ww2farmer

No, but I have been catching bass on jigs since the late 80s.

I have always assumed it did, so I use it only if I have to.

Warranty will be a non-issue with either brand. St Croix, and Pure-fishing (fenwicks parent company) are two of the best in the business. I have fished both brands, I always thought St Croixs were a little better made, and finely finished, but you get more bang for the buck performance wise with Fenwick. Never had a durability issue with either brand, both make good solid rods. Then there is the whole "made in the USA" vs. made overseas issue.......if that matters to you, the Premier is made in the US, the Fenwick is not. It matters not to me, but some people it does. In your price range your going to get dozens of different answers, I like what I like, and that's all that matters............. and now I humbly bow out of the $100 dollar rod war before guys start getting stupid. But I do think it's fair to warn you about the *** fan boys............they are like locusts.

I still use loose, non collectable USGI WW2 surplus M2 ball .30 cal ammo. Just for kicks I put one full bandoleer (48 rds on enblocs) of DEN 42 (Denver Arsenal, mfg, 1942) through one of my M1's last week, all went boom, all hit the target. I followed that up with short session of 35 rounds of WRA 45 ( Winchster mfg. 1945) .45 ACP through one of my 1911A1's and that all fed and fired reliably............no comment on my shooting ability with the pistol LMAO. About 10 years ago I shot up a TON of 1931, and 1937 mfg. Frankfurt Arsenal M1 ball that was stored well out of my M1's,1903's, and 1917's. No issues there either. It's all about how it was/is stored. Moisture = death to ammo. If it has been stored right it will outlast all of us.

Ditch the flukes and get a bait with a little more density, like the Yamamoto D-shad, SK Caffeine shad, or Havoc The Jerk. I really like the Havoc bait, it's cheap, shimmies on the fall, is way more durable than the caffeine shad, and has more tail "action" than the D-shad. It comes in all the colors you need for a soft jerk bait........I.E. white, bubblegum, and several forms of green pumpkin and/or watermelon. I do not like using hooks with weight on the shank, and I find a plain 4/0 Gamakatsu EWG super-line hook, with about 3 feet of 17lb fluorocarbon leader tied to 20 or 30lb braid will keep the bait "down" to where I want it. Soft jerkbaits are one of my favorite ways to fish shallow or over top of grass at any depth. I catch a ton of fish on them when I want to cover water in what I like to call "slow fast mode" and don't feel like plodding along with senkos, shaky heads, or drop shots and the bass don't quite want to commit to a topwater, are not in the mood for hitting a crank, swim-jig, or spinnerbait, nor are they interested in lures falling fast like t-rigged plastics or jigs. I have fished all the ones I mentioned, including flukes, and I like the Havoc one the best. Besides, EVERY TIME I order flukes anymore, they ALWAYS come bent all out of shape, yes you can boil the tails to get them straight, but dang it, I ain't got no time for that.

Because I like it, because I am good at it, and because I can.

Nothing revolutionary here...............I use a 6'9" ML/XF rod, 2000 size spinning reel, 10lb braid main line w/8lb fluorocarbon leader.

#2 VMC spinshot hooks, 3/8 oz. dropshot sinker, 4" straight tail worm in the brand/color of your choice. If you don't get bit drop shotting this, your not around fish.

100% confidence. I do the same thing. Every year I load up the boat with "new" stuff to try, and at the end of the year it all gets sold to buy more of the half dozen baits I always catch fish on. Every fall I say .......that's it, no more new stuff, but I get bored and buy crap all winter long.

Lipless: SK Red eye shad, Storm rocking shad Sub surface: Storm sub wart, Manns baby 1- Square bill: SK Kvd's. Mid depth: SK KVD flat and Storm wiggle wart Deep: SK 3xd, 5xd, and 6xd. Jerkbaits: SK KVD, and Storm twitch stick

Plano 3700. Sorted by weight, color, and style. One box holds all my jigs, as I keep it simple. Black/blue and green pumpkin for my flipping jigs 3/8, 1/2, 3/4, and 1oz. Black/blue and green pumpkin for my finesse jigs 3/16 and 5/16 oz. Black/blue and green pumpkin for my football jigs 1/2, and 3/4 oz. And White, black/blue, and bluegill for my swim jigs in 1/4 and 3/8 oz.

