dam0007

Hey guys just bought this drop shot rod off Buzzed Bait. I tried my Ci4 and Ci4+ on it and both felt the same weight wise. Balance point with either about even with hook keeper (which is in the worst possible location I may add). Any of you guys have this rod and what reel do you have on it? I may end up just grabbing another ci4+ or a ci4 off eBay if I can find one cheap. But if something balances better I want to know! Lol Thanks

I had a thread awhile back and experienced the same thing. Instead of spraying it night before every outing I'm only using it when needed. Milky color has since went away.

what's the length of the other handles? Japan lure shop says all of them are 48mm

Own the 684CB 685CB and 705CB I found with Dobyns the taper/bend is good enough in the graphite I'd rather take the lower weight and increased sensitivity, although minimal, over the glass. 765CB is on my list of rods to get.

What depth are we talking here? 4 ft in 10 ft of water or 40ft in 80ft of water. It really depends. Vertically I could drop shot and reel up to desired depth. Shallower than 20 ft I could throw the a rig or crank baits. But typically if they are suspended look around on the graph find drop offs or structure near by and kinda base what you're gonna do off that. I've seen it where in 50ft of water there's a few archs at 25ft bait ball at 15ft but about 30ft away there's a ledge coming up to 15ft for a hump. I would attack the ledge with confidence baits. Sometimes smallies will go wonder off while big largemouth will hold tight to a drop off.

DVT built me a rod on a MHX HM. It's Mag ML made for shakey heads. Definitely fishes above its price range. Super light and sensitive. I have no regrets.

Haha... That gap in the reel seat I noticed that too on mine with all non shimano reels. It's like the foot on the reel is oversized on every brand for that rod.

One disadvantage to smaller spools is as you go throughout several fishing trips. Break offs, re ties, lure changes, you lose line little by little. So the smaller spools you may have enough line to make super long casts but you lose inches per turn on retrieve. So for instance you typically pull in 30" of line with a full spool you may only pull in 15" with a half of spool. So picking up slack line to set a hook may require a extra 2-3 turns of the handle. Not as apparent on 100 size as it is 50 size. 200 you gotta be really low on line to see the difference. I run a little of everything but then again I respool line almost weekly on some reels as I do tons of tournaments, practice etc.

a buddy said buy a lotto ticket right after the tourney as well lmao I didn't I forgot.

Haha thanks all glad you enjoyed. I just really wish either ended in cashing a check! Lmao

Posting now

and I get my balls busted for dressing like its winter time lol. I hate sunscreen. I wear long sleeves a hood a buff a hat pants and glasses. In the chance I do wear shorts or forget gloves or something I use the spray on stuff. Once you get that oil on your hands I'm sure it gets on the baits when you rig and it could turn the bass away..

Spoke with DVT today and told him a story of what happened to me in a club tourney, he said I have to post it! Lol but first I'll share something that happened a few weeks back during practice for a separate club tourney. So I was on Cobbeesecanti (spell check) in Maine. My secondary clubs tourney week. Beating a bank with a Megabass knuckle squarebill and wham! Pike eats it. A swing him in the boat, grab him by the back of the neck like I always do with pike. Grab my pliers and as I try taking out the front treble he thrashed enough for him to slip right out of my hand. Unfortunately the rear treble drove straight into the top of my hand with the pliers. Fish still hooked flipping violently I drop him down kneel on him get the hook out, throw him over and tend to my hand. Surprisingly just missed the vein but it was all the way in. My boater rushed me to shore and at some point I blacked out so being in Maine not knowing too much about the area he called a Ambulance. They came said my insurance won't cover them as a private company and due to it not being life threatening we skipped on the ride. He brings me to ER in Augusta and they didn't have a tool strong enough to cut the ring on the bait, the o ring or the hook. 5 shots of novacaine tetanus shot in arm antibiotic shot in leg all from a smoking hot nurse and a hour plus on waiting for someone to bring in bolt cutters. First they tried cutting loop on bait but couldn't get a angle on it. (Hope it doesn't fail I put new hooks on it lol) they finally cut the hook. Where it went in there's 2 ligaments it went past barb in first one and poked the second so they ended up pushing it back up and out making a second hole. Picked up script and got rest and was back on water next morning for additional practice before tourney. Definitely sucked, story would be better if I won tourney the 2 days after or lunker. Ended up in like 7th or 8th with a 4, 2 3s a 2 and a dink. Lol I would post the pic of it but I'm not sure on This sites policy on wether or not it may be too graphic. If a mod requests it for whatever reason I'll post it lol... Ok so that out of the way now for my personal best story lmao Last Sunday I was on Bantam Lake here in CT for a club tourney. I'm drop shoting in about 8ft right at a drop off to 17. I feel a little machine gun bite so I raise the rod tip feel the weight and start reeling. It felt like a dink so I went to tighten drag and bam fish ran Cumara and Stradic Ci4 go over board. Mind you grip in my hand has been kinda off since the hook incident. I scream like $,&!(@:$ ME!!!! My boater is like what happened I'm like I just threw $500 in the lake. He's like quick throw the marker buoy. I grab it toss it over. He said calm down and tie on a crank bait. So we circle the marker buoy for a hour or so and no luck. I tell him I appreciate the help but we don't have to try to get it back I'll come back tonight with my friend who is also in the club. He caught a 6+ on his second cast so he said screw it. He's confident he got lunker so we can keep trying to get it back. Now here I am blessed to have a boater that is willing to do this for me but feel like a ass for killing the tourney for him. All of a sudden a fish jumps 100 ft south of us so we drift a bit cranking 20 mins later a fish jumped again now 200 ft north of us. So we go up there and crank as we drift again. He said chuck the anchor he's done working the trolling motor. So I toss the anchor and tie up a C Rig but instead of a hook I put a snap with 3 shakey heads on it. I'm fanning the area for another 20 mins or so and as I cast towards the back of the boat a d**n canoe rear ends us. The boater flips out on the guy, me as well, I'm like stop!!!!! At the top of my lungs because the marker buoy was wrapped on his oar. The guy has no clue what he's doing I had no idea he was even in the area. He came out of nowhere. I was so focused on casting in hopes to snag my rod. That's when just to the right of the canoe I feel weight. I'm like I think I got it!!!!! I reel in as slow as I possibly could and sure enough the but of the rod pops up on the surface!!! Yay!!!! I hooked the stem of the reel. I reach over grab it and there's like maybe 2 turns of the handle worth of line on it. So I start reeling up all this slack line in all my glory I got my favorite combo back. As soon as the line starts to tighten drag starts peeling. FISH STILL ON!!! I tighten the drag up a bit and play the fish out. Got him to the side of the boat and cradled him and pulled him in. 4.7lb smallie! My little size 1 mustad drop shot hook was right in the roof in front of his throat. Popped the hook out culled him. In the live well he went. 7lb Sniper if anyone is wondering. A little over 2 hrs this whole ordeal took me. Never got my 5th but still had a decent bag with 4. Someone else had a 5 so I was in 3rd for lunker. This is the story I'm gonna have to tell my grand kids. Hope you all enjoyed it! Edit: as requested WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGE BELOW ----------------

