fishwizzard

That stuff will ooze tar when it gets hot, I used to wrap all my tools in it for more grip when back when I did rigging work. On a very hot day I could get small wrenches to stick to my open palm for a few moments. It is very strong though, we would also use to loom together 2/0 electrical feeder cables and it would last years where electricians tape would start to fail after a few uses. Self-amalgamating tape silicone tape is what I would use, although it can be a little fussy to get the end to "stick" down well. It covered with good heat-shrink tube would be pretty solid.

I have some older Loomis casting rods with longer cork foregrips and I cannot figure out a way to hold them that. Nothing seems correct and the few bites I have gotten resulted in some hooksets where the best I could do was not drop the rod. I spend a little time trying whenever I have one of those rods out and the fish are not feeling me, but I have never really given it a serious try. Are you gripping the foregrip from the bottom with your wrist more or less facing up or around from the side so your wrist is touching the reel?

Eh, not when the lure is in the water and the line has some slack in it. I hold a spinning reel with my entire hand in front of the reel stem so the tips naturally "float" up a little, that's the sensation I prefer for slow bottom contact fishing, but it's hard to achieve on a casting combo without some money/effort.

For me the MBR tapers are the selling point for the lower-end Loomis rods. I would take a 783c or 844c in a lesser blank over a St Croix M/F or MH/F in a slightly better blank. When it comes to XFast rods, my opinion is reversed and I much prefer St Croix's take on them to Loomis'.

I prefer a balanced rod over purely caring about total weight, but I am not fanatical about it. I buy full handle rods when I can and will pack hollow buttcaps full of tungsten putty when I can, but otherwise I don’t really dwell on it. I do try to pick reels that will shift the balance point back as far as is reasonable. A side benefit to this is that a lot of the time I end up with cheaper, heavier reels.

I don’t have a way to shoot video but I have done a little testing in shallower water. With a 3/16 tungsten bullet vs a 3/16 free/jika weight and a 4” Hula Grub, the difference is very pronounced, the free/jika weight pulls ahead of the plastic very quickly. With lighter 1/8oz weights and/or less “draggy” plastics the difference seems a lot less. The free rig is noticeably more snaggy on soft cover then a bullet weight as well.

I believe the idea is that wet line will contract as it dries. I have never seen anyone post a picture of a spool that has been damaged in this manner or even a first hand account of it happening, so I am somewhat skeptical of the idea in general.

I am not a braid fan and one of the reasons I love BFS is that I can use 7-10lb fluoro as mainline with out the handling annoyances while bring able to use lighter weight reels. In your case I would pick 10lb Sniper based on wanting to throw 3/16oz shakeyheads. Otherwise, I think a thinner line would be a better fit for the rod, I have a DX 703c and imho it’s a solid “12lb” line rod and the 702c is supposedly more like a 1.5 power lower then the 703c.

Yea, the slower taper really helps with casting, even stuff right at the bottom of it’s rating load well. I am starting to think that the rating is shifted too high, 1/4oz loads and casts very well while with a 1/2oz jerkbait felt like I didn’t want to go much heavier. My in limited sample size, the hooksets have been great with small jigs, that t-rig, and a weedless 4” Easy Shiner. Really pleased with it so far, the most amazing thing is how short the rod feels, one handed casts feel great and it feels as accurate as my 6’ bfs rods.

At long last, the P5 Hien is in my hands. Only have a few hours on it, but so far I am loving it. It casts like a dream and is wildly sensitive. I managed three 1lb-ish bass this morning, every hit felt like someone flicked the blank, super crisp.

Never. A single 12oz can of Diet Mt Dew a day, if I have been good.

The bottom color of a popper/walker does not seem to matter much, or rather, if it matters much I have no way of knowing. I could catch a bass, switch colors and catch another right away. I could be getting no love, switch colors a dozen times and still nothing. I never managed to get on a really hot bit where I could catch consistently enough, fast enough to really give it a a test, but from a year where I spent maybe double my usual time with non-frog topwaters, I would say that the specifics of the action/retrieve seem to matter vastly more then the lure color. Oddly, I still have all six PopClones. I fished them hard in some gnarly spots, snagged them all a few times, but always was able to get them back. I will also say that the clones are not as good as the real thing in the sense that the real ones are easier to get a broader range of action out of and are more consistent lure to lure. I am much more confident now in casting them close to cover then I was when I started.

A cotton hanky and a paper-towel wrapped around a pen cap?

Hah, if I was baller enough for a Racing Design I would go all in and get the solid tip M+. I have heard that the Bait Finesse is tip heavy, but I would be sticking a ASC/F-Type franken-reel on it, it's about 6oz, so I hope it will balance well enough. I jammed a wad of tungsten putty into the butt cap of my FMJ a few years ago to dial in the balance, I am not averse to doing it again. I'm not married to the p5, but the Universal Light is out of stock by now as well, so it's all up in the air. The nice part is, by the time the rod arrives, the money will have been out of my hands for so long it's going to feel like a birthday present from my past self.

TackleTrap. I am second or third in line. Looking to maybe jump to the Steez Universal Light, but that would "force" the purchase of a new reel where as I have one I can stick on the Hien/Bait Finesse.

Stunning. I am despairing over my p5 ever showing up and am thinking of jumping ship and picking up one of the new Steezes.

Megabass Lin Mars. If I am going to go big, I want to go big and red!

I use a Jika a fair bit, mostly for hopping craw plastics around riprap dams, it gets snagged up way less then a jig or normal t-tig. I make my own using the swivels that Decoy sells. So long as you make sure to keep the weight closer to the crimped end, they are stronger then any line I would be using.

I have been looking around for the same sort of rod, mostly 1.25-1.5oz paddle tails but want to be able to throw the occasional wake or glide. If you want to go full $$$ JDM, the two rods that were most recommended to me are the Gan Craft Outtrack and the Evergreen Black Rose. I am still looking and have a different high end swimbait rod that I should really sell before I get another one, but both of these rods are calling my name.

I have given up on buffs. I have a reasonably full beard and it’s too hot to have it trapped against my neck all day. I wear a sun hoodie with the hood stretched over the brim of my hat, between that and my glasses, I only need to protect my nose and upper cheeks. I got a lightweight ‘rona mask and it’s been working out great. I can get it set where my glasses don’t fog up and my neck can breathe.

I back most all my fluorocarbon reels with braid, usually about 1/2 the spool capacity. In addition to lightening up the spool, this makes me far more inclined to replace the fluoro more often then try to ride it out with line that I know has been through "an event". On some of my finesse casters I run close to 3/4 backing as lighter fluoros get damaged very very easily and really want frequent replacement.

Some quick weights: Zoom Super, Pearl: 0.294oz GYCB D-Shad, Pearl: 0.335oz SK Caffeine Shad 4", Baby Bass: 0.275oz Sluggo 6", Pearl: 0.357oz

Imho the best “anything” for skipping in the one that is heavy enough to fully load your rod, maybe even overload the tip a little. For me the hardest part of skipping is dialing in the exact amount of force, so lures on the lighter side for a given rod give me more trouble then a heavier one.

I use 7lb Sniper and for the most part deal with line twist/manageability by using a casting combo vs a spinning one. When I do DS on a spinning combo I tend to stick to longer, t-rigged worms which seem to spin a lot less.

I have a Daiwa BBB telescoping casting rod and really like it. I used to travel a ton and the rod packs down to like 20” and comes with a great semi-hard case. It’s a bit fussy to set up but it’s a solid feeling rod once you do.