fishnkamp

Steveo you are so right. I happily answer a lot of questions on here, but I also learn a ton from others on here too. That is exactly what we discussed when we first met. What makes it cool is we both fish some of the same places, and can share lots of wheres, how and whens on this board. However I could not tell if his reel was too old, too worn out or perfectly fine to rely on in its current condition. It is easy to tell someone else to go spend $1000 on new equipment.. It turned out that with just a little readjustment of his reel, and a little playing with it, I was throwing over 70 foot long casts. So even though his "old" reel was not a spiffy new one, it was fine to use, We determined which of his other rods met bass needs and which ones were better suited for his saltwater fishing. Instead of him thinking he might need two or three setups we determined he might want just one good medium action spinning combo for finesse baits and nothing more for now. You also can not tell the difference between a 7 foot medium power fast action rod that is best for bottom baits and one that is the same length but more moderate, thus better for treble baits, just by talking about it. At least I needed to "feel" it. I had the opportunity to have him hold and cast at least a dozen of mine that I use for different purposes. He will most likely upgrade some more equipment in the future, but his more pressing need was to go over what he could throw on each rod and how to prepare it. Again it was great to be able to help him identify a few lures, and matching hardware to put in his arsenal. I think I could have saved a lot of money in the past if someone would have focused me a little. It is tough when you walk in a great big tackle store and you get the urge to buy it all. I see Kentucky Lake is one of your favorites. Did you fish the TN or KY part. Unfortunately I have not fished it yet, it is a long list of to dos. Don't feel bad for me though. In the last 5 years I have spent a total of about 3 weeks on Dale Hollow Lake and a week on Center Hill. SOOOOO Many lakes SOOOO little time! LOL

Here are a couple of options. My first suggestion would be the most expensive, but it fishes much more like a $200 rod then a $100 rod. Look at a Dobyns 705CB. It specs as a 1/4 to 1 ounce lures. The lures suggested for this rod are crankbaits,jerkbaits, rattle traps, Sammys, spinnerbaits and squarebills. This rod sells for $110. Hopefully that is close enough to your budget. Maybe Tackle Warehouse will have a black Friday sale and then I would jump on it. All Dobyns rods are well made, balance well and have good components. They are really light too. My other suggestion is to get a Falcon Bucoo Trap Caster. It is a 7 foot medium heavy rod and rates for 1/4 to 3/4 ounce baits. They suggest the rod works well throwing buzz baits, crankbaits, rattle traps, spinnerbaits. I own the same rod in their Bucoo Micro series, which runs a little more money. You can go to this link and get a Falcon Bucoo ( the model with standard guides) for $99.00 and they offer free shipping. Pick the BCC-5-17 7 MH Trap Caster for $99. I catch bass, stripers, and sometimes big blue cats. I think this rod would do what you want for a decent price. Go here: http://www.*.com/Falcon-Rods-Bucoo-p/falconrods-bucoo.htm.

This is a simple question to answer. I always suggest finding a new Daiwa Exceler ($70) or Daiwa Tatula ( for around $100) and pick any Dobyns Fury rod. These run $110. It all just depends which model Fury they want. If this is for someone buying their first baitcaster then I suggest the most versatile rod for them is a Fury 704C although the FR 703C is a close second.

