ww2farmer

The rods I have broken in the last 5 years.......7' MH/F St Croix Avid casting rod, 6'3" M/XF St Croix eyecon spinning, Kistler 7'9" MH/MF Argon cranking rod, Kistler 6'3" MH/F dock skipping special, Fenwick HMX 7'6" XH flipping stick, Kistler 7' H/F Mag. TS "Jig+Toad", Abu Vendetta 7'3" MH/XF casting, two cheap 6'6" M Berkley Lightning rod shocks, St Croix Legend Tournament 7'6" MH/MF "pitching", St Croix Avid 6'6" M/F spinning rod, Fenwick Techna AV 7' M spinning, BPS Extreme 7' MH casting.....and those are only the ones I can remember. It's not the rods....it's me. I guess I am just doomed to being "that guy" who is hard on rods.

High end, low end, and everything in-between. I seem to average 2 broken rods a year now. I am very careful not to step on them when they are on the boat deck, they are stored in rod socks in the locker when not in use, and I don't (usually) do foolish things with them. I have broke 2 this year, 2 last year, 3 the year before that....I don't understand am I doing???? Today for example, pitching and flipping weeds with a rod I have used all summer, and I had already boated a 4lber, a trio of three lbers, a couple upper 2lbers, a fair amount of smaller fish, and 2 big pike today, and then for no reason on a hook set the rod explodes on a 2lber about 3 feet from them tip. Rod brand is not important.............I have broken every brand I have owned and at every price level, every rod I break is on the hook set, in just about the same location give or take a foot. I only know of one rod that broke because of obvious stupidity, I had a pike bite off my last jerkbait I had a particular size/color, and threw it on the deck in disgust, it broke on impact. So that ones on me............but the rest............it's a mystery, and I fear I am the reason for the multiple breakages. I know other guys who don't break any.............ever. I use braid exclusively as a main line, but I know lots of other people who do too, and don't have my problems. I don't have any of my drags locked down except for my frog rod, and even though I am a hard hook setter, I don't come out of my shoes or swing for the fences, and I know how/when/why to tame it down on hooksets too. I'm stumped, there must be something I am doing wrong.

I just don't like it.....there is a semi-story to it. I had a partner once who left a bag of chompers worms in my rod locker, and it smelled like garlic for weeks. I prefer the smell of moth balls over garlic. No floaties needed, I will just take you to my buddy George's house and tell him you are interested in buying soft plastics from him..................that will learn you.

No. All my hard baits are less than $10, the most expensive ones I have are about $15...like SK 10xd's, but I only have a couple of those, as in my situation it's a pretty small niche in which I will use them. I am just going to have to take everyone else's word for it that $25 baits catch more and bigger fish, cause I will never find out. I don't do too bad with the crap I use, so with the high numbers of things with teeth swimming around here, I'll just stick to what I do, and call it good enough.

I have regularly been getting two trouble free years out of the $75 group 24 everstarts. They are replaced at the end of the second year no matter what. Granted I am starting a smaller motor on an aluminum boat, and running smaller electronics with it, and I only fish about a dozen tournaments a year, and half of them are 3 hour affairs with the livewell running, but still each battery is used about 300+ times in that two year period with no additional charging except my outboards alternator. Are you running them down pretty good between charging? Most guys I know with bigger glass rigs have a multi bank onboard charger with a bank dedicated to the cranker to keep it fully charged between, and after heavy use.

I like pike just fine. They have their place in the food chain............THE TOP. The best bass lakes I know of have lots of big pike. Plus they fight better than bass, and they will rip the rod out of your hand when they strike. It's annoying to lose lures to them, and I myself had to go to the ER this spring to get a badly chewed up thumb glued back together. But many a bad day of bass fishing has been saved by willing pike, and I, unless I am in a tournament or they just swiped my stuff, enjoy them for what they are.

No garlic scented lures in my boat. And partners who complain are going to start getting dropped off at the nearest dock from now on. I have had it. One dude in particular.... We took second this past weekend in a team open, have cashed a couple other times, and even won one, and this guy is constantly complaining about what I am doing, where I am doing it, and how I am positioning the boat. No more of that. And when he's not complaining about what I am doing, he's complaining about how other guys he fishes with do things...........I can see why he is available all the time.

Yes...every penny................I use group 24's because of limited space in my boat, and I have yet in three years with this TM, fishing in the wind, heavy weeds, and other battery killing conditions for 8-12 hours, ever run out of power. In fact I have never even had to kick it up to 100% unless I am in the thickest of weeds. I can move around as fast as I want on 20-30% in calm open water, hold against a strong wind on 30-40%, and move against the wind ALL DAY on 50% faster than I care for. I even forgot to charge the batteries once over night and fished 8+ hours the next day with no noticeable loss of power. Granted, I am pulling around a 17' Aluminum boat with a 70lb thrust motor, but still............it's probably the best thing fishing related I ever bought. I don't have an on-board charger, I charge the TM batts. up at the end of the day with a Minn Kota 210P portable 2 bank, and have never used a charger for the cranker. I change my batteries out every 2 years......if they need it or not. And in 10 years of fishing this way it's worked for me. I don't run a ton of stuff off my cranking battery. 2 small lowrance elite 4 graphs, and a livewell pump. It probably helps my outboard is a small 4-stroke that starts easy, and I am pretty good on keeping stuff maintained.

