fishnkamp

I use a 4 foot leader on every spinning reel Linda and I fish. I use the double uni knot every time without any issue. Those knots stand up to stripers, big cats and all of the bass we catch. It takes less than a minute to tie it correctly. I also use a leader on certain baitcasters when I want to be more invisible but again in the last 6 years I have yet to have a line break at the double uni knot. As for casting distance that is bogus I have not seen an issue even on my micro guide rods.

If you are still interested in a G Loomis then go to Susquehanna Fishing Tackle in York PA. He has an IMX904C in stock. He also has an Okuma TCS 731 frog/swimbait rod in stock so you could look at all of them if you take a nice Saturday drive. Once you are at Anglers it will take you probably 40 minutes to an hour to get to Susquehanna Fishing Shop. Of course you will know all of my secret stores. Oh well.

Sorry, I was speaking about a problem with the quality of the last G loomis IMX rod I purchased. It's components were junk and I did not realize how inferior to my older IMX rods it was till I fished it. I ended up taking it to my friendly neighborhood custom rod builder. We stripped the entire cork handle and defective reel seat, then chose a high quality American Tackle Comfort reel seat and a set of Winn spit grips. He did a beautiful job and now the rod blank is more sensitive and much more comfortable. Most important my reel will not fall off or loosen up. I could have sent it in as a warranty, but they use the same plastic reel seat and locking nut/hood. This should not happen on a rod that cost between $200 to $300 ever. The rod was not 6 months old. The cost of the parts we chose to use was less than $30. If you intend to spend $200 to $300 look at the Dobyns Champion rod lines. I have a Champion DC705C that i purchased for frogs and larger jigs. You are welcome to cast it and even go over to a piece of water to fish it for a bit. Take a serious look at the Sierra line. I know he has a bunch of those there, and a bunch of Furys, not sure how many Champions he had in stock. He had a big rod order coming in soon. That was as of last week when I was there. If handle the Fury 765flip and like the overall feel then get it in the Champion 765flip. If you like the Sierra 766 Flip then there is a Champion Dc 765 and 766 to choose from.

Hey Zeeter take a drive to Hunt Valley. Take 83 North to Padonia Rd. Get in the lefthand lane. Turn left at the light by the Irish Pub. Go one block to Old Padonia RD. Turn left and turn in the next strip of stores on your left hand side. Anglers Express is there. Ask Eric to show you the Irods, Powells, Dobyns, Cashions, St Croix, Shimanos, Ducketts and others. Put them in your hand and even ask to put a few reels on them. See what feels best to you. All of them make quality rods. As for G Loomis, I was a huge fan of the brand, heck I started to use G Loomis before IM6 was out. My wife and still have 96% graphite, IM6, GL2, GL3 and IMX rods from them. I have experienced what I believe is a cheapening of the product since Shimano bought in and I think other competitors have closed the gap, even surpassed them in overall quality for the money. I am not speaking of the NRX as my wallet and I will never see one!

Careful buying your first Champion could lead to ordering your next Champ LOL You should really like it. I have a friend with a Fury version of that rod and he really loves it.

iabass8 would you agree the swimbaits like the Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Shad which is around 4 inches and weighs 5/8 of an ounce would be okay on the 735C and that is probably why it has " small swimbait" as a suggested technique for that rod.

I can not comment on the Supreme since I have no experience with them. However I can share my experience with the President reels. My wife and I own 7 of them. Some are over 10 years old and two are less than 2 years old. They are work horses. They get USED all of the time but I have never had to repair any of them. Last April we were fishing on Dale Hollow for big smallies. The big females had just come off the beds and were holding tight in grass beds located out on main lake in 10 to25 feet of water. They would not eat anything except Ned Rigs. We fished Ned rigs for about 40 hours in 7 days. I landed 15 smallies weighing over 5 pounds each. The were caught using a G Loomis 6 foot light action rod. I lost count of the 3 to 5 pounders we caught. The ultimate torture test was the 8 pound channel cat that ate her Ned Rig. She looked like Ike running from the back to the front decks. That Plueger President held up great during that battle. The drag worked nice and smooth and she did a perfect job of wearing that big cat out till I finally netted it. I could not get one bass to eat a jerkbait, rattle trap, paddle tail swimbait, or even a jig until the last two days. So we used the spinning gear almost all of the time.

