bulldog1935

I fish tandems with glow in front and blue in the back. Occasionally get doubles, but 90% of the fish are on blue. (my overnight 5 plus my partners - min is 15" - we were only keeping 17+", and all are schoolie males, which travel 25 mi/day to find food) Same with white bass, bottom bouncing blue whistlers in the hour before first light will get a fish every cast. We camp on gravel bars and get up when we hear fish splashing. I've been fishing in the dark 40 years.

my experience is fish queue on flash with small baitfish that form moving balls for defense. Fish may hit flashy lures very much larger than the bait - their reaction is slashing into the bait ball.

There are no rules, only generalizations, and you'll find exceptions to all of them. My buddy fishes pink for everything and catches fish. Baitfish try to hide themselves, and there's a tradeoff between lures blending and being visible enough for the bass to find, vs. outrageously too obvious. Clear water bright sun is blend colors. Clear water and overcast is darker blend colors. Turbid water and bright sun is bright colors. Turbid water and overcast is dark colors like purple. Red is for low angle sunlight, early morning and late afternoon. Blue has always been my best night color.

turbid water and bright sunlight

There's a blogger in NY who focuses on and also sells JDM rods just for trout. A good place to review what rod and reel models may be out there. https://www.finesse-fishing.com/

Back to that red lure discussion - where pink and red lures become important is low angle sunlight, both early and late - rather than reflected light, the fish see light transmitted through the baitfish insides - the blood in the baitfish acting like a lens filter.

We have a trout tailwater in America's 100 Best Trout Streams (I fished with John Ross when he was down here). Our infrequent, though often massive floods wash stripers over the dam, and they munch the rainbows, especially from the end of folks' fly lines. Several times tried Castaic rainbow in a known striper pool, pretty much dialing the whole structure, with never a sign of interest. One monsoon summer, swinging streamers in the same pool to check for holdover rainbows, brought two stripers to hand (on 5-wt and Hardy click reel - serious work in the high flow). Barely got the second one landed before the size 10 streamer gave up. Went back with more appropriate fly tackle and slightly stouter streamers, and managed to harvest 7 stripers into fall. One friend accidentally landed one on a San Juan worm, and would have been the record, but he ate it. (my theory is the striper flared on the baitfish attracted by the SJ worm) Another friend set the state record striper in the same pool - 37 lbs, 43" - there were five 5 rainbows to 16" in its stomach, but John caught it on a 3" streamer.

yeah, our cat watches tv also. This was a really cute one with the aquarium - how do you get in here? and this... Adventure Kitty All-time-greatest Adventure Kitty photo honorable mention

I use the 30-lb for surf leader. Here's my allbright to 35-lb X-braid. Seriously stiff leader - it was difficult to roll the braid turns to collapse the Gold loop. Note, however, it's also the same diameter is 20-lb Red (the green was a 1-m mark in the X-braid)

if you want to work out the differences between Japan-spec reels and export models to the US, search the reel on JPFishingTackle News https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/shimano-stradic-19/ What you'll find is they offer us 5 or 6 models they think meet our tastes, while they offer 13 or 15 variants to JDM. By comparing spool capacity and gear ratio, you can match JDM models to US models. Just like their rods, and while they fish bass and trout, they have that many different offshore niches from XUL to XXH. https://www.plat.co.jp/shop/catalog/default/language/en/cPath/38/rod.html

One summer trip stands out. Had a buddy who was making the transition from construction slab supervisor on contract to salt fishing guide and USCG-licensed Captain. I was working contract myself then, and when neither of us were working, I'd zip the 140 mi on the back roads, and we'd be on the water. At breakfast that morning, told Tim I was going to catch a 32" redfish today. Of course that instantly put me in the barrel for this trip, and the ribbing wouldn't end for two days. We made the run from Goose Is. SP across big Aransas Bay to the San Jose Is. barrier lakes, in particular, Fence Lake. He could run his Majek way to the back (more importantly, could get out). We all took off wading with fly rods. Caught a few small reds as I was working farther back and looking for the largest feeding slashes across the lake. Got hit by a couple of those fabled TX thunderstorms that barely cover a city block and can drop 2" of rain. Saw my fish downwind, his wake and back just out of the water. He was coming up too fast, so I held my cast - ankle deep water, and he swam by me leaning on his side to keep his back down - took up grazing again as soon as he passed me. The thing is, if you keep your cool and your motions stealthy, they see you, but don't know you from a heron in a funny hat. I made 5 upwind casts, maybe without breathing, definitely skipping heartbeats, and managed not to line him. He took the last one - 32" red. On the mylar spoon. Tim laughed at my crab, and next morning at breakfast, told him I'd get a 25" black drum this day on that fly. Same drill to Fence Lake, same ribbing, and we all began wading toward the extreme end. On the way, we got into shoaling reds beating mullet into our feet, and the three of us hooked up a triple. It was the first day to throw this roach pattern, and we named it Fence Lake Roach in honor of the excitement. My partners began working their way back toward the boat, but I had already seen the largest feeding slash across the lake, and kept going to the far back. Tim was trolling a red size 6 popper on his way, not even trying to fish at the moment, and picked up a slot red. When I got to the mud stripe along the mangroves at the far back of the lake, my 25" black drum was there, with half his back out of the water. My epoxy crab was perfect for sliding on the mud bottom, the drum would follow it, then turn away - did that for a half-dozen casts. On the last cast, I thought the drum was gone for sure, but the fish shuddered, spun around, shot back hard and grabbed the crab. Maybe the most fun I've had on a fly rod (including mackerel), the drum wanted deep water. Took everything I had to stop the run, then a series of charges and turns - one of us was going to be unconscious before this was over. Did manage to revive and release all the fish on this post.

