Angry John

A local club is a great place to start. It will let you know if you have the taste for it before you get into the big buy in. Some are as cheap as 20 bucks and as high as 100 here where I am. This is my second year tournament fishing and to be honest when my fishing partner has had enough or moves I'm done. I fish to relax and have fun and a tournament does not add to that experience for me. Best of luck.

The 8 inch are the ones in high demand. The value of the smaller ones is trying to stay with the larger baits. If you had an 8 you may get 150 but the smaller ones are around 100.

The good news is the knot strength on yhb is much higher so you can use lighter line and get the same strength.

If your spool is ported tying to the spool works well also.

This is a bait type and individual fish thing to me. Chucking deep diver cranks who cares, pitching into shallow water it may make a huge difference. Pressured water or your personal little secret place. Tons of factors to consider.

First thing to note is a blank is a blank no matter the label. You may find that a fly blank may meet your needs best or casting. The bfs guys like casting rods on spinning blanks a lot of time. If you have a builder see if they have ccs numbers on the blanks your looking at. The longer the rod the more wippy it will feel. The lighter the blank the more crisp and less wippy it will feel for the same length. The guide train will only make the situation worse as you are adding more mass. You did not mention if you planned to run a leader or not, so guide size is planned for me on spinning rods on this factor.

The ryoga 1016 or luna 203 for that line size and bait's that heavy.

I always appreciate howhat exact your hook choice is. Keeps the guess work to a minimum

I use the mustdad grip pin edge hooks for weedless dropshot. Don't know how they compare.

I have had some success dragging a 3.8 keitech. Swim when moved very slow and think it's a great way to get that bait deep.

I'm also in the big bait game and I have to let go sometimes and just fish to catch. The strength mentally to sb only escapes me.

The peak of the summer and dead of winter gets me a lot. Funny that I am sure it's the same deep pattern and it just kicks my butt. My skunk comes the most often in a tournament when I can control none of the factors like time of day, lake and stuff like that. It happens. Try and find people who know things you don't and learn from them. Fish with as many people as possible.

The heat index is over 100 and the temp is headed that way by Saturday. If I had the choice I would not be on the water after 10 am and not before 7pm. The heat of the day is just miserable and also when the pleasure craft are at their peak.

If you measure them boca bearings have a huge supply of sizes. Might be good so you don't have a bunch of shipping charges getting one here and there as you find them.

One thing that makes things easier is to bring some water buckets to help ballast the front of the canoe if your fishing alone or with someone a little smaller. It's the worst having a light front end and trying to face the wind.

Why would you use over a 2000 size spinning reel with braid. No chance I would get a 3000. You may want a high gear so maybe one 2506 high gear,. The new tatula lt is one of the lightest reels I have seen in a long time so maybe one of those. The 73mhf I would change to a heavy for frogs and punching. 72h through 74h is good for a lot of stuff and 76 can be limiting. I don't prefer a frog rod that long. 8.0 speed, would be great for flipping punching frogging and large top waters like a punker.

I like the regular elite rods. 400 for a superb rod. I am a huge fan of their actions and power. The Phoenix k2 is in the same class and is also outstanding. For the cost the LE is the best in class IMO.

Guessing he ment a pm because he would help but not want to broadcast to the entire net.

Top hardbait is the kvd 1.5 squarebill. I have 10 and another 5 in 1.0. Most common worm 4" robo strait tail. It's because I got a bunch of coLors but only use Aarons magic.

Some reels the worm drive can be swapped out. The zillion and the alphas are two I am positive about.

The speed of the worm drive has a lot to do with this along with the size of the braid. Pe models have a faster worm drive to prevent this.

Regular 4/0 gammy ewg works well. The 5/0 is also good and I use both interchangeable.

I like the duo cascada bug on 6lb mono on a lite spinning rod.

I agree with Tom for the money or a little more might as well go custom. DVT could do you up a quick quote.

Nothing good seems to happen fast other than a top water bite. I would call onece to see, but not blow up their contact.