fishnkamp

If keeping both is an option I would do it. Fill one with some mono backing and 30 pound braid and maybe a leader as well. This would be very good for bottom contact baits, jigs, worms, creature baits etc. Take the other and fill that reel with either mono or a copoly line. This would work better to fish crankbaits, rattle traps, top waters etc. Whichever rod bends further down the blank I would load it with the mono or Copoly line.

St Croix Avid and Axid x both cost right at $200. What do you want to do with this rod. You need to look at this totally different. Are you looking to fish lightweight baits like unweighted worms Senkos, and to throw baits like light weight texas rigs, drop shots or shakeyhead baits then a medium light or medium spinning rod might be your best choice. If you want to throw heavier texas rigs, carolina rigs, jigs etc a medium heavy fast action rod would be best. To throw baits with treble hooks like small to mid size cranks and rattle traps you probably want a rod somewhere between 6'6' and 7 foot with a medium power rating and with a moderate taper to keep your fish hooked. Rods for techniques like frogs and heavy jigs in heavy grass, lily pads etc take a different rod all together. So first pick your budget, next the type of baits you want to use on the rod and then that will help you pick a rod series and a specific model,. The St Croix Mojo Bass is the next series below the Avid and Avid X rods. They make almost the exact individual rod models in each series.

There is no way I would do anything upfront except make it a storage area. I would remove its seat all together and turn it into a closed storage area with a door on the vertical surface. Build around the original bench Now I would put in a flat floor from your rear bench/ seat area to the front storage area. I would remove the middle bench. Somewhere between the middle bench and the front deck I would mount that adjustable seat post made by Swivel Eze. The fact that the base to that seat will be lower down on a flat floor and a bit further back from the front V will help some with being less tippy feeling. I would move dad's seat back a foot or foot and a half, just enough that he can sit comfortably, without being too close to the front deck getting in the way of casting, and not too close to your seat and getting in your way when you are casting. I would leave your seat centered, again for balance. Before you do too much rebuilding do some testing. Take out the middle bench.. Splash the boat at the ramp with say 10 foot long lines tied to the dock ( I want to do some testing with the boat floating but not far away from the dock). Have dad or someone younger with you. Have them sit in your seat in the back. I want you to sit on a bucket turned upside down. Move the bucket forward and backward to see where you fit best and see how moving it changes the stability of the boat. Maybe you could even temporarily install a several of 2x3's running side to side and a piece of plywood cut to size and nailed to them to mock up a flat floor. That is how I would begin to mock up the floor plan. You want the floor to be flat on the sides and supported along the center so how the boards underneath will take some playing with.

Again, I am like the others unsure what your question is, but let me ask you a couple What does the Black Max Next Generation (6.5 ft) say it is rated as? Is it a 8.5 ft medium action, medium heavy action etc? Does it say it is designed for 1/8 to 5/8 ounce lures or 1/4 to 3/4 or something else? These ratings help tell you what the rod weight lures it was designed to throw well. Same questions for the Cabelas rod. Is it rated as a medium light,medium, medium heavy or what? What are its lure ratings. Knowing these we may be able to suggest what each rod might do well. I have lots of rods some are the same size but one is more limber and thus able to work lures like crankbaits and another is much stiffer and has a quicker tip. It is much better to handle worms and creature baits, anything I crawl on the bottom.

That is cool, you will have a well built arsenal with different rods that compliment each other, covering all different techniques. Add in the one medium spinning rod and you will have it all covered. Depending on the water conditions you can choose what you take with you that day. Realize I say you will have it all covered, as I stand on top of a rod locker containing 15 rods! LOL

You will love that rod. This spring my wife and I fished Dale Hollow and we were throwing 1/10 ounce Ned Rigs in 10 to 20 foot grass flats. We fish two G Loomis SJR 721s but threw grubs on a pair of SJR 722s. These are the 6 foot version with the same specs. You will love that rod. The average smallie we landed was 6 pounds and Linda actually landed a 6 1/2 pound catfish on her 721, a 1/16 to 5/16 rated rod. I loved watching her run from the back deck to the front deck and back again for about 10 minutes! LOL I regularly use my 722 for shakey heads and it will handle the dropshots as well.

