PhishLI

Yes, and I have too many. Just bought a new BB1 pro the other day just 'cause I had to. It, and if I find it special in some way, will get used like the rest of them when I'm in the mood for a change. I like switching things up, and I've rationalized that doing so will extend the lifespan of my entire collection even though I know this is bure BS. Well, at least I'm not smoking cra*ck. Also, I like finding out where the sweet spot is in any reel then exploiting that strength to my advantage. Reels are interesting.

We finally dipped down to 32* the other morning. 44* with 15mph winds last night. Brrrrr. My fingertips were burning. I'm ordering electric underwear. Trout just got stocked. The best part of the night was finding a school of 9 inchers up close to the shore with a massive pickerel hovering motionless right in the middle of them. My headlamp froze them all in place and I was able to wade right into the thick of the scene. Had to gently poke the pickerel with my rod to get it to move. It was either completely stuffed or just a totally locked in assassin. Got a few bites then I split. Big Bite Baits jerk minnow in alewife.

Yes. It's not really all that moderate, just slower than a fast. Good for setting jig hooks on CBs.

Yup. TW had it listed with a release date of Feb or March '24, but then it disappeared. Same here.

I'm getting the Meta instead of another Ark Essence even though I'd rather have the cork handle. Agreed.

I've had one sitting in my cart for a few weeks. $165 is tempting. I'm torn between it and a Roro spool for my TW80.

A friend has the 7'4"MHF and 7'2"MHM. I preferred the 7'4", so I'm getting that one next as I prefer crisper rods, but both felt good to me. I like their reel seat, which is the same one used on the Omen Black 2s. I have 9 of those and they've been totally dependable over the past 5 years, and I fish brutally choked out water. I'm amazed I haven't broken one yet.

Explain further. A 10 footer? Not very stable, or very stable? Note that rods made for specifically for yaks have short handles. There's a reason why. Are you tall with a long wingspan? Have you tried fishing with a swimbait rod with a 2' handle while seated? Personally, I'm not bringing any of my normal swimbait rods on my light yak. Maneuverability sucks with those. It's awkward using them. Also, think wrist and shoulder pain. The iRod Jr Swimbait is almost OK with its short handle for a swimbait rod, but I'd rather opt for a beefy enough stick for the bait with at least a standard-length handle, then work out the details with line choice for stretch, or lack thereof, and drag settings. Remember, you're stuck in a seat with a backrest, and maintaining your center of gravity is crucial. Hooksetting is done without any leaning of your body whatsoever. It's all in your arms. You don't want to dump.

Midway has Open box RH Tatula 150s in 5,6, and 7spds for $79-$87. Crazy deal for a great reel. Daiwa Tatula 150 Baitcast Reel RH 6.3:1 - Open Box (midwayusa.com)

I get it, but your concern is over an anomaly. This is highly uncommon. Maybe the A/R sleeve, which happens to be keyed to the crank shaft AFAIK and not the pressure washer, got hung up on the crank shaft due to poor tolerances. Most slide easily. Some hang a bit on the shaft which deburring can solve. Maybe the ratchet came off of its keyed position on the crank shaft because the drag star was backed off hard and completely, but that still shouldn't happen anyway on a properly assembled reel. Regardless, there are things worth understanding and worrying about. This oddity is low on the list. I doubt you'll ever encounter it.

Never heard this one before. I imagine smacking it on the ground might do the same thing. Don't do either. If the thumbar isn't coming back up, break it down, check the clutch return and yoke springs, and if they're fine then grease clutch mechanicals while it's apart. Should be good to go afterward.

You're better off using enough backing to get three 200 ft runs out of a pricey spool of fluoro. You'll never come close to casting that far using a 7' rod and typical bass baits. In warmer weather, for sure. In colder weather, it helps.

With my brother headed to Texas in 2 weeks for some big bass hunting, yesterday might've been our last Jon boat trip of the season. Who knows what the weather will be in a month or two weeks afterward. I can easily imagine it knocking us out of our bi-monthly trip both times as it has several times most recently. With that, we just had to hit it even though a full-full moon would be beaming down over dead flat water. It was, and it went badly for quite a few hours. Not a sniff. 45 acres might not sound like much, but when you're forced to row through endless-battery killing-topped out pondweed time goes by quickly. We simply couldn't find very small baitfish grouped up in any of the shallow areas we worked through. Not until the end anyway, and not until we paddled all the way up north into an ultra-shallow flat only 1-2 feet deep. By that point we both could've used a chiropractor, but we buckled down and started working. By some miracle wind blew in from the north, puffy clouds softened the moon's glow, and the bite finally turned on a bit. Had a few just slurp and shake off, then I got a good one to commit on a small wake. The wind turned off as quickly as it turned on, and so did the bite. I really wanted to my brother to hookup, but his back was seized by that point. He was happy enough with our boat beating the skunk, so we called it a win and bounced.

I use inexpensive 50lb braid as backing. No weird stuff can happen, and it lasts forever.

Word.

That's all? Pffff 🤣 Around here the townsfolk would be throwing you a parade right now, complete with floats.

