Tackett1980

Yep, I agree with this. Every time I go out I plan to roll.

Agree to disagree. “Nobody” is a broad statement. I’ll refrain from continuing our discussion in the OPs thread though. Happy fishing everyone!

Not a bad idea. Actually that’s a great idea I’ll have to do some research and see who goes up there. thanks!

WV doesn’t have great fishing despite what any one may tell you. But as far as kayaking large lakes goes...it really isn’t an issue. I mean you definitely won’t win any land speed records but honestly I can’t ever imagine the need to suddenly go from one side of the lake to the other... If I was going to move anywhere specifically for the fishing and my yak, it would 100% be somewhere on the coast where I could fish inland flats.

My only word of advise is to attach some floats to your rods.... nothing sucks worse than sinking a 500.00 rod and reel set to the bottom of 30 feet when it could have been saved by a .50 float. ask me how I know...

One sea ghoster to another! ::Wave:: Word of advice, watch the cradle where the seat mounts to the boat and how much you “flop” down on the seat. There is a known defect there and it can stress crack.

I mean, people like what they like, and I’m ok with that. OP says he does not like spinning gear, which is fine he is a humans person with his own opinion to which he is entitled. I personally would melt down every bait caster on planet earth if I could, but that’s me. But unless I just misread your post, it seems to me like your trying to argue that you can’t fish large lures or cast as accurately with spinning gear, which I must disagree with. Performance with spinning gear vs. baitcasters when comparing apples to apples is exactly the same these days and has been proven as such time and time again. Saying you want to use baitcasters because you prefer them, and vice versa, is fine I have no issue with that statement. But trying to say that one does x or y better than the other in the year 2020 I would have to, respectfully of course, disagree with. I mean no disrespect in my post, nor am I trying to hijack the OPs topic. Just trying to have a discussion with a fellow angler.

Ok, this is my third time out at this location with not even a strike... what gives?

Why do you need a baitcaster? I’ve caught plenty of fish Bigger than Muskie on spinning gear...

Oh I’m sorry everyone. I appreciate these responses I actually forgot I posted the thread in the first place. I did go out a few weekends ago and I caught nothing. Not even a bite, might as well have been throwing my gear in the back yard. You know, I’ve fished a lot of places. Nearly every state at this point at all times of the year. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that fishing here in WV is frustrating and more difficult than any place I’ve even been to. You would think you would know how to catch fish at your home town but man...I dare any non local to show up at a waterway here and just catch the amount and quality of fish that your used to. Anyways I’m digressing. I was out on the water at 545am and I fished until about an hour after sundown, here are the methods I tried and when I tried them. Until the sun came up I ran the following: 1: whopper plopper in the shallows (really looking for smallies with this) 2: a 4” chartreuse search bait 360 with a swim jig head. 3: 5” power bait paddle tail swim bait 4: storm flat stick in green tiger color 5: z man chatter bait with double tail trailer 6: strike king square bill in bright orange and black. after the sun came up and nearly all day until evening I threw the following: 1: drop rig with some creek chubs. 2: jig head sitting on the bottom with creek chubs 3: curly tail jigs of the following colors. pink, orange, red, white 5: drop shot with some storm fringe tailed shiners, hooked in the nose. evening time and night I did the same thing as early morning except I bobbered some craw fish. I lost some tackle due to bottom snags from the sheer amount of crap on the bottom of the river, but no dice on any walleye. I did see some large schools of fish on the bottom with the sonar hanging around not quite at the bottom but mostly on the drop off areas around 12-15 feet. I saw nothing but sticks and garbage at the deepest points, which is strange considering that the water is probably so oxygenated there that they could probably sit at 100’ down... so critiques? Anything you guys would do different this weekend?

Thanks for the responses and apologies for posting in the incorrect section. This area is pretty deep, closest to the falls themselves where the bottom has been carved out it’s 20-30 feet deep. I’m formulating a plan here now thanks to all of you. The plan so far is as follows: Go out before sun up Saturday: I have some large white paddle tail swimmers about 5” with some jig heads. I was going to throw, sink to the bottom and retrieve. i also have one of those big storm jointed swimbaits I was going to try. https://www.amazon.com/Storm-Kickin-Fishing-Yellow-Perch/dp/B0058N1FWG/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=storm+swimbaits&qid=1597889927&sprefix=storm+swim&sr=8-13 worm wise I have some 4” bubble gum senkos but I fish those all the time there and have never gotten a walleye bite. Though I am fishing them wacky rigged. Should I try drop shot or a different kind of rig? also, I have a bottom dropper rig with a 1 oz egg sinker and a hook. I was going to go out looking for some bluegill and hook one onto this rig. my other plan is to maybe vertical jig some spoons though the spoons I have are tiny. is there anything specific I should be looking for on the fish finder? If someone says “fish”...I’ll find you. Lol Thanks, kind people.

I’ve generally never fished for walleye. Apparently a place close to me here in WV which is a waterfall around a small river has some monster walleye. I’ve seen people recently posting pictures of walleyes the size of my leg... Ive been fishing here tons of times and have caught multiple large smallies but I’ve never once caught a walleye. Any suggestions on how to target these? I bought some very large plastic swimbaits I plan to use this weekend but would love some more advise as I tend to get into a tackle rut using the same bait every time. The pic of the location is attached.

Sounds good will do. i also like the taping trick idea I’m also going to do that.

Well the dude that was supposed to buy this thing backed out, so I guess it’s fate. I just wont take it out with me until I get it down a little better. at least practicing will help some with the fishing itch this winter if nothing else. Looks like I’m headed to wal mart to buy some more cheap mono and some plugs. ill keep this thread updated and maybe I can post some videos for everyone to critique my form?

