retiredbosn

I may not be the best source of information on this subject. I had the mojo series crankbait rod, it was a complete dud and dead stick. I hated it, was taking it back when in a fit of frustration I closed the hatch on the handle, so in the end I was out 100 bucks. lol. St. Croix has such a good reputation I would like to think that my experience was just a fluke, but my BPS Crankin Sticks were ten time the rod that one was.

I just purchased a Convergence rod, crankbait model, only used it at a pond to see how it felt. It was sensitive enough, could feel the crank, the bottom, grass, etc. Only time will tell how well I like it. It seems well made, has a lifetime over the counter warranty, and very reasonable. For 2012 the Convergence is rated as IM7 and Clarus IM8 as far as graphite content. I don't think you would go wrong with either, I would stay away from the xf but that is a personal preference, staying with a regular fast option will allow you to throw the lighter weights easier. Good luck

my last post on this topic, don't want a flame war or contention in the ranks 4.5billion years for the earth??? Must be reliying on radiation type dating the only way to date rocks. The basalt field in Hualalai basalt, Hawaii, was made in 1800-1801, yet radiometric dating puts the new basalt at 1.7 million years, pretty neat for a rock that's only 200 years old. A million is a huge number, just to give a time frame it takes over 117 years for 1 million hours to pass, kind of amazing to think that most ppl won't even live 1 million hours. I like redboats answer, sounds bout right, lol

We are the only ones to ask these questions, and many times, (most) we come up with the wrong answer. To believe the world is young or old is just that a belief, all of my biology books in college had words like "we believe, could have, seems to" all are words of conjecture and belief. To believe in a big bang and billions of years without documented empirical data is as much a leap of faith as to not believe that way. If all matter came from the same source and started at the big bang there is evidence that must be challenged or ignored to make it work. Laws of physics come into play and some are completely absent, if everything came from one explosion. The law of angular momentum comes to mind, this law states that if a mass is spinning,(which it must have been: think about planet rotation and orbits) and explodes then all particles from the mass will continue to spin in that direction. Yet there are planets and moons that spin on their axis west to east instead of east to west. There are so many instances that are ignored to make the argument that things just happened by chance over eons of time. Just never close your mind to possibilities when it comes to our being, our planet and animal kingdom. Evolution is still just a theory, all of it takes belief.

The easiest way I can think of for you to get a feel of how vibrations are transferred through a graphite rod vs your current 60's era fiberglass is to do the "throat test". My kids have this down pat, anytime I pick up a rod that I'm thinking about I turn to my 7 year old who takes the tip of the rod places it on his throat and hums, you will be amazed how the rod vibrates. I've had everyone from sales people to complete strangers do this for me, btw the deeper the voice the more the vibration transmits. There is a point that you will acheive max sensitivity, and there is no need to go higher in graphite content or price, sensitivity is really subjective, I have neuropathy in my hands and do not benefit as much as other ppl from this technology. The new technology used in rod manufacturing is something I would encourage you to investigate there are many more factors other than graphite content, guides, reel seats and glues comes into play when it comes to the sensitivity you feel. There aren't any industry standards when it comes to graphite content, example an IM7 or 30 million modulus doesn't really tell the whole story, you don't have any guarantee how much of that particular strain of graphite are in the rod. Example I have a BPS crankin stick that is a composite of graphite and fiberglass, but carries an IM6 graphite designation, definitely not a graphite rod, but BPS does include in the description that it is a composite, they were not doing a false advertising. Like you I didn't even know there were graphite rods until about 5 years ago, I was happy with my ultra lights and old glass rods that I had owned since the 70's, after my first experience with a decent graphite rod I went out bought one and I haven't looked back, I could tell when bluegills were nosing the rubber worm and a bass strike was like an electric shock. FWIW casting rods are much more sensitive for me than spinning, don't know why or if its even normal. Good luck and tight lines

Awesome, Congratulations!!!!

pickeral can be a blast to catch, seems like there is always more than one, and they are typically very eager to hit your offering.

According to Tackle Tour the differences between the two are negligible. The new Chronarch is the old Curado, the difference being in the gear ratio's, and the paint job. The Curado was available in 5:1 and 7:1 the Chronarch is is available in 5.5:1, 6.4:1 and 7:1. I have a Curado e5 and it's an awesome reel. Think I would save the cash and get the Curado.

