ww2farmer

First the rod buying spree..............and now I just bought a SHIMANO Curado with the $50 rebate. 2 weeks ago I was anti-Shimano but man the 101 size reel seems like just the perfect ticket for the TBC 7' MF I just got. I wish they offered the rebate on the Chronarch 51MG...............OH GOD!!!!!!!!!!! LISTEN TO ME.

Mostly BPS Rods, Extreme's, Bionic Blades. I have a few other St Croix's, a Triumph and a Premier. I am/was a big fan of Fenwick Rods, have a few of the HMX series, Eagle GT's, and Ventures. I had a Techna AV for a short time, but had many issues with it (guide related) I fished it so little I never developed a "relationship" with it LOL. I have been wanting to upgrade for sometime but never found anything in my price range that seemed to be better than what I already had. I also need to "simplify" my rod selection, I am now of the opinion that I would be better served by fewer combos of higher quality.

So..........after thinking about getting a higher end rod for a while and kicking tires on some Kistlers, and others today pulled the trigger on a few new rods. Got a larger than expected bonus this year, had.........to my astonishment.......no bills to pay, the Xmas shopping all done, I decided to buy my self something nice. Lucky for me my local tackle store had lots of St Croix Avids, and Legend Tournaments on sale. Here is what I got: Avids: (all spinning rods) AS60MF: My new dock skipping rod AS66MF: My new "GP" spinning rod AS70MLF: My new dropshot rod Legend Tournaments (all casting rods) TBC66MHF: jig and worm rod TBC70MF: teaser rod TBC73XHF: big jig rod TBC76MHMF: pitching rod OH man.............this is going to be a LONG winter waiting to use these babies. BTW Avids were all $89, and LT were $139. These were the last 3 Avids he had, but they had a few more LT that didn't interest me, the top water rod, the C-rig rod, and big crank bait rod to name a few.

Another vote for the BPS binders, I use the Extreme series double finesse binders, they hold 20 "pages", 3-4 bags of most type baits in each page. I have no trouble stuffing them full plus a little extra.

A 3" grub on a 1/8 oz round jig head slow rolled like a spinnerbait has been EXTREAMLY effective for me in cold water conditions. I reel it just fast enough to keep it "bumping" the bottom. Many times I have caught bass in high 30ish water temps using this method, while my buddies have gotten skunked.

I fish clear to moderatly stained most of the time and I have GREAT results with a pink trickworm. Even in the clearest water. Big pre spawn females just crush it. After the spawn though the effectiveness of pink seems to decrease for me, green pumpkin works well after that.

I started using tungsten this year, and 2 weeks after I started, it was all I owned, with the exception of split shot, I am 100% commited to using tungsten for all my t-rig and c-rig needs next year. But I will go back to lead on occasion for drop shotting, I lose alot of drop shot weights, and would have to win the lotto to keep up with what I need. I still use lead jigs and jig heads, and will continue to do so for dragging tubes, as I also lose alot of those. But I am really thinking about buying some Tru- tungsten jigs. As for shakey heads, I used both the Tru-Tungsten Ikey heads, and the Spot removers, I am not a fan of the Ikey heads, so I will be using the lead Spot removers from now on.

I am very interested in this reel, it looks to me to be based on the new Exceler reel, which, sadly replaced the Procaster 100H series, a favorite line of reels for me. Even though this reel is new, it is a BPS exclusive, which means it WILL be on sale often, do not EVER pay full retail for it. I will buy one when the are on sale.

SO was my mom LOL ;D Great job on the boat, I am sure you will get many enjoyable hours of fishing from her.

That 1/4 to 5/16 oz range is just about where I switch to MH power, but I do through those sizes on M power rods as well. Depends on condtions. If I am pitching a 1/4 oz t-rigged platic or jig into a laydown or hole in a weed bed then I use the MH power rod, if I am working the same bait in open water I go with M power. BUT I use fast action for both. Moderate action, like others have said, is not the best choice for a good solid hookset, but if thats what you want try it, you might like it, I just know I would not.

With shimano you need to mail in a rebate to get a decent reel for less than $100. With Daiwa, Quantum, Abu Garcia, and Pflueger you can get a good reel for less than $100 with NO rebate.

Personaly I would not care for that rod for plastics or jigs, IMHO it would be a better crankbait and/or spinerbait rod. Also IMHO the MH power would be a poor choice for "small plastics and jigs" . A M power/fast action rod would be better. I don't switch to a MH power untill I get above 1/4oz, but then again 1/4 or 3/8 oz may be what you mean by "small" I guess you need to clarify that.

With the rocks/wood/cement structure you described I would think 10lb Trilene XT would be a great " all around" line for that combo. Extreamly abrasion resistant, easy to use on baitcasting gear, and best of all pretty darn inexpensive so if you do need to respool often you won't go broke doing it.

I don't know if this has been posted yet, but for all you Shimano fans, Shimano is offering a $50 mail in rebate on new RETAIL purchased Curados, $30 on Citica's and $20 on the Cruxis.Has me.................yes me................thinking of a Citica 201D.

jtptr196.........I few weeks ago I was also leaning very VERY close to buying a Kistler, the Jig-N-Toad rod from the Magnesium TS series. I was very impressed with the rod. I have never spent that much on a rod before so I asked here about them first. I got many responses, including advice on taking my reel to the shop and mount it first to see how it fit and balanced. So I did just that. I took my reel (Abu Garcia Revo S) to check the fit/feel. I was quite dissapointed. All 3 Mag TS Jig-N-Toads in stock had sloppy fitting reel seats. Now the Heluim LTA's I tried the reel on all had good fitting seats, but they were not in my plans. The Mag TS may be a great series of rods, but my $70 St Croix Triumphs, and $90 Fenwick HMX's all have tight fitting reel seats, for $170 I would have though that would be a non issue. I may still upgrade my rods in the future, but I am a little turned off by Kistler right now.

