fishwizzard

I tried using a plug in the yard, but found the casting reel to be super unforgiving when the lure hits the hard ground verses the water. Every error caused a backlash and that was a bit too "tough love" for me. The way I became even slightly proficient was to head to a local pier with a 3/8oz Kastmaster tied on so at least my mis-casts would hit water and give me a second to clamp my thumb down. My issue is getting the tip to load. That was the thing that got spinning rig casting to "click" for me, once I learned to let the tip do the work I was able to quickly improve both distance and accuracy, with the added bonus of being able to make casts all day with no wrist fatigue. Now, going back to the casting rig, I am having trouble getting the tip to load as well as I can on even my cheaper spinning rods.

Hi, Maybe 90-95% of the time I fish with a spinning set up and am becoming proficient enough with it that I want to start working on my admittedly pitiful casting rig skills. My only casting set up is a Lew's BB1 Inshore spooled with 20lb PP on a 6'6" M/FAub Vendetta rod. I am having an issue finding a lure that casts well with it. It is rated 1/4-5/8, but I am having trouble with everything in and around that range. Yesterday I took it out and started with a 3/8 Chatterbait w/ trailer tied on. This should weight around 5/8 to 3/4 and should be right at the upper limit. However, while the tip does load, I can't get any distance or accuracy and really struggle to cast it one handed. Any line release other then a mortar shot ends up with the lure slamming down 15-20' out from the bank unless I use a silly amount of force. One the other end, a weightless 5" senko, which weighs around 3/8oz, seems like it will not load the tip at all and when I do get it cast out, I cannot feel the lure at all on the retrieve, so even doing a slow lift/drop retrieve is challenging. Moving up to a 4.8" Fat Impact with 1/8oz on nail weights in it seems to be somewhat of a sweet spot, but I still cannot cast it as far as I can on my M spinning rod and with none of the accuracy. I clearly lack practice, but it feels like I am fighting the rod the entire time. Can anyone comment on this specific rod and suggest a weight that might be good to start with? I am worried that this rod just has a very stiff tip and maybe moving to a slightly softer rod will help me with casting.

It is behind the football stadium, but way back in the woods. There are a ton of trails and google maps will get you there. However, parking is going to be the issue. I am going to look into options at the college, but otherwise you are looking at a ~2 mile hike in.

I have the same issue, but I have an **** running, sometimes that will do it, depending on how the site is coded.

Do not, I repeat, do not get the " strong squid scent " in your mouth! The flavor lingers far longer than you want it too even after drinking water. I almost want to carry one of those little MRE bottles of tabasco sauce in my tackle kit as an antidote if it happens again.

That is good to hear, thanks!

Great, thanks for the info. I fish out of a kayak, but also haven't been out in it in weeks. I think I prefer standing to sitting if I am getting rained on.

Very Nice! I keep meaning to get out there, but I always fall to the lure of a closer spot.

That is amazing, I hope to learn to play a fish that well someday.

I am very haphazard about it. I have a friend who is a biologist who does a lot of fisheries research, so I tend to txt him any interesting fish I catch, so I can go through my txt archives and see what I caught on what day. But I don't bother to photograph the average fish so I don't have a good idea other than broad strokes about what I am catching.

I have become enamored with fluke fishing of late and need a decent M action spinning rod in any case, as my current one is a 6'6" Shakespeare that I found in the woods and it is about as sensitive as a chef's hands. From reading a bunch of old threads on here I have decided that a M/XF is about what I am looking for, but I know the trend in rods is for ones in the 7' range. I just picked up a custom 6' ML rod and while it seems to cast flukes fine, I can't get as good an action on them as with my Shakespeare. My question is, is the extra 6" of length necessary, or will a stiffer and higher quality rod let me work a fluke well? The other factor is that my M rod is spooled with braid and the ML one is spooled with 6lb YZ Hybrid, so is the line stretch a factor as well? I am a big believer in Microwave guides as well so casting distance isn't going to be an issue I am worried about. This rod will also be used for weightless senkos and t-rigged vilecraws as well, but it is going to be a fluke rod most of the time. Thanks.

