Preytorien

This is heartbreaking to hear, from one of our most reputable and well-respected members. I will be lifting your son up daily in my prayers Tom.

I'm not rich by any means, but if I'm going to drop my hard earned cash on rods, reels, and even lures there's no way I'm buying cheap line. I do my research and buy what I know I'll use and what will work for my waters. I've dabbled in various brands, but now everything I have is spooled with Tatsu or Smackdown.

Well they made a liar out of me. Water was muddy from the rain and high but falling. Worked a number 2 gold bladed spinner and ended up catching exactly 20 fish in about 90 minutes. Nothing big enough to even break out my scale, but it was fun doing that. I wouldn’t say I’ve strung enough of these kinds of nights together enough to call it a trend, but it sure was fun.

Yep we're pretty close here. I'm going to give it a shot tonight. Wife's visiting her mother to plan Thanksgiving events, so I'm hitting their HOA pond for a while. I think we have some light wind and overcast skies in store, I'm going to give the lipless cranks a shot. Heck, I'll probably throw everything in my box at them until something clicks. Ha!

I've seen a few in my same situation. We hear about this "hot fall bite" but seems like we never can find it. In my waters the fish have just simply shut off completely. We've had semi-cool days (50's-60's), and cool nights (30's-40's). Water temps are in the 60's. But the last 4 trips I've taken have resulted in one fish each, and those are on waters I can regularly pull 8-10hr on a bad day from. I can't find the bite. No bait, no technique, no location change has resulted in any different. Water is crystal clear, and I don't even see any fish at all, nothing cruising the banks, nothing busting baitfish. It's like they all packed up and moved south for the winter. For you bank walkers like me, any ideas? Where's the fall bite?

That reel will pair nicely with a Shimano Zodias if that's in your budget. Recently I've went through, sold all else, and replaced everything with the Zodias series.....they're that good. Within them you'll find a lot of the trickle down components from the Expride lineup, so they feel great and are sensitive. The reel seat is also very comfortable for spinning setups.

I agree, I've tried the others, and I can say with confidence, save your nickels and dimes and splurge for the Tatsu. It won't disappoint you.

I agree with the above. Also, downsize and go natural colors. I find myself using a lot of Ned Rigs in natural colors on bodies of water that are clear and pressured.

I don't know that a truer statement has ever been spoken on this site

I tried Sniper, on both a casting and spinning rig, couldn't get the memory under control. I tried all I knew to do, stretching the line, KVD, Reel Magic, even boiling the line on the spools, none of it made much difference. The mouse button did the trick..... .....as I clicked "Buy It Now" on those spools of Tatsu

I don't necessarily do all I can to prevent it, but daggumit - catching a fish on the 1st cast seems to ruin the rest of the day......almost like the fish are superstitious.....it's happened to me before, but I don't place a lot of belief in it, but it IS weird.

So I received a Heddon Moss Boss in my stocking a couple years ago. I haven't bothered to take it out of the package, but the other day I gave it a second look and realized that even though I took it out, I would have no idea how to fish this. A couple things came to mind while I fumbled around with it in-hand. 1. How can you work this through weeds/moss/slop without the snap on the front getting caught in virtually EVERYTHING in its path? Do you guys remove it? It looks like the very basic design could easily foul up unless you're in vegetation, but moss/slop/algae would be a nightmare. 2. How do you keep the thing casting to where it lands upright, which apparently would be the only way to fish it successfully? Does it flip over on its own, or is it down to dumb luck that it lands right-side up? 3. I suppose the basic question is, how do you fish it? Is it designed for a steady retrieve over extreme cover, or is it walk-able in open water? I've never used one, for those who have, how did you fish it with success? Thanks!

Frogs = Straight braid Everything else / open water = mono (or braid + mono leader)

There it is......a truly kind soul making the rest of us fishermen look good. Great job, keep up the kind actions.

