Lead Head

Thanks! It's rare, but always cool when someone catches it.

I mentioned it in another post but I'll say it again here since you asked. For me, the Huk shirts are far better than Colombia. After wearing a Huk shirt my Colombia omni-shade feels thick and hot. This is just my personal experience and the Huk shirts are more expensive so you might want to try one on somewhere before paying the extra money. With our 95+ degree, 90% humidity summers here in AR small improvements can feel significant.

Start off with plenty of tension on your spool and cast lightly at first. You don't want to bully that reel like you could the older ones. My brother-in-law recently made a similar upgrade and I get a kick out of the creative swearing coming out of the back of the boat every 20 minutes or so. He can cast fine but eventually he forgets or gets in a hurry and tries to cast with way more force than is necessary... then the swearing starts.

Personally, I usually default to a baby brush hog then expand from there. Honestly, Im of the opinion that pretty much anything will work if you halfway "match the hatch" and put it in the right place. So my advice would be to focus more on color (keeping it pretty simple) and location than on type of bait.

Can't speak for diawa (yet, trying out a fuego ct soon) but for just a little bit more than a crush combo you can have a lews tournament mb on a dobyns fury. I have fished with both the crush and mb/fury combo and in my opinion the mb/fury is FAR superior.

I don't know why, and I'm sure it's rare... but there are occasions when beaver will eat fish. After watching one munch on a large perch in a local pond I did a little internet research and it turns out others have seen similar behavior. There is even a YouTube video of a beaver eating a fish. Most documentation I could find was of beavers eating freshly cleaned fish carcasses but I saw what I saw. And before anyone asks... yes it was a beaver, otters don't swim up to the boat and tail slap. Call me crazy if you want... you won't be the first (or last unfortunately)

Thanks for the ideas. I'm sure it's something in the normal food chain. It just really puzzled me to find so many fish with the same wound. I was wondering if maybe someone would see it and flat out know what was doing it. I'll be keeping my eye out for birds from now on but there really aren't many out there. I see all kinds of stuff on the river from herron to bald eagles (even pelicans in the winter) but not at this place.

As far as shirts go, I have a Colombia omni-shade, Magellan, and Huk. For me the Huk shirt is the best and it's not even close. It is the coolest and makes my Colombia feel thick. I like the shirt so much I decided to try out the gloves can't really say much about them yet, only used them once. They have a rubberized texture in the palm for grip that I either love or hate... just not sure which yet.

Let me give some more detail. First off, Central Arkansas. The lake is owned by a mining company that uses the water for dust management. Aside from me and my dad it might see 5 or 6 boats a year and outboards are not allowed. Because of the location and presence of heavy machines I seriously doubt it's a raptor of any kind. Water visibility is really bad, constant dust and dirt (both run off and airborne) keep it at about 4-6 inches. An otter is definitely possible but unlikely. Gar and turtles are super common. All the wounds and scars are almost identical, even predominantly on the same side of the fish. After thinking about it I have seen this in the past just never so frequently.

Hmm... didn't think of birds. Don't ever see them out there but I'm sure they are around.

Have seen 5 different fish with this same wound. 2 were pretty fresh and the others were healing up with one having just a scar. This is in a small private lake that gets almost no pressure.

Been running these on a jika rig with a 4/0 this year with great success. I'm finding I love the versatility of a swimbait on a jika rig. Straight retrieve, hopping, twitching, burning, dead sticking and of course initial fall have all produced fish.

Never hooked myself past the barb, but did take a 3/8oz (I think) bullet sinker to the head. As I mentioned in the name thread, I figure Lead Head was earned here. In this picture (assuming I get it to post) I had already moved it. Originally it was farther around and completely hidden.

That 33 platinum is what I keep around for teaching first timers how to fish with soft plastics. Throw one of those on a stiff rod and people who have never fished before have little trouble sticking and landing bass with a Texas rig.

It would be on a new build. I decided if I'm going to get into more expensive rods I might as well build them myself and have exactly what I want. I'm currently gathering information and saving up money. It's going to take some time, but I'll get there. Let me go ahead and apologize now for all the newbie questions I'll be asking in the future. Thanks again for the help

I have 2 tournament mb and a bb1 that I absolutely love. I will be replacing all my reels with the mb eventually.

Gotcha... thanks for your time that is exactly what I was trying to figure out.

Thanks, you say it fits newer Fuji casting seats so getting it on a ECS will work? It looks like you bond it to the sleeve that would replace the stock lock nut. Does that sound about right?

Can anyone explain how this works? Will it just slide over the threads of the reel seat and be like a small foregrip or is there more to it? Couldn't find anything on YouTube and product descriptions just don't tell me enough.

Mine was earned... took a 1/2oz bullet sinker just above my right eye. It actually went all the way in and looked like one of those crazy eyebrow implants people get.

+1 for pad crashers (mostly poppin) In my experience they hold up about as long as a spro, but don't take in as much water. Managed to get a whole summer out of 1 before it finally ripped apart, and I threw it a lot. It had caught enough bass (and been assassaulted by many gar) that I wasn't surprised when it finally failed. Can't speak for any other brands, but I definitely prefer pad crashers over spro.

I can understand the love/hate with floroclear. I used it for a few years before I ran into a bad spool. It broke at the knot on EVERY hook set. After 2 fishing trips and trying every knot I know how to tie, I finally stripped it off and refilled from an old spool. Problem completely disappeared. I still keep it around now for bream and crappie poles but I won't put it on a bass rig anymore.

Fair enough. I was sold on the Fury until I realized I could get the JM for 100$ during the BPS sale. It had me wondering if the JM was actually a better rod since it's normal price is 150$. I just don't know enough about the finer points of rods to look at materials and see a difference, so I automatically default back to price. I'm sure BPS is still making a profit selling the JM at 100$ and I realize price doesn't always mean quality... that's why I started asking you guys. Now that I think about it, maybe I asked the wrong question. For you guys with a better understanding of rods and rod components, do one of the rods stand out on a "quality of components"? I understand there are many other variables, just trying to do as much homework as possible. When I started trying to look this stuff up myself it got over my head really quick.

Thanks for the tip on the Dobyns upgrade policy. I read up on it and it seems like a really nice feature.

Thanks for the reply! I have held both rods... whipped them around the store like a drunk Jedi... and still ride the fence. They both have pros and cons for me personally and with my limited rod experience I'm just looking for some "on the water" experience from you guys. I'll have to jump off the fence one way or the other before BPS sale ends