Finally made it down to the Ville yesterday and the fishing was slow. It was really great to see open water and it was warm enough to believe that spring is just around the corner and then today's weather hits lol. Anyway the water was muddy, but clearing toward evening and the fish were hugging bark, at least that's the pattern that put fish in our buckets. I wanted to do a preliminary review with y'all on some of the gear i used and what i like and don't like based on one 8 hour trip. I absolutely do not want to start any arguments and based on the amount of time it took to boat the 8 keepers I had, I doubt if the information here starts a stampede to the Ville. 1. Bonehead 7' spinning rod- I like the length of this rod's handle. I cast two handed and this gives me plenty of cork to hang on to. I like the bait keeper up above the reel where God intended it to be. Sensitivity is very good and I lifted my biggest crappie yesterday, 11.5", out of some floating debris, with no problem. I cant find anything not to like about this rod. All of my crappie rods are paired with Shimano Stradic CI4s, was fishing the new CI4 plus yesterday. Its what you would expect from a company like Shimano. I've done reviews on the first generation of this reel on Tacklewarehouse's site, its a proven favorite of mine. They changed the handle grip and beefed up the frame from the original CI4 and I have no problems with either change. I also fished a Dobyns rod that cost double what the Bonehead ran and I do have issues with it. I bought 3 681S Dobyns spinning rods this January, had the 6'8" Medium out yesterday and sensitivity and backbone are not issues, the rod handle is about 6-8" shorter than the Bonehead, leaving me darn near holding the but tip when I cast and, this is the biggee, the darn baitkeeper is below the reel seat making for a real pain when you decide to move and hook your bait up. It is constantly in your reel handle. Not enough to keep me from fishing them, just enough to make me whine some. Bonehead braid, nice line. Casting distance on 1/8 and 1/16 jigs was nothing short of awesome and it is sensitive! I didn't have any wind knots or loops yesterday, the wind wasn't really and issue , but we did contend with it from time to time. I was fishing hand ties from JustCameSlabDaddy and Skiptomylou and both produced fish. Many thanks to both of these fine jig tiers. I was using slabslobber on Skips as the chenille seemed to hold that liquid well and I like this product as well. One key note: My buddy was fishing the tried and true Midsouth tube with a Reeves weedless head, which has an aberdeen hook, He also was fishing braid and literally ripped some lips, i.e. lost some decent fish because he tore their mouths. I on the other hand had every fish hooked through the skull, they were not going anywhere, with my sickle hook ties, remember early on I said no arguments, food for thought only. He could lighten up on his hook sets, but that's not going to happen. For the record, I had 8 keepers, 4 over/ 4 under with 2 dinks tossed back to grow up and my buddy had 5 under/ 5 over with a half dozen dinks tossed back. I know this post has been long winded, but so has this Illinois winter! Hope to get to spring camp this year, it will be my first and am looking forward to it! E.:biggrin