How were you fishing the Ned and what kind of rod were you using? Those cats are insane!

That is not a bad idea and I do own one for my kayak, but I am very minimalist when I hike and a 31"x3" chunk of plastic would break my will to live. I am liking the tyvek idea more and more as it will fit in my "always with me" chest pack so unlike the net and hogtrough, I will never be tempted to leave it in the car. I do think it will work great for walking lakes where I am not far from the car, have a larger pack with me, and am not bushwhacking, thanks for the idea.

This guy: http://docirvcustombaits.com/baitbox/Finnese_Small_Fishing-Baits?product_id=65 posts on a kayak forum I read. I have never used his stuff and can't vouch for it, but he does offer a 4.5" U worm, which is close to what you are looking for.

As long as I am not going far enough from my car that I need to bring a lot of water, a first aid kit, and other hiking stuff, I just bring a small fly fishing chest pack. It fits a few loose hardbaits or a pocket Plano in the front fly compartment, and a 5 compartment Plano and maybe two to three small bags of plastics in the "large" pocket. I keep some leader, a tube of megastrike, nippers, and hemostats in the side pockets. I only bring a single rod, a ML spinner that leans more towards the M side. I find that a weightless fluke, a few Ned rigs or variants, a few spinnerbaits, and some 4" Fat Impacts are all I really need from the bank. Now, I only ever seem to catch small bass, so maybe it is best to ignore me.

I am interested in trying out big worm fishing, but my heaviest rod is a M Aub Vendetta casting rod. It seems to cast them all right on a 1/4oz swimbait hook, but I am discovering the rolling that Turtle135 mentioned. I ordered some 3/8ox Draggin heads, but have not had a chance to try them. Assuming they cast ok, do you all think I have enough rod to get good hooksets? I got the rod for $40 at a flea market so I am not super attached to it, but I fish my casting set up so rarely that I am not excited to upgrade it if I don't have to.

Caught my PB bass today! Felt bad laying him in the grass but atleast it was wet. The line broke right at the bank and I couldn't control him with one hand to get the hook out and figured wet grass was better then clutching him to my chest. I have a nice trout net, I really need to start carrying it all the time. I also am gonna cut a small piece of tyvek to fold and carry in my little chest pack. I can even mark lengths on it to get a rough measurement. I caught him on a fluke in the Fran Uhler Rec area, which is a pretty creepy abandoned park right by Bowie State. There is no car access within about 2 miles unles you drive around a gate and have a decent off road vehicle. Even then I saw more than one ruined tow strap on the trails, so I suspect even jeeps get stuck on occasion. It's a great spot and I saw a ton of beds, so I will be going back.

I usually only change from a natural color to a bright color if the natural isn't getting hit. However, I will often change the type of plastic, going from a TRD/.5 Zlinker to a shad, a 4" finesse worm or tiny craw, until I find something that gets hit. Just today I was fishing a little stream and getting my trd was getting bumped every cast, but never hit. I switched to a 4" worm and caught a small SMB within two casts.

Ah, but then I cant switch colors or plastic styles without retying. My ned plastics go through a "lifecycle" where in they get loose rigged on the owner heads when new and the ones that survive and get soft end up glued or tied to a mushroom or VMC half moon head. If the jig they are on gets damaged beyond repair the become trailers for small spinner or chatter baits. I have never had one survive this stage, I guess if one did I would hang it on the wall or something.

I bought a pack of the Tubez to try out and rigged them with Gopher's "Big John's Mushroom Head Jig" in 1/16oz with a 2/0 hook. It fits snugly inside the tube and puts the hook a little past halfway back on the plastic. However, I am not super impressed with the lures themselves. The tentacles don't seem to have much life and seemed to stick together an awful lot. I still need to give them a serious try, but will hold off ordering any more until this pack proves it's self. I really wanted to like them, as a durable yet soft tube of that size has been hard to find.

