Teal

I've had powell rods the past 8 years or so but I bought the 7'1 H tatula, and my goodness man, it's really sweet for the price. I'm sold on the tatulas. Only thing I dont like is the hook keeper, but the reel I have on it, has a built in place to hook.

In small community lakes or ponds, I typically dont go out there LOOKING to catch fish off a bed, the 2 major lakes here are a different story. We get decent pressure on the weekends but we also have an abundance of bass and spawning areas that are difficult for the average Joe to get to, so I dont feel like the bass population is suffering one bit. Plus fishing the spawn and beds is great ground work for techniques that we use year round. I say that with the mind set of these major lakes, I'd be fine following the rules if there was restrictions or requests. And like I said, I do not carry that same mind set to smaller lakes or big ponds, especially lakes and ponds that I dont know too well... but my 2 lakes are fair game.

Glad yall got this threat going, I just ordered one from sportsmans yesterday morning. Hehe. My son is going to love it.

Personally I think you will be fine with either. Look at the IPT. I recently saw a batch of 100$ reels for 50 each on the auction site and they were 6.5 to 1 gear ration and I jumped on it and bought them. If you really think about it, it's not that big of a jump... you can slow down or speed up a little, and the 6 can be used quite well as a cranking reel. But that being said, you the 7 is pretty good for most applications too. 10 years ago, 6 was the median and viewed at versatile, now it's the slow reel. I wouldnt hesitate on either. Hard to go wrong as long as you stay between those two selections. Theres alot of us guys with older gear that is still quite successful with the 6:1 reels for majority presentations.

I'm not from you area, but maybe it matches your local forage and water and the way the forage appear in light. I could be coming from left field, but if generations of people from your area are throwing the purples and red created a new normal for the fish? Idk. All I know is that regional colors are the real deal. When i fish down in Kississme and the Harris chains a few times a year the occochobee blue colors and June bug varients were king and out fished my greens and browns 5:1

Dang, yall got me feeling like I'm over working my truck. I'm hauling a 19 ft Javelin, with a 2017 Tacoma. Thank goodness I dont go far and its fairly flat here. Hopefully I'll upgrade to a 3/4 ton diesel next.

This is all too confusing! I just try to match what I can and sometimes, I'll let the bait monkey choose. Sometimes I dont think over exaggeration is a bad thing. I've been in spots where I probably should have thrown a brown jig with right highlights in the spring, but the bait monkey egged me on to throw the bright red and brown jig that I bought, and it worked out pretty good. Other times I think I didnt have the confidence to fish and over kill color or something different, correctly and subsequently gave up on it. I think the over kill on the colors works good in stained waters or over cast days. When I say over exaggeration I mean, taking a simple watermelon jig and craw with purple and gold flakes and instead using a jig with that's pretty much bright purple with a few strands of green with gold flakes and the like. As for regional here, it think the standard is still watermelon / red, green pumpkin and anything, and sexy shad pattern.

2 different 2 pc set ups? I'm guessing a Mh and a.ML. To cover wider range of life weights or a m and a MH

I've heard the h2o mettle fees were solid. Good worm

What's he asking for them? That part always helps. I've never heard anything bad about the presidents @Bluebasser86 I think he mentioned he has used one

I like the skinny dipper. It's one of my favorite trailers. I've been on a kick few weeks with the soft swimbaits and its showing. The easy shiner is my favorite this week as a stand alone bait. I'm gonna start over this evening, I may try a shorter swimmer as a jig trailer and see what happens.

I think you did the right thing, as long as you were polite and explained to them why you were asking them to keep a lid on it.

Why didnt I think of this sooner? I've always liked to pitch spinner baits into spots and pick fish off, but between the milfoil,(both dead and new growth) and hyrdrilla, it wasnt working and craws worked for a bit but then it slacked off. So I was working the edges of sparse vegetation with a Kietech Easy Shiner on a 1/4 ounce weighted SB hook, on an errant pitch I went into the mush, I popped it through and it fell into a hole in it, and whamm.. that became the pattern this evening, back ends of spawning coves shallow, clear.water with dense vegatation. From the boat had to pitch the easy shiners into the holes on the shore line side... my 10 year and I wore them slap out making 10 to 15 foot pitches and flips with a sexy shad kietech easy shiner. I've been on flipping bites, but not with soft swim baits as the preferred bait. Typically it's a craw, creature or even a worm/lizard. Easy shiner won the day Mostly skinny males, a couple thick girls too. We had a cold front last night so I'm guessing that's what backed them up in the grass. This ever happen to yall?

I buy the cheapest I can find. I dont worry about paint jobs or brand names. I havent had any bad batches or anything. I typically keep a small stock of 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2. I have a handful of heavy sizes. 3/4-1.5 Just to try it out, get you some 1/4 and go for it

Well the saying around here is, if you wana know what the weather is in NC, wait 10 minutes.

@Glenn we need a LOVE button on here! The like button just dont do this thread justice. Jk buddy. I'm just excited I just love this thread. It made this old dog smile. Such a generous act and a gracious and grateful response. Now Martin, the next pics need to be a big smile while you're holding a fish from these baits.

Little man wore them out swimming a rage craw, and working a fluke outta sparse areas of milfoil.

When I got mine I paid 180 for it. Not worth it.

I've had a super duty when they first came out, if it was priced at 120, it's where it should be. There just wasnt anything about it to me that screamed heavy duty other than a big spool. Lexa and curado out class it far and away. I traded mine straight up for a used lews tourney pro.

Welcome back

Not sure of the year model, but a friend of mine had one close to that year model. It was a solid boat. His was a 17' side console aluminum. We caught many of fish from that boat. His had the deck than ran a good ways back and had rod storage for up to 7' rods. His was carpeted and had a trolling motor on it when he got it. Just a solid boat. I think his had a 50 mercury, 2 stroke that with 2 people and gear could get up around 35 mph.

Coffee, bottle of water and maybe fruit bars. Water and coffee is all I drink now since I've been sober. ( had to quit drinking alcohol)

Sounds like yall caught some skinny males that were on patrol around the beds. Stained water makes sense why the fish were so close. Like Tom said, depth of light. Good job on yall finding them.

I'm with Ajay on this one, I dont see them as an investment and I know the only way to get my money back is by using them and enjoying them. I have been lucky to never need any new parts for my lews tp's nor my other reels ( daiwa, shimano and One Three) I've been blessed to always be able to find them for way less than retail... It makes me sleep easier.... and I know what I'm getting. Now about lews.( the tp, in particular).I own 8 lews reels and I have used and abused the crap outta them. I've caught several citation fish and have even taught an 8 year old how to use a baitcast with Lews. Hes now almost 10 and can pick a dock apart with a lews tp and 6'8 rod. I'm not blind, and i have a Core 50, so i see the big difference in the reels. The resale value is garbage, and theres a big gap in how refined the Core is, but for reel that lists at 190 bucks that i get for 140, to give me 8 years of hard work and it works smoothly enough for a 4th grader to make grown men looks silly with it, is worth the money. Now on the other end of the spectrum, Lews rods, and Abu rods. Less than impressed. Cant even argue for the. Lol Heck I've looked for used powell rods and can not even find them... I dont know if thsts a good thing or a bad thing ?? Still love mine, but if I have to replace any, I'm going to the daiwa, the tatula reels and their rods are sweet.. solid product. And not expensive (relatively speaking)

This^