islandbass

@geo g: You’re right, I hear you and I was being a bit tongue in cheek and being full of sound and fury, but signifying nothing. Here in the pacific nw, we might see 100 degree weather once every 10-12 years. We already practically in July and spring coolness is still hanging by a thread, lol. My sister just visited and she lives in AZ. She asked me if it was hot and I told her yes, 70-75 degrees and she said that was jacket weather lol.

Only one rod stands out. I bought back when I was still a newbie who was watching just about every fishing show to learn as much as possible and find that “magic” lure, rod, etc. and boy was I gullible. It was Canadian sport fishing with Italo. I was too green to realize these shows while giving good advice and tips were also a way to convince us to buy gear. He pushed a lot of Rapala stuff and the spinning reel 6 Sxi or something like that was a stellar reel. He then convinced me to buy a Rapala sportsmen’s classic rod. It was a 2-piece 6’6”, medium powered rod. I was so exited to buy it for only $29.99, lol. I knew it wasn’t going to have GLX sensitivity, but I was still stoked. It turns out it was the WORST rod in the sensitivity department. You know a rod’s sensitivity is bad when an ugly stik feels more sensitive. On the positive side, it had a lot of power and i learned it could handle salmon quite well. I still have it and it serves me in two ways: 1) A guest rod for the visiting family member or friend for just about any local species. My dad used it to catch pink and coho salmon. 2) Squid jogging rod Otherwise, it collects dust.

I’ll almost be a bait monkey’s uncle if a lake from WA state makes that list. ??

I came very late to the game. I was 34 when I started and I bought a sub $20 spinning combo that I dubbed my “Walmart Special”. Started targeting trout with a size 5 floating Rapala minnow but I caught a bass and the rest is history. This combo caught a lot of fish. I still have the rod, but the reel eventually wore out. I’m now in my 50s and I don’t know how rods and reels just appeared in my garage in that time. Surely, this is an X-file mystery.

@Ohioguy25: Even in the land where salmonids rule, I’m a bass angler just like you. We have small and largemouth bass and even the lesser known rock bass. They aren’t native here, but I reckon people brought these bass species with them some time in the past. It’s actually a good thing most people go for trout and salmon and steelhead (a sea-going rainbow trout) because that leaves all the bass for me. I do target salmon, and they’re awesome to target and fight, but bass will always have a special place in my heart. The proof is in my screen name. I haven’t targeted sturgeon, but I would try if I lived closer to the Columbia River. There was an old episode with Shaw Grigsby and he was here fishing for sturgeon. He sure was tired after the battle. ?

@J.Vincent: The first thing I’d examine is my casting mechanics. Sadly, anglersnusing spinning gear can get away with murder when it comes to casting mechanics. It’s so easy to be sloppy but yet still yield a fair cast. Ensure that the weight of your lure properly loads the rod and you’ll be well on your way.

I live in the land of liquid sunshine. Rain is practically a given. If rain will stop you from fishing, bike riding or doing some outdoor activity in the pacific nw, you wouldn’t be able live here. So for me, I have no issues fishing in the rain. Unfortunately, more often than not for me, rain ?️, at least our type of rain conditions, usually shuts them down, ?. Not alwalys but mostly, they’re shut down. It doesn’t help I’m fishing from the shore too, lol. I’d probably have better prospects if I weren’t constrained to the bank.

Long day. Took nearly 1.5 hours to get home. Fishing wise, very nice. Got to the lake at about 9:20 and it was getting dark. I had my 2-piece shimano compre rod and set it up for the drop shot with a 3” senko. Hooked a nice 2.5-3 pounder around 9:35. As I got it closer to me I realized I was going to the gym and didn’t want to get smelly fish hands so after I pulled her in close enough just to see her side parallel to the surface, and I let my line go slack. She knew what to do. She easily threw my barbless owner mosquito hook with a vigorous head swipe and then she waved good bye to me with her tale. I had enough time to cycle at a moderate pace for 25 minutes on a bike and unfortunately that was all I had time to do before the gym closed. I’m finally getting serious about getting back in shape and losing weight. I guess I still have some cyclist left in me. I was able to nearly 80% of my max heart rate for 15 of those 25 minutes in hill climbing mode and I didn’t feel out of breath or out of whack. Not bad for only my second time (yesterday was the first) in probably over a year. I will be working in some solo racquet ball and weights very soon. I think this was a nice way to start the summer for me.

