fishwizzard

As others have said, most any "close enough" rod will do for the ned. I would go out and get your hands on as many as you can and pick one based on comfort/ergonomics.

Yep, this is why nothing about fishing, other then boats, seems excessively expensive to me.

I prefer amber/yellow tint, but my main want is high-contrast and max light transmission. The old Costa yellow lenses were perfect, but I never managed to find a pair that fit me well before they disappeared.

I tired the 25lb DA this fall and found it to be super stiff and weary, to the point where coils would form in slack line when floating on the water. Is this unusual or just how heavy line behaves? I have been using the 12lb DA and found it to be really soft and manageable, but the 25lb is killing me. I am trying to resist the urge to give 60lb braid a try, the most expensive swimbait I own is around thirty five bucks, so it will not be the most expensive lesson I had to learn for myself

That is really odd, I have seen pictures of doubles before but never on a lure that tiny, it seems incredible that they both managed to get a hook. I guess I have to buy a bladebait now.

My nephew swears by gummy bears as panfish bait. He says they get as many hits as powerbait and stay on the hook far longer. His pro move is to bite the heads off to give a small profile bait.

Hah, honestly I have never managed to get my layering game right enough that I am not covered in sweat by the time I get my yak squared away and the drysuit off.

I have been looking at the Avid AVC62MXF for jerkbaits, the shorter length appeals to me and I like the idea of the XF action for both jerks and tubes/small jigs the rest of the year.

That is nuts, did they both hit at once, or did one try to steal the lure from the other after it was hooked?

Oh god, that sounds like the most unpleasant thing ever. Actually, no, the most unpleasant thing ever would be the car ride home with the guy who wore his drysuit in the summer.

It's like a Power Bar, but instead of being like kinda gross taffy, it is more like a kinda gross cookie.

Kayak trolling for striped bass is a big deal where I live. There are some older guys I know who think nothing of spending 4-5 hours pedaling around. I am more of an "anchor up in a cove and catch a hundred perch" kinda guy, but they seem to do very well at it.

Your best bet is to find a demo day, or a find someone on a local forum who will let you demo their boat for a six pack or whatever. As for a stable, lighter yak, I have a Native Slayer 10. It is 10' long and ~35" wide and weighs around 60lb without the peddle drive or seat. It a great little yak, very stable. The only issues with it are, 1) Any kind of wind spins it all over, it is like a plastic bathtub, and 2) the width makes it a little tricky to load/unload and to get my cart strapped on. They are also pretty expensive, but are really nice to fish from.

Zoom Super - .285oz, or around 1/4 to 5/16 Yammie D-Shad - .358oz, or around 5/16 to 3/8 The SK one who's name I forget - .424oz, or just under 7/16 5" Senko - .345oz, or around 5/16 to 3/8

I am curious to see what happens to the prices on the old Royga 1016s and the SV variant they came out with a few years ago. They are both still around $300-400 on ebay.

I don't need that Ryoga, but I want that Ryoga.

If it is cold enough to want insulation, I will be in a drysuit, so all I need is a big floppy rain hat. I looked around for a standalone rain hood, but they are not common and the one I found would not fit my fat head. I am looking at getting a PFD with a built in hood for next season as the hat is annoying and I still get water on my neck if I wiggle around much. In the summer I just wear a rain hat and let myself get soaked if it is hot out or waders and a light hiking raincoat under the PFD if it is cooler, but that gets really hot and is never much fun.

I have used this things from Monar Hooks to try an idea like that; It works, but it is a PIA and using a sinker with a nice wide wire loop is far far easier. I have a small pile of the other insert weights that were posted and none of them work as well as a sinker. The only issue with the sinker is fit, but if you use a little megastrike as lube you can get them in some pretty tight tubes, it actually give them a cool gobie-like look.

It's purple and chartreuse that gets me, so the Trotters Craw gets my vote among the new colors.

Well, at the very least you have a nice rod with a good warranty, the remorse will fade with time and you will still have a great rod. Yea, I think I can find a home for it as a hiking/small water rod. I ended up (via USPS shenanigans) getting it NIB for like $60, which is crazy for any IMX rod. I used to have a Tsunami Tuff Tip L/F rod when I first started out fishing. It was around $30-50 and was great until I broke the tip trying to lift a ~1.5lb smallie 15' out of a canal. It worked far better for small plastics then the Premier I replaced it with. I have never heard much of the brand, but alot of the MD tackle shops carry it, so I guess it is more of a saltwater thing.

I used it for throwing 1/8 to 3/16 spinnerbaits/inline spinners at white perch and pickerel in the tidal rivers around here. It is a great rod for that, but I got hit with the BFS bug and how have a casting combo that does the same job, but is more fun to fish with. I want a UL/L spinning rod for tiny plastics like a 1/32oz Trout Slayer up to like a 3" senko (~3/16). The Premier was not great for that in my experience.

Oh, you know what, I have an St Ctrox Premier in L/F that I bought a few years ago but is too soft for what I want it for. I keep meaning to sell it, but it's not worth shipping. If you want to give it and the weird-o Loomis a spin, shoot me a PM. If you like the St Croix I would sell it for a very decent price. If you end up loving the Loomis we could work something out, but that little turd of a rod is so compelling to me for some reason, I really want to like it.

I too have been hunting around for a UL or L spinning rod with a Fast or XFast action. I ended up winning an ebay auction for a Loomis SJR 6400. It's a 5'4" rod listed as "Mag-Light" with a range of 1/64 - 1/8. I have no idea what is going on with it as I cannot get it to load with anything much under 1/8oz and it seems fine with lure up to around 1/4oz or more. It does have a nice tip and a ton of backbone, but it does not feel at all like the other, heavier XF rods I have handled. I honestly have no idea how I feel about it. It seems way too heavy for the little panfish jigs I wanted to throw with it, but it is so weird I want to figure out what it's good for. It feels like it will be a great little rod for small stream fishing with small t-rigged plastics, so I am going to give it a try for that once it warms up, but the experence has made me leery of blind-buying another UL/XF rod.

Right now it's 8lb neon Suffix to 12lb Invisix. I like a thick leader to keep the lure down a little more and for pickerel protection. I have tried various 6-8lb floros and was not super pleased with any of them, but I do use a 1000 sized reel on my ned combo. I am going to give some 6lb monos a go over the summer as I dislike the sound of a leader knot hitting the guides.

Man, that looks sharp as hell.