FJ on sale at Cabelas 2500 I think was $129

Invizx 6# is solid and Sniper 7# has also performed for me. Drop shoting is one technique I refuse to skimp on quality line.

Isn't it the new Hagan material

I hear ya. Although when going for smallies most of the time they whack the living hell out of it. But yeah LMBs sometimes you're second guessing what you're feeling.

Was wondering about co polymers to try out for Carolina rig exclusively. Prefer line that sinks so on a 30 yard cast you don't have 25 yards floating on the top with a long bow in the line. FC it's pretty much a straight line from rod tip to weight. That helps the case with sensitivity and faster detection. Basically here's a run down of my lines and baits Jigs: 12-15# FC Texas rigs: 12# FC Flipping (3/4oz+ jigs/Texas rigs): 30# braid and 15-20# FC leader if needed Carolina: 12-15# FC 10-12# Mono Leader Shakey head: 15# braid 8-10# FC leader Drop shot: 6-7# FC Crankbaits: 10# FC Jerkbaits: 10# FC Squarebills: 15-17# FC or 15# Mono Top water Spinner buzz and chatter baits: 10-12-14# mono Paddle tail swim baits: 10# FC Frogs: 30# braid

Maybe I'm spoiled but when I fished Hybrid I tried 10# and threw keitechs on football heads. A bait I typically can feel what's going on down there. The hybrid wasn't transmitting anything to me. And I didn't like the clear it had some neon blue tint to it. I either fish clear no tint or with Siege the smoke green is cool. I do however use red braid. Lol Well for my tourneys this weekend I had enough on my filler spools to spool with left over Abrazx 15 and InvizX 12. Figure 2 weeks I'll be ready to respool it'll buy me some time to see what more of u guys suggest and maybe place a order or 2. Mainly my jigs 12-15#, Crig 15# and trig12# reels are what I'm worried about all my moving baits have 10# FC or Siege on em. My flipping sticks are braid.

Exactly. I was a InvizX/AbrazX guy prior but their customer support really aggravated me so I gave up on them. Sunline gets reviews like its the best thing since sliced bread, I don't see it. Also I didn't like their Super Natural Mono either. It seemed no matter how much spit I'd get on a Palomar while cinching it would still fray or pigtail itself.... Side note red label was actually my go to jerkbait line. 10# it had the right amount of stretch for my taste and casts great with light baits.

I personally would never buy a Loomis unless the money was actually going to Gary, but I will say that is one nice looking rod.

Thanks all

I'm not sure I'll get this right but CX is the basic and CXX is the heavy duty stuff??? Do you know if those sink?

Siege is the real deal! The only line I fish that I have zero complaints about. Now if Sufix could make their FC up to par with Siege for abrasion, we could only dream.

So just up the test? I figured as much. I hear so many great things about sniper mind you since the switch I've caught hundreds of fish. They've been so finicky I've been keeping the line to minimum diameter this year. I'll give the 16 a whirl. Or do you think I should grab a spool of shooter, I have yet to try it out... I typically don't fish lay downs all the time, this particular spot tho I see guys make 2 pitches beating the bank and move on. I'll dissect this one for a half hour if need be and it always produces. This instance it's what I had tied at the moment normally if I know I'll be on a lot of timber I'll do braid and 20# leader.