I own a Champion 705C and that rod handles jigs and frogs well. If you chose the Fury 735C it should do just fine for frogs, as well as casting and flipping jigs. The problem with saying swimbaits is that term covers a huge group of baits. This is no different than purchasing one crankbait rod to throw all sizes of crankbaits. It does not work. If you want throw a bait like the Huddleston Deluxe Weedless Shad then the 735C will probably would work well enough. That is a 4 1/4 inch long soft plastic fish with a hook hidden inside. It only weighs 5/8 of an ounce. That bait can be worked on one type of rod and a Huddleston Deluxe 8" Trout requires a true swimbait rod instead, since it weigh up to 5.1 ounces. The 795SB or the 806SB would be needed to fish most of the heavier soft bodied and almost all of the hard bodied swimbaits.

My choice is a Diawa Tatula Type R 8-1 left handed reel. I love that thing and fishing that one made me happy enough I purchased 3 more type Rs. I sold off Curados and Chronarcs. I also own 2 Tatula CTs and like them just as much. You may like them better than the original since they are closer to your Shimano in size. I think the T wing makes a bit of a difference.

I have had lots of BPS reels including the special edition purple Rick Clunn reels ( I still have 2) which was essentially a pro Qualifier and I still fish 4 Extremes. I have sold off all of my Shimano Curados and Chronarchs and will be selling off the BPS reels slowly as the budget allows. I have gone to Diawas exclusively. I own 1 Exceler, 4 Tatula Type R and my newest ones are 2 Tatula CTs. I really like how these reels cast. These reels have adjustable magnetic brakes. They also have a moving drum on the spool which adds non adjustable, automatic centrifugal breaking. The combination of the magnetic brakes and the moving drum on the spool make it easy to adjust without having to open a side plate at all. Just adjust the cast control and set the magnetic dial and your done. I chase bass, stripers and frequently catch large blue catfish and they will test a drag system.

Welcome to the site. make sure you stop in the introductions forum and say hi. Tell us about your favorite fishing opportunities. I sent you a pm. again welcome to the board.

I have owned 11 boats in 40+ years including two glitter rocketships. My biggest was a ProCraft 20 footer that had a 200 Mec. However, one of my favorite boats my wife and I fished out of was a 15 foot Polar Kraft stick steer boat. I had a 25 Merc on it in order to fish a hp restricted lake. We caught a ton of panfish, walleye, white perch, large and smallmouth bass, and more than enough catfish from it. Sometimes the simplicity of a flat metal,(no carpet) floor, and sitting inside the boat instead of on top of the boat is nice. The fact is you never move to operate the boat. You run the gas engine then stop, drop the trolling motor and fish. We even trolled for the walleye and white perch. Oh fresh water white perch was goooood eating! I rigged the boat with good electronics, removable fishing rod holders, a front Anchor Mate, a holder and 3 buoys etc. Nothing I needed was out of my easy reach. Here are some pics.

I have been a big G Loomis fan. I own almost a dozen GL2, Gl3, and IMX rods. Heck my wife still loves her old 97% graphite smallie rod ( a two piece 7 foot light action rod) that was top of the line before I purchased my duplicate rod in IM6. Man that was something when they first brought out that line of graphite LOL. Now I am no longer impressed. The rod blanks seem fine, it is the components and feel or the rod that quite frankly was passed by and left behind in the $150 to $300 price range. Are the NRX amazing absolutely but that is not the class or rods we are comparing.

