QED

Sad indeed, but I'm going to support my remaining local builders in the hope that the custom options don't go to zero.

I live on a mountain overlooking the third largest city in California. During the pandemic, I looked at having custom rods and precision old school wood/blued steel rifles built since I was saving a bunch via the work from home environment. I only found one local custom rod builder and one local custom rifle builder. When I was a teenager, custom rod and gun shops were common. What happened to them?!

Freudian slip? ?

My thesis - balance is irrelevant if the rig is reasonably light. If you have perfect balance in the default case, once you add a lure, then you're tip heavy. I have a bunch of VERY spendy high end combos and they are so light that rod balance (without a lure) was never even a consideration.

One always prefers strength and durability in fishing rods and reels, but in the case of ultralight or BFS gear, it's a difference in degree and not in kind.

The old Lew's BB-1 seemed to have been the inflection point. It was teardrop shaped with the teardrop point facing forward and sat a little lower than typical at the time. Shimano, Ryobi, and others iterated that type of design philosophy to arrive at the modern low profile casting reels.

If I'm bank fishing a lake or pond that I am familiar with, I take just one rig and at most a half-dozen proven baits in a sandwich size zip-lock bag (kept in a pocket). No backpack, no utility trays. During the summer, this is the best way to go. Don't forget to apply the sun screen before heading out.

True dat! Just picked up a JDM Shimano Poison Adrena 163ML for about $100 less than I paid for my BFS version of that rod. The former is also BFS capable but has a bit more backbone. Paired with a Daiwa 20 Steez AIR TW 500XXH, the rig weighs in right at 8.0 oz.

Tackle Warehouse packages include ten (10) ned senkos. UPS package just arrived this morning so this is NOT speculation based upon the TW website's numbers.

What about my response wasn't appropriate or responsive regardless of the original intent of your post? Perhaps you should resume your sense of humor which is lacking in this post.

Which knot? If you are referring to the line to leader knot, then that problem has nothing to do with the drop shot rig.

No the ned senko is purportedly more buoyant so it would be more of a z-man TRD competitor. I ordered a half-dozen packages of the former but they haven't arrived yet so efficacy is still TBD.

I use these too and the senkos definitely last longer in this configuration rather than hooking them directly. There are third party equivalents which are sometimes cheaper.

I disagree with your conclusion. While it is correct that if misuse of terms becomes pervasive, then the definitions evolve to encompass the misuse(s) (cf the disinterested vs uninterested debacle). Not sure if we're at an inflection point where the distinction between flipping and pitching has been lost, but until that is confirmed, I will continue to use the terms as historically defined.

Most are Japanese domestic market (JDM) items, so they need to be ordered from Japanese vendors that ship to the US. I usually just use the vendor that has my target items in stock so I can't opine on which vendors are cheapest or most reputable - though I haven't had any issues to date (knock on wood). Some others here buy JDM stuff more frequently than I, so I'll let them chime in.

Rod weight is a major decision factor for me in purchasing any rod (but not in and of itself dispositive), so the question of how much I use heavier rods never arises.

For BFS: Shimano Shimano 22 Aldebaran BFS XG Shimano Poison Adrena 163L BFS For Finesse Spinning (which is not encompassed by the term BFS): Shimano Stella FK 1000 Shimano Poison Adrena 267ML The items need to be procured separately so while the result is a combo, they are not generally sold as bundles. Since you prefer high end stuff, you should give this serious consideration. VERY light and effective rigs.

To oversimplify a bit, carbon fiber will fail catastrophically if overstressed but will not really bend in the permanent deformation sense. BTW, I love the Daiwa AGS guides that came with the St Croix Legend Xtreme rods.

For what it's worth I have three different Shimano Aldebaran reels, two BFS and one BFS capable HGS 30 and all of them have no noticeable play in the thumb bar.

"Should I get a Bait Caster" Simple answer - yes. The more difficult question is "which one?" Lew's makes excellent, cost effective casting reels in the low to mid tier price range so I would second the earlier recommendations regarding them.

My Daiwa reels consist of a Daiwa PX Type-R and various Steez models. A quick, non-statistically significant sampling of a few of the Steez models shows the following: Daiwa Steez CT SV 700 XH - A tiny bit of play when directly wiggling the thumb bar but not enough to be even noticeable in actual use; Daiwa Steez CT SV 70 XH - No noticeable play; and Daiwa 20 Steez AIR TW 500XXH - No noticeable play. Seems that Daiwa did a pretty good job with respect to these particular reels, which were not cherry picked but just happened to be handy.

Booyah, Spro, LiveTarget, and Castaic all make fine <= 1/4 oz hollow body frogs (some in popper form) for those who like to use lighter tackle.

Sorry @TOXIC, I was using the term "use case" in the software jargon context - not implying that you can catch only a single fish per plastic bait. Here in SV we use domain specific jargon, acronyms, and initialisms far too much. "A usage scenario for a piece of software; often used in the plural to suggest situations where a piece of software may be useful." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Use_case

Ned rig is one use case - drop shot is another. Buoyant worms work well in the latter case so Z-man TRDs are what I am using but no reason not to try a new bait with similar characteristics and different color/salt content/etc. options.

They would probably work well in a drop shot rig too. Just ordered some.