fishnkamp

Honestly, if you wanted to fish some topwaters and small jigs, even my Skinny dippers, I would try some simple old Stren Original clear blue mono in like 12 pound test. My rig I mentioned earlier has some real light braid on it, like 15 pound braid, but I set it up to fish underwater not topwater. It is kinda funny how we have completely forgotten how versatile mono and copoly lines can be.

Aaron too bad on the tranny, but you are correct you need the tow vehicle in tip top shape before the boat. Often times things happen to us and we do not know the reason until later. It seems a terrible time to have this happen. However, from a money situation, you may have been in rougher spot if you had spent your cash on the boat and not had it to pay for repairs. Just save a bit longer or perhaps put a deposit down and finance a small payment on a nicer-newer boat. Anyway feel free to hit us up for more help in the future.

Awesome. I like the Keitechs but also fish the Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers. On Dale Hollow we often find the big smallies roaming under huge schools of shad. They will be roaming over water as deep as 100 feet. The shad may be suspended down say 20 foot with thew bass another 10 feet below that. It will be just huge main lake areas of around islands. That rod would help you make loooong casts and cover lots of water. When we rig those Skinny Dippers or Big Hammer Shad baits we use the 1/2 ounce fish head style swimbait jig heads. That would be awesome on that rod. I rig all of my paddle tail swimbaits like those either with a light weight belly weighted swimbait hook, or those swimbait jigheads. The swimbait jighead can be so deadly on a long tapering point too. Anytime I am fishing deeper than say 10 feet i go to the swimbait jighead setup. Try it and hold on. I use it over grass with the belly weighted hook to. much like you would a trap.

Fishinthefish hit on my answer. I have a BPS Extreme 6' ML 1/16 to 1/2 rod that fishes small spinnerbaits, a Mepps, and fluke style baits fantastic. I bet if you play around with that rod you will find the rod handles baits up over 3/8 to 1/2 oz. fine. I fish a lot of Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers and Keitechs on light weight belly weighted hooks as well as small jig heads I bet that rod would be awesome at that. Those baits catch fish right behind guys that are tearing up the water around shallow structure, down to about 10 foot. I love going in and catching fish right behind a guy that just tore up that same dock.

I am not sure about the Steez, but most guys go to a round reel, they have bigger line capacities and lower gearing too. At that point you are fishing kinda like a Musky guy are't you. Big Hardware! Take a look at something like a Calcutta or even a Cardiff

I own 3 7 year old Cabelas group 30 AGMs and I love them. I come home, plug in the BPS onboard charger and forget them. Next day I pull the cord, wrap it up and put my boat away. I open the battery compartment maybe 12 times a year to be sure nothing terrible is going on that I do not know about and that is it. I am going to have to replace these some day soon but heck I put them in service in 2010.

Absolutely if you are otherwise ready to spend money on it. They will be happy to do so if you say yes I really want this boat. Lets start the papers but I want to hear it run first. In fact some dealers will test run it with you during non winter seasons. That usually requires a down payment and a commitment that you are serious. I have done it several times.

I am sorry I looked at the specs at Tackle Warehouse and they list the Helium 3 ITA and they must have a different spec than the one you have. You will have to see how it plays. If I used it for texas and jigs I would still run a 7-1 reel on it.

You are asking a lot in one rod with both length and budget restraints. That does not mean you can not find one, just going to be a bit tougher. It has already been said that Abu Garcia rods are notorious for being a tad bit heavier than they call for. I understand having to ignore some "best rod for a technique" advice because it does not fit my requirements. My boat can store 7 foot rods all day, but not 7"1 or longer rods. So when I first looked for the perfect frog rod most rods suggested were great, but not for me. I first purchased a 7' heavy Abu Garcia Veritas rod ( the original series). It worked, but acted more like an extra heavy. I kept it for a punching rod. It handles 1 ounce plus punching rigs great. I then tried a 7 foot medium heavy and it worked the hollow bodied frogs much better. Later I swapped to a Dobyns Champion DC 705C and it is awesome. I know it is too much money for you. You could go with the Veritas and I think it would work fine for all you want it to do. Another option would be a Bass Pro Johnny Morriss CarbonLite in a 7 foot hvy Fast, It lists baits that weigh 3/8 to 1 1/2. I have not had one in my hand, but I would look into it. They are priced at $119.