Tackle Warehouse is having a good promo from 13 Fishing. Buy one selection of certain models and get a free 7'3" MHF Blackout rod. I linked to the Meta Series priced at $149. The Blackout is solid, and the Meta is quite good. 13 Fishing Meta Casting Rods | Tackle Warehouse 13 Fishing Blackout Casting Rod | Tackle Warehouse

The smart move is to build a monetizable social media platform. Scott Martin has 650K subs on YT alone. Matt Stephan is growing. Swindle says he mostly relies on FB revenue. Milliken was able to quit his full-time job with a new family at something like 50K subs and now has 550K. On BTL last week he said he won't be wrapping his boat with sponsors no matter what they offer. Nothing besides the bare minimum for compliance. He also alluded to the idea that ROI for sponsors is much higher through all his platforms like insta, FB, and YT. Not even close. Those metrics are easily measured. Wraps aren't. Not everyone has the personality to grow a channel, but they should probably work on it. Even if they're top tier and can attract sponsors, it seems like sponsorship loot is shrinking anyway according to many pros who appear on podcasts.

Since this is the case, I'd advise you against the Curado K 200. Why? Because since it'll be your first and only bait caster, I imagine you'll be wanting to throw a range of baits down to weightlessly rigged worms, or at least baits in that weight range. The 200K simply isn't ideal for this. You'll have a hard time and end up picking out lots of backlashes which may end up turning you off completely and unnecessarily. I've taught a good bunch of people how to use a baitcaster. Non could deal with the K initially. Two were fine with the SLX, including my brother. Most chose a Tatula variant. He ended up getting a XT and the MGL version. He bought a K 200 but ended up selling it eventually. He simply found it too touchy using baits below 1/2 oz. He actually hated it. I still have mine, and I can deal with it, but it's probably my least favorite reel regardless of how smoothly it cranks. If you can't spend for the Curado 150 MGL which is better than the K in every way IMO, then just get the SLX MGL instead. It's definitely easier to learn on than the K 200.

For which uses?

Headed up to one of my favorite local spots for an afternoon sesh. Winds were ripping at 21mph, and 52* felt more like 32*. It felt good though. I haven't been there much over the past several months due to being aggravated by the night-crew bucketeer poachers, and the huge piles of stinking milfoil left on the shore by one lone casting net criminal, or so I thought. Casting nets are illegal here and so is taking bass, period. I confronted this guy twice. The second time I wasn't nice at all, and he split. As I was wading through a creek on my way to the lake, I passed by one of the regulars. He asked how I've been doing here and told him I haven't really been down for some time. He said fishing's been awful for months, almost impossible, then went on to share the worst news. It turns out a casting net crew had been pounding this place at night. Someone finally got the DEC officers to show up and they caught four of them. They denied having any fish, but the officers found their stash bags loaded with 90 fish. 90 fish in one night. How much damage have they done to this 25-acre place over the course of months? Apparently, a lot. For the most part, the regular I met in the creek typically fishes the zone they netted. They all got ticketed and the story made a local paper. This place has been a tough bite for years without these clowns pillaging it further. It makes me sick. The upside is that there are zones these jackholes can't do their work, so I went to those under the assumption that they'd wiped out the resident fish where they plied their trade. We had heavy rain Friday through Saturday, so I knew they'd be offshore. I tried working cover nearshore anyway, but no bueno. I got all my bites moon-shotting a Fat IKA rigged on a 1/4oz swimbait hook and slow dragged it up a drop-off. Tough to set a hook at 180ft out, but I nabbed two scrappy smalls and left with some bass perfume on my thumb. I'll take it, and the fallen leaves gave the place some nice color. I'm still fuming though.

I'd just get the Curado 150 if I were you. It's better built than the SLX and far more versatile across a range of baits than the Curado K.

Plenty of good fish get caught up here at night in cold water. Yup. In my experience not really. They're more apt to hit a wake bait you can crank down just below the surface. Weight a floating swimbait or glide to super slow sink and twitch it or slow swim it over receding weed beds. Right now, yes. But soon the night bite typically ramps up for a few weeks before it shuts down. They're still scattered now, but they'll wolfpack up much more over the next few weeks. The trick is location and catching a window.

When I stopped fishing in '80 I'd never even seen a low profile baitcaster in person. It was spinners up here in the northeast at my lakes except for one salt water guy we called old man Charlie who threw heavy lead weights and live killies on a corroded knucklebuster to catch bass. When I came back, I simply dusted off my old Daiwa spinners and set out. It was the same deal; Everyone I came across used spinning reels. Then one day I passed by a guy who had several baitcasting rigs tossed over his shoulder as he walked down the path. I had to know what these things were, so I stopped and asked for a closer look. Mechanically they made sense to me immediately. I couldn't wait to get one and I did. The only advice he gave me was to always bring a spinning rod with me until I figured it out. He said it took him 6 months without instruction. Being right-handed, I'd always casted righty and reeled lefty with spinners, so the last thing that would've entered my mind would be to switch hands and reel righty. Nobody did but had someone suggested doing so along the way I would've thought it absurd. Naturally, my first several baitcasters were all left-handed. I figured them out quickly. It wasn't until I came to these forums and found the debate over "proper" handedness pop up occasionally that I'd even considered the question. I'm pretty much ambidextrous to begin with, so I bought some righty reels and took the challenge. No problem in general, and it solved casting interference issues with two people on small boats or casting down shorelines with overhung trees when wading. Oddly, I came to prefer working jerkbaits holding the rod in my left hand, but for no other technique. Besides where it was optimal to cast lefty, I mostly used rigs casting righty with left-handed reels. However, last year I blew up my left shoulder, so the experiment was officially over, and I was stuck with selling a bunch of stupid right-handed reels.😁 I did keep my righty Chronarch for my treble'd jerkbait setup because there's no horsing there. Oh well. Do what ya like.