backcast88

I have caught a lot of fish on Rapala Shad Rap's. But I am not going to say that they are the best. I have caught more fish on them then any other crankbait but that is because I had only used Rapala and a few other low quality brands and always reached for the Rapala b/c the other brands were not very good. Since I have ventured into Lucky Craft and several other high quality (and money) crankbaits I have done as good if not better then when I used Rapala. In the last couple years the price of Rapala's has gone up and the newer versions rival Spro and Lucky Craft in price so its hard to label Rapala's as a low cost crankbait but when you can pick them up in the Spring Fishing Classic for $5 or so then they are pretty hard to beat.

I don't have any experiance with the Falcon or St. Croix other then at Bass Pro. I have used a Carbon Lite and can say with certainty that its a very good rod and hard to beat for $100. The $100 price point is very competative and has a bunch of good options. You will just have to go to Bass Pro and play with them and put a reel that matches yours on it and check the balance and feel.

I had a Carbon Lite reel and had to take it back as well b/c it was gritty and made a bad clicking/poping sound. For $80 or so you can get a lot of good reels. Look at Abu Garcia Orra S, Pfueger President, Daiwa Aird, and BPS Pro Qualifier.

I have tons of success on chartreuse on my primary lake so I will probably get the chartreuse black back or roobeer chartreuse and then to get something closer to natural forage like one of the shad colors.

Thanks. I will look into getting something in red and either cell mate or citrus shad. Any more Little John users want to chime in on color selection?

Is Citrus Shad any good?

I stopped by Bass Pro and they had 1 in stock and after playing with it for a few minutes I decided to get it. I have not fished with it yet but its pretty smooth and very light weight. I will be heading to the lake next Sunday when I am off work and will be using it for drop shot's and weightless soft plastics and will update you all after I get back.

I am thinking of picking up a couple Little John's but am not sure what colors to get. I have had pretty good success with Chartreuse and the Chartreuse Black Back looks nice but am curiouse to see what people have ahd good success with. I will be fishing in central NC lakes so the water can be fairly clear but is usually slightly stained. Any suggestions on what colors to get?

I picked up a Supreme XT for my Veritas yesterday as part of the reel trade in and its super sweet. Since I have a couple of old Cardinal 102's I used to use all the time that are now collecting dust I figured I will get another reel to use for drop shot and weighless plastics. I looked at the Daiwa Aird 2000 and really liked it. Its very light weight and is the size I am looking for but its rated at 4.5 lbs of max drag which seems a little light. I will be putting it on my 6' 6" medium Carbon Lite with 8 lb InvizX or BPS flouro. Does anybody have any experiance with this reel? Thanks.

I have had decent success with Culprit products and would have no problem using them. When given the choice I will pick Zoom any day over Culprit b/c I think Zoom has better color selection for my lakes and I have traditionally had better success with Zoom product.

I have used BPS and currently use Seaguar InvizX and like the InvizX better. My fishing partners and I have dabled in other flouro's and when you start spending $20 or so a spool your getting a good product but Seaguar seems to be a little better then most. If you want pretty good quality for a lower cost look at Seaguar Red Label. Its pretty good but for the extra $ I would buy InvizX or AbrazX.

I used Sufix several years ago and had nothing but problems with it. I might be willing to try again and see it does any better but will probably buy the Seaguar and see how it performs.

Does anybody have any real world experience with Senshi mono? I have used Seaguar floro and really like it but don't have any experience with their mono. I currently use Trilene XL and don't have any issues with it but since I have had such good luck with Seaguar lately I figured I would try their mono but wanted to get input from somebody who has used it before buying a spool.

I hardly ever use braid anymore but when I did use it a lot I had real good luck with Stren Super Braid (now Stren Sonic Braid).

I went back to BPS and looked at the reels again and the Supreme XT stood out to me as a clear winner. The Supreme was very nice but I do not like the handle on it, the Orra SX was heavier then I want and the Orra S was very close but I like the light weight of the XT better. Since I need to buy 2 reels I will be getting the Supreme XT for my Veritas and the Orra S for my 6'6" medium Carbon Lite rod that I tend to use for genderal purpose/top water lures.

All the reels are within my price range and I put each one on a Veritas and couldn't make up my mind. I will put each one back on the rod at random and see if one stands out to me. I am going to wait until the reel trade in during the Classic so I will do some more research and try and make up my mind.

I just bought a 6'6" medium Veritas at BPS and am looking to use it mainly for soft plastics and maybe some jigs. I have a birth defect of my right arm and am nursing a snowboarding injury and want/need to make a light weight combo to fish all day with. I looked at several different reels that seemed to pair pretty well with it and no one seemed to stand out as the clear leader. I have narrowed down my choices to: Abu Garcia Orra S Abu Garcia Orra SX Pflueger Supreme Pflueger Supreme XT I did like the Supreme XT a hair more then the other 3 and then its a tie among the others. I am a grad school student and just find it hard to spend the extra $50 for the XT. Is it really worth the added cost? Which one of the 4 do you think will pair the best with my Veritas and 8 lb Seaguar InvizX? Thanks.