casts_by_fly

Not sure how I missed this thread the first time around. I'm doing a major takeover on my yard this year (we delegated it to our lawn guys who haven't done well enough). We had tons of weeks of many different types since our yard was left alone for 4 years before us and then 2 years of us here doing minimal work on it. We live up against the woods so lots of wild things come in. The list so far this year: - Crabgrass, POA annua, corn speedwell, japanese stiltweed, spotted spurge, nutsedge, clover, and a few others that are more minor. Parts of the yard are/were >50% stiltweed which I've just hit with a specialist this past weekend. The nutsedge got a first bit of sedgehammer 2 weeks ago and is due for some more this weekend coming. The other weeds are easier to control with basic stuff and I'm less worried about them. My yard was also very bare in a lot of spots so we did grass seed this spring instead of pre-emergent figuring I could spray the weeds once some grass was growing up. That was a good choice in two areas, but a less good choice in others. 12lbbass, I think the first one is catchweed. is it kinda vine like and the leaves a little sticky like velcro? Tough to tell from the picture but I think I see clusters of the leaves (usually 8 around a center point on the vine) and the distinctive shape (long and skinny like the blade of a ceiling fan). The second is tough to tell from the picture. I see a bunch of crabgrass in the top left of the picture, but that's not what you're asking about. The cluster in the middle looks like Poa, though its later in the year than I'd expect it. I think its more of a late spring and early summer weed. Yours does look pretty mature though. Here's one for reference.

When I was 8 or 9 I started using a baitcaster and this was how I practiced. I think it was a small coffee can and it was about 50’ from the sidewalk to the telephone pole at the end of the yard. I would pitch a jig for hours on end. If I didn’t have the can I’d just pitch to the base of the telephone pole. I had grand ambitions of being a B.A.S.S. Casting kids champion. I’d say I’m pretty good for casting, and definitely pitching. I can’t backhand cast very well so I’ll pitch backhand and roll cast forehand. Fishing the backseat with my dad (who is also right handed and likes to fish out of the left side of the boat) I’ll just pitch all day, even big treble hook baits like a plopper. Anything out to 20-25 yards is no problem. If I’m on my own I’m usually hitting 9/10 on the first cast within a foot of where I want to be from 25 yards and in. Every now and then you have one of those really good days where you’re dropping it in a couple inches away on every cast with no plop. And then there are those days where you can’t buy a good cast. skipping though, let’s just not go there yet.

id leave the spinners and spoons at home. little hair jigs, Maribou, magnets, little grubs. Gotta be small enough to fit in their mouths.

Price reduced

Asked and previously answered by another. If I see line in a tree or bush that I'm fishing along I'll usually pull it if I can. Any trash of my own stays in the boat. I clean the boat out every now and then.

bluegill and panfish are food to most other fish. They will ordinarily be near some type of cover that they can hide in. Downed trees, weeds, big rocks, and really shallow water are normally where you find them, especially bluegill. If you want your best odds of finding and catching them, a bobber and worm is your easiest bet. A small redworm on a #10 hook, a couple split shot, and a bobber cast around trees and weed edges will catch bluegill. In fact, i was doing it last night with our friend's 8-year old daughter who we just bought a fishing rod. I think she caught 30-40 various sunfish plus two small bass. Once you find them and start catching some, then you can focus on the bigger ones for the table. They will often be deeper but nearby. If you're fishing a downed tree, go towards the deeper water end rather than nearer the shore. I wouldn't bother with spinner or spoons for panfish. Yes they will eat them, but you're going to struggle with weeds and wood. A small jig under a bobber will work and once you find fish with worms and learn where they live you can target them with jigs.

until the next time. Knowing what you’re doing and then paying someone to do what you know how to do yourself isn’t going to fly unless they are so cheap you can’t say no.

let me know if you got my pm. I just sent a new one right now. I’m heading out tomorrow evening, maybe up your way, if you’re interested.

I can only fish them until may or so here. We have so much grass that anything with a treble is getting snagged most of the time. If it’s deep you can run a crankbait over the top of the grass and it it isn’t floating on the surface you can run a topwater around the edges. I’ve always been more of a skirted bait guy. I’m getting into plastics more now but I’ll default to a skirted bait most of the time.

That's user error, not gear capability. My spinning reel picks up more line per turn than my baitcasters and is the same length. No reason why a buzzbait should ever be under the water in that case.

Here is one example from a day last year. Where I fished it and how I fished it. You can see the heavy chop on the water out front. The wind was 15-20 most of that day and the night before so things were set up well there. It is a ledge from the boathouse to my boat out from shore and pretty flat at 6-8’. Then it drops down to 12 pretty quick and then gradual down to 20. Fish were on the 6’ drop edge so a dt6 was about right.

You can have this tool Or this tool do to basically the same thing. Depending on the thing, one will be slightly better or will be much better. I like to carry fewer tools so I try to live with the compromises of one of them to do more things (I fish a baitcaster mostly), but every now and then you need to do a job and the tool you have won't cut it and you need the other one.

You don't have to replace you hooks to do what you want. You're not gut hooking fish, you're just dealing with treble hooks the same as everyone deals with treble hooks. Yes, in a small mouth you have to manage three hooks. Get a pair of pliers or hemostats that can do it. Pinch your barbs down first. If its still a problem for you, then cut one of the three bends off a hook. Then you're only dealing with two. If its STILL a problem, cut off another bend. You can do all of that without having to buy anything. If you find that you still prefer the single hooks then at that point convert some of your lures to singles.

One thing I like on lakes with herring type baitfish that are always roaming is to pick a windy day and fish the down wind side of a major point or saddle. The wind blows the plankton that way and creates a bit of a current in that general direction. The points and saddles make eddies and faster current areas respectively. So that collects the food and collects the baitfish. The predators wait on the back side just like fishing the back side of rocks in a river. Spot lock is your friend if you have it, but if not you're still tucking behind the points to fish them so you get a bit of a wind break. On a southwest wind, I'd be looking at these areas. There is a nice long wind tunnel to push food around and areas for it to collect.

to drop shot on a baitcaster, just push the button and let it drