ww2farmer

In all honesty the best rod for a 10xd is a flipping stick.

I use a 6'6" or 7' M power casting rod. I tend to use cheaper gear, and I have found the 6'6" M Lightning rod shock is a great rod for these cranks in and around tight cover and/or target casting, and when I need a longer cast and am covering water over flats or just looking for random biting fish, my 7' M Abu Vendetta works well. I have current generation Daiwa Exceler casting reels in the 6.3:1 ration on both, spooled with 20lb braid, and they cast them a mile. I have tried them on one of my "better" combos, a 6'9" M/XF Fenwick Elite Tech Smallmouth w/ a Curado 51E..also with 20lb braid..but I just liked the way they fished on the other rods better.

A couple lakes around here have Alewife.....close enough.

The$40-$60 or so spinning reel talk begins and ends with the Pflueger President and/or Trion. I have had others (Daiwa, Shimano, Abu, etc.) in the same price ranges and always come back to the Pfleugers. There is no more experimenting with this for me. It's simple........If I need a spinning reel...........I buy a Pflueger.

I prefer a 7:1 reel..............but I fish clear water. I don't want them to get a good look at it. 7' MH rod, 30 or 50lb braid. 3/8's is my go to size, unless I am dirt shallow, then I go with 1/4. I use two trailers, a single tail grub in cold water, and boot tailed swimbait (like a RI skinny dipper or havoc grass pig) in warm water threw/over grass. I'll also fish the grub as a trailer in warm water when I want to "keep the bait down", it doesn't have as much "lift" in the tail.

I actually do not like my squrebills, lipless cranks, jerkbaits, topwaters, mid depth and deep cranks to be the same color. IDK why, but it's always worked better for me that way. I keep three colors (give or take a few LOL) for each "type". These are the three for each that would be my "must haves". For squarebills/shallow cranks I like: Bluegill, Orange Belly craw, and chart/black back Mid depth: Rootbeer, sexy sunfish, baby carp Deep cranks: Chart. sexy shad, , chart. belly craw, and sexy ghost minnow lipless: Chili craw, albino craw, and Jap. shad Jerkbaits: Yellow perch, natural bream, Ayu Topwaters: clear water minnow, black, and white

2001 Jeep Cherokee XJ with the old inline 4.0L 6 cylinder, it hardly knows my 17' Tracker is behind it.

A 12-13" bass after a dip in the batter and deep fryer is as good as anything. I actually like them better than crappie because they are firm.

It's slowly getting better.

I like them. Especially the lipless one knockers.

I have both rods your asking about, and my answer is..............DEPENDS. If your cranking over/around heavy grass, go with the Cranking Stick, it's a little stouter for better/cleaner rips out of the grass. Hard cover or just about anything else, Veritas. It's lighter than the Cranking Stick. Also, to me at least, the Veritas is a tad over powered with a big bait like a 6xd or 3/4 oz lipless, it handles 5xd's and/or 1/2 oz traps great though.

What he said............BUT.............it's also going to depend on the MFG of the rod. I have had some brands M/F that were way to whippy to me, and needed to move up to a MH/F for any backbone. Fenwick, Shimano, and Kistler to name a few. The Abu Garcias, and St Croix M/F rods I have/had have been far better "All purpose" rods for me.

I'll offer my .02 on rods..........If you can wait, BPS several times a year has sales on there Cranking Stick series of rods. One of the best bangs for the buck in cranking rods bar none. Even at the regular $79 price you'll be hard pressed to find something better for the money. I started cranking years ago with one and have "updated" and have cranked with many different cranking specific rods since........$250 St Croix LTB's, Kistlers, Abu's etc...I am back to Cranking Sticks, they just can't be beat for the $$.

6lbs even, May 2008, caught on a 3" watermelon red flake yum dinger on a drop shot rig off a bed, on my home lake (Silver lake). While I have hundreds of 5+ lb largemouth, and quite a few over six out of that lake , that smallie, was the first, and one of only a hand full of 5+ lb brown fish I have caught the last 10 years there. I have caught a lot of big smallmouth there, but they almost all seem to top out in the upper 4lb range for me. It's been about 3-4 years since I had a 5+ brown fish, maybe this is the year I get another, I'm due LOL.

