TNBassin'

Enjoy. I'm still waiting on BPS to ship mine.

If the music that's playing is rap, there's a good chance that all the fish have killed themselves. I know I want to every time I hear that bs.

OMG!

If you're going to BPS and have an idea of what you want, go on Academy's site and see if they have the same thing cheaper. BPS will price match them or other local competitors. Academy had 6XDs for $3.99 and Red Eye Shad for $4.99, so I went in the other day and bought a bunch at that price at BPS. I even got them to price match some Seaguar Red Label line at $9.99 a spool. THEN I had a $10 off coupon so I saved $24 total off my purchase. They hate me there lol.

My lady has more nail polish than I have fishing gear, so she keeps quiet lol. That and she fishes too.

Why other reel manufacturers haven't adopted or improved upon the Magforce Z system that Daiwa uses is beyond me.

Gotcha. I use a Shimano Crucial MH-XF and it works great. Plenty of back bone on those.

The Veritas to me is certainly superior, but I can't recommend anyone buying one without close inspection of those guides first. We had a topic on here last year where Wally World had the micro guide version cheap. A bunch of us bought them, only to get crooked or cracked epoxy on the guides. So if you can buy them at a local store where you can inspect them, then certainly get one. The regular Veritas doesn't have as many QC issues though. When he said Wal Mart I didn't know if that was online or in store. The V2 is nice, but if you can get a good Veritas then that's the way to go.

No I just toss them in.

Gonna FINALLY try out the wacky rig, as I've put off really using this technique for a loooong time. Been looking at some wacky jig heads and really don't know which ones to get. Any recommendations?

Go with a MH Veritas rod. It's slightly stiffer than a "normal" MH and it's pretty sensitive.

V2 is a nice rod for that $$

A bunch of those at Wally World here too. Tons of good YUM baits cheap. Picked up 4 packs of Dingers last night and some nice brush hogs for $2 a pack. Nothing like digging through greasy plastic bags to find the good ones.

That's just a town over from me. Where do you plan on going? If wanna do some fishing you need to go to Douglas Lake. That's where FLW and BASS have their tourneys here. If you want a killer smallie lake, then Dale Hollow is the place to go. I don't really know of any good bass fishing spots in Gatlinburg though, and I've lived here since 96. I'm interested as to where you told to go. And you CAN use treble hooks on your lures. You just can't use an A-rig with more than 3 hooks on it.

You can if you want. Some say not to for whatever reason, and some people throw all their used baits in a plain ziplock to use later on. Your choice.

I check my line every few casts. If it's nicked, I retie especially with fluorocarbon.

I don't even try the mag reels anymore. I had a Black Max that worked great, then a 2nd gen SX that I HATED, and Gen 3 SX that worked well for 10 casts then back lashed for no reason. The only mag reels I'd look at would be Daiwas, as they use a different method for their mag systems than Abus do and are actually pretty user friendly. Still, centrifugal reels get my money.

I had the new Revo S, SX, and STX and loved them....until I bought a Chronarch 201E6 then it was all down hill from there. I did have a few issues out of the S and SX that kept popping up with replacement reel after replacement reel, so that did kind of sway me too, but Shimano reels are crazy good.

Is it the Vendetta or Vendetta 2? If it's the Vendetta 2, that's a really nice rod. The Veritas is a nice rod, but it's been referred to as the "nicest POS" you can buy. It's NICE rod no doubt, but the micro guide version is just poorly made. Mainly the placement of the guides are off. Some are crooked, or the epoxy around them cracks. Or they use a TON of epoxy and it's dripped down on the blank or it's actually covering the eye of one of the guides. If it's the Veritas that doesn't have the micro guides, and you can visually inspect it for defects, I say go with the Veritas. I don't think the regular version had the QC issues the micro guide version did. I wouldn't even look in the LR's way honestly.

I used to just have MH rods, as they are a jack of all trades rod. Then I bought a dedicated crank bait rod in the form of a crucial. It worked well, so I got the crucial in a 7'2 MH XF for my worm/jig rod and it works well. So basically now I've got dedicated rods for each lure type I throw except spinner baits and swim baits that I can throw just fine on my worm/jig rod. But is there anything wrong with having a bunch of MH rods? Heck no. Like I said, those rods do everything well and the Veritas is a bit stiffer than your typical MH so it's even more versatile.

Yeah that's what I've heard too. The BPS demo reel actually has this issue, but I think it's where people have tried to rotate the side plate the wrong way and scuffed that little edge. Just gotta do it the right way and you shouldn't have this issue.

My 30lb worm binder agrees with the "buying is fun" statement lol.

^^This. I'm a crank bait fisherman and I bought every color under the sun....and I always use the same 2 colors to catch all my fish. Some cranks have never even touched the water. All that cash just sitting there in my tackle box. Colors catch fisherman and not necessarily fish.

Take advantage of BPS' price match policy and monthly coupons.

You'll sell your Abus to help fund your new shimano addiction. Trust me...I know.