@Functional: You’re absolutely right. In my cycling days, both road and mountain bike, hydration was important in both summer and winter. The coolness of the winter could sometimes fool you into thinking you don’t need to be hydrated. I was just ranting a bit that it’s practically summer and winter is still holding on here, lol.

Thanks for the reminder but temperature wise we been the opposite here. We’re hovering in the mid 50s at night and on Father’s Day, the day started at 48 degrees, 60% chance of rain but that’s a given here and played golf anyway. By about noon real cat and dog deluge and hail at the turn. Waited it out 40 minutes. Finished by 1:30. Overcast and blustery winds and rain. Went fishing anyway to end the day. Weather the conditions and went from senko to brush hog to baby brush hog to tiny brush hog (I thought I bought babies and didn’t even know there was a tiny version) and a 1/4 oz. bullet weight. Finally got a nice 2lb bass for my troubles. So please bring the 120 degree heat. The northwest needs it. Lol

@NavyToad: as in Digiornos? For a commercial frozen pizza from the grocery store, it does in a pinch for me. Another one around when I was a kid, the commissaries had Celeste pizza. I haven’t see them in a very long time.

Pizza is one food I can keep on eating and not get full. I love pizza. To me dominos used to suck (90s) and Pizza Hut was the choice of chain stores. Dominoes to me is now on par with Pizza Hut for chain stores. I miss godfathers pizza. I thought they were long gone in my area, but upon reading this thread I just learned there’s one not too far away and the next nearest is on the other side of my state. Local mom and pop places are good but so pricey compared to the chains and because I can eat pizza forever and non-stop, won’t stop playing that game, and I know that I can do it if I show no shame (reference grand master flash rap, lol). It is therefore not cost effective. I ordered 4 med pizzas from dominos a few weeks ago for my family of 4. Practically one per person. I figured my son would down 1 1/2 pizzas by himself and my wife and daughter maybe 3 pieces each and planned for easy leftovers for a day or two for everyone. Well, my wife and daughter only ate about two slices each and my son barely ate half a pizza. After the first day, I noticed nobody ate any pizza. I was shocked and very upset with myself for over ordering. I was forced into eating the leftovers for the next two days. Poor me, lol ?

@No.7 Rapala: Welcome. I am glad to tell you that some of Shimano’s lower end spinning reels below the nasci still have the anti reverse switch. I’m just going to accept that the anti reverse switch is going the way of the ? dinosaurs ?

@Flushdraw: Unbelievable!!! I also started out with a rod from Walmart and by pure coincidence, I also called it my “Walmart special”. It was a two piece medium light spinning rod and reel combo for somewhere around $16.99 (I thought was pricey, lol). I initially started my fishing career going for trout. While trout fishing with a Rapala floating minnow, I caught my first fish, but it was a bass. Been hooked since then on bass fishing and the trout took a backseat. And this was in 2004. ? Sorry to hear about your job situation losing your spouse. I pray that you receive the grace and fortitude to get you through and hope that your next encounter with that bass be a W.

Awesome! In my own backyard and I didn’t even know. ? @Columbia Craw: Thanks for sharing. ??

@Flushdraw: man, you’re in for a wonderful ride. Before you know it you’ll have an arsenal of rods, lol. I didn’t mean to sound so harsh on patience. But you had to make a decision and you made it. In your position I probably would have done made the same decision. But as already been mentioned by others, we will some and we lose some. But sometimes those losses feel like you lost the Super Bowl. As a Seahawks fan, I will refer to the the loss against the patriots. I still feel that to this day ??

