things feel with those, that to feel anything different has led to some unwitting hooksets into things other than fish while becoming familliar with the rod. If you are one to fish brushpiles and like to work a jig or plastic through thick branches, this rod is almost like having eyes underwater to see exactly what the jig is doing. I don't have a GLX JWR rod to compare it to, though I do have an NRX 854C JWR which I haven't used much at all yet. I expect the NRX to be the sensitivity king, but we will see. This Timax could give any rod that I have used a run for its money in that regard. One complaint I have seen and heard about quite often with Powell rods longer than 7 feet is the heaviness of the tip. I have noticed this as well but it is not an issue with the 734 HCF. With a Curado on board it balances at the hook keeper which is 1 3/8 inches in front of the reel. I measured the length from the butt of the handle to the middle of the reel and it is practically the same for the MBR 844C GLX, the NRX 854C JWR, and my Timax. The GLXs balance at approximately the same point as the Timax, while the NRX balances almost 2 inches in front of the reel, though I haven't noticed any tip heaviness with any of the rods I used in this comparison. The GLXs and the Timax are fitted with the same model Curado while the NRX is fitted with a standard Shimano Chronarch. In summary, for $349.99 this is an awesome rod. It is 40 dollars below the standard price of my MBR 844C GLX and $85 - $100 dollars cheaper than a G.Loomis GLX JWR rod in the 7' 1" length. It provides similar performance to these rods in my opinion. For you Powell afficionados, this rod can hang with the big boys.

Theoretically speaking, flukes mimmic baitfish like minnows, so "minnow like" colors is what rules ( pearl, disco violet, pearl and silver flake back ) and such. Personally I don't think it matters, I've caught fish with every fluke color available.

I use 1000 size reels for everything. I can't comment on 20# braid (I can't imagine it being an issue) but I do use straight 6 and 7# fluoro for most applications. I don't pick up a spinning rod/reel and expect to over power a fish. I use the drag and rod to do all the work whether it be from a 5# largemouth, 5# smallmouth, 8# walleye, or a 30# carp, I'ver never had an issue getting a fish to the boat. Just takes time. For sheer casting distance, the 2500 will win due to the larger spool but again, i don't use a spinning rod to bomb lures a quarter mile. I can cast a DS,shaky head/flike shake and 3" senko further than I need to. The only drawback I've found /w 1000 vs 2500 is line capacity. The spools are smaller and obviously hold less line. I don't have any line management issues either. All my spinning reels are 1000 stradics FI/FJ.

Had blast these last couple of days fishing a local lake. Yesterday big one weighed in at 7.7lbs, today big fish was 6.10lbs. Chatterbaits and cranks were the baits of choice.

All depends on season for me. Bass, smallies in particular are my favourite, but we have a short season for them here. I love ice fishing for lakers, fishing ice out crappies, river run steelhead and giant pike and salmon before bass opens up again. If we're being honest .... If it swims, I like catching it!!

You can just call him " the chosen one!"

You mean to tell me it's a holiday and no one was on the internet that could answer your question because they were cooking out and spending time enjoying life? Shame on us...

I used the old white box xps fluoro once. Not a bad line. Little bit of memory but not terrible. Have not used the new purple box that is now made by seaguar. I would use sniper 11 times out of 10 before xps though.

Sounds like you haven't done as much research as you think.......What have you researched?

Hello everybody. I was just curious to see how many members we have here from the Garden State. So I'll get it started, My name is Tom and I am addicted to bass fishing. I live in Bergen County. I try to wet a line everyday, although fishing time is at a premium. My goal for the summer of 2011 is to not fish with Senkos at all. Oh, and I want to catch lots of Smallies. So, any other Garden Staters out there?

