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Came home today, my girlfriend and daughter had a present for me. She didn't want to be in the picture, but that's my PB, only 4.26 lbs but she was proud of it and so am I. I love my girls!!!

I need to stay out of the LATEST DEALS thread and self-impose a time out. I was pleasantly surprised how good these look and have to give them a try KVD Magic Ochos have been hot around here and figured I'd give flukes a break and try Damiki Definitely have enough jerkbaits now. Maybe. Hopefully. Never really spent much time with buzzbaits and figured this year it's time Definitely didn't "need" this but I found it with a nice steep discount and figured my drinks and lunch will be extra cool now.

Here's my first MGL. Going to use this for swim jigs, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. I have to find a rod for it though!

Apparently I got wind of the Walmart sale just a little late.

Having fun with a Gan Craft jointed claw 178 SS.

Don't let the small size fool you into thinking the Ned rig is a small fish only bait. I won a tournament last year with a Ned rig, and I've even won big bass in a tournament with a Ned rig.

Fox408 First Welcome to Bass Resources. There are a bunch of rod makers and probably just as many members who have their favorite ones. But you said you live in central KY. If so, you have several Dobyns rods and Powell rod dealers in your area. The G Loomis rods are okay, but there are better options in my opinion for their price. If you read any of my other postings I often say that I do not like to suggest beginner gear to anyone because you will end up upgrading and losing money by doing it. So try to refrain from the Abu Max and Berkley combos. I fish a couple of Berkley's, but these are not stepping up much from you current stuff. For me they fill a need. When I fish fall stripers I need 4 rods with different brand and weight rattle traps. I can not afford $1200 worth of crankbait rods! LOL As I said lets not buy cheap gear, but this does not mean you need to but expensive gear either. So here is a long winded answer to your call for assistance. First, in Lexington KY there is a Sportsman Warehouse. I doubt is too far from you to make a trip to. They sell Dobyns and Powell Rods. Gary Dobyns makes really nice rods. He makes 5 lines of rods. One of these is called the Fury series. These rods sell for $110 each. Gary worked 2 years to develop these rods. He insisted they have a high quality blank and very good quality components. Most of all, is the attention to detail on these rods, it is exactly the same as his highest end rods. I have several friends changing over to these. Take the trip and put some of these rods in your hand. By the way I travel out to KY semi annually to fish Dale Hollow Lake, so I have a bit of knowledge of the waters you could be fishing. My wife and I love Dale Hollow and some other TN lakes as well. Lets start with your spinning rod. The reel you have is a great one. Match it up with a Dobyns Fury FR 703SF. It will be a dynamite combo to use with Sencos, texas riggs up to 1/2 ounce, small jigs or tubes, grubs, all the finesse stuff. You can also drop shot with it for now, but maybe add a FR 702 SF to handle the lighter action baits later on. Make sure you add Sencos, shakey heads, Kalin 5 inch Lunker grubs and Ned Rigs to your arsenal of baits. All of these work out there. Now for baitcasters start with a Fury FR 705CB. Again $110. It is one of Gary's best selling rods in all his series. This 7 foot medium heavy moderately fast tipped rod will allow you to fish small to mid sized crankbaits, rattle traps, jerkbaits, square bills and even some spinnerbaits. This is a workhorse of a rod. Next you want a bottom contact rod for bigger texas rigs, jigs, carolina rigs, larger spinnerbaits if you want to slow roll a big bladed spinnerbait in the winter, or even some topwater baits, then a Dobyns Fury FR 734C would be your do it all rod. This is a very versatile weapon. Gary makes lots of great rods that fit many specific techniques and a situations. What I have done here is try to give you a group of rods that will allow you to fish the most techniques with the fewest rods. If you go this way, then in the future you could add rods to fit your specific fishing environment. Perhaps you would add a second spinning rod. It could be FR702SF or perhaps if you fish close quarter targets like boat houses and docks then maybe you step up to a Sierra SF 692 or 693, they are 6'9" rods in s more sensitive line called the Sierras. They run $169. Make sure you add baits like the Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers to your arsenal. I fish a lot of them when I fish out there. We usually rig them using on either belly weighted swimbait hooks or the special swimbait jig heads like the ones Picasso sells. They are a fish head shaped jig on a good strong hook. Also add some good jigs and swim jigs. There are tons of good trailers but when I am out there I like a sungill or shad sorta look with some type of brown, white or greenish grub or swimbait for a trailer. Man those big smallies like them. Perhaps you later decide you want a rod better suited to throwing the smaller spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, small paddle tail swimbaits etc. If so then consider a Fury FR 703C or 733C. You could decide you want a flipping pitching rod, then the FR 765 Flip works great, especially if you fish some river sections and have grass to deal with. If you want a frog rod to fish over heavy grass their FR 735C is also good for frogs and flipping and pitching jigs. I guess I forgot to mention I also like the Powells and their lineup is pretty similar. I wonder why? The answer is both of the owners of Dobyns and Powell are friends and have worked together for years. Okay I hope this gives you a place to start. Let me know if I can answer anything else as you digest it. It may help to bring up the Dobyns rods website and read along with that up to refer to. There are plenty of good reels to match them up with, Bass Pro has its Pro Qualifier on sale for $50, Diawa Tatula CTs are available online for $100 shipped. These are terrific reels. Also the Daiwa Excelers can be found online for $75 and again these reels are great. I fish some of all of these.

