webertime

Daiwa VIP Smallmouth for $60. I just got a 6'9"M Spinning rod and I am BLOWN AWAY with how nice it is. It has the same blank construction as the Zillion Rods, Alconite Guides (same as an Avid) and a full cork handle and a Life Time Warranty. I am contemplating getting a couple more.

The Prodigy is an insanely nice reel for the $! I have the previous model (grey/green model) and bought it used... It out casts all my Curados, Revos, Citicas, and Pro Qualifiers. It's such a big difference that I have backlashed because I get stuck watching the bait fly out over the water saying WOW to myself and forgetting my thumb . The Pflueger is a nice reel from what I have seen from some of the other guys in my club (I have never used one). I'd take the Prodigy, it's based off the Daiwa Advantage so there are a billion spares and upgrades for it if you wanted to go that far with it. Just my 2 cents.

The 7.2:1 Faux-Carbon one with the carbon handle and drag star.

The drag was super nice. However the rest of it felt like a Citica/Curado performance-wise, just lighter. I hated the feeling of the knobs, they felt cheap. Would I get one at full MSRP? Nope. It's a nice reel but not really worth 2 Curados/Revos/Agrests.

If you are set on one of these then the Orra SX combo would be my choice. I hate the brake dial location on the Quantum and have seen more than a few backlashes by several people b/c they hit it during a fight/cast. If you can wait for one of the sales later this month. Find a reel and throw it on one of those Daiwa VIP Smallmouth rods that can be had for $60. Same construction as Zillion rods, same guides as a St. Croix Avid, full cork... pretty sick deal.

After a Justin Beiber concert here, the fishing on Champlain just plain died for a few weeks... I don't think it was a coincidence... The booms shouldn't bug them.

I got to fondle it tonight at our club's meeting. Light. Spool doesn't spin for very long at all. My first impression from a 10 minute feel up was that it doesn't feel that awesome, but we'll see how it actually works this weekend, more to come...

Keep that place a secret!!!!!! Those are huge!

My buddy got one yesterday actually. We're going fishing this weekend. I'll get his opinion and try it myself and report back.

I have/had one that was from their first production year 1995 and it is still used by my buddy 30+ days a year as a primary reel. It could use a cleaning but it's still 100% functional and feels better than some of my newer and higher end stuff does after just one. At $60 they're a great reel. I also have a current model Sonora which is a Sedona minus one bearing and it feels very much the same as the Sedona. That all being said you can get a Sahara 2500/3000 for less than $60 shipped from Ebay. I find the alloy frame as opposed to the graphite to be noticably more rigid when fighting a larger fish. There are only 2 differences between the 2500 and 3000 size, the spool and knob on the handle, the body/rotor, everything else is the same and the 2500 and 3000 spools can be interchanged. I like the 3000 sized reel because you get a handle with a bigger knob. I say this because I notice the 3000 sized shimanos usually go for about 10% less than the 2500 size, even though for all intents and purposes they are the same reels.

Panther Martin or Mepps XD spinners and Yo-Zuri Pin's Minnows (2") are fantastic Pond Trout baits and you'll slam the Crappie with them too.

It's just a game of numbers. Your bait is one of Thousands of potential prey items for maybe at most a few dozen bass. You've got a lot of competition for their attention.

This is a pretty basic list and should be a good start. Colors are just what I have had luck with and often reported as being succesful). 5" Senko (green pumpkin and black with blue flake) Fat Ika (same as above) X-Rap or Lucky Craft Pointer suspending jerkbaits (Perch or whitish colors) White, Chartruese, & white/chartruse spinnerbaits (3/8oz Willow Blades in both gold and silver) Rage Tail Craws or Zoom Speed Craws (Green Pumpkin or Watermelon) Zara Spook (any) Pop-R (any) Cavitron Buzz Bait (any) 4" and 7" Roboworms (Aaron's Magic and Oxblood) 25packs of Gamakatsu hooks (2/0 EWG, 4/0EWG, 1 or 1/0 Drop Shot) 3/16oz Drop Shot Weights (You'll use this a lot up here) various split shot and bullet weights (1/4 oz to 3/4oz for the bullets) Strike King, Lucky Craft, or Bandit crankbaits (colors are all over the map, but "I" like crawfish, chartruese with a blue back, and whites/lights).

Today's air temps were high 30's and the water was 50. Between the 3 of us out there we boated 25 Largemouth 3 around 3lbs. All the big ones were on senkos, texas and wacky rigged. 61 is downright tropical...

DING DING!!!!! WINNER!!! It's getting too cold up here so I am already over thinking things.

Well I noticed this summer on several occasions I felt (caught) fish in situations that I really shouldn't have if not for the braid I was using. For instance I was fishing a weightles plastice for suspended smallies on a hump that topped out at 22fow. My partner got into a good smallie and I dropped my rod and netted his fish. My bait had been on the bottom for a minute or 2 and I just picked the rod up with the mindset that I'll just real it up and re-cast. I was congratulating/razing him and felt a very slight tick, set the hook and landed a good smallie. I wasn't paying attention, I wasn't even "fishing" the bait and I believe if it were Mono or Fluoro I would probably not have felt it. Not that it wasn't fun, but just felt that I didn't "earn it" so to speak. Often times when I have stuff like this happen braided line seems to be the common link. I come from a "mountain sports" background where buying a certain product instantly gives you a "higher floor" as far as your skill level and I am starting to see braid in that light. Not that it's any less fun to fish or the fish are any different, it just seems that it helps make up for some lack of skill/laziness/slopiness that I sometimes have.

So I have been thinking about this sort of thing lately and I just want to know what you all thought. Is using Braid akin to "buying" skill rather than "earning" it?

This all depends on the alloy and treatment of the aluminum. Springboards for your swiming pool are aluminum, as are the wings of a 747. Those things flex up and down ~6ft during take off and landings. Like wise the quality of fiber, layout, and resin in a Carbon Fiber part CAN make a tremendously rigid or very flexy structure. The fibers themselves have a pretty much infinite strength, it's the resins that hold them together that fail. The material has to make sense for the structure and the given stresses it should encounter. With Carbon Fiber, once it is ready to fail (snap, crack) it gives no warning where a metal will "yield" before it snaps. In my mind a carbon handle is 99% Bling. If I laid my rod down and it was reel handle down and something fell/stepped on it I wouldn't trust it at all.

"Make everything as simple as possible and not simpler" Einstein.

Mojo Rockhoppers and their slender models (forgot the name) as well. I lost one weight this year, and I C-rigged a lot...

My understanding with those rods, is that the blanks are the same as Caras. A search for Caras, in the blank that you were looking at would give you the answers you are looking for.

Lamiglas Excel 703 7' Medium Lt 3/16-5/8 (1/16oz is the weight of a small paperclip... this rod will easily cast 1/8oz). Line rated 8-17lb $109.99 American made to boot.

Go for the larger assortment of Strike King, Rapala, Excaliber hardbaits AND some jigs and plastics.

I've got the car packed, all the rods are rigged and my clothes laid out downstairs for this weekend. My club's "Classic", a 2 day tournament on Champlain starts tomorrow. North winds 15-20mph with 30mph gusts and air temps in the mid 50's... I'm psyched and nervous all at the same time. I love fishing... I love fall... I love the smell of braided line... I love having shredded thumbs on Monday mornings...

All British magazines (music, cycling, fishing, etc) love to randomly throw the eye-candy in there.