Fishes in trees

This reminds me of a zen koan . . . where the customer goes into the shop of the most famous, most well known potter in town. He speaks to the potter and says "I desire to purchase your finest pot." The potter, waves his hand, indicating most of the shop and says, "Take your pick."

I fish out of a Lowe WF 180 - I'm 5'7" and I find that longer rods make some kinds of fishing more or a pain that it needs to be. Fishing top waters and jerk baits would be a couple of examples. I've tried fishing some of my 7' pitching rods sitting down in a high sided boat and it was awkward. Standing up in a V hulled row boat with a 7' rod was awkward. So I'm in the camp of in certain circumstances and in certain boats rod length does matter - quite a bit - to me.

I unsure if you're aware of this but braid and walking baits don't always play nice together - especially on long casts, in my experiences. As often as not, within the first few snaps of the rod tip to get the bait walking, it will swing back on itself and catch the braid in the rear treble. The limpness of the braid is the culprit. Some guys get around this issue by installing a short (foot or so) fairly stout fluorocarbon leader. Me- I just use 17 or 20 lb mono for top water baits. Your results may differ. I currently use a 6'3" or a 6' All Star Top Water Special. The 6'3" model is the old original company 10 X model. The 6' one, I picked up at Academy on close out last year - the purple series. Rod length from the reel seat to the handle is the same, the older model has a slightly longer handle behind the reel seat.

I make my own jika rigs. There are a few things wrong with the Tokyo rig - IMO. First the wire - when I began making jika rigs I experimented with different guage wires quite a bit. The advantage of the wire, in being able to change weights more easily is outweighed by a couple of factors. The previously mentioned tendency to catch on vegetation is one - the other, IMO is that the wire makes it too stiff. I found that a dropper made out of 80 lb fluorocarbon leader worked better for me. I found out that being able to change weights was over rated. For me, for getting bit, a weight of half ounce or so worked best - maybe up to 3/4 oz. I mostly solved the vegetation hang up problem 2 ways. First, I used back to back worm weights, with a glass bead in-between for a little noise maker. 1/4 oz to 1/4 oz worked ok - a 3/8 oz lower weight combined with a 1/8 or 3/16 weight worked better. I found crimps at the Hobby Lobby that held the loops in the 80 lb fluorocarbon well and I used a little bit of skinny heat shrink tubing to melt over the crimp, just to make it a little bit slicker as it went through vegetation. While we're at it, I found that a regular off set shank worm hook - either round bend or the sproat or O'Shaughnessy style hook worked much better than the extra wide gap hook on the Tokyo rig

I think that it would be a novel yard ornament. That being said, $450 is a little steep for a yard ornament. I'd keep looking. Is it on a trailer? Perhaps if you volunteered to move the boat for free. I don't know. I'm pretty certain that a 77 Cajun that has been outside for who knows how long would add a certain white trash panache to your lawn. I'd consider this for myself, however Oklahoma is a long drive and I my lawn already has a few white trash touches.

At Walmart I found some Arkie brand 1/16 oz mushroom head jigs - advertised as "finesse" jig heads. They have a 1/0 hook on them, which I know by true Ned standards is a little big - but it works ok for me.

Times change - back when I was a meat fishing bush hippie two piece rods were the norm. That "s all I had - they were just easier to handle and transport.

To the original poster - you're very brave. I couldn't do it. Ordering a rod over the internet, based on the opinions of folks you've chit-chatted with but don't really know. I just can't buy a fishing rod unless I've held it and flexed it prior to buying it. Now having typed that, here's my rod opinion. Spinnerbaits & chatter baits, I like a slightly shorter rod. My current favorite is a 6'8" Fenwick Aetos MH/fast tip. It has enough tip for me that I can load it up and throw a half ounce bait without too much effort. Generally throwing these two baits distance isn't much of a factor, I'm usually making side arm type casts. Whip it side arm, or roll cast it - rod is more or less parallel to the water and I find that I hit less stuff (like trees, overhanging branches) when I use this type of cast. Also it seems to me, and it might or might not be true, that I get less of a splash with the side arm cast. To me, cranks are different, distance is more important and I'm much more likely to make two handed overhead casts when I throw them and I'm less concerned about the splash I might make. To me this requires a slightly longer rod that has more tip to it, it loads down into the blank more and it seems I can throw the crank bait farther. Current favorite is an All Star 7' crank stick which has more or less of a medium action.

I have Curado DC and while I haven't fished it a whole bunch, I think that it is designed for and better suited for reaction baits. I know that with jig/bottom contact rods, you can't get too light, is I'd go with a 50 sized Chronarch or something similar in weight.

