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And with that we are done here..... Jeff

Yes "cookie cutter". The Lews of today are all made in the same factory along side Abu Revos, pfluegers, BPS, Ducketts, they share ALOT of the same components because they are essentially all based on what Doyo Korea have available technology wise. LEWS did not develop a dang thing on their reels. Have you noticed all the Lews are pretty much the same design? Lews has to undercut shimano on price and give you more ball bearings because if they cost as much they wouldn't sell as well. So I'll keep enjoying my "kool aid" of knowledge while you can keep drinking from the water fountain of ignorance.

So more bearings makes a better reel huh? I'll take a 6 ball bearing Shimano that they designed and developed, and manufactured from the ground up over a 10 ball bearing cookie cutter reel from Lews(that was designed and manufactured by Doyo) all day long.

It's hard, but you have to wait a second or two until you set the hook. Give the fish time to get down and get the lure fully in their mouth. Once you hook one, you'll see how good they get hooked.

i had both. here's how they compare sizewise: note: those are not the OEM handles on either reel

Ya can't gain confidence unless ya throw it! Ya said ya know how to use a T-rig, then fish the jig the same way!

All most got everything packed and ready.......Saturday bright an early heading out for Rainy Lake, Ontario for six days of smallmouth and northern pike fishing....

I fish with a guy that if hes hung up from the boat in a branch, limb or fallen tree, he will blaze right up there and sound like a bull in a china store trying to retrieve a $3 lure on a small farm pond. Whats your take? Me? Ill pull hard and if it snaps, Ill remember the location and go back AFTER ive fished every ounce of the pond. This kills me! If it was 500 miles of shoreline then yes, lets get it but a 3 acre pond? CMon' man!

Hey all, Thought I'd start a little thread to share my experiences on my favorite hole to fish for snakehead (and bass)! I've been trying to get out as often as I can which is about 1-2 times a week. I'm taking note of the time when I go out, tides, solunar cycle and when I see the most activity on the water. Snakeheads intrigue me and with such little information out there about them, I'm hoping my studies can help others catch them. I switch between two rods: Abu Garcia Silver Max on a 6'6" medium vigilante rod and an Abu Garcia Revo3 SX on a 6'6" medium vengeance rod. I use only a handful of baits which consist of top water frogs, chatterbaits and flukes. White and chartreuse seem to work the best, but I've gotten hits on watermelon, baby bass and natural shad colors. Thursday May 14th I went out around 2pm and fished until ~6:30pm. The weather was mild, mid 70 degrees with a some cloud coverage. The water was a little cloudy with about 6-10" visibility. High tide was at 4:10pm. When I first got down there I spotted two snakeheads patrolling a clearing between the lilies and started popping a frog slightly in front of where they were heading. They paid no attention to it and cruised right under it. It was too early in the day for the frog. I switched to a chatterbait with a paddle tail fluke trailer and couldn't get a reaction bite or anything on them. Over the course of the next few hours, there were maybe one or two more SH passing through but they paid no attention to my bait. At around 5:30pm (1.5 hours after high going out) I started to see a lot of activity. I saw 4-5 snakeheads every other minute within 20 yards cruising around. I switched to a fluke and was then I learned something. The fast, erratic jerking action of the fluke excited the snakeheads. Before I was fishing my bait slow but as soon as I sped up my retrieve I started getting bites. Right before sunset I nailed my first one. A young juvenile. About 5 mins later I hooked into quite possibly the biggest SH I ever (would've) caught. As I was reeling him in, my line caught caught on a small branch of a bush along the water. As I was pulling him to my right, he thrashed and broke my 20lb braided line.. It was around 21"-23" and 8-9lbs. I'm spooling 30lb power pro braided tonight. After that I took a break and tied on a white spinner bait with a black and red worm trailer. As soon as it hit the water I hooked into a nice 3lb bass. Literally as soon as it hit the water, it hit. I thought I was snagged on something.. Around 6:30 I was starting to get tired and for my "last cast" I put my frog back on as the sun was just setting. I did a 3 pop-pause retrieve and got a strike. I could see my frog on the corner of his mouth so I knew he kind of missed it. After a slight hesitation a tried to set the hook which sent my frog flying through the air. I'm not an expert by any means at catching snakehead but I'm starting to learn their tendencies and thought I'd share. Hope this becomes helpful to any aspiring snakehead anglers. One thing to note... Be very quiet when your moving around on the shore/boat. I was walking down to my spot and saw two close to the bank. I was about 6 feet away when I stepped on a twig and some dried leaves. *Snap!**Crunch!* Poof!! gone..

Time to go shopping!! Look into as a minimum 7 ft MH rod, 40 lb braid minimum, and preferably a 7.1:1 ratio type reel.

......... this just got good!!

