Fishes in trees

I have not experience with the 7'2" Falcon Bucco however, I can agree with previous posters about the Bucco 7' Trap Caster. I like mine, I use it for lipless cranks, it is the only rod that I've paid full retail price for (At Walmart no less) because I came across it, wanted it, bought it. I normally don't buy rods from individuals, for a variety of reasons, but if the rod is in decent shape and hasn't been abused, go ahead and get it.

Let's lead off by remembering that everyone has a different idea of what is and what ain't a decent crank rod. I've went through numerous rods in the "medium" price range, which to me is $50 to $150 more or less. I have a Kistler 7' Small Swim Bait Special, 7 or 8 years old now, which became a medium priced rod due to Cabelas close outs , when the KCK store decided to get out of the Kistler business. It works OK for square bills, medium cranks. I have a 7 or 8 year old All Star Crank Rod which I'm currently using for deeper divers, it is a little more "tippy" than the Kistler and I can throw big billed cranks a little farther with it. It has been discontinued for years now, but back in the day BPS marketed a Woo Davis Special in their BPS Extreme line. 7'4", listed a medium heavy, marketed as Woo's favorite pitching rod. Anyway, I got one and quickly found out that me and Woo have different notions about what is a decent pitching rod. However, IMO, it makes a great square bill rod. A year or two later, when they were discontinued and marked down to $50 each, I got a couple more. That rod has been my square bill rod for a long time now. So that is what I'd recommend. I have 4 or 5 fishing buds who like the 7' Berkley Lightning Rod in Medium for square bills and they are generally in the $50 range, less if you catch them on sale. In Kansas City, Dobyns and St Croix aren't commonly available so I don't know too much about them.

The best thing about that Creek Chub bait is that it is heavy and you can throw it a long ways. I have a couple, and when you retrieve it . . pop, pop, pop . .stop ..repeat, it kinda chugs, kinda walks and makes a decent commotion. Splits the difference between a spook and a popper.

I'm thinking the best way to choose a bait within any given category is to get a system that makes it NOT YOUR FAULT if you guess wrong. This season, I'm thinking some form of divination, maybe reading coffee grounds in my morning cup, perhaps divining shapes caused by pouring beer on the boat carpet. Maybe a supple willow wand, I'll wave it over the gear and which ever one it points at, that's my choice. Kinda like figuring out where to drill a well. It's a work in progress, like many other aspects of my life.

Define expensive

Weightless or belly weighted soft plastic jerk baits could be an option - maybe a little more predictable. Throwing jerk baits from the bank in the wind can be challenging - there is really only a relatively small niche where the bait is in position to attract a bit. By this I mean you are X distance from the surface and X distance from the bottom and X will vary from time to time and lake to lake. When your bait gets close to the shoreline, of course it is too shallow and it is going to pick up stuff off the bottom. If you are gong to do this, you will learn over time when to stop the retrieve, rod tip up, bring the bait in fast and recast. Trying to do this with a bait caster is going to add some time to the learning curve. The belly weighted soft plastic jerk bait might be a little easier than say, throwing a Rogue, which is light, not really aerodynamic and has 3 treble hooks flopping around. I've been in your situation ( early season bank fishing ) and I don't think that a jerk bait would be my first choice, even though many fishing mags tell you to fish jerk baits in the early spring. You need something that you can cover the water with, covering the water column from top to bottom from the bank. I'd recommend first a white or white/chartruese spinner bait and parallel the bank as much as possible. For pond fishing I'd go quarter or 3/8 oz., single Colorado blade, and keep it moving. A couple of times each retreive, stop & drop, let the bait fall for a couple of seconds, maybe more, if you hit the bottom you let it drop too much. Option B, for me would be a 3/16 or 1/4 oz Brewer Spider Slider Head fished on 6 lb mono or light braid with leader, a 4 or 5 inch worm, maybe a paddle tail, maybe not. This is the bait that you "polish the bottom" with, the idea being that you fish slow enough/fast enough that you are always near, but not on the bottom and by near I mean 4 or 5 inches. If you do this and cover the water, you will get bit. If you don't, the previous suggestion of cane pole and worms is a good one. If you go this route, be mindful that you can "bubba up" your cane pole presentation and spend just as much money on top quality equipment designed for presenting worms, crickets, and other live bait in very much a finesse manner. Check out match fishing or various European live bait presentations. Last, if you're a bank fisherman, (and most of us, in our youth, start out as bank fishermen) invest in decent auxiliary gear. . . .by this I mean a decent set of hip waders, which will get you off the bank a little bit and make it much easier to fish parallel to the bank and invest in a decent quality, balanced and sharp machete. It isn't a sin to take a few moments and open up your casting lanes a little bit.

