Tim Kelly

Are there and Peacock bass in the keys? Would be a nice bonus to have a chance at catching one on my Keys trip next April.

Your image will be very strange unless you are moving, so you need to be moving at 3-5mph ideally and the nature of paddling a kayak, where the hull is prone to rock and swing side to side a bit will probably mean you're not going to get images as good as you might in a boat a lot of the time.

I've a rod made on that blank and use it a great deal. Very nice.

Fireline is always noisy when it's new. After a few hours it softens a bit, but is still loud. FX2 is a pretty coarse weave. I think this possibly helps when you're fishing pads as it adds to the sawing effect cutting through the vegetation. 8 strand braids are generally quieter, but if you use those horrible recoil guides anything sounds super noisy! I find 8 strands too soft and limp generally. 832 isn't a bad compromise, but my fav at the moment is Sunline Superbraid, which is a 4 strand, but relatively soft and quiet while still having the increased toughness of a 4 strand. It's like an improved version of original power pro.

Take a picture of the reel on the rod with the line strung up. A close up of the front of the reel with the line coming out of the levelwind. Hard to imagine how the line contacts that part of the reel unless something is wrong.

Do you reel in with your thumb over the line or something? Unless the levelwind is out of position the line should never be that low that it contacts that part of the reel as DVT said.

Almost a total waste of time painting/coating jig heads. Makes no difference to the fish, just makes them look more appealing to the fisherman. I make 90% of my jig heads and never paint them.

Sounds like a winner to me.

Go in a bar, go up to each woman and ask them "Spinning or baitcasting?". Eventually you'll get a proper answer, that's your starting point.

This guy found 50lbb Super slick to be very weak to abrasion, even by braid standards.

Did you ever figure out what the problem was?

In Europe I would guess that about 80% of baitcasting reels sold for freshwater use are left side crank. Nearly everyone fishes spinning reels left side crank and so the right hand is used to doing the casting and working, it's also stronger. When I watch anglers swapping hands, especially when pitching, it just seems so inefficient. That most of the bass pros do it must mean that it doesn't matter much in reality, but guys like Denny Brauer seem to cast with the left hand, so they don't need to swap hands. Maybe they're left handed or maybe they just want to be more efficient so taught themselves to cast left handed back when there were so few left crank reels on the market. You'd certainly be waiting a long time trying to sell a curado 200 in the UK, but a 201 would go in an instant!

I have no idea on home defense stuff, but I used to use a pump for hunting and while it is theoretically reliable it is possible to short stroke the action, especially in times of stress, causing a jam. I would have a semi auto in preference to a pump for that reason.

Went out yesterday and tried the moving the rod to the side tip instead of my usual lifting the rod and it worked much better. I think I was subconsciously tending to lift the rod before the lure had touched down, causing the over run problems. By sweeping to the side I was waiting until the lure had touched down as it is such a different motion.

Are you mixing metric and imperial measurements there?

Thanks guys. Sounds like there's no magic answer, just a bit more practice. I expect the times when it all goes a bit fuzzy are where I start raising the rod and feeding out line before the jig has actually touched down. A bit more patience and thumb as I pull off the slack would be the answer. More time on the water required.

When you're fishing a deeper grass edge, where the weeds stop in about 12ft, how do you put enough slack into the line to allow the bait to fall freely? I try lifting the rod tip as the jig touches down and feeding out slack at that point, but often I manage to contrive an over run by doing that. Is it just a matter of more practice, or is there a cunning trick I haven't worked out?

I use a 7ft high mod MHX popping blank spiral wrapped with microguides. I think it's rated something like 1/16 to 3/8. Throws pretty much anything light pretty well with my avail spooled morrum. Not a huge amount of backbone, but how much power do you want in a rod used with 6lb line? The rod weighs next to nothing and does a very good job. Pretty sure it didn't cost more than $200 to build and it's a much much more sensitive and pleasurable rod to use than the Volkey BFS that many people buy for this application.

I like the 2506. No need for miles of line for bass fishing, so no need for miles of pointless backing. Regarding the balance, depends entirely how you hold the rod. 3 or 4 fingers in front of the reel stem it will make a big difference between a heavy and light reel. Two fingers either side of the reel stem and it won't make any significant difference. I hold with 2 fingers either side and like a light reel. If the outfit needs balancing then I put some lead in the end of the handle.

Mudhole?

If it's been working OK for you previously then something has changed. Different brand of hooks? Maybe the knot is getting cut by the way the eye is designed on your hooks? If nothing has changed then I would really really carefully check your rod guides. Sometimes a crack can be very difficult to spot.

Virtually nobody looks good in a Ferrari, John with a 'tasche may be the exception, anyone who can afford one is usually too old and fat to look good in anything! Anyone young in one is either a spoilt brat or stole it. Older gentlemen with a few well earned dollars look good in Jaguars, Maseratis and Aston's. Here endeth the lesson.

I'd check the guides on your rod to make sure they isn't an issue with one being cracked or missing. 10lb power pro, the standard power pro, rather than the super slick, is virtually unbreakable on spinning tackle. If it's not the knot where you're joining your leader then it's going to be a ring on the rod or possibly the line roller on your reel that are knicking the line and causing problems, unless you're trying to drag the line through mussel beds.

Shorter casts and bright coloured braid may help too. If you're casting a long way and using dark coloured braid it's going to be harder to detect strikes. The closer you are to your bait the more chance you have of seeing something unusual happening to your line too.

Hmmmm. Went to Ireland pike fishing a few years ago. My buddy caught a pike first cast, had to wait 3 days for the next pike. The mojo is strong with that curse.