fishnkamp

Try this the next time you go out. Pick up a spools of P Line CXX in 10 pound or 12 pound green moss. The diameter is about .14 but it is so strong. 10 pound breaks closer to 22 pounds when tested. Use that for about a 3 foot leader. In my opinion I would not fish the straight braid without a leader. i think they can be line shy. The difference between your 17 pound leader and what I am suggesting is you can go down in leader poundage with the cxx because it actually breaks so much higher than advertised and the moss green will help disguise it as well

Now for your heavier rod choices. The Mojo bass rod is a nice one and so is the Aetos but go here and read the info on Freds Magic stick. That rod is sorta an in between both of the others. I have several friends with them and they do both frog and flip with it. If you have never had an Irod in your hand they are super sensitive and light weight. Fred Roumbanis designed several rods including this rod and a spinning rod the IRG713S. My wife fishes that 713s for her frog rod. She can fish with any fresh or salt water spinning combo and even any flyrod but will not touch a baitcaster so that is why we picked that rod for her. http://www.irodfishing.com/category-s/119.htm

Lets start with your first question which was what to replace the Ugly stick with. Unfortunately you did not mention your budget but I stay in the price range the Aetos and Mojo are. Take a look at the Abu Garcia Ike Delay series rod in a 70-5. That is a nice all around crank rod for $150. Also check out the Powell Max3d crankbait series in either the 6'10 or 7 foot. My personal crankbait rod is an Irod GenesisII Rip Rap Special. It is a 7 foot medium they say fast, i would say more moderate but boy does it feel good. I own one Irod (that exact rod) one Powell ( a 6'8 mh for throwing jigs) and an Ike series jerkbait rod. All of these I can tell you do exactly what they are supposed to do.

Nope you have them well thought out and I like your choices for line for each ones purpose. If you were a boat owner I would say you still have the basics covered. I run 12 rods under my deck almost all of the time, but rotate what is there because I fish such varied water. Here at home I fish the upper Chesapeake Bay which means "shallow" water most of the time. Lots of docks, lily pads, grass etc, but also includes some deep water such as on road bridges . Now back on Dale Hollow it was everything but what I fish at home. No need for the frog or punching rods out there. In some cases I have 2 rods to do the same job. Perhaps a crankbait that runs 1 to 3 foot deep on one and another rod with one that runs to 6 or 8 foot deep. This allows me to change depth ranges without re-tieing rigs. Add a changing tide during your fishing day and adaptable must become a major part of your game plan. Let me give you a tip on using the "expensive" lines. I always load some type of quality mono or copolymer line on each of my reels first. I have and use several left over spools of Suffix elite, the back half of a spool of red label, etc. anything that is good quality but reasonable priced. I even purchased some Bass Pro mono just for this when it was on sale. I spool the backing line about half way then connect my $30 braid or floro to it using a uni to uni knot. This is an easy knot to tie quickly and goes thru guides well if needed to. Don't laugh, it might need to someday. I had an 18 pound blue cat hit a rattle trap while fishing for rock. It hit me about 20 feet from the boat while fishing along an island in 15 feet of water. It swam directly under the boat and nearly spooled me before my partner got the trolling motor up and I could work the line around the front of the boat. That 7 foot Irod crankbait rod was completely doubled under the boat, it looked like an UglyStick, Anyway tie the backing and main line together and spool as needed. Now that expensive braid or floro will fill two reels. Also if god forbid you have a major foul up it means you only waste half as much line. I have some backing on my reels that are more than 5 years old and are still fine . I use that same knot to attach my leaders to braid if I am using one.

The GL2 is a medium action- moderate taper rod. It is loading up farther on the rod which would transfer more energy on the cast. That would be a better rod for fishing small to mid size crankbaits on. I like the p line for those baits as well.

Take good pictures and contact the seller. I believe it is junk!

You can install one talon and purchase a pole like a Dig In shallow water anchor. Max Gain sells the parts to make a pole setup that can be unscrewed like a pool cue. Makes storing them in a rod box easy and out of the way. Other sources for these are King Pin and Neptune. If your cleats are on top of the top cap Neptune has a nice pvc steel anchor loop. Just attach to the cleat when needed and insert the pole. These are inexpensive too. One other thing Max Gain offers is the pieces to turn your anchor pole into a push pole if needed.

