After some 8 trips for nada, I finally found a LM willing to bite. Hit a no name pond with a couple friends tonight. I only had one fish, but it was a solid 5.5#. Probably 6, but we had no scale, and no camera. Fell to a pearl Senko tossed into a stand of submerged trees, and hit on the drop. I was really glad I had my Phenix, any lesser of a rod and I never would have felt the tick through the slacked line.
Had a few more bites, but nothing else stuck. The two guys pulled a couple each, and lost a couple each also. Me, I'm glad the stripe is gone, taken by a great fish (it was thought this pond had nothing over about 3#). I guess 2hrs with/out tossing a swimbait probably helped too.