Alright lets get down to it. If your spinning rod is a 6'6 to 7" medium fast action ( 1/8 to 1/2 or 5/8, then you have the finesse world covered at least well enough. If not, then look at getting one that will. Here arefour rod suggestions each from different price categories 1 Berkley Lightning Shock rod either 6'6 or 7 foot medium This retails for $49 but can often be purchased online for less. 2.Dicks Sporting Goods sells a 6'6" Quantum Escalade rod for $100 but is on sale for $50. 3 Dobyns sells their Fury series rods for $110. Look at a Fury FR 703SF. Powell sells their Inferno 6103 MEF for $99 4 St Croix Avid X 6'8" medium This sells for $200 Since I read what you said about your Mojo Bass baitcasting rod being too light for your spinnerbaits, then I assume it is a more moderate rod like the 6'8 medium model( I am guessing.) The next rod to complement that rod would be one of these: 1 Dobyns FR 734C 7 foot 3 inches heavy power- fast action rod. It specs 1/4 to 1 ounce, This rod should throw your spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, some topwaters like Zara Spooks, jigs, buzzbaits etc. It again runs $110. 2 Powell Max3D 683CEF. I own the original rod with these specs. It is a super versatile rod. It runs $159 3 Powell Max3D 734CEF This rod is sorta like the swiss army knife it is a great bottom contact rod but works a spinnerbait or even a Zara Spook or small to mid sized swim bait. Now that would give you a good 3 rod arsenal, that is what to cast with, now on to the lures to cast on each. Here is why I asked so many questions. See I have to have gear to fish fresh water lakes (big like 60 miles long, small like local ponds and lakes that your boat and a trolling motor can cover, and then large tidal rivers like those on the Chesapeake Bay. These include the Susquehanna River, and The Susquehanna Flats, Middle River and the Potomac River. All of these are so different. You are concentration mostly on small to mid sized lakes,so your tackle choices can be more basic. On my spinning I would fish lures like the small topwaters, Mepps Spinners, 4 inch Rapala floating/diving minnow baits in silver with black back, silver with blue back back, gold and black. Own some 1/4,1/2,and 3/4 ounce rattle trap baits, Bill Lewis Rattle Traps are good but so are the Red Eye Shads. Go learn about the Z Man TRD Ned riggs. Learn about them and fish them. Also fish Senco style stick worms in all ways possible, unweighted tx rigged, unweighted wacky style as well as weighted both texas style and wacky weighted jig hooks. Go to Bass Pro. Find the Perfect Finesse Worm hooks. Fish all sots of plastics on these texas style hooks with the weight attached. We use these with Kalin 5 inch Lunker Grubs. Get them in watermelon red flake and bluegill colors. Find your favorite ring worms or small 4 finesse worms and fish these on the Perfect worm hooks. Small to mid sized creature baits and crawfish can also be fished that way. Next add some stand up shakeyhead jigs. Fish some of these same baits as well as the straight tailed worms like Z Man sells for shakeyhead fishing.. What I have said is a few different pieces of hardware that will let you fish the same baits many different ways. On your current baitcaster you can throw the 1/2 and 3 /4 rattle traps, small to mid size diving crankbaits and small 1/8 to 1/4 ounce spinnerbaits. Get some Reaction Innovation Skinny Dippers or Keitech swimbaits. Throw these on lightly belly weighted swimbait hooks. For deeper water throw them on some of the 3/8 to 1/2 ounce swimbait jig heads (these look like a fish;s head). This rod will not be ideal but should throw some mid sized jerkbaits. Say 3 to 5 inches or up to about 5/8 maybe. Lastly if you get this heavier rod, then I would fish 3/8 to 3/4 ounce spinnerbaits ,jigs with crawfish trailers, heavier plastics both on carolina rigs and texas rigged, This rod should throw topwater walking baits, chatterbaits , and lots of other baits. Good Luck let us know what you get and how it works out.

Tom it was a pleasure to meet you. I can not wait till I get well enough to go fish again. There will be an invitation to fish coming as soon as possible.

I like the Powell, in fact one of my favorite rods I fish with is an original Powell Max 683CEF which is the most versatile rod I own, However the Furys are a bit nicer than the Inferno series. I just like the balance and feel. Either way you can not make a wrong choice.

How far from Southaven Mississippi are you? There is a Sportsman Warehouse there. The website says they have that Fury in stock in their system Call them up and see if it is in stock in that store. 662-349-5500. If it is not in stock, I bet they would order it in for you to see.

They are a bit prettier! LOL I do not think so. I have never had a problem with any of our Presidents and my wife and I own around 7 or 8, some are newer and some have been fished for around 10 years. It is the most reliable reel for the money. If you are interested in something with a bit bigger retrieve ipt then look at an Okuma RTX30. They are a composite framed reel, feel really smooth and are super light. I purchased one in part because I played with one my friend owned. I wanted something to match up on a super light fineses spinning rod for Sencos and real light texas rigs.

