Baitmonkey Feeding plus more!

[BigBassin144]

So, my dad and I went to BPS last night. I was planning on checking out three rods and about 5 spinning reels to decide which I like the best.

For the rods, I was looking at the St. Croix Mojo Bass, Daiwa L&T, and Shimano Compre. They didn't have many compres, but the one's I held had great feels and were fairly light and balanced well. The one thing I didn't like was the rear cork handle was a lot wider than the reel seat. The Daiwa L&T was a bit dissapointing to me. It was probably the heaviest of all three rods and the worst balanced. I also didn't care for the plastic reel seat on the spinning model. The Mojo Bass rod was very light and balanced well. I like most split grips, and this was no except. The bottom of the grip was large enough to handle when two handed casting and the rest was very comfortable. It was also the cheapest rod in the line up. I'm not a big St. Croix fan, but I think they outdid themselves on this one, especially for the price. I'm ordering the 7' M Tube rod from Tackle Warehouse today.

The reels were a much harder decision. I had 130 bucks to spend on the reel, so all of them were between 100 and 130. I was looking at the Abu Garcia Soron, Daiwa Tierra, Pfueger Supreme, Shimano Symetre, and Shimano Saros. Right away I eliminated the Soron, since they didn't have it. but the lady I talked to said the employees got to check them out and she said it was a very nice reel. The Symetre wasn't as smooth as the Saros, sobye bye symetre. Size wise the Tierra 2500, Saros 2500 and Supreme 8030 were similar. The Tierra held more line, than the other two, but the Supreme was smaller than the others. In the bearing count, the supreme won hands down with 10, followed the tierra with 8 I think and the Saros had 6 I think. They were all equally smooth, but the saros (9.9oz) was a bit heavier than the Tierra (9.6oz), but the Supreme (7.4oz) was the lightest by far being it's a magnesium reel.Like I said, they're all very smooth, but you could feel the gears move in the Daiwa Tierra. But they said that's a good thing on tackle tour?! I don't know...

Being a bit hesitant about buying a Shimano after my bad experience with the Sahara, I (finally) decided on the Pflueger. While it doesn't have has many features like the shimano fancy spool, anti-twist thingy, or Daiwa airbail and twist buster, it did seem to be a great value. So I said, let me go grab the Mojo rod and stick the reel on to see how it balances with the rod. I come, back and she's got the display reel off the display handle. Uh-oh... They were out of the 8030 and I didn't want to go up to the 35. So, it gives me an excuse to go back!

So, being disappointed, I went to look at tackle. My dissapointment soon disappeared as I started putting stuff in the cart and checking it off my small list (the BPS catalog ). Anyways, I've been saving money for a while and needed some new stuff for summer.

So here's what the monkey got me for:

1 TT 4" slow/fast sinking swimbait in Bluegill. Can't wait to fish this little guy.
2 Rapala Clackin' Raps, Glass Ghost and Yellow Perch
2 Rat-L-Traps, black/chrome and firetiger
1 Bandit Footloose in Bluegill. The weeds in the local res. are too high for the 100 series now.
2 Bandit 100 series, forgot colors
2 Strike King KVD tourny spinnerbaits, Bluegill and Sexy Shad
1 Booyah swimmin' Jig, White
1 PowerBait Crazy Legs Chigger Craw, watermelon candy
1 Strike King flippin' Tubes, Green Pumpkin
1 Rage Tail Anaconda 7", GReen Pumpkin
1 Lucky Craft Rick Clunn Deep Knocker, Ghost Green Perch (The LC made me forget about them not having my reel.

I think that's about it. They didn't have some of the stuff I wanted like the new Booyah Pip-squeak buzzbait, but I made up for it in other stuff.

Now time for the Plus More! We get on the expressway to head home and an old truck is behind me. about 1/2 a mile down the road, there a classic car on the side of the road with a flat tire poor them... And my dad remembers, there's a car show at the Wendy's off the next exit. So we get off and go check out the show. It wasn't real big, but there were some nice cars. A very nice unrestored Challenger, a really nice 68 Vette in a cool dark green. a couple cars that were souped up for drag racing, mid 70's vette, and a couple mopars. About 8 new corvettes, a new Camaro SS V8. Looks nice in Black.

So, I think it was a good day. Trip to BPS, a car show, and a Spicy Chicken sandwich!

BB