Schedule some time in your fishing shed. Have good lighting. With a good line pic and maybe a 6-pac you might be able to solve that back lash. I've solved worse - just takes time. BUT . . if the weather is decent and fishing shed time takes away from genuine fishing time, cut it out and buy new line. You can buy more line - extra fishing time is difficult to purchase.

Have our evolved from lead bullet weights to tungsten yet? I've been fishing for a long time, but I switched over to tungsten weights and my tx rig fishing skills improved considerably. At this point, I wouldn't consider going back to lead bullet weights. The point here being that you could drop $250 on tungsten weights pretty easily and that would solve the spare money issue.

Speaking of purses, back in the day when I was a meat fishing bush hippie, I didn't have a back pack or tackle box for fishing. I had a "fishing bag". I went to Goodwill and spent $1 and got a big beat up women purse. It didn't hurt that it was neon green/black tiger stripes. It held enough 3500 size boxes for my needs and a dozen or so jars of pork frogs and other stuff. I could carry it anywhere and not care about scuffing it up on thorns & branches. I could set it down anywhere and not care how dirty it got. If you're looking for a budget option, there you go. I did end up replacing the handles several times using brass grommets and 3/8" braided rope.

Good topic - ultimate rod for what might be the ultimate bait. Good to see that different folks have different opinions. Me - I've went back and forth on this dilemma, going back and forth from baitcasting to spinning and back again, several times now. My current thinking on this set up for throwing wacky senkos is a spinning set up, because I like the drops I get better with it. compared to the arcing drop one gets with bait casting gear (without feeding it line). Currently I'm using a 7' Fenwick HMG MY/ extra fast and a 1000 size Shimano reel / 20 lb braid or 14 lb Fireline with a fluorocarbon leader. The big issue with spinning gear is strike detection on a slack/semi-slack line. I address this issue by using a line that is relatively easy to see and I find that you ALWAYS see the line move before you feel the bite with this set up. Works for me so far. Now, when I get some spare funding and can afford a Pixy or some other appropriate very light bait casting set up, I'll probably change back or more than likely I just keep both in the boat and change back and forth.

I've tried the soft sided bait binder style holders for terminal tackle and I found that they worked ok for a while. A season or two degraded the plastic bags. I'd have 10 or 12 different brands/sizes of hooks, they would start out in original packages in separate zip lock compartments and after a few weeks of use, single hooks would be returned to the correct bag, but more often than not separately and not returned to the original packaging. By the end of the first season the binder had just as many looks hooks as hooks in original packages. Going into the second season, UV rot had started to set in, mostly because I didn't always zip the binder completely back up. When the plastic bags failed, hooks would sprinkle out. Pain the the butt when it happens in the boat. Catastrophe when it happens in the fishing shed and hooks get sprinkled over areas that you drive your truck & boat over. It caused one slow leak in a boat trailer tire - could have been worse. Made me buy a shop magnet to drag over the gravel floor of my fishing shed from time to time. I do this several times a year and still more often than not I'll find a hook or two on the magnet. I don't think that all of them were from the original spillages, but I think that some of them were. So, that is my experience in using worm binders for storing terminal tackle ( hooks ). They start working out ok and then over time zippers get sticky - bags fail - overall a pain and more trouble than the problem that they solve. I think that boxes work better. The issue with the inch thick 3601 boxes is that more often than not the tackle stores in my neighborhood are out of them. Rogers, Dicks, Academy, Walmart - once in a blue moon you might find that size. The last time I bought a bunch of plastic storage boxes through mail order, the order arrived and the box had been dropped - maybe several times and there were more cracked/damaged boxes then there were healthy ones. BPS replaced them in store - over time, but I don't buy plastic boxes mail order any more. That's the issue with the 3601 boxes - they are pretty popular and more often than not stores are out of them. If you're going to have a problem, that is a decent problem to have. If you're really going minimize, I've found that the 3501 size is more readily available - almost always at Walmart and they have the Pro-latch fasteners. As you get older and arthritis sets into your fingers, this becomes an issue.

