ww2farmer

I fish BPS Extreme's, Bionic Blade's, and cranking sticks, all are fantastic rods for the $$, I would have no reason to think the Tourny. Spec. would not be either. I have handled them out of interest many many times in my trips to BPS, and they also looked like a well made, resonable priced rod to me......I can't comment on how they fish. Reguardless of what the tackle nazis say here, you can get good rods and reels for less than a house payment.

Thats dissapointing to hear that cabelas will not stand behind there reels. I buy Bass Pro shops house brand reels, and they will stand behind them. 3 years ago I bought 2 extreme baitcasters, one of them had a small problem and needed a part at the begining of last season. Was told by BPS to send to outdoor world repair shop..........they sent me a brand new 06' Extreme to replace it, thats good enough for me.

I like all the Zoom Fluke offerings........the super fluke, super fluke jr., the original fluke, and the tiny fluke. I like to rig the super fluke on a 3/0 EWG, the superfluke jr. on a 2/0 EWG, and the orginal fluke also on a 2/0 EWG, the tiny fluke is mostly a drop shot bait for me. The fluke can't be fished wrong........I use it weightless, on a c-rig, as a jig trailer, I even tried and liked the results I got on it using it on a shakey head rig.

Soon as I take delivery of it in April there will be pics.....there will also be pics of the bass I catch this year, my wife finally gave me a digital camera

I base my expectations on what the conditions dictate. I always expect to at least stumble and bumble my way to a few fish. I am happy to leave the lake with only a few fish if condtions are tough, and expect to not only catch a lot, but a lot of quality fish if the fishing is good. I get skunked from time to time......I am a fisherman.....therfore a liar ;D..........but it happens. I judge my succes at the end of the year, not on a day by day basis as there are always tough days. My goals for each year are also dependant on how much time I have spent on the water during prime times.

AGREE 100%, a big live craw will get bit.

I balance all my rods, I have all BPS rods, and most of them are made to fit a kit BPS sells to balance them. Cost's a few more $$ than the slip on ones, but it looks nice, and makes rod balancing easy and fast. I like the tip to be a little lighter, I think it helps me detect soft bites better, thats why I balance.

Great boat man......I know the feeling, just bought a new one too, hope you have a blast with it.

Thanks guys. For a first time boater, I didn't want to plunk down 10's of thousands of dollars on glass boat, or get any headaches with a used boat. I can see myself fishing this boat for a while, then trading up. I dunno though, in 10 years if I wanted to trade it on a Ranger like your's Redline Robert, I might have to pay them to take it.... ;D. BTW Robert that is one fantastic looking boat, congrats on your purchase as well.

Went out to Bass Pro Shops in Auburn NY today and bought the boat I talked about in another thread. Brand new ProTeam 170, it's a 16' mod-v, aluminum bass boat. 25HP 4 stroke Merc., not a speed demon, they claim it will do 25MPH, so I figure it will push 20mph lol, but I rarely if ever fish lakes bigger than 1000 acres, and I don't do tournaments, and the extra weight of a bigger motor IS a factor for towing. Only option I got was the electric tilt/trim, comes with just about every thing else (trailer, TM, fish finder, etc...), I 'll probably buy an onboard charger and cover. It will be a big step up from what I am used to and have now, an 8' molded plastic bass boat, powerd by a 30lb thrust TM. I will keep the small one for ponds and such. They tell me it should be in by April at the latest, just in time!! Best thing about it....it's mine.......no payments, and it's new, no worrys about what the other guy did or didn't do to it.

My preferances: Braid ONLY- flipping, frogs, c-rigs (with either mono or braid leader depending on a few factors) Mono ONLY-crankbaits,jerkbaits,topwaters for other applications,like spinner/buzzbaits,jig/worm, tubes, dropshot, shakey head, finesse, or weightless softplastics, I let the conditions dictate what line I'll be using. For light cover and or, clear water I go with a lo vis green mono, heavy cover and or, any time I don't feel line visability (to the bass) is an issue. I use braid on all of my casting gear, except my crankbait rods, and all my spinning rods have mono, with spare spools of braid for quick changes.

The Rick Clunn combo at $149 is looking very attractive to me, I think I might like the 7'H for carolina rigs.

Count me in as a cranking stick fan. I have 2 (soon to be 3) One is a 7 M, with a BPS Extreme reel, 5.4:1, for divers, one 6'6" M with a 6.4:1 Extreme for Rat-L-Traps, and subsurface cranks (like the baby1-) And will soon be getting a 6' M with another Extreme, not sure which one yet maybe the 7.1:1 for jerkbaits/topwaters. Right now I use the 6'6" for jerks, but I would like a shorter rod for that so I can move less line with a sweep, and perhaps the faster reel to take the slack up.

30lb braid for flipping 20lb braid for jig/worm, frogs 15lb braid for spinner/buzzbaits 10lb braid on spinning gear 10lb mono for cranks/jerks/topwaters 8lb mono for weightless soft plastics/finesse 4lb mono for panfish I like the smaller diam. braid, some don't. Also all my mono is low-vis green.

