fishnkamp

Check out a Dobyns Fury series, they are built very well and have very good components for $110. Powell also falls in that price range with the Inferno series. For just a little more Dobyns has their Sierra series and Powell has the Max3D series and they run around $160. All of these rods are lite and feel real good in you hand.. They all have good components as well. Try and find a dealer in your area for both. They are listed on their websites. My local tackle shop carries these as well as Duckett, ***, Cashion, St Croix, and more but I always seem to get pulled over to the Powell and Dobyns racks. I fear soon my deck will be over run with them. LOL This means some of my 12 existing rods are going to go away to new homes. Do not overlook Abu Veritas, these are good rods if you can catch them on sale for around $75,. which happens from time to time. By the way fish a Falcon Buccoo I own the 7 foot trapmaster. It is a great rod for small to mid size cranks and traps but I would never pay full price, Wal-Mart discounts it to around $40 often. It retails for $100. Give the Dobyns and Powells a strong look you may split your arsenal right down the middle.

My friend Bryan uses a lot of P Line Halo floro in 8 pound test on his spinning reels. Now that line is a hard bodied so much though you can not bite through it. He does put his reels spool in warm water right after spooling it to help it set to the reel. He also suggests using either Reel Snot or Reel Magic periodically to aid in it use. This line is so strong and abrasion resistant and he needs it because on the Potomac river there is always a chance your next bass is not a bass. Instead it might be a huge snakehead. They are regularly catching snakeheads in the same structure as bass and they weigh up to 13 pounds or more. This is a great quality line but you need to maintain it a bit.

I agree the Dobyns Fury 734 is very versatile, Dobyns has multiple rod lines and each one gets a bit nicer as you go up the line. However a "734" in one line like the Fury will be almost exactly the same as a "734 in say a Sierra series. The 734 means 7'3" and a power of 4. 1 being real lite in action and 5 being really beefy. So if the specs of a Fury 734 met your needs you could also look at the higher series like Sierra, the Champion XP, or the Champion Extreme HP. Personally I like the Fury which retails for $110. I really like the Sierra rods which feel a little thinner and liter to me. They retail for $179. I would also look at the Powell rods. Look at the Max 3D 734CF HVY, or a Max3d 723CEF, again a real do it all rod that would do what you want and more. These rods cost $160. The build quality for any of these rods is very good.. I just had several Powell and Dobyns rods in my hand an hour ago at my local tackle shop and there is almost nothing to make you choose one over another between these two brands.

The rod you want in that series is the AXS68MXF. I have a buddy fishing that exact rod for tx rigged sencos. He throws it with a 3/16 tungston or 1/4 tungston weights and a 3/ Gamakatsu 3/0 ewg superline hook. He loves it for sencos rigged texas, wacky or unweighted.

Yes I think it would handle it well. Most rods will handle a little bit more weight, but may struggle when the lure weight is less than its rating.. My powell 683 is the most versatile rod in my arsenal. When Tackle Tour did a review they said it handled lures perfectly in its rated spec. It did not handle weights below the1/4 rating but they threw the book at it it above the 3/4 and it laughed at them They even threw a big 8 inch 2 ounce swimbait and it did it well. They were amazed. You can still give Irod a call. Where do you live and have you checked to see if you have a dealer locally? I have had one in my hand but not recently. I am blessed to have Anglers Express a local tackle shop nearby. We have a Bass Pro in Baltimore, no less than 20 minutes from their shop and a Cabelas 40 minutes away in Delaware. This shop opened just 6 months ago. If you intend to thrive in this local you must be different. The two owners are tournament guys (one tidal and one reservoir) so they have Dobyns, Powell, Irod, Cashion, Duckett and more. They have most of the line ups too. So I can go put my grubby paws on one if I want. That is how I ended up choosing Lindas rod, it was in stock. Let me throw another monkey wrench into the mix. have you ever looked at a Powell rod. Go check out a Powell Max3D 734 CFHeavy. That might be exactly what you want. You will notice both rods are very similar- one is 7"4" with a power rating of 4 and one is 7'3" with a power rating of 4. The price is within $10.00 so that is irrelevant.

When you rig up make sure to tie on a small swivel and then some mono below that. The bobber would go above the swivel and I always use a small lead split shot below the swivel. That swivel helps eliminate some line twist issues.. Boy you live near some good water. My sister got her PHD in Mid-Medieval history at Trinity College in Toronto. Boy the QE2 was a snooze fest back in the 90's. Nothing to see for miles.