Thanks for all the responses everyone. I actually finally sold it. I’ll never touch another one of those nasty things again. I’m not sure why anyone would choose these over a spinning reel. I understand people have different preferences, but the frustration was just too much for me. I practiced quite a bit with it, I took it out a few times and could throw a few here and there, but eventually it would backlash so bad that I would just cut the line and throw it in the back of the yak. I literally can only see negatives to these reels and I have no idea why anyone goes near them. Fishing is supposed to be fun and relaxing, and there’s nothing fun or relaxing to me about these types of reels, nothing. Anything this reel can do I can do with a spinner with less headache. I appreciate all the enthusiasm and postitivity I received with this post, and to everyone that loves these things more power to you, and I wish you happy fishing.

I’m not trying to sound like I am blaming the reel. I know I just suck at it and I honestly don’t see the point. It seems like more work than it’s worth. Really the purpose of the thread was more to imply the question of “why am I doing this?” I catch fish on spinning gear, I’ve caught some monsters on spinning gear. It seems like I’m opening myself up to a bunch of headache I don’t really need, so my question is really, what’s there to gain by doing this to myself? Is this worth spending the next “x” amount of outings ticking with my equipment instead of catching fish? answers to questions: Reel: kastking royale elite (8.1) rod: st croix MF 7’ line: trilene xt 12lb mono. lure: practicing with a lunker hunter poppin frog Sorry it took so long to respond I didn’t expect replies this soon.

I tried to use baitcasters 20-25 years ago when I was a young man. I was never able to use the thing. I went back to spinning and never looked back. A few few weeks ago I got the itch to try the baitcaster again. I thought maybe I was just inpatient in my youth and now that I’m old maybe I’d be able to master it. So so long story short, for about 2.5 weeks now, I’ve been watching YouTube videos and practicing in the backyard. I can. Not. Use. This. Thing. The only way I can keep it from Back lashing is to tighten everything to the point to where I can’t throw it very far, plus I can’t hit the broad side of a barn with it which bothers me more than anything. i can plug the exact same spot with my spinning gear from 25 yards. I can’t do anything near that with this thing. i think I’m just too much of a gorilla to finesse this thing.

Wow thanks for all the replies! I actually revisited this thread because I went out again, like I do every weekend, and I got skunked again, just like every other weekend. I went out on upper mud river lake again, I’m done with that place. I threw out a 130 whopper plopper all day hoping to blow up on a Muskie, but I may as well have been fishing in a public swimming pool. There’s fish in there on the depth finder but at this point I’m convinced they are all carp, or catfish. Im really frustrated. I don’t understand why we don’t have these huge bass like other states do. Someone told me that the DNR is shocking all the lakes around here and taking all the fish to stonewall in order to drum up buisness. I believe it to Ive been to woodrum, O’Brien, summersville, plum orchard, east Lynn, mud river, you name it. The only time I ever catch decent fish is when I go on vacation somewhere. It really irks me that I have to travel a minimum of an hour to get to a body of water where I stand a chance to catch a fish that weighs more than 1/2 a pound. This is where I have been this spring/summer: 1: New river by Hinton below the falls. I caught a couple smallies and some bluegill, nothing major. Maybe a pound or 2. 2: as mentioned I have floated down the elk from the dam down and I caught fish on a wacky worm like every cast, but again they were dinky things. The biggest one was maybe 2-3 pounds at the most. 3: O’Brien been here at least a dozen times. Blue gill only never caugh a bass 4: upper mud river lake. caught a small 1 pound largemouth. Every other time has been bluegills or skunked. 5: Kanawha falls. been here about 4 times this summer. I’ve literally never even gotten a strike here. 6: woodrum skunked all 6 times. Pretty place though. 7: east Lynn skunked. Did see some monsters in the depth finder. Never got a single strike, plus there are so many boaters I hated it. 8: little coal/big coal this has been my stomping grounds for years and I had my best results out of here...in the past. I even pulled a Muskie out of the little coal when I was younger. In the past few years my luck gets worse and worse. My last couple years I’ve literally caught nothing every time I’ve gone. As far as stone coal, or stonewall those places are 1.5-2 hours from south Charleston. It’s just not feasible for me to take a day trip out there. My other problem is it’s hard for me to float a river when I’m by myself, so it has to be relatively calm where I can paddle up and float or just paddle around. Maybe I just suck at fishing, but it feels like my luck gets worse and worse every year to the point that I really don’t even like doing it much anymore. It’s pretty annoying pulling and loading all this garbage for nothing.

Hey all. I’ve lived in WV all my life. I’m all fished out around here. I’ve fished pretty much every body of water in the state and I’ve never caught anything significant. Few 1-2 pounders and that’s about all. Does anyone have a location near Charleston they would like to divulge that has some actual good sized fish in it? Ive been going to the upper mud river lake but I get skunked every time I go and I’m tired of it. You name I’ve tried it and either had no luck or just caught little teeny things.

Will the line go back on the reel ok after I strip it off?

I mean I lost them to hang ups. Not to actually catching fish. lol

Hmm no empty reels and no open area. i might have an old kids kite laying around I could use the twine handle off of. any other ideas?

I just got done spooling my big surf spinning reel with around 500 yards of 50lb braid. I spun it all on way too loose. Should I take all this line off and start over? What’s the best way to take it off?

Lost two senkos today!!

Ok glad it’s not just me! The sinker weight is a is a great idea I think I’ll try that!