In addition to the Daiwa baitcasters I use I have 2 Extremes. One is the 2004 model 5.3:1,23" of pickup. This one has the 6 pin brakes under the side plate. I also have the 2006 modle 6.3:1, 28' IPT, this , along with the ones sold now have the external adjutable brakes. I use bothe on my crankbaits rods, the 5:3 on a 7' for diving baits, and the 6:3 on a 6'6" for jerk baits, Rat-L-Traps, shallow sub surface cranks. I love the older modle, cast's like a dream, smooth as silk, been very reliable and durable. The newer one is better for me now that I switched it to this application, before I tried to use it as a "finesse" casting reel. Has a tough time casting some stuff with it, probably not the reels fault, but mine for trying to use it where it didn't fit. I like them enough to buy another, I am going to put one on a 6' BPS cranking stick(both my other cranking rods are those too) for top waters.

I am also a booyah guy, my favortie is the 5/16 oz baby boo jig , in and around docks and ligt shallow cover, and the 1/2 or 3/4 oz on the out side edge of the weedline, of flipped into heavy cover. Much like spinnerbaits I used to use strike king, but there quality has gone to crap. Hooks bend, skirts fall apart, weed guards are either to flimsy or to thick (no consistancy), paint comes off of jig heads real fast...........and on and on. If I could vot for a 2nd favorite jig, it would be the BPS Stacey King XPS seres, great jigs for a low price, and they use quality gamakatsu hooks. I have boxes full of both boooyah, and bps jigs

I did not break any fish off with the Yo-Zuri line either. I too thought I had spooled it up wrong to have so much memory, but I let it all out behind the boat about 3 days after I first put it on to remove any twist I may have inflicted on the line spooling it up.......no difference, maybe the damage was done already? I do sopose it's possable that I could have got a poor/defective product, but to be honest with you I found that other than the perceived memory issue, the line was acceptable, if I were to perhaps try it again I might go to an even smaller diameter ...........say 4lb on spinning and 8 on casting, maybe?? My complaint on this line with casting gear was/is the same as yours, the backlash kinks, also I disliked the line for crankbaits, it made smaller baits a real fiasco to cast (soemthing I can do easy with the same rod/reel with mono). I use braid on all my casting rigs except my cranking rods, that is where I tried hybrid US and went back to mono. Just not the line for me I guess.

The 4.5" forked dinger out produced both the "regular" dinger, and fluke for me on some days in late summer, I have a good selection now, just another option. I still use flukes, and "regular" dingers more.

I like Trilene XL for mono, and Spiderwire stealth for braid, I also like Trilene sensation and plan on using it more this year, and also just bought some Spiderwire ultracast braid. We have had mild winter so far so I tried the new spiderwire out shortly after I bought it.......I liked it alot, in fact I will be replacing the stealth I use with it on a "trial" basis to see how I like it on a day in day out basis. Lines I hate.........Vanish.......too many problems with it to list, and beleive it or not I am one of few who disliked Yo-Zuri Hybrid Ultra soft. I tried 6lb on my spinning gear, and 10lb on my casting gear. It was way to stiff, killed the action of smaller baits, and had terrible memory on spinning gear. I gave it a fair shot too, I used it for about 6 weeks before I had enough. It was not as bad as Vanish for me, as I liked it's abrasion resistance, knot strength, and low visability, but I just felt it handled poorly. I tried Power pro once, was not overly impressed to switch from the lower cost stealth, and actually found it to be less durable than stealth, it did seem to handle the same, but I just never felt comfortable with it.

I had the 7' MH Fenwick Eagle GT, it ,IMHO was way to fast for crankbaits. It was a great rod for the $$ but it fell out of favor with me for these reasons: #1- too stiff, I like a fast action rod for jigs/worms, but I also like a tip that has a little "give", I know some guys like extra fast tips, but I do not. #2 Power Raiting, even though it was sopposed to be medium heavy it felt more like extra heavy to me, I couldn't load that thing up with less than a full oz of weight. Another reason I like a softer tip, let the tip load up and can cast quite small baits with aith it. This rod is all wrong for crank baits, and I do not think fenwick offers a crankbait rod in the Eagle GT line. If you want a truly exceptional, yet inexpensive crankbait rod, look at Bass Pro Shops Cranking sticks, I have two and wouldn't part with them for any thing. And they are not wallet killers either $50........

Count me in as beeing a Pfluger spinning reel fan (don't have any baitcasters.......yet, I still use Daiwa's for that) I love my Presidants, I considerd buying a Medalist, but for the xx35 size that I like the Medalist was just too heavy for my taste's (over 1oz. heavier than a presidant) But I will seriously look at those new Supreme's, I think they will make a great combo with the BPS Extreme rods I like so much.

I have billions of pounds of plastics......just about every style you can imagine, but the color selection is simple. Green Pumpkin Watermelon seed Pumpkinseed Watermelon/redflake Junebug Red shad Black. White The only baits that stray from this list are zoom trick worms.....I use the colors listd above plus bubble gum, and the zoom super fluke in baby bass. Each year though it seems I add a new "basic color"

Zoom super flukes Zoom trick worms Yum dingers Yum craw bugs (as jig trailer) 7.5" Culprit worm Those are the soft plastic baits I won't leave home without.

Another vote for the balsa Fat Rap.........that was one great crank bait. I don't know why the ever stopped making it.