kikstand454

new i would probably go ahead and tell you to get a bps PQ combo. its probably the best you can get for the money in a baitcasting outfit. however....also new, you could easily find an accurist pt and put it on a shimano clarus or convergence and have an even better set up for a tiny bit more. used you can get great rigs for less than 150 bucks.... you just have to look. ebay craigslist, this forums (and others) classifieds... lots of places. spinning id have to say get a clarus rod and a quantum incyte reel. its just amazing for the price you can get them for.

ive been using 40lb powerpro on my jig/frog rod. i like it. ive had 15lb flouro or 15lb yozuri on my t-rig rod.

pfffft. i still use 4 or 5 ugly sticks in saltwater. they work awesome and are plenty sensitive enough. if i can catch a sheepshead on an ugly stick... i can catch a bass. lol. i have the old plastic shimano curados on them and its a blast to fish. whats funny is... my "expensive" rig- 7.0 quantum te on a 7'6" chimano crucial...... is not even CLOSE to what some of the people on here consider an expensive rig, and i think that it is ridiculously nice. so.... really... its all relative.

x2 i think the pure poisons are a much better product.

there was an article in this months bassmaster where tim horton (i think) said sometimes to get the female... he throws in a big 5 or 6 in tube and then lets the male pick it up a few times but pulls it out of its mouth back onto the bed. this apparrently pizzes off the female thinking that the male cant guard the nest and she rushes in to take charge. sounds like a good strategy to me. personally i dont like to take the male off the bed so i throw really big jigs or lizards and try to keep it away from the male. if i dont catch the female... *shrug* oh well. now if im in a tournement...................

hahhaha again....? ok... so when you see somone say that they use slow ratios for cranking.... MOST of the time they are talking about deep cranking. this has little to nothing to do with the actual SPEED of the lure or "inches per turn" and a whole lot more to do with the resistance a 2oz. lure being pulled 18ft down from a 100ft away puts on your reel. a lower gear helps with this load... so you dont wear yourself out reeling that amount of resistance all day. just like your car shifts down to go up a hill. exact same priciple. there are other benifits to deep cranking with slower reels in that it gives the bait more "vertical" time and less "horizontal" time resulting in it getting down to maximum depth faster. but then... for that instance.. you could always just reel a fast reel slower. its about torque.

this is pretty easy. if the ugly stick is a cork handled graphite one.... then it is the better rod. the quantum youre talking about is the bottom of the line model and will only be a better rod if the ugly stick is the heavy eva foam grip ones that suck. however.... if youre talking about getting this in a combo.... i would trust the bottom of the line quantum REEL over anything that shakespear is putting out in the baitcasting catagory. so thats a tough one. for dirt cheap... id hunt down either a cork handled uglystick graphite light (about 60 bucks) or a berkley lightening rod (about 50) and then id start searching ebay. you can get some great prices on reels there. -edit- and you can safely get a 6'6" mh rod and use it for a wide,wide variety of techniques.

well. right now for my jig/frog rod, i have a daiwa reel i got off ebay for 27 dollars, and an old bps graphite series 7' mh/f rod that you can get brand new for like 50 dollars. i use 40lb. power pro. it works just fine. of course.... wehn i get the chance ill upgrade the rod. not so much for the specific sensitivity... i think this one is good... but for over all weight and quality. but for around 100 dollars you can have the same set up with line.

i change mine about once a year. and by change i mean i tie one end to the fence.... walk the spool out... cut it... walk back over ... and tie the used part back to the spool and reel it in. i get about two years out of a spool of 15lb power pro. pretty cost effective eh?

check out some casting competitions.... see what they are all using

true. i have an uglystick ultra light that has a tiny little reel on it and i was fishing for bait with it and got into some puppy reds.. and then i picked up a 19" on it. 4lb line. ultralight is fun!!

ssshhhhhhh....... super flukes. :-X

awesome!

same thing happens here only its either a chain pickeral or a mudfish. fun the first few times.... not so cool more than once a day.

