I'm cracking up by guys tak'n in by "names" of rods.....Spending anything over $50.00 , the only rod i've ever broken was my dads fly rod on a windy day along the big Nestucca in my car door

Louis F.

Hey, leave my coffee grinding surf reel out ot this! I *like* my coffee grinder!

I HATE the low and medium end Shimano spinning reels! They absolutely suck.

Yeah, the Diawa Capricorn is a big(ger) reel, holds more line, sounds like a coffe grinder (the drag), and is heavier than the smaller 2000 series Shimano Reels, but at least my Diawa is still working. Can't say that for the pile of fubar Shimano spinning reels sitting in my basement.

Oh, and I'm not willing to shell out multiple hundreds of dollars for a high end POS Shimano spinning reel that is gonna die any ways.

Thanks, but no thanks.

Oh, and all the $50 yellow rodders out there need not to reply.

parker,

Take at look at the Diawa Laguna 2500. Nice reel at a reasonable price.

I did, Dan. It was broke right out of the box. Used it once, and it was a piece of shiat. I took it back, and upgraded to the Capricorn. Haven't looked back since.

Parker, how can you say that... I have 2 stradics right here that are still solid as a rock.. No I don't fish them now as I've got the Sustain on one rod and the Stella on the other. But the last two mentioned have caught hundreds of fish each and still work like champs... You ever hear of reel lube??

Any reel that doesn't sound like cards in bike spokes when fighting a fish is good for me (like your's) heck be thankful sound doesn't travel from air into water you'd have the school spooked after hooking one fish... So I have to lube my shimano's once a year.... Half the problem with my reels is they get so caked with egg goo they get a little sticky but nothing a little dial soap don't fix... Oh yeah and a little egg goo on the rod doesn't hurt anything either... :p
Keith

Just for that, I'm gonna zip tie on a little bell to the end of my 1141. All day long your gonna have to listen to that bell as I drag the bottom for those steelies.

I'll have the quite the smphony going on once I hook a fish!



PS - Reel lube and/or grease? What's that?

parker,

What did you do......open the box with a jackhammer?

My Laguna has treated me very nicely. I have been known to clean and lube it occasionally, though.

Think if I got Keith liquored up enough that I could make off with his Stella?

Dan

I am also a big fan of the Laguna. I have fished them for two seasons now without any malfunctions.

I noticed that nobody mentioned the Lamiglas certified pro or Ti2000 series rods. How do these compare to the IMX and new All Star Titanium rods?

Chalk up another BIG for the Diawa Laguna 2500!

Parker, No yellar rods here....i'm just say'n there are lots of quality rods out there (not overpriced) that do the work for half the price.... I'm cheap and very proud of it.....I've caught 25 lb salmon on a 6.6 zebco gatorback(9.99 at Big5) matched with a 5501C3. Here is my latest match i just love to use.....(not yellar) 7' Shimano Convergence Rod, 24.99...and a Abu 5000 39.99. I catch i eat.


Louis F.

now this thread is for me! I am a fan of the big five discount rods, I try to catch them when thier on clearance, then I get them at 50% of 9.99. I get snagged and have to much trouble with car doors, tree limbs and my wife when she's pissed to be dealing with the money bags stuff. if my stuff breaks, I handline the fish in and go buy another 10 dollar wonder. ain't tryed it with a large fish, but should work with a little line burn

Funny.

You guys get snagged up on the bottom, and instead of breaking off and retying, you guys just toss the whole rod/reel in the water and go get a new one!

That's funny, there has been times I've wanted to throw my whole loomis setup overboard... Not for the lack of sensitivity just whiffing too many over achieving summer runs or losing them... I've had my bad streaks...
Keith

Someone, on this board, once suggested to me that "yellow rods make great tomato stakes." I would imagine a Shimano Covergence would be equally suitable.
Just a thought...

Parker,
I noticed in your videos, you guys set the hook on alot of your fish (sidedrifting). Since I stopped setting the hook, my hook up ratio has increased significantly. Whats your thought on this? Are they not committing or somthing? not trying to be an ass, (can't help that ) just wondering.
Also cheap rods do have a purpose..... Loaners

We're not side drifting for these fish. It's straight boondogging. Oh, and you are only seeing my edits. I put the "whiffs" in there for fun!

Here's my take on it:

I will suspect if you're waiting for summer fish to hook themselves, you're probably going to be missing a ton of fish.

Some fish committ suicide and swallow the bait (no brainers. Line is screaming. You got fish. Reel now). Some fish will just pick up your bait and swim along with the boat, only to spit it out. Some fish will chomp on the bait, but not committ. If you don't set the hook on these fish, you will *NOT* get them by waiting.

Unlike a winter run, which doesn't want to move too much for your bait, the summer run will happily move a great distance for a bait. You can see this in the video when I hook that "chaser". That fish easily traveled 20 feet from it's hiding slot to get my prawn that I was retrieving to the boat! Because these fish are fiesty, they like to grab the baits and swim with the boat. The only indication you might get that you have a fish is either a slacked up line (dead giveaway you should set the hook NOW), or some very subtle on the ol' IMX 1141s. The 1141 may, or may not fully load up on you.

Since the winter run fish likes to stay put, all you have to do is keep moving the boat, and the fish will probably just hook itself. That has been my experience in boonin' for winter/spring fish. They tend to easily hook themselves.

I'd say the majority of these summer runs have inhaled the baits and it probably wouldn't make a difference if we set the hook or not.

But, try getting me to "wait" with a 1141 and a summer run. Yeah, I'll wait until number 3, and it's all over. Set the hook and bust the rod, 'cuz it's fish on time!

We see guide boats full of clueless clients catch fish all the time. So, that tells you the "hold the rod and look stupid" method of boondogging does work.

Maybe it's not necessary, but we're not missing fish because we're setting the hook. Of the fish we do miss, we always tend to feel that we waited too long for the hookset.

Feeling the "bite" and the 1141 loading up, followed by a good, hard hookset, is 99% of the fun for me! Past that, you can reel up the fish for me.

To be fair I don't spend a pile of time sidedrifting summers, its usually more a winter show and we rarely have fish drop the bait. With my limited summer run sidedrifting or boondoggin expirience I found that waiting = alot less wiffing. But when there climbing all over it it doesn't make a huge difference anyways.