I have used them, they are awesome especially early spring before they get their wings. They are also useful after the wings grow, smallies in streams will tear them up.

It was on the third day, in other words between 7-10 thousand years

Tackle Tour did a cranking reel shootout, put four reels through the paces. The final scoring, Quantum 4th, Diawa 3rd, Winch 2nd, and Shimano 1st. No lefties in the Curado though.

The citica at GM are the E series reels, not eligible for the $30 rebate, but a good deal nonetheless

I think you will be happy with your choice. I've have two Crankin Sticks very satisfied with them. I also I had one St Croix Mojo, the mojo is not a good example of the St. Croix line. Bottom line is that the rod is a dog, a dead dog, I've had broken rods with more sensitivity. On the other end of your crankbait set up, you will have to turn the handle of your E7 really slow, it is way to fast for lipped crankbaits. If you don't you will find that your crankbaits will not run true or they will roll. I hated crankbaiting until someone took the time to show me that the problem was my reels, at the time the slowest reel I had took up 28" of line, to be effective you need to be down to around 21-23 inches of line per turn. For me it is easier to speed up than slow down. Good luck

Growing up me and my uncle fished alot, I got on his nerves, a lot. He insisted that I would keep the boat straight while going through rapids on the river, I was more interested in casting to the eddies, lol. The time I flipped the boat changed that though, the biggest thing that really got him aggrevated was to cross his line. If he were a member of this site I think he would have a couple of pages about me. It was his and my aunt's influence that has kept me fishing all these years, now when we go, I make sure he gets the good water first, the only thing that bothers me is that now he is always wanting to crappie fish, but I think spending few days crappie fishin when I could be bassin every year is worth it. I guess it's time for me to repay the debt. He is in his 70's now and we get to go a few times every year, BTW I always make sure I cross his line a few times, just to keep him honest, lol.

The one thing that made me a better crankbait fisherman, note I said better not good. I left everything at home but my cranks and cranking rods, the reason was simple, I had so much confidence in my abilities with soft plastics that I would throw the cranks for a little while and then go back to my tried and true techniques. If you want to be a better cranker you got to crank.

I handle fish with "kid gloves", I think I've seen somewhere that the state of TX has a handling guide out, and in it they recommend grabbing the fish by the lip and then under the belly. here is the link http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/spdest/visitorcenters/tffc/sharelunker/handle/ With all of that said I've seen fish kept out of the water for about two minutes revived and released, and it did survive, it was in a small backyard pond, granted it was a small bass don't know if that makes any difference.

The only thing that would worry me about the rig is if the number of large bass are being caught that typically means that they are being kept. Even though we are in the era of catch and release, many anglers keep their biggest for the taxidermist. Too many fishermen are just not aware of the high quality fiberglass replicas now that make keeping the fish obsolete. Deplete the gene pool of the biggest fish and the result is a larger population of fish but of smaller size, which will take years to recover from, but then again you would need real world hard epirical data to find out.

Worst: Rubber worms won't catch fish!!!! Keep spawning females, the roe is great with scrambled eggs!!!! Best: Confidence is key to catching fish. Keep learning, but never forget the classic standards. (this one thing has helped me catch fish when I thought nothing would work, still keep white inline mepps spinners in the box)

The reason so many prefer the Curado E series over the G is that the G is a down grade. As evidenced by the fact that the only difference between the E series Curado and the new Chronarch is the paint job and some minor changes to the drag. Tackle tour has a great article on this, the E series was a drastic departure from the usual Curado and now that the Curado has been redesigned to reflect a more mid-grade reel, anglers are understandably searching out the last of the E series. Why not get the current Chronarch in a box that says Curado and save some cash?

the only bass available to me when I started fishing. I grew up on the Greenbrier and New Rivers in WV and largemouth are not native. When I discovered farm ponds and largemouth I started targeting them for a while, but I enjoy smallies the best. Now that I've moved to SC back to the green fish.