The 25 is okay but here is another option. First let me say after years and years of using other reels I have settled on Pflueger Presidents for my wife and I. We own around 7 or 8 of them and all function flawlessly. Some are almost new and some have at least 10 years of fishing time on them. We fish with 6925, 30. 35, and 40 models, so I can tell you from real life experience. I recently picked up a new finesse spinning rod. It is a 6'6 medium power fast tipped, rod similar to the St Croix Avid X 6'8' medium xf rod. I really wanted that one but sometimes the budget gets in the way, oh well! Anyway, my friend Bryan has one of those St CRoix Avid Xs and he matched it up with an Okuma RTX 30. This reel has a composite body. It is super light, super smooth reel and has a larger IPT than my Pfluegers. Check it out. I played with his, liked it and found one online for around $70. I like mine a lot. I set this rod combo up to do exactly what you want. I rely on my friend to field test his equipment for me. He fishes at least 4 times a week and catches really big bass, big stripers and big snakeheads. If it can last a year for him, it will last 10 years for us, LOL

Hey Robert Riley thanks for answering from the horses mouth. My friend Kris and I belong to this and another web board. I new the sponsor of the other board loved the Dobyns products. He even runs a Dobyns' forum. What was really cool was Kris asked him about the Fury 765 rod. because he wanted one. The owner of the board answered him, and we expected that. We did not expect the very next response, it was from Gary Dobyns himself. He answered my friend's question and gave some interesting background about that particular rod. And yes he explained about the slightly softer tip on the Fury. Wow to get that kind of information from the owners is cool in my opinion. I have had interesting conversations and help from Dobyns, Powell and Irod in the past. They truly do not mind personally answering your questions on the phone. Bu the way we both kinda like Kris;s new 765Flip. If my darn boat could fit it in the darn rod box my dealer would have lost the other one from his inventory the same day. I am stuck with 7 footers only. Too bad!

Here is my suggestion. Go put a Berkley Lightning Shock rod in the 7 foot medium light in your hand. Sometimes you can find one at Walmart, but if not go online. The rod costs $50 from Tackle Warehouse, but often can be found cheaper. I have two of the Med mod 6'6" casting and my wife owns 1 6'6" spinning. We use them for treble hook baits. We both have used them to catch bass and stripers and unintentionally big blue catfish. Another good suggestion for that exact purpose that i own and like is from Dicks Sporting Goods. Go online and look at a Quantum Escalade 6'6 medium power. It is basically a fast action rod. It specs for 6-12 pound line and lures weighing 1/8 to 1/4. That is a misprint in my experience. I regularly throw baits up to 1/2 ounce. It is a great finesse rod. It sells for $100, but is on sale for $50 Match either rod with a Pflueger President 6930 or 6935 for $60. I found a deal on an Okuma RTX30 for $75.That reel is a very light reel with a higher gear ratio. Either of these reels will give you a great combo.

My favorite combination for my finesse spinning arrangement is Berkley Original FireLine braid in 14 pound test. That is the diameter of most 6 pound monos. The stuff plays terrific on a spinning reel. To that I attach a 4 foot leader of P Line CXX in 10 pound test. The stuff is super tough and works great. You could also drop down to 8 pound Halo instead. This is the exact combination my guide on Dale Hollow had my wife and I use during our week of vacation, back in April. We lived and died with that little bait because we caught the big females hanging out in big grass flats several days post spawn. They were in terribly foul moods and would not eat anything!! We fished the 1/10 ounce shroomz heads and the california craw bodies. The big smallies were located back on main lake deep grass flats say 10 to 20 fow. Every smallie we caught was at least 4 pounds any many weighed over 6. I would agree it is a big fish bait. I look at it like you just finished the big Thanksgiving turkey dinner and you feel bloated, but if someone offers you a dinner mint or a Hershey Chocolate Kiss, YOU WILL EAT IT ANY WAY!!! Try this line combo I think you will like how it plays. They all looked kinda like this one.

My wife can handle a flyrod beautifully. She handles any spinning rod fine, but hates baitcasters. So I have had to seek spinning rods that would handle some unusual situations that most of us would use a baitcaster to solve, I even had to find the perfect spinning rood to handle frog fishing. That turned out to be a special rod from Irod. Her favorite solution to fish any treble hooked bait is the Berkley Lightning Shock rod, She throws a bunch of Rattletraps, Red Eye Shads, Booya's, and all of her shallow to mid depth crankbaits. The rod has held up to some good bass and a slew of stripers as ell as some big blue cats. She uses the 6'6" medium but you could use the 7 foot medium rod. I use two of these 7 foot casting rods as well. I know the rod sells for around $50, but can be found online for about $25. Match this with a 6935 Pflueger President for around $60