Frog fishing and be exhilarating and heartbreaking all at the same time. To the OP, first you have to confirm the bass has indeed taken the frog. Is this a hollow body frog, or soft plastic frog? If its a HB frog, confirmation of a bass taking your frog after a miss is when you squeeze the frog. Does it pee water? If it does, then the bass are taking your frog. A couple of things quickly come to mind. Are your hooksets solid? You have to set the hook pretty hard when you use a frog. Are your hooksets vertical? Hook setting to the side can result in more misses. Lastly, after the initial hit, confirm your frog is gone before you set the hook. Many times you see a huge explosion but the bass for whatever reason missed the frog. Make sure the frog has disappeared before you swing for the fences. Trust me when the hookset is solid you will feel the difference. You will feel the whole weight of the fish when you drive the hooks home. Keep at it, and good luck.

Nice report. I've been meaning to get down there to Aquia. Don't overlook buzzbaits and soft plastic frogs rigged weedless.

A channel cat of similar length will typically weigh around 2 1/4 or 2.5 pounds. Regardless of what it weighs it's an above average bullhead for sure.

However is comfortable to you. My pinkie is the only finger behind the reel seat for me.

I really like my Scorpions. I like them just as much as my Aldebarans and Metaniums, if not more. The Scorpion gives little ground to either reel for $100 beens off. Brian.

I often use a 5'6" pistol grip rod for wormin' & spinnerbaitin' using one hand to cast. Old school basser...

I have several *** and love em...especially foe the price Dont touch an ***...i touched one once and now i own two...

The only way you are going to change the homeowners associations position is to try to have someone from Virginia Game and Inland Fisheries present a program on pond management to the entire membership and follow the conservation officer's recommendations. After hearing the presentation the membership can consider what to do regarding good pond management, if anything at all. If VG&IF will not present a program on pond management then you will have to find a professional pond management company or call Virginia State University's fisheries department to find someone willing to meet with your association members. Otherwise, no matter what you say or do the neighbors will stick to the catch and release position.

Neil Young, Jim Morrison.. I'm serious, I'm really done

I come across mudfish often. Although I do not prefer catching them, I also don't have any ill will against them either. I really hate it when people kill so called "trash fish" just because they happen to catch a different species of fish that was not there target fish .

If you are having tremendous luck, then just keep on keeping on.

I own 2 champions and 1 extreme. They're nice rods, but I'd never pay retail for them. I hate to say it, but they aren't worth it. People are paying for the name. That's my opinion anyhow.

You never know how a rod will turn out based on price. I have a boat load of customs and a lot of them are built on the Rainshadow RX7 blank, which I believe was the cheapest graphite blank Rainshadow had at the time. The sensitivity of that blank is better than most production rods IMO, even $250+ rods. It was definitely way more sensitive than a Dobyns Champion at about half the sticker price. Some cheaper blanks can just be special, so all those discounting this rod already because of price...don't. Look what *** did with the ***.

Headache small price to pay for peace of mind that comes from the knowledge that vampires will steer clear now.

I know that this is a bass forum, but if I have a situation where that many carp are actively feeding, I'd be targeting the carp. They fight much harder than bass and are usually much bigger. It is not uncommon to see 20+ pound carp. Imagine the fun in fighting those fish!

80-85% of my casting is done with one hand it's easy if y'all would let rod do the casting!

It was caught from the bank but this is the biggest bass for me this year. DD caught on a 4'' swimbait in a neighborhood while on vacation on Fl. The biggest lost bass would have been my biggest to date. We were fishing Lake Toho the same week I caught the one in the neighborhood and it was early morning . I watched the bobber go down and set the hook and the battle was on. The boat was getting slightly turned by the bass. The fish made one last ditch effort to change directions and when it surfaced it was curled up and the football gut was showing in a big way. The guide said that's a 12+ lb fish and I don't doubt it he's been guiding Toho for 30 plus years and many DD come out of there . Unfortunately after changing direction and trying to make a dash for the grass nearby the big girl got off. That was within the first 5 minutes of fishing that day and it wore on me for quite a while. I have a picture of a giant bass the guide's client caught the next day in practically the same spot that went 13.5...could of been a different fish who knows.

Yes. It is made for flotation. It's also quite rigid, made the floor very nice and sturdy.

As others have said, I was really disappointed with the NRX 822s SYR (I just didn't find this any more sensitive than my GLX Shakeyhead Rod). However, with how unimpressed I was with the SYR, I was extremely impressed with the NRX 822s DSR. With that being said, all I have ever used my NRX 822s DSR is drop shotting and I have used weights from 1/8oz up to 3/4oz. With the tip on this rod, it easily fishes those lightweights and with the strong butt section of this rod, the 3/4oz. maybe pushing it, but you can still use it. With the question you posed (as far using it for drop shotting, shakeyhead, and lightweight tubes), I would seriously consider the NRX 852s JWR. If I can only bring one spinning rod with me that can cover a lot of techniques, it would be this one. For as much as I love the DSR, I just don't think that tip is stout enough for shakeyheads and tubes (even though I do think it has enough backbone for those techniques). Now if you add a second NRX to the line-up, get the DSR and just have it dedicated to drop shot as your 852s JWR could handle the shakeyhead, tube, senko, light T-Rig, soft jerkbait, etc. duties. Good luck in your search and in the end, any NRX will be the right choice (except maybe the 822s SYR).

