Darth-Baiter

True. ‘’but two things: 1. I don’t cast far either, for the most part - but it’s nice to know I can if needed. 2. Lately, I find if a fish sees me, it will not bite. Ever. It takes a longer (blind) cast to trick them. Not sure why things have changed here.

Woody. That last sentence kills me. Haha. I went to a park with my only thing close to a practice plug. A bouncing Betty. I think it’s a salmon fishing thing. it flies like a bullet. I had to thumb brake hard to not hit a picnick family. Whoa! I’ll fuss with it on the water tomorrow.

I am taking family out tonight for dinner. but tomorrow, my wife has to work. I took the day off. (please reference my "playing hooky" thread) a buddy and I are going to fish Clearlake. the lake has been JANKY. only the best sticks have figured out the pattern. I am not even a regular stick. I did call a friend and he gave me his best intel he gathered this past Wednesday. they dropped the lake 4 feet, so the fish won't be in the surrounding forest like they were last time. I am gonna search the deeper tule lined edges. I have high hopes for an early morning popper bite, then a swimbait bite moving forward. gah..this lake is daunting.

@Woody B nope. I have hours of unintended GoPro footage of me standing and peeing off the side of my kayak. I am in trouble if the lakeside residents have binoculars or (worse) a telescoped trained on the lake. hahhaa..I prefer for my fishing friends not to see my junk, so I face away from them. and usually towards a lake house. (sorry folks). I subscribe to the mantra..."anywhere is better than in my pants"

I talked with a bartender once. she was smoking hot. she was also a bourbon drinker. that is WHY you add water!! she said you add water to get the bourbon to your level of booziness. heck, that Australian youtube bartender preaches the same thing. ice allowed to melt if you have time, or add water from the get go if you are in a hurry.

it's no joke. it is the only reel I have multiples of. no doubt, these are going to Brazil with me. they are solid reliable.

I just grabbed a single pack of 4/0 Owner Cover shot hooks. super super sharp. I hope to use them on a weightless something. straight shanks hooks just seem to never miss a bass's lips for me. on a big fat 10" worm, give the Owner Haymaker a look. I bet a 6/0 hook would be the perfect ticket. sorry about the heartcrushing loss of a fish. I get it.

I messed with the tension. The reel literature is silent about “zero-adjuster ” or anything. I got a slight side to side click and I tightened it a minuscule amount. I’m at Clearlake tomorrow for go#2.

Who’s worried about hurting them?

I think @Dye99 gets it!

I say fall->early winter. Spring is nice, but the wind is frightening.

They get that nasty wet moldy towel smell sometimes. Add a hint of seafood….yea I wash them.

I’ve been around this forum to know you should probably preemptively eliminate the “neither “ responses as well

I have only a Hobie Outback. It isn’t the gold standard of stability, but I can stand to punch easily. It’s actually better than a boat since I can let the current push me into the mat and I can punch around me, move to a new spot and repeat. Skipping isn’t a problem either. Well the standing parts is great. I skip a bait like a moron. I never know how it will play out. I have skipped like a pro and I have skipped where I was happy nobody is watching. some kayaks are super stable. Wildly stable. But $$$.

100% I am buying the same gloves. 1.5 years of wearing these fishing, washing, hang-drying and repeating. No doubt, the holes start when you bury a treble hook into them, so be careful. The fabric is strong and will grab a barbed hook with enthusiasm. But against the sun, I find them the best. I was skeptical about the goat-skin palms, but they are still intact. Permanently stained, but still okay. I loved them clinging to rocks and boulders trying to find virgin shorelines for striped bass, to dragging my kayak a quarter mile down a goat-trail. They make fine kayak paddling gloves. Lipping a bass? Yup. Pulling line tight to cinch a knot? Okay. (I still tape my fingers, because I pull off my index finger-sides) I’m having a one-man moment of silence for my gloves. great gloves!

I would love to test drive that setup. Cool!

thanks PhishL. Monday is going to be hot. the grease will melt. hahah..I'll mess with the spool today. you almost need Hobbit hands to finger that knob.

I kinda think some of it must be for drama. those lean back, load up hook-sets. maybe not so much finesse stuff, but yea. monster hook-sets. my favorite kayak dude, yanked so hard on a sponsor video, he sent the fish flying. I think the camera man actually asked if the fish landed on land or water. here is the question: you all preach about proper drag setting. some of you use a scale. on any hard hook-set, (like the ones in the videos) the drag must slip, and all your dramatic effort is wasted. the spool slips?. do you all instinctively thumb the spool on hook-sets. I fought a smaller fish yesterday and loosened the drag somewhat. on the next fish, even my moderate jam, moved the spool. sorry for my very rookie question. (oh, I kinda grimaced typing out the word "influencer". not my favorite title to use :D)

it is QUIET!! if I didnt see my bait flying away from me, I wouldn't know. it makes ZERO noise casting, ZERO noise cranking. sadly, I didnt get a big enough bass yesterday to make the drag sing. it is almost perfect for my regular sized hands. it allows me to put my fingers in the right spots on the rod. it feels like I am gonna break the reel. it feels so whimsical, but sturdy if that makes sense. I have it filled with 12lb Sniper Flouro, and it is perched onto a Megabass X-bites. I wanted a light reel, because my Curado 150MGL felt hefty on that rod. (could be my imagination). I backlashed it once when I went the wrong way with the brake setting. I never touched the spool tension from what it is out of the box. couple of loose spool, semi lashes when I got wild with it. it casts great, and intuitively I am very very accurate with the set up. it never feels like the spool is going to unravel at the launch of a cast, i pay attention at the end of the cast, but I didnt feel in any backlash danger at the launch. here is the honest part. my old Curado 150 casts further. by comparison, all noisy out and in, but further. since the bass were not cooperating, I had time to swap baits. exact baits: can fling a zero-weight senko further on the Shimano. I am much more familiar with the Shimano, so I like the drag better. playing a 14" bass and trying to keep it exciting, adjusting the drag on the zillion felt very on/off almost. I dont plan on messing with the spool tension. I figured some Japanese engineer set it where it is supposed to be. right? there is no side to side play in the spool like there was on my Tatula SV TW. did you all go looser? in only own those two Daiwa reels, so I am not familiar with everything. I have only monkeyed with the drag knob. and those numbers are always so tiny and same colored (to read)!! (I'll save up some money and buy a Shimano Bantam to compare...you know, for science) I'm going out Monday. maybe the Delta, maybe Clearlake. I need to test it on a bigger angrier fish.

K

Dang, the magic is over. Yesterday I pulled out of my driveway at 2;45am. I got to the lake in the dark. No flat tire this time. I’m standing in an empty parking lot and I hear elk screaming. An awesome sound. I went to boat ramp and look out. I see elk wading in the area I got some bass last time! They were eating aquatic plants! 200 elk. I estimated the water was five feet deep now using my rough eyeball of a Tule Elk. (They are smaller). What ever. I launch and slip thru weed lines to find clear water and 5 13” bass! I couldnt find them. Not sure wher bigger fish went. My body hurts from my 12 mile kayak day. My knees click! Haha. No pics. here are the elk. Crappy pic. I didn’t want to get to close. Only me and one bass boat guy the entire day. We were both stumped.

Today was brutal. I should have gone to work.

Kinda heavy for the fish, no?

i think presentation first..color further down the line. by presentation i mean mostly..speed. slow, fast or stop.

you are correct. hookie was the only word that jumped into my mind.