.ghoti.

I use both depending on time. A little gas weber that heats up in about 90 seconds for during the week, a Brinkmanship smoker/grill, charcoal fired, when I have more time to do it right. And a smaller charcoal grill I use just for steaks. Real, lump charcoal is a must. If you're gonna use preformed charcoal briquettes, smashed together with who knows what, you might as well douse your steaks in kerosene, and torch "em off.

Raider, in a triple-caffeine induced state of apoplexy, will go into a rant, and then implode; creating a temporal chrono-synclastic infundibulum, leaving behind a size 15 pair of flippers, a snorkel, a speedo and a full length chinchilla coat; which apparently was what he was wearing when said rant began. How the rest of us will end is up for debate.

Z-Man finesse worms are a must have for me. I almost always have a Z-Man worm, on an 1/8oz Gammy Skipgap jighead, rigged and ready to go. I have one combo dedicated to that bait. I've been a fan of 3X, or Elaztech plastics since they hit the market. Peanut butter and jelly, baby.

I told you about it, that evening, but the wine was flowing, so............. LOL I did some additional testing after the RoadTrip, and my conclusions were the same. No more Tatsu for me.

I should add that it IS possible I had a couple of bad spools of line, and had I tried a couple of different spools, I may have had a completely different experience. My take on that is simple. For 50 bucks / 200 yards, there should be NO BAD SPOOLS OF LINE. I will buy no more Tatsu.

You asked for it. LOL I took eight rods with me to the 2013 Bass Resource RoadTrip. (because that's how many fit in the rod rack I've built into my Jeep) Three reels were freshly spooled with 12lb test Tatsu. I went out with Big-O my first day, and took two of the Tatsu loaded rigs, along with two others. After about 15 minutes of fishing, I noticed my line, tatsu, was shredded all along the first 18-20" up from the pegged weight. Checked my rod tip guide for damage and found none. Re-tied, same thing. Re-tied, same thing. Cut the bait off, and tied it onto a different rig with a different line. I used the same hook, same bait, same weight, same bead. No problems this time, so it was not the weight or bead causing the abrasion; it was the cover we were fishing. I tried the other rig spooled with tatsu, and had the same problem. Big-O may be able to tell you how many times I had to re-tie. I don't remember, but it was a lot. Enough so that I retired those two rods, and fished with the other two rigs the rest of the day. With no line shredding problems I might add. The other line? That no good ,useless, stretchy, non-abrasion resistant, cheap Trilene XL.

I use a Fenwick Elite Tech walleye rod for trout fishing. It works nicely because it only says walleye on the top of the rod, where the trout can't see it.

I use 4lb test Invizx for trout fishing. Other than that, I have no use for fluorocarbon line; particularly Tatsu.

1st choice: Team Daiwa Light& Tough rod, 7' heavy power, regular action, tuned up 6.3:1 Zillion, 14lb test Sunline Supernatural mono. 2nd choice: Dobyns Champion, 7'6" H-F, 6.3:1 Zillion 50th, same line.

The same way you get to Carnegie Hall; practice, man, practice.

Not mine.

If you move a conductor, in this case the aluminum spool, in a magnetic field, a current is generated which produces a magnetic field opposed the applied magnetic field. Factors affecting the strength of the opposing field, thus the braking force, are strength of the applied magnetic filed, number of force lines interrupted (distance), and speed.

If you'd add grouchy, irreverent and sarcastic, you'd have me described to a tee.

Space Monkey

The backlash to end all backlashes. Bet you wish everybody had forgotten that name,eh?

Big-O already gave RW a new name at one of the RoadTrips. FLUFFY

I have several bucket hats I wear while fishing. After you've had a few chunks of skull sliced, diced or lasered out due to skin cancer, a bucket lid starts to look downright stylish. I had one that required grinding out some bone. Lots of fun, that. NOT!!

I made a bet with myself on how long that would stay up. I lost.

Why do think I no longer fish at night? LOL I got my priorities straight, amigo.

I used to keep detailed fishing logs. I no longer do so, but when I did, I quickly noticed that almost all of my big bass (over 5 pounds) were caught at night. I used to bass fish mostly at night. All of my big bass at Trophy Country were caught during the day. You can't fish at night at Trophy Country. Which data set would you choose to make your point? I choose to say I've caught all of my big bass while I was fishing for them.

That's the one I was talking about. Or, is there more than one ML in the lineup?

I've tried three times now to give you an answer. Got interrupted each time. Hope I make it through this time. First impressions; blank is dead straight, guides are all at top dead center, wraps and epoxy are clean and neat, the reel seat is very comfortable, and everything is fitted very nicely. Looks a lot better than a $150 stick. It has a full length, foam rear grip, which is a non-issue for me. Most of my rods are split grip, but I have a few full grip rods, and one with no grips at all. I like them all. I find the arguments about full vs split, and cork vs foam, amusing. The handle is a good length. Not too long, as is the case more and more often these days. There's been a lot of interweb whining about rods being tip heavy, and the manufacturers have responded by moving the reel seat forward, creating over-long, unwieldy handles. I want to tell all those folks complaining about tip heavy rods, that if a fraction of a foot/pound of torque on your wrist is just too much for you, take up knitting, and leave the fishing to real men. I have to say, I really like this rod. It's a good shallow to medium depth crankbait stick. Not enough backbone for a DD22. Tried a 1/2oz spinnerbait. Does much better with a 3/8oz. I don't know exactly what a 1/2oz, double willow spinnerbait with trailer weighs, but it's a bit too much for this rod. Tried the small tube, 1/16oz weight and light wire hook. Not so good. This is too little weight to load the rod enough for effective, accurate casting. Close, but no cigar. I thought it would work. I was wrong. Back to the spinning rod for small tubes. Tried a Houdini shad(fluke) on a 4/0 EWG hook. This weighs between 3/16 and 1/4oz, and loads the rod nicely. Ditto for a 1/8oz shaky ehad and trick worm. Ditto for an 1/8oz finesse jig with baby craw trailer. Overall, a really nice crankbait rod that is sensitive enough to pull light weight plastics duty. The mod-fast action is a plus for a light line guy like me.

Mikell, when the line on one of my reels gets down to where yours is, it time to re-spool. Fill it up to the bevel on the edge of the spool. An unfilled spool has a few problems. To get the same distance the unfilled spool has to make a lot more revolutions. To achieve the same lure speed the unfilled spool has to rotate faster. Line memory is more apparent. None of these factors help. Fill it up.

as close to 100% Deet as I can find. Deer ticks regard anything else as an appetizer.

Thank you Paul Roberts. Well said, sir. To which I can only add a quote.. -there are lies, damned lies, and statistics- Mark Twain