DHP

Falcon Bucoo Trapcaster

Good to know, Thanks! I would mainly throw 8s and 10s or similar. Figured with the ratings it would work good for 6s too. Appreciate you sharing your experience with it.

Have you thrown 6 or 10 XDs with your iRod? I’ve been looking for a deep crank rod for throwing those and thought I’d get your thoughts. It’s rated 3/8-1 1/2 oz and I’ve read that it will handle 10 XDs good and I thought I’d still be able to throw the 6 and maybe even 5 XD.

I like the VMC half moon wacky weights. 10 pack for $4. Comes in 1/16, 1/8 and 3/16. I’ve used the 3/16 with 4” yum dingers and never had one fall out. I’m gonna buy all sizes next time I make an order.

The morning dawn are in the open pour technology line of dream shots which come in packs of 9. The regular dream shots come in 10 packs.

Thanks Catt for the response. I’m not losing any sleep over this, I’m pretty much set on what I’m going to do, which is start with the XL and see how it goes, just wanted to know what I would have to expect based on others experience who fish a lot more and have tried a variety of lines. I wasn’t sure how the XL would compare to the Big Game being the same advertised diameter even though it’s rated 2# test higher. I knew when asking this that Big Game would be sufficient but it wasn’t available without ordering and the line visibility of the XL seemed like a good thing to try. Thanks again for all the responses and interesting dialogue on the subject. At some point I’ll have to give the various lines suggested here a try. You were the one that gave me the idea to try it so thanks for chiming in.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I actually enjoy these kind of conversations on here. I’ve read lots of threads on here about the best lines for jigs and I realize that the options I have probably aren’t the best, and everyone has everyone has different preferences. But I know I’ve read multiple times here where people swear by big game for jigs and then other threads comparing big game to the 2 lines that I’m asking about. I chose these lines because they are easy to get at Walmart and fairly inexpensive. I mainly wanted to hear everyone’s opinions on these specific lines for this specific technique for comparison purposes. What really makes fluorocarbon better than mono, in some’s opinion, when I read in some threads that fluorocarbon stretches, has poor knot strength, the clearness isn’t required etc.? Is Big Game better than the 2 I asked about or a good compromise or what? When someone like Catt swears by Big Game for jigs is he relying on line watching for detecting strikes or is the line really just as sensitive as anything else? I’m just picking 15# as a middle ground based on recommendations from various threads on this subject and the .015 diameter seems like a good comparison for different lines. I could honestly get by with 12-14# for sure but didn’t want to be too light in certain situations. I realize that different line brand’s ratings are not always accurate and is why I went with the same diameter in both.

So I’ve searched a lot on this topic in this forum and on others and I’m hoping for some more specific responses than what I’ve found. I bought a new jig setup, a 7’4” mh/f with an 8.0:1 reel. I do not want to use fluorocarbon because I hate tying knots with it. And I’ve used braid with leader and I feel like I don’t get good sensitivity with semi-slack line, so I would end up watching my line to detect strikes. I’m starting to go to mono on a lot of my setups and I like maxima ultra green and berkley trilene. I’m looking to use 15# or .015 diameter line. I know a lot of you on here recommend big game but Walmart was out of that so I have a spool of maxima ultra green 15# and a spool of trilene xl in the clear fluorescent blue in 17#, both are .015. I’ve had good experience with the maxima for sensitivity and the color matches my local lakes water very well, but I’ve also had good experiences with the blue trilene xl in 8# fishing the ned rig and liked it for line watching and had no issues in clear water lakes. My question is will I be handicapping myself using the trilene xl vs the maxima as far as abrasion resistance and strength goes or maybe less sensitivity? Will they be similar being the same diameter? I know maxima is plenty strong, but does the xl’s manageability make it not as strong? My thoughts are that I can’t go wrong with the maxima but I’d like the ease of line watching with the XL and I could try the XL first since it’s cheaper and go to maxima if I don’t like it but thought I’d ask here first before spooling it up. Sorry, long-winded, but thanks in advance.

I’ve been using an Abu Garcia Veritas 7’6” MH/MF Frog rod that I bought to use as a versatile rod on my kayak. It’s $120, rated for 3/8-1 1/4 oz and it’s designed for frogs so it has backbone but the mod-fast tip to help with the trebles. With a middle of the road gear ratio reel and braid to leader I think it works decent enough. since I’ve joined a club and started fishing tournaments I’m acquiring more specific gear and plan on buying a more sensitive jig rod and a cranking rod, and when I do, this Veritas is gonna be my S-Waver and A-Rig rod.