That is an incredible rod. I am also a member of The Bass College and STeve the owner became friend with the owner of Irod. He began ordering his rods in groups for the members. Several own the Fred's magic stick. I have even had one in my hand. As good as that rod is for what it is built to I think it is going to be a bit too heavy for your 3/9 ounce jigs. It is a great jig and big worm rod nut it rates 1/2 to 2 ounce. The IRG 744C would handle the 3/8 ounce jig really well but not the frog so much. When I was not sure about a crankbait-rattle trap rod I called out there and they were terrific. Give them a call and talk to them. They know their stuff. Here is a number for them. 818 312-2704 I ended up with a Gabes Rip Rap Special and love it. My wife handles a fly rod perfectly and any spinning right up to surf gear, but wont touch a baitcaster. I set her up with an Irod Genesis II Fred's Power Finesse Heavy spinning rod. That thing is amazing, it can handle a frog or a jig with no problem, but matched with a Shimano Symetre it feel like there is nothing in your hand.

That casting distance is better. Check the specs on the rod. A lot of the JM rods that are MH spec 3/8 to 1 oz. So if that is the case try this. Back off the magnetics to zero, loosen the spool tension till the spool has lots of side to side play. Now tighten the spool tension just till the side play is gone now bring the magnetics back up high. Tie on a 1/2 ounce worm weight or jig. Check how fast that lure drops, if it is not too fast cast it. If it is just too fast then tighten the tension knob up a little. As you practice casting the idea is to get your thumb educated enough that you can back off the magnetics some, with the tension control set to just eliminate the side to side play without terrible backlashes of course. That is when maximum casting distance will be achieved. I do not own a PQ but I do own two of the Bass Pro special edition Rick Clunn reels. They were made with the same gearing,and double braking set up. It took a bit of getting used to it, but that is how both of them are setup. Your rods are good quality rods but you may be trying to cast a bait that is too lite for them. Testing with the 1/2 ounce jig puts the weight of the bait closer to the middle of the spec of the rod. If it casts well you may need to pick up the same rod in a medium to throw that specific lure/jig weight combination. A medium rod in any of the JM series should be 1/4 to 5/8 and the MH spec as 3/8 to 1 oz.

Thanks DVT for jumping in. I have seen a "new" reel come packed so badly it would not get distance. After a little cleaning and proper grease and oiling the reel was totally different. It happened to a friend of mine.

If you are looking for another setup besides the Mojo series, Powell makes some really nice rods and so does Dobyns. I run some of both. I used to run some of the St Croix until I found these others. The Inferno is real nice rod series. Take a look at the Inferno 6103. It is a workhorse. As for a reel the President from Pflueger is terrific. Between my wife and I, we use 6 of them and they only cost $60. For a bit more look at the Okuma RTX-30S. It is super lite weight and cost about $80.

Boy you can tell I was getting tired, my typing got sloppy. Sorry. Anyway the Dobyns rod would be about as close to a do it all as you will find. I was surprised, it was the only crankbait rod they make in any of their series. The Powells are really nice and one of my 4 crankbait rods is an Irod 703cc, which I love. By the way, I never owned 4 crankbait rods before, but in the fall the stripers leave the main bay and enter the creeks where my aluminum bass boat can get them. I line 4 different rattle trap type baits on the deck and one topwater setup. They can lock onto a XCalibur one knocker pattern or a red eye shad pattern or they may only want rattle traps, and sometimes it makes no difference. Either way a 20 plus inch striper on a 7 foot medium mod bass rod is insanely fun. And they taste good too.

That fish must have been caught in Australia

I think you give the fish too much credit. If a fish was going to be spooked by the tiny swivel he would first be spooked by the much larger hook! Just saying...

I like the Power Pro Spectra but Suffix 832 is a bit quieter and works well. I have also used and liked SpyderWire Stealth. You can make braid a lot cheaper by installing some good quality mono or copoly on your reel first. I spool the reel up half way with backing then add my expensive Florocarbon or braid. This is worth doing as now a spool of line will fill two reels and the braid can not slip on the spool itself. Just learn to tie a good tight arbor knot on the spool and learn to tie the uni to uni knot for the mono to braid connection.

I would suggest two things. Check with you local tackle shop and see if they know of a good reel repair center nearby. Often the local tackle shop will have a guy nearby. If not, we have Delaware ValleyTackle as a board sponsor. Now I am not thinking that your reels are broken, but rather they may be caked with grease from BPS. It happens. Have them professionally cleaned and checked. Next lets talk rods. What rods do you have them on. I mean Brand, model, action, taper (tip is it moderate, fast, extra fast) and lure weight specified. Now lets talk what you are throwing on them. Maybe it is simply the rod you are using will not produce the success no matter what reel is on it. I would not want you to buy a more expensive reel and have the problem be the rod. I know there is a legion of guys that love that ree,l so I would not expect that to be the problem i would send one reel off and get it serviced. Then see how it casts when that is done. If you do not see an improvement borrow a buddies rod install your reel and see how it does. Also you could go to your local tackle shop (not a big box store just a local shop) and ask to try casting your reel on their rod. Most good shops will help you out.