NEVER DO THIS ! Ever. A-Jay

The guy behind the counter probably tells everyone that because he is probably a fan of Lews reels.

sorry, but this old timer is totally confused by all these different rigs. plus special rods to fish them. I have never tried any of them. my go to bait when the bite is tough is a 1/8 oz ball head or football head with a four inch finesse worm. I have caught everything from bluegill to muskie. never needed to change to any other rig. yeah, I know I'm behind the times, but it's easier to just hook a worm on a jig and be done with it, instead of trying to decide which of the many rigs to go with. personally, I don't think the fish really care. put the lure where the fish are and you will catch. when I need to keep the lure off the bottom I will go with a drop shot. if you feel confident in a certain rig, great, but I think it's more about the confidence then the rig itself.

Enjoyed the 74 degree Ohio weather yesterday, caught a few bass, but this bluegill almost ripped the rod outta my hands!

i was fortunate enough to do some more bait testing today with Chris (CJ on here). Chris is one of the best people walking on this planet and a bassin' phenom. but with a 30 degree temp swing (for the worse), we both figured the day would be very tough. as y'all know, post cold front fishing can humble you and make you question your sanity in a hurry. honestly neither of us would have been shocked to reel in a big fat goose egg today. initially it looked like that was exactly what was going to happen. but as the day wore on some small fish started chomping. by evening things were looking up. we finally got the bite we were looking for as the sun sank below the tree line. this chunky 6-14 made for a nice way to end our day. unfortunately it looks like we must continue this drudgery until we get these baits right.

I added this part into the initial post of this thread as well for future search purposes. Actual Testing on the Water Before I begin, let me explain what I dealt with on Saturday here in western PA whenever I tested these reels. It was 55* and raining first thing in the morning, by noon whenever the rain stopped, it was 39* and the wind was blowing 20+ mph constantly. I spooled both reels up in the morning and headed out after lunch once the rain stopped. I fished a local pond about 5 acres in size from the bank. The water was the color of chocolate milk and was probably in the low 40's in temperature. 151HG: I spooled this reel up with the new P-Line Tactical fluorocarbon in 15lb. test and I mounted it onto a St. Croix LTB 7'1" Med. - fast action rod. I tied on a 1/4oz. finesse jig with a matching craw trailer. I pitched and casted this bait and had no issues at all. I didn't adjust any of the internal brakes and I turned my external brake dial to 3. I didn't catch any fish on this setup. 151: I spooled this reel up with Sunline Defier mono is 13lb test and I mounted it onto a St. Croix Avid 7' Med - fast action rod. I threw a mix of a Mann's baby 1- (1/4oz), #08 Rapala Husky Jerk (1/4oz), a 1/4oz. Rat-L-Trap, and a 3.8" Keitech SIF with a 1/4oz jig head. So overall, some pretty light stuff. Again, I didn't adjust any of the internal brakes and I turned my external brake dial to around 3-3.5. This setup casted all of these lures perfectly fine other than the #08 Husky Jerk. The Husky Jerk was too light and caught too much of the gusting winds and I had some backlash problems whenever casting into the wind, or across the wind. Had it not been so cold and windy, I probably would have opened the reel up and adjusted the internal brakes to accommodate this lure, but instead I just changed baits. I ended up catching two fish on this setup, both around 12-13". One on the baby 1- and the other on the Keitech swimbait. Granted these fish weren't huge, but the reel remained smooth under load and I had no problems getting both of them in. Overview: Overall I was impressed with these reels, as I am with most of Shimano's higher end offerings. Pitching and casting was effortless. Distance was great. Handling was great. The new 90mm handles are much appreciated and comfortable. The overall size is comfortable to palm and the weight on these rods made for a nice, light setup that was well balanced. My only complaint that I have is in regards to the external brake dial. On both of my MGL's the dial is very tight and difficult to turn. The dials on my Curado's, Metaniums, and old ci4's were very easy to turn with just the touch of the finger. These new one's seem to need me to dig in a fingernail to adjust them or to press much firmer with my finger to turn them. I don't know if these will just need some break in time, or if Shimano changed these up because people were complaining of adjusting them accidentally??? This isn't a huge deal breaker for me because I usually find my Shimano's need a range of 2-4 on this dial anyways, so I'm never really changing them too much.