So, I recently decided to take up fishing to try and find something to do with the family and to get me out of the house more (I'm legally blind and unfortunately I can't do most of the hobbies I used to enjoy any longer). I joined here to start gathering some advice and between the advice here and elsewhere on the net, I've been piecing together a tackle box to get me started. Anyway, I finally got everything in and got some line spooled on my reel. My wife borrowed a fishing rod and reel from her dad and we headed out to a little family owned pond that we were told has some bass and catfish as well as some bream. I was interested in trying to catch some bass, so that's what I've been researching the most. I finally got a chance to go out there with my wife and spend a couple hours. It was a very hot and muggy (eastern NC summers are pretty brutal), and later in the afternoon by the time we were able to make it out there. I had decided on just starting with a Booyah Buzz because I thought it'd give me some practice on just casting and reeling. I spent 20 minutes or so just casting that and playing around with it and getting it to stay on the surface of the water. I never caught anything on this (but I was also fishing on a deck and not much under the water in the way of hiding places for bass). My wife was in the house visiting and getting our daughter settled in (she's 2 years old) during this time. She popped out for a minute to tell me to rig her up one of the senkos (recommended to me here on the forum). I figured that would be something else to learn, so I got her rod and reel and rigged up a senko weightless on a 3/0 gamakatsu offset hook. She still hadn't come out of the house at this point, so I decided to walk down the bank a bit where I had been told would be a good spot for bass as there was an old sunken boat of some sort and a couple fallen trees. I cast out the senko and did what I had seen online. just kinda raised the tip and then let the senko drop to the bottom and wait a couple seconds and then repeat. On my second cast out, on about the second "hop", when I went to left the rod, I thought I was hung on something, but remembered reading that with this lure it would feel like dead weight, so just in case, I set the hook. I then reeled a bit (still thinking I was likely hooked on some debris), but to my surprise I felt a fish start fighting. So, I reeled it up to the bank, and low and behold there was a nice large mouth bass on the end of the line. I got ahold of him (by the lower lip) and quickly realized he had swallowed the hook ...crap! I hadn't planned on keeping any fish that day (even though we were told we were welcome to keep anything we caught), but by the time I was able to get the hook out (I honestly hadn't prepared for this situation...learning experience the hard way), I didn't feel like the fish would make it. He was bleeding bad and had been out of the water a decent amount of time. I made the decision to keep him, so I carried him in the house and dispatched him and got him on some ice immediately. By the time we had done this, my wife was ready to fish (seeing there were actually fish there to catch got her excited lol). So, she went out, and we put a new senko on the hook (the last one was MIA). I explained to her the technique to using it and just like me, on her second cast, she had caught another bass, and AGAIN it swalled the hook. Repeat the above process, and we ended up keeping that one too. So, before going out again, I changed my lure to a Mister Twister G-Grub and we went back out. My wife continued to use the senkos. She quickly caught another large mouth bass (luckily it was in his lip) and we were able to get it back in the water quickly with no damage. A couple minutes later, I caught the largest bass of the day (I think he measured in at just under 18"...don't know the weight, but it was the only one of the day that actually took some drag out). He was easily unhooked and let go. My wife then caught the last bass of the day (it was a very small large mouth) and he was hooked cleanly and we were able to throw him back. So, all in all it was a great time. Aside from gut hooking two bass, it was a success. We caught 5 large mouth bass in probably a 30 minute window (a lot of our time was spend trying to deal with the first two bass that were gut hooked as we ignorantly didn't plan for that). Thanks a lot for the tips and tricks to get us started. Senkos must be made of magic lol. I've already picked up a few more lures that I want to try out (got a couple hula poppers and jitter bugs, as well as a cavitron, and a koppers hollow body frog. I'm hoping for the next trip that we'll have more time and can bring our son with us (he's 7) and maybe get him set up catching some bream with a hook and bobber. Thanks again! God bless!

They have a new reel called the Speed Freak. It's just a Smoke with red accents and an 8.1:1 ratio.

Raider my insane friend, in what world are 800# leg presses considered light weight? If you are going anywhere near full range that is NOT light. Good luck buddy. Just an aside about pushing the envelope: I was doing leg work with a guy who is much stronger than me in his upper body. He is as strong as a bull, and 72 years old. He could pass for a very fit 50. I can hold my own with him on legs though because of all the walking I do. I let my ego cause me to show off a little on the toe lifts and may have cracked something in my left foot. That was three weeks ago and my foot still hurts like a !*$#@. I will make a doctors appointment this week...