The Ned was the first rig I ever fished for bass, I lucked out read something about it in a magazine at an airport and decided it would be a good place to start. I do loose a ton of them due to weeds and such but it is a lure that always produces, assuming I can get it to the fish. In the pursuit of a weedless version, I have finally settled on the Owner Ultrahead 1/16oz with a #1 hook. It is far from perfect, the shank is too short and the lack of a keeper means that you will be resetting the plastic almost every cast, but the confidence that comes with knowing I can throw one into literally any cover more then makes up for the fussiness of it. I think I manage to land more fish with an open hook gopher head, but looking at a total bass-per-hour, the time saved retying snagged lures more then evens it out. I am going to try gluing/tying a tiny fly hook onto the shank of the Ultraheads to see how that works as a keeper, but I haven't actually remembered to pick some tiny hooks up yet.

I held a little 5' pistol griped casting rod at a flea market over the winter and loved it. I started looking at UL casting reels and quickly put that idea on the back burner. I think it would make a fun little rig for throwing tiny Kastmasters at white perch, but not for the price UL casting reels seem to cost.

Had a lot of fishing time the past week and put it to good use. I finally made it up to PA to pick up a rod I had ordered back in February. I got a 6' ML rod from Jim at Smallie Stix. I do a lot of hike-in fishing and was looking for a light all-around rod to carry with me. Jim was nice enough to take me out and show me some spots up there. Very envious of their wadeable rivers and seeming lack of greenbrier. Caught a few smallmouth and had a blast. Later in the week I finally managed to catch some bass in Northwest Branch, north of Burnt Mills. I have some friends who live out that way and I fish it semi-often, usually to no avail. But on Thursday I hiked further then normal and managed to catch about a dozen 9-12" LMBs in about an hour. I caught them all on the same Keitech swimbait, which is kinda impressive. Then yesterday I went to Cash Lake for the first time. I wasn't expecting much due to how low it was, but managed to catch a pair of bass in the weeds. What really set the day off was a surprise pickerel, again in the weeds. He was about 20" and mad as hell. I thought I snagged a turtle at first, it was the hardest fighting fish I have ever landed from shore. My rod handled him well, once I could get him turned and not stripping line. And to cap it all off, today I hit Governor's Bridge after work. The small pond is full of weeds and grass and in full swing. Caught a few small bass leaning out and fishing a 4" paddle tail along the weed line, but those days are numbered. Next time the small rod stays in the car and it will be flukes and frogs until fall.

I don't have a singe friend who is really interesting in fishing, so most of the time I am alone. However, I do have a buddy who is very into birding, so we go out hiking together all the time. Between me stopping at every likely looking spot and him sneaking off after some very exciting duck noise, we usually only manage a mile or three in an 7-8 hour day. I have a standing offer to all my friends to come with me, I have so much gear from my early "must buy three of everything" phase that I could give away enough to get someone started without even missing it.

I am a pretty new fishermen and fish from shore maybe 1/2 to 3/4 of the time. What got me catching fish was picking a small number of lures and sticking to them until I got them to work. I started with a Ned rig and small (1/8oz-3/16oz) spinnerbaits, then moved on to 3-4' paddle tail swimbaits. All three of these will generally catch small bass if there are there to be caught. What really got me catching fish was learning as much about them as I could. Once you have a little knowledge about where bass live and how they hunt, you can focus on the parts of water that are likely to be holding fish. One of the best feelings was when I was walking along and saw a patch of SAV build up on the upstream side of a downed tree with a nice big hole in the middle. I thought "I bet there is a bass waiting right on the edge of that hole." and cast a Ned right into it and pulled out a 2lb bass. I felt like a fish psychic.