Yes you posted seconds before I finished typing. I am quite sure I could find uses for those two rods without any problems. Both quality rods.

My first question is which Dobyns 734 they have a 734C in Fury, Sierra , and both Champion series rods. They rate the same but the Sierra is definitely a slower graphite. Dobyns lists the following as suggested uses for that rod: Buzzbaits / Horny Toads / Jigs / Senkos / Small Swimbaits / Spinnerbaits/ Chatterbaits / Spooks It rates for lures weighing 1/4 to 1 ounce. It is more realistically a 1/4 to 3/4 rod. I certainly would fish jigs on that rod in all conditions except for heavy vegetation. It is not a flipping stick by an means, but it is a very versatile rod. It would be fine for texas rigs, shakeyhead worms, Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers, etc. It would not be a rod I would use to fish a 10 inch worm on a deep creek ledge or something like that, but it is versatile. What I think will work out well would be to spool that real with a line like P Line FloroClear which is a floro coated copoly line in about 12 pound test or maybe 12 pound P Line Halo or you could go try your 30 pound power pro. I have never liked the Invzx but if you do than the 15 pound might work here instead. The other rod would be my main heavy jig (1/2 to 1 oz) carolina rigs bigger texas rig rod. This is assuming they are honest about the rod having the extra fast tip. It might even work well with a hollow bodied frog. if this is a higher power faster tipped rod I would choose a 7.3 or 8-1 Diawa Tatula CT and that would get your 50 pound power pro.

A Maxxum 70 pound thrust 24 volt trolling motor will handle the rig well. If you can afford the electric steers great but that Maxxum will hold up well. I put it on my Lowe and have fished all kinds of rivers,lakes ans the Chesapeake Bay tidal water. I am going to upgrade to a MK Riptide Terrova ( Riptide is their salt water series) and the Terrova is an electric steer unit. I am doing this due to some medical issues with my foot not because the trolling motor was not up to the task.

Glad your are good. Some of the reviewers I have seen are like you very happy with them. Others are very disappointed with them. I admit, I have no personal experience with them. I was simply relaying the mixed reviews that existed on several tackle suppliers websites including Tackle Warehouse. I know the BPS Pro Qualifiers have had a loyal following for ever. I had fished quite a few BPS reels along with Shimanos and Lews until I switched most of them over to Daiwa Tatula, Tatula Type Rs and Tatula CTs. To me that family of reels is hard to beat once you learn how to dial it in correctly.

Boy the first question is how deep are you going, "12 to 25" and shallow too is a lot to ask. Generally most anglers fish with two different rods to cover shallow to 15 footers and then the 20 plus big deep diving cranks. Here is where you are having fatigue with your current setup. A 7 foot or 7'3 rod with a 6.3-1 reel on it can do double duty for throwing shallow to mid depth cranks, rattle traps, and even jerkbaits in a pinch. But once you start going really deep that is when you need a 5.x-1 reel and a much longer rod. You have to really launch those super deep baits a great distance to get them down in their strike zone. Guys are going to 7'9 to 8' foot long rods now for fishing these baits. Here is where I am afraid your budget will also impact your choices too. A quality baitcasting reel for the deep divers will cost at least $100 unless you catch a great sale. Something like a Tatula CT will run you $120 and a Bass Pro Qualifier will run around $100. I would be careful about buying an Abu Garcia Winch. That reel runs $70 but it has very mixed reviews. For $30 bucks more you are guaranteed a better reel with the Pro Qualifier. In fact i would look at a Bass pro Shops Crankin Stick rod. They have a 7'6 MH and a 7'10 MH. They run $99.

