Raul

With the rebate the bast bang for the buck right now is the Curado.

Well, I was able to uproot a sumberged stump with 12 lb CXX, you with 20 lb can certainly lift them dock pillings from the bottom.

The Zillion won 't cast as well and as easy the lures that the TDX ST can cast, the Zillion has wet drag system, the others have dry drag system which can be very touchy when it comes to contamination by lubricants. The Zillion has a little bit more torque and a longer handle.

Look at it this way, you could have nicer rods and reels ....... I could have purchased a Ranger boat, a bigun.

Look who 's talkin '.

Alright then, just so can never say that Raul is a mean sob that don 't want to show some of his tackle here 's a pic of a few extras I 've got:

For the better part of my life I fished from the bank and even though I now have a boat not always I fish from it, I still many times fish from the bank. The hardest part of fishing is locating the fish, no matter what bait you fish with, no matter how polished your fishing techniques are if you are not fishing where the fish are you are not going to catch them, that 's called location and the basic rule in the real estate business and what makes a property worth what is worth is location, the same can be applied to fishing, what makes the fish be there and you can break it in structure and cover. Structure can be seen, touched, figured out; if you are fishing from the bank not only you are seeing it, you are walking and standing on it. Structural features that attratct the fish to them are there, it 's that you haven 't analized them, you see the forest but you don 't see the trees. We know that certain structural features like humps, drop offs, flats, ledges, points, etc, attract fish to them, it may be year round, seasonal round or even throughout the day round but have you actually done the effort of doing an analisys of them ? The same applies to cover and how it relates to structure and structural features. The difference between a consistent angler and an inconsistent one is not in the baits he uses, it 's the ability in finding where the fish are in a particular moment in time.

Whatever you do, whichever you choose, just remember one thing: get the biggest one you can afford, those extra lbs in thrust are worth every penny when you need them in high winds or strong current.

Aw, c 'mon guyz ! I really don 't have THAT much tackle 8-) ......... &%$#! > , I 'll be danged ..... I just stepped on my tongue. :-[

For many years I had aquarium tankS ( Raul, the King of Excess ......... ain 't it kool ? ) in a fishroom, discus, angelfish, plecos, tetras, catfish, livebearers, barbs, rainbows, you name it ...... I 've had it and even bred it ( including those expensive up to 500 bones a pop african ciclids and fancy plecos ), I 've also had a couple of mini reef tanks ( who said you couldn 't have a 25 gal mini reef tank choked full with all those pretty nice soft and stony corals ? ) but no more, and with lil kids in the house and me not being there thank you but no thank you, not because something bad may happen to the kids, something bad may happen to the tanks and what 's inside of them. I 'm retired from fishkeeping.

Sad but true, daddy didn 't have no tacklebox ...... dady didn 't feesh at all.

My friend, it 's not a matter of with what you are fishing, it 's a matter of when, where and how. That 's why it 's called fishing and not called catching. If it were that easy, casting a bait and reeling in a fish, anybody could catch fish all the time, however, such is not the case. Instead of me suggesting with what I 'm going to suggest you should begin by reading thoroughly BR 's Fishing Articles section, there are tons of techniques, explanations, images that will help you understandthe when, where and how.

LOL Yeah, i've seen pictures of your tackle palace. ;D Yup, I 'm beginning to think that I really need a bigger boat ...... something about the size of an aircraft carrier will do the trick.

Less than 350 bass in three years ? :-? ........ that 's pretty lean dontcha think ? :-/

I don 't want to overload the server with pictures of my tackle collection.

ANDE line is not for everybody who is used to fish with the most common lines in the market, specially when it comes to it 's Tournament line which is one of the very few IGFA line class certified lines available in the market for the record hunters. If the line is 8lbs it will break at 8 pounds not like most lines that overtest and are not good for record hunting. My friend Vicente loves ANDE Backcountry line.

I 'm one of those that can 't feel that much of a difference between a GLX and an IMX worth the 100 extra bones.

Just an observation, conventonal and round are not the same thing, the term conventional applies to big game reels. Which one you should get depends greatly in many things like design, how big your hands are, how the reel sits on the reel seat, how much line capacity you want, reel size and so on. Some would say that round bcs have bigger gears than low profiles, something that 's not entirely true, a Calcutta 50 ( round ) by no means has larger gears than a Curado 200. In that price range a Cardiff would be my choice for round BC, it 's small, can carry a good amount of line, sits very low on the reel seat, has ARB bearings, good looks and proven durability and performance. In that price range I would go for a Citica for Low Profile.

Pretty much what 4bizz said. Trying to wake everytime a non floating soft plastic swimbait is a chore not easy to achieve.

Another thing, EVA and Hypalon grips with time take the shape of your hand, the contour of your fingers and palm with use gets imprinted on the grip making them completely ergonomic and very comfortable to hold.

Did I mention it 's ....... friggin ' awsom ! ? Even though not new the technology of side 3 D imaging has improved so much in the years that if it weren 't for the hefty price tag ( which is about what I paid for my fishing tub ) I would certainly have jumped all over one already, the level of detail is incredible, the fact that you can "see" something that you didn 't even know it was there is just priceless. Needless to say that the BoatMonkey has been hollering at my ear since a buddy of mine got his and I had the chance to see it in action. : In this case the BoatMonkey just took the place of his evil twin bro and it 's making me save some dough to get one. No tackle purchases until the Feechin Machina has one of them 3D finders. :-X

Cork grip does not equal rod quality.

I 'll be danged, now here I 'm gonna be for days with the suspense of not knowing what the heck is your buddy going to test...... >

Now, if you tell me that is endorsed by Roland Martin ( Mr gimme big fat check with lots of zeros and I 'll endorse it ) I 'll buy it in an eyeblink.

Victorinox fishing gear ? That 's a new one. :-?