Fried Lemons

Expensive gear is not something you need to be a good angler. One thing I will say from experience however is that once you experience fishing with a high end product, you will not want to go back to gear that does just enough to get the job done.

Thanks everyone. I'm pretty sure I'll always be more comfortable casting right handed but I think I'll practice more with my left hand. At the very least I hope it'll improve my ability to roll cast to my right.

This is very interesting. Seems intuitive that the strong hand should be the one holding the rod as it will be under the most pressure. Given that the vast majority of people are right handed I wonder why right hand retrieve reels are so much more common than left?

This topic always confused me. Is a right handed reel intended for use by right handed people and vice versa? I am a lefty and all of my reels are right handed. When I cast I press the button with my right hand and make the cast, then switch hands for the retrieve. This seems like a wasteful movement and it recently occurred to me that if I cast with my right hand and retrieve with my left I could be much more fluid in my fishing style. The strange thing is I feel extremely off balance and weak when I try reeling with my left hand. Once on a charter boat I told the mate I was a lefty and he handed me a lefty conventional. I hooked something big off a reef that I couldn't for the life of me crank off the bottom. I suspect that I've been reeling right handed for so long that I am uncomfortable reeling left. Unfortunately I found I am also bad at casting left handed. On the bright side I suppose this has saved me the trouble of finding certain reels in lefty models. I recognize that there is technically no wrong way to fish and switching hands probably costs me less than a second since it is second nature to me but I wonder, how do you guys fish?

If you're in the avid price range for the kind of rod you're talking about consider a jdm ajing rod. Major craft/daiwa should have some models in your price range and they will blow the avid out of the water in performance.

How do you like those exsence spinners? I'm debating buying one to replace a stradic.

22 pounds of drag is way more than you will ever need on a low profile reel.

Thank you all for chiming in. The setup I'm thinking about modifying I typically fish neds and other light plastics with. I want to get more into drop shotting next season as well. I have fished straight fluoro and straight mono on it and while I like the way they handle, I find myself needing to respool far too frequently from breakoffs, reties and random abrasion. I've gathered from these responses what I want in a leader is mainly abrasion resistance and knot strength with handling qualities being of little importance. Do you think it's worth springing for actual leader material or something cheap like YZH?

I’ve read from a lot of suggestions on here that people use braid to fluorocarbon leaders. Personally tying leaders was always a hassle for me so I generally just tied straight to braid. I plan to give it another try next season. I want to touch on a few things here. 1. Is it worth spending more on a premium line if you only intend it as leader material? The general belief seems to be that higher end fluorocarbons handle better than cheap ones but does it matter for leader? 2. Does fluoro really have any benefit over mono in short <3’ lengths? People extoll the slack line sensitivity and reduced stretch of fluoro but I don’t see these things mattering in short lengths. 3. I’m not sold on fluorocarbon being significantly less visible than mono. I’ve never had issues getting bites on monofilament line in crystal clear water. In many cases I’ve had fish in clear water strike lures on straight braid with no inhibition. 4. How long of a top shot do you normally tie on? From my experience tying a long one on negates the benefits you get from spooling braid. Please enlighten me on these topics. Feel free to try changing my mind.

I wanted to get out there Friday and Sunday. Work is keeping me way too busy unfortunately.

Wow, no kidding there. I assume you were around dam 4. I was actually far downstream. The density of fish here is lower as I've never caught more than 2 in an outing. However the average size seems bigger. The fish I've caught here ranged from 18-24".

I agree and think fishing enjoyment is a balance of enjoying the technique and enjoying playing the fish. Before this cat my biggest fish was a 35lb mahi mahi caught trolling out of Cancun. I could barely lift my arm after fighting that fish but the monotony of trolling combined with the 3 foot waves that day made it an overall unpleasant experience. To me bass fishing is lacking in the opposite way. The techniques are a lot of fun but the fight can be very lack luster.

Water levels are down but widewater is deep enough to not really be affected by the draw downs.

Season is winding down for me. I'll probably give it one more trip Friday and call it. Here are a couple walleye I caught during the fall run. All males in the 18-21" range.

I had this exact thing happen to me when I was 15. It was the first 5lb+ bass I had ever hooked. That event was actually the point where I started buying heavier gear. I use heavy gear around slop. I won't argue that at times it is necessary. Unfortunately I was alone at the time so the pictures aren't that great.

I recently had an experience that brought the title to mind while fishing my local river. I was fishing for smallies when I had a behemoth 42lb blue catfish smash my blade bait. I fought the fish for a solid 10 minutes, steering it away from current, brush piles and rocks. While I definitely felt undergunned I allowed the fish to pull drag while letting my rod absorb the headshakes. Eventually I managed to land the fish. It occurred to me then that no smallie would ever come close to the power of that blue. Which do you value more: enjoying the fight with the fish or getting it in with no chances of escape? That's basically what I am getting at. I was fishing with 10lb mono which is about as low as most people will go for bass. The encounter I had with that blue reminded me of the importance of proper drag setting and fighting technique, and the satisfaction of a good fight. I feel this is something that has been lost to bass fishermen in particular. I understand why it is in the interest of tournament anglers to get the fish in as fast as possible but it seems this style of overpowering the fish is also dominant in the recreational scene. Your thoughts?

Thanks for the input everyone. I contacted my local DNR and a fisheries biologist got back to me. The fish is apparently a goldfish several generations wild. Subsequent generations tend to lose their bright colors. I thought that was pretty neat.

I think it was actually a plain goldfish. I see lots of colored ones swimming around.

Fished the canal at swains for the first time in a few months. Water was drawn down 2-3ft below usual. In these conditions there is usually a sweet spot that holds most of the fish. The rest is either dead or dinks. I found the sweet spot in a slightly deeper stretch with a single piece of isolated cover. 3 bass at 3lbs apiece caught on consecutive casts 14" 1.5lb crappie

Try fishing tight against the bank. Fish generally move up shallow in high water to escape the current and to feed on worms and other food items washed in by the rising water. Shallow in this case can mean less than a foot of water. Any obvious current breaks are also worth trying.

I’ve fished for about 18 years and I used spinning exclusively for 15 of those years. I didn’t want to deal with the learning curve of casting gear. Now I use both equally and believe each has its application. If I had to use only one it would be spinning but I see no reason to limit myself.

Fishing stays good if you are willing to pursue other species. In my area yellow perch, crappie, walleye, pickerel and blue cats are all very active this time of year.

I accidentally snagged this fish on a crappie jig in a canal. At first I thought it was a small common carp but now I think it might be a crucian. I’ve never heard of wild crucian carp in my state and wonder if this is yet another invasive species in my area.

Loch Raven is loaded with them.

Edge rods are 50% off atm if anyone's interested.