BobP

I use both but prefer the low profile reels. Yes, small round reels can be palmed but not as comfortably as a larger low-pro. Another advantage is that low-pro reels almost always have better access to the spool and line, which makes picking out a backlash easier. Lastly, the low-pro reels are dominating the marketplace these days so they offer more reels to choose from when you're reel shopping. That's not to say that there aren't excellent round reels out there. If I were looking for a reel to use on both bass and stripers, I'd look at one of the Abu Revo models that have much higher drag ratings than most other brands. I have a Revo SX with 20+ lb of drag that you could retrieve an anvil with.

I agree making a popper is a good starting point. Just don't use maple or oak, both of which are too heavy for floating (or most other) baits. Whack a piece off of a broom handle and start with that. A little carving and sanding, you'll have the basic shape. Put in screw eyes for the line tie and hook hangers. Swab it down with a some Super Glue to waterproof the wood, then paint it with spray can paint, followed by several coats of waterproof polyurethane. Buy the paint and urethane from the same product line so they are compatible and will not bubble and peel due to a chemical incompatibility. Ballast is weight installed in a lure to make it sit upright and stabilize the lure as it swims. The lure's treble hooks also act as ballast. On a surface popper you probably won't need more than the treble hooks to keep it upright during the retrieve.

If a swivel is out, you're pretty much left with rigging the fluke exactly straight.

I have a couple of friends who grew up fishing spinning rods but eventually wanted to get into baitcasting. Two things figured into them becoming successful. First, you need to start with a good reel and you get what you pay for. Modern reels have better controls, are built to better tolerances, and they just work smoother with fewer backlashes. I've been throwing a baitcaster for 25 years now and wouldn't dream using an Abu 5500 for anything but striper trolling! The other thing is learning how to cast a baitcaster, and that is quite different. With a spinning reel, the line is coming off the spool in good order no matter what crazy casting motion you use or how hard you swing it. But a baitcaster requires a smooth, controlled casting motion. Every time. When you develop one, you can dial down most of the cast control and brakes and get surprisingly long and accurate casts with not much effort. When you are first learning, the tendency is to apply way too much cast control and brake. Don't want to risk a frustrating backlash, right? Then to get reasonable casting distance, you try to overpower the cast and voila - a giant backlash.

Fluoro or copolymer can both get reel memory, it just depends on the formulation of the respective lines. There are 'soft finish' versions of each that get less memory but have more stretch. Hard finish versions of both typically have less stretch, better durability and knot strength. I always use fluoro on "still" presentations like worms or jigs where sensitivity is paramount but I often use it on other presentations like crankbaits too. You can't really divorce the line type from the rod you are using when you're talking about what's best for a particular presentation. If you're throwing crankbaits on a soft fiberglass rod, fluoro has less stretch and more sensitivity than copolymer so might be the better choice. On a stiffer graphite rod, copolymer's increased stretch may work better for you. It's really just up to you and how you fish. I use fluoro for most presentations except topwaters. I also like that it is not affected by UV light and will last much longer than copolymer lines on the reel. I expect to fish a spool of fluoro until it becomes too short to fill the reel to a proper level. Meanwhile, I'll have changed out copolymer line several times due to UV degradation. BTW, I fill my spools with mono backing about half way before adding the fluoro. No sense spooling expensive fluoro that will never see the light of day.

I have a 200 B5:1 and it's marked on both the side plate and the top front of the reel. The front says "Bantam Curado 5:1", the side plate says "Curado B200 5:1". Perhaps the 201 was marked differently, or the front printing on yours has been removed with solvent.

Jack, I make my own but also occasionally buy from custom builders. I don't hesitate to pay $20+ for a high quality custom wood bait and frankly, I'm a little leery these days if one costs less than $15 because I know the amount of work it takes to make a good one. If the price bothers you, consider buying mass produced wood baits like Rapalas. They are very consistent performers and much cheaper too. Do you get the tip top, on-the-edge, killer performance that you can sometimes get with custom wood baits? No, but paying $25 for a crankbait doesn't necessarily guarantee it will be a great one, either. And maybe you won't be shy about throwing that Rapala in gnarly cover, like you should if you want best results.

If you're using dropshot hooks, you can just as easily thread the worm on the hook and leave the point exposed. We're talking about 1/2 " of hook shank here, so it's not like you're killing the action on a 4-5" worm. I always thread on the Gulp worms that I dropshot; otherwise I'd be losing a bait on every bite.