They look cool - a slightly different design - I'd buy some except that I'm on a self imposed ban - I shouldn't buy any more soft plastics for a while. Sooner or later the motivation for the ban will dissipate and I'll purchase more soft plastics. So I'll probably get some - but not in the near future.

If you need a different rod and they're only $80, why not? The worst thing that could happen is that you don't like it and you've got a wall hanger or a back up or a lender rod. If you're just got a jones to get a new rod, check out Academy. Every so often they have pretty decent sales/close outs. In the past few years I've got a Castaway 7' pitching rod, 4 or 5 different All Star rods, and a few of the Academy house brand - H2O Express. All of these rods were $50 or less.

Everyone has their own ideas as to what is "enough" drag and what is "too much". Me, I fiddle with the drag quite a bit. The goal is for the drag to give just a little bit on a strong hook set, or a strong sweep set, for that matter. That is stronger than many guys set it. Once in a while, you get a big fish that takes quite a bit of line out. If you're in an area where you can let it run, let it run. Always remember that you have two drag settings - the one you set using the dial on the reel and your finger can apply pressure to the skirted spool of the reel for additional fine tuned drag. Some Shimano spinning reels of the past had the "fighting drag" feature - a fairly large lever that let you fish with your drag locked down and when ever you wanted to you could move the lever and go to your pre=set drag on the reel. Some other Shimano reels (and I guess a few other brands, I don't really know) had a rear drag feature without the fighting drag lever and this made adjusting the drag when you had a fish on easier than messing with the front drag with a fish on. Down side was that rear drag reels weighed a little bit more - pick your poison.

Please consider - 500+ pounds of humans + gear is a load, even in a 16 foot Jon boat. If it is a narrow 16 footer, if you were to catch a wave side ways or quartering you from behind (like when a faster boat is coming behind you and passing you) that boat might swamp. 10' pond boats are very stable and unlike a Jon boat are very likely to float if you get surprised by a wake. Get two of them. then you can fish together, but separately, probably be much safer.

If you have a worm blower, you can make any worm stand up if you want to. That being said, I think that color is more important than standing straight up. When I get committed to throwing shakey heads, I lead off with a Zoom trick worm or the Netbait equivalent. (Several years ago a local tackle store was getting rid of their Netbait collection and I got $75 worth at 50 cents per bag. Most of them were their version of the Trick worm.

As I recall, those aqua Rick Clunn rods weren't available for very long. I touched one once - too heavy for me. I found a relatively cheap BPS Extreme Rod that was 2 or 3 ounces lighter and could throw a half ounce square bill as far as I needed to. I've touched the Ugly Sticks at Walmart and had the same feelings, i.e. too heavy for me. Granted - 20 or so years ago I might have felt different, but my wrists tell me that a lighter rod is better for me and I don't have to eat an Alieve prior to getting on the water and another one on the way home. Just not a fan of heavy rods.

If you can't honestly and openly communicate with your Curado K, set a role for it and give it a sense of purpose, - maybe you're not a real Shimano guy. I have one and it is happy with 20 lb Abrazx - I told it that, never mind it being new, if it was going to get off the bench and make the traveling team, it was going to start on the Biffle Bug rig - and 20 lb Abrazx was necessary. It said ok with no complaints - just happy to make the squad I guess. Your results may differ.

Back in the day, when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, summer bank fishing to me meant finesse fishing, all the time and don't think about doing anything else. Buzz baits & spinner baits? Nope - didn't believe in them. Cranks? Too expensive AND they got stuck too much. Tx rigged worms? Nope - then,(kind like now ) I believed that the jig was more reliable and got more bites.., lu the light action rod I was using didn't allow for the strongest hook sets. So, I fished Brewer Sliders with the 4" Slider worm - fish low & slow and throw at everything. Throw out as far as you can, low & slow, parallel the bank, low & slow. The Charlie Brewer term was " polishing the rocks " - not a lot of rocks in the areas I fished so I took that to mean go as slow as possible without hanging up. If you hang up a lot - you're going too slow, likewise if you're never touching the bottom, you're going too fast. Back in the day, I threw the slider rig on a light action 6' spinning rod, 6 lb test line and hoped for the best. I landed catfish up to 12 lbs on that rig - Bass to 5 lbs or so. Mostly I was fishing for anything that I could fillet. There were days I got broke off some. Some of that had to do with me being a cheapskate on line - fresh 6 lb line was better than 6 lb line that was a month or so old. These days if I had to fish that way again I'd do it slightly different. I'd bring 3 spinning rigs - Med to MH 6 1/2 to 7' long. I'd have the reels filled with 10 or 15 lb braid - real clear water I'd use a short (foot or so) fluorocarbon leader, stained water I wouldn't bother. Rig #A would be a Brewer Slider rig with a 4" worm. Rig #B would be a Slider rig with a 4" to 5" paddle tail worm. Rig #C, I'd have a fluke or a senko - maybe weighted, maybe not. I'd probably have some finesse frogs as an option. I'd have hip boots on and wade out a little from the bank so as to make paralleling the bank easier. I'd pay more attention to sunscreen and anti-sunburn shirts than I did then.