If you have 5 technique specific rigs, just be mindful that there are more techniques that you might not have a rig for. Lets say you got a jig rig, crank rig, spinnerbait rig, finesse spinning rig and a flipping stick. Will your jig rig handle 5/16 Eakins finesse jigs AND half ounce or heavier football jigs? How does it handle worms? Big & little worms? Might need another rig or two. Say you got a spinner bait rig. Every time you desire to throw a chatter bait are you going to stop and retie? There is going to be a time when you're going to want to throw smaller, quarter ounce or so spinnerbaits. Your current rig handle that ok? Your flipping stick can double as a Bubba drop shot rig. All you've got to do is stop and tie a few knots. Believe me, it is MUCH easier to put the flipping stick down and pick up the Bubba drop shot rig. The same "logic" applies to crank rigs, spinning rigs and numerous other rigs I haven't mentioned yet. One of the cool things about fishing is sooner or later everyone finds their own level of quantity/quality of gear necessary. Me, I'm of the opinion that I can buy more fishing gear, but I can't buy fishing time, so I try to cover as many bases as possible with quality gear that I can afford at the time. Currently I'm 66 and I've had this addiction for a while now. Gear is accumulated over time and so at any one time it doesn't seem to bite that much. Other guys take a more minimalist approach and I can appreciate that. I did that for a while during my post college - pre first decent job days. I was a meat fishing bush hippie and 3 or 4 days a week I fed myself and often some friends and I threw one bait 90% of the time. My advice is if you can afford it and it doesn't impinge on any other fiscal responsibilities you might have - go ahead and score more gear. Remind yourself that it could be worse - if you had a booger sugar habit, at the end of the day all you'd have to show for it would be a runny nose.

I'm more of a fan of braid for throwing frogs.

I don't know how bit of a boat you've got - me I have an 18 foot Lowe WF 180. Storage is limited. The limited storage areas are filled with other stuff, so I made the decision that stuff that was the easiest to move was the stuff that didn't go into the bins and the soft plastics fit the bill. So, soft plastic storage in my boat goes like this: Bags of bait that I like go together with other like baits in gallon zip lock bags and zip lock bags go into one of 3 soft side medium sized duffle bags. I have issues deciding which soft plastic to use, so I bring quite a bit. Gallon bags of 10" worms, 7" worms , Paddle Tail worms, Brush Hogs, Larew Ring worms, Tubes, Chompers, Flukes & fluke imitators, Senkos, Stick baits, Trick worms, Lizards, Brush Hogs and I know I'm forgetting some all fit into one of 3 soft side duffle bags. I could stuff all the baits into 2, but then stuff would be really STUFFED and more difficult to dig around and find stuff when I need to. Just takes one trip to move plastics from truck to boat or visa versa. While in the boat, you can store them anywhere - floor seat - on the deck it don't matter. The duffles are heavy enough that they won't blow out should I be running down the lake, but I generally remember to throw them on the floor. Exceptions to this rule are a few kits, that I don't always take out, that are full of stuff for a specialized form of fishing. I currently carry a finesse drop shot kit and Biffle bug kit and a Ned rig kit. I'm aware that this seems like a bunch of stuff, but I fish by myself most of the time. One those rare occasions when I have a co-angler I cut back some. Hope this helps.

I think that the whole idea of a "panic box" happened when some outdoor writer was stuck for an idea to write about. While he was thinking, his editor spoke up and said "While you're at it, try to write a story that might sell more in-line spinners & Beetle spins." While stressing over what to write, he "panicked", and, EUREKA!!, that is where the idea for a panic box came from.

I like the o-rings. The correct size is 3/8 o.d. by 1/4 i.d.

I am not an expert by any means, but I have owned a boat for a while now and I know several guys who've owned multiple boats and I've listened carefully as they have described their various boat issues through the year. So . . . Question #1 - Who knows? I'm happy if I get 5 years out of my cranking battery. Replacing it couldn't hurt. I replace my trolling motor batteries every other year - just because I'm on the trolling motor alot and I've tried to "finish out the year" with weak batteries and that wasn't any fun. Question #2 - I don't know - maybe. I bought a 3 bank Guest Charger in 1997 and it lasted until 2006 0r 2007 (I forget exactly when.) Question #3 - In 2006 or 2007, I was whining to my boat mechanic about how my batteries didn't seem to hold a charge like they used to AND were the batteries that I bought in 2004 (from him) the same quality as the ones that I replaced? His reply was that Interstates were good batteries and my on board charger was 9 or so years old so the easiest fishing was a new on board charger. Bought a Dual Pro and 10 years later it is still working. IMO - New cranking battery AND new on board charger would be easiest, cheapest fix in the long run. If I was upgrading my on board charger I'd go at least 10 or 15 amps rather than an 8.