I think that spoon is a casting spoon designed for fishing heavy grass rather than a "jigging spoon". But I've caught some nice bass jigging a casting model in deep water so wouldn't let that stop me from vertical jigging it. It will sail more underwater than a standard jigging spoon if you fish it vertical. That's a negative if you are trying to hit a small spot on the bottom in 25 ft of water. If you plan to use it as a flutter spoon (cast it out, let it sink to the bottom, then stroke it) I'd put a trailer hook on it like a spinnerbait. I'm a crankbait guy but when they will bite a spoon, nothing will put them in the boat faster. It's certainly worth a shot.

Every jig is different so nobody can tell you how much or if to trim one. You just have to bend the weed guard and make your own determination about whether it's stiff enough to come through the cover you're fishing without snagging, while being soft enough not to inhibit a hook set. Flipping jigs tend to have fairly heavy weed guards. I sometimes remove some bristles at the base to make them softer when fishing wood. Be conservative in trimming a weed guard. Once you cut too much, the jig is worthless. I almost always trim and/or thin the skirt just past the bend of the hook. It makes for a more compact profile and shows the trailer to best effect.

I say use as much as it takes to keep you from backlashing. Shorter casts are better than no casts. You can loosen things up after you gain experience.

Like a lot of guys, I like cork if it doesn't have a bunch of filler in it. But considering the cost of cork, I think YES, we are slowly seeing the extinction of cork grips. They are just getting too darned expensive. If I am building or buying a rod, the question becomes - am I willing to spend an extra $50-100 for cork versus EVA. Most guys will not spring for the extra cost and the next generation of fishermen will probably come to think of EVA as the "natural choice".

Historically, the gear engagement on the Curados and the Chronarch reels has been different. The Chronarchs have always engaged with a decided "snap" and if your 50E does it, I'd assume it has similar parts inside. If so, it will never "wear-in" and become quiet - that's just the way it works.

You can try a urethane aerosol. It will give you 1 of the 2 essential qualities for a crankbait topcoat - it's waterproof. The other essential is toughness, and to get that you need a special coating as suggested above. Dang, if it were simple and good, all of us would be using it! If you go to a crankbait building site like Tackle Underground, you'll see that topcoats are probably the most discussed topic. Why? Everyone would like both good and simple but nobody can find it.

A friend of mine who usually buys Loomis GLX rods for most presentations still uses BPS Crankin Sticks for crankbaits. That says something since he's a very equipment-oriented guy. In the end, it's a matter of taste. If you don't own an E-glass or S-glass rod now, fish one before you buy. You may or may not like how they handle. Guys fall into 2 categories: willing to use heavier, less sensitive fiberglass rods to get the fish handling benefits, or unwilling to lose the sensitivity and familiarity of graphite. There are good crankbait rods in both categories. I usually prefer graphite. BTW, I disagree with the proposition that crankbait bites are hard/obvious and therefore rod sensitivity is irrelevant. There are too many times when I've set the hook on a bass because a graphite rod let me know the bait had stopped wobbling, and without feeling any other indications of a strike. This happens more often than most guys realize.

Do small worms catch big fish? Yes, but they also catch lots of small fish. Do larger bass often prefer larger worms? Also yes. Bass are efficient predators and, all other things equal, large predators have a preference for larger prey. If they aren't biting, should you automatically downsize? No. It's often better to go bigger before trying something smaller. JMHO, if one thing isn't working you have to experiment to find out what they want that day - and they don't always want smaller.

Back to the original question, there are 3 popular types of clearcoats for crankbaits. Slow cure epoxies, moisture cured urethanes, and 2 part urethane auto clearcoats. Many home brew builders and quite a few custom builders (like Marty) prefer to brush on epoxy. It is a durable topcoat that levels out well but is thicker than other options. Also, most epoxies will eventually yellow at least slightly after extended exposure to UV light. Moisture cured urethane like Dick Nite Fisherman's lurecoat S81 has become popular for guys who like to dip lures and want a thin, factory-look finish. But it is a little tricky to use and store. Probably the clearest durable topcoat is a 2 part high solids auto clearcoat sprayed on the bait. But it is toxic and requires protection akin to what auto painters use. All the options are roughly equivalent in price. The slow cure epoxies are probably the most used because you can buy it in smaller batches and it works well with virtually any other coating or paint product, which is not always the case with urethanes.

