Scott F

You’d actually kill someone over that?

This is rush hour on the way to one of my lakes.

You throwing a bullet weight all by itself? Add the weight of a hook and worm and you are probably at 1/4 oz. I always pay attention to the lure ratings. If the entire lure is much less than the low end rating, you won’t get much distance on the cast. Too heavy, and you might damage the rod. Just be sure to consider the entire weigh of the lure.

There are several different kinds of trout. I’ve gotten lakers trolling musky sized crank baits and 3 ounce Dardevles. Smaller lakers were caught on smaller Dardevle spoons. Big brown trout on big Kastmaster spoons. Brook trout on spinners and smaller spoons. I’ve gotten the stocked rainbows on Berkeley Trout bait below a float.

It seems some rivers produce broader fish than others. The Wisconsin and the Menominee both put up some wide fish that are heavier for their length than other rivers. I never weigh anything so I can’t comment on what any fish weighs. Both of these fish were around 20”. Not exactly skinny.

A-Jay, how do you raise your 3 wheeled jack and lock it in place? Do you have to remove the wheels every time you hook up to the truck?

Maybe try Gorilla tape?

Instead of getting off topic on another thread, I started a new thread. I’ve got 2 boats with the usual trailer jack and wheel. On flat pavement they roll alright but don’t turn very well. In the other thread a device called a Trailer Valet was briefly discussed but that was overkill for the trailers I have and the short distance I need to move them. A-Jay showed a picture of a 3 wheeled device that would make turning and adjusting pretty easy. The problem I have is a gap between the blacktop driveway and the cement floor of the garage along with an inch or two bump up. I’ve used three wheeled carriers like that before but they will not jump gaps, or handle changes in height without getting stuck. Has anybody seen or know of a trailer jack with a bigger tire that will turn more easily than the standard jack/wheel and go over bumps?

So using those techniques, how long did it take to be over it?

So it is hooked up to a charger over the winter. I thought you meant you never charged it.

Really? I get big smallmouth on spinners every year. I don’t use tiny spinners, but to say they only get small fish, isn’t correct.

10 years, never been charged up, and still works. That sounds like the loaves and fishes story. We are witnessing a miracle! LOL!

I’m sure there are dads out there who have more experience, I’ve found that a small tackle box and a few colorful crank baits (without hooks) for the time being, will thrill the kid. Just like us adults, he’ll have a ball playing with the box and baits until he actually gets to use them. Crank baits will fire his imagination more than hooks and bobbers.

You are at the mercy of the person who screens your stuff. While trying to fly into Canada, they didn’t want to allow the fishing line on our reels in our carry on. This was several years ago and I don’t know how strict they are about following the rules to the letter today

Why make assumptions? Go pick up the rods, better yet, if you can, fish with them BEFORE you decide what you think they might be like. Rods feel different to everybody. I would never let anybody else’s opinion about what feels good to them, tell me how it’s going to feel to me.

Where did you buy the rod? St Croix has very good quality control usually. Rods with even very slight cosmetic defects get downgraded to “seconds” and are sold off at a discount. They mark them with a letter S usually on the reel seat or on the butt end.

Perfect alignment of the guides isn’t going to make any difference in the way it fishes. I own a rod where none of the guides line up. It was made that way on purpose. It’s called a spiral wrap. There is no way in the world I would do anything to straighten out your guides. Because the rod is still new, take it back to where you bought it, or send it back to St Croix if the mis-alignment bugs you that much.

Usually not, but there are a lot of them out there. Most of the shorter fly rods Are a lighter weight, but short fly rods are often used on small tree lined streams where it’s hard to swing a 9 footer. Besides, with no other information besides 7 line, what else could it be?

Sounds like it is a fly rod. Fly rods use weighted line to cast very light flies. Line weights go from around 2 up to around 12. A 7 weight is often used to throw bass flies.

Aside from not catching any bass, you don’t provide much other information about your location, or if you fish from shore only. In my view, it seems like you need to be fishing with someone else who is having some success. I always give this advice to new guys. Join a club. Doesn’t have to be a tournament club. Just start hanging out with other fishermen. My experience shows that fishermen are almost always willing and happy to pass on their knowledge. If someone will take you out and show you the patterns that are working on your local waters. You’ll learn faster and have more fun than trying to figure it out alone.

Currently, Sufix 832 is my go to. I don’t like Power Pro Super Slick 8. It frays really bad when you tie knots. I’m not sure how much of it I have left, but any I do have will only be used as backing for 832.

My boat motor is 25 years old and for the majority of its life, it used fuel with ethanol. It wasn’t until maybe 8 years ago that I started using Sta-bil but that was only during the winter when I just used it in the tank during storage. That motor with only minimal maintenance still runs great. My last truck I had for 16 years, used only regular gas that had 10% ethanol and never had any fuel related issues. I never used any fuel treatment ever. Maybe, I’m just lucky too but if ethanol was that bad, I think we’d be seeing a lot more people having problems.

The drag of water alone will cause the line to stretch. If you’ve ever dragged mono line out behind your boat without a lure to let it untwist, you see how much it pulls on your rod. You’d swear there was a lure attached. Haven’t you ever had a lure stuck to a stick a few feet under water with mono? You twitch the rod a bit and you see the branch doesn’t move unless you make larger movements. Try same situation with with braid and you see how much better your action with the rod tip is transferred to the lure. You are making a big mistake if you don’t take line stretch into account when you are trying to impart action to a lure. Don’t believe it if you don’t want to.

Are you using mono that stretches, or a braid that doesn’t? Makes a big difference.

Don’t confuse PTA with PETAs who can be a PITA.