We had our first accumulating snow of the fall last night, but it was actually pretty nice today. 49° and partly sunny. Creek was high but the fish were active. Hopefully I can stay out later tomorrow night.
So I did a thing over the weekend. Let fair warn you fellas, Don't give @BHP41 your cell number he will cost you lots of money... Pics coming if I can figure it out.
Nice. You’re gonna love it. A nice rod/reel combo will make your day on the water much better. More comfortable, and better feel means more casts and more fish.
A rod / reel you are comfortable with will definitely make fishing more fun. Like everything else you will evolve your fishing and eventually get to the point where you settle on gear that’s good enough for your needs. I have some very expensive stuff that’s for me isn’t much better than some of my mid level stuff with a few tweaks I prefer. My go to rods are Duckett micro guides. They retail about 100-150 each which is reasonable IMO. I have one $300+ rod I use but my go to’s are Duckets. They fit my hands good and have good balance and feel. My reels, some people struggle using my stuff the way I set them up but I control A lot with my thumb. I can cast better than most pro’s I know but my style is a bit unique to me. It’s all preference just like bait, where you fish, etc. That’s what I love about bass fishing. So many different ways to accomplish the same goals.
I just picked up one of those Ducket micros a few months ago off CL, obviously haven’t had a chance to throw anything on it because of the time of year but I love how it handles just goofing around with it in the shop. On the finesse end of things - any recommendations for a dedicated drop shot rod in the $100-200 range?
Duckett rod and your choice of reel. I have a Lews rod reel combo (only spinning rod I have) and it does the job fine. A lot of time for drop shots I use a 7’3” Ducket med with an 8.:1 Ardent reel with 20lb braid and usually 10lb flouro leader. Most people use spinning reels for drop shots though, I just hate them.
I like spinning for drop shot. I go super finesse with it though, 10lb braid to 6lb flouro and just enough weight to keep it in contact with the bottom. I usually tie on a small 2-1/2 to 3” Elaztech worm.
O really? This thing seems like it has really good bearing in it now. You fling the handle and hit the button it seems to spin forever. Compared it to a lot of lews and other reels at the shows, this was obvious better with just the eye test. Bhp recommended the ALX rod and the guys there where super helpful and I am really looking forward to getting on the water with this. I can tell this my just be a bad thing has I now need MORE legit setups. Lol
@assjuice cyrus if you don't have time for iRacing in the winter, what makes you think you are gonna ever see your boat this year?
Ceramic bearings do wonders. Steel bearings are ok when new but ceramic are the way to go. A bit noisy casting but just swapping out bearings, easy 20 yards. Bearings plus some tuning of reel internals bits n pieces, yard to quantify distance but repeatedly and consistency goes through the roof which leads to a lot higher accuracy.