Thankfully custom rod builders can give you everything you want still. The OPs rod can be redesigned and a nicer reel seat and any style grips can be chosen for a minimal amount of money. I just did these changes to two G Loomis rods of my own. One was a "no questions asked" warranty replacement of an IMX SJR 721. The factory has begun using an all plastic reel seat and nut setup. It would allow the reel to loosen up all of the time. My old rods had been built using the all metal reel seat and nut setup that never gave me trouble in the past. My custom rod builder stripped the entire full cork handle, the reel seat and the cork fore grip. In its place we chose an American tackle Comfort seat and a set of split grips along with a fore grip, all from Winn. I have come to really like fishing with the feel the Winn grips give you and since we chose the "natural" color it still looks kinda like cork. The rod is lighter, it is better balanced and feels so much better than it originally did. I had him redo the other G Loomis rod that had the "all metal reel seat" setup that I had always liked. Today the OP could have a custom rod builder strip his rod and build it up with any reel seat he likes, and choose a full handle and choose between a couple of different length fore grips. He can choose a full handle and fore grip made of either high quality cork, high density eva or a set of grips from Winn. All of this can be done fairly reasonably economically. DEEP you live in VA. My rod builder lives in MD and does a lot of work for guys in MD, VA, and DE. Check out Toms Custom Rods he can fix you right up. http://www.tomscustomrods.com/custom-rods-galley Good Luck

One important thing not mentioned here yet is this. You never mentioned what you picked up, meaning rod and reel and I do not care what brand. Take a look at your rod. What weight lure range does it say, perhaps 1/4 to 3/4 or 1/8 to 5/8. When you first start learning to cast try using a lead weight that falls into the middle of the rods weight range. So if it is a 1/4 to 3/4 I would choose a 1/2 ounce weight. If it is a 1/8 to 5/8 I would choose a 3/8 ounce lead weight. An experienced caster could throw a 1/8 ounce weight but it will frustrate you as you are just learning. The other thing is lead weights are cheap. So if you snap one off it costs very little. Go to your local tackle shop and pick up a half dozen or so. If they are bullet style you can always use them with some plastic worms later, so no money is wasted. Just thread the weight on and tie a nice knot so it stays there. It takes a bit of learning but it is well worth it in the long run. Good Luck

When you replace them replace them with the same batteries and consider selecting some AGM batteries. They allow you to use more of the charge and still get good results. Also if you can find room on your boat look at an onboard smart charger designed to charge agms. Select a 10/10 charger, one that supplies a total of 10 amps to each battery. They will give much better service life doing it this way

For the money take a look at the Irod Genesis II Gabes Rip Rap special. I use that rod for exactly what you want to do. It retails around $155. The Irods are really nice. So far my biggest fish caught on it was a 31 inch striper and a 18 pound blue cat. I fish a lot of small to mid sized cranks and rattle traps.

win300mag1 I made that change about 5 years ago after fishing with a professional FLW angler named Craig Powers. My wife and I hired him as a guide for 2 days while vacationing on Center Hill in Tennessee. Here is how I save money at the same time I fish with the exact main line I want. I usually have a dozen rods on board my boat so here is how it works for me. First i would suggest you get a Berkley Line Winder, it is a $20 tool available at Cabelas and lots of other places. Anyway that is a tool that holds your reel secure and holds your bulk line spool under tension. Get yourself a 330 yard or larger spool of Stren Original Clear Blue mono in 14 pound test. It will cost about $8 or a 1200 yard spool of Bass Pro Excel 14 pound test. It will cost $11. I prefill 1/2 of the reel with the mono. Make sure you get a nice tight arbor knot tied on with the mono. Now a 150 yard spool of 30 pound Power Pro Spectra braid will cost $15 From Tackle Warehouse.You can use any braid or Fluoro you choose I am just using it as an example, but I use a lot of that line anyway. Using my method you can fill at least 2 reels with that bulk spool. This cuts the cost of filling a reel in half. If you buy the braid in a 330 yard spool then it gets a little cheaper, The mono costs less than $3.00 per reel and the braid around $7.50 per reel. It saves even more when spooling with any high end Fluorocarbon line.Use either the FG or Double Uni knot or any of the other good quality knots mentioned here before my posting. Use it to attach the mono to braid and the braid to floro or copoly leader. I like P Line 10 pound CXX moss green for leader material. It is a copoly line with good abrasion resistance and breaks closer to 20 pounds.