I would definitely go with a 6.3-1 on your 7 ft medium rod. That rod I would spool with a good mono or copoly line like the P Line FloroClear, a Suffix Siege, even Stren Original or Berkley Big Game. To make this an all around useful combo go with say 14 pound test. That rod should cover baits like spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, chatterbaits, some crankbaits, jerkbaits, topwaters, even things like rattle traps. For your second rod consider a rod like a Dobyns Fury FR 734 or a Powell Max3D model 683 CEF. That is a weapon. I fish the earlier version a Max (not 3D) and of all the 12 baitcasters I fish with it is the most versatile rod in the box. Now another nice option would be the Daiwa Tatula XT rod. I would choose the 7'1" MH with the extra fast tip. I would normally match it up with a Daiwa Tatula CT reel, butt those are my favorite reels and since you are interested in a Casitas for one rod, I would go with a 7.3 Casitas here also. That would mean you only need to learn how to adjust and cast one model reel. This would handle all of my bottom bouncing baits like texas and carolina rigged worms, and jigs. This rod would have 50 pound Power Pro Spectra braid or Suffix 832 braid on it. One word on the braid. This type of line is more expensive. To save money when using braid, I always spool my reels half way with Stren original clear blue mono. It works out to be like .025 cent per yard. Instead of using the entire spool of braid I only need half of it so a reel costs me $7.50 of braid and $less than $2.00 in mono. You could easily use the same 14 pound line you put on your first reel for this. These rods, along with your spinning rod would make a nice arsenal. Good luck.

Aw, I would be there to keep that monkey in check sorta. Otherwise my friends that own SFT will have a good sales day. The one person I can't afford to take there is my wife! She can not get past those darn G Loomis rods! I do not know if I shared this with you before, but we dated for 10 years, all through high school and college. We are coming up on our 30th wedding anniversary this summer. For our 20th I offered her a choice between a new diamond ring or another G Loomis rod. She is still fishing her G Loomis rod. It is her G2 722. I do not know what your time table is, but if you can wait a month, till we have some soft water again, then perhaps we could meet up on Blue Marsh Lake. I would happily haul my Lowe with me. I have not fished that lake since 1995. That way you could fish the rods and see what they actually fish like.

Quarry Man are you on facebook. If so look up a friend of mine. He just listed a really decked out Tracker for someone else. Look up Tom Wolverton. He listed it for his friend Vinny Rosetti. Has some worn carpet but decked out with power pole, HB electronics etc. he wants $5500.

Sorry I goofed. You are correct! I should have typed "AVC". My point was that if the rod model was "PC... it would be a premier series rod. If it started AVC it would be an Avid. That was where the poster had confused me. Either way it should make a good jig and worm rod. That was what I used mine for.

Well that is different. I deeply apologize, so often when a thread like this is opened it is to stir the pot. I guess if you had started with "I am having a couple of rods built ... I would not have gotten the wrong impression. I have a rod builder locally that loves to use the Rainshadow blanks. That should be awesome. I use two different rods for those two techniques, but that is my preference. Since you are unsure what you want to use, either cork or wood, I will complicate your decision making a little more. Have you ever had a rod in your hands with Winn Grips on it? I I had my friend Tom change a defective reel seat and grips on a 1 year old G Loomis rod. I messed around with some of his play toys in his work shop and chose a set of the "natural" grips. After I got to fish it I had him change another one of my G Loomis rods over to those grips. Now both of mine are on spinning rods, but I love those grips. If they get wet they get a little more grippy and they look pretty much like cork. That spinning rod should be awesome too. Good Luck let us know how they turn out. Mike takes good care of us here for sure. By the way I use a Powell Max ( an original not a Max 3D) 683CEF for my jig fishing most of the time. It is 6'8 MH XF. It rates for 1/4 to 3/4 but cna handle much more it is amazing. If you google Tackle Tour Powell Max 683 CEF you can read the review. For spinnerbaits I prefer a more moderate rod. For spinnerbaits up to 1/2 ounce I have an old Cotton Cordell rod he designed for just that use. For larger ones I use a bass Pro Extreme 6'6 mh 3/8 to 1 rod. I use several G Loomis classic bass series SJR 721 and 722 for most of my finesse baits. I hope that helps a little.