Anything that's affordable and has decent quality keeps saving me money so I can purchase more lures.

Time to pack up the U Haul and move AWAY from that lil monster... Shew wee raider... You're descriptive typing is quite good as I believe I too can smell it!!

Are you projecting?

The answer, is a question, are you talking about senkos? Zoom Flukes,? or both? I think Iam having a bad fishing answer day!!!

Don't see why not. I fish a number of different sizes of spinning reels...but the size I use the most is a "25" size Pflueger Supreme - basically equivalent to a 1000 size Shimano. Just as you were planning to do, I've used mostly 15lb and 20lb braid with 10 to 15lb leaders on this reel. As of today, that reel has brought in 2,595 fish - almost all bass. Power/torque? Not a problem for bass. As iabass8 just mentioned, you don't winch fish in with this type of tackle - but if that's what you want to use - it gets the job done. Here's a 4 pounder that matches your target weight range: Here's a 7.4lb LMB reeled in by that 25 size Pflueger last week: Works for me...

While I had always fished with my dad when I was younger I had taken about a 35 year hiatus from the sport. Career, family and other things just seemed to get in the way. About 5 years ago my work brought me to Bloomington, IN. Long story short, I don't do a real good job meeting people and what not so I have spent quite a bit of time sitting around the house basically doing nothing. Wife works a lot, kids are grown, golf kinda sucks when you play by yourself just basically spending my time putzing around the house. About 6 weeks ago, an old friend called and said they were going to Linton to fish what he called strip pits and asked if I wanted to come along, so I did. I had a great time fishing these electric only lakes, we caught a ton of bluegill, I learned how to fillet little pan fish (the fact I didn't know how to fillet wasn't getting me out of cleaning) and later we had a fish fry at the camp. All in all one of the better days I've had since picking up and moving to the new town. When I got home, I happened to be looking at Craiglist and I happened to see someone here in town selling a Bass Raider 10E with trolling motor, life vests and anchor for $350 so I ended up buying it. I can load it by myself in the truck, fish a lot of spots I normally couldn't get to and it is near perfect for a little 130 acre electric only lake close by my house. Since I have modified a little 5x8 trailer I have so that I can just pull the boat on with no lifting. Since that fishing trip with my buddy, I took my boat and fished small ponds and lakes with my dad in Kentucky for a couple of days. Didn't take my boat but went back to my previous town and spent three days fishing for crappie and bass on a larger reservoir with my buddy and I use my little boat and probably fish 3 or 4 evenings a week at the little lake down the road. I have spent a bunch of time reading this site and it has been a great time for me. I learn a lot every time I log in and using some of the techniques I've learned here I even catch a few bass..........and I've been having a ton of fun. So, thank you to all that post and respond. Honestly, it's pretty cheap therapy......lol.

Based on some of the posts I am in the minority. I fish with Columbia PFG long sleeves and I enjoy them. They keep me cool and shield me from the sun. Works for me.

I think that the T3 are one of the best beginner baitcasters, rivaled only by the Shimano DC reels. They're extremely user-friendly and offer so many braking variations, it's very easy to dial them in. You can use the max brake setting, or even all-around, until you get the hang of it; then eventually work your way into the long cast setting. They're also very small profile, and easy to palm. The 1016 is only $169 right now. There's not a better reel for anywhere near that price. That's nearly $300 off retail.

You're never going to ever come close to a 100 yard cast. I usually do about 1/3 spool full of cheap mono, then fill the rest with braid. You'll end up with more than enough line. A cheap line counter is a handy tool too, so you know how much line you're putting on. Makes it easier to divide it up down the road.

I had a T3B, and now three T3 1016 and IMO just spend the extra money to get the 1016. The spool, handle, weight, and refinement makes the T3 1016 a better buy. However IMO your first baitcaster should be a Shimano. Their braking system is less finicky, even less than the 3d braking on the T3 and I love the 3D braking. The Curado I is a very easy reel to cast and it performs really well. I only wish it was under 7 oz. Another reason is if you decided to sell the reel in the future Shimano will have a higher resale value than other reels and it'll be easier to sell.

in , I will start with this one 21 inch

I used to love power pro until I got two bad spools this spring. One online and one locally. Both broke easily, wind knotted like crazy, and just plain sucked. Nothing like the old power pro I've been using for years. I would suggest 20 for spinning reel, 30-65 for casting

I played around with my Dremel.Hope to fool a few stripers ,hybrids this fall.