Do yourself a favor. Get yourself a 330 yard spool of Stren Original Clear Blue mono in 14 pound test. It will cost you $8.00. Another great option is a 1200 yard spool of 14 pound Bass Pro Excel for $11. Now if you do not have one, get a Berkley Line Winder. It costs $20 from Cabelas and lots of other places. Look here http://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-line/line-winders-strippers-tools|/pc/104793480/c/104719680/sc/103939380/berkley-reg-line-winder/1729189.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fline-winders-strippers-tools%2F_%2FN-1100388%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103939380 It allows you to securely hold your reel in place and hold your bulk spool of line under tension. Now all you need to do is make sure the line goes on the reel nice and smooth. Make sure you tie a good tight arbor knot. Check youtube to review this knot. Make sure after you tie it, the line can not slip on the reels spool. That is the problem you are experiencing now. Once you fill your reel half way with the mono you can fill the reel up the rest of the way up with the braid or fluorocarbon you had to remove from it. Use a uni to uni knot or a "FG"knot. .See Youtube to learn these knots. This should take care of the problems you are suffering with. Also when you use the Berkley Line Winder make sure you put the bulk spool on the arm so that the line comes off the top of the spool for a baitcaster. Install it on the arm so the line comes off the bottom when spooling a spinning reel. I use the same mono backing regardless what the reel is, either spinning or baitcaster. You can cut the cost to spool a reel a bunch. One half of a reel of mono costs less than $3.00. A $15 spool of Power Pro Spectra braid can now fill more than 2 reels. This saves me money using braid but really saves money when using super expensive fluorocarbon.

Very Pretty Congrats.

new2BC4bass they are on sale right now at Dicks. I have had the 7 ft MH baitcaster for three years now and love it for bottom contact stuff, it rates 1/4 to 1 1/4. I just purchased a 6'6" medium spinning rod last Friday. It was on sale at Dicks here in White Marsh MD. They only had a total of 5 rods in stock ( both spinning and baitcasting). It cost $49 on sale, its regular price is $99. Go to different Dicks Sporting Goods stores or call around. I saw it was advertised as on sale on the website then checked with two stores to locate the one I wanted.

Here is a little more things I have learned over 40 + years of fishing and11 boats. Man am I lucky to have a wife that got addicted to smallmouth bass back when she was only my girlfriend! Anyway it is super important on a baitcaster to get tie a tight arbor knot. If you allow that knot (the knot you tie your fishing line to the reel) to slip the brake system will not work. You will have a terrible time casting so search " tieing arbor knot" on youtube. Also learn the Double UNI knot, it is used to tie mono to braid, braid and fluoro etc. The two other knots worth learning are the Palomar knot and he Trilene Knot, both are used to tie a lure on and both create a strong knot. For the last 15 years I have used a tool from Berkley called a line Winder. It cost $20 and is available from Cabelas, Bass Pro and many other places. It holds both spinning and baitcasting reels securely. AT the same time you can load your spool of line and hold it under tension so all you have to do is pay attention and fill a reel nice and smoothly. This also helps when learning how to cast. Make sure you stop putting line on the reel when there is about 1/8 of the spool left unfilled. Too much line is as bad as too little. Good Luck and let us know how it is going. Here is a link to the tool I spoke of. http://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-line/line-winders-strippers-tools|/pc/104793480/c/104719680/sc/103939380/berkley-reg-line-winder/1729189.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fline-winders-strippers-tools%2F_%2FN-1100388%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103939380

