bwjay

I'd be happy to try these out but nothing under 7ft is a real bummer. A 662C would have been sweet.

Well, there are a few possible reasons, in order of likelihood (IMO). 1. You're tying a bad leader knot. 2. You're not wetting your knot enough and weakening it during the cinching process. 3. Your fluoro is too stiff and is shattering upon hookset. 4. Your braid is too thin for your fluoro and is digging too much into it, making it easy for the fluoro to snap. 5. You're just unlucky.

My 6'8LMHF and 6'9MHXF Helium3s have just enough bend for chatterbaits IMO. Plenty of sensitivity, super easy to tell when the lure is fouled up or when you're hitting things. If you can find one used, they're a great option, Fry!

If you want a silky smooth reel, look no further than the Bantam. You will probably get 70-80yds of 20lb fluoro on it. If you truly need more line capacity, then you'll need to look at a Curado 200K which won't have the solid smooth feel of the Bantam. I would worry more about line capacity than casting distance. The Bantam is no slouch.

HG if you'll be throwing small swimbaits with it. XG works for frogging and flipping but the HG is just fine as well. I'd find it pretty hard to go slow enough with an XG for swimbaits. It's already something that requires concentration with HG.

You might consider going to a 3-power instead, as it will flex more than a 4-power, so it should keep fish pinned. This would allow you to go to a graphite rod for better sensitivity, but it would have to be a ~ModFast action if you really want a lot of flex like a glass rod. A high power fast action rod is going to be stiff and unload easier than a slower rod or a rod with less power. There are so many rods out there that I can't tell you what's right for you, but if you're planning on throwing 1/4oz-3/8oz lipless and chatterbaits, a 3-power should get the job done, and keep fish buttoned up better than a stiffer/more powerful rod. At least, that's my thinking. I currently don't own any glass rods because I don't do enough cranking, and my LMH/MH Helium3s are soft enough that they've worked well for cranking and chatterbaits/spinnerbaits so far, so I haven't wanted to seek out a dedicated cranking rod. Hopefully this helps...

Bingo.

I'll be punching with it this summer. I plan to use 3/4oz weights as I don't have anything higher and I'd rather not try to punch through ultra thick mats anyway.

The Expride 73XH is rated for 1/2oz to 2oz. The Poison Adrena 74H is rated for 3/8oz to 2oz. If you think it won't be stout, you're kidding yourself. It's a ModFast taper so yes it will be slower, but it will still have a lot of backbone.

That's a lot for a frog rod... you could get an Expride 73XH and be almost as light and almost as sensitive, for $80 less. And I don't need the sensitivity, I just want the lightness. I will use it for flipping too so sensitivity is good but you don't need a ton of sensitivity for flipping either.

What the heck is that price!? They're tryna get me to buy 2!!

I like my SLX XT, but based on a few minutes with a Curado 200K at Cabela's, I think the Curado K feels a tiny bit higher quality. Not much though, it still felt kinda cheap to me, but then again it was the demo model that had been abused by everybody. I had the SLX and the XT feels the same internally, it just looks nicer on the outside, and the SVS Infinity braking is great. It honestly is a great reel to have in your arsenal and will more than do the job whether you're straight retrieving or picking up slack. I horsed a couple 2-3lbers through 2-3lbs of weeds with both the SLX and XT and they never felt like they were locking up or grinding or flexing. My Bantam is on another level of rigidity and smoothness, obviously, but again both the SLX and XT are worth having in the arsenal I think. If you need more line capacity, go with the K. If you think you might like a smaller reel and want to try something new, get the XT. It's a sweet reel.

I'd go for fast with a preference on the slower side, but not too slow since you want to hit the backbone fairly soon to drive big hooks without having to swing for the fences every single time (not always possible on the bank or on a kayak/canoe for example). That faster taper will help work frogs with less effort as well. Depending on the rod you get, you could potentially do a couple other things. Carolina rigs for sure, also big worms. If the rod has a slower taper, like a Mod-Fast, you could probably throw ~1oz swimbaits on it too. You just don't want too fast of a taper for swimbaits which is why it depends on the rod. If it is a broomstick (H-XH with XF taper and stiff tip) then it's basically going to be a dedicated frog and pitching rod, but I wouldn't ever go for such a rod. My Expride 73XH has seemingly just a slow enough taper and soft enough tip that I might be able to use it for swimbaits, but its primary use will be for frogging and pitching. Rods with too fast of a taper/too stiff of a tip don't appeal me; I feel like I'd lose more fish due to the rod unloading, or missing hooksets because the fish didn't quite have the whole bait and I ripped it out of their mouth.

