kickerfish1

Have one on the way. Will try to fish it pretty hard the next few weeks. Hopefully I will remember to bump this thread after review. If I don't feel free to bump it or send me a pm before you need to pull the trigger. On paper the reel looks solid for the price...

For areas of heavy vegetation go with a fluke style bait fished weightless around pockets and edges When you have limited vegetation and fish just off the bottom a drop shot would be good pick. If fish are on the bottom and you have rock piles, jetties, or even brush a jig or Texas rigged soft plastic would be a good bet. I would say about 75% of the fish I catch each year are taken on one of the 3 styles noted above.

Texas rig or as a punch/flip style bait. Also going to experiment with them on a larger shakey head. Hoping this will lift the claws and arms up enough to entice a few more fish.

Perhaps at some point I will obtain one but most of the reels in my regular rotation range from $100 - $500. To expect the Revo to be a treat, would be a pretty small chance. However, I am not writing one off after fishing a friends a few times. Could potentially be swayed by a MGX or the new Winch or possibly a Gen 2 premier in good shape.

I have a few dozen casting reels from all manufacturers. The Daiwa and Shimano reels see the most use followed by the BPS reels and Lews reels. From my own findings... Daiwa reels look the best, are built well, and are highly upgradeable. Shimano reels are great performers, are reliable, and last quite awhile. BPS and Lews give good performance at a good price. Very smooth retrieves. For a bang for your buck reel these help fill the void for several techniques. Abu Garcia reels are very good but the ones I have are the canister style reels for big baits. Great reels with superb drag systems. Okuma is like Lews and BPS in that they give great performance for the price and also have decent looks. A pretty under appreciated reel. Waiting to see how they hold up over years of use. Quantum is a comapny where most of the products have been hit or miss. The only downfall seems to be longevity. Their newer offerings seem to be better. Good products can be found from all manufacturers. It is just a matter of finding the right fit for a price that is doable.

Casting into the wind perhaps? Change baits? Change the reel brakes? Unless the line was not laying tight on the spool like it was when it was first spooled I am not sure what to tell ya.

Nice collection! Would be a blast to fish!

I would stick to shimano for a qulaity spinning reel. The 2500 series is a great choice for most bass applications. Daiwa would be my second choice. Any of the shimano or Daiwa reels mentioned above will serve you well. A stradic or Lexa would be my choices under $150 (considering auction site prices and online sales)

This is a bass forum... hence the name. Talking about rods that are suited to other species is irrelevant. That is what other forums would be for. People who join this site are looking for information about all aspects of bass fishing and aren't looking here for a source of trout or walleye info or any other species for that matter. Dobyns and Megabass are only a few of many companies ONLY targetting bass anglers. Nothing wrong with having a refined target market. From my understanding this isn't a multi species forum.

Got a link? Outside of their generation 1 rods I haven't heard of this. Been fishing the generation 2 rods for 2+ years with no issues with any of the rods components.

This thread has run it course... time to move on.

Hopefully one of the reel gurus chimes in. I had this happen once last year. Disassemble the entire reel allowing all internal parts to air dry. The bearings will need to be flushed and lubed again. Also don't forget the handle as well. If left negated your retrieve will be very mushy feeling. Best to send it in or do a full service on the reel.

Other than the "American" portion of St. Croix rods the rest of what you are saying is purely subjective. Best performance, price, warranty, and customer service is debatable. While I don't have an issue with St. Croix rods, I don't think they are night and day better than comparable offerings from other companies.

I almost exclusively fished both last year on 80% of my setups. Really like both lines but to me I like invisix better. Sure there is some stretch but also countered some of that with xf rods. Both are quite good for the price!

It is not just a true finesse reel. The reel is capable of handling most every task you can put it up to. Line capacity may be an issues once you get above 15# test line or braid equivalent in diameter. I fish mainly bottom contact baits like jig/Texas rig/drop shots but also fish weightless soft plastics and smaller Keitech paddle tail swimbaits. What I wouldn't use it for was pulling deep cranks, slinging A-rigs, or very heavy cover frogging and punching though it could probably handle the latter 2 in a pinch. It is lightweight, smooth, very palmable, and built well inside and out. In its stock form, it would handle true finesse baits pretty well. I can't speak on the MGX. Though I recall a post on here not real long ago where the user of both said his MGX is a backup to his core reels. Others on here seem to like the MGX but some of these guys haven't fished both. Finding someone that could give you an unbiased breakdown of both would be key. Since I haven't I would leave that call to someone else. As far as the price goes for me it was worth it (purchased new on sale at 20% off), but part of what I was trying to accomplish was one of the lightest mh casting setups close to 7 feet. Paired the reel with a 6'10 mh cumulus rod and the outfit weighs 8.5 ounces and is a blast to fish. Good luck!

Need to identify hard or soft body swimbaits and even sizes as well.

Are you looking for a punch jig?

Excellent rigging photos Big-O!

X2Since you have already done a decent cleaning on them you can further the looks of the rod by purchasing a magic eraser pack at a local store. Just wet the eraser and start scrubbing. It will really help restore the the color and remove alot of dirt. Dry the cork and further protect the cork by appplying a thin water like product called U-40 cork sealant. It is about $6.00 a bottle and will last many rods. I did about 30 rods with it and still have 2/3 of the bottle left. This will help seal the cork from deterioration. You can purchase it at the Tackletrap if you are interested. Mr. Clean Magic Eraser + U-40 cork sealant should be around $12.00 or less.

Only the original senkos 90% off the time for me. Knock offs are far inferior as a whole. At $7.50 a pack that isn't terrible for a bait that works. They can be found for under $5.00-$6.00 a pack throughout the year. It is not like you are dishing out $15.00+ for a megabass bait. Alot of knock offs put the salt on the outside with limited amounts inside the plastic. What you get is a bait that isn't as dense (casting distance), doesn't have the action on the fall (strike triggering qualities), and after a handful of casts starts to loose most of its salt content.

Very nice. And I apologize in advance for being overly critical but the only thing I would change would be color of the head to something darker (green pumpkin/watermelon based). As far as the skirt alone it is outstanding, as I believe this was the only part of the spinnerbait up for debate. Keep up the good work!

For all cranks and topwater plugs I prefer straight mono, but I am old school!

Fenwick elite tech smallmouth series rods. The 6'9 medium rod would be good for $129 with a lifetime warranty. Comfortable in hand, light weight, and sensitive for a rod in its class.

The 704 CB rod is great. You will have both a glass and graphite model to pick from. Both are good and have great actions for treble hook baits. Depending upon cover and weights of the baits you will be tossing the 705 CB glass rod is good for many apps. Dobyns lists both the 704 and 705 for cranks, jerkbaits, topwater, and spinnerbaits. Great multi-purpose reaction bait rods that are very balanced. I paid $160 new for my 705 CB glass from a local Cabelas.

J Francho has a great post for reference! I too, am running invisix on a few spinning reels but also running sunline sniper. Both lines are 8# on 2500 series reels on medium to medium light spinning rods. Purely finesse applications... dropshotting, flickshakes, small grubs, tubes, shakeyheads, and small weightless plastics. Fishing both lines side by side I would take sniper over invisix. Invisix may cast a foot or two further but sniper is more sensitive and less stretchy to me. I haven't fished tatsu on a spinning reel nor have I tried any of the "specialty" finesse floro lines yet but I would say sniper would be probably closer to what you are looking for without dropping too much coin. Also for additional clarity... use line and lure and close the bail manually and you will be set. Haven't had any manageability issues with floro on a spinning reel doing this.