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Looking forward to using it but plan on cracking it open to see what is inside it first.........

Took a few shots to compare the 12 to the 16 DC , no question the 16DC is lighter and smaller than the 06 DC....

I'm with John on this. If you spend $200 and up, you're gonna get a good piece of gear, that with regular maintenance, will give you years of fine sevice; no matter who made it, or where. In terms of gear quality, these are the good old days. Our rods, reels, lines, baits, electronics, etc, are all so much better than what we were all using 20 years ago. I'd like to see what's in store 20 yeras from now. Or 50 years. One of these days soembody will make a baitcaster that will cast a 1/32oz bait, never backlash, hold 300 yards of whatever line you want, have 82 pounds of drag, weigh less than 3 ounces and cost 50 bucks. And you know what will happen? Somebody will complain about it.

I warned everyone the fish are getting bigger at DOCO and that it was going to take 8-10 pounds to win

Its ironic that you have both a male and a female connector there.

I'm no expert but judging by your picture maybe you're loosing fish because you forgot to take the first fish off the lure before you caught the second one.

The fish have been in a funk over the last month in this pond, and I've gone three times and basically got skunked, although I saw five to six fish in the five pound range on beds. The other day, they were biting just about anything I threw. Caught about 10 on a red Red Eye Shad, caught one and lost three on a Yum Dinger t-rigged, one on a jig, and then the lunker of the day came on a Big Joshy Swimbait and weighed 4.5 lbs. All in all, fantastic day on the water. The dang sideways pic thing is annoying me to death lol

The flat knurled screw under the DC is your new "spool tension adjustment". They have eliminated the conventional spool tension knob and replaced it with this . It was a little stiff at first but after I used a screwdriver it loosened and can be adjusted with your fingers.

The only thing lower class than that is drinking drano and smoking found snubbed cigarettes.

I would use either to wind the line up on my plug knocker.

I completely agree. There was a time back a few years when politics and religious discussions were allowed here. After a couple of years, it became apparent that these topics were divisive by nature, especially in this format. There are many other forums where you can have your say about anything that flips your switch, using whatever language that makes you happy. Glenn and the others have done a great job of making this an interesting and informative place. I like the mix here. If I have a fishing related question or want to know what bait or tackle is hot I can find out here. If I need info on the where to find the best scrapple, music, bigfoot photos, or many other necessary things, I can probably find answers here as well.

I did forget to mention, I bought all 19 of the good Shimano reels...lol. Hootie

I saw this banner at the top of the page here on BR and though i admit i usually don't pay attention to them, it caught my attention for some reason or another.... anyways, seems like a pretty dang solid deal that would bring the line down to a pretty reasonable price! buy 2 spools (200 yd) and mail in the rebate form, UPCs and receipt for a 3rd spool, FREE! so maybe find some on sale somewhere and buy you 2 spools and then get a 3rd free! http://seaguar.com/promotion/tatsu/Tatsu-BOG2-Offer.pdf

The ones whining and spewing vitriole the most about Shimano quality haven't touched one in over a decade. Any point points made, are irrelevant, and are hopefully dismissed by most readers. You have weed through forum posts. I'm not a Shimano guy, but most of the complaints or arguments against don't make much sense. Why? Because they don't even use them. It's actually funny to read the stuff.

06 DC vs 16DC

It was a JC Bass Badges and Buds tournament. Which flathead? I caught a 65 pounder Friday on a finesse jig, then a 21.5 pounder Saturday during the tournament on a Ned rig.

All Curado's. I fish a lot, probably more scuffs than most guys like, but I keep them cleaned up so they keep doing what I need them to do.

I like my I's better than my E's. I have 4 E's I'll trade for I's if you like them better. 3 200E7's and 1 E5. The new 70 is the nicest reel I've owned and I'm planning on owning a few more.

i prefer mad dog 20-20 orange jubilee with my swisher sweets, but i'm a fairly sophisticated individual.... likely a little too high class for you raider!