Long line a 6xd, they come in Tenn. Shad. Or if you, or your gear, is up to it, a 10xd will get down that far on a long cast, and it also comes in Tenn. Shad.

This about sums it up for me too. Besides the fishing has been slow here for a week or two as well, so that makes the decision that much easier. I'll be back after the morons go away, and hopefully the post spawn funk will be over and the bite will be better by then.

I have been wanting a shallow KVD squarebill for a while now, looks like the wait is (almost) over. I'll buy an 8.0.......but like the 10xd's it'll probably collect dust in my tackle box.. I wonder if Berkley is going to have anything new in the Havoc line? I didn't see anything in the bassmaster sneak peek, I know the money maker is new, but it's out there and available now , at least directly from Berkley.

Man..................Silver lake continues to be in the worst post spawn funk I have ever seen it in my life. I have fished that lake seriously for 10+ years now and have not had a two week stretch this bad...maybe ever. I have bombed my first three tournaments this year (kind of my own fault trying to force a bite that's not happening, hoping it turns on while I am grinding away), the weights to cash/win these tournaments have been pretty sub-par, no one has broke 14 lbs for 5 fish yet, and in the 3 fish tournaments, 11 has won both, with staggering fall offs to 6-7 lbs to cash, with most guys reporting junk fishing all day for the 5 or 3 bites.........MAYBE... but some guys are cashing with less than a limit. The winning bags in two of the tournaments came from literally PARKING on a 100 yard square grass mat in 3' of water, for 8 hours, and making 10,000 casts with a frog over the top during the day............I just can't do that LOL, I would go nuts. I know there are fish to be had somewhere else but it seems like I am at the wrong place/wrong time all the time right now. I am never going to be the guy to blame something else for my lack of results, but this is been an epic struggle the last two weeks for almost everyone. Just goes to show you that even some one who basically lives on the lake, and fishes it 100's of times a season can be stumped at times. Even during my weeknight after work trips, I am struggling to get 2-3 bites.Yesterday MIGHT be the start of the end of the funk, as my buddy caught 6 in the morning, and I caught 6 in the afternoon...we'll see. I'll wait for the holiday idiot boaters to clear out before I go back out there.

If you can't get Power Pro to last more than a couple months something tells me you may have other issues. I have Power Pro on some of my reels that is 2-3 years old. I am not saying it's the best, but it works for me.

I'll agree with this. For spinning reels I don't care, but a casting reel will last longer with a rigid frame. I have current generation Daiwa Exceler's mounted on my Vendetta's. They can be had all day for $70ish NIB on the bay with free shipping. I am not endorsing these reels by any means, as they are only half way through my first season of use with them, (I like them so far FWIW) just giving you an example of aluminum framed reels available for the same kind of money the Pro Max costs.

1/8th and 3/16th are my two most used sizes. I prefer the VMC Rugby head over any other head I have used and/or tried (those include the SK tour grade, spot removers, and the megastrike heads)

My standards based on the lakes I fish, area of the country (WNY) I am in, etc.... Small keepers: less than 2lbs Decent: 2-3 lbs Above average 3-4lbs Big: 4-6lbs Trophy's: 6-8lbs Fish of a lifetime: 8+ lbs

All of my cranking, deep or shallow, is done with 20lb braid, and has been for years. Fluorocarbon leaders are added when I am around rock, or pike.

Another right handed guy who reels lefty

Not including this year,I have been fishing tournaments on my home lake for 6 full years (2008-2013). These are open tournaments, team format. Some are 8 hour 5 fish limit tournaments, some are 3 hour, 3 fish limit tournaments. Here are the "stats"...........yes I keep them LOL. Total # of Tournaments 2008-2013: 54 Money Finishes: Wins: 4 2nds: 9 3rds: 6 4th: 4 Other money finishes when there have been enough boats to pay more than 4 spots : 1 Lunker: 3 (twice with wins) So.....out of 54, my team mates and I have cashed in 25 tournaments....that's less than 50%. Some days you have it some days you don't. Sometimes you go on long cashing streaks, sometimes you go a LONG time between cashing. The longer I do this the more regularly I do well, but I am not immune from sucking....I have not started well this year, I am 0 for 2 in case your wondering LOL.