I agree with most people here. Those two techniques need very different rods. I am not sure what the rig was that you lost and you never suggested what your budget for your next combo might be. So I will suggest a couple of rods to look at Dobyns makes a Fury series FR 705CB, They list it as good for crankbaits, spinnerbait,lippless cranks, jerkbaits and more. It specs a 7 ft Med Moderate fast 1/4 to 1oz. It is a nice stick and might be as close to one stick to do it all. It is the only crankbait rod they make. Also check out the Irod Genesis II IRG703CC the Gabes Rip Rap Special. Lastly look at Powell Max 3D 6104CB. All of these would be worth looking into. I personally fish some rods from all 3 manufacturers and love them. With these ranging from $100 to $160 you may be able to do one good setup now and another later.

The FloroClear should help with that, but I have been told to try something like this, This is Gamakatsu's version http://www.***.com/Gamakatsu_Swivel_Shot_G-Finesse_Hook_3pk/descpage-GSSF.html This is VMC's version called a spin shot http://www.***.com/VMC_Spinshot_Dropshot_Hooks/descpage-VMCSS.html

P Line Halo and P Line FloroClear in mist green. What did you not like about the 100 0/0 floro.

I love my Diawa Tatulas which can be purchased new for $100 (regular retail $150) but if you can find a Diawa Exceller they can be purchased on sale for $60 and they normally retail for $100. Gander Mountain has the Exceller left handed reels for $75 right now but twice this spring they were $60. These reels are not the lightest but darn reliable and really smooth. These reels are available in right hand and left hand retrieve and in multiple retrieve ratios.4.9, 6.3 and 7.3 When you say casting a "lite lure" how lite are we talking? Here are some places to look: https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-TATULA100H-6-3-Medium-Action/dp/B00F2OOJ7O/ref=sr_1_2?s=sports-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1468186666&sr=1-2&keywords=diawa+tatula and https://www.amazon.com/Daiwa-EXE100HA-Exceller-Bait-Cast/dp/B00DFSN6BY/ref=sr_1_2?s=sports-and-fitness&ie=UTF8&qid=1468186777&sr=1-2&keywords=diawa+Exceller http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daiwa-Exceler-Baitcast-Reel-Right-Hand-EXE100HA-/181816837358?hash=item2a5520c4ee:g:mQgAAOSw~gRVt89X

i have run 11 different boats over 35+ years. My first bunch were aluminum jon and one thing i always added was an AnchorMate manual anchor system. Just one less thing to have loose in the boat. Some sort of pvc rod tubes were usually added as well It was mounted on the top deck just on the other side of the trolling motor. You can just see the handle knob just above the trolling motor shaft. Notice the 3 boys ready for action as well. The ram mount supported the depth finder right where I could easilysee it but not in the way of casting.. This was an electric reservoir boat so I added the aluminum walk way on the trailer and extra support boards. These supported the boat perfectly level all the way from the front to the back.

They should take care of it. It is the shippers fault. Man that stinks because they are really nice rods. And you can see the shipper new the screwed up when they taped it up there. Boy I am jealous, I just noticed where you live. I have had some health problems the last four years or I would be sorta a neighbor. My wife is addicted to smallmouth so we have been leaving MD and vacationing on Center Hill and Dale Hollow Lakes. Without the health issues on and off we would have already moved to somewhere near McMinnville , Cookeville,,maybe even Winchester. I am just not sure if I live there how do i choose which lake to go to? They are all so good! You have the other end of the Tennessee River and its impoundments. Which one do you like best, Pickwick, Wheeler, Wilson, Kentucky or"other"?

I am just curious why did you accept it? Could you have started a claim with the shipper right then?

Yes the 6'6" should cast farther but it may require just a little bit more weight to do it. Of course that depends on the rod. If it requires more weith I am talking maybe an 1/8 ounce more.

Make sure you mount your favorite reel on it because it affects the balance and feel. I was playing with a Tatula, so not a super small reel but it is one I trust. In the last two years I have sold and upgraded 6 reels to Tatulas and Tatula R's. I also purchased an Exceller ( darn budget for tackle ran out). LOL. There is always next year!

Almost none. I am sure it does but unless you could fish both you will not be giving much up. Consider this one of my 2 piece spinning rods is a $300 G Loomis. I am sure if 2 pieces made a difference they would not make it.