Most of my reels are either Shimano Curados or Abu Garcia Revos..............BUT............I needed a couple reels to throw on some rods earlier this season and I wasn't having any luck finding good used Revos or Curados in my price range. So I went cheap, thinking I would fully regret it. But let me tell you, I have been pretty impressed with the Abu Black Max reels. they have seen over 100 days of use this year, frogging, flipping, and getting beat on. I have actually tried to get them to break, and short of just smashing them with a sledge hammer, they have put up with any abuse I dished out. I have done nothing to them but lubed the spool bearings and worm gear, and they are still smooth, quite, and solid. They cast as good as anything else I have within "normal" casting gear lure weights, and have handled some pretty big fish out of thick cover with no problem. I don't expect them to last forever, but for $50 I have gotten my $'s worth out of them this year. The mag breaks are very user friendly and I can actually skip baits with these reels better than I can with my Curados . If they can last a season of my abuse, they should last anyone. When they die, I'll toss them out, or keep them for spare parts. Eventually I will replace them with Revos or Curados, but for now they are working fine, and have exceeded my expectations.

Never had any Cabela's rods, but Bass Pro rods served me well. I had Extreme's, Bionic Blade's, and Cranking stick's. I miss the cranking stick, it was one of the best crankbait rods I ever had, and I have had quite few that cost a lot more than the $79 BPS charges for them.

I am going to upgrade my ice rods this year. I have been using an 18" UL HT polar light, and a Frabil 24" UL with a spring bobber. I find myself using the 24" rod most of the time, so I am going to upgrade to a Fenwick Elite Tech, or Abu Veritas UL ice rod. And this year I am going to use braid with mono leaders, I have been running straight 2lb Trilene micro ice, but the local shop has 4lb power pro, so I am going to give it a try.

Just doing what I do man...lol, I'll pm you the info, it's not top secret or cutting edge, but I like to keep it on the DL.

I will pitch with any rod I own, letting cover dictate length/power/action. I like to flip with a 7'6" rod, either MH or H power depending on how thick the cover is. The longer the rod, the further from the boat I can flip, and IMHO it's a lot easier to flip cover in deeper water with a longer rod. I have tried 7'11" flipping sticks, but went back to a 7'6" and that's where I will stay, it's a good all around length.

Green Pumpkin Black/blue flake Watermelon/red flake Junebug.

The smallmouth decided to play "tricks" on me today, but the largemouth were the treat. Great day for numbers, with 20+ keepers boated, with the best five a 4-13, 4-3, 3-14,3-5, and 2-15.

We all do it. I don't know how many times I have had a bad day and blamed this, that, or another thing for it, when it was really just my own fault for not figuring it out for the day

I like to go old school. M1928A1 Thompson w/Cutts compensator, horizontal fore-grip, and I prefer the 20+30 round sticks to the drums.

I am 100% catch and release for bass, but I am going to start keeping everything I catch....... Within legal limits of course, and post videos of me filleting 5lbers on here just to cause an uproar, just because I like to be a d bag..... Actually I probably won't, that's too much work. For years people equate there lack of fishing success with other people keeping to many fish, when the truth of the matter is people like to blame there sucky ability to catch on someone else, rather than looking in the mirror.

I like the leeches and minnows. But I buy them in the bags. #1 the bagged baits are softer, Idk why, but they are. The baits in the buckets always seemed to be stiffer and while more durable, get me less bites than the bagged baits. And #2, I have bad the buckets/tubs leak all over the place...... Most undesirable.

I forgot to mention the BPS cranking sticks. For many years the 7'm cranking stick was my only cranking rod. Back when I pretty much had a three crankbait rotation.... A 1/2 oz rattle trap, a Manns baby 1-, and a wiggle wart. It fished those baits great, and I don't think it would be a bad square bill rod either.

I like graphite cranking rods with a moderate or moderate fast action for just about all of my cranking. St Croix and Abu Garcia both make excellent graphite cranking rods in the price range you want to stay in. I had the 7'mh moderate Mojo cranking rod, and liked it for 1/2 oz. lipless cranks, and 1.5/2. 5 sized square bills. It didn't throw 1.0 size or 1/4 oz. very well, so I switched it out for the 7'm veritas winch cranking rod. And that throws the smaller baits better, as well as the stuff I used the Mojo for just fine. I will caution you on this...... If you're going to be ripping baits out of thick grass a lot, use braid, or switch to a faster action rod. Moderate action rods tend to load up too much to get a sharp, clean pop out of the grass. When this happens to me, I switch to tossing those baits on my 7' m vendetta or 7'mh lightning rod shock.

Take a look at the Lowrance Elite 4x. It retails for around $170-$200. I have the GPS version which goes for $300, but the sonar is the same on both. I am really happy with mine.