Here is my two cents. I use a lot of braid with a leader made of 10 pound P Line CXX copoly, about 4 foot long. I do not think it is that necessary in stained water, but I do it more because i am confident that line will break around 22 pounds, If I need to break off I can still do it and not loose a lot of expensive braid. I fish off color tidal water here at home, clear rivers around here as well, and then I go to Tennessee/ Kentucky and fish those super deep, clear. big impoundment lakes (like 60 miles long) like Dale Hollow and Center Hill. I do not like changing my gear around for every different situation. It might not be ideal, but I would still do it this way and am successful. For a single trip I would try a leader of P line or even Trilene XT if you have some. Try something like 14 or 17 pound XT, which is always available at Walmart. If you fish it and you are having trouble cut the leader off and fish it tied direct. See if it makes a difference I doubt it will.

What type of water do you fish? Are they small streams or rivers, local ponds, big lakes or major rivers, or even like me, big tidal water like the Potomac River and upper chesapeake Bay. Do you fish from a boat or shore. What type of lures do you enjoy fishing? What lures would you like to fish that your current rod does not do well. You have a nice Lews reel and a Mojo Bass series rod that works as a good all purpose rod. That is great. Tell me what model the rod is. Do you own a good spinning rod and reel combo. I own way too much gear, but if I had to start over I would use a 3 or 4 rod strategy. My first rod would be an all purpose spinning rod. Something like a 6'6" to 7' medium power fast action tipped rod. It would spec as a 1/8 to 3/4. I would throw all of my plastics likes worms, creature baits, crawfish etc. either weightless or as lightly weighted texas rigs on this rod. Lures like Mepps spinners, small topwaters like Pop Rs, tiny torpedos, jitterbugs etc as well as floating/ diving minnow baits like the Original Rapala minnow would be thrown on this rod. I would also throw tubes, grubs, Sencos and Ned rigs on this one. My second rod would be a 6'6 to 7' medium power moderate action baitcaster. If you bend the top of this rod it would easily bend down past the 4th guide. This rod throws all of my treble hooked lures like RattleTraps, crankbaits, chatterbaits and spinnerbaits. My third rod would be a 6'6" to 7'3" medium, heavy fast action rod, so it is definitely stiffer in action. This is my jig rod. I would throw any jig above 5/16 with a plastic trailer on this rod, as well as all of my plastics rigged up with a 5/16 or larger weight, so all of my texas rigs and carolina riggs and lots more, If I was using my 4 rod approach I would drop my original spinning rod choice in favor of a two spinning rod approach. The first would be a 6'6 to 7' medium light fast action 1/16 to 5/16 rod and the second would be a 6'8 or 6'9" medium power fast action 1/8 to 5/8 rod. These two would handle all of the same baits as the first spinning rod but would handle the lighter baits better. If the water I fished was all matted grass or lily pads then I would own one spinning rod and my 4th rod would be a big flipping, pitching, frog rod. If I fished over lots of submerged grass beds I would consider a really nice rattle trap, spinnerbait rod. These two strategies of course requires lots of money. If I was not going to spend that or if I fished from shore then 4 rods is too much to deal with, My choice would be one good all purpose medium heavy baitcaster and one good medium spinning rod. These combos are just tools. When I go to work with my tools I have screwdrivers, wrenches, sockets and hammers. I look at the job to determine the tool that will do it best. Look at fishing the same way. Pay lots of attention to the places you fish and what lures you want to be able to fish, that will help you decide what rod combo will fit your needs next.

Those rods have been really nice and at one time G Loomis's and Legend Extremes were way out in front in many anglers minds. The St Croix rods are every bit as good as before, I just think others have caught up over time. Certainly G Loomis is not building rods the same as before Shimano bought into them. Gary Dobyns has a large group of anglers very loyal to his Dobyns Champion XP series and his Champion Extreme HP series. These sell for $230 to $290 for the XPs and $330 to $360 for his top of the line offering. He offers a rod with that spec in a 7 foot and a 7"4 version, I have spoken with Gary before. He is a great guy, so go look at his website then give him a call and talk fishing rods before you make up your mind. One small, but really nice thing also, is they offer many of their rods in both split handles and full cork handles. On the Legend Extremes you have to accept the handle material they use and it is a split grip only.

