Lead Head

When it's too cold for frogs I use my frog rod for jigs or heavy weighted plastics.

I personally would be looking at either a MH that runs on the stiffer side (I hear Abu veritas) or a heavy that runs on the softer side (dobyns fury). I'm no rod guru but that's where my head would be at for what your wanting. Those rods paired with either the Kastking or fuego should keep you right at or just below the $200 price point. For frogging your going to want braid. I've heard of people doing it with mono or floro but I can tell you from personal experience that braid is a FAR better choice, especially since your trying to fudge your rod on the softer side of what a "traditional" frog rod usually is. The problem is, braid plus a fast taper on a stiff rod isn't conducive to crankbait fishing. Just like stretchy line plus a moderate taper on a more parabolic rod isn't conducive to frog fishing. It's a tough combo to come up with. Personally, with my limited rod experience, if I had to go get a rod for those techniques I would get the heavy dobyns and make it a dedicated jig rod on down the road. Maybe some of the bank guys will chime in, they tend to get the most out of their rods and will have far more experience than me at double duty rods.

Since your trying to keep the price down, look into the diawa fuego ct. Plenty of threads about it here and you can get it from eBay in the $50 range when sales are running. I hear good things about Kastking but havent personally used one. The fuego will give you an aluminum frame and has several speeds to chose from if that stuff matters to you. As far as rods go, I'll let others guide you. I'm not very rod savvy but I will note that a combo frog/crank rod will be a tough one to find. Good luck staying at just one baitcaster. I swear the want for more is a sickness... in me anyway.

I like them on a jika rig. Have found it to be a very versatile way to fish a paddle tail.

If you catch an unexpected monster and want to get measurements, use fishing line. Cut a piece that is length and a second that is girth. You can take the pieces of line home and measure them later.

My "go to" soft plastic is a Texas rigged zoom baby brush hog. For me, those things flat out catch fish pretty much anywhere. I've been leaning more on jigs recently but if I'm going to throw a tx-rig it's always the baby brush hog first. If the brush hogs fail me I'll try a weightless senko (yum dinger).

I have used both a Crush and tournament mb. To me the mb is a far better reel. Smoother, easier to use, and farther casting. The mb has internal brakes (if you need them, I've never needed to use them) and the crush don't. In my experience, a mb on a lightning rod shock outperforms the crush combo easily. My advice would be grab the mb off eBay for $109 and don't look back. I can't speak for any of the other reels being discussed.

Some companies won't let retailers advertise sales. A few years back I worked for Academy and shimano wouldn't let them advertise sales on reels. They had them, but if you didn't know somebody you had to just stumble across them in-store. I figure this is the case for "see price in cart" type sales... but that is pure speculation.

Lews tournament mb is a pretty small and palms super easy for me. It's also a very solid performer and can be found on e-bay for $109.

Wow... sounds like some of you guys should harvest some frogs. Maybe thin out the frog population at bit and have frog legs for dinner. I rarely eat fish but I will absolutely throw down on frog legs when given the opportunity. And yes, they really do kinda taste like chicken.

Dobyns fury mh/F fishes pretty light. I have no problems throwing weightless senkos (dingers) and flukes.

Fair enough... I guess anything is possible even if not probable. Heck sounds like you got off easy, with my luck it would be the tip of my rod that flew away.

Just a thought... if your really wanting to try braid it don't have to be expensive. Last I checked you could get a 150 yard spool of kastking braid shipped for just under 5$. Haven't tried it on a baitcaster yet but do have some on a spinning reel and have no complaints.

Something to keep in mind... having a baitcaster "set up properly" and having one "set up properly for you" are two completely different things. I like to think of what is considered "proper setup" as a starting point, then tweak to suit your needs and or conditions from there. Having said all that, 10lb XL should be pretty manageable and the drastic twists and coils your describing suggest some sort of funky line problem.

Most people go 30lb and over on baitcasters.... that stuff isn't going to break off on a cast. I would suggest 50lb braid if it's your first time using it, you will have less "dig in" and backlashes will be easier to dig out. You are also far less likely to damage braid when picking it out. Braid probably isn't going to eliminate a backlash problem. If your spending half your fishing time digging out a backlash you would probably be better served tightening up your brakes a bit and losing some casting distance. It's a pain but it's better than being on the water and spending half your time doing things other than fishing.

I always use a uni for braid. Mostly because it's a much prettier knot than the Palomar and has never failed me.

I would recommend small spinnerbaits and beetle spins for moving baits. Ned rig, weightless senko (or your preferred knock off) and lightly weighted baby brush hogs for plastics. You might want to start her off keeping these moving to avoid gut hooked fish if your not eating them. Like mentioned earlier i would avoid trebbles as much as possible. Maybe only let her throw them when you can closely supervise. When that's the case the baits mentioned above are solid choices, especially square bills and whopper ploppers.

Are you rigging some of those menace grubs vertically? I haven't got around to it yet but it's on my to do list for swim jigs and chatter baits and was just wondering if they still kick properly if rigged vertically. Seems like that would give off a really good baitfish profile.

Up until recently I would have said reel. In the last few months I have spent a lot of time researching both performance and price of rods and reels on the internet (thanks Bass Resource). Performance is mostly relative, but price isn't. I have noticed that pretty much any reel (especially in my price range) can be grabbed off ebay for significantly cheaper than retail year round. Rods are different, good deals on rods are out there but are much harder to find and I'm guessing that's because of shipping. So, because it has been my personal experience that good deals are more common on reels, I would prefer to find/use 25% off on a rod.

Sounds like the problem is your just not experienced enough yet. If you are still setting up your reel tight enough you don't need to thumb it you are going to struggle with lighter baits. When you get better at controlling the spool with your thumb and can back off the breaks the lighter stuff (and everything else) will start getting more distance. If there is some magic reel or brake setting out there that will let you get good distance with light lures and no thumb... well, that would be interesting.

I can't say enough good things about the tournament mb. You can get them from retailers through eBay for $109.

I have a bb1 and like it a lot for cranks. I also have 2 Lews tournament mb that I like way more. If your looking at Lews I suggest you take a look at the mb as well, it might not be what your after but I assure you it's worth a look.

I am in agreement. You just said it better.

There is a reason pro athletes all the way down to high school athletes study hours of film. BUT All the knowledge in the world isn't helpful if you can't apply it. Almost no two bodies of water fish exactly the same. Nothing trumps experience.

My most recent reel purchases have been fuego ct from American Legacy Fishing through eBay. Of course 2 days after I buy one for $67.99 they put one up "buy it now" for $62.99 and it was eligible for 15% off. If I had waited 2 days I could have had one for $54.00... such is my luck. It looks like they still have one up for $62.99. Both bps and academy list them for $99.99 and I doubt they will ever run a sale that will get them down to $63. Sportsman Outfitters offers really good prices on Lews reels through eBay as well. I have stumbled across similar deals on rods, I can't remember who but I'm pretty sure I saw one of the "eBay retailers" that was accepting the 15% off code selling Dobyns Fury rods for $109 and free shipping. It's harder to find rods at super discounts because of shipping. So basically, I just shop around on the internet until I run across a deal that I know the big brands can't beat. For what it's worth, I would suggest grabbing the fuego ct I mentioned earlier for $63 (check the gear ratio, they might only be selling 8.1.1 at this price and that's not conducive to cranking) and using the gift card on a rod.