BigTimeBassin

+1 on the live target. Heavy, and the body is super soft. My most productive frog by far. Durability hasn’t been great for me, last one I blew the face out of on fish number 12 or so.

If I’m not mistaken the elite has a 150 size spool, line capacity should be the same as the tat 150. For that line size, should be plenty of capacity.

The monkey took me for everything I had. Being delivered 7/7 I’ve got the following: 2021 Zillion Tatula 150 6 Jack hammers Few packs of 6th sense plastics 2 spools of sufix 832 1 spool 16lb sniper all that is on top of the Daiwa BLX that just got delivered… you win this time monkey.

Anyone have insight on those BLX limber rods? Eyeing both the 7’3 and 7’4. Wondering if I could get away throwing 3/8 and up squarebills, chatters, and lipless on either.

Right there with you. Have a zillion on my expride and they go together like peanut butter and jelly!

Have the 131, 40 pound test on a 2021 jdm zillion. Seems to handle pretty well, holds a leader knot with no issue from what I’ve experienced so far. A bit loud through the guides compared to the super slick v2 I normally use. I got it for free, probably wouldn’t pay retail for it. Doesn’t really stand out compared to super slick or sufix 832.

Looking for a rod that can handle square bills down to 3/8 and whopper ploppers up to the 110 size (1oz). Would also like to be able to throw lipless on it. I don’t need it to excel at any one of these things, just looking for versatility. The dobyns 735cb glass stood out but not sure how it handles the higher end of its rating. Any advice? Am I looking for something that doesn’t exist? Budget is sub 300. thanks!

This my go to leader knot. Easy to tell when it’s tied correctly and easy to do on the water.

I will definitely give that a shot as soon as I track down a small enough screw driver. Appreciate ya

Newer to Daiwa and the T-wing. Was fishing a chatterbait today and noticed that it was creating a lot of vibration/rattling from the line guide area. To the point it was quite audible. The line guide has a good amount of play to it, not sure if that’s normal or if there’s something I should adjust. I’m fishing braid main line so it does transmit a good amount of the vibration from the blade. Any insight appreciated!

I’m of the opinion that to go completely thumb free you have to tighten the spool tension way too much. I tighten mine just enough to remove side to side play. Only thumbing needed is when the lure hits the water and if you’re fishing something that sinks I feather it it a little bit as it’s dropping or it’ll over run.

I really like the 6th sense rod sleeves. Neoprene and have an adjustable cord to poop around the reel handle. Retail for like 10 bucks.

not floating but maybe something like this would do the trick? https://www.mrblurecompany.com/collections/buzzbaits/products/f-series-weedless-buzzer

Siebert has good prices on tungsten. Definitely worth it for the size and sensitivity.

Siebert Outdoors has jackhammers for 12 bucks.

Don’t really follow the googans, but these jigs looked pretty good, and with my free trial membership at Karl’s they were priced just right.

Had really good success with the live target frog this past year. Super soft body, only frog I’ve found that rivals it is the scum frog “launch frog” that I picked up recently. Also like the bully wa from river2sea.

The first fish I caught the last two years was in a small pond on a red lipless crank. I’m in western NY and were talking just after ice out, mid April. No idea what the water temp is, but definitely sub 40. Yoyo retrieve has been most effective for me.

Last year I started throwing power pro super slick v2. This year I’ve switched all my reels over to it. Really like the onyx color, when it fades a bit it turns grey.

Family portrait

Biggest smallmouth came in just shy of 4 pounds on a siebert tungsten button head with a xzone lures finesse craw, Bama craw color. Biggest largemouth was about 4.4 on a weighted Texas rig, xzone lures muscle back craw in pb&j.

This doesn’t really address your question but I’ll share my experience anyway. I’ve been all over the spectrum with different braking systems. Started with lews, then had a couple of shimanos (slx, bantam, curado k), then went to Daiwa. Finally this past year I ended back on Shimano and have built up a little arsenal of DC reels (3 curados and 1 SLX). I’ve been really happy with this decision and will continue to purchase DC reels. My experience with them has been that I can set my spool pretty loose, and cast a good range of lures (weight wise) with no adjustments needed at all. My setup does require some thumbing, but typically only as the lure hits the water. For me, I really appreciate this level of simplicity and “set it and forget it”. For a beginner, crank the spool tension up just a tad and you can operate entirely thumb free, if that’s what you’re looking for. Is it a bit of crutch? Probably. But darn do they sound cool.

Odd. Definitely worked for me. Might have to actually place the order? Took a screen shot of my paypal transactions: first is the expride which is 269.99 2nd is the slx dc, 2nd day shipping, and a 14 dollar spool of braid

Now go stock up! ? picked up an expride and an slx dc for myself.

Incorrect. Shimano is working. It doesn’t apply until the very last step the payment process. Doesn’t reflect in the cart before hand.