wonkyrig

One of the 9s was definitely on a Big M.

Tom/WRB is on the money per usual. I'd add a shaky head, a fluke, and a rock crawler. Spots are maniacs, I love them.

I'm liking the Adrena more every time I fish with it, love the way it loads. In my head, it's for different applications than the CRR. It's been a great spinnerbait rod so far.

One of my favorite rods. Shaky head, jigging a minnow, finesse jigs, etc. Stuck and landed a lot of fish on it, really high confidence in it.

JWRs and I have the 843C MBR which I'm using for topwater. The blank is great for it but the butt section feels short to me which is fine for walking a bait but when you lay into one with some shoulders it's more challenging to hold onto.

If I could go back and get a do-over, I'd wait for a sale and get NRX+.

The blanks are nice but they ruined them with the grips. These rods are heavy - ~6 ounce rods, ridiculous for the price point. Their idea was to weight the butt section to counterbalance the tip to make it easier to shake a minnow on scope. While that's completely unnecessary, it's also dumb to do it to the casting rods. The carbon grip on the spinning is made to put your whole hand above the reel foot, it's uncomfortable if you hold it how you're traditionally supposed to. And the grip on the casting models digs into my fingers. IMO they need to take these blanks and make a B version with split grip cork and the bait holder in a non-intrusive spot. Shame, because the blanks feel great.

Lanier.

Agree with r83srock. The LBTC73MHF "Workhorse". I have that one and the heavy and I don't think I'd want to throw 3/8 jigs on the H. Workhorse seems more versatile, it's a nice rod.

Lake yachts and wake surf boats. 99% of the time annoying and 1% of the time a welcome bit of "current" to churn up some activity on an otherwise dead day.

Yep. Maybe there's a revision coming, who knows.

I love the Vanford series but was told by my tackle shop that it's being discontinued, and the parts diagrams for the Vanford series all list discontinued as well. I'd assume there's something new coming out soon as a super light sku. Stradic is bulletproof awesome reel too, it's just hard to go back after using the really light Vanfords.

I have a few. Big fan. Any particular questions?

I really like the sufix pink metered line.

Keitech Tungsten Fine Guard Jig Head I'd highly encourage you to try this instead though - rig it texas style on a light drop shot and pitch it or drag it fast.

I think they may be due for a deep clean quicker than my other reels, just feels like they've lost some casting distance. The weight thing is probably just down to ergos, it's not a big difference. They're all good reels, get whichever feels comfy in hand.

Why not just throw chatterbaits on your current mh rod and pick up a cranking rod? The st croix victory mhmf mod-fast 7'2" "cranker" is a great rod for rock crawlers and DTs and some jerkin.

IMX hands down. Have both these rods, the rip-n-chatter is a great rod for me for a couple things (lipless and jointed swimbaits) but I'd never try to hookset a chatterbait with it. The IMX is awesome for chatters, spinnerbaits, and lipless.

I'd personally take a curado mgl over either. I like spool tension knobs that are supposed to be used. I like quick access to open the reel to add a drop of bearing oil. But I also don't want to spend time finagling and tuning. My jdm zillions seemed to bog down really quickly. The tatula elite feels heavy in comparison to both others. I have all 3 reels if you have specific questions.

The new GLX feel considerably better than last gen to me.

Could make better suggestions if you define the weight and depth of the crankbaits or type of crank, eg squarebill, wart, flat, 6xd, etc. I personally think it's only a low percentage of rods that cross between crank and chatter well. Driving a 5/0 ridiculous wire single hook and size 4-6 rb trebles have completely different necessities to me. Casting distance is a big factor on my lake too.

You're talking about right outside it at John A Pattern island? Chart says there are some 6 foot spots there and the lake is down 5-6 below full pool right now so that makes sense. Do you think I'll be good so long as I pay attention to my charts? The only thing I'm concerned about is trees/stumps. The corps capped trees at 35-40 below pool on Lanier, but I've been to some other lakes where they draw down and tops of trees are just under the surface or poking above.

Probably heading up to Chickamauga this weekend, super excited. Not yet sure where we'll launch, but maybe Dayton. Are there any areas where we need to be cautious of stumps or unmarked obstructions? Running navionics mapping, just curious if there's anything I need to be aware of when off the main channel. If anyone has any tips or suggestions, would certainly appreciate it as well. I primarily finesse and crank on Lanier so hoping to get outside of my norm a bit but still do some stuff I'm confident with. Thanks!

Here's a local podcast with the founder Allen Brooks if anyone is interested. Lots of info included and clarifies some things.

Spot choker makes a great underspin. Also use dirty jigs and occasionally coolbaits.