My understanding is, he would’ve had to compete in all the eastern opens for his win to qualify him for the classic. It would’ve been cool if he kept the streak alive.

Same here. There’s a dark/light watermelon laminate with red flake that I bought but haven’t really tried. It looks a lot like the Cali Craw TRD’s that I do well with. But the green pumpkin/watermelon laminate senko is my confidence bait.

OFF makes some without deet, I think it is picaradin or something like that. It is supposed to be odorless and doesn’t damage your tackle like deet does. Iaconelli was advertising for it recently on Facebook so I looked for it at Walmart and found it. I have not bought it or tried it yet Just relaying what I read.

I quit for a while. When I was a teenager I loved bass fishing, but I also loved deer hunting. This worked well because I could hunt in the fall and fish the rest of the time, but my buddy, who’s dad owned the boat we would use, decided he could care less about fishing and wanted to focus on hunting. Then I lost the ability to fish all the private ponds I used to fish, so I kinda gave up on it and focused on hunting too. Now the deer hunting really sucks here, and my oldest son(5 at the time) started showing an interest in fishing, I got back into it in the last couple years. Now I can almost care less about hunting lol.

What size lakes are you guys fishing at night in your kayaks? And do you use any kind of lights at all while fishing. I’d like to try this.

I’ve had good results with the 1/10

Spinning or casting? I put 20# on a baitcaster and didn’t like it and ended up putting braid on it anyway. I think 12 - 15 would be better. I have used the 8# on my spinning reel as mainline quite a bit without any line conditioners and as long as a kept an eye out for loops starting I didn’t have major issues. I would close the bail by hand as soon as lure hits the water as well. The 8# is more like 6# diameter so I think that helps too.

I like the Fuji ACS. With the reel stem between my pinky and ring fingers, my index finger rests just in front of the fore grip on the blank.

I don’t own any dobyns rods but thought about getting them, and I’m ocd and like things to match, and didn’t like the spinning rods. I wondered how it would be if the reelseat was flip flopped and why they weren’t. I also don’t like reelseats where your hand is on threads and hardly any cork or eva.

I agree

If you’re looking at amazon, which had the gen 4 stx in 6.x:1 ratio for $125, I’ve noticed the gen 4’s prices less than the gen 3’s. Not sure why. I got lucky and looked at just the right time and found the gen4 sx in 7.3:1 for $44. About 20 minutes after I ordered it, it went up to $120. Keep an eye on amazon regularly if you’re not in a hurry to buy and you might find a killer deal.

Or get the 6.4:1 and put it on the MH Bucoo you already have (especially if it works well for treble hook lures as lionheart suggests) and use the 7.9:1 you already have on the new jig rod.

Ya no kidding haha! The weather is great right now to get out but work schedule not so accommodating.

I started kayak fishing last year. I hadn’t fished seriously for about 10 years but the kayak got me interested in it again. I started with a 7’2” medium fast spinning rod only. Just recently I tried taking 3 setups with me and it was more than I wanted to deal with. So wanting to be able to fish techniques not ideal for my spinning rod I bought a 7’6” medium heavy/moderate fast casting setup. Have not had a chance to use it from the kayak yet but in theory it should cover most heavier presentations I’m likely to use. The spinning rod is rated 1/16-1/2oz and the casting rod is a frog rod rated 3/8-1 1/4oz. I’ve got 20# braid on the spinning and 40# braid on the casting. Using appropriate leaders for different techniques. I’m hoping to get out some before weather gets bad to try this 2 rod setup out. I’m thinking it will work well.

I’ve switched back and forth from 20# + leader to straight 8# fluorocarbon. I like the versatility of the braid to use different leaders for different lures, but I’ve had good luck with straight seaguar red label 8# as long as I manually close the bail as soon as my lure hit the water to avoid getting the loops. Maybe a little better slackline sensitivity for the weightless plastics with the fluoro as well.

I’ve had the anti-reverse slip issue with my STX30 once or twice and it was cold but it didn’t happen every time. When it did, I had my hand on the handle so it didn’t cause me to lose the fish and it was only for a second and it would reengage. I’d say the temp was in the 40’s. I’ll see if it happens again this winter and if it’s only a grease issue, then I’m sure I could get it cleaned out. Other than that it’s been a great reel and I don’t think it’s much different than the premier and I got it for way less than the $199 msrp on amazon.