ww2farmer

At the start of last season I did not own a single 7:1 reel...........by the end of it I owned a couple, and I have added a couple more for this year. The things I like them best for are: #1 pitching....get it back faster and make another pitch #2 frogging...takes up slack , and keeps up with fish swimming at you better #3 swimjigs....It's effort - less to keep a jig high in the water with the faster reel, I really notice a difference when I switch to a 6. something:1.

If it were me: Lipless crank Jerkbait finesse jig Shaky head Drop shot flat sided diving crank In no specific order. 40-45 degree water pretty much describes our lakes for about a month after ice out, and those baits are what usually work for me.

I can only speak fro my own exp.......but I started doing much MUCH better in tournaments when I worried about what I was doing, and pretended I was the only one out there, and just went fishing. I have to put blinders on. I don't want to know what everyone else is doing, nor do I care. If I do what I do, the best that I can do it, with no screw ups (broke off fish, bad decisions, etc...).........I hate to sound so arrogant, but...I am tough to beat on my home lake. My goal is to win every single tournament I enter...and win it my way. It's not always going to happen, but I am not going to worry about what everyone else is doing, I loath that way of thinking, and more than once I had to tell my partner last year to zip it when he started rambling on about how so and so caught fish, and on what they caught them on, and where they caught them. I don't know.....everyone is different, but that's how I fish.

I am an odd ball as I like cranking specific gear BUT...I use braid for my main line.I cranked for years with any rod, always caught fish, About 5 years ago I bought cranking specific rods, several things I noticed right away: #1 longer casts.......cranking rods load up and fling baits way further #2 fewer lost fish.....the just seem to stay pegged better #3 less effort....used to be if I deep cranked all day, I felt it, even with a low geared reel. But put the same reel on a cranking rod, and the rod absorbs a bunch of the torque of the big baits and spares me. Now.......I fish a lot of grass, and the one thing cranking rods didn't do very well for me was cleanly snap the bait out of the grass..........then I started cranking wih braid, and for the most part that took care of that.....and gave me a few added things over the mono I used to crank with: #1 longer casts #2 got the baits deeper #3 way....WAY more fish made it to the boat that bit on the end of a long cast #4 the feel, I can almost feel bites with braid before they happen........it's tough to explain, but you get a sensation of the water around your bait is being disturbed before you actually feel the thump. #5 the performance in grass is outstanding, not only does it let you pop it free and clean better than mono/fluoro, but (and this goes back to #4) you can feel your way through the grass better There are some disadvantages to cranking with braid...........I would not use it for cranking rock, and in very stiff wind it gets a bow blown in it. But the whole zero stretch thing is backwards thinking IMHO..have your drag set right, and use a cranking rod, and you won't be pulling hooks out, or any of that.

Mine is paired with a Gen3 Revo STX...it's pretty dang nice, and with the dual breaking, I can skip a frog up under a dock like I am using a senko on spinning gear. LOL. That dual breaking is the deal for skipping with casting equipment.

I resisted doing the Facebook for as long as I could, but I had to finally give in as some people I know it's the only freaking way to get a hold of them. I don't tweet...twit...or what ever the heck they call it. Even though I am married I still get visitation with my testicles once in a while, and they would be mighty disapointed in me if they heard about "tweeting"

What he said on the St Croix's.........been there done that myself. A H power Croix is a broom stick...............same goes with Abu, I am using a MH Veritas and it's plenty of rod for all but the thickest of mats. I only go up to a H power rod for frogging if all I am going to do is drag and hop one on a super thick mat.

Your neatness is to be commended. But personally, IMHO, it's not much of a crankbait box unless you can pull AT LEAST 47 lipless crankbait out at once all stuck together and spend a 1/2 hour untangling them, while in the mean time, the sun has come out, the lakes gone flat, and that bite has died.

I wear shirts..........Shirts I get from people who sell shirts, if you were to sell shirts, I might buy one, then again I might not.

For a couple years now my main frog rod has been a $50 7' MH Berkley Lightning rod shock. Before that I had rods that cost 3 times as much for frogging and non of them did the job any better. It's not super light, and will wear you out if your going to frog for 8 hours..........the very reason why I "upgraded" my frogging rod to a much lighter 7' MH Abu Veritas. Which is still pretty cheap, and much lighter, plus it's the swiss army knife of bass rod lengths/powers (7' MH that is) and if I need another rod for bottom contact it can pull double duty.....the shock...not so much.

I have 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4 oz. Red Eye Shads, 1/2 and 3/4 oz. Storm Rocking Shads, all three sizes of the Rippin Raps, a bunch of Xcalibers, some Spots, Rat-L-Traps, Damiki Tremors, and the new Sebile Vibe Machines...................90% of the time I fish about 2 different colors of the 1/2 oz Red Eye Shad LOL.

Abu stuff is great, I personaly use the Vendetta and Veritas rods. I'd think about the Veracity but I hate micro guides, and I think thats all they come with.

I used ball heads for like 1000 years, then last year I used the VMC "Ike approved" swim bait heads. They worked pretty good....perhaps I will use them again.

I only remember the lures that I have won or cashed with. I have mentioned them here before.............do the research.

So....we've established your distracted by shiny metal things. Hmmmmm.....maybe fishing is not for you................oh wait I didn't say that, quick look at this...........OOOOHHHHH AHHHHHH....tin foil.

I see this going far.

I think winter needs to be over so we can fish.

I have seen bass beds in some odd places....it's not all that strange to see them bedding next to something un-natural, like a railrod tie, tire, etc....but once in while they will build it ON something goofy. One memorable one was a male guarding a nest he made on the underside of a submerged lawnmower deck.

I like them. I have beat on my 51E's for several years now with nothing more than a wipe down/back off of the drag at the end of the year, and spool bearing cleaning/re-lube,plus occasional lube on the level wind gear during the season The finish is pretty durable on them too. These reels always seem to be on the deck of my boat, and not hidden away in the locker, and they still look great...................but I don't even know what they weigh down to the last fraction of an ounce..........LMAO.......so I am probably not to be trusted.

Yeah, I remember the Advantage, Tierra, and Fuego I had having externally adjustable mag. brakes.....what I was saying is I don't recall (maybe they did and I just don't remember) being able to adjust it "easily" with my thumb while still palming the reels. It's been a while since I had a Daiwa. The only mag braked reels I am used to using the last few years are Abu's.

Excuse me for offending your delicate senses....I guess I should have broken out the scale, measuring calipers, and called NASA for advice before making such a bold statement.

These came today, and it's going to be a while before I can use them, but for the $70 (retail for $99) each I paid for them NIB with free shipping, I am impressed as one can be with a reel in this price range out of the box with no time on the water yet. They are as light as my Curado 51E's, and palm better than the Revo's I have.....especially the Gen3 STX. I like that I can adjust the magforce easily with my thumb while I am still palming the reel, I don't remember being able to do that with Daiwa's I used to own (TD Advantage, Tierra, and Fuego).They look and feel nice...........gasp......on Abu Vendetta's, and Veritas's.

I really like my Abu Garcia Vendetta and Veritas rods, mine are all matched up with either used Revo's or Curado's that I have bought here.

My walmart has plenty. I was just there today.

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