The 3 drawer plastic storage was only $10. Dang, I was in Walmart today, but didn't walk down the plastic box aisle. In my unheated fishing shed dust resistant/moisture resistant/ wasp resistant storage is always in demand. If my Walmart has that item, I'm getting a half a dozen of them - maybe more. Have to find a way to get them off the gravel floor. Perhaps a shelf along one wall or mount 1 or 2 to every upright post. Thanks for the idea.

I'm curious, would a Sebile Magic Swimmer be considered a glide bait?

How confusing.. .. After reading the entire thread, and taking a break to go to the Pflueger web site where I find out that there is such a thing as a Pflueger President XT Baitcasting reel and a Pflueger President XT spinning reel, it took a long time to find out that it is a spinning reel that is being discussed. At this point I'd weigh in with several others in the opinion that 12 lb test anything is a little too much for a spinning reel. If the OP got decent performance out of this combination in the past - good for him. I don't have an answer. Another option to resolving the stretch/twist issue - try tying a ball bearing swivel to the line prior to stretching it. At my house, I can stretch out a hundred yards of line if I feel like it, but it's been a long time since I've felt that way. I've found the best way to resolve line twist issues is to drag the line behind the boat for a quarter mile or so and then reel it up tight - maybe not an option in this case. Question #next - Is this a new spinning reel? I've purchased spinning reels in that past that were just line eaters. They could take new untwisted line and in one afternoon, turn that line into a twisted mess that had to be thrown away. IMO the first generation of Mitchell skirted spool reels (late to mid 80's) were famous for this. I realize that this is a different brand but every so often it happens.

Sorry you spoiled the new line - probably got to go buy more. Please understand that it isn't about you. Fishing tackle companies count on you getting more gear every year. It doesn't matter that you've got more than you can ever use - get some more. You can indulge yourself by fishing some of your old stuff, but understand it is an indulgence. As long as you've got some disposable income, it is your duty to buy more fishing gear. IMO

You can't coach that . ...

Have to try a jerk bait. Have to try a shaky head. Have to try a ned rig. Have to try a jig. Have to try a white spinnerbait (parallel any bluff banks). Might want to try a float & fly. Might want to try a Biffle Bug. Can't go fishing without trying a wacky senko. Perhaps a soft plastic shad instead of a jerk bait. Maybe a Bubba size swim bait, maybe a more modest sized swim bait. Why stop a 3 rigs? Without trying very hard, we're up to 10 different rigs and we haven't mentioned Wiggle Warts or Tubes and how heavy a jig were we going to throw, might need to bring several rigs just to cover the range of jig weights. Brewer Sliders are an option nearly any time of year. Glad I could help.

If you're going to try to make one of a kind, unique baits, RIT dye comes in many colors, they can be blended, and it is relatively cheap, paint brushes are cheap at Walmart. I'd buy a whole bunch of plastic shot glasses so that you can blend small amounts of dye.

I've got a home made secchi disc, in the boat, weighted so that it drops straight down and half inch nylon rope marked in 1 foot intervals so that it is easy to read, stored in its own bucket with holes drilled in the bottom so that it drains readily. Plans to make a secchi disc are readily available on line. Each lake that we fish in will have a range of water clarity, depending on weather, time of year and whatnot. The 300 acre conservation lake that I fish a lot has had varying secchi readings from a foot and a half to 8 or 9 feet. Where you are in the lake ( main lake or back in a cove ) sun or shade, grass or clay bottom, can have an effect on your secchi disc reading, making it harder or easier to see. My current problem with the secchi disc is to remember to use it. My secchi disc sits in its bucket underneath the steering column, ready for deployment, I don't have to move to deploy it, my issue is that for whatever reasons I just don't use it all that often. Thanks for this post. I'm going to resolve to use my secchi disc more often. I originally got it so that I could be more scientific about matching bait colors to water clarity, but that requires consistency and resolve on my part - not really my strong suits.