Here is how my arsenal is set up. To cover light weight finesse baits I carry several older G Loomis rods. Actually between my wife and I we own 6 G Loomis rods total. Four of them are 6 footers (left over from the days my bass boat only fit 6 footers in its rod locker LOL). They are from the bass classic series- IMX and GL2 and 3s. One pair are SJR 721s. They rate as 1/16 to 5/16. These are fantastic for light weight grubs, tubes, small spinnerbaits fished in tough conditions. These also fish the Ned rigs amazingly well. Keep in mind how little a Ned rig body and a 1/10 ounce head weighs in total. If I was going to replace them today I would go for a 6'6 version. I doubt there is a better rod series for the money overall. Now the second ones we own are 6 foot SJR 722. These cover 1/8 to 3/8 and that difference may seem very little but it isn't. These rods handle larger offerings like texas rigs heavier bulkier tubes as well as shakey heads and fluke style baits. The heavier action is needed here to penetrate the worm and the fish's mouth. Both of these models serve an important purpose and have a definite place in both of our fishing arsenals. Again, if I had to replace them today, they would be 6'6" versions. Now we both carry a 7 foot light action G Loomis rod for smallies, but these are "special purpose" rods. I do use mine also for drop shotting in deep water, which it is amazing for. Lastly, and carried more frequently than the 7 ft lights, is a 6"6 Okuma that rates as medium power fast action that I use for real light weight jerkbaits or any jerkbait fished slowly in the winter. A rod in the 6'6 to 6'10 inch rated for medium power fast action can fill a lot of these duties, if you only want to carry one spinning rod. Look at a rod like the ST Croix Avid X AXS68MXF. That rod can handle almost all of the duties I cover with 3 rods on deck! It is not an inexpensive rod, but I believe that these techniques are all "touch and feel" techniques and they require a sensitive rod. There is a G Loomis Classic series rod, a SJR783 IMX, and it is going to cost around $240. There are options like the Irod Genesis II rods. Again, notice how they break up the rod duties. Linda owns the 713 and it is a great jig, tube, worm rod, but too heavy for Ned riggs or drop shots. That is my experience. Anytime you want to put some of these rods in your hands, just pm me. We could meet at The Susquehanna Fishing Tackle in York. Good place to go home with a rod from probably. By the way I carry all of those rods because they all catch fish at some time. The last time we fished Dale Hollow I stood on the front deck with 16 of my rods still in the rod box because after one day with our guide we found out that we were in a tough fishing condition. The big female largies and smallies had just left the creeks after spawn and were settling in on huge 20 to 30 foot grass covered main lake flats and they ignored every bait we threw on the first day. Our guide had us fish Ned rigs all week. I landed over 25 bass between 5 and 7 pounds with a 6 foot G Loomis 721 in my hand! I had a SISSY stick in my hand and a smile on my face!

I doubt "money is no option". I think someone was "fishing" and a few members took his bait.

Ok you are confused one way or another. If the model number is "PC66MHF" then it is a ST Croix Premier series 6'6" medium heavy fast action casting rod. That would be a really nice jig rod & worm rod. I used to fish that same rod. I really liked it for use around docks, the length helped with accurate casting. If it is an Avid series rod it won't be a "PC..." but instead it would be a "AVS..."

I enjoy fishing it. It is not as sensitive as say my G Loomis IMX jig rods, but I do not need it to be and it is half the price. For what I paid and the job it needs to do it is a nice option. It is definitely a rod I would choose again if it broke or was lost. I just think sometimes the Abu rods get overlooked because he is a bit of a nut. I like Ike and I especially respect him because if you pay attention to him during a tournament he actually fishes Veritas, Ike rods and a few other Abu series rods. They are the tools he makes his living uses, not just the company thta pays him and he uses something else.

What boat are you running?

That looks fine but how much do they want for it?