fishwizzard

My kayak line up is very heavy on short casting rods, with three of them being CR series rods: 1) cr723 IMX - Moving single hook 2) cr723 GLX - Bottom contact 3) mbr782 GLX - Senkos and light t-rigs 4) Avid 6’2” m/xf - topwater, flukes 5) cr721 IMX - Wacky worms The 3 Power rods are very very versatile and I only have the 782c due to getting it in a trade. I would love a 6’ or 6’6” 4 Power but I have never found one for a good price. For me the 3 powers top out right around 3/4oz, so I use 1/4oz jigs that end up around 3/4 w/ trailer.

I hate the clamshells and avoid them when I can. I have never noticed any real action difference from paddle tails fresh from a clamshell vs ones that have been laying in a plano box for weeks/months/years.

I throw 3/16 to 1/4oz shakeyheads on my MH or H jig/worm rods and only go up to about 1/8oz on my lighter tackle. It really depends on the hook thickness of the specific jigheads you are using.

I am on the hunt for an even shorter frog rod for my kayak, like something in the 6’-6’6” range. 13Fishing sells a 6’5” one but I cant find much info on it and it might not be as powerful as I want. I also really want to go shorter too, both for ease of walking while seated and to get max leverage.

The only SJR rods that I have are a pair of short MagLight/XFast IMX ones and I love them. Good sensitivity and and the power/taper is the best I have found for small plastics and tiny jigs.

That is what I assume, but I have never had one in that situation hold a worm for so long or move so far. He was running 2-5’ with the worm each time, which made my inability to get a hookset all the more annoying.

Never have I had a bass hit a lure so many times in a row. Cast next to a laydown, the line moves, I set the hook, feel weight for a second, then he comes off. This happens three more times before I get him, but just barely as you can see. Each time the hook point was exposed, but not fully. No idea what was going on, 884c, 16lb Invizx, 3/0 Owner hook. The bass was very close to the bank, like 10-15’ of line out at most. Super close range hooksets with longer rods are always tough for me but this was just absurd.

The Fuego CT is an outstanding reel for the money but in any case it’s more important to match up rod/reel functionality then trying to match price level.

Selling high-end gear isn’t a problem as the shipping price eats up a smaller percentage of the money I’m trying to get back, but trying to sell a rod that retails for $120 it’s kind of pointless as even if I can get 75% of MSRP, I’m going to lose a huge percentage of my selling price for shipping, so it’s not really worth it. The area I live in is so salt water focused that I have had very little luck selling cheaper rods locally.

I think I have around 20 combos, maybe 15 casting and 5 spinning. I could pare down a bit as there are some I really like but almost never use. But for what it costs to ship a rod, it’s not really worth selling some of them.

I have a rod that is kinda close to those two in power and taper, the MB Huyga 72H. It is rated for 1/2-4oz with a Moderate taper. The top end of the rating is too high though, for me like 2.5oz is the upper limit and 2oz is the comfortable one. It's not a great frog rod in the sense that the tip is not good for walking anything but it's a great one in terms of power and hook-up:landing ratio. I use it for dragging frogs, paddle-tail frogs, toads, and 5" paddletail swimbaits fished like toads and really love it for that.

My breakdown goes like this: -Thin plastics fished mostly in open water or with a weight - Offset -Thin plastics fished weightless and in cover - Straight Shank -Thick plastics in general - EWG -Fragile plastics/paddletails - Screwlock Swimbait Hook. There are exceptions to this but it’s more or less how I do it.

I leave them on. Other then very fine wire jig hooks, I have never noticed any rusting on any of my hooks or jigs. I do let used lures/plastics dry overnight in a folded over towel in the back of my car before putting them back in the planos and also use zrust tabs in all my boxes.

I am not a fan of braid in general and using braid to leader even less. Assuming your spinning reel isn’t a 1000 size, I would try a midrange fluoro like Sniper or Invizx in like 6-8lb. If you end up not liking it you can switch to braid and use the rest of the spool as leader. If you back your reel with tape or cheap mono you will only “waste” a cast and a half of fluoro at the worst. For your jig rod either heavyish braid or fluoro will be fine, each having various advantages and disadvantages. For my jig rod I use both 40lb PP and 16lb Tatsu, having two spools for my reel. I use the Tatsu when fishing around rocks or in clearer water and the PP in spots with more soft-cover and/or murkier water. I end up using the fluoro like 75% of the time due to the braid dislike.

Look at the jdm company Major Craft. They have a ton of lines and most have a few ML casting rods. I know some of them are listed as “Fast” but it’s a very subjective label, so finding reviews will be important.

I do a fair bit of finesse casting and it seems like 10-12lb seems to be the threshold of backlash survivability. The thinner stuff seems to get damaged very easily while the 12lb seems to be pretty durable so long as I use care in picking them out. I use mainly Invixz and Sniper.

It’s only a disadvantage while you are learnings, I think I maybe get one show-stopping backlash a year, not counting UL casting, which is far fussier. I will take the risk of backlashing over dealing with line twist and loops from spool memory.

Oh man, I would use a ratcheting box-wrench over a ratchet and socket any time I could get away with it.

I put the “single lure” theory to the test yesterday afternoon. I hit my usual after-work pond with one rod and a 5” GP/WM Senko tied on. Tried a few spots and tried to interest a few visible bass in the shallows to no effect. I moved on to my next “spot”, a group of laydowns all in a row. That’s where they were and I got four in quick succession. Went back to my car, grabbed a pile of lures and went to work on those visible bass. Nothing doing. I threw everything I could think of at them and managed to catch one by jigging a little paddle tail infront of his nose for maybe 2 min.

My love of spinning rods is limited to short, like <6’6”, ones with very short butts. I hate trying to cast a spinning rod with both hands, I find it really clumsy and uncomfortable. I bought a high-end 6’11” spinning rod over the winter and after maybe 10 hours with it I think I am about ready to sell it. In general I strongly prefer casting rods now. I find them more comfortable to cast and work a lure with and far more accurate. Using my thumb to release the spool and to slow/stop the lure allows far more precision then using my pointer finger to release the line and to feather the spool on a spinning reel.

I wish I had the confidence in a moving bait but I am a diehard plastics nut. Very reasonable.

Do you have a usual “single lure”? When I’m trying out a new spot I will generally pick a weightless trickworm or a fluke for my first reconnoitering trip as they can cover the entire column if I am patient enough.

I prefer the 4” Ochos over 4” Senkos as they are thinner and seem to have more wiggle. Durability seems about the same.

More or less what I do, but I carry more lures. Usually something to cover each part of the water column. I start with my best guess and if I move a few times with no hits I will switch up lures. If I am at a spot I know well I will change lures before moving but most of the time I have better luck switching spots.

I have never understood this line of thought, unless you are dropping the senko off the side of the boat with the bail open, most of the slack line is going to be laying on the water while the senko fall no matter what kind of reel you are using so long as you put a little loft on the cast.