This place is as friendly and inviting as it is because of the moderation here. Simple as that.

Well guys, I'm just now recovering from a long weekend of fishing. Went up to Toeldo Thursday at noon to prefish for the best 6. By 3:30 I had 12 fish for 52lbs. 8.07 was my biggest. Caught her on a Carolina rig brush hog. Friday, we caught about 75 fish, no nothing over 3lbs. Saturday the tournament begun and we caught a 5.5 and a 5 and a bunch of 2-3lb fish. Probably caught close to 100 fish total and our 12 we weighed went 37lbs which put us in 6th going into Sunday. Sunday we caught 75 fish or so, but no big bites. Only weighed in 28lbs and finished up in 10th place. Got a check to cover the weekend and had a good time, but big bites were few and far between his weekend for me. I caught one 6lb fish on a crankbait Thursday and never got another bite on it the rest of the trip.

A couple of years ago, I put up a post detailing my mistake experience with Tatsu. I won't get into the whole story, just say that the line frayed very very badly fished in rocks and brush, while the mono on two other rods showed no signs of similar wear fishing in the same places. I chalked it up to experience, and said to myself, self, don't buy any more of that stuff. I recently got a sample of this line to try again. Yesterday I decided to do some testing with a new BFS rod I built on an Immortal blank, an SS SV reel which I had just deep cleaned and polished, and a fresh spool of 10lb test Tatsu. Walked out on my dock and started casting. To my right is a large downed tree, and to my left is an even larger one. I spent about 90 minutes trying to screw up the line. I drug it over every piece of those trees I could cast into. Was throwing a fluke for a while, and then a jigworm. I even tossed the jigworm over a branch on purpose, then jigged it up and down a while trying to damage the line. It held up very well during all of this; showing no signs of the problems I had seen during my previous experience with this line. I use two knots to tie on baits; a SD jam knot for baits with treble hooks, and a palomar for everything else. I tried both, and both seem to hold well. I got the jigworm hung up good with both knots. The palomar broke when I tried to pull it loose. The SD knot held, and I broke off a decent sized piece of branch. This line is stronger than it's rated 10lb test. And, it holds a knot better than other fluoro lines I've tried. I put another reel in my vest pocket before going out. I wanted to try a slightly heavier reel, with a different profile, on this new rod, so I had an Alphas with 10lb mono. I decided I like the SS SV better for this rod. And I decided I like Tatsu better than mono for these contact baits. It has a little better feel for what's on the end of your line than mono. Not a night and day difference, but a real improvement. So, I have to eat my earlier words. I'm going to try this on more of my contact combos. I see no point in buying line this expensive for moving baits, but I can see myself using this line more for the feel techniques. Now is good time for me to try this. They are running a buy two, get one free promotion, which I will be taking advantage of. A spool each of 8, *** will let me rig up about half of my contact combos. I'm not going all in just yet, but i'm gonna give it a good long try this year.

been keeping my big fish streak alive, 6.4lbs on a 8.5 inch glide bait

Shimano makes lots of reel models. I don't understand the desire to judge the whole line on the Curado. The Curado B was a workhorse reel never intended to be the standard bearer of refinement. The E to G was an attempt to get back to that. People came unhinged after being spoiled in a sense by the E so out comes the redesigned I. To get maintain the workhorse price point and deliver some level of refinement something has to give. Labor savings looks like one and certain materials. On the material side, there have been lots if refinements over the years in plastics, graphite and others. Metal parts and heavy hardware give an air of quality but are overkill in some ways. As a tech, dealing with light and soft hardware is a pain though.

well of course... because it will likely be outsourced to Mars, and we all know how those lazy Martians have no Quality Control....

I used to be a pretty fanatical bass fisherman. Would really work at studying conditions, lures, presentations and tactics. It worked. I caught more and larger fish then than I do now but there is one huge difference. I enjoy fishing more now than I did back then. It used to be about 'success' now it's about enjoyment. I love being out on the water on a beautiful day. I love bass lures. I love casting them I love getting bites. and I love catching them, but not at the expense of enjoyment. I'm getting old, and I don't care.

