PowerPro Superline
featuring EZ Spool

PowerPro
559 Sandhill Lane
Grand Junction, Colorado 81505
(970) 242-3002
www.powerpro.com
300-yard spool, 30-pound-test: $30

Why didn’t anyone think of this before? I’ve always preferred PowerPro braided Spectra line for its smoothness and sensitivity, but I found out the hard way that you’re better off having your reel spooled at the local bait and tackle shop than trying to do it yourself. Braided line must be spooled under constant tension and packed tightly on the reel, since it has essentially zero stretch. But now, spools of PowerPro are available for purchase packaged in what is essentially an oversized floss dispenser. You can forget about shoving a pencil through a spool to put line on your reels; the flexible sides of the “EZ Spool” allow you to hold and apply the necessary tension using your knees. Once you’ve filled your reel, you can use the integrated metal cutter to cut the line and hold it in place for the next job. Simply brilliant! PowerPro is available in moss green, white, hi-vis yellow and phantom red.

Lamiglas Tri-Flex Graphite Inshore

Lamiglas • 1400 Atlantic Ave. Woodland, WA 98674
(360) 225-9436 • www.lamiglas.com
TFX 7830 C ($240), TFX 8030 C ($250), TFX 7030 S ($230)

I’ve been fishing the Lamiglas Inshore Graphite Spinning Rod all season and have found it to be a perfect multi-purpose boat rod for New England inshore waters. I don’t like to carry more than a few “go-to” rods on the boat at any given time, and because the TFX 7030 S can capably handle a number of fishing conditions, it suits my needs superbly.
Lamiglas markets the Tri-Flex Inshore Graphite Series as an ideal tautog (or other rock-loving gamefish) rod. I have used the TFX 7030 S when fishing rocky structure for stripers and have been impressed with its combination of sensitivity and brute strength. This is a key quality when extracting large bass from barnacle-crusted rocks and lobster pot-laden pockets of water. At 7 feet long, this one-piece rod is rated for ¾- to 3-ounce lures and 15- to 30-pound-test line. I paired it with a Penn 710Z (I know, it’s a relic) spooled with 30-pound-test Cortland Braid. This has proved to be an excellent setup for lobbing eels, throwing large plugs, or casting large soft-plastic baits into gnarly water for large fish.
When casting isn’t producing or if I’m just feeling lazy, I’ve found that this setup makes a great “emergency” lightweight trolling rod for use with large swimming plugs. It’s strong enough to hold it’s own against a three-knot trolling speed with an 8-inch lipped swimming plug, but it’s still “light” enough to keep the fight fun.
The 7-foot, 8-inch and 8-foot baitcasting versions of the Lamiglas Tri-Flex Inshore rod perform equally well in the aforementioned fishing scenarios, and they are also first-rate for bottom fishing. They can handle heavy current and a large sinker, and they provide you with superior strike sensitivity in 80 feet of water. Considering that the Tri-Flex rods excel in three different applications – light trolling, bottom fishing, eel/plug casting – I think they are the perfect choice for a versatile boat rod. With Lamiglas’ limited lifetime warranty, you can be confident that you’ll be getting good value from a quality, versatile rod for many years.

Quik-Slide Sinker Slide
Innovative Products, LLC
PO Box 1626 Fairfield,
CT 06825

Here’s a new spin on an old piece of fishing equipment, the fishfinder rig. Over the past few years, an increasing number of anglers have been switching from monofilament to braided fishing lines. But along with the many benefits of braided line comes a host of new problems that the extra-strong, thin-diameter line can create with all sorts of tackle.
For example, braided line has a tendency to cut through the soft plastic used on most traditional fishfinder rigs. Innovative Products has come up with a simple answer to this problem: they’ve used a much harder plastic insert on the Quik-Slide. I tested these little guys on 30- and 50-pound-test braid, and they showed no ill effects.
The other nice new feature on the Quik-Slide is the revolving inner tube, which allows you to easily attach the slide to your main line after you’ve tied on a leader. There are times when I prefer to fish bait with no weight at all, such as at slack tide or in shallow water, and the Quik-Slide allows you to easily add or remove a fishfinder rig without cutting your line.

Doug Hannon’s WaveCast

WaveCast
5910 Pine Hill Rd., Unit #8,
Port Richey, FL 34668
http://wavecast-reel.com
(727) 869-7870
Suggested Retail Price: $79.95

For a spin-fisherman, it’s one of the most disheartening noises in the world: without warning, just after you relax your finger and fire your lure toward the horizon, your reel coughs up a bird’s nest of braided line. If you’re lucky, it’s a few minutes of untangling. If you’re not, it’s a complete cut-and-retie. And for some reason, this tends to happen right as the fish begin to show.
Any fisherman who has dealt with windknots (as these tangles are usually called) would be intrigued by a reel that claims to eliminate the problem. The WaveCast reel features an innovative toothed spool that was designed both to increase casting distance and to eliminate massive tangles. If a small loop forms in your line – which is almost inevitable when fishing with braided line – the loop will lie down between the teeth on the spool. That means line leaving the spool on your next cast will not have a chance to grab the loop and pull it out from underneath, which is the cause of many of the worst cast-halting tangles.
I’ve fished extensively with the WaveCast, which is rated for 260 yards of 20-pound-test braided line, and it has been completely trouble-free. Despite being designed by largemouth “Bass Professor” Doug Hannon, the reel is saltwater sealed. I paired it with a medium-weight St. Croix Premier freshwater spinning rod and used it to throw topwater plugs to largemouth bass and to fish soft-plastic baits for schoolie stripers. Although I tested the first-generation reel, the 2.0 version is now available, offering sturdier construction and an improved drag system. In early 2008, the reel will be available in a 400 and a 500 model, which are designed specifically for saltwater anglers.

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