never had a bad fishing trip. Visits to the internet may vary.

I usually buy braid in spool charges, and don't skimp. The braid should be there awhile, and you will never suffer line memory problems from it. I normally buy fluoro in bulk, because it needs changing more often. The exception is high-quality leader in 25- or 50-yd spools. Also made an effort here to answer in the terms of @ATA's choices to keep it simple. There are many good points on the thread, but for the bird in hand, probably choose between the 30 and 40. What you gain with thicker braids is much easier filling the spool, the tendency for the line to dig deep in the spool lay goes away, and backlashes may be less frequent and severe. Pretty much the opposite is true on spinning reels, where line twist is the primary concern.

Traditional short UL rods and pretty much all casting and spinning rods are parabolic taper. This is what makes traditional UL noodle-y and feel like the fish is turning you instead of vise-versa. With a good progressive taper "finesse" rod, longer should have a fast mid, which solves noodle-y I can't report on the BPS rod, but I've fished salt XUL and UL a dozen years now. If you look at Japanese small game (rockfish) rods, typified by Major Craft, a longer rod gets a longer fast mid section and a heavier butt section. These are designed for casting from shore (that's the rocks in rockfish). What you gain with a longer rod is casting distance, the ability to turn bigger fish, and the ability to throw heavier lures without changing the light end.

you don't want the 10-lb, and the 20-lb is marginal for baitcaster use, unless you can write-off backlashes from your skill level. The trade-off is the 30-lb will cast farther, and the 40-lb will give you less problems at the b/c spool.

If you check the thread about the differences between $200 and $400 reels, the exact opposite is true about $20-30 reels. They don't have a big investment in design/manufacturing/tooling. They don't have skilled labor. They use the cheapest possible materials and manufacturing techniques. They've built a reel with the function and smoothness to impress you to buy it, and hopefully the durability to last until you get out of the store. Keep in mind a spinning reel is the most complicated mechanism of any fishing tackle. The loads on shafts, gears and bearings/bushings are magnified by long and offset levers - the spindle, the rotor - even the handle. This is why we fished through the very best of them when we were young - the people making them didn't quite understand what was involved - they're getting better with computer design. You should set a realistic entry level target price for yourself, then review something like TackleAdvisors $100 reel shoot-out, so you can pick between design features, strong and weak points, that make sense in how you plan to use the reel.

A copolymer I didn't mention, and used for a dozen years on 500-size salt XUL, is Bluewater Firepower from Kamikaze Fishing in Australia. It's remarkably small diameter for copolymer, 4-lb is 0.14 mm, very low memory, casts extremely well, and abrasion resistant. It landed seatrout to 23", and even a double with 19" and 17". Long story, a friend has me customizing four of his reels, and he included a new Tica Cetus for a gift. I tried to order line for it from Kamikaze, but neither their website nor ebay will let US buy from Oz. Since I was buying Japan reel parts for my friend, I threw 4-lb Toray Exthread fluoro in my AP order, which is 0.17 mm diameter, and hope it's as good as its press (price?), but Toray says each lb-test rating gets its own different resin blend and processing.

It's hard not to like all braids compared to mono/fluoro, just because they don't have line memory. But I do like the good soft coated braids better than hard braid. My last braid purchase was 300 yds of YGK Oddport for a surf reel. Kind of cool, it came on 3 connected and keyed-together 100-yd spools. Kinda like the old days

When Rich Hedenberg (RH Composites) built me a surf rod, I asked him about Winn grips v. shrink-tube over EVA. He reported bad durability with Winn grips and strongly recommended EVA + shrink.