All purpose would mean one of three rods in my opinion. First would be the Powell Max3D 683CEF I already sang it virtues. Go to the link I posted above for the Tackletour review of it. If I had to fish with only one rod that would be it. Now for full disclosure mine is a Powell Max not a Max3D. I spoke to Keith the owner of Powell rods and he assured me he Max3d plays very similar to my rod. My other suggestions would be a Dobyns Fury or Sierra 734C and the last would be an Irod Genesis II IRG 693C The Lone Star Special. He also has an IRG 733 that might be even nicer but I have never seen one.

Try a paddle tail grub or a Reaction Innovation Skinny Dipper and fish it slow. In deeper water a blade bait like a Cincy Fisher or Silver Buddy. Lastly fish a suspending jerkbait on say 6 or 8 pound test on a spinning rod. Crank it down and let it sit, then twitch it and pause again, give it pretty long pause and a quick twitch.

Start here. What body of water are you going to fish? What state is it in? I ask because some lakes and rivers run through more than one. Do you know which launch you will go out of? Knowing these answers I would start my research right on this site. Go down to the forum that covers your state and region the water is located in. Open that forum, for instance if the lake is in Tennessee I would do a search in Southeast Bass Fishing.. Use the search box to look through all of the posts about that river or lake. Then if I can identify somethings about the lake in April I write it down. Remember some parts of the country is having a mild winter and some are not so spring conditions will matter in fishing lure choices. Next I would make a post "Help Please can anyone here tell me about this lake or river in the spring". This will help a lot. Next go to the web and google the lake. I bet you will find lots of info about if a lake has largemouth only, smallies and or Kentucky spots. Lastly go to a website like Angling Technologies and view the lake. I learned a lot the first time I travelled to a Tennessee lake, just by viewing the lake. I learned where the bridges may be, where there were rock bluffs, where there was lots of downed wood. these help identify your lure choices. Your lure choices help decide your rod choices. The puzzle pieces begin to fit.

Personal preference but I buy from Amazon frequently. I always deal with the same 3 or 4 vendors there and I get pretty good deals on reels from there. I know I can trust them because I have dealt with them before and I look at the review and ratings.

Sorry a pm popped up at the same time I was typing my answer here. Sometimes I can confuse myself. Anyway, what did you want to throw with this new rod? Is it an all purpose rod, or a crankbait, rattle trap, spinnerbait rod, or is it more for jigs and worms. The answer to that question would require different rods.

I have own and fish both Irod Genesis II rods and Dobyns and so do some of my friends. Unfortunately I do not fish swimbaits but I can tell you both guys make really nice rods. It is a toss up between them. You can choose between a Dobyns Fury FR806SB and an Irod. They have at least 3 that should work. Look at the 794sb and 795sb rods.

The Powells and Irods are great too. I own some made by each of them.

There are reasons that make baitcasters better for certain applications and I noticed you did not mention any of them in your list of favorite baits. Think about crankbaits that dive deep, a properly geared baitcaster will be more efficient. I believe pitching and flipping or punching baits in heavy matted vegetation is another place baitcasters shine. Maybe these fishing techniques do not exist in your body of water. Sorta why I do not bring a heavy frog rod when I travel out to fish big deep clear water smallie lakes in Tennessee. I sure use it here in my home tidal rivers choked with lily pads and Hydrilla beds.

Hello Zeeter good to see you around. How is the boat doing? There is a new tackle shop on Old Padonia Road in Hunt Valley. Take 83N to the Padonia Rd exit and turn left at the light where the Irish Pub is. Then make a left at Old Padonia, they are located in one of the next little strip of stores on the left. It is called Anglers Express. They carry Dobyns, Duckett, Powell, Irod,and a bunch more. Dobyns makes a some really nice flipping sticks that range from $110 all the way up to $360 depending on the series. You would be choosing between the Champion lines. I own a Champion XP for frogging, if you wanted to get a feel for them we can meet and let you play with it. I liked it better than the G Loomis rods IMX rods that I own. Eric stocks a ton of gear and if he does not have that particular rod on hand he will get it fast. So far, since we met on here, I have picked up 3 new rods from him. He also carries the brands you will not find in BPS like Reaction Innovation, Picasso, and tons of others. If you go in make sure to ask to meet him. He fishes a tournament series that fishes the Loch Raven, Prettyboy and Liberty reservoirs. He catches HUGE bass in them, so ask him lots of questions. He is the man for those waters. If I was looking to fill your needs I would look at a Dobyns XP model DC 765Flip, or a DC 766Flip and also the Dobyns Champion Extreme HP series model DX 795 Flip.