The last time I had to do this, I remembered the hair dryer trick, but then I couldn't find mine and I thought going to town to get a new one just to take a sticker off my boat was a little silly. So anyway, I used Goof-off and a razor scraper and the sticker came off pretty quick. Less than a one beer task.

Shop the close out racks at Walmart & Academy & Dicks's and hope for the best. I've gotten decent rods at all these places out of the close out bins. Don't get in a hurry, but have your money available to pop when you have find a good deal. Just last week I found a couple of All Star Rods ( the purple ones) on the close out rack for $50 and they are an upgrade for a couple of rigs, so I bought them. Know anyone in a bass club near you? No doubt some of those guys have a few extra rigs. Wish you lived closer - I've got some errands around my farm that need doing and it would be easier for me to pay with a couple of decent spare fishing rigs than money.

I don't think that oily is necessarily a bad thing with soft plastics. Having said that oily is one thing and melting if another. Soft plastics that are just melting and losing their shape - I'd pitch. If that's happening I'd also find a new place to store soft plastics, cause the one you've got just ain't working right.

I'm guessing that is a pretty decent price for the Penn spinning reel. 4000 size is big. If all you are ever going to do is bass fish - don't buy it. Me, I very occasionally fish for other species and I'm usually on the lookout for gear to upgrade my multi-species arsenal. That 4000 size reel would make a decent to great cat fishing reel. You could put 20 lb mono on it and with a weight of around an ounce or so it would cast an acceptable distance. Or you could put 50 or 60 lb braid and with the right rod cast extreme distances. I don't know about your finances, but me, I'd probably buy that reel just on general principles and then be on the lookout for a decent close out catfish rod - something 7 to 9 feet with enough of a tip to make circle hook fishing easy. Cabelas used to market a line of multi-species rods in their "predator" series. The one that I have is 10 1/2 feet long and has a medium/medium heavy action.

Ditto on the Academy Rods close outs. I've gotten some great deals on very good rods. I haven't seen an Ethos rod for $9, but I have purchased several at around $30 more of less. I'm not a fan of the Lightning Rod Shocks, I think that they are a little heavy. Having said that, I have one - a 6'6" spinning rod, rated at Medium action - and I think that it is a great rod to lend out for throwing jerk baits or square bills.

I had one of those Bud can lures - a long time ago. I see the posted picture and mine was kinda different. The bill was much more vertical - more like a wake bait. That is how I fished it and it got bit more than once and then I lost it and never found another one at a price to my liking.

What are your future plans? Stay the same - bank fishing? Get into tournaments as a co-angler? Gonna be buying a boat any time soon? Tournament fishing in your plans? You live in No.Cal - are big swim baits in your plans? Makes a difference. I always wince when I hear "all around bait casting combo. Brings to mind the concept of "jack of all trades - master of none." Begs the question, but what is currently your favorite technique? Me, if I had to have another combo, I'd but the best of what I could find & afford at that technique. Might be cranking - might be jigging - might be throwing spinnerbaits - I don't know. Then once you get some more disposable income - choose another technique and get the best that you can find & afford at that one. And so on and so on ...

Chuck Woolery promoted the power pack lures for a while. I owned one and I caught a few fish on it. I should have bought more because I also think that they are kinda collectable by now. The first generation of Berkley cranks - the "Frenzy" series, with the exception of the lipless crank, were all stinkers. I got duped when a store I frequent a lot put them all on sale for $1.50 each and I bought $40 worth of them. Oh well, most of them are still pristine in their original packaging. I found out a long time ago that the crank bait lure packs sold at Walmart were pretty much stinkers. - didn't run straight, poor paint jobs and low quality hooks. There was a lure company called POE'S, which I think is still around and associated with Yakima baits in some way and they sold a flat sided/coffin billed crank, endorsed by Rick Clunn, that he allegedly won a Bassmaster Classic on. The issue with these baits was the quality control - even given that they were balsa baits, maybe 1 out of 10 ran right and they were nearly impossible to tune. Bandit also made a flat sided/coffin billed bait in a deep and shallow model and I find that these are a challenge to tune.