Quillback

The online retailer whose name can' t be mentioned, has the STX listed for $199, with a %15 discount through Friday -so nets out at $169.00. Just have to wait until September to get it. Be nice to see an impartial review of the new STX vs. the new Shimano Curado as they are priced the same.

Just pre-ordered an next gen STX from an online retailer that's running a 15% off sale through Friday.

Yep there's gotta be a dropshot thread on this board somewhere, if not, google it and I'm sure you'll get lots of hits. Pretty easy rig to set up and fish. The guides on Table Rock set up their clients with DS rigs with nightcrawlers this time of year and really boat a lot of fish. Usually what works on Table Rock will work on Beaver. When you get down here you might want to stop by Hook, Line and Sinker in Rogers for the latest info. There's also a local forum ozarkanglers.com/forums that has a Beaver lake section and you can post questions there and usually you'll get some advice.

I fish Beaver quite a bit, and I have a buddy that fishes it at least once a week. He did well on a drop shot ( I think he has a Zoom finesse worm on it) a few days ago, black bass and a nice walleye. Drop shot should still be working when you're here, but bass fishing is tough end of July. If you're just fishing for anything, a nightcrawler either whole or half of one is tought to beat, I'd fish it on a drop shot and around brushpiles, trees, or docks over 20 feet of water. You should get chances at big bluegills, catfish, walleye and bass.

Glad to hear you're into them. Hybrids are a blast, especially on Topwaters.

It's a tough time of year to be a bank fisherman on big lakes in OK or Arkansas where I live, it's tough even if you have a boat, and this heat wave is making it tougher. You might want to think about fishing very early in the AM or evenings/night. I like t-rigging or c-rigging big worms (Zoom Ol' Monster) in dark colors, black/blue football jigs, or creature baits and fishing them at night. You might also try a deep diving crank. What stinks about fishing off dams is the rocks are snaggy.

In the SE Missouri hillbilly country where I used to spend part of my summers as a kid with my grandparents, the saying there was "If you don't behave I'm going to take a switch to you". A switch being a green, whippy, tree limb. That would probably get parents thrown in jail nowadays, but it was a common form of dscipline then.

Hit a hunnert here yesterday, last year it didn't hit a hunnert until July 7. Last year was a very long, hot, dry summer. I'm hoping this one won't be worse, but it's looking that way. And yes, Arkansas does have hot summers, but not this hot. The forecaster says we're going to set records for highs every day this week if the forecast holds up. No rain in sight and we need it. And the bass are already starting to think it's August. Time to break out the night fishing gear.

I like the IKE DT Rapalas. They can't keep them on the shelves around here.

I had the TM cable break on a Minnkota a few months ago, really annoys me that these expensive TM's have such cheap cables. I went to Lowes and got some cord of similar diameter and replaced it at the tie down point. A pain to get the knot tied down inside the TM frame but I got it done. TM's should come out of the factory with durable cables, they should be made of quality material that doesn't break through normal wear.

BPS makes a good one also, I have one for 5 years now and it's still going strong. Only thing I don't like is that it has a mesh pocket on the side, it tends to snag stuff.

I have one I bought 3 years ago before they became "collectable" and they're a great reel. But except for the fast retrieve ratio they're no better than the normal Zillions. I watch them on Ebay and it seems if they're NIB people are willing, in my opinion, to overpay for them due to the collectable factor. No reason to overpay for one if it's going to be a reel you fish with.

RW is right - I bought an 803 Loomis GLX from a buddy of mine, yesterday I was fishing 3/8 football jigs with 12 lb. floro, dragging the jigs along the bottom in depths from 3 ft to 20 ft. I KNOW when I'm dragging through mud, bumping wood or brushpiles and when I'm going through rocks. And I KNOW when I get the lightest of pickups on the jig. There's other brand rods out there that can give you the same sensitivity, but the point is, you can get rods that will take the guesswork out of bottom contact fishing.

If the "new" model Chronarchs were in the $140-150 price range I'd say they would be fairly valued, but at $199 they're overpriced. I'm not saying they're a bad reel, but at $199 there's better options.

Yessir - I've got a couple of spools of green Trilene, it's a good, inexspensive mono. I primarily use mono for moving baits, CB's, SB's, and topwaters, so I don't get too worried about visibility. I may start throwing cranks on floro however, seems that the pros are starting to lean that way for cranks. Mainly for feel and increased depth is what I'm hearing. Just gotta make frequent checks for abrasion.

I like green mono so I can tell which reels have mono and which ones have floro.

Premiers are an excellent buy at $199.

Lately I've been C-rigging the Baby craws on a 1/0 EWG hook and doing well with them. They're surprsingly durable when fished that way for a relatively small bait. The bass eat them well and stay hooked. I'm starting to really like that bait.

Surprised to hear they haven't figured out a way to give it a more durable exterior finish. It doesn't effect functionality, but I could see where they might lose some potential sales because of it.

Looks to be pre-order, but they don't say anything on the website about how long the wait is. I guess a guy could call and find out. Listing the new Premier for $279, which is the same price (before the latest price adjustment) as the 2012 Premier, so it appears that unlike some reel manufacturers, they didn't use this new model roll-out as an excuse to raise prices. I don't see anything in the description mentioning whether or not this new version had a more durable exterior.

I was at Academy yesterday, the 6XD's were mostly sold out. Could be an indicator that they are a hot bait locally right now.

Another vote for Seaguar, Abazx on casting, Invisx on spinning.

This Shimano vs everything else debate bubbles up about once a month. Goes on for several pages and then dies out... But I always get a kick out of reading it. I have some Shimanos and some other brand reels. They all get used.

Yeah tossing that little Shad Rap on a BC rod seems tough to achieve, but that Phenix X9 is rated down to 1/8 oz.

I'm thinking about getting a rod for light cranks. I'm looking in the mid-range as far as price, I don't want to spend $200-300 for a cranking rod as I'm not sure you get much more value in that range for a cranking stick. Anyway, looking at the specs for a Phenix X9, it's rated for 1/8-7/8 range, the X10 is 1/4-1 OZ, and the Crucial 1/4-1/2 OZ. I'm leaning towards the X9, with it's lower rating I might be able to throw Shad Rap SR5's with it and all the way up to Bandit 200's. I'm a little concerned it may be too light, so maybe the X10 is a better choice if it comes down to Phenix. Crucial is $30-40 less in price, but the weight range is pretty narrow. Anyone used any of these rods for small cranks? Feedback is appreciated. Also feel free to mention other brands.