Close Shave

[Sphynx]

So I have a couple of rods and a new reel and was desperately trying to find some fish to get an idea of how the new reel and at least one of the new rods handled, tell you what, they wanted nothing to do with a shakeyhead and a green pumpkin trick worm, was tossing it on a 7'1" MF St. Croix Mojo Bass with a Daiwa Tatula Elite 8.1/1 spooled with 65lb braid and a 10lb mono leader, nearly 2 hours I snagged it and tied on a crankbait, spent another 30 minutes and on my last cast managed to hook up on a decent 1-2lb smallmouth, he fought hard and I managed to bring him to hand...no shock at all that 8.1/1 is a miserable thing for a crankbait, this is hardly a revelation to me, and likely not to any of you, but the reel and the drag performed wonderfully, no flex, smooth as glass drag, I like this reel a lot so far, blew it up once, but it had to happen coming over from a Curado DC, the Rod though, I think I am in love, the MHF I usually press into service for cranking at present has just been relieved for cause, I doubt it sees another crankbait, jury is still out whether a MM glass rod or a MHM glass will do better, those will get ordered next time I find a deal, but I really like this combo for plastics and other, non crankbait applications...also, one fish means no skunk, and he was a solid fish, with a fat gut, looking really healthy which is always a pleasure to see, and he tried every low down, filthy trick he could lay flukes to to stick a treble in me, love to see that fighting spirit, they just never give up like a bucketmouth will

[Big Rick]

Well, this thread title had me thinking you were asking whether to try Harry's or Dollar Shave Club....

 

Love your combo, by the way. Those Elite reels are amazing. 

[Sphynx]

4 hours ago, Big Rick said:

Well, this thread title had me thinking you were asking whether to try Harry's or Dollar Shave Club....

 

Love your combo, by the way. Those Elite reels are amazing. 

Lol, I'm a straight razor or double edged safety razor man myself, and this particular close shave was with a skunk lol, I am amazed at how light the combo feels, my 7'1" MHF/Curado DC combo is noticeably heavier, not sure if it's the rods, the reels, or a bit of both, but I think they are both coming down to the river today for a bit of experimentation, I have no interest of subjecting myself to another day of cranking on an 8.1/1

[PhishLI]

On 10/2/2020 at 8:50 PM, Sphynx said:

.no shock at all that 8.1/1 is a miserable thing for a crankbait, this is hardly a revelation

For $30 you can drop a lower ratio gear set in for different presentations. Might take you 15 minutes tops, and that's if you stop to clip your toe nails in between. Easy and fast.  Another upside is that you'll get some much needed lube on the gears. Daiwa's stingy with the grease lately.

[Sphynx]

9 hours ago, PhishLI said:

For $30 you can drop a lower ratio gear set in for different presentations. Might take you 15 minutes tops, and that's if you stop to clip your toe nails in between. Easy and fast.  Another upside is that you'll get some much needed lube on the gears. Daiwa's stingy with the grease lately.

One of the biggest reasons for buying one of each was to settle for myself which overall system I preferred, there will be more reels purchased to fill out my rods, and in varying ratios, honestly 5.x/1 or 6.x/1 suits me great for most cranking applications, there are times I want something faster, but you have to be careful with it because if you go too fast you can get some undesirable action from the bait, but there are times especially at the beginning of the fall feeding where it seems based on a lot of my own experience that there is no speed at which I can crank which is "too fast" as far as the fish wanting it is concerned, some days the faster I crank the more they wanted it, so the 8.1/1 was an experiment to see how far I could take that theory, the normal application for that reel is going to be on my frog and punching rod, and for those 2 techniques the high ratio and the heavy braid are perfect.