Hooligan

It takes a pretty special piece, though, to be worth a lot. You have some old Bombers in there that might be worth investigating, there are a couple of old minnow baits in there, too. Most, though, are as stated- they're worth the most at the end of your line catching fish.

Sorry man, didn't see this until just now. You guys put in @ Eufala Cove?

That's absolutely awesome, even if it is the wrong color.

The Cardiff is a stellar buy, in terms of value and what you get. It's a very good reel for the application, the 300 size is adequate for what you're talking about. I have a couple as back-up reels for swimbait sticks. Mind you, I can tell a HUGE difference in fit, finish, and overall quality between them and a 300TE. However, for $110 the Cardiff is a good buy. 4 SS ARB and a foolproof braking system. They're a solid, workhorse of a reel for it. You can fit something like 150 of 17 on them with no issue, so the capacity is there, too.

In reality, the new LTB 7-2 is a pretty nice little stick, there's a caveat, though. I'd rather fish the Rage in that particular rod. The rage has a better feel for some reason. I can't finger it for certain, and I haven't fished it a TON, but for throwing squarebills and cranks like the SK 3XD and Warts, I really liked the Rage more. It loads excellently, particularly when you hit 7/16 ounce or so. It has a ton of power in the butt, and will flat move fish. The LTB feels a bit weak by comparison, it doesn't feel as powerful in the butt, and it's not quite as comfortable. The Rage has really surprised me for the amount I've fished it. I'll fish it over almost all of my other MM crank sticks, including my Loomis and old LTB. It's a great rod for 1/4-5/8 ounce baits for sure.

I'm very prone to agree. Gamma is wicked strong, but there are other qualities that I'm not fond of. Seaguar lines stand head and shoulders above the rest, typically. Having fished every major manufacturers highest end fluorocarbon, Tatsu is far and away the best line that is currently readily available in the States. Kureha R18 Fluoro Limited is far and away the best there is, period. It's spendy at about $35 per 110, but man is it unreal. Toray makes a good line, but they're incredibly inconsistent. I've had several spools of Upgrade that just didn't perform. Low abrasion resistance and generally hard by comparison; the abrasion resistance should be much higher for the line in question. I'm not fond of Shooter or Sniper on the whole. I've not had good luck with either in terms of long term durability. Another very, very good line, though it's low availability, is Megabass DragonCall. It's a great all around line, good abrasion resistance, high knot strength, excellent diameter to strength ratio. One interesting thing, too, is that Seaguar is still the only company out there that is solely responsible for their line. Every other line out there has someone else hand in it. They have ultimate control over the process, materials, and product and I still feel that accounts for something. That's important to me.

I'll leave a jig tied on, or a T-Rig. Treble hook lures get cut off immediately, as to any that are large, or provide something to get in the way. That's part of the fun in getting ready, to me, rigging. Tying everything on, getting ready to roll.

The biggest thing about the ML is that ti's got a different drag knob that is more adjustable, if you will. It's got a much greater range of drag adjustment on it to account for using light line. Will the 4lb PP handle what you're intending to fish? That's a tough call. It's intended primarily for clear water and relatively open. The reel will handle other lines, yes. It's optimized to handle 150 yards of 4lb, though. That's sort of the big deal about it. It's a regular size 1000 reel with a shallower spool. I've fished it a number of times dropshotting smallies on Superior and rather line the reel, even though I detest braid. It's fun to fish light line like that, sometimes.

Yes. cheaper tungsten, or those with inserts, can fray your line. They're not a polished hole and have sharp edges. In general I avoid inserts on the whole, and try only to deal with higher quality weights. The new Strike King tungsten is quite good, The new Bass Pro is good, the best I've found outside of TruTungsten is Picasso. They're now becoming more readily available again, as well. The higher price is worth it in the end.

Again, you're wrong.

I beg to differ on that one. They jumped off, they turned off, tight line situations and we were losing fish. I've never lost so many fish as the result of a hook. Heck I've never lost so many fish in general.

You're wrong. I have some 14 of them in 51 and 201. You couldn't be any more wrong than you are...

