fishwizzard

I don’t even really like spinning rods much over 6’, but that Addermine is good enough for me to suck it up and learn how to cast one two-handed. It’s really something special.

I have had my day ruined by the thickness of a single coat of paint before, so I wanted to ask. A silver sharpie will not stick to the blank, I will try to hunt up a paint marker.

Hi, I have a telescoping rod, a Daiwa BBB, that I bought years ago to use when hiking with non-fisherman. I wanted a combo that I could stow and ready for action quickly as not to waste too much of my friends' time when we pass a spot that is too good looking not to fish. Sadly the plan didn't work. The rod is wonderful, but between the 6 sections and the floating guides, it takes a long time to get it set them all up in-line. For some insane reason alignment dots were not added at the factory and I would like to add my own, but am wary about adding any thickness to the blank. Can anyone suggest a paint that would work? The blank is semi-sanded with a gloss finish, I can provide pics if that would help.

Interesting, I was definitely trying to use it where I fish t-rigged trickworms, which is generally areas of cover that still have a lot of pockets of open water. This makes it inevitable that the presentation is going to bump into a lot of stuff as I work it back to me, I’ll give it a go again and stick to edges.

Every time this comes up I give it a try but I have never gotten it to work, it seems like at the slightest contact with any kind of cover the hook pops through the worm and snags. I try to fish it with a very slow lift-n-dip retrieve like I do with them weightless t-rigged, but never seem to get bit. How and where are you fishing them?

I stick ripped/used plastics in the litting cargo pocket on my fishing shorts. A few times I have forgot to clean it out between trips and a zman plastic ends up in there with them. It's a really unpleasant thing to stick your hand into an hour later.

I always rig them round side up, but when they get ripped up I flip them and it doesn't seem to matter. Weightless Trickworms are one of my favorite presentations and I am on a likely endless quest to find my "perfect" combo for them.

I swim every jig back to me. Most of the time I don't get hit enough dragging it back to make it worth the time, but I get hit swimming them back to make it worthwhile vs just skiing it back on top. I also will used SK Shellcrakcers as a trailer on little 1/4oz Arkie jigs to make a really subtle dragging/swimming presentation with a near perfect panfish profile.

Long handles keep me from getting too fat by constantly poking me in the gut, shaming me into watching my weight. That's about the only use I have for them, I would take a shorter handler with a counterweight over a longer one most any day.

My industry is still shut down, so the huge hillbilly beard I have been growing is safe for a while longer. It’s a pia to take care of, but I am getting really fond of it.

Hah, I have an Alphas 150 that I bought by accident, I thought it was an actual Alphas, not the huge reel that it is.

Please do not bring up MtG, I still have painful memories of trading away like two shoeboxes full of first edition cards for a trivially small amount of pot when I was my very early 20s. The Internet was still in its infancy then and as I hadn’t played for years at that point I had no idea that the dumb things are worth actual money.

And look out for ospreys during the day! Had a near miss on wakebait a few weeks ago and lost an S-Waver to one last year.

If you want short look for a Loomis cr723 or mbr783 in which ever blank line fits your budget. Throw a Daiwa Alphas or other small reel on there and you will have a great compact/light combo.

For both chatters and spinners, I try to have a "Light, Natural" and a "Dark, Natural" color on hand. It's a very loose thing, all white can work for the light one and blue/black for the dark, but I usually try for something a little more realistic. I am currently trying to split the difference with a darker color with chartreuse highlights, Siebert has some great colors for that, Missouri Craw and Lighting Craw come to mind.

I am a sucker for the Loomis MBR rods one would be my first choice for an all-around rod.

Fancy plastic, more or less. They are very nice reels and crazy light weight. I have a pair of them and have been using them for 3ish years with no maintenance and they still feel smooth as the day I got them. I am not really into fancy spinning reels, but there are some rods that a BG is too heavy for, so the Ci4s have a place.

Fair point. I believe there is first hand info about the X-Bites on TT somewhere, if you have not seen it I can try and find it tonight and send you a link.

Hahah, man, I have hand mine since last November and never noticed that, or rather, I though they were like speed holes or something.

I am not a fan of an XF taper in heavier rods, if I were looking at a jig rod in the P5 line up I would go for the Tachyon Shift or Super Destroyer. The SD also has a CF grip, which really interests me.

I try to find glasses with the lightest, most high-contrast tint I can. I have never been bothered by bright light, so I want to see as much of the bottom as possible and have the greatest chance to see movement. Usually this ends up being an light amber or yellow.

I have had a few pairs of the $25 SK polarized glass and for the money they were pretty nice. The main thing that sucked about them was how easily they would scratch. Even the slightest contact with anything harder then my hands seemed to do it, a light drag across my jacket's zipper on the way to a pocket did it once. I found them on sale on one of the outdoor gear deal sites for like 50% off. If you haven't looked, those same sites are great places to get higher end glasses at huge discounts. I have a pair of Coastas and a pair of Smiths that I got that way. Often you will have little choice in terms of frame color and style, but if you don't care about looks it's a great way to get good glasses for less. For me the fogging issue is mostly a matter of frame style, wrap around ones will fog far more easily then flat frames. On sunny days I fish with a hoodie on so I don't need any glare protection from the sides, but flat frames can be tricky to find at the cheaper price points.

100% agree. I fish a lot of sub-1/4oz jigs and in my experience bass hold them for far longer than they do a heavy jig, making the hooksets a lot easier. In some cases, the bass will grab the jig and start swimming away with it, like they were with soft plastics.

I have never fished from one, but I go to see one in action a year or so ago. It seemed very neat and the owner loved it. I ran into him again when I was landing my yak, he moved his in a truck bed and had a block/fall and a small ramp rigged up to help him load it.

I don’t pay more then like $6 per bag and buy a bunch when I can find them on sale for that. I mostly fish them t-rigged and am happy if I get 3 bass on them, for a $0.20 per fish cost. The Ochos are good worms as well, especially the 4” ones.