jeb2

Exactly. Threads take tangents all the time. Not your fault, so just sit back and enjoy the ride.

You missed the point again. Here's your comment: SirSnookalot, on 28 Jan 2014 - 00:33, said: So your view is that if you fish with higher end gear, you've chosen to only catch "average" fish. This is the incorrect notion I've been addressing. Again, nothing wrong with the way you're enjoying the sport. But there's also nothing wrong with others wanting to fish with higher end gear.

Assuming one is catching great fish..........For me anyway a 10 or 15 pounder is nice fish but nothing special, fighting one for 5 or 6 minutes is fun, but nothing out of the ordinary. My criteria of a great fish is somewhat different. I judge reels used nearly 7 days a week, used in harsh elements for a good 6 months before I even consider durability. Most of my reels have passed the grade but not all, they are not $600 and many of them are 5 years old. I used a bailess Van Staal today, I'll stick with my gear. What some spend is their business and it doesn't affect me. I spend what I think is appropriate for me, don't think for a second I'm not enjoying. You completely mis-understood my comment. It had nothing to do with durability, but rather your point that one has to make a choice to catch lesser fish if they spend more on fishing tackle.

There are more choices than that, though. How about great fish on great gear? Nothing wrong with your way of enjoying the sport, but it's not like you have to make a choice to only catch average fish if you have high end gear, as your post implies.

Agreed. I own 2 Steez's and 2 Calais DC's. The DC's are still box stock (except for regular service) and just fantastic reels. The Steez's (103 and 100) have been tuned and that made them better, but they are hard to control in anything but ideal situations. The DC will cast almost anything from 4" t-rigged senkos on up the bass lure scale with the right rod. And where they really shine is in the wind. Try casting a wiggle wart, for example, with the Steez into the wind and then try it with the Calais and it'll make a believer out of you. The Steez takes a lot of adjustment to adapt to wind/cross wind, and by the time you get done fiddling with it, it doesn't cast as far as most much less expensive reels. Both will chunk a 1/2oz jigging spoon a LONG way in ideal conditions, but the DC is far more versatile and far less fussy. The DC is far heavier though, and the metal side plates are d**n cold in the winter time. So pluses and minuses. I also have 2 Core 50's. To me, that's about what a Steez should sell for. In the right conditions, the Steez can out cast a 50 by a small margin, and both are very smooth, refined reels. The 50 gains a lot of points in my boat for being much less fussy. It's not all Daiwa's that are this wild, either. My Pixy Type-R, for example, is a very well mannered reel that is far less fussy, and it is stock. Congrats on the great present, and that's a great BIL, no doubt. My advice would be to dial in a lot of spool tension and braking when you start using the reel, and back them down as you get used to it. Much less bird nests that way.

The Note 3 is a great phone. A little on the large size for me. I like to carry my phone on my belt and the S4 I have is about the max for that, at least for me. I spent the holidays with some of my family, and they are mostly iPhone users. They all came away with a serious of case of Android-*** after seeing my S4 and it's larger screen. Check out some of the launchers for your phone. I use Nova mostly. Let's you customize how many apps you can get per screen. I'm running 6 high by 5 wide on my S4, not including the fixed row at the bottom.

Looks like MO fishing license is $12 and the extra license I was talking about above is $10 more (called a White River Border Lakes Permit).

That is a great price on the Z200, at least given it's normal price. But it's a big, heavy reel. Reading the TT review from the TW webpage does not make it sound a lot better as it seems it's mostly a big bait reel. I was tempted by that deal too. But a great deal on a reel that doesn't really suit my needs and may be too big/heavy for me to like is really not a great deal after all. But not sure I'd recommend the current, 3rd gen Premier, either. The IVCB braking system is not as well received as the dual braking of the Gen 2 version. That was the gold standard in AG's low profile reels, IMO. I have the IVCB system in my MGX and I'm just not a fan. But the Gen 3 STX is a good bet. Same dual brakes as the Gen 2 Premier and it's even lighter than the Gen 2 Premier. I have one of those and, while it's not quite as smooth overall as my 4 Gen 2 Premiers, it's close and a great value.

C-rigs are my go to technique on Beaver and TR most of the year. Winter is suspending jerk bait and WW's on windy points, though. To the closest Beaver Lake access from Kimberling City, I'd say about 45 minutes. The bass fishing is just better on TR, though, for whatever reason. Some say it's all the big stripers we have eating too many of the bass. In any case, Beaver is notoriously tough, and it's a well earned rep. I can catch bass consistently on Beaver, but it took a lot of learning and it does not give up big ones very often. Not sure if MO has this (I'd think so), but Ark has a neat deal on licenses. For an extra like $10 a year when getting my Ark fishing license, I can fish TR w/o getting a MO out of state fishing license. Since TR actually starts in Ark, even though like 90% of it is in MO, the entire lake is considered a border water. Also applies to any parts of Bull Shoals that is in MO.

