fishwizzard

I have 3 and a half Pixies and depending on my spool/bearing set up they can cast about anything, but things like tiny hardbaits and hairjigs are far better on spinning reels still. On the upper end I used one on a 783c most of the spring and summer, other then line capacity with 12lb fluoro, it preformed quite well with lures up to 1/2oz. It was for sure not thumb-free casting, but the reel was controllable across a 1/4oz-1/2oz range and if I could have gotten a bit more line on it I would have kept it on the rod.

You can fish a Senko like a Zoom fluke, but it's about twice the price per plastic. The GYCB D-Shad is a fluke that's almost the same material as a Senko, but it feels a little stretchier and is more durable. They weigh more then a Zoom Super and will shimmy on the fall like a Senko.

That is interesting! Next time I am at a snot-pond I am going to give that a try and see if it helps there too.

Sadly I am out of town on the 25th.

Looking at that on my phone I thought it was like hydrodipped in woodgrain or something crazy like that. I had no idea they were so shiny!

Cool, thanks! You have been super helpful in all things canal-related.

I am about some things, but nothing about fishing. My main one is that I *have* to get a haircut/beard trim the morning of or the day before I start a new gig. Even when it's nothing client-facing and I am just monkeying around a warehouse I feel like I cannot focus and get started without a bald dome and neat beard.

Very nice! I lost a breathtakingly huge bass there a few years ago, my bro was like "man that's a weird looking carp" and when I looked it was a monster bass just sitting off the bank. I pitched a jig at her, she grabbed it, and I whiffed the hookset so badly that my dog wouldn't even look at me when I got home. What swimbait is that? I have been fishing the Boom Boom weedlesses for a bit now and really like them.

I cut my tags to about 1/4” irrespective of what kind if line or lure. I do this so I can immediately detect if the knot is slipping with just a quick look at the tag.

My wife isn’t really into fishing but she comes out with me a few times a year. She really seems to get a kick out of casting and retrieving, so I set her up a rod with a paddle-tail frog tied on and she’s quite content to just cast and crank all day. She’s had a couple good blowups but is never manage to hook one. Oddly, she picked up how to use a baitcaster after about 20 minutes of instruction. She still starts every session with the brakes cranked all the way up but as she remembers what she’s doing she turns them down and by end of the day she’s making really respectable casts for someone who goes months without touching a rod and reel.

Cool, thanks!

Huh, too bad then. I hope the bass population recovers and that NPS lets the water rise a bit, it’s was such a fun place to fish and get some walking in at the same time. Do you know offhand what USGS gauge is the closest to that section of the river?

Huh, I had spooked some larger fish throughout the day but had just assumed they were carp. I think I saw about 200lbs of carp between the bend and Pennyfield. Snakeheads might lure me back out there again next week, I have a weird little 5’10’ frog/topwater rod that would be perfect for the canal

The old SJRs still show up on ebay from time to time. If you want a lower cost rod to see if you are into finesse casting then take a look at the MB XXX Black Themis. In power and taper it feels more or less exactly like most ML/XF spinning rods I have used. It’s lower range is closer to 3/16 then 1/8, but it has more backbone then any casting rod I have used that will throw an actual 1/8oz lure well.

I think the Tokyo is a poor fit for weedy/grassy areas and the very similar but less snaggy Jika rig would be better.

Google image searching “ringworms” is not something I would recommend before mealtime.

For sure. I live like 2-3h away and I still make it to SFT a few times a year.

That d**n senko is ruining all the topwater fun! I went out to the C&O between Violettes and Pennyfield on Wednesday. The water is still 2-4’ low. I didn’t see much signs of life until I got past the bend, then I started to see some tiny panfish in the weeds. I spent about 4 hours switching up between a senko, trickworm, and a small jig to no effect. I saw a few small bass closer to Pennyfield, but none over 8-9”. Sadly I think I am giving up on the canal for this year, it’s too long a drive to do without having confidences in the bass being there. I did spend a good bit of time checking out river access along that stretch and I think I’m going to make more of an effort to pay attention to the gauges and give fishing that part of the river my attention. My buddy showed up near the end of the day for some hiking and we got stuck in an amazing thunderstorm. If you don’t mind hiking in the rain the view from the bend is out of this world during a storm.

Very much so, my most productive frog by far this year. I do mainly fish them in open water or very sparse pads or grass. I really like them for fishing just sub-surface hydrila. In a lot of places by me it grows to within an inch or so of the surface and treble hooked lures will foul on it when they splash down if my thumb control isn't perfect.

I am always looking for smaller and thinner hooks and it seems like most every other Ned head out there has a thicker hook then the Zman ones. The Zman ones are notoriously brittle. The new-ish Owner Block Heads have pretty beefy hooks.

I would not have been able to resist that. I have been pretty happy getting them for $10 off of ebay, $5 per would have been too much to handle.

Interesting, it never occurred to me to try and mod them. How much material is being removed?

If you are having break-offs with braid on a spinning reels then I would look to see if the bails are snapping shut on the cast. I have a 4oz Kastmaster in low orbit when the bail shut mid-cast on my surf rod.

That's a really good breakdown dude.

Do you get a lot of line-twist fishing them weightless? I think I posted this already but the 4" ES on a small sled-head has been one of my standouts this year: