Preytorien

Yea, the current is going to cause problems for you. I fish a river with relatively slow current and a 1/10oz gets carried pretty easily.

I've been a road cyclist for many years, and often I've found that wax or "dry" lubricants work really well for fishing applications. White Lightning, Pedro's Dry, and others seem to do well. I personally use Boe-Shield T-9 and have great success. In essence the same things you're lubricating on a bike are being lubricated on a reel - gears, bearings, chains (being pivot points) - so it just makes sense the lubricants are similar and somewhat interchangeable.

I use Seaguar Senshi on one...and only one....of my casting rigs. All my others are braid with leaders tied on if I feel like it. Senshi does fine. Like most monos it stretches, has memory, and will break down over time so I don't spend much on it.

I've got a Zodias MH/F and have also handled the E6X at the store and I am convinced I bought the right thing. It's sensitive, has a great build, has a nice finish (unless you're a cork enthusiast), and is comfortable to use. I would say the only things the E6X has over it is these things. You determine if they're the swing features you're looking for.... 1. G. Loomis has a better warranty 2. E6X has cork handles If neither of those things are major factors to you, I would echo the sentiments of myself and the others above that a Zodias is a fine choice. Ultimately the best test would be if you could find a retailer that has both, handle them, then make your call.

If this is the case then I’ve been doing it really wrong! Hah! I’ll give it a try tomorrow and see how it goes

To answer some of the points above I would say that the majority of my issues come at the end of the cast just a second or two before the lure hits the water and doesn’t seem to matter if I’m truly into a headwind or not.

I've got a few casting reels, and while I'm not what I would consider an expert with them, I rarely backlash. However, I emphasize "RARELY" because I do backlash more than I'd like. I've watched quite a few videos to answer this question, but I thought I would ask you all, the guys that do this all the time, what your ideas are. I typically will encounter a backlash, say a couple bad words, curse even the most non-existent headwind, then try to figure out what portion of my reel to adjust to prevent it again. Aside from a BPS casting reel that I rarely use, all of my reels are Shimano - 2 Curado 71's, and a Chronarch MGL151, all with the SVS braking system, and all have just 4 brakes to turn on/off. When I get a backlash I'm not sure which part to adjust. Do I tighten the cast control knob a bit? Do I turn on a couple more brakes? Do I increase the SVS dial? All of the above? I can't figure out what part of the cast process each will control. I can't seem to establish enough of a consistent success pattern to definitively say, "If I backlash I need to adjust _______." What are your thoughts?

That irritates me more than any wildlife law we have. I can't figure out for the life of me why those stupid geese are still a protected species. I'm pretty sure they're not a threatened or nearly extinct animal anymore. They're everywhere. I heard a guy say that he had a problem with them on his property and used a decently strong airsoft gun against the more stubborn ones since it isn't technically a firearm and won't penetrate the skin. It got them moving pretty fast, unfortunately didn't do anything to prevent them from coming back.

Yep, you'd be surprised at how well they can hone in on a lure, even in chocolate milk water. I've thrown some lures I didn't have much confidence in getting bit, and whaddya know they light it up. Like most predators their initial targeting sense is visual, but when the water is cloudy they rely heavily on their lateral line. That said, their eyesight is developed enough that even in water we consider dirty they can see pretty good, after all that's their environment, so even stained water will see the bass using visual cues to target food.

I'm going to echo the above statements that something is awry in your anti-reverse. It's an easy fix if you wanted to replace it yourself, but if it's a relatively new purchase JLS should just take care of you for it. Most Shimano dealers seem to be very accommodating to folks with reel issues.

I'd say a good worm/jig rod would do fine. Something in the Med/Heavy Fast range would do good and a 2500 size reel. I'd stick with braid as I do for most of those types of applications. I am currently swooning over YGK Soul X-8 Upgrade in 14lb test. It's like casting spider silk

I've found in general any time you attempt to place an assumption about someone or their equipment in financial terms you will get a potentially hostile exchange. Money means different things to folks, and so does fishing. In the end we want to hook one of those fish on our lines and winch it in our boat, kayak, shoreline, net or whatever.....how we do that is up to us. I just leave it at that and worry about bettering myself on the more tangible and granular things....like knot types