congrats, beautiful fish

I have three Abu Garcia EXT-Pro reels, they are awesome, smooth strong casts a mile, but they have 6.5 gear ratio, which translates to 30 ipt. I am wanting to re-gear this reel to a 5.3 or 4.7 range to get the ipt down in the low 20's. Does anyone know if there is a reel that the pinon gear and main gear wil linterchange with the Pro? Also is there a list somewhere that I can access to see which parts interchange with other reels? I can't find one on line. Thanks

Good gosh, where do I start, I've hooked myself lipping bass, knocked rods and reels into the drink, just about any mishap I've had. One particular bad week I wrote the following, I wrote this in 2009. I am very incident prone, not accident prone, rather incident. Things happen to me that are so unique and funny, that I sometimes wonder why me. Example, my float trip yesterday, we (my daughter and myself) put in around 7 am and everything was going good, caught a few fish, and decided to head down the river, through the first set of rapids the boat drags, nothing unusual. A few minutes later and we are sitting in the boat with water up past our ankles! The drag knocked the livewell compartment loose and of course the boat is flooding. We are to far down the river to go back, and there is nowhere to pull out until we get to Ronceverte. Fortunately the pressure inside equalizes with what is coming in and the flooding stops. No harm and we decide to keep fishing, the fishing is a little slow, and I decide to paddle down river and get to the submerged islands so we can fish. As we go through the last set of ripples before the islands and the wind catches us and pushes us up river! I try to row against the wind, no use, I stand and try to pole the boat down river, no success there either. As a last resort I get out of the boat and start pushing it down the river, of course I soak my cell phone, it is ruined, my wallet is wet, etc. I trip over rocks and cut my feet, I mean I can not win!!! On another outing with my son Lucas this spring, we go to Tuckahoe Lake to try and trout fish. It was a little chilly and we are sitting on the bank and I'm telling him stories. Well the bank collapses under us and there we go into the lake, it was freezing. Lucas is screaming, he was scared and cold, my cell phone ruined. So up the hill we go, I had a dry sweatshirt in the car and wrap him up, head back and get the chairs, rods, and everything. Get back to the car and Lucas says where is my trout, back over the bank, fall down, retrieve the fish and head home, it was cold the wind blowing like crazy and my lips were blue. Went to Anthony to trout fish, first cast hang up across the creek, nothing to do but wade across and get it, except the water is way to deep for that. So I head up the creek wade across at the rapids, fall, lose my sandals, stumble my way back down to retrieve my lure, I'm wet, shoeless and defeated, fall again in the mud. Did I mention that I was in full sight of a campsite, and by now the campers have all turned their chairs around and are watching the bare footed idiot!!! A few minutes after retrieving my lure, I look and low and behold there are my sandals floating in the creek. I come up with the bright idea of hook my shoes using a lure. So I get all ready, people still watching, and make the first cast at my shoes, unfortunately on the back swing I tangle my lure in a tree branch!! The campers are by now holding their stomachs and wiping the tears from their eyes!! Long story short I finally get my shoes back and leave as quickly as possible. Finally, I decide to take my little brother out fishing at Smith Mountain Lake. We were running full throttle at about 60mph down the lake, and then the engine sputters and dies. There we were five miles from the launch and a long way from any marina. Try as we did, we couldn't get the boat running! I decide to start heading back on the trolling motor, it would be a long trip but we could make it. Except for one thing, the battery died! No problem I have two in the boat, switch to the other battery, in the dark, and start heading back to the launch, all of a sudden we notice we are going backwards. The trolling motor is going backwards, takes 20 minutes to figure out I hooked the positive side of the battery to the negative on the motor and the motor was turning in reverse, switch the wires and start off again. It is dark now, and what do I do, hit a rock, breaking the motor mount, I catch the trolling motor as it is falling into the water. Now I'm trying to hold the motor, Shawn is trying to keep power to it, and I'm trying to manually steer the motor, and then because of the reversed polarity thing, the battery dies. Three miles from the car, and no help, we are sitting in the dark on the river. Fortunately a good samaritan finally tows us in.

if you have any measurements, there is a fish weight calculator on this site, but take the weights given with a grain of salt. I'm guessing she is about 18-19 inches long that would place her around 2 to 2 1/2 pounds. Congrats

Hang in there Pete, I couldn't imagine how impossibly hard it must be right now.