I would tend toward a Heavy power rod rated for up to 1.5oz lures. Even if you are not pulling fish through heavy vegetation, extra stiffness will help with a good hookset. Keep in mind that SC "under-rates" their rod powers by a bit. Their 7'MHF Premier has the same amount of backbone as my 7'HXF Helium3 (but the Premier has a faster action/stiffer tip). I didn't like the Premier for frogging though, pretty heavy for its size which wore out my wrist after a few hours. I'd suggest spending the money on a lightweight rod because frogging and flipping are two physically demanding tasks when you do them for hours at a time. Frogging and flipping is my bread and butter in the summer so I dropped the coin on an Expride 7'3XH which is my longest but, counter-intuitively, also best balanced rod. I can't wait to give it a shot this year.

Funny that anyone would expect a brand new reel to cost what a 4 year old reel eventually got dropped to. If it wasn't clear, the current JDM price on 16 Mets is crazy low and a lot lower than what it initially retailed for. Wishful thinking for sure..... guaranteed it will not be $300 right out of the gate. More like $400. Sorry guys.

You can probably assume it will be cheaper via JDM than USDM, and there is a 0% chance they DON'T bring this to the US. This is a big deal flagship reel.

You think they'd add more bearings if they wanted to keep weight down? If they won't even put brass gears, more bearings sounds silly.

I got the 7'3XH on Black Friday and it balances great with my Bantam. It's actually my best balancing rod and it's also my longest, heaviest power rod. Go figure. Shimano got it right with this one!

I'd use it for light-ish baits (or ones with a lot of drag like spinnerbaits and jerkbaits), especially in wind as jbsoonerfan said.

7:1 is the most versatile and you can slow it down just fine for lipped and lipless crankbaits. You may get more reels later and want the 200K for a different application. 7:1 is perfect IMO.

I want a rod that balances as close to the reel seat as possible, for the same reasons as fishwizzard. A rod that is tip heavy without a lure on it is going to be MORE tip heavy with a lure on it. When you are slow dragging a jig on bottom, making little hops, which is all in the wrist, you want to have to apply as little torque as possible. If it takes a lot of effort just to keep the tip up (and slowly move it upwards), you might not feel a light bite or if slack gets knocked into your line because your wrist is "straining" to apply upward force and has reduced sensitivity. If you are just barely applying pressure to drag a jig, you're going to feel if it suddenly jumps a little bit more than if you're applying a decent bit of pressure to drag said jig. I get that anything over 1/8oz is going to require a decent amount of effort to pull upwards, there is nothing anyone can do about that, but it's about going for the best balance possible, because it only makes things worse if it's unbalanced. For some techniques (moving baits, topwater) it doesn't matter, but for others, it is of great importance. And to the guys complaining about it being in the living room and not on the water, the balance of the rod doesn't change when you go out on the water. You can know that the force due to having a line and lure pulling on the tip is going to be a constant no matter which rod you use, so the only variable is the balance of the rod, which can be tested in one's living room.

Gosh that looks sexy... I'm dying to see it out in the open!!

I'll wait to hear other people's opinions of the new blanks. There's only one rod I want (6'6ML "BFS" Ned/dropshot casting rod) and it would have to be custom, so I have no temptation to buy one. I do think the cork should be improved for that kind of money (and just give me a flat butt cap). They are in GLX territory now. A lot of people have compared the H3 to the GLX in terms of sensitivity and MBR rod action but the price hike is a bit tough to swallow. I said in another thread that I'd be willing to bite the bullet if Trey offered the new rods at a 25% discount for a very short time (like a week) to get them out there and get people talking, but it seems that isn't happening. The new store is pretty snazzy though!

I've got both the SLX and XT. I'd say they feel basically the same, with the XT having a nicer frame and external brake adjustment. No smoothness difference. If you have the extra couple bucks to spend, the XT is the way to go IMO.

Oh absolutely. I get that Kistler can't be replacing rods for deep discounts all the time. But if they don't have an abnormally high amount of breakages, then I feel they should offer a longer warranty because they're confident it won't need to be used anyway. GENERALLY short warranties are short because there are a lot of things that could go wrong (poorly made electronics for example) and the manufacturer doesn't want to be on the hook for it, because they know the quality isn't there. Other times it's just to incentivize upgrading. Sometimes both. Now, I haven't had any breakage or build quality issues with my Helium3s so far, but I only fished them for about 4 months, as is the length of in-season open water fishing weather here in Minnesota (besides rivers) - mid-May opener to late-Sept cold. We'll see if I have any issues next year but I'm thinking I probably won't as long as I continue to take care not to smack the rods on door frames and keep boat flipping to an absolute minimum. I'll be on a kayak so I won't even be able to boat flip most of the time anyway. But I digress.