Raul

RW would not make a good president, he don 't take crap from nobody. ;D

Half of the guys at other forums don 't speak English properly and I seriously doubt they are foreigners. Now if you want proof of it check Bill Dance 's forum and you 'll see what I 'm saying.

Opinion. If it 's quality made who cares if dissapears or not as long as it matches the color of the reel.

The same huevos it took to purchase my first Lightning Rod back then during the age of the dinosaurs or to purchase my first GLoomis. That has something to do with it, for years before some of the manufacturers had authorized dealers you had to do what you had to do in order to get a good rod, in many brands you are still on your own. I don 't think that a product manufactured by a reputable company has to be bad if it 's not made in X or Y country, even if Z country where the product is being made is known for producing lots of cheap bad quality stuff, not many years ago anything that said "made in Japan" or "made in Korea" was seen just like many see now "made in China". The workers manufacture the product with what the company gives them to do so, if the company supplies cheap components then that 's what you 'll get, a cheap product.

Well, it ain 't a 350 bones GLX or Leyend Elite, yup it 's manufactured in China, which doesn 't necessarily mean it 's cheaply made, on the contrary, it 's quality made with good quality components. Impressions: 6 ' 2 Piece spinning split handle, foam grips, ML power, Fast action ( got any idea how much it cost to have a 1 piece rod shipped from Japan to your door ? I do and ----> ) The rod has two different finishes, the first half of the rod is dark blue mattè finish, the upper half is shiny black with spiral grooving all the way to the tip, it feels like a snake skin when you slide your finger from the tip to the bottom. So it looks groovy. 8-) Fuji reel seat Fuji guides Foam split grip design, the foam is light, dense and smoothly finished. Gold and silver accents and a nicely finished rear end cap. Friction joints. Wanna see these details ? CLICK HERE So I 've fished with it a couple of times and I 'm very much pleased with the acquisition. For staters the rod comes with a rod wrap, it 's not made from silk, but none of my GLoomis rods regardles of the price has come with a rod wrap :-/. The rod is extremely light and slightly tip heavy problem that gets solved immediately when you mount a reel on it. The friction joints work well and I seriously doubt that they can come appart easily on a cast. Being ML it 's noodly but not that noodly. Paired to my Daiwa Revros 2004 and spooled with 6 lb test Trilene XT it makes a wonderful finesse setup. The road loads very nicely with baits 1/16 up to 3/16 oz baits and even though it 's rated for up to 3/8 oz I feel that tying a 1/4 - 3/8 oz bait is pushing the limits of the rod. It casts extremely well light offerings, I tied an Ecogear grass minnow weighted with a BB size split shot sinker and the rod could cast it with no effort and good distance, 1/16 oz shakey head with a 4 inch finesse grub ---> no problem !, sinkerless smallie beaver ---> no problem either !, small crankbaits ( like Rapala Shad Rap size 5, Megabass Griffon MRX and SRX, C 'ultiva Bug Eye Bait n 'such ) cast like a bullet so did BlueFox #1 & 2 in-line spinners and Stanley Wedge 1/8 oz spinnerbaits. Now here comes the big questions: So how sensitive the rod is ? let me tell you, it 's a 2 piece rod and I 'm surprised that a 2 piece rod can be that sensitive, better sensitivity than my GLoomis GL2s. And what about power ? guranteed, if you are used to fish with pool cues the rod will feel pretty sissy and if used to cross their eyes hooksets you 'll break the rod, if that 's your fishing style then it 's not for you, you can find more power in the trigger models ( baitcast ) than you will in the spinning models, ML is the highest power rating you can get. This rod is meant for finesse, razor sharp hooks and finesse rigging techniques. If you fish for panfish and apply panfishing techniques to bass fishing you have a winner with this rod. Heck, it 's as fun as fishing with my CR721 but with spinning gear. Price: 13,000 yens Shipping cost by EMS: 3,600 yens for 2 rods. Drawbacks: NO WARRANTY other than what Plat can offer you ( no problem there ) Shipping cost is the same for 2 rods than for 1 You have to e-mail plat BEFORE you order to check if it 's in stock, I had to wait since November in order to get my rod. BaitMonkey approved rod !

The term weightless means without weight, so calling a 1/2 oz bait ( like a 5 inch senko just as Ronnie mentioned ) "weightless" is pretty much contradictory. Sinkerless is a much adequate term to describe fishing a bait without sinker.

Post count can be viewed if you click on your profile.

I do cast tubes and fish them pretty much like a bottom bouncing bait ( most of the time they hit it on the fall ). You can rig them weedless with a 1/16 - 1/8 oz jighead with a 3 or 4/0 hook ( doesn 't have to be a tube jighead ) to bring out that killer spiraling sink they have. The process of rigging quite simple, insert the hook in the cavity first and pull out the hook as you dress the jighead with the bait ( you need to leave a little head on the bait or the jighead can 't rotate ), now you have the jighead inside the bait with the hook protruding from it, insert the hook back into the bait like T-rigging it to make it weedless, now press on the bait against the jighead eye to expose the hook eye and tie your line. Now it 's weedless and wahing the sinker more in the rear the bait will sink spiraling down.

Impossible ? not really; Backlash country while you are in the process of doing it ? you bet it is, never have backlashed a BC so throughly as I did when began to skip with it , not even the first time I made a cast with a BC. :-/ It takes lot of practice ( and backlashes ) before you can skip properly with a BC, it 's a matter of setting the brakes, thumbing and roll cast techqnique to make the bait hit the water in the right angle to make it skip, and then it comes the fun, make the bait skip several times and with accuracy.

Some of the best crankbait threads we 've had were written by Chris, I 'd check them if I were you.