Water temperature has dropped seven degrees in the last two days, bringing the temperature down to 46. I surprisingly caught fifteen bass in a little over two hours yesterday, despite the massive cold front. Found them on deep docks and the eight to ten foot drop about fifty feet off of several points, hugging brush piles in the break line. All of the bass hit a 3/32 ounce jig with half of a zinkerz, I tried a jig to reduce hang ups in the brush but they wouldn't take it.

fat ika is one of my favorite baits to skip under docks.

OP... I recommend you pick up a handful of Charlie Brewer's classic Spider jig heads in 1/8oz, 3/16oz and 1/4oz. along with a few of your favorite green pumpkin or black 4" finesse worms. Practice Charlie's suggested retrieves, find some of your Wisconsin smallmouth and enjoy. If need be you can pinch off an inch of the worm. oe

Actually, it's a bison.

Naw I'm in there, when I created my account I was a huge Iaconelli fan so I think my username is "ikefanhere" or some crap like that. Ended up in 47th percentile. Looking back, do I wish I had picked Tharp and Hackney? Yeah, but then again I swung for the fences this tournament and played "go hard or go home." I went home and I'm picking up the pieces for the classic. Might do better to just do a random generator for all my luck on Okeechobee haha. I think I played the game of overanalyzation for this last one. I found this really neat website that has a statistics on every angler you can think of so I did a ton of background research and was convinced that all my picks had a great chance of a top 50. That's fishing for you. For the classic, remember that the field is cut almost in half - maybe not quite. But having a guy in the top 50 is nothing. If your picks don't end up 25th place or better, it's a poor showing. Good luck on this next one guys!

Don't you dare, I insist on paying all shipping charges

Here are some random pics. Was first looking at the TM Pro Team 175s, but the Lowe was much nicer so I had to pick one up. Will be picking the boat up next week after the Maxxum 70 + Extra battery gets put in and the custom cover is made. Once I get her in the garage I'll be putting on a Garmin Echomap 93sv w/ GT52, RAM 6" swing mount, Stern Saver Mount for transducer, troll perfect / Coolfoot on Maxxum 70 and a Minn Kota 315D charger. Later on down the road I'll get a good buttseat, but usually I just stand all day. Should have everything she will need for Spring.

You don't want flouro for frogs. If you are looking for a line to do all you asked then I'd recommend 30# braid. If you take frog fishing off the list I'd use 20# Shooter. Mike

Wow, that is a great reel for the money. Anyone in the market for a reel should consider the curado 200i. I have 4 of them and am very pleased.

I'm not a beginner but I still use two of these for moving baits. I have a 6-6 MH and a 6-6 M as well as a newer spinning 7' M. I'll replace them at some point but they're tough and light and get the job done. The cork on the foregrips is starting to come apart on the casting rods after 10 years of heavy use.

I have been wearing that exact model of PFD from Cabelas for 7 years now - I wore the first one for 3 years, then re-armed it and wore it for another 3 years. Then at the 6 year point I bought a new one. The original unit would have still worked OK, but it had been worn for about 2,000 hours on the water and was fairly grungy with sweat, sunblock, etc. In those 7 years, I've never had an unintended inflation...but then I generally don't fish in HEAVY rain. The bobbin is inside the front of the vest, behind the clear window area. It shouldn't get direct rain...unless you are bending over of whatever and some moisture migrates upward... In regard to the highlighted part of your quote - ABSOLUTELY DO NOT WEAR THE PFD UNDER ANY OTHER GARMENT. You DO NOT want to have anything prevent the PFD from fully inflating. If you haven't tested your PFDs for inflation (using the manual inflate valve), then take a look at the photo - this is how BIG they are after inflation !

Probably because there's a new iteration Curado coming out. Shimano competes with Daiwa and vice versa...I don't think they're too concerned about Lews.

Lews are fine reels but I find the assertion that they have Shimano on the run kinda funny. You'll make yourself nuts trying to psycho analyze why corporations do what they do. Just jump on the best deal on the reel with the features you like.

new swimbaits

I didn't need to, but I upgraded some reels and a rod for my current setups. Even with the trade in program at BPS you can still see my wallet weeping in the background. Shimano Stradic CI4+ 6:0:1 Lews BB1 6:4:1 Ike Series cranking rod 7'3"

ALX Zolo B Maeatro with a Stadic FK. Finally got around to getting some photos of it.