First welcome to Bass Resource. Are you fishing from shore or a boat? What type of structure and lures do you usually fish?

The amazing thing about a Ned Rig is how big the fish are that eat it. During our spring vacation on Dale Hollow our guide put me onto these. They accounted for us catching 25 smallies from 3 to 6 pounds during our 7 days on the lake. They were all post spawners recuperating in about 15 feet of water out on main lake flats. The fish were finicky so little baits were working best.

I do not think it would help. If they are rough any line and line conditioner would be damaged.

The Neptune cleat idea is great if your cleats are on top of the cap of your boat. Lowe has moved them to the inside a bit so that wont work for me, If I see a spot I drop the trolling motor anyway. My transducer for my electronics is on the bottom of the trolling motor, so if I am fishing more than likely my electronic eyes are in use as well. Did you get the poles from Neptune? They are a bit less expensive from there which is good. Also someone asked if it would get in the way of landing a fish. I am not sure, I have not seen one in person yet, that is what I was hoping i might find out by posting here. It looks like the bracket and pole sit about 8 inches in front of the trolling motor so it could get in the way I guess. If I am on deep structure I would store the pole in my rod locker.

Yes that is what I would do. The idea is the lines all play a little different and you can sorta take advantage of that. Now you can experiment, but should be able to identify which lures work best with witch rod and line combo. I would expect you should be able to throw the unweighted and really lite plastics like a senco or a reaction innovation skinny dipper or even light weight spinnerbaits on the Aetos. That Tatsu ought to work nice on the ***. The Tatsu line is a high quality floro. Those lines actually sink so lures that you want to work like small crankbaits should work well here. The HMG having braid on it would be my choice to do most everything else like throw a jig, work a worm etc. Just learn the double uni knot and run a 3 foot leader .Now when you change lures you are not cutting off expensive braid. That knot is easy and works well. Enjoy your trip.

For moving baits try P Line CXX in moss green. I also like their P Line Floroclear.

That is fine for those bottom techniques, but for moving baits the 10# will give better action to the bait.

First, the HMG 7 foot rod would have a 30 series reel on it just to balance best. So mount the reel with your favorite braid on it. Essentially your 832 and super slick are the same. Now all three of your rods spec as Medium and fast action. Which 6'6" rod seems to transition from soft tip to backbone first. Is it the *** or the Aetos . Whichever rod transitions quickest or has more backbone I would mount my other 30 series reel on it. I would put the new 2500 series reel on the last rod and put the 6 pound Yo Zuri copolymer /floro line on it. I would use it for finesse baits like weightless sencos, wacky worms, ned rigs and lightly weighted creature baits. That line will not sink like straight floro will, so you will get better action on slow sinking baits. When you unspool the Tatsu save it , wind it on an empty line spool or even a paper towel roll. I would respool it onto the other 30 series reel on the 6'6' rod. Again save the braid you remove to use later. Just wind it up on an empty spool or paper towel cardboard roll. Now you have 3 distinct combos that will do different things for you. Another trick I always do with my reels is to get some inexpensive mono or copolymer line like a Berley Trilene or Cajun Red Label or even a left over partial spool of P Line CXX which I use for leaders. I always tie that line to my spool, then fill half way. I then tie a uni to uni knot with the backing(cheaper line) and my main line be it expensive floro or braid. Now if I spend $20 to $30 dollars for good line that spool will fill two reels and I just saved a lot of money. Lets say I have a problem with the line or perhaps re-purpose a reel than I just need to replace half as much line. I have some reels I have not changed the backing on for multiple years. That same uni to uni knot is used to attach my leaders to my braid. I use a leader on my braid a lot of the time on spinning gear. Especially in clear water. If I can help anymore just ask. Bob

Go find a local tackle shop and ask who repairs rods. Have a good rod builder replace all of the guides with a better quality set of guides.

Go find a local tackle shop they will know who does it in your area. I just did this for another member here. That shop charged $8 to replace a guide. He was in TN and i found that shop for him from MD. with just a little research.

