bare foot wader

suffix and berkley sensation were both good to me....agreed on super silver being the cat's ass but haven't found any in a long time...

centre pins are night and day difference in terms of simplicity with cleaning compared to spinning reel....everybody has their opinion and how to clean bearings and lube or not lube, etc....can google or youtube a lot on that as well my pin gets a dunking on most outings, i have apex8's shielded bearings but not sealed, so far no issues with getting grit trapped inside, although ceramics would be very nice to try out but I can't justify the price of 'em for my current reel...I just take the spool off and wipe with a clean cloth after every outing..do the same on the river if needed

but you didn't say low cost, you said "pretty cheap reels"....kinda easy to misinterpret.....but agreed, inexpensive reel and decent quality

right about there is where I'd assume most folks assumed you meant garbage... I think this thread is talking about the new sedona's and not the old model....new model is nice and worth the 65 I paid, 500 is solid reel for ice fishing IMO

very handy for me...I like to keep a spool with braid and one with mono for deep and shallow ice fishing....next time I wouldn't buy shimano, find something that includes spare spool

I just bought a new sedona, 500 size for ice fishing, so far very happy with it....only negative is they no longer come with an extra spool, something to consider if the regal comes with one when I was at the counter the sedonas on display was very stiff to turn the handle, asked to see a few boxes and all were fine inside the box, so maybe that's customer abuse? but not really sure how much you can bash a reel at the display counter in front of sales staff?

google hatch charts for the grand, good start there also, quite a few clubs in sw on and all of them fish the grand...join a local club and it will greatly speed up your learning curve and you will learn a lot more about your home waters

nm, stayin out of it.....

prolly not the best forum to ask in but looks cool.... try the nith river, downtown new hamburg, about 15 mins west of kitchener....very light fishing pressure at best so probably a good spot for ya...dam there is about twice the vert of the dam in the vid you posted and can run dry in summer, but would prob work for ya in late spring and early summer

I also read as much as possible on the seller's history and customer feedback, look for any previous complaints....a lot of knock offs out there, esp for clothing....but things like electronics I've saved 300-400 before on genuine product, saved some decent coin, 100+ of fishing and mountain biking stuff too....be smart about it, do some research, don't bid unless you feel good about it

really great resource, been using it for a few yrs now....has a ton of lakes on there

definitely a unique and creative idea, props to that....but I really see no functionality for it on the water, looks clumsy with the foot operation..if he lost the foot lever part and just had the the net holder to clamp the net to the gunnel when you work on a fish in the net - that would be useful to me....if the net is stored in the water I'd think it would just collect debris as for keeping things safe, PFD's can fix that problem

where are you located? go to a MEC store....King St, a bit east of bathurst if I remember right (maybe king and peter)....you'll find something that suits your needs and your budget and better quality than what you're looking at now....

my first pin was a used okuma aventa for 80 bucks...fished one season and then upgraded bearings for 40 or 50 bucks and i still use it often enough....def good quality for the price you want to make sure that there are no nicks or dings, etc on the lip of the spool....give it a spin and look where the inside lip of the spool meets the backplate - make sure they are flush and spool is not warped....the bearings should spin smoothly and silently...but can be replaced for cheap too.

typical size walleye and smallie but there are some real trophies swimming around in there....

i can kind of understand their point of view...buddy did just leave the package behind and the shape is a bit suspicous...on that note must not be too great a rod or too diehard an angler, cause neither I nor any of my buddies would just forget a rod on a ferry... but yep, van to pemberton is pretty much on lock down right now.....road and air space closures, crazy security and massively increased prices on everything....example: heli pad land fee went from 30 to 500 we were sledding whistler back country and apparently in unmarked "restricted areas".....got stopped by about a dozen or so military personnel with machine guns pointed at us, air support to boot.....spent the next hour on our knees and cuffed while they interrogated us and searched EVERYTHING...ie removing seats and engine cover, backpack CUT open when they couldn't figure out how to operate the zipper..... got talking a bit after we had it sorted out....some of them had been stationed in the woods for as long as 12 days....oh, and in the end they confiscated a pair of scissors!!! and told us to leave the area immediately and to not return for the duration of the games...

not looking good there....pineapple express comin in...gonna be a wee bit wet at cypress

I've spent some time on big gull....it's a big lake and lots of structure and prime areas to fish...pretty much anybody can catch a walleye on that lake, jighead tipped with bait (worm, minnow, leech or gulp grub) drag on bottom and pretty much guaranteed to hook up....there are certain well known hot spots, anybody at camp's bay or the marina further up the lake(kirk's cove) can point you to these areas. largemouth and pike in the back bays...perch, smallies and walleyes throughout and musky roaming around.....heard that there were lakers and whities but not 100% sure on that.....have caught a few ling through the ice as well. for musky and pike my best producer was gold bladed bucktail...perch pattern cranks and jerk baits work well for smallies and eyes and of course draggin a jig.... make sure you fish the narrows EARLY in the morning, before the traffic gets heavy....it's mostly a deep lake and i had great luck bottom bouncin and backtrolling the deep channels between all the islands using a perch rapala and minnow harnesses...find a back bay with a feeder creek and you'll find a ton of snot rockets and bass.

I absolutely agree with you....but for everybody using factory built rods and dont' have the option to request a counterweight system built in then a heavy reel is easer to balance i'd say....better than leadcore backing or lead golf tape that i've seen some dudes use, just redonk IMO....and more cosmetically appealing than those BPS slide on weights, although they do work. on a side note, i have definitely noticed your rod in your pics before, quite the piece of eye candy....do you mind posting a pic of the counterweight system you have, are the weights interchangeable? i've seen some that have a removable but cap and you can use with BPS weights, but have also seen some that are fixed and permanent.

fish have very few nerve endings in their mouth....being hooked doesn't actually cause them a lot, if any pain....it's how they are played and handled that induces stress (ie being dropped in boat, held out of water for too long, lactid acid buildup from being fought too long/improperly, poor water quality, etc, etc)....assuming a fish is handled with proper catch and release methods then the fish has a very strong possibility of survival...used to know the % numbers but not anymore there is of course some mortality with C&R but in the grand scheme of things there are much larger and devastating threats to our fisheries. did this teacher actually say why she feels that way? did she provide any sort of qualified information, or just running her opinion?

I think it's important to have a ported spool and in general have the spool as light as possible....but I personally prefer a solid backplate, I think the extra weight helps to balance the rod better....good looking reel for sure

Andy is offering a decent rod at a very fair price... also, I think daiwa makes some cheaper musky rods for around 50-under100 bucks. I was also looking a rapala musky rod that was pretty nice for 60 bucks. IMO I'd focus on finding a good reel over the rod, retrieving musky baits all day with a bass baitcaster is no fun....as previously stated you don't need a fancy rod, find the cheapest rod that is strong enough to handle a musky and then spend the rest of your budget on a good reel and spoolin up with 80 or 100lb braid....abu's are good reels and lots around for cheap, last forever

I bought an abu cd6 and loved it...smooth drag and easy spool removal...used it for everything and it worked flawlessly(until the day i decided to take apart and clean myself and now it sits in a shoebox in about 50 pieces)....I'd still say that a front drag is easier to adjust while fighting a fish but that might be force of habit from years of fishing front drag...

whatever you buy flippin sticks take a beating....look for warranty...I personally dno't like telescopic flippin sticks, I'd go with a one piece, lighter and more sensi....

a zonker is a popular fly pattern...zonker jig is a just a zonker tied on a jig head....super easy to tie your own if you've tied any flies before...if not very easy to learn....or find a local fly tier, bring him your favourite jig head and pay to have a few tied.