FrnkNsteen

I haven't dove deep down that hole, but I did pick up a Dobyns Sierra SUF740c rod a couple years ago on a whim, then bought a Rays BFS spool for a Tatula SV that I had. I then bought a Shimano SLX BFS from someone here in the marketplace. I haven't taken MUCH time to play with it, but I will say small 1/16 - 1/8 jig heads with a small twist tail or paddle tail have been fun on friends ponds picking up 1-2lb bass. The tiny little crappie crankbaits have been fun too. Tempted to bring it up to Ontario with me this summer and see what 2-4lb Smallmouth are like on it. 😃

I agree with @WRB and @GReb on this one. I had a Kaden 714c and it had a pretty fast tip and might be a little heavy for a weightless Senko, but my 733c Fury threw a weightless Senko pretty nicely. In my opinion, the 713c Kaden should be decent with a weightless Senko. I don't have any experience with the Cashion rods though. I used my Kaden 714c for weighted Texas rigs with weights around 1/4 - 3/8. I also had a Kaden 744 that I used for jigs. Ended up trading both off and picking up a couple clean used Kistler Helium rods to replace them

Agreed. I have developed a fondness for the old Daiwa TDZ reels. When they came out with the 6.3 ratio gear on those, the reviews described them as "Lightning quick 6.3:1 gear ratio", and that was just in the late 90's and early 2000s. Before that I think their fastest gears were like 5.8:1. It IS amazing to me that those years are now about 25 years ago though.... Wow!!

For me,... A "Chuck and Wind" reel are typically my smoothest reel. If I am going to be spending all day casting and reeling things like spinnerbaits, crankbaits, etc, I want them to be my smoothest reels. I can live with a lesser reel for bottom contact, pitching or other techniques, but if I am constantly reeling, I want something smooth so I can feel any little change in the feel of the lure, like something swiping at it. My smoothest reels right now are probably my Zillion SV and my Bantam. One is on my favorite crankbait rod and the other is in my MiniMax rod. Next is probably my old TDZ and Curado E7 on my Spinnerbait rods

Yep,... That's it. Good find!

There is someone on here that posted a while ago about restoring some old Daiwa TDZ reels. I believe he used ceracote on his. Can't remember the name, but I remember they looked really nice.

I have bought bearings and carbon drags from HPRbearings as well. Seems pretty good to deal with. I got new drag washers for all the old Daiwa TDZ I had bought, plus drag washers and spool bearings for a pair of Calcutta 101s I picked up a couple years ago

I don't fish a lot of casting reels on creeks,... Usually spinning rigs instead. That being said, beyond trying to keep up with a fish running downstream as others mentioned, I would say to take your fishing style into consideration. If you mostly cast upstream and reel it back with the current, a faster reel would likely be advantageous as you have to overcome speed of the current to reach your desired lure speed. If you cast more downstream, a slower reel may be desirable since you are going against the current and need less lure speed to get the desired action. Think of a plane taking off into the wind vs with the wind. You need less ground speed against the wind to take off than you do if taking off with the wind.

Seems to me, it wasn't all that long ago I remember you posting that were thinking about they by the Bantam and wanted people's feedback. I take it you liked it pretty well!! 🤣🤣

I don't fish jerkbaits as much as I probably should, but a friend of mine fishes them heavily! Believe it or not, he says he has good results with the H20 Express jerkbaits. He speaks very highly of them. Might be worth checkng out a few of them.

FYI,.... FM is the model/ generation designation. If I am remembering correctly, the F stands for "Front" drag, meaning the drag adjustor is on the front of the spool, not on the back of the reel like some of their models. The "M" is just the generation identifier. The current generation is "M", but you may still see some of the previous "FL" models floating around from the last generation. I was just at a local shop this weekend that had an older Stradic 1000 FK on their discontinued shelf that was still new in box

I don't buy anything based on what someone says on a video. Most of them are so obviously biased for certain brands and products they are connected to. There's one guy, whose name I won't share that did videos of "5 best rods and reels" where every option was from one manufacturer and imagine that,.... Turns out that brand sponsored him. I am not a fan of TheReelTest either. I watched some of his videos and quickly found that he is the ultimate Shimano fan and in his mind, nothing compared. Plus he seems to think casting distance is the only factor in choosing a reel. Then, as @GetFishorDieTryin said, his tests aren't set up very up equally and if anyone makes a conflicting comment or question, he gets rude. The one I really liked, and wish he was still making videos was Tackle Advisors. He goes in depth, digs deep, and gives you the positives and negatives that he sees. I HAVE went and checked things out based on his reviews and bought some, rejected others. I will have to check out "Punch fishing" that someone else mentioned.

^^The few times I have done have been for this reason^^ I have run larger flouro leaders up in Ontario fishing for smallies in hopes of better protection against northerns.

I have a soft spot for the old Fenwick rods. Hard to find something with full cork handles like that anymore. I feel the same way about rods that have the reel seat threads right where you hold the rod. You might try looking at the Cabela's Fish Eagle models at Bass Pro. I think they are still making them and they reminded me of the Fenwick Eagle rods when I have seen them before. Other options I have been using lately are Fenwick HMG, but they have changed the handles a few different times in recent years. Bass Pro also has St Croix EyeCon line of Walleye spinning rods that I kind of liked the feel when looking at them.