Wow nice job and i hope you did not try to lip land that last fish! LOL

First I guess you mean a baitcaster. By moving baits do you mean crankbaits, rattle traps and spinnerbaits? If so I would lean away from braid. I like P Line Floroclear ( copolymer line that is floro coated). Some of my friends use 10# P Line CXX in moss green. To get a crankbait deeper sometimes even a straight floro will work. The only time I throw those kind of baits on braid is if I am throwing rattle traps for strippers. Then I want it for shear strength and I will go to 20 or 30# Power Pro braid or Sufffix 832 braid. Now if you are talking about throwing a frog I use 50 to 65# Power Pro always.

One more bit of help. On any reel i use braid or really expensive Floro I always put 1/2 a reel of good quality either floro or copolymer (usually the remains from a spool I have been using) and then add 1/2 of a spool of my expensive braid or floro. This way my $20 to $30 spool of line fills 2 reels. Now that cuts the cost in half. These two lines are also joined with the same knot.

Forget what you have heard about braid. Now my wife is a very accomplished angler. She has caught up to 8 pound rainbow trout on fly rods, can handle any spinning from light to saltwater but refuses to fish a baitcaster. So for years I have tried to find a mono or floro or even copolymer line that would give her the least trouble with knots or bird nesting. We have settled on Berkley Fireline in 14 pound test for our spinning reels. I almost always have a leader tied on and rarely does it give me trouble. I use P Line CXX in 10 pound for my leaders unless I am fishing super clear water and say a finesse bait then I may go down to 6 lb. Learn to tie a double uni or uni to uni knot. They are very easy and strong. Sometimes on my one micro guide rod I may tie a shorter leader otherwise most of mine are 3 foot long. For my baitcasters I have some Power Pro like 50 and 65 pound braid and I tie directly like on frogs. For baits like crankbaits I shy away from braid and go to P Line FloroClear It gives better action.

Is that Tom's Custom Rods? If so his work is awesome. I guarantee you will like what he builds you. Did you ever say if this is a spinning or baitcasting rod? If so I must have mist it. Either way have your builder show you some Winn Grips. I own several G Loomis rods and broke one, its replacement came with a plastic reel seat and thread assembly that kept loosening up. I loved the old metal setup they used to use before Shimano bought Loomis. So I had him strip the full cork grip handle and seat. We chose an American Tackle comfort seat assembly and installed a split grip set up from Winn Grips. If you have not felt them they are amazing. Check out these pics. Also they come in the natural that i chose and also in colors for both spinning and baitcasting.

Forget 12 and 17 for moving baits with PLine CXX. I have a buddy Bryan that loves the stuff, but after some testing found 10# P Line CXX breaks closer to 22 pounds. He uses 10 pound CXX for moving baits and for flipping and other heavy cover applications he goes to P Line Halo 17 pound test. Go to http://www.baybass.com/forum/index.php?topic=310.0 and check it out. Also while you are there spend some time surfing. Bryan runs a really informative site especially for MD.and Northern VA anglers

Anchors are great, but do a search on youtube for shallow water anchors. There are several videos on hot to use an anchoring pole with kayaks and could easily adapted to your application. They can be easily and cheaply made by going to the Max Gain's website. There you will see some how to videos and Max gain sells the parts to build your own setup. i would think one two piece 6 or 8 footer should work and disassembled could easily lash down to the pontoons with bungee straps or something. Dropping an anchor in shallow cover may hold the boat but spook your fish.

4 and 6 inch. Hey when you get a chance jump over to BayBass.com. My friend Bryan runs that site. He is one of the best teachers i have ever fished with, also he is literally a fish vacuum cleaner! He grew up on Middle River and in fact at Wilson Point. Everyday when he came home from school there sat a 17 foot Tracker at the end of the pier. He know where all of the dead bodies are in this area, all of the rock piles, drop off, etc. I asked him to come up and fish off my 17 foot aluminum bass boat and got a college degree from him. Anyway his website is dedicated to just fishing in MD.and Northern VA. He expects himself and his pro staff to give real time fishing reports, the where, when and how to's just for this region. Go surf his forums and fishing reports. The how to's and wheres are priceless.