My wife and I own and fish three Berkley Lightning Shock rods, my two are 6'6" medium moderate tipped rods. Hers is a 6'6" medium moderate spinning rod. We fish with 6 Pflueger Presidents. So I can speak about them with experience. I would highly recommend the Berkley Lightning Shock rod in a 6'6" Medium and match it up with the Pflueger President in a 6930 or 6935. You will never need to "Upgrade" that combo. We regularly use these reels and some of our Presidents are less than a year old and some are over 10 years old.I have never touched any of them other than to spray them off occasionally since we fish for bass and stripers here on the Chesapeake Bay and its tidal tributaries. The rod's moderate taper is great if you are either fishing baits with trebles like crankbaits, rattletraps, and even spinnerbaits.It would also work well for live bait situations. If you are looking to fish more bottom bouncing baits like plastic worms and creature baits I would suggest the 7 foot MH rod which has a stifferfast action tip. In my arsenal of 15 rods of my own and 9 for her there are some $300 G loomis rods but these Lightning hock rods go out and get used all of the time. To date the largest two fish caught on one if thee rods is a 31 inch rock and an 18 pound catfish, so yes they will catch big fish. Yesterday i noticed in one Walmart these rods were selling for around $43 and at a second one I found them being sold "on clearance" for around $29. Each store had a diferent price and inventory so look around at a few WalMarts for a deal on them. You can easily pick up a Pflueger President for $60. Do not just wander in and pick it up. Go in and buy a jig or a pack of gum. Come home and go online to fill out the survey on the back of your reciept. This will give you a chance to print out a $10 coupon. Take it and return to Dicks and purchase that reel and save with you discount coupon.

I fish a lot of FloroClear on my baitcaster but have changed over all of my spinning reels to Berkley Original FireLine in14 pound test,, If I am fishing really clear water I run a leader made of 10 pound P Line CXX in moss green. ll three rods I have the floroClear are moderate tapered rods so maybe that helps to protect the line some. I always use either a palomar knot or a trilene knot so it has never lost me a fish. If you compare P lines remember 10 pond CXX is a hard line so it has more abrasion resistance, more memory and breaks at something close to 20 pounds.

Well obviously you are not a fan of the Enigmas all black look. One thing the Enigma rod does offer is the MicroWave guids which many anglers have never cast. Doug Hannon, the Bass Professor, actually designed them to make the line straighten out and cast further. I have several friends fishing custom built rods with those guides and all reports say they work well. The Aetos are well made rods and people on here are excited because they are clearing out last years rods at a discount. You are actually getting a rod that last month sold for $179 for $95 dollars. I think you would be best off to get one directly from Fenwick at their discounted price. If you can find a local shop to put your paws on one to test I think you may be wise to handle one in person first. I did so with some of their spinning rods and I felt the mediums felt a little more like medium lite so when I was looking for a 6'8 to 7 foot medium I would have needed to go to a MH for a drop shot/ weighted senco rod. I can not tell you if it is true in the casting rods but try to check personally if possible.

Answer this question. If you walked into a fishing store and there were rods that cost $50 or less in one aisle, and the next aisle had rods from $60 to $99 and the third had rods that cost $105 to $160 dollars which isle would you be shopping in. If the answer is isle one then here is my best advice. Go to your local walmart and pick up a Berkley Lightning Shock rod. I would look at both the 6'6" M and the 7 foot MH rod. If you want to keep 2 of your reels that is not a bad way to go, if not if I was choosing only one I would go for the 7 footer. Now these rods were in my Walmart two days ago on clearance for $30 down from over $40. Each store seems to have different inventory at different prices so you might have to shop around. My wife and I own three of these rods Next I would stop in your local Dicks Sporting Goods and look at a Quantum Escalade, it is one of my favorites and I fish with all sorts of rods, some costing over $300. They have a 7 foot 1/4 to1 1/4 MH rod. One 6'6" medium Lightning Shock rod would cover rattletraps, crankbaits and even spinnerbaits. The Quantum is a mh fast tapered rod so it is better for texas rigs, carolina rigs, creature baits etc. This rod is on sale for $49. It regularly sells for $100. If you are going shopping in aisle one, these two fit the bill well. It sounds like this would fit your budget and needs. They would cover different needs and compliment each other in your arsenal without spending a fortune. My next suggestion is to add a 6'6" to a 6'10' medium action spinning rod to throw really small or lightweight finesse baits like 1/4 ounce texas rigged baits or weightless Sencos, drop shots and Ned Rigs( they have 1/10 ounce jig heads) You may already have one, if not that would be your next best rig to save up for. Consider a Pflueger 6930 spinning reel to go along with it. If aisle two is you pick look at Gander Mountain. They sell a series called the Gander Mountain Tournament Casting Rod. It sells for $79 dollars and is very well built. They have those rods in a 6'6" Medium, a 7 foot Medium, and a 7 foot MH very similar to the Escalade. Any of these rods are worth the money for sure. Bass Pro has its carbonLite rod on sale somewhere near this price I think also. Aisle three I would send you off to look at a Dobyns, Powell, St Croix or even a Shimano, but I do not think this is what you re looking for. One thing you failed to mention was specs for the reels. What gear ratios are they? Hopefully the SilverMax and Z Max are around 6.3 to 1. If so i think those two are your best reels. I would play around with the Pinnacle but I think you will like the other two best. Let's say you go with my idea and keep the two Abu reels. I would match them to a 6'6" medium Shock rod and a 7 foot MH Escalade. Here is what I would do to match lines to them for its purpose. I would buy a spool of Stren Original Clear blue 14 pound mono. It costs about $9 for a 330 yard spool. Mono is the cheapest line so we will use it to save money. Let's start by matching the SilverMax to the 6'6"M Berkley Lightning Shock rod (You will have to decide which reel feels best on each rod, but I would prefer to have the faster gear ratio on the Shock rod). I would fill that reel with the 14 pound test mono. The reel I put on the Escalade I would fill the reel up halfway with the mono and then fill it up the rest with Power Pro Spectra braid in 30 pound test. A spool of that braid will cost $15 for 150 yards. Since you spooled it up with the mono backing you only need 1/2 as much line so that 150 yard spool will fill more than one reel thus cutting he cost to fill a reel in half. If you fish a technique that you want to use a leader on the braid then get a spool of ten pound test P Line CXX in moss green. I use that exact setup all of the time. Now the mono will work well on the crankbaits, spinner baits, rattle traps etc. The braid will work well with the bottom contact stuff. I know I wrote a book and most of it only applies if it fits in your budget, but it would set you up with some well designed combos relatively economically. I know the rods I suggested work for the purpose I suggested because they exist right here in my tackle room as I type this. Eventually if you can upgrade your equipment, all you would have to do is purchase some higher end reels and these rods will still be worth fishing.