My suggestion about the plate change was in reference to a situation I remember from the past where a specific new boat model was released with one max hp rating. The following year it was certified for use with a higher hp outboard. Sinced there were no changes structurally made to the hull they could reissue a new plate with the higher hp rating. I believe it was a Ranger that the new plate was issued for.

Ohio Bassin I live in MD and of course we have the Upper Chesapeake Bay/ Susquehanna Flats as well as the Potomac river and some smaller bodies of water. The club I belonged to was part of MD BASS. It had lots of bigger clubs that had large numbers of members in them. Our club was made up of about 10 boaters max and an equal number of non boaters. We liked it smaller so we did not try to get big. We also had maybe 7 boaters you could count on almost for every tournament. Since we had the small town feel we used the catch, measure, immediately release method or paper tournament. If you all trust the same brand fish scale you could go by weight. Anyway doing this meant we never held fish in the livewells, never took up a busy ramp or parking lot for a weigh in. MD had gone to needing permits for tournaments. We avoided all of the hassles. No one could tell we were anything more than a bunch of buddies going fishing that day. Just something to think about. A paper tournament cuts down a lot of work. Now we know it can not be done that way for bigger tournament organizations , but till you get big paper tourneys work out well. There is no cheating because the angler pairings are done by chance, picked out of a hat. By changing partners you actually get to learn more from each other. Just make sure to adhere to the major safety regs like all competitors must have life jackets on, zipped up and kill switch lanyards hooked up ANY time the gas engine is running! Good Luck this season.

Take a good look at the Abu Garcia Veritas rods. Again not the micro series but the regular guides. The blanks are pretty sensitive, and hold up pretty well. I have fished with a Veritas 7 foot MH for frogs. Mine is an original not the Veritas 2 that are on sale now. They actually have a specific frog rod now. That rod could double as a rod to pitch and flip with also. It lists as a 7'6" mh and should fit your needs well at $79. As for a swimbait rod there is a 7'9" heavy Veritas 2 that rates for baits ranging from 5/8 to 3 ounce baits. Since all Veritas rods run about 1/2 to 3/4 power heavier than they say, that rod would probably work fine. Otherwise I would look at a Dobyns Fury FR795SB rod. It lists for 1-5 ounce baits. If you need a rod for crankbaits, spinnerbaits, rattle traps etc and another for jig and texas rigs then take a look at the Berkley Lightning Shock rods. Right now you can get them for around $30 from Walmart or around $50 from places like Tackle Warehouse. Walmart only carries certain models at certain times. It is a crap shoot with them. During October thru December I chase stripers here on the Chesapeake Bay. As the bay temperatures cool the stripers enter the rivers where I can go chase them with my bass boat. I need to fish 4 rods with different rattle trap type lures to cover different water depths and to present different baits with different sounds. So you will find 2 high end rods (my regular crankbait rods that cost $160 each) and two Berkeley Shock rods. I catch just as many fish on the shocks as I do on the other rods. Consider getting a 6'6" medium rod. It is a great rod for fishing treble hook baits like crankbaits, rattle traps, and even reaction baits like spinnerbaits and chatterbaits. Consider a 7 foot MH for your jigs and texas rigs. As for reels I prefer the Diawas. For $100 you can get a Diawa Tatula CT shipped to your door from an online source. That is a very nice reel. That in an 8-1 would be awesome for your frog rod. As for your reel on your swimbait rod most guys go with the older round style reel for larger line capacity. Take a look at a reel like a Shimano Cardiff