Take a look at several options from Dobyns. First i would automatically suggest their Fury series FR 765Flip. It speaks for itself. Go to Dobyns rods and check that one out. It is a nice stick for $110. It will feel and fish more like a $200 rod. Next if you want a rod a bit shorter than check out the Fury FR735c Mag hvy. Both rods balance well and feel great, have good components and are affordable. lastly I would say a Falcon Bucoo 7'3Hvy. It is sometimes referred to as the Amistad rod. This rod is about the same $110. It is available in a standard and a micro guide series.

No it should be fine. Most anglers flip and pitch with a rod around that power and action and almost always use 50 to 65 pound braid to cut the vegetation or get the fish out of hard cover as well.

Match it with a President model 6930. That will fit it fine and will work fine with any 6 - 10 pound line. I use one for fishing Ned rigs and unweighted plastics. I have landed some large smallies ( up to 7 pounds ) on mine. I do not fish Ned rigs or finesse worms in heavy vegetation, but more on open structure. you certainly will be fine fishing one for river smallies.

You could consider a Abu Garcia Vendetta MODEL # VDTS662-5. It specs for baits weighing 1/8 to 1/2. It is a 2 piece 6'6 medium rod selling for around $79.95 but maybe available a little cheaper online with a little searching. I would match it up with a Pflueger President in a 6930 size. They also have a 6'9"medium light rod in two pieces. it is a model # VDTS692-4.It also cost the same about $80. Gander Mountain carries them as well as Cabellas. Cabellas also carries a 6'6 ml in their Eagle 50 series.

Forgive my ignorance, but why do you dislike the more current models. The newer boats seem to be just as loved by those that own them? Lund owners seem to be really brand loyal.

Hey a Mico Anchor might work well on that BIG rig

I own and love my Loomis 721 and 722 IMX rods. For casting around cover, docks, rocks, rip rap etc I love them, but if you are looking for longer distance with something that light go to a 6'9" all the way to a 7'3 rod. I like my G Loomis SR-843-2. That rod I own and love mostly for drop shotting, but you could easily throw those light minnow type baits. It specs as 7' for 1/8 to 3/8. Dobyns makes 4 rods, in just the Sierra series alone, to look at depending on your preference. Check out a SA 692SF and the SA693SF rods as well as the SA700SF and the SA701SF. St Croix has the Avid X AXS68MFX or AXS69MLXF, and the AXS70MLF and the AXS70MF. All of these should work better than the 6 footer for distance. Line will make a ton of difference. One option is to go to a small diameter line like a Berkley FireLine in a 8 pound test which is only .007 or 10 pound test which is about the size of 8 pound Stren mono. i would then run a 3 foot leader like P Line Halo fluorocarbon. I think you would be happy with it. Another option would be to go with P Line FloroClear in 8 or 10 pound test.

Honestly if you are talking about throwing the Lucky Craft KJ Flat Series crankbait they are 21/4 inches long - weighing 1/4 ounce and 21/2 inches long weighing 3/8 of an ounce. That is like throwing a Rapala original floating/diving minnow or a Bill Lewis Rattle Trap in the 1/4 ounce. These baits do not fish well on baitcasters. I would look at a rod like a Dobyns Sierra SA703SF. That rod matched with something like a Pflueger 6930 or 35, or maybe an Okuma RTX30, that reel is super light and has a pretty fast gear ratio. I know today it is "popular" to fish baitcasters mostly. There is a place in the arsenal for 2 good spinning outfits. One is a 6'6 to 7' medium light fast or extra fast tipped rod covering 1/16 to 5/16 or 3/8. The second is a 6'8 to 7'1" medium fast tipped rod covering that 3/16 to 5/8 ounce baits. The ML rod covers things like Ned Rigs, weightless worms, finesse carolina rigs ( worms and creature baits with only a split shot and a barrel swivel with say a 3 foot leader). This rod often does drop shots as well. The second rod handles things like super light crank baits and minnow baits, light shakey head worms, grubs, tubes, Texas rigged worms up to 3/8 ounce as well as weighted wacky rigged Sencos and also light belly weighted swimbaits like Reaction Innovations Skinny Dippers, or Keitech swimbaits. That is how I would approach those baits I layed out. Watch some of Aaron Martens videos. He probably uses a spinning rod more than most pros do, and he wins with it too.

that 683 would be super. I own a Powell MAX 683CEF and love it. The Dobyns will have a tiny bit lighter tip but should be terrific.