Yes, there is a declining return on how much better reels get as you spend more money on them. Everyone has to decide for himself where the sweet spot is on the cost curve. It doesn't really have to make sense to anyone but the buyer. I bought a Scorpion when they first came out to get the SVS braking system and think it was worth it. I have a couple of JDM reels. Better quality than domestic Shimanos? No, not in my experience but I'm not sorry I bought them. As far as Shimanos go, I say choose what you think you want to fish and can afford - then stop worrying and enjoy using it.

The ceramic bearing I tried in my Curado were actually noisier and vibrated more than the stock bearings until they were "run in" for a few months - but they were a little faster. Were it me, I'd throw in a pair of ABEC7's. Maybe that will fix it. But since it's a new reel, I'd seriously consider sending it back to Shimano for warranty repair. That way, it gets fixed if you're wrong about the bearing.

Don't know about the Yo Zuri but the P-line is a light green that IMO fishes well in slightly stained water. It's worth noting that Berkley now sells its premium fluoro in a light green tint version.

5-10 mono wraps is plenty enough to grip the spool and prevent the superline from slipping. You can conserve superline by splitting the spool in half and spooling only half of it onto the reel with an appropriate amount of backing. JMHO, there isn't really much sense in spooling a reel with expensive stuff that will never see the light of day. A very long cast is about a hundred feet (33 yards). So if you split a 125 yd spool in half, 60+ yds gives you plenty of superline to take care of re-tying for a long time. The only time I don't is when I may use the rod/line for saltwater species that can really strip drag. Fireline is one of the best handling, longest casting, and longest lasting superlines. I think you'll like it.

I'm no authority but know guys who are absolutely nuts on the subject. The issue revolves around when a Wart was manufactured and from which mold, and it gets a lot more complicated than just "pre-Rapala" or "post-Rapala". There were 3 or 4 iterations of the Wiggle Wart as molds wore out or were modified. As the molds for the original Warts wore (as all hard plastic molds do) the quality of the baits, and by extension their performance, became less predictable. You got more "hunters", which is very desirable. You also got more baits that were impossible to tune and therefore worthless. In an era when the quality control on plastic baits in general was pretty "so-so", those hunters generated a cult following for Wiggle Warts that has lasted until today. You now see Rapala trading on the cult status by advertising that the latest Warts are made with molds identical to the original Warts. Or you can go on Ebay and find "original" Warts in specific packaging and with specific model numbers that suggest you should happily buy them for lots and lots of $$$. You have to judge for yourself how much of the Wiggle Wart craze is real and how much is overheated hype.

I basically throw shallow cranks anywhere and anytime I'd otherwise be using a spinnerbait. You don't want the bass to get too good a look at them so you need to alter speed according to the water clarity. Unless the fish are actively feeding, I assume multiple casts to the same piece of cover will be needed to get a reaction bite. That's just like spinnerbaiting too.

Like most guys, I'd look for gear I have experience with and have liked using. For me that's various Shimano baitcaster or spinning reels built after 1998 or thereabouts and some models in the Abu Revo line. Other guys who use Quantum, Daiwa and other reels will have different views and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up a high end model from another brands if the price was right and the condition good. The main question about used reels is condition and if you are new to fishing, it may be hard to distinguish good from bad. A poorly maintained high end reel sold at a great price is no deal unless you can service it or are willing to pay to have it serviced professionally. The same goes for rods to some extent, though they are easier to judge for condition just with a look-see. I build my own rods so won't recommend brands/models. But I would suggest you determine what length, action and power rod you want to fish and go looking for rods that match your needs, rather than go about it bassackwards. Grab a copy of the Bass Pro Shop catalog and take it along when you are window shopping. It will give you an idea about the retail values of lots of brands and models so you can make informed decisions on used gear.

You're transmitting a lot more instantaneous shock to your leader when using braid because it has zero stretch. Up your leader size to 20 or 25 lb fluorocarbon or copolymer. And you don't need to set the hook as hard. JMHO, if you're going to use a 100% fluoro leader (or no leader at all), you're better off using a leader-to-hook knot that has multiple wraps around the standing line. There are several good ones to choose from - I like the San Diego Jam knot. If you're fishing grass most of the time (and I assume all Florida guys are), you may not need the leader. Will it cost you a fish very occasionally? Maybe, but the simplicity of tying direct to the braid, plus one less knot to worry about, plus avoiding the knot running through your guides are advantages. If you are going to be mostly pitching baits into grass cover and the knot will not be running through your guides on every cast, I'd still use the leader to maybe pick up that extra fish or two.