Never had any trouble with 8lb used as a leader for drop-shotting, and other finesse work. But for anything else I didn't care for it. I would break 17lb test quite often on hooksets with jigs/plastics, either as a leader or as main line. Since I have switched to Seaguar Red Label I have not had any of the same issues.

That's an a-hole move on his part. I have gone out of my way while fishing creeks from my boat to help shore fisherman get their stuff back that they have snagged in trees. God forbid I ever fall out of the boat, or break down while out there, I would want some help, and the last thing I want to have is someone say "tuff luck buddy, remember the time you........"

Same thing happened a few years back to my 06' 25hp Merc 4-stroke. BAD GAS. Drain the floats on the carbs, get rid of the gas in the tank, put a new fuel filter in, change the plugs, and fill her up with 93 octane treated with a full blast of seafoam and star-tron. Let it run through the system for a while, and then take it to the water and open her up. I also changed all my fuel lines and primer bulb too. All of that was cheap and easy, and if that doesn't work for you, you have at least eliminated all the cheap easy stuff as the cause of the problem.

That describes the two guys I know that build rods, one does a very good job, the other...........well...........lets just say, he has the stuff to do it. I will only use guy #1 from now on. But it is exciting when you use guy #2, you never know what your going to get. A rod given to him for something just as simple as a guide repair might come back with parts of a table leg and an ash tray on it......and I am not kidding.

I have had ML Croixs in several series..........I wouldn't want them for GP work, the rod length/power/action I find to be best suited for that is their 6'8" M/XF. They make that in the Extreme.

Seaguar Red label has been great for me. BUT, I only use it as leader material. I use braid as mainline on all my rods. The only time I have had any issues with it are when I have been too lazy to retie after pitching/skipping/flipping a lot of docks, and broke off due to chewed and nicked up line from rubbing across all kinds of nasty metal dock posts, cross members, cables etc...., and even then, I can only recall losing one or two fish this year due to that, most of the break offs have been trying to free baits that were stuck in some hideous place.

Then why change?? I don't like Rapala products.

I like them better than the KVD's in some situations. #1 is when pike are chomping, KVD's are cheap................series 1 and 4s are cheaper. I also think they both come through grass better than the KVDs

I have always been a "cheap" sunglasses kind of guy. I have lost way too many in the water, or stepped on them, or any other disaster than can happen with glasses has happened. For years the sub $20 Berkley and SK glasses were all I used. Served me well. This year I have "upgraded" to the $40 SK S11 glasses...........and all I have to say is it was worth it. The are leaps and bounds better than the $20 glasses, 6 months of use and abuse, and they are clear and scratch free, the detail in the water is WAY better, I have seen things with better detail and clarity in the water with those glasses that several buddies with more expensive Wiley X's, and Oakley's could not. I even gave them my glasses and they were shocked. Are a $40 pair of glasses better than a $200 pair? Probably not, but in my situation.....YES.

The same way I fish the rest of the year...............except in shorts and flip flops..............but never EVER shirtless.

Same here, about the only stuff I buy local is my ice fishing line, bait, and jigs.

I'll try to help............I am not sure any of them are rapala's, but I do know the one on the bottom left is a Strike King series 3 in the green tomato color, and the second one down in the LH row is a Strike King Series 5, I am not sure what that color is though, kind of looks like gizzard shad. In the RH row, the bottom two are Bombers.

If it says Zoom on the bag.............it catches fish.

I have had good days on just about all types of Strike King cranks, and just about every color they make. Lots of variables play into why I am using what I am , where I am, when I am using it. Some seasonal, some weather related, A LOT of it is cover/depth/water clarity related.

I am so disgusted with the DT's and X-raps, I don't care if they were giving away scatter raps, I wouldn't take one. And no I don't like much of Rapalas "other" brands either, except VMC. At least with Storm, your getting a $5 bait for $5, with Rapala your getting a $5 bait for $10, and your lucky if lasts a day of serious use before it falls apart. I am NOT getting in line to buy the new $8-$9 Storm cranks either.

I regularly hit the bottom in 12 feet, on an average cast with a Strike King 5xd, super long ones or long-lining I can get it to 15, any deeper than that and I go with a 6xd, which will hit 15 for me on a regular cast, and 18-20 long-lining. I have not used the 10xds I bought yet. Where I fish bottom contact is not the only thing I want, sometimes I don't want it at all, I want top of weed "contact", and then to rip it free. One particular stretch of the lake I regularly fish...........if it touches the bottom, it's as good as gone.

1" Gulp Minnow on a drop shot. You'll catch them every cast/drop if your around them. From ice out till ice up.