webertime

Floating ribbit... (wink)

I figured as much. Thanks DVT

So I have one of the beloved OG Daiwa Tatula 72MHR rods. This thing is an amazing rod for moving single hooks and larger treble top-waters, if you've fished one you know what I am talking about. So yesterday our day was winding down, we did well, 18lbs for best 5 and I go to cast my Jackhammer and I stop... just the actual tip top (and blank that would be inside it) is at a 90 degree angle to the rod, still attached by a few threads of graphite. Head tilts to the side... How the? Oye... So with all our beloved rods or whatever we get a bit neurotic about them. My mind races to, "They don't make these anymore", to "If I re-tip it, it might drive me crazy to have a 71.5MHR, heck, I know it would". I bring up Daiwa's website to confirm, yep I need to send the whole rod in, lol all 7'1.5" packed, insured and shipped to get back a rod that is different than what I had. Well that's not happening. It would be so much better if it just exploded and broke in half or whatever, but to break like that... It's just so, I don't know. LOL So I will run my exclusive custom Tatula 71.5MHR until it really breaks. As an aside, anyone know of a comparable rod/blank to the "Regular, MH" Daiwa Blanks?

Great on a Carolina rig.

I run a Stormr Typhoon or Nano jacket depending on the temperature. The Aero bibs are a super nice compliment to either jacket. Love their products.

The 3000s larger diameter spool helps reduce coils when using fluoro. I believe the larger spool also might help with casting distance. Weight/balance should be the same as a 2500 size.

Use a ribbit

Conduit caps on Amazon (4, 6 or 8") for $40-50 Schedule 40 PVC tube in length and diameter of your choice $20-40. Assuming you have some sort of rack on your vehicle, it's pretty cheap. Buddy did it and painted the caps red and tubes black and it looked great for years.

I run 20lb Seaguar Abrazx main line to a 12-17lb mono leader. Weights are typically 5/8 to 1oz. I use a Spro swivel and a thin pencil shaped weight or a phenix rockcrawler style weight. I'm on Champlain where we have all of the conditions a bass fisherman can encounter and have narrowed it down to that set up for 99% of it. Fish that combo from 3'-60'.

A thin plastic shim under the drive shaft fixes it.

That expride is a whole lot of rod. Like a piece of rebar. Just a nugget to think about. The spit outs and drops might be a result of the hook tearing a big hole in the fish thus the hook falling out. I've been there with swimbaits and Jackhammers with braid. I have a first generation Tatula 7'6" MH that is a good swimbait (paddle tail) rod, the straight braid route would work on that rod. They appear to have the same blank/rod in the second generation.

That's about an once- once and a half. You're right in that rods wheelhouse. Save $$ and just keep fishing it with fluoro? I have a custom build on an NFC MB 807 that handles the same weights very well, with none of the braid drawbacks.

3.8 Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a jighead 4.8 Keitech Swing Impact Fat on a 4/0 1/8oz weedless swimbait hook Pop-R or smaller Spook on spinning rod Tokyo Rig with a Speedcraw Chatterbait

I lived and worked in Jamaica for 6 months right after college with no real lasting side effects, but plenty of stories, lol. Stay in tourist spots, if you don't start feeling a buzz after 2 drinks pull the ripcord on them. Bootleg booze is all over the Caribbean (my wife got poisoned 2 years ago in Mexico). Enjoy yourselves, really nice people for the most part. Don't go into Kingston. Don't go in the hills.

For Lakers, the hot thing here on Champlain is a 1+oz jighead and a 4.8-7.8" Keitech in white. Cast out in 70-130' let hit bottom. Then jerk up and reel up about 30' then open bail and let fall. Kaboom! That being said Schroon has good smallmouth in it and worth just going after them.

The blade spinning will cause drag and reduce the width of the wobble. Also causes lift so it will change angles of the bait during retrieve. Seems like it would be a great addition to some baits and totally mess up others... now to find out which is which.

Works everytime

2 deck boards and a hole saw.

Keitech casting jig.

I run 10lb Sunline Super Natural. Thin and sensitive sinks just fine with a 78-110 sized jerkbait.

Landed a 5.5 smallie that won us a tournament a few years back and not another fish that year. The next year 4 smallies on 4 casts 4lbs plus each. Then nothing... I am still trying to narrow down it's perfect time and place. Does catch fish, but so do a lot of other things more consistently.

Braid color doesn't matter if you are running a leader. I use that Rainbow stuff. That being said I run straight mono for jerkbaits

A very time and place bait. One amazing day a year keeps getting them thrown.

A MH Lightning rod shock model

Inside story on that one was the flight by flight weigh in took a while guys had fish in bags at the tank for 20 minutes. The after care water was not cooled off.