GrantG

If its within 10 hours drive, I will come over for this one if its during my off week. Just let us know where you guys are going to do it and when. I'm off work every other week. Grant

You guys should at least go somewhere with a shot at big fish. If I were traveling to fish big baits and have a get together, I would want a lake where I knew there were teen fish. Why not florida?

After you get the tail cut to match, use a kitchen knife heated with a torch or on the stove to melt the plastic. Then you can make sure you really get the tail welded on there good. I have made a bunch of weedless 68's this way. Just put the knife in a vise or beer mug or something to hold it so you can have the bait in one hand an tail in the other. Grant

If you want more a more free spool, do what the first guy said. Only drawback is you have to re-oil every couple trips, and you are not getting the same level of protection as with the grease. But the do perform a lot better. I do this to all my freshwater reels. The ones that pull saltwater duty keep the grease. There is also a plastic bushing on the spool shaft that can be replaced with a bearing. This makes the reel seem much smoother when under load. Grant

I have always fished the salt when in Pensacola. Can't help with freshwater fishing around there. Grant

I use calcutta/conquest 300/400 for most of the big stuff and bottom bouncing. I use the 300e for Suface baits like the punker and FS shads and gills. The 300/400 shimanos are much smoother with more torque. The curado casts well and is faster on the retrieve. I fish 70-80# braid on the curado, and 20-30# mono on the round reels. I am not sure if a stock TE will outcast a stock 300e with the same bait/line. I usually have different baits, line, rod for each reel. And these reels have been tuned also. The only baits I feel you really need a round reel over a larger cap low profile are giant, high resistance baits where you need the torque, or hudds where you really wanna crawl it slow. Grant

I usually do well with white freestyles in the stained water we have here in the deep south. But I have caught them on pretty much every color made. Position, angles, speed, and timing are much more important than the color of the bait in my opinion. Grant

You need to consider a softer rod if your going to use braid. Something in a heavy power rather than XH. Using braid and stout rods with treble hooks if foolish. You need something as a shock absorber. A lot of guys use mono. That keeps things from breaking during the fight due to stretch. But if your set on braid, use a softer rod. If not, go ahead and plan on losing a lot of big fish either to hook failure or ripping the hooks out of the bass mouth. If your fishing where a 7# bass is your fish of a lifetime, disregard what I said. Those fish probably aren't strong enough to hurt you. But if your fishing where you could hook up with a teen fish on any cast, you want to be prepared. Grant

I'm in. East of the MS. Way down south.