Dpaine88

For me, once you go braid you don't go back. All my fishing buddies swear by braid too. It never tangles, nice and smooth, strong as hell, and easy to see. Never had an issue with braid ever. Like PowerPro and Suffic834. If I am fishing for Smallies in super clear water, I will use a 12lb Floro leader as well. Sometimes for topwater or Jerkbaits I will use a mono leader. The one downside is that the knot you use for braid takes a little longer than tying with mono or fluro.

I personally do use a leader at least for very clear smallmouth fishing. Usually 3ft if AbradeX. At this point I can tie uni to uni knot in 30 seconds and it is slightly easier to tie on new lures instead of braid but not a huge deal in that regard. I have heard the fluro is more abrasion resistant as well which is nice because when I am using it I am is usually running a jig or tube through rocks for smallmouth. If I'm going for Larry's on a dingy water lake I don't bother with leader

Oh wow, so just to clarify you are using the frog rod for both frogs AND the swimbaits? Seems like a no brainer then! Would also probably do well catching pike. What speed reel do you have on that rod?

Thanks Timsford! I failed to mention that I do have a Mojo Bass St Croix 7ft MF Spinning rod that I use for Finesse(though its hard to go back now that I have fallen in love with baitcasters). The one thing I don't really fish much is crankbaits since usually I am fishing shallow water with a smaller boat or from shore where it is tough to use crankbait. Swimbait Rod looks pretty awesome. I have actually never fished one and don't know much about them but I will have to do some research and see if they make sense for the ponds that I fish!! Do you think it would make sense to get a Frog rod? I have seen comments around the forums saying that you really want a 5 power Dobyns Fury for Frogs and mine is a 4.

Hey there, with the American Legacy sale on the discontinued Diawa Zillion Rods at 40%, I figured why not. My only problem is I cant decide which one!! Here are my 2 current setups: Dobyns Fury 734C, 7'3" HF(fishes closer to MH) with Tatula 6.4.1 reel Mojo Bass Jerkbait 6'6" MF with Tatula 7.1.1 reel I pretty much do a mix of banked and boat fishing, smallmouth and largemouth. All sorts of presentations Any recommendations on the 3rd rod to get? Here is link to options https://www.americanlegacyfishing.com/fishing/fishing-rods/shopby/daiwa/zillion.html

Absolutely love my Dobyn's Fury!! Great rod. I have the 7"3 MH and its great for everything, including frogs.

10+ foot leader? who the hell uses that? For bass, I only use a leader on very clear water where I am going for smallmouth. Maybe it matters, maybe it doesn't but at this point I can tie a uni-to-uni in like 30 seconds so its no big deal. I use a 12lb fluro in this case on 30lb braid.

Thanks for the advice - I actually don't have to cut that much vegetation here in the NorthEast so maybe I will have to try that...probably in 30lb test since I do have another Heavy rod that I use for Froggin with 50lb braid. What do you prefer about the 832 compared to PowerPro? I am certainly open to switching

The model does have a plastic thumb bar, its a Daiwa Tatula 100HL. Yes it was 20lb Power Pro so it could have been that... Going with 30lb this season and know the reel much better now after a season baitcasting and never backlash anymore

Ok so I got my first baitcaster in August 2016 and a few month into using it noticed two straight slices into the spool release button...basically on either side of where your thumbs would be. The cuts went about 1/2way into the plastic spool release button. I didnt think that much off it until the end of last season when my thumb finally broke it from slice to slice. I just got the reel back from Daiwa for repair but the guy on the phone(who seemed pretty knowledgeable) had never heard of this before. Any idea how this may have happened? I was using Braid after learning it on mono and Braid can cut pretty good but seems wierd to happen in those spots... I attached a pic of a stock reel online and put red lines where the slices were to give you an idea of what I mean.

Wow ! Do you own the topwater/jerkbait rod?

Great post man, I did read through that and countless others. Basically just wanting to make sure I absorbed that information correctly and am on the right track... Starting to suffer information overload. . Thanks for the welcome! Yes I did see Fury doesn't make the rod I am afrer so I have been looking at Mojo Bass, Duckett Ghost, Lews,, Abu Ike etc looking to keep it around 130 or less. I have yet to check out Fenwick tho, thanks I will definitely check it out!

Ok So last year I fished all season with a baitcaster for the first time and loved it!! Now I am looking to get another baitcasting rod since my current setup is more of an all-purpose versitile rod rather than very technique specific. It is a Dobyn's Fury 734C (7"3' HF) with a Diawa Tatula 100HL 6:4:1 reel. It is a great rod but I think maybe something lighter would be a nice compliment to that rod? I was looking into getting a 6"6 MF rod for Topwater/Jerbaits -maybe with a 7speed reel - would that be a nice compliment to the 734C? I mostly fish with soft plastics, topwaters, spinnerbaits, tubes, jigs, jerkbaits, frogs, small swimbaits, etc and also some pike fishing 1-2x a year. I was thinking use the 734C for spinnerbaits, jigs, frogs, swimbaits and to handle the pike and then use the new rod for topwater, jerkbaits, tubes, plastics. Any thoughts or opinions would be great-