Tim Kelly

West London. Fish the canals rivers and lakes all over the place. Shame you didn't post this a couple of weeks ago as there was a "Lure Fair" organised by the LAS, where you would have had a chance to look at and buy everything you needed, and plenty you didn't. Sounds like the rod's a bargain, but it also sounds like you're trying to run before walking a bit. No point buying expensive rods until you get a feel for what you're doing and your preferred styles of fishing for the venues and fish you're after. Everyone's different.

Stuck here in the UK until those idiots at the lottery pick the right numbers Elwood! LOL Is the 6'10" rod med or med light power? For what you want I would get a med light power. The forum you are looking at and getting that info from is probably one not worth reading! You won't go wrong with a St Croix med lite legend. You might also consider a dobyns champ extreme 702 in either casting or spinning. Look up lure anglers shop .co.UK, he's just started stocking them.

I've got 15lb mono on one reel and 15lb fluoro on another. I can never remember which reel has which, but if I pull a couple off feet of each out and give them a pull I know instantly. The mono stretches far more.

Hi Elwood, I'm UK based too. Depends what you mean by jigging, but if you're casting jigheads with plastic baits in the weight range the rod's comfortable with it would be a superb rod. Lose sensitivity compared to what? Those rods are about as sensitive as you can get. 200 sized reel would probably be a bit on the large size ideally, but would work. A spinning rod would be a more usual choice though.

I'm off to Cijara next month. Second time there, it can be great fun. Hope to have some better pictures from this trip!

I should think most people can hit 40 yards under normal conditions. Maybe 50 with a strong tail wind. I can cast a fly 30 yards and can definitely get a squarebill further in regular casting. Setting the hook at long range though can be more of a challenge without using braid....

The Daiwa aird in 2500 size is tremendous value for money. Much lighter than many reels at that price point, plus a spare spool. Hard to go wrong there.

Thanks for your input. It's my fault for swapping the hooks round between the pictures which has led to your confusion.

The one at the bottom is the one that's been opened up. That's my point. I should have put the hooks the other way round in the first picture for clarity.

OK. Here are a couple of pics. The blue/green tube is a standard zoom 3.5" tube and the brown one is a 3.75" Gitzit. The top hook is one that I've opened up slightly, so the point of the hook is a little above the eye, the bottom hook is as they come in the packet and the point is in line with the eye. I put the standard hook in the zoom and it's just about OK, but you can see the point is angled into the body of the tube a little. The opened hook I put in the slightly thicker Gitzit and it lies perfectly flat along the top of the tube. This looks to me like it will be a better hooker and more like how they are designed to be used. Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks, I'll go and have a play again, but I can't help thinking that if I open up the gape a bit it will be a better mousetrap....

Is the eye of your Trokar in line with the point? I wonder if I just need to open them out a little bit as if the eye is inside the tube the tip of the point is pointing at the eye and not lying flat on the tube as yours appears to be.

Ok, so I finally broke down and bought a pack or two of these after reading how they are the perfect tube hook. I couldn't see how they rigged from looking at them, so I thought I'd buy some and see how it works in real life. I must have missed something obvious, but I can't get them to work very well. On the you tube vids people insert the hook through the middle of the nose of the tube, then out and under, through and leave it with the eye of the hook in the tube, the keeper barb below the tube and the point laying flat on top. I don't see how! The eye of the hook is in line with the point and the bulk of the tube is such that if you push the whole keeper through the hook point is angled down towards the tube body, not parallel to it. Should I be putting the point through the top of the tube head, keeping the keeper barb inside the tube and only using inside weights? I can't see how to Texas rig a tube with this hook.

You can pick up a tatula for around $100 and get some pretty decent rods for another $100.

My garage is just a mess. I know where most of the stuff is, but I bet there's some great stuff in the missing file! I keep thinking I should get some of those plastic bins and sort stuff out, but it would cost hundreds just in plastic storage bins, and I can't bring myself to do it.

I was actually thinking of the spinning reels with reference to weight. You can get an excellent Daiwa 2500 aird reel for about £80 and it weighs something like 8.5oz. A similar sized ABU soron at much more money is over 10oz. My aird is still acceptably smooth, my soron lasted about a month before developing a tick in the drivechain. If you look at the spinning reels you'll find that until very recently most of the "other" manufacturers reels were 10oz + for a 2500 size, where even the cheapest Shimanos and Daiwas were under 10. Makes a difference with light spinning outfits. Baitcasters, I don't mind if they've got a little more heft, but still an 8oz baitcaster is really not that heavy on a rod you will generally be fishing heavier techniques.

Same way. Blunt end going forward otherwise it will keep tilting itself.

Nearly all my reels are Shimano or Daiwa now. Every now and then I see a new reel by Quantum, Okuma or ABU and sometimes give one a try. Every time it has been a disappointment! They're either too heavy for their price point (compared to the equivalent D or S) or have some problem with the drive train after very little use and start feeling rough. How many times do you have to get burned before you stop poking the fire? If these companies want to be taken seriously they need to stop producing rubbish! I was at a tackle show the other day and a sponsored guy proudly showed me his new $300 baitcaster. Black with gold and silver spots, the spool spun for ages on a flick and it weighed less than a butterfly's wing, but there was about 1/4" backplay in the handle. If you got a $300 D or S you wouldn't have that! The price points they choose to compete at are wrong. If that Okuma had been a $100 reel it would have been acceptable and it's other features would have made up for the poorly engineered AR bearing, but not for 3x the price.

I did wonder about the hook ups. The weed guard prongs look quite thick. Do they seem to hook as well as conventional jigs?

My Morrum SX 3601 with Avail spool, avail 4 block brake, hedgehog air bearings and handle from some guy in Sweden who tricks them out with bearings. Tremendous BFS reel, almost impossible to backlash! Can cast 1/16 without too much difficulty and 1/8 effortlessly with accuracy. Oh, and it gets used, so it's not super clean! LOL

Dogs like fishing They like boats too. Bit of a pain if I'm fishing out of the back of my boat though as he always wants to be as close as possible to the action, so ends up trying to stand on the outboard. Usually ends in a big splash.

Do these things have any real advantages in the real world? They look impressive in their promotional material, but I wonder if they really make much difference in practice?

What's everyone's verdict on this line? I've been using 8lb on a 2500 reel this winter and quite like it. It certainly handles easier on spinning reels than the non XL version. Still not great casting, but that's fluoro generally. I prefer it to invisx as it seems heavier and less stretchy, still probably use non XL on baitcasters, because I've got some bulk spools and like the line, but this seems an improvement for spinning reels. Anyone found any down sides to this line yet?

I have moderately large hands and fish with three fingers in front of the trigger when fishing for pike and muskie with 6500 and 7000 reels, but for bass reels I've found I need to fish 2 fingers in front generally for better control of the reel.

Thanks WRB, your detective skills are better than mine! I've ordered the book, getting excited about the trip.