I would make one out of plywood, paint it several times and then carpet it. Just make it a little bigger than the existing pan and screw it down to the deck Make it easy and mount your pedal on it before you mount the whole thing down.

Forget the really light lithium batteries they are extremely expensive. I would suggest using some agm batteries. They are not light but will give good service. " A little more for a variable speed motor" means almost $80 more for a Minn Kota Endura Max 55. Now while I much prefer the Endura Max I did not want the op to think it was just say $20 more.

Heck you can buy any of the Tracker boats I mentioned for about $11,000. There are plenty of good aluminum boats out there for less than $18,000 especially if you are looking to run a smaller engine. Just look at Lowe, Tracker, AlumaCraft, Polar Kraft and lots of others.

Is there room on the property to put up one of the metal carports to store your boat?

Why are you so amazed by them? Companies like Ranger have offered 15 to 17 foot bass boats going all the way back in the 80's. Just look up a 320V or 330V. Now they offer a Z175 that is a 17.5 foot fiberglass boat that takes a 115. Other companies offer aluminum boats that can be tiller control or console versions that are smaller, lighter and can run with less horsepower. Look at a Tracker Panfish 16. That has been a staple of their lineup since at least the 80's. I know this is fact since a friend of mine had one with a 35 on the back when we were just starting college. Another good option is their Pro 160. This is a 16 foot aluminum bass boat that takes up to a 40,, but is in the standard bass boat floor plan.

Skeeloco do you live anywhere around MD, Va.Pa. De. If so maybe we can meet and I can try to help you. What I would do is inspect your rod, try casting it with one of my reels and have you cast one of my setups to help identify the issue. I know my wife had a problem with certain lines. I changed her over to Berkley FireLine in 14 pound test. I made sure after her cast she closes the bail by hand and slightly lift the rod tip to tighten the line on the spool. these changes have eliminated the problem. One other suggestion would be this. I use a Berkley line Winder to hold my reel securely and hold the line spool under tension. To fill a spinning reel mount the spool with the line coming off the bottom of the spool and a baitcaster with the line spool set up so the line comes off the top. This tool only costs $20 and makes it easy to properly fill the reel correctly. Here is the tool I speak of http://www.cabelas.com/product/fishing/fishing-line/line-winders-strippers-tools|/pc/104793480/c/104719680/sc/103939380/berkley-reg-line-winder/1729189.uts?destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fline-winders-strippers-tools%2F_%2FN-1100388%2FNs-CATEGORY_SEQ_103939380