ItsHardwick

I have big baits, little baits, medium sized baits all tied on at all times. My lake gets so much pressure that I usually throw the finesse stuff most just because a lot of the time that’s the only way to get bites anymore. I’m usually trying to do something different than everyone else. But when I get on a good bite or find a big wad of fish I’ll start throwing the bigger stuff trying to land the big girl in the bunch.

Is the scale itself floating or just the gripper?

@BaitFinesse Thank you so much for the info and thoughtful answer. I was hoping you would chime in. Good to know about the UL, I was thinking more like UL panfish spinning rods and thinking what could I do with that lol. I’ve never actually held an UL casting rod so I didn’t really have anything to go off.

So I’ve been bitten by the BFS bug. I recently bought a Shimano Aldabaran BFS hg. It’s amazing, I never imagined throwing 1/16 ounce baits on a baitcaster. I have 20# braid on it now and it works great, thinking of going down to 10#. Currently it rests on a Bass Pro Shops carbonlite 2.0 that is 6’6” ML fast. The rod is pretty much a noodle. I also have a Zodias ML that has much more backbone and is really more like a medium. Anyways...... down to what I came for. I want to upgrade rods. The zodias is going to be too heavy I think and I don’t particularly like the white of the carbonlite, plus I’ve become a bit of a JDM snob. I’ve looked at some shimano and major craft rods in Light and Ultralight. I think I’ll probably go for a light in the 6’4” to 6’10” range. Ultralight is probably overkill, I’m not trying to throw trout magnets or anything, just small bass/crappie baits in the 1/16ish range for some finicky pressured fish we have here. Anyone been down this road before? Have any recommendations? I just really don’t know where or what I need to be looking/searching for.

I have the new perfect pitch and diablo spec r. I also have 4 zodias of different flavors. The two lines really remind me a lot of each other honestly. I do really like the new levantes, I’m in love with the perfect pitch. I prefer the real seats on the levantes. The build quality is what you’d expect from megabass. They’re very sensitive and a dream to fish but I don’t think you could really go wrong with either line of rods.

Caught my pb on a sprayed grass baby brush hog so I’m a bit partial.

The new megabass levante perfect pitch is well, perfect for this.

I have a steez Sv tw. Love it, it’s super smooth and beautiful and you can tell that it’s expensive by the way it looks lol. What umc said the cast control knob is hard to get to but I don’t really ever have to mess with it. But to be honest with you, if I had it to do over again I’d probably just buy another zillion Sv.

I have one and love it. It’s heavier than a normal medium but not quite a medium heavy. Very sensitive, great for bottom contact presentations. I think it would work well for what you’re looking at it for as long as you don’t go too light.

$400? I’d already have a megabass destroyer on the way and not even think twice about it.

This is basically what I did for my wife and my 11 year old son. They both have medium heavy fast spinning setups that cost around $100-$120 total and they fish most everything just fine and have lots of fun. Got my son a casting setup last year and he just doesn’t have the patience to learn it yet at this point. He did get upgraded to a st. Croix mojo bass m/Xf rod this year for throwing wacky rigged senkos which is like 80% of his fishing haha.

I use neon green line for my line watching needs with a 6’ or 7’ leader depending on rod length. I use suffix 832 on my spinning rods in 8 and 10 pound, I think they call it neon lime. Seaguar has one and the new power pro super slick 8 has a green that’s pretty bright. I’ve used the older power pro yellow before and it did leave gunk on my stuff but the neon green suffix hasn’t at all and it doesn’t fade much but even when it does it’s still highly visible.

You will absolutely love the zodias. I bought my first one about 2 months ago and now I have 4. The newest 2 just came in a couple days ago.

Much easier to throw into the wind too

I fished a double fluke rig last year with some success. That’s with a swivel slid on the main line before tying the hook on. It works pretty good. I could see a version of this working maybe slide the swivel on, then peg a weight above the hook on the main line. You’d have a pegged Texas rig with that bait on the swivel and leader kinda just following it around weightless almost like a cross between a dropshot and a Carolina rig. At least that’s how I see it in my head lol.

Straight retrieve, stop and go, rip it, burn it, fish it like a normal jig. There’s really no wrong way to fish them. Just experiment and have fun. You’ll get your arm broke sooner or later.

Seems that all the custom balsa crankbaits that people are paying $20-$100 for these days have the big circle cartoon eyes on them. I know people that swear by these balsa cranks and say they get bit better than anything else. I can’t afford to lose a $40 crankbait so I wouldn’t know just an observation.

Super glue for the win

Anyone have any experience or knowledge on these? It’s the older Aldebaran bfs, the black one with red spool. I’ve been wanting to pick up an aldebaran bfs. I was just waiting it out looking for a deal on the newer one. Well I can get a really good deal on the limited right now but I know next to nothing about it. Thought maybe you gents would have some insight, so let’s have it. Thanks guys!

I like cork, some really nice cork feels really good in the hand. Especially a full cork grip mmmmmmmm. However, I don’t let cork/eva get in the way of making the right rod decision when it comes to buying rods. I like cork more, but my last 6 rod purchases have had Eva grips. Go figure.

I haven’t been able to get out with them enough to give a definitive opinion. I have the perfect pitch and the diablo spec-r. So far I really like the perfect pitch, has enough tip which I like in heavier rods but still has a lot of backbone. The Diablo I haven’t fished much yet honestly. I will say the build quality and detailing is definitely what you’d expect from megabass. They’re beautiful rods.

I’ve read some good reviews. Seemed nice when I played with it in the store the other day. As I just said in another thread Shimanos always seem to fish above their price point too.

I think that’s about the perfect range. If anything they run a little heavy as far as the ratings go. I don’t personally have a medium heavy fast but my medium fast is perfect for like 1/8 up to 1/2 so I’d imagine the mh would be what you’re looking for. Shimanos rods seem like they fish well above the price points. I haven’t fished an ALX or Kistler which some swear by but for $200 I think the Zodias rods are a great value.

I have 2 zodias currently, and I have 2 more being delivered tomorrow. I really like them. Plus, the handle is probably the thinnest out of my 15 casting rods I own making palming the reel a dream. I don’t have any experience with the other two so I can’t speak to them but I think you’d be pleased with the zodias. Only thing not to like is there’s no bait keeper. I have new megabass levantes, st. croix legend tournaments, shimano curados and zodias, and some loomis e6xs. And when I wanted two new sticks with different actions I went back to the zodias.

I’ve looked at those on the site before and they always confused me. They’re called crankin sticks but the website describes all of their actions as fast or even extra fast.