I use the 14lb on my ultra-finesse spinning rig. That lb-test is unbelievably thin. I had to back it with a good bit of mono because 200m wouldn't even come close to filling a 2500 size Shimano Sustain. I use it with smaller crankbaits and finesse plastics so I can't really say if it does okay with hard hooksets, mine are usually reel sets. Otherwise I've not had any breakoffs or anything, and seems very good in terms of abrasion resistance. It casts incredibly far, and since the line is so small and light, it almost feels odd while it's casting. Again, this is 14lb, I can't vouch for the larger diameters, but it just slips off the reel so smoothly that it cuts through the air with ease. I've not noticed a whole lot of bleeding, but mine is yellow with white markings anyways. I'm not too concerned about the bleeding. I definitely wouldn't use the 14lb for anything heavy, no frogging or anything, but it's amazing for finesse presentations. I could imagine if I did any ballpark slam hooksets it'd probably pop the line, but that can be said really of any super thin diameter braid. I've used Smackdown and while I like it also, I think the Soul is thinner and casts very well. I'd place them in a good plane of comparability, only giving the Soul a point higher for the thin diameter giving a bit of a casting edge.

I will usually wrap the tips of my reel feet in plumbers tape to make sure it stays snug.

Well this is a great list of knowledge. Boiling it all down, it seems that experience and time on the water is the ultimate teacher here. In most of my waters I only encounter bass, bluegill, occasionally a crappie, striper, and cat. I never see pike, musky, pickerel, trout, or perch too often. As for kickerfish being able to tell the gender, that's a whole new level of discernment. Haha!

I have a pond near me that is similar in characteristics. It's really tough to bank fish with that much growth from the bank. I resorted to buying a fishing kayak. I still don't catch much on it, but I can at least get off the bank a bit.

YGK Soul X-8 Upgrade Just started using that stuff......insane

I've noticed when I'm watching various fishing shows or YouTube videos that a lot of anglers while reeling in a fish, can tell the type of fish, apparently by how it fights? I can say with some I can tell what kind of fish it is by the bite, for instance a bluegill bite feels different than a bass, but can you really tell the type of fish by the fight? I can say in all honesty I can't. I've had a particularly strong large-ish bluegill make me think I had a nice bass, or a smallie feel like a big largemouth, crappie feel like a nice largemouth, etc. What's the secret? I want to be able to tell too.

I have to say, I did this, and by golly it works. I haven't yet hooked up with a fish since I've not fished anyplace I'd pull it out, but I've thrown it over and over and the action is almost exactly like my Whopper Ploppers on a weedless frog Thanks for the DIY!!! I LOVE this site

I believe that to be very accurate. I see almost exactly the same thing, most fish are hooked under the chin

I'm in a certain period of life right now that sees me only realistically be able to fish four or five medium sized ponds near my office at work, probably until late September. They aren't your typical barren looking retention ponds, they seem to have been built quite a few years ago and have decent amounts of brush around them as well as varying "fishy" looking characteristics like some grass, a few laydowns here and there, some culverts with riprap along the bank. I have given them all a decently fair shake of fishing, all with ZERO bites. I see some bluegill fry every once in a while scatter from the close shore, and even when attempting to "match the hatch" I get no bites other than little bluegill ambitiously chasing a crankbait or senko. Nothing. I never see bass, never see bass fry. Nothing. Given the age of the ponds, and that bluegill are in-deed present, would you keep trying to find bass, or just assume they're not in there?

I had a much cheaper reel that I used often for fishing a 1/2oz chatterbait. That chatterbait thumps like a helicopter engine on the end of your line. I used the heck out of that thing one spring since it seemed to be the only thing that they'd hit in cold, muddy, water. After 2-3 months, the reel just wasn't smooth anymore. I even had it professionally cleaned, it just still feels less smooth than it did prior to that one stretch of spring. I don't know, maybe it just barely wore out the gears enough to throw off tolerances, who knows? It wasn't a high end reel or anything, and it was a 7:1.1, so I'm not all that surprised. But yes, I'd say from personal experience you can probably overburden a reel if you don't use the correct gear ratios or have good quality stuff, it can happen

Mine would probably be pliers with a split ring lip on it. I used to never change out split rings, but didn't since I always had to jam some kind of tiny screwdriver in there or something, now I can change them quick and keep sharp hooks on everything.

Like another post mentioned, I stuck to them from the drivetrain I use in cycling. I used Shimano XTR on mountain bikes and currently use Shimano Dura-Ace on my road bikes. I've used other brands, just like reels, but I always come back to Shimano. They just do it right.

I use the 6'10" MH for exactly what you're using and it's my favorite rod hands-down of all I own. Excellent sensitivity, great build, very comfortable. I love it. They are a bit on the stiffer side of things but not overly so. Ironically. I'm using it with a Curado 71 XHG and 50lb Maxcuatro (30-35lb equivalent PP)