ChiCityBasser

My prayers go out to his family and friends on the loss.

I agree on this statement and the fact of diminishing return being around $275 as I've had a custom rod built at around $245 to my specs and how I fish and its worked great.

The swim jig should work well in Black/Blue as I just fished a BFL event out of Golconda on the Ohio river and my boater started out with topwater lures and I started with the topwater also but switched to the swim jig and nailed my first 2 fish. He also threw a 5/16 oz jig which was light enough to drift into current seams and catch a limit along the bank. Good luck!!

I use a 7'3" MH/F Custom rod with a Quantum Accurist Burner 7.0:1 with 30/50# Cajun braid for almost all my flipping. I do have a 7'11" H Quantum Superlite rod but have not used it or run into a situation to use it at this time.

I have 13 setups and use 5-6 during tournament time

15# Power pro is on my senko/shakey head rod

I use Power Pro, Spiderwire and Cabelas brand braids

I agree that you have a great start and also that you may want to up your line size on your gear. I would also try the flea market on this forum as well as Dick's,Cabelas,BPS and some of the other retailors and look for sale items or clearance items as a way to upgrade your gear on a budget. I use a Dicks F&S Tec Spec 7' MH/F spinning rod with a Quantum Kinetic reel with 15# braid( I use this setup for lighter cover and brush). I also have a 7'3" Custom baitcast setup MH/F with a Quantum Accurist 7.0:1(Gray Model) with 15# braid(This is also a lighter cover setup). My heavy cover setups have either 50 or 65# braid on Quantum Accurist reels.

I have one of the original 7' MH/F spinning models and wanted something longer and tried the Clarus, Convergence and one other rod in that line up and ended up taking all the others back as the F&S rod was more sensitive. I also have one of the older 7'6" telescopic rods as well as the 7'3" Elite and for the price they can't be beat. Even better when they are on sale with a discount coupon and paid less than $50 for my Elite rod. Sensitive and powerful and one of the better bang for the buck rods out there.

I voted for braid for its strength as most of the waters I fish are stained to murky even muddy at times so I'm not worried about the fish seeing the line. I do have flouro on one or two rods and on the backup spools for my spinning setups.

I throw a Strike King 1 XS or a BPS Egg shallow running crank which both run over the weeds in the shallows. The BPS lure gets a little deeper running maybe 1.5-2 ft and bass smash it as it comes over the weeds.

I haven't tried either rod myself but my brother had a Veritas that he snapped in half while fishing. I have had some of the Shimano rods like the Clarus and Compre and returned them after spending some time on the water with them and comparing them to the Dick's Fied & Stream Tec Spec series of rods. The Tec Spec Elite 7'3" MHF 3/16-3/4 oz rod and the 7'6" HXF 1/2-1.5oz rod would be a better choice in my opinion.

Couple of the pros like Shaw Grigsby fish them but I have no experience with it at all. It's a very light reel along with the smoke and only your time on the water will let you know how good it is and performs. I fish most Quantum reels and just haven't added this one to the arsenal yet!!

Redfish?

Wanting to see more of the Quantum line and the left handed reels. The Quantum Tour MG and Quantum Energy Spinning reels look really good.

My brothers had been fishing for years and would get up early and venture off to a lake and fish for the day but I was lazy and would never get up or laugh when they would mention 5 a.m. as a wake up time. One year on Lake Schaffer in Indiana on a family vacation I decided to get a rod after getting a bonus gift card from Target and try my hand at fishing. The relaxing time fishing from the dock that evening and catching my first large and smallmouth had me hooked. Now I look for every oppurtunity I can to fish to the hardwater season hits here in IL. i love it and it has become a true passion whether I'm catching fish or not and just enjoy the time outdoors on the water and in nature.

Same problem at one of the lakes I fish also and it really is a pain with braid. Slicker line or change spots I'm guessing.

I use 15# Power Pro.

Try the Cabelas XML or XMLTi with the XML being in that price range. You may be able to catch an XMLTi on sale in that price range as well. I've handled and used both the Clarus and Convergence and returned both as my Dick's Tec Spec rod was more sensitive than both for the same type of techniques. No knock to those that use them but they just didn't perform well for me.

I use 6# Cabelas Flouro on one spool and 15# Power Pro braid on another spool.

My main rod for this technique is a RodTech Fishing custom 7'3" MH/F with a Quantum Accurist 7.0:1 Burner reel.

I have one of the old style 7' MH/F spinning rig & jig models and I'm very impressed with how it has performed over the last couple of years. Very sensitive either with braid or flouro and haven't had a problem with the reel seat or any of the rod components. I also picked up one of the blue micro guide rods and it reels good but haven't used it enough to give any opinions on it just yet.

Out of those 3 I have purchased the Quantum and it's a great reel and the PT performs very very well and has since I purchased it off ebay 4-5 yrs ago.

Congrats and as someone said now the hard work begins...

Great reel and purchased one myself for deep cranks after reading the report from "goose52" I believe.