I don't worry too much about matching reels to rods, other than the shape of some reels feel better in certain reel seats, and some balance better than others depending on balance if the rod and weight of the reel The only other thing I consider when looking at matching up reels for certain techniques is gear ratios. In the end, I also think any 100 - 150 size reel would work fine as long as it is comfortable for you to use.

I'm using an Amped Outdoors 32ah (NMC). My Amped Outdoors battery came with a charger. I bought the battery mount and just take it out at night and recharge it in the house. Cleanly runs my Garmin LVS34 in a 12" Echomap pretty much all day.

I decided to bite the bullet and add FFS year before last. I already had a Minnesota Ultrex networked to two Humminbird units and didn't want to mess with that. I decided to go with a discounted Garmin 12" Echomap unit and a LVS34 transducer, then wired it to a standalone lithium battery to avoid interference from wiring it to the boat. I think my battery is a 32 AH lithium from Ampped Outdoors. I just plug it in when I get in the boat in the morning and take it with me at the end of day for a recharge. Pretty happy with the system. I get good clean sonar images in all units.

I don't have that model, but I have my Livescope transducer mounted to my trolling motor shaft. I mounted it up there as a quick mount while researching the other options. What I found was I don't often use FFS while spotlocked as I typically Bass fish shorelines. When I AM using FFS, I am typically scanning while moving around in deeper water. I could see having a separate mount if I wasbholding in a spot while jigging for walleyes or fishing for schools of crappies. Met Brent Ehler at the American Legacy open house a while ago and had the chance to chat with him about how he uses his and he does the same. He said he likes his on the TM shaft so he can swipe back and forth and not keep the beam on them any more than needed. He said he has seen instances where the holding the beam on them seems to spook them at times causing them to move away.

I saw the same deal and just bought one the discounted Helix 12 myself. I had an older model Humminbird up front (859CI I think) tied to my Ultrex I Pilot link and.a older Helix 10 G2N at the driver seat running side scan. I moved the Helix 10 up front to run the Ultrex, and mounted the new Helix 12 at the wheel to run the side scanning. Gained 3:inches of display at the Ultrex and 2" of display at the driver seat and have the two units + the Ultrex all networked into the Ethernet Hub. Can't beat it for the price!!

I have one of the original E21 Carrot Stix that are orange with the gold hue to it and I like it ok. It is a 6'6" Medium/ Mod Fast and I currently have one of the old orange Daiwa T3 SV reels on it I makes a nice light setup. I had it set up for small T-rigs and weightless tubes, but I believe I currently have a small Storm 360GT paddletail on it. It is light and pretty sensitive for the price I paid back in the mid 2000's. I later bought one of the later model "Wild" stix that I think were after they had been sold or restructured. The later one was a 7ft MH-F. I think I got this in the early to mid 2010's. Quality wasn't as good as the original E21 stix. It was straight orange, with black foam grips (The earlier one had cork) and was not as light or sensitive, but worked ok. I originally used it for belly weighted hooks with plastics like a rage menace or rage craw, but later found it made a great rod for throwing the small compact Rocket Shad spinnerbaits. Never had issues breaking either style, but I rarely break rods. They were ok rods, but never felt the need to go out of my way to get more.

Happy New Year Everyone, Quick question for all the Humminbird owners... I just bought a new Helix 12 MSI G4N that BPS had marked down and got it in installed last Monday. Fired it up and checked that the Lakemaster Maps were working right and noticed the sailing lines are white and hard to see. I'm not talking about my previous tracks, those are red and easier to see,... I'm talking about the default lake sailing lines. On my previous models (899CI and Helix 10 G2N) they were fine lines in pink and were thin, but still easier to see. The new model is much harder to see them!! Worried they will be hard to see while running the lake. Not too worried here in Indiana, but I use them when running the Ontario lakes to stay off the rocky reefs Hoping someone can tell me how to update their color, and maybe even the line thickness. Thanks!! Mark

Ahh! Got it. That makes sense. I have had many BPS reels in the past and they have been good. It seems that in recent years I got more bad ones than good so I stopped buying them. If you got a smooth one, it should be good for you! My Carbonlite frog reel has been good and I still have a couple of the special edition blue and silver Pro Qualifier 2 reels that are still good and smooth. Gave one to our granddaughter's boyfriend, but still have the other and it is still smooth as the day I bought it.

Confused.... MSRP on the '24 Daiwa Tatula is $179 and the JDM version can be had on Amazon for $108. Not saying the Carbonlite is a bad reel,... I have the older white version in 8spd on a Duckett Terex series frog rod and it's not bad. Just confused on the pricing you mentioned.

Depends on the area you are fishing. I fish mostly ML when fishing the rocky reefs of Ontario for smallies and have caught up to 5-6 pounders with no issues. Those same rods work in most situations here in Indiana too because most instances are pretty open without heavy weeds or wood I don't think I would try that around laydowns, timber or heavy weeds though!!

Agreed. Hindsight being 20/20, I definitely should have, but having not used them before I had decided to just get one.