I hate mail in rebates.....lol

I think the bi-weekly big bass thing is a good fill in for those that want to fish every week. If everyone is good with paying to enter the fish-off, then next year we'll know to do it every week and not worry if someone can't make it.

Come on, get off the carpet, and give your trolling motor foot a rest once in a while, live a little.

I can't hardly make a trip this year without doing this it seems. Hurt even worse that it was during a tournament again.

From the Home Page: http://www.bassresource.com/fishing/pro-tips-tricks.html

Thanks, here are two more pictures of that bass... WolfyBrandon

Don't think so much about seasons. You are almost in the tropics, so weather patterns don't last for long periods. You will sometimes have heat in the winter, rain in the dry season, wind in the winter, dead still in the summer, several major spawns a year, and an occasional hurricane. The traditional seasons that govern bass patterns are not here. Think more about how fishing patterns adjust to the short term weather conditions, and the controls of the government. Is there a front coming from the north. Has it rained hard north of the lake, from Orlando south, so water levels are rising quickly, and keep rising for weeks. Wind draws current on this shallow lake, where is the clean water going to be. Corp of Engineers is releasing large amounts water west to the gulf. What will this do to the patterns. This info is found all off the web. Weather alone is not the only factor, man controls the lake in a big way, and they have screwed it up several times recently. It is a very complex lake to learn and consistently do well. The ones that are the most successful fish it regularly, and have a network of contacts that share their knowledge. It will be a fun learning experience if you can fish it at least once a week. The lake does not follow the normal patterns you will find reading seasonal facts from a bass magazine. These Florida bodies of water like Poga, Kissimmee, Toho, are a real challenge for some of the most successful pros on the tour. Good luck, it is always enjoyable to be on the O even if your not catching them. It is a special place!

Looks like I shoulda' stayed on shore with Jigger, I got skunked! I ended up hooking two fish today but lost both. Had about a 2# LM on a chatterbait come off as I was trying to lip him and lost a little smallmouth on a swimbait. Water temps were only mid 40's today, coldest water I've ever fished so I had no idea where to go or what to do. I did end up finding some fish both deep and shallow but couldn't get bit. There were a bunch of fish on the edge of the main channel right next to the Thruway and guys were catching fish there but I hated fishing right next to the busy road so I left after a few minutes. I work in a noisy factory and like some peace and quiet when I go fishing. I'm sure I could have caught some if I'd stayed but I just hated being right next to the thruway like that. The other place I found fish and somewhere some of you guys should check out was Beaver Island Marina on Grand Island. That was full of fish of every species but I couldn't get bit there either. If anybody goes focus on the left (if you're on shore) side where there are holes in the break wall letting current in. Fish were stacked up in there but there was so much bait in there nothing would bite. There were thousands of those orange finned shiners or shad or whatever they are along with every sucker in the river but I also so a lot of perch, bass and a few pike. Might be worth a look for somebody. I really didn't plan on fishing much today anyway so any time I did get was just a bonus. I was just tuning my electronics and making sure everything was cool with the boat (it was). Next trip will probably be Silver Lake for pike but it may be awhile, lotta' stuff to do at home right now. Here's the highlight of my day, a bald eagle sitting in a tree next to its nest on Strawberry Island. Too cool.

I just recently purchased 5 new Shimanos and couldn't be happier. The Mentanium Aldebaran and Conquest HG are IMO the best of the best. There the only reels I will be putting on my rods.

Here you go MaineBass, Sorry the pic came from a friends phone. Fish came from Winni the other Sunday.