Agreed. Maybe the shorter ones are better, but the deep cranker I owned (for about a week before returning it) weighed a ton and was way to whippy. And I work the weight bench 3-4 days a week. I'm a pretty strong guy in pretty good shape, but that rod just wore me out. Went to a G. Loomis deep cranking stick. Much better.

Congrats! I moved to the Ozarks 8 years ago after 35 years in MN, so I know you'll be thrilled to get out of the winters up there. I live just off Beaver Lake and fish it and TR quite a bit. Great bass lake for sure. Best of luck selling the old house.

Lots of great posts so far. In either the BASS or FLW mag in the last year, they mentioned that a study had shown TM's can spook fish and the best way to avoid it is to leave the motor on a constant setting. As mentioned by others here, the stop/start spooks them more. But I think it depends on conditions a lot, too. If the fish are in 20' of water or better, I don't worry about it much. If the wind is up or there is a lot of current, again, I don't think they spook as easily from a TM. But in calmer, shallower conditions, especially on lakes that get a lot of pressure, I try to be as stealthy as I can.

Yep. They actually give away their Android operating system. They more than make up for it in ad revenue. Tracking blockers help. I use Do Not Track me from http://www.abine.com/dntdetail.php . Some browsers also have settings to keep some sites from tracking/getting info from you. But it's the way of the 'net these days. The money is in gathering data on you. That's what FaceBook is all about.

Some of the best fish of the year are caught during the winter around here. I caught this big girl in mid-December a couple of years ago: Suspending jerkbaits, in addition to what has been mentioned above, are good choices for cold water.

I use mostly the tiny paca chunk, and thread them onto the hook. I use them on the smaller, finesse jigs.

Totally agree. Our once proud nation has become a socialist paradise. I guess that's what happens when we have leaders that say things like "we're not exceptional".

1) Pictures and release. I doubt I'd even get a replica. I just don't have any desire to have a fish hanging on the wall. I've seen some nice mounts, though. 2) I don't care if I have zero chance of getting caught, I follow the law.

When you're in the rocks, you're going to lose rigs. T-rigs and C-rigs alike. All we fish on Table Rock and Beaver Lake here in the Ozark Mt's are rocks, and losing c-rigs is part of the game. I have a bunch pre-rigged and on bait keepers (from Northland Tackle) so I can retie quickly. It's not unusual for me to break off 2-3 times a day. Sometimes more, sometimes less. But it's just part of the game. I've found Mojo weights to come through the rocks better than anything else, and they're pretty reasonably priced. I never use tungsten weights around here. Gets pricey REAL fast! I spent my summer fishing up in Wisc on a natural lake, and didn't hardly ever lose a rig. So it just depends on the lake, more than anything else.

It's hard to quantify how much better one is than another. Saying twice as sensitive, or something like, has no meaning to me. All I can say is one is more sensitive than the other. All that means is *I* can notice the difference. But I can't quantify it. And I don't need to, at least for me. If I can feel a difference, that's all that really matters to me. Maybe someone else would not noitice it. And that's cool. We're all different.

Yeah, the Steez rods are not generally considered near the top of the list for sensitivity, from what I've read on the forums.

Lots of factors to consider. How you fish is a big part of that. I fish mostly bottom contact baits in often deeper water. So sensitivity is a big deal for me. I used to dismiss the high end rods thinking they couldn't be THAT much better. I had a lot of trouble justifying my first GLX Loomis rod. It was tough to spend that kind of money on it. But it really was a game changer over my older, mid-priced Shimano sticks. Increased my fish catching quite a bit. Fishing with the same guys in the same spots, my catch rate really went up. Now I have no internal struggles at all when buying high end rods. I KNOW they're worth it for me. The NRX was another step up from there sensitivity-wise. Incredible rods. See if you can find one used. If you fish a lot of bottom contact stuff, I bet it'll be a game changer for you.

Lost 2, both pricey setups. Worst was last year in my buddies new bass boat on Table Rock. NRX 822DSR with a Stella 2500 FD on it. Thank goodness for insurance.

What do you mean by a "lock down piece"? I've never heard of anything like that on a Shimano low profile reel. But my Core 50's do not have anything to lock down the spool, other than the spool tension knob.

I've yet to have an STX not suspend well out of the box. Maybe some of the newest ones I just got will not, have to wait until winter to find out as that's the only time I fish hard jerk baits. So for me, they've been very consistent so far. So have the MB110's, though. They all float up, and take different amounts of weight to get them to suspend. So consistently inconsistent.

In my experience, the STX's suspend far better "out of the box" than ANY MB110 I've owned. And I've got at least 20 of the MB110's. The hooks are weak on the MB110's, also. I've broken several, so now just replace them. And of course there are the well known MB110 issues of bills breaking and tails breaking off. The finish on the MB110 is a bit more durable though, I'll give them that. Split rings on the first STX's were not good, but they've long since remedied that issue. Trust me when I say I wish the MB110's worked better than the STX's. I have a lot of money tied up in them. But they rarely see the water these days as the STX's just work better for me.