Every bass fisherman should have a good scale along with a tape measure to measure the length and girth of a big bass. Never underestimate what you can catch from the bank, since people catch big bass from the bank all the time, and many of those bass are in the double digit category.

I just have to brag about this one, the rod pictured, built on a RodGeeks blank, was auctioned last night at the local educational advancement foundation fund raiser, and it brought $500 from a very generous man who had won the auction on one of my rods from an earlier year. Being close to Lansing, MI, the Michigan State theme rods are popular.

Thanks everyone!!

I saw those in another thread. I ordered them yesterday.

Great rods for the money. I bought a few of the Shocks for $17 apiece this winter. Haven't used them much yet but they've been nice so far.

So I was in a very similar situation a year ago. I fished but not often then moved to a location where I could fish more and yada yada yada now fish tournaments a year later. I went from an ok spinning set up and a silver max combo to a combination of 5 dobyns fury rods and Diawa Tatula/Ct/r reels along with my original setups. Add another few grand in tackle the last 12 months and here I am. I didnt go high end by any means but I kept my average over $200 and under $300 for the rod and reel. The more I fished the more I understood why rods have specific uses, sure you can pull double duty but you really get the full experience when you do it right. My thought is I can upgrade from here as I get better but I have enough to keep me in the game at this point.

Spinning: 6'9-7' Length Medium/X-Fast Baitcasters: 7ft Medium Heavy/Fast Heavy T-Rigs/Spinnerbaits/Lipless 6.4:1 Ratio 7ft Medium/Fast Soft Plastics/Smaller Topwater 7.1:1 Ratio 3rd rod I'd go with a cranking or flipping rod/reel For flipping I'd go with a high speed reel, cranking I'd go for a lower speed reel. In my opinion I'd say to get a little bit less expensive rods/reels and get more than those 4 set ups. When you really start to get into fishing, you'll see the importance of having rods/reels for each kind of technique. Keep each combo in the 250-300 range and you'll have a very nice fleet of rods and reels.

What kind of lures do you use most often? If you're going to expand to casting setups, you may consider relegating that spinning setup to line line and finesse techniques. Also an important question is if you primarily fish from a boat or the shore?

You can of course use a short leader. Short enough that it wouldn't have to go through the guides, especially for pitching.

Jon they are good entry level reels. My friend has been fishing with one for over two years now. There are a lot of fans of them. I have a problem in suggesting entry level gear you will want to upgrade from in a year or two. It kinda costs money in the long run. If you own one and were asking in order to know what to expect. They will hold up for a good while. It is a durable reel. If you do not own that reel yet, I suggest you look at a few other reels right now. First Bass Pro has the Pro Qualifier on sale for $50. It usually sells for $100. It is a much better reel for the money. It too has a big block of followers. Above that is the Daiwa Exceler reels which are vary nice reels. They sold for $100 just a few months ago but now are available online for around $75. Daiwa Tatula CTs can be found on line for $100 shipped to your home. These usually sell for around $130. These are all much higher quality reels. My friend is replacing his Black Max reels with Excelers and Tatula CTs.

They are all you you really need. I've evolved to enjoy some really nice equipment but looking back on all the rods that I own and have owned..... Some of the absolute biggest bass of my life were caught on these, with a lot of good memories as well. My ONLY gripe with them, ( I have a couple at our vacation spot) is that I've seen a couple reels seats break. But i don't know what one would/should expect for the price tag.

Finally got 1

Letting it all hang out because at 74 , time is running out: DAIWA J-Dream 7.9 on a Loomis GLX 781C. Dream is incoming from Japan and just bought the GLX from TW on sale for $199. Savings of $195 for the rod and J Dream was $285. My last HURRAH!! Mitch.

Here is what I acquired the past month. Needed to get more spinnerbaits and cranks. Grabbed the Berkeley 110s because they were half price.

No way! Man, I loved him in most the movies he was in. Hilarious as Chet, the older brother in Wierd Science.

Any "authorized" dealer is contracted to charge msrp which is why you won't see deals unless there is a factory promotion. I saved $400 on a Minn Kota buying it off amazon vs buying it from an authorized dealer. It is what it is.

SK series 5

Here are the two rods I have up at school with me. On top is a 6'2" avid with a lews tourney pro and on the bottom is one of walleye, crappie, and finese rods. A 6'6" Light Poison Adrena with a 1000 CI4+. Just about everything is opened up around here and then tonight we got snow and cold...bring on the spring!

Just a quick shot on the side of the river testing out my new rod Dobyns Sierra 703. This rod is easily one of the best balanced rods I have fished and the most sensitive that I have fished in the $200 price point. So very glad I took a chance on this rod.

All cleaned, shined and polished!