TackleTour

I say this with all due respect, but nice rack

Gary thanks,

and again thanks as usual for brokering another deal with me the Valkyrie World Expedition 6'6" "whipping stick" made it. At first glance and early impressions are extremely high I'm super psyched to get this rod on the water! Stay tuned for more pictures but a couple to get it started

As promised, so sick!! I may seriously have to get the 6''1" eva grip as well I'm letting the cat out of the bag now anyone into chucking big baits should like this Rod of course time will tell once I get it on the water but as stated early indications are this thing is t@tties!! Thus far what stands out how light(relative to materials and of course I would have to attribute that to the overall structure being without the shields kimono and the Mars adjustable handle) and balanced. this Shorty is very very Nimble but oh so powerful cannot wait to actually load it up to Chuck L.O.U.S out onto the water the biggest I've put on is the 8in bull shad and wow according to the video of my two guys and the research I did it seems very spot-on because it handles the 8-inch bullshad I believe even better than the 7'6" stick. I absolutely love the handle on this thing I got it sealed up nice and tight with my special blend to give it that nice shellac look and gives it a bit of a grip , the balance point is with a beefed up Scorpion XT 1501. I love the big and proper double footed guide train of course but then the fact that they made it just a bit bigger all through the guide ut train makes it so any knot/leader will go through flawlessly although that's never a problem for me as I fish straight braid. take this with a grain of salt as I have not gotten it on the water just yet but hopefully this week I can make that happen but enjoy the few additional pics of slung up.

Some additional

Had to show the western sun shots of the blank as well as top of forgrip. Hard to tell from these shots but the Valkyrie's WE blank aesthetic carries over from the other series. Very cool Sheen and still has a tiny bit of flake or Fleck that reflects in the sunlight reminiscent of some Daiwa STEEZ rod and I'm not talking about the decorative wrap portion either, I am talking this nice almost root beer finish beyond and up is so neato in the sun

Okay so the superlatives don't end with this particular specimen holy smokes what an absolutely hands down fantastic rod for at this point any thing with a treble hook but keep in mind of my lures of choice as you can see this was what was tossed at a practice pond this morning as I couldn't wait to get it out on a kayak and actually fish. Absolutely a beast of a rod and so light and Airy for something in its class it's ridiculous I honestly can say you folks out there chucking big bates need to try these series of rods out may not fit all your needs but should be the only Rod you need for big treble hooks/spoons Etc...... no joke throws my conception or the conceptions of needing a longer rod for distance casting. I loved how it handled the 8 inch bull shad and the other accompanying Bates I brought with me this morning but as it stands this Rod will definitely be my main 8 inch bull Shad rod I definitely can see myself picking up the 6-foot 1-inch version hands down without a doubt it's just a matter of when at this point my search does continue however for the Almighty snagless/weedless and chunky rubber 10/0 to 12/0 beast hook rod. On that note I have something up my sleeve that will hopefully remedy that conundrum For those paying attention finally got my #1 Decoy Quattro and #4 hyperwire rigged on the back of the Kokanee Triple trout

I also picked up an additional Deps Bullshooter jr., this was a floating Garanashi when she arrived but I added the proprietary tuning weight to make it slow sinking madness ....

Also side note on all 4 of my Shimano reels I am now running 50 lb Power Pro my reasoning is definitely line capacity first and foremost and secondly I still feel I have the confidence/strength to throw not only the 8-inch bull Shad but the other types of trebles swimbaits that are in my Arsenal so just a heads up I believe I was running 65 for quite a while

Few shots of Monday's little shoot and scoot. Water is very low, and super stained like beef broth....no takers but just wanted to test the new beast rods out. 8 inch bull shad still lights out with the World Expedition Tossed in the 7 inch Triple trout a little but definitely like the 8in bull Shad on the world Expedition. The double bull was a lot of fun throwing weightless double wides beavers out initially but I think this rod needs to go ahead and get my 201e chronarch on there. Of course, the balance is a little bit better with the 201e, And instead of being a power versatile rod with the smaller XT 1001. It will join my lineup of growing swimbait rods. It is much more powerful and beastly than the 8-foot hyuga(which is now outfitted with 10lb P-Line Floroclear
and 51e Chronarch for all around smaller treble hook shore duty) Which I also thought was a sneaky powerful SB rod in my hands So now the double bull has the 201e Chronarch with 50lb PP prepped for swimbait battle Until or if the vegetation and muck comes in better this season. In which case she will be vegetation monster finder What is the white Python up to now? Well the xt 1001 Scorpion will now be outfitted on there to be a hollow bodied frogger. In my hands the White Python screams hollow bodied frogs. I am going change out the payload on the little scorpion Frogger Reel with Vermilion 40 lb Power Pro just to give it a fun little detail instead of the plain green. Thanks for letting me share as usual TT

Okay I have steam lined my lure selection this season. Since no a soul replied to my freebie offering I have now packaged up those offerings with a bunch of rubber/plastics and a few more treble choices for about 6.7lbs of a swimbait/bigger bait starter pack. See sales section for details. The answers BTW for those paying attention was Skip Engblom and Jeff Ho who dreamed child the Zephyr surf/skate team in good ole Dogtown

While I sit and kill time as I am in a bidding war for another swimbait, I handled business and got project Kokanee part 2 buttoned up. This is yet another Butch Brown colorway soooooo stoked ........weather had been up and down but soon I hope to get some consistent time in plus life kicking me in the b@lls dosen't help either in any case enjoy and thanks as always for letting me share my sickness....

Scott Whitmer definitely had a nice run when he shot these up with his color palette. This is another 8" specimen in his blue trout colorway I just had to add. My fever is burning up! I was suppose to get out today but the kids have the ick so a day at home but was soften by the arrival of this beauty Tomorrow is more hopeful just a side note........ I like to share a lot of these shots to hopefully put some people over the edge who are questioning whether or not to make purchases of this caliber in regards to these particular specimens took me a while to pull the trigger on some of these just because of the I don't know question but it's definitely cool when you're pleasantly surprised by the the quality that goes into some of these handcrafted baits Though pictures never really do us the real justice like a specimen in hand.

Water level up! It was awesome when I was on the water but got blown off after about 3 plus hours. Split time between the weighted 6" speed shad and the neato 8" Blue Triple Trout. OG XX Leviathan slung the speed shad while the VWE slung the 8" Triple. From many other reports fishing is super slow. I try to make own luck ha like 13 Fishing None today of course but should change with the weather, regardless I plan to grind another season out chucking the bigger size stuff Different views today.

Few more of the day...

I have a swimbait problem The latest, another 8" Triple in Purple, way better in the sunshine feathered of course I also found this older Deps Silent Killer 175 that was remodeled into slide swimmer slow sink, brown trout color #08 supposedly anyway I really dug the patina on this older used specimen(I may add some more paint details ) and of course it got upgraded hyperwires in #4 & #5s with respective #1 & 1/0 Decoy Quattro hooks with a bouquet as well although not as glorious or explosive looking as past others, but less is more this time around