Sorry for your loss. A bummer for sure. That’s why it’s called fishing and not catching and unfortunately, you win some you lose some and we know it hurts. We’ve all had those moments. However, with that said, there are some basic principles that can improve our odds. 1) Always maintain tension on the line and the bigger the fish the more crucial and critical this is. 2) Apply maximum pressure on the line by maintaining at about a 45 degree angle with the rod (in front of you is zero degrees and above your head is 90 degrees in the vertical plane) regardless of the plane your are holding the rod. This allows your rod to apply the most direct pressure on the fish and gives you the best chances to keep that tension. It is this tension that reduces their chances of getting away, spitting your bait, or allowing them to jump. It is also this max pressure that gives you the best chance to coax them away from the cover when those opportunities present themselves to you. Incidentially, if you mean “raising your rod” as going straight vertical such that you made your rod almost bend 90 degrees, then that is a 100% no-no. A - This is known as high-sticking the rod and the potential for the rod to break is great. B - Your rod cannot provide the required power in that position. I am willing to bet you felt like you had no control to play or horse the fish in ways you could gain an upper hand. I bet it felt like your rod felt inadequately powered or dare I say underpowered. It was most certainly not; but you did confirm for yourself that in that position, your rod was not in an optimum position. The last thing is patience if you were unable to prevent them from hunkering down into cover at the start. In the grand scheme of things is 7 minutes really a long time? Okay, it is, lol but I think you get the point. Be patient, stay calm and cool. With that said, I feel for you. Sometimes I suffer through a few weeks of shoulda, coulda, and woulda and might even wallow in some self pity and repeat that lost battle in my brain 1 a million times a day. one last thing. One of the sneakiest things the fish can do that can throw a monkey wrench in keeping tension on the line is them swimming toward you. You have to be mindful of that and reel up that slack asap. This is a double edged sword for the fish. On the bright side, them swimming toward you is also an excellent opportunity for you to gain ground on them. ??

I’ve been focusing on plastics too and have been learning t-rigs with senkos, baby brush and brush hogs, and those creme creature baits that look like brush hogs. One thing I’ve also t-rigged are craw baits or trailers with great success. My waters do not need me to use more that 1/4 oz bullet weights and I also use 3/16oz bullet weights. @papajoe222: The drop shot is not confined to a finesse setup. I drop shot with a bc reel when I have to and not necessarily finesse either. I’m not recommending you try it, but I did want to point out it is not limited to only finesse. If you dropshotted with a 3/8 weight, it’s no longer finesse in my book ??

Well, maybe topped off with a little bit of tobasco ? To the topic: I have never used a DC reel but I never wanted one. Because even when they came out, I already knew that it is always the angler and never the system in place. Im not knocking DC, it’s just not my thing. As for it being good for beginners, maybe but I think that is debatable. For beginners, I am tempted to consider DC as a crutch. Nothing beats a trained thumb and proper casting mechanics, even into a strong wind. DC should just enhance an angler’s bc skills. It reminds me when my dad taught me to drive. Learn to drive standard Stick shaft cars (non-DC reels). And his Nissan truck’s clutch was so sensitive that if you let out barely a quarter of the way, it would already kill the truck if you didn’t give it a bit of gas, lol. I am glad I learned that first. Everything else came easy afterward.

This is one of the places I go for doing conversions if by chance my math brain forgets such relationships or does not readily know them. https://www.convertunits.com I had to convert pounds to grams which I do know, and then for me an uncommon conversion from grams to cups. Although I know 1lb = 16oz = 454gr, I wasn’t in the mood to manually calculate this so I went to the link above. If you’re curious, I had to calculate the amount of my cure mixture for bacon needed for a 5lb slab of pork belly. ??? And if you need to know, I smoked it for about 4 hours and got it to 160F and it didn’t matter. Sliced thick, sliced thin, sliced into cubes… It was incredible. The bomb!

Welcome and greetings from the Pacific NW!

@Ohioguy25: Casting into the wind can at times be somewhat challenging with a bc reel. That said, the lure’s aerodynamics are a factor. You can usually toss a 3/4 oz casting spoon into a strong wing without a problem, but throw spinnerbait of the same weight, you’d better be mindful and have your thumb ready to compensate. Just because two lures weigh the same doesn’t mean they’ll cast the same into the wind. The lighter the lure, the greater potential for trouble. This might require an attentive thumb, an adjustment to your brake settings, or both. Those are the “brakes” (intentionally misspelled), lol.

My favorite rod is the rod in my hand. I love all my “children” equally, lol.

Welcome!!!

I was helping a coworker who had issues with the outlook app on her phone (while in my hands) and the notice popped up. I was shocked. Loved many of her songs. What’s love got to do with a private dancer. RIP