deep

Nice fish! WTG

I never caught a darn thing on Rapala lipless cranks, and I swear that's the truth!

I'm not a good jig fisherman by any stretch of imagination, but I do fish a lot of jigs. This is what I do. I cast it out, and while it's dropping, watch the line like a hawk (braid). If it doesn't get eaten, hop it back with pauses, or raise and let it fall to the bottom (replicate the cast), or drag it, or do all of them in a cast. P.S. I put Rage Baby Craws/ Craws on smaller jigs, and Rage Craws/ Lobsters on bigger ones.

Haha, that's funny. Actually that's sorta what I'm doing. It's bitterly cold outside, and I'm back home early, and practising pitching with a spinning rod inside my apartment lol.

Done. Now what?

Great. Thanks once again.

Three questions about the C21: Does it float or sink? What do you think of the abrasion resistance (in rocks) compared to other copolys? What do you think of the knot strength? Thanks.

I don't think very highly of the Dobyns Savvy spinning rods, sensitivity-wise. I have owned and fished the Powell, although never dropshotted with it. I'll be happy to advise you on the power and action of the Powell. PM me if you want to talk about it.

Here you go http://www.tackletour.net/TTForums/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=36699

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/93647-a-pair-of-reviews/

It's a swimbait reel. Matched with the right rod, it can throw anything from Matt's hardgills to 6" hudds a looooong way. Heck, some guys throw 8" hudds on it too.. For traditional bass fishing, you might want to get another reel..

I think the point is having a big profile with a low ROF.

TT did a review on that zero gravity jig. http://www.tackletour.com/reviewcluzerogravity.html

http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/95633-poweel-endurance-775-brand-new/

Those look like the 3 Endurances that TW has on sale for $109.88 each... I'm not too fond of short rods either. Save 50 odd bucks more, and get whatever Powell you really like. It's not difficult. I saved a dollar here, and a dollar there over the last 3 months, and finally had enough to buy myself a dedicated casting jig rod.

Great reading. Thanks for the link.

I've never held a Mettle, but does your braking system look something like this? This is a Citica 201E. All brakes off. Three brakes on (11 o'clock, 3 o', 7 o'), three off. Sideplate closed.

Beautiful fish!

I bought a 150 yd spool of Kanzen in 50 lb test (slightly thicker than 12 lb Sufix mono) to try out. I fished it for about 2.5 hours today, and I'm not very impressed, considering that it's priced similar to the Daiwa Samurai. While it's probably a better alternative to Power Pro and/or Spiderwire, I'm not sure I'll buy another spool of this when I run out of Samurai. The good: It seems to be of higher density than Samurai. It doesn't like to dig in the spool, although I didn't catch a fish or have a backlash to really test this hypothesis. The bad: The color bleeds, in spite of application of KVD L&L. The bleeding is probably not as bad as on Samurai, but it does bleed. Being used to Samurai, the Kanzen is quite rough to the touch. It's also noisy coming through the guides. Casting distance was quite bad for the first few casts. The line did break in after 50 odd casts, even though it was still noisy.

After deciding what baits I wanted to fish and how, I sold a couple of rods, and three reels; bought two new rods, and three used reels over the last month. This is what I got in the way of rods and reels for myself after buying gifts for others. #1. Shimano Symetre 2500, bought used from here to go on my Powell Max 733 MXF. #2. Powell Max 753 MH/XF football jig rod (TW special), and Shimano Citica 201D 7.0:1. Rod is new, reel was bought used from ***. #3. Okuma Guide Select 7'11 H Big Bait Rod, and Shimano Cardiff 401A. Rod is new, reel was bought used from SBNation.

Pretty sure I've seen some homemade ones on ebay. But the point of the rig is simulating a school.. If I were you, I would use a 5 arm rig with two arms without hooks. I don't want to post a link here, but check your PM if you're dead-set on a 3-wire version.

21farms; Very useful explanation. Thanks. One quick question: Are there any braking systems which do most of the work near the end of the cast, that is, opposite to Shimano's VBS system? I think I read something like that about the older Revos with only mag braking.. but I'm not sure.

Definitely get off the shore. The next purchase should be an entry level fish finder. Good luck!

Question for aruku shad users: I ordered four of them from TW since they are like 50% off. First time I'm going to fish them. Is there any special method to fish these? Or do you just let them rip and fall, and yo-yo, and the other usual stuff? P.S. Sorry for the hijack.

Looks like a great haul!