Hi Jim, I simply apply a drop of Pink Zap CA, then flick the line so it doesn't spread past the braid wraps. Usually do this under a strong LED light or my Ott magnifier/light. I wait a few minutes for it to begin curing on its own, then spray with accelerator. This is an 18+5-turn improved Allbright on my surf line to 30-lb Gold. (happened to hit one of the green meter marks)

Seaguar Abrazx IMO is the best-buy fluoro. With Seaguar Tatsu, you can gain a little less line memory at almost 3X the cost. Other than trying a Berkley copolymer that extruded to a smaller diameter and locked up my daughter's Penn 4200SS spool most of 10 years ago, catching speepshead on the flats, nothing but Seaguar for me because of their exceptional knot strength. (there's a long story about other brand fluoro tippet and 30+" Kenai rainbows)

I've been buying my YGK X-braid from JDM. I think it's noteworthy that Daiwa does not sell a braid that matches Samurai in Japan domestic market. The color, markings and diameter/strength on Samurai exactly match YGK X-braid Upgrade. I don't think it's a coincidence and, most probably, YGK provides Samurai This is the X-braid Optinium, which is the same line with 10-m color changes. A remarkable 14-lb test in PE# 0.6 (0.13 mm) - this diameter is 6-lb test in 832. I've also noticed from filling spools that YGK actually measures a bit less than its published diameter, while 832 actually measures a little thicker. (12-lb Seaguar blue on the left) My surf reels are loaded with YKG Oddport and Castman PE# 1.5 (0.21 mm) is 35 lb test PE# 2.5 (0.26 mm) is 46 lb test.

If I was after one workhorse spinning reel, it would be the Twin Power to get metal frame + metal rotor. For extreme UL touch, I already have the Vanquish.

hey Ryan, Fishing rods have been purpose-built for 4000 years, beginning from wood and reeds. These natural organic composites have directional fiber strength. Rhetorically, how fast can you make a piece of wood - it all depends on how you plan to use it, and how you shape it, but a hammer handle is pretty dam* fast. If you want to know about rods right after the Civil War, I've linked on this thread and others to James A. Henshall's 1881 tome on bass fishing. At that time, reach was everything - a rod was still a pole, and casting was a limited activity. Doc Henshall takes credit for designing the first bass rod under 12' (fly rods were most often 18' then). I've also mentioned on this, and especially threads on the rodbuilding page, that the modulus properties of split cane and S-glass are equivalent. Conventions, techniques and tastes have evolved over the past 120 years, but, you can find historic cane rods properly built for every purpose, from creek fly fishing to tuna and tarpon - and are still made today in labors of love. Of course, most people splitting cane today are making fly rods, but all are derived from well-functioning cane tapers from "the golden age" You're also going to find the rod tapers that we would like to fish today were generally not what was made for blue-collar mass production and consumption. Instead, these purpose-built tapers stood out from the herd, and were mostly custom-built for affluent clients. One of the very best and fastest fly rod tapers is F.E. Thomas Light Special, designed in the early '30s, and copied today by rodbuilder Dennis Stone. A "superprogressive" dry fly taper, this rod will accurately cast the leader alone, and gives the uncanny feeling of casting itself out to 50'. The 6' Thomas Special Mahogany Grade bait from 1914 in my OP is a jewel of a bass rod. Paul H. Young with his Texas partner Don West developed a series of extremely fast cane para tapers just for bass and inshore fishing. My rodbuilder buddy Rob Sherill in Dallas is a student of Don West and has built many of these rods. Occasionally, you can get surprised with blue-collar exceptions. In fly rods, it's the Tonka series (Prince, Princess and Queen) built and sold by H-I into the 1950s. In both fly and bait, Heddon cane tapers stand out. I also have a 5' Montague Flash bait that's quite fast as blue-collar cane rods go. The closest glass rods to this action would be the Speed Stiks and Lunkerstiks of the late 70s, and of course, all Harnell/Harrington rods. And again, what you're not going to find is a global modern market for these rods, because light-weight rods to do the same job as well are readily available. The people who build and buy cane rods today have their niches focused, and have a taste for the rod actions. The exception to that is going to be fly rods, and there's a good selection of new glass fly rods out there. The reason most graphite fly rods are 9' has to do with both the taper and the strength/toughness limits of graphite when going really light. Generally, cane and S-glass make a better fly rod below 8', and only e-glass can make a good progressive taper below 7'. Vintage fly rods that stand out in these short lengths include 6'6" and 7' Phillipson, and 6'8" St. Croix Imperial.

thanks guys, I've used them 2 years now, probably in triple-digit miles. I Really Like them. I began with 1/8-inch closed-cell foam and rolled it onto the paddle with 3M 77 spray contact cement. The trick is getting the position correct, but I also have a bent shaft touring paddle the same length for reference. The closed-cell foam grip was splitting on my 12-y-o stake-out pole - put X-shrink over it and still using it