I've had plenty of time to question my techniques and methods over the years, and this year I've found that sometimes going back to the first lure I ever learned, has once again proven its time-tested fish catching ability..... The in-line spinner. Clear or muddy. Warm or cold. Windy or calm. The thing flat out CATCHES fish. Sure, lots of dinks, but that's more than I had been catching prior. I use a Blue Fox gold/gold/dressed size 2 for spinning gear, a size 4 for casting.

Congrats! It's a great feeling that NEVER gets old

I've been using this year to really experiment with different techniques and methods. One I've tried with success was to use fluoro (instead of straight braid) on a spinning reel for ultra-finesse applications. I had tried Sniper prior and had terrible results, even with KVD L&L, so I went with Tatsu and everything has been excellent since. So when I decided to try fluoro on one of my casting rigs I didn't skimp and went straight to Tatsu, applied L&L, and so far it's doing incredible. I wondered though, I still get the feeling that there's more line memory than I'm used to obviously with braid, and while that's a problem on spinning reels, how concerned do I need to be with it on a casting reel? Will it cause line lay issues or parts that aren't laying tightly? Am I making a problem out of something I shouldn't?

Excellent post Brian, thank you. I'm also a shore bound fisherman (most of the time) and constantly evaluate retention ponds for viability. This will give me some very valuable insight. Thank you!

I hear a bit, but rather than the reel I think it's the rod's reel seat. I use almost exclusively the Zodias lineup, and their Ci4 reel seats are a pretty hard plastic hybrid which lends itself to those kinds of noises. I fixed it by wrapping the ends of the reel-side seat about3 wraps with teflon tape, noise was gone. Even if you didn't have Ci4 reel seats you might give it a try and see if it stops the noise. It drove me nuts, almost to the point I'd stop using them for fear I was going to disintegrate one.

Thanks for this post. I've been on the fence about pulling the trigger on the Curado DC, and I may do it this winter. I keep hearing good things about it. Maybe not earth shattering - but as you said it's a certainly nice feature just to add that bit more confidence and assurance to your casting. I know I've spoken to a couple guys who said the biggest advantage they've seen is during tournaments. When things heat up and you're more likely to make casting mistakes in the heat of the moment, the DC mitigates some of that, saving you time and hassle in crunch time. Nothing can take place of your thumb, but it can add an advantage to it. Great post, thanks!

It's a moderate / medium-fast rod. Meaning, it'll have a bit more bend to it. Ideally this would be a very good crank, spinnerbait, etc rod - I'm not sure about jigs since those need a good bit of backbone to set the hook aggressively. I've found with a true boat it would probably be fine for those lure types, but in my kayak I usually want more backbone. Overall this rod (in my arsenal) would be pretty technique specific as it might be too soft for things that need a good whacking hookset (frogs, topwaters, jigs). For me I'd use it with moving baits and *most* soft plastics.

I'm a believer, by circumstance, that only a few crankbaits are needed. As I'm mostly a bankwalker, I only have so much space to carry in my bag. That said, while I have a couple bright colors for muddy water, the other 3 I use most of the time, with great luck, are flashy - two gold and one silver. Those seem to cover all the bases for me.

I'm a big Cavitron fan, but lately I've been having great luck with a Teckel Taker

This time of year the grass starts to get a bit wild in my waters. I'm always appreciative that they don't spray all of it, leaving habitat for the fish themselves. However, as I start to begin my late summer downsizing, small inline spinners are often my go-to. Aside from fouling the blade, and obviously causing the lure to have impaired action, I've often wondered if the snags of grass that the hooks might grab would cause a fish to pass on my lure, or if they don't seem to care? I can't say I remember ever catching a fish while my hooks are fouled, but then again I've never found a fish willing to have a sit-down with me and tell me his honest opinion on it. What are your thoughts? Without impairing the lure's action, will hooks with junk on them cause fish to not strike your lure?

I use a Zodias M/F for my NedRig/Senko rod. Works great. The rod is sensitive and the reel seat is very comfortable.