Well I don't know when they changed the formula on Sensation, but I have been using it for 3 years now and have loved it. Lower stretch,low visabilty, smaller diameter compaired to mono equivalent, extreamly managable on spinning tackle,and very abrasion resistant, infact I used 8lb Sensation to drag tube jugs in Zebra mussle infested waters this year and it held up quite well, and Zebra mussles WILL tear your line to shreads. It's almost my idea of a perfect GP line. I don't know what "version" of Sensation is on sale where you are, but if it's new 2007 made line, it's well worth the price. I don't agree with RW on much, but I do agree with him in that the early versions of Vanish were total JUNK. I guess they have changed that as well, and actually I have a few freinds who fish it alot and swear by it. One guy is a very accomplished TX angler as well, so maybe I might try it agian.........but like most products, fail me once, and it's hard to trust it again.

I have used both the HMX and Eagle GT, if you can, get the HMX. It's a much better rod, and on top of that it's a much better value. I have fished ALOT of brands of rods in that price range and IMHO the HMX is the best bar none. I don't like the Eagle GT's reel seat on there spinning rods. The 7' M power HMX spinning rod is a stout stick very capable of handling 3/4 oz baits. This is probably the one rod in the entire HMX line I do not like. It fishes more like a H power rod IMO.

I collect 1/64 scale toy tractors/farm equipment. I also enjoy shooting/collecting US military firearms from the WW1 and WW2 time period.

I don't know anything about the Pinnacle, but the Daiwa is a very nice reel, and I would jump on it at that price.

NFL: Buffalo Bills :'( NHL: Buffalo Sabres MLB: Who cares NBA: Double who cares Collage anything:

That just ran over and killed my 3 year old daughters 6 mo. old kitten. Didn't stop, didn't slow down, didn't even leave a note. Just came home and found it dead in the road. No one saw anything. Grade A jerks. > Thank god I found it before she did.........this is a hard enough disaster to defuse. :'( Sorry guys just had to vent.

Gamakatsu hooks rank right up there for me. I have NEVER EVER found even ONE out of the thousands I have used over the years to be bad. No matter what style hook, they are always sharp and well made right out of the pack. Zoom and Yum soft plastics also are very good, produce as well as the big "GY" brand for less. Original Rat-L-Traps are the best bargin in hard baits today, even WITH changing out the hooks with better ones, the still don't cost as much as the premium priced lipless baits and can hold there own.

Good topic: Rods I HAVE, Rods I USE, and Rods I LIKE: BPS Extreme's $65 on sale often BPS Bionic Blades $55 on sale often BPS CRanking Sticks $30 on sale often Fenwick Eagle GT's $50 Fenwick HMX's $70-$90 Fenwick Venture's all of mine were bought for $20 on clerance at Walmart, they were $50 St Croix Triumph $70 Berkley Series One $70 Berkley Lightning Rod $35 Same goes for the reels: Casting: Daiwa Capricorn 100XTCL $80 on sale Daiwa Capricorn 100HL $80 on sale Daiwa Procaster 100HL $60 Daiwa Advantage LH $70 on clearance Abu Garcia Revo S-L $100 (but worth it) Quantum Accurist 501CX (gold colored) $80 BPS Extreme 6.4:1 LH $45 on clearance BPS Extreme 5.3:1 LH $45 on clearance Spinning: Daiwa Capricorn 2500 $80 on sale Daiwa Laguna 2500 $40 on sale several Pflueger Presidants $60 several Pflueger Gold medalist pros $40 Daiwa Exceler 2000 $60 I will also have to mention reels that did not make the "cut" Abu Garcia 5501 C3 baitcaster, no problems with it just to big for my tastes. Pflueger Trion LPL baitcaster, also no problems, for some reason Pflueger only offer the Trion in wide spool LH, again to big for me. Pflueger Medalist spinning reel, xx35 size, smooth, rugged,reliable, also heavy as a rock at over 12oz's too heavy for a bass reel IMHO. BPS spinning reels, too many to list, but not 1 I had has ever held up, funny thing is the baitcasters I have are going into there 4th season and still quite solid.

Just to add another wrinkle to what every one else has said, when c-rigging in thick grass I like to use a smaller weight, 1/8 or 3/16 oz. This keeps the rig on top of the grass. Anything heavier just drags massive ammounts of milfoil back to the boat. When I want to get under the milfoil, sometimes 3/8 oz is heavy enough, some times 1 oz is NOT, you have to adjust to the condtions and go heavier if needed. All I ever fish in the weeds anymore is tungsten, glides through with ease. I don't even own any non-tunsten worm weights anymore.

If you fish water with even moderate weed growth braid is the only way to go. The thicker the weeds the more it excels. It's green color blends in with the weeds, and even clear water in/around weeds tend to be darker with shading etc...., so visability is a non issue, and it "slices" through weeds like no other line. The senstivity and hooksetting ability of braid is unmatched, you can expect much better hooksets on longer cast's and in deeper water with braid. Braid is also the only line I would use as my main line on a c-rig, weeds or not. Also, going against popular opinion, I use braid on crankbaits when weeds are around, in fact letting the bait hang in the weeds and ripping it free triggers alot of strikes for me.