The best plastic for those is that in the can liner of the trash bin. The 7/0 is such a large diameter hook it blows a HUGE hole on the set. Try it on a piece of paper, then try to get the hook to hold. It won't, it will back out with ease, the barb won't touch a thing. I lost 31 fish one day last year on the 7/0 Flipping hook until I figured it out. Switched to a Gamakatsu and didn't lose one after. We've repeated the same thing many, many times fun fishing. Same thing with the mag swimbait hooks in the larger sizes. Don't get me wrong, Trokar is the only hook I fish in 1/0-4/0 sizes in Round Bend, EWG, and Finesse. The larger sizes, however, are trash.

The part about the Chronarch being new doesn't matter. They're the same reel. Do they cast lighter baits further? No.

I'm currently home for a day, then off to T-Rock.

I have no need of showing it. I've got two or three decals of products that I use and believe in, and a couple of the tourney trails I fish on the toolbox of my truck. Oh, and the wrap. That generally gives it away. If the boat always being behind it hasn't.

My primary bait is a Northstar 3/4 ounce in New Gill Willow/willow Gold/gold with a 4" Lake Fork Hyperworm trailer- green pumpkin gold/purple with a 2/0 Gamakatsu trailer hook. I fish a 3/4 about 99% of the time, whether it's in 6" of water or 30 feet. It's far and away the most productive spinnerbait I've ever fished. Last year just shy of 800 fish fell victim to that setup. This year I'm in excess of 300 fish, and I'd have to say, without actually counting, that 200 have been on that bait.

I guess I question your comparison because I've never seen enough difference in them to notice, particularly not handling them months apart and being able to recall what one felt in comparison to a 852. The MBR rods should be a little more powerful in the butt than the BCR, primarily because of the mag taper. Which is the real one" I'm going with both, and pilot error on comparison. I've handled a HUGE number of rods and never seen such a disparity as you describe.

My favorite has got to be big jigs in deep water. There's just something I love about feeling that brownie smack a jig and run like mad. Second is jerkbaits.

There are a lot of things that work, it depends entirely on your comfort level. Are you a boater or non? Were are you putting in, do you want to run? I fished it just last week, did good. Mostly focusing on spawning and pre-spawn fish. It was hit and miss for some of it. With 100K acres, need a little more information than "what works..." in order to be able to help you out.

Great bait, as with most creatures, there's no wrong way to fish it. I've caught fish on it under a lot of conditions. Jig trailer, pitched, cast, fished on a wobble head, Shakey head... The best colors for me are GP and GP Purple. I've also done really well on Blue Disco.

Kent, it's odd that you say you've not caught fish on the outside baits. 99% of the fish I catch are on the bottom two wires, with the remaining 1% coming on the middle. I'd guarantee you it's dead on to that percentage, too. I have have multiple three fish hits, but never more than that. The way I'm running them, too, is that I have #5 Willow blades on the arms of the rig on the bottom three wires. above the baits. On the two upper arms, I sometimes have gone just to willow blades instead of baits. I haven't noticed a difference in how effective they are. In terms of in MN, the real benefit I see of the rig is the ability to incite a school of fish, regardless of if they're chasing bait or not. Take the Ottertail area. When you fire up a bunch of fish, they remain fired up and you can catch 40+ fish out of that area. Use a rig to generate that excitement and follow up with a spinnerbait, or swimbait and pick off singles. I think it will work fine, it does in other areas that bass aren't really baitfish oriented. It will work on lakes like Vermillion, too, for wolfpack smallies.

14-2 on a Lobster Northstar combo.

You can still hit that piece of structure. That's just what I'm saying. There are ways to do it. I don't care what sort of headwind you have, you should be able to do it. In an instance just like the one you're describing, I was chucking a Wiggle Wart up beyond a break, and catching the edges of the transition that he was fishing. I caught a limit on him. You have to learn to combine everything you have to maximize your skills, that's all there is to it. There's ALWAYS a way to hit the same water that he/she is fishing if they're going to stiff you, there's nothing in the rules that says you can't fight for your water, too.

I guess there's a tournament weight on Grand Lake that would have broken the new record by some 6 ounces. A 15lb 2.25 ounce fish was weighed at a tournament. I have yet to see confirmation from the tournament agency, or official weights, but it sounds reasonably legit from most accounts thus far.