I have 3 G series Citicas that I have been using almost exclusively this season. I think, so far they are great little reels. They are performing flawlessly. I still have my Cores, my E series Chronarchs and Curado 50e's, my Curado i's, my Calcutta 100b's. Stradic 2500fj, and Sahara 3000,...blah....blah....blah. Shimano....Shimano. Hootie

The G series I don't really care for a whole lot even though I've never had any trouble with them. I guess just the look of it I don't really like. As far as the I series I think it is the best curado yet.

I think the I series is the best one I've used for a while. The E is undoubtedly good, the G had its issues (I personally never had any), but I've used an I since the year it came out, multiple times a week, for various techniques and it's still the one I reach for before any others.

I'm going to hell for sure. Here it is Mother's Day weekend coming up. You'd think I'd be shopping for gifts for my wife and mom. Nope I've ordered a rod, reel and some worms and jigheads to start trying a Shaky head worm. I got the bug bad....

Take your whole bag for a few trips. What ever you use, put in an empty box. Now build your inventory from those few baits.

Well, this is a bass fishing forum.

I see Dwight on here liking posts, but keeping his mouth shut. He must know some secrets!!!

Trip #17...............With no work today due to the rain the last few days, I hemmed and hawed about going until about 10am, knowing that I would have to be home by 3 to pick the kids up from school. Hit the water about 10:30, and it was DEAD for 2+ hours. I switched sides of the lake, and about 1pm they started biting. It was more of a numbers affair today with most all the fish under 3lbs.....................except one hog that went 5-13. I caught 14 between 1 and when I had to leave at 3, as well as a dozen more pike. The bass were an even mix of largemouth and smallmouth, and with the exception of the 6lber, only another pair of largemouth were pushing or over 3lbs. The smallmouth were all 2 lb clones. Everything on a jerkbait today. The smallmouth and pike just about ripped the rod out of my hands, while the largmouth, including the big one, bit very very subtle, and at the end of a long pause. It was hard to settle in on what to do today with that jerkbait, either rip it and catch smallies and pike, or soak it and catch largemouth..........so I did a little of both, and caught a little of both. And now, once again, terrible, unflattering, pictures of said 5-13:

Went to the pond for a short spell on Sunday until the rain and lightning pushed me off, but managed a couple bites and one bass. Missile Baby D Bomb and the 4" pumpkinseed senko were the baits of choice. Last night i went back and managed 4 bass and had 3 jump me off (one of which was between 3 and 4 pounds ). However, they did not seem to care for the 4" pumpkinseed, but instead wanted the 5" sprayed grass senko, which they were tearing up! I picked up a new spinnerbait rod last friday from BR member @Grantman83 and was trying to force them to eat the spinnerbait, but it just wasn't happening. So instead i was going with the flow and sticking them on the phenix recon 683 (4" senko) and switched it up and tossed the t rigged baby d bomb and the 5" wacky senko on the DX703c I picked up a couple weeks ago from BR member @kickerfish1 ... and FYI, both are good guys to deal with! noticed the top jaw was broken on this one guy so i can only assume someone else had caught him and used some kind of Hercules hookset on the little guy....

No, I don´t agree with you, actually they have improved light years away, for example, the G series that apparently nobody likes is a much better reel than a B series will ever be. I do have my favorite series, the D series is to me the best ever Shimano BCs.

Keep in mind that someone addicted to heroin isnt likely to become a "rockstar" on the job because you spoke to him or he was threatened wirh losing his job. He's more likely to do more heroin, just sneakier.

I love fishing in the spring, spinnerbaits with a fling! I love pitching in the brush, Rat-L-Traps in a rush! I love that big bump when ya flip by a stump! I love flying across the lake, the sound a 2-stroke makes! I love fishing in the grass, kicking bass's axx! I love Hawgs on a bed, trying to hit em on the head! And I love twins

You did not mention what type of hook you were using Single, Double Or Treble. Rusting out in freshwater takes a while. You could mash down the barbs - that would facilitate easy removal. You could utilize a pair of pliers to assist you with extra hook removal power. You could even use this ~ That would definitely be pretty good. A-Jay