Quick update: I found a guy who let me demo his 7'1" MH E6X for a morning of fishing. I had handled them in bass pro but I was glad I got the chance to fish with it. It was sensitive. I never had to wonder what my jig was doing or when I had a bite. The fit and finish was nice and the soft tip loaded well and made for accurate casting. There was only a few things I did not care for. It seemed the reel nut seemed to work itself loose a little so I kept checking it eveyr so often. The contoured handle wasn't the most comfortable for me. The rod was a little heavier and balanced a little further forward then I was used too but it wasn't anything I couldn't get accustomed to. Overall I really like the rod and was really glad I was able to fish with the rod. I went to bass pro yesterday to pick up an E6X. My bass pro had a bunch of rods on sale as part of a "rod riot" and had 1 Duckett 7'MH micro magic for $119. I played around with it and asked one of the associates if I could put a Revo SX on it (weights the same as my Lews) and walked out with the Duckett. I got to fish the Duckett this morning and caught several bass in the 2.5-3.25 lb range. I really like the Duckett. It seems more sensitive then the Loomis and is very light. I need more time on the water with the rod but so far I am glad I picked up the Duckett. The only thing I do not like about the Duckett is the bait hanger. Its fine for a jig but I was looking at adding another micro magic or ghost for carolina rigs and the closed bait hanger doesn't allow me to keep my hook in my bait and put it on the hanger. Its a minor issue that I can probably work around.

I agree 100% and I've never understood why every dobyn's thread always makes someone angry because of an opinion that is posted on them. I've never seen any other thread ever that brings out the anger like dobyn's threads. Never understood why though. EDIT....TackleTour's review agreed with this also saying that the down side to champions was it was over priced. Quote from TT "- Considering some manufacturers are offering rods outfitted with SiC guides for under $200, just a little on the high end of the price curve" I have been attacked for saying this for over two years and now the majority is starting to say the same thing.

Oh yea!!! Calm, hot sunny Summer days can really shut down the bite.

Attached - 1) Pic of buddy"s father-in-law w/ +10 pounder. 2) One of the larger dozen or so fish you'll catch over 2 hrs or so. All below 2 pounds.

I fish it with 7 pound Sunline Super FC Sniper and it performs as expected.

Unfortunately, like you mentioned earlier, the residents will not understand. The good news however, is you and your buddy have a lake with little to no lake pressure at all. Best of luck to you and welcome to BR.

Sirsnookalot is the best advice. Scrounger jig with soft plastic ( Flukes or Sluggo) was invented for surf fishing using basic fresh water type rods & reels. If you choose to use fresh water tackle make sure it's OK for salt water or rinse if off with fresh water after fishing. You don't need bait for most surf fish, some it works better and that depends on the type critters the fish are eating locally. Tom

Do you mean 1/3 oz?

I'm assuming that you mean the 1000xt scorpion. Its specialty is light baits. I was effortlessly casting and pitching a weightless wacky jackall flickshake long distances a couple of weekends ago. Its the same reel as the Chronarch 50 so its one of the smallest profile reels available. Once you go shimano 50, you won't go back lol

Get the scorpion while the current model is still available. Its an all time great.

I'm going to reserve judgement until I get my hands on one. I want to be cautiously optimistic but Dobyns does not have a good track record of sensitivity relative to price. However, sensitivity is just one aspect of a rod's performance. I just wish they would do something with the locking nut and threads; that ECS seat + metal hood and uncovered nut just murders my fingers.

Thank you Mr. Peabody... ;-)

Dan Hoover from Hemet caught the 18.5 lb bass, April 2012. The article in WON didn't disclose what size or color the Chug Bug was? Giant bass on a top water, amazing.Tom

Carpet is glued down and cut. All that is left is the foremost hatch (don't care about it right now) and the battery (tomorrow). "Tim's Lucky 7" will have her maiden voyage this weekend! I can't wait to get 'er out there!

This. Unlike most topwaters, you can't change the cadence, only the speed. With hard body baits you can change both the speed and cadence including dead still.

A buzz bait. It does only one thing.

I just returned from Beanown, hilarious I literally lol'd Even managed to pass tea through my nose. Oh btw don't ask for regular coffee at a restaurant, regular is cream and sugar not black.

The Banjo Minnow Doug Hannon's Snake Bill Dance's Dancin Eel Et al I don't care the circumstance, don't catch anything but anglers.

Any chance during that conversation did he mention the word "Flashabou"? lol The papers would have to be dug out of someones collection of old relics.

Yes that will work. Got everything and I mean everything painted up. Before After It's all glossy gray now! Hope the shine doesn't make me crazy out on the water. Anyways, she's going to sit and cure for 2 days before I lay the carpet but she's pretty much done save for some small cabinetry-type work up in the very front. Exhausted but very excited. Can't wait to get this beauty wrapped up!