Interesting 2nd post....

I wear a generic "athelitic" shirt from Wal-Mart maybe? I can't even honestly remember where I bought it from. It's the same type of material as say underarmour.

Ill start it off then.. this 19.5" gal left my spinnerbait dangling.. absolutely crushed it and snapped it in 2

ROFLMAO!!! Funniest stuff I've read in years on this sight! Bass tasting like grass? Bass are not vegetarians so how does the grass flavor enter the bass, osmosis? Mercury levels! LOL!!! Ya have to eat 3 pounds of fish monthly! Y'all to funny

Should work great! Ive been wanting to modify a mold to make jigs like that but didnt know how to start. What attachment did you use on your dremel

Sufix 832 is by far the best I've used..

Congratulations!

I like Hog Tonic. Power Team Lures has a winner with that stuff.

I agree with jar11591. Megastrike is very sticky and stays on your bait much better than most, for a longer period of time. Seems to do a good job of masking offensive human odors and does keep fish holding onto your bait longer - in my experience anyway. Scent in any form or manufacture, is all about confidence and putting the odds in your favor. And I don't believe there are any studies wherein modern day scent additives have actually repelled fish. So, if you believe in it, it works!

I should tie all my kids and grandkids to a chair and make them watch this video.

Thanks everybody! I just got a goPro so if all goes well I'll have a video to share in about a week. First day is tomorrow, hopefully it doesn't rain to much.

Wow! You must definitely be single. I get a few hours, or minutes, at a time before the wife needs me to do something. Count yourself lucky to be able to spend that much time on the water.

I have made catfish rigs like that but never thought of doing that for bass. I'm going to have to try that Tight lines Andrew

I 100% disagree with this statement. I'm running Spiderwire braids on 3 different reels and I've not experienced a single problem yet. I'm using a different braid on each reel, all in 50# test. One is spooled with Stealth, one with Invisibraid, and the third with Ultracast Ultimate braid. All three have been fine, no breakoffs or premature fraying, no knot slip, no mysterious casting issues, they have performed just as well as most of the other brands I've fished. My all time favorite brand is Power Pro (original and S8S) with P-Line Spectrex being a very close second. I've tried lots of different braids From SunLine to Sufix and plenty in between and I can't find anything wrong with Spiderwire. Especially the Invisi and Ultimate. Fresh spool of 50# Ultimate ready to go.

Pack some good heat and do you're thing!

That's a great time period to have grown up in.... Now I just need a hot tub time machine

I could give a long winded response, but I'll keep it short. Leave your bass gear at home if it's expensive. Plain and simple this isn't bass fishing and there is no comparison to the fight. I would suggest a mh rod 3-4000 reel and 30# braid, that should cover most fish under 15#, bigger jacks or tarpon you probably won't land, does take some acquired know how. Don't need much in lures, flukes on a jig head, bucktails, spoons, don't need any thing else. A little variety use a top lure. As said rinse off your reel and rod.

Muskie when you finally get one on are a lot of fun, as are big pike. The fact that you could be wounded (by the fish) while getting a hook out is a strange rush. We had a day last year, labor day I think, that was saved by a bowfin. Nothing decent all day and then BAM! Tons of excitement, drag peeling out, death roll in the net. If we'd been having a good day bass fishing I'd have called it a pest, but as we weren't, he was a hoot.

Methinks you are doing it wrong.

Punctuation, sentence stucture and grammar are your friends in life, especially in this section of BR. Congratulations on your accomplishments but your introduction would make me unlikely to email you, let alone look you up to research your claims. Good luck.

The best part of the day was after it was over my wife and other son joined us and we turned the Triton into a swim deck! I set the spot lock on the Terrova and we swam for hours.

How did you guys do?

That is cool bud, I am in the Proses of setting up our schools Facebook