Fish non intersted in your baits doesn 't mean they can 't be caught, it means that you haven 't found the combination of the factors that make the fish bite, it 's not that they avoid the bait, it 's just that you haven 't found the way or you haven 't been patient enough ( stubborn ) to make them bite. If you dangle the bait in front of their faces for long enough you 'll make them bite. Just ask me, it took me an hour and a half to make a 6 pounder bite a crankbait and I won.

I 'm a sucker for brilliantly colored baits, specially with lotz and lotz of metal flake, fish don 't care or seldomly care what color the bait is as long as your location and presentation are right.

But it 's weightless Ronnie, don 't you get it ? : I guess that rigging it without sinker it makes it qualifies it as weightless.

NO

I hope to live to see that day. For the money I wouldn 't think it too much, for 70 dollars ( after the discount @ *** and the rebate from Shimano ) I 'd jump straight on the Citica ( already have ).

That 's funnier than the joke itself. ;D

JITTERBUG !!!!!!!!! Yup, THAT loud.

Hmmm, let 's see ....... how many times has been asked in this forum which hook size for X bait ? or how many times it has been asked about let 's say, which weight and stuff like that ? heck, we even have a stickbait ( aka, senko ) special section cuz senko qustions have been asked so many times it becomes boring seeing senko this and senko that questions. And who asks those questions ? People that have a doubt and you 'll find hundreds if not thousands of people who are new to the sport and therefore they ask. Hell, I may be and old grumpy fart, I may know everything there 's to know about tackle but if have the will of teaching others what I know those who ask will get an answer from me. So apparently some have forgotten a little detail here, shows are meant to be educational for all of those who are in the sport, every year a new generation of anglers to be is born and many don 't have the blessing of having someone to teach them. The tip may sound stoopid to you, but it ain 't for someone who knows nothing.

It could be that it 's not available in the US, Rapala has colors that are only sold in certain countries but not in others. I have several DTs in GFR ( Gold Fluorescent Red ) and I know for shure that color is not available in the US, have never seen it advertized in any US site, yet still, it 's available in Mexico.

The Series One is still being manufactured, I have an early model dating back to the 90 's, it wasn 't exactly cheap at 120 dollars. It 's still is a good rod similar in characteristics to a GLoomis GL2.

Newbie.

Spinnerbaits Jitterbug Lipless cranks w/rattle C tail worms Jig w/rattles.

Suggestion: purchase the line you like and don 't bother about line visibility for X, Y or Z gin clear lake; when you go to gin clear lake then worry about line visibility and add a 3-5 ft long leader of fluorocarbon in the test you feel is going to be less visible.

Ahh, that 's because: you are young and strong, have your Corn Flakes in the morning, throw in a couple of eggs and some strips of bacon ( there 's nothing like "healthy" and tasty food ) and you are ready for a full day of casting without the reel burning you out. Now I 'm wondering how good the Citica 100DSV should feel on my CR724 spooled with 17 lb test to jig n 'flip to them tuff mesquite trees and huizache brush ? ..... I think I better shut the heck off before you know who gets another of it 's bright ideas. :

The BaitMonkey made me do it ! ( re: The BaitMonkey at it ...again! part II ) The day I got the reel I thought the box was big, inside the box I saw the reel and it comes in a bigger box than it needs. Features: 1.- Man it really is a nice reel to stare at, I specially liked the 1/4 turn release sideplate, 2.- Spool looks like the spool found in the old SF, 3.- METAL ! everywhere, 4.- no cheap plastik tension knob cap !, 5.- no graphite star drag, 6.- nice handle nut cover, 7.- drilled handle, 8.- sticky material on the top of the thumbar; In esence ----> overall cool ! Got home took the reel out and compared it to the venerable old Curado 200, here 's what I found: 1.- Width: both reels have the same width 2.- Length: the Citica is slightly longer at the center front of the reel by a couple of milimeters, what makes it longer is the shape of the front, slightly pointy = a couple milimeter more in length. 3.- Height from the reel foot to the top of the reel: both reels are the same height. So aside from the handle side plate where the bigger gear is located both reels have the same dimensions, the handle side doesn 't count for the ergonomic contour comfort of the reel, so it 's not THAT big and not THAT bulky. 8-) 4.- Weight: well at 10 ounces isn 't exactly the lightest reel I 've fished with but it 's not the heaviest either, my old Abus XLT series ( that don 't see much action nowdays ) weight more, but .... the shoulder ain 't what it used to be 20 years ago and while 20 years ago I could cast all day long with a 10+ oz reel and not get tired now 20 years later I seriously doubt I could do the same. :-[ So why did I purchase the Citica ? 1.- I wanted a low profile reel for swimbaiting that could hold around 100 yards of 17 lb test and not having to spend an arm and a leg in the process. 2.- The BaitMonkey made me do it. 3.- The silver body/gold accents make a perfect color combination when paired to my Clarus flipping/small swimbait rod. 4.- The BaitMonkey made me do it. 5.- 60 dollars ! ( with the rebate and purchased on sale at TW ), it don 't get better than that ! 6.- Did I mention the BaitMonkey made me do it ? Now comparing the features of both reels ( Old Curado 200 vs new Citica 200D ) the Mean Green Feechin Machine looks like the old VW Beetle next to the new Beetle. Went yesterday for a "quickie" to one of the ponds and took my swimbait box to see if I could ketch me a bigun, no biguns, only a couple of 3 pounders but let me say you I 'm impressed so far with the reel. Weight issues ? talking in consideration that when you fish with baits the size and weight of most people 's average catch and that you cast with both arms the weight of the reel is no issue at all, if you are young and strong, have your Corn Flakes in the morning I don 't think you are going to feel the weight of the reel. I think the new Curado is in trubble when compared in price to the Citica.