most of the time when i get those follows....i change cadence first. like raul said, speed up...rip it, jerk it... etc. if that doesnt produce AND the following has stopped... then i change colors and go back to the way i was fishing originally. and i throw topwaters year around... but then... im in florida.

i used the trilene 100% all last year on my t-rig rod (the same spool all year) and had absolutely nothign bad to say about it. in fact... if it was cheaper id start throwing it exclusively. however... i cant see what advantage if any i had over yozuri hybrid and so im going back to what is cheaper. but i really liked the 100%.

yeah i think it has alot to do with different reels.... not to mention the skill level of the person throwing it. i can cast my daiwa procaster with the spool almost free and the mag brake set at 2 and it fine... but i have to have my quantum TE set with the spool @ "shake the lure to fall" and the mag set at 6 or 7. this is mostly beacuse the quantum is a much better caster than i am and i have to artificially keep it under control. whereas the daiwa is more my speed. im sure at some point ill be good enough that ill have the daiwa at full free spool and think that it wont cast far enough.... but till then i love it! lol.

last time i hung my c-rig on the bottom with 20lb p.p. was during a tourney. boater said.. im not msessing up the spot to get it... i said... no problem. i then wrapped the line around the boat cleat and the boat snapped the line like a wet noodle. other times ive done this it has pulled up the entire branch i was hung on. either way........ works for me!

thanx for all the encouragement! i now find myself planning on throwing a jig constantly!! hahah. i know better. but still its gratifying to make something work that you KNOW other people kill with. not to mention actually make all those jigs in my tackle box worth the money..... p.s. deb- yeah talquin is a great lake. it fishes weird and in the summer you might as well just bring a c-rig and a crank rod cause all youre doing is fishing in 15+ft of water... but its nice. funny you mention the name jackson......our lake jackson here in tally has finally gotten back to full pool and is producing MONSTER catches for a lake that was mostly dried up for 10 years. last weeks tourney there was won with 30+lbs and one of the fish was 12+!! just another suggestion to fish when you come down here next time!

i fish a c-rig alot. i think that most anytime you are not specifically fishing HEAVY cover, the c-rig is the way to go. i have many times fished it shallow through stumps and wood and also through sparse or isolated lilly pads. theres just so much versatility to the c-rig that i enjoy using it the most. i use a t-rig when pitching to heavy wood or grass. its more suited to that. now thats not to say that a big 10inch worm t-rigged on a midlake hump wont work.... it certainly does!! but in general... id go with the c-rig personally.

i would do what all the others said... but if i had no grass i wouldnt be throwing the lipless crank... id be throwing a regular crank. jmho

this past weekend i went out and pre fished with my partner on lake talquin. as we didnt have a specific plan, when we came upon some cypress islands, i decided that i was going to throw a jig until i got bit. i had a new (to me) reel and a good rod and some 40lb power pro and i was determined! well finally after years of half heartedly throwing a jig... it payed off! i caught 3 between 2 and 3.5lbs. it was satisfying. esp. since i was going behind my boater who was pitching a lizard and i was catching fish behind him! we also got some really good fish on a carolina rig and i even had one break me off on my c-rig (20lb powerpro !). all in all a good practice day for his tourney. and a great time and confidence boost for me!

pull the bayonet and hold it with your left hand. then with your right... twist the sideplate counterclockwise towards the floor. it should come off easily. if you feel that the pin is opening fully... then there is nothing there to break and the resistence is probably dirt. this is a great reel.... congrats!!!

this was my impression as well. while i do not own either reel... i do have almost every other model that quantum makes and have no problems with them. daiwa make awesome reels and i love the three that i have... but i think maybe the megafore was a misstep in trying to put out a reel in this price range.

also.... this has happened to me when i found myself keeping my thumb on the spool while i was reeling in. too much pressure made my line slack on my spool. i found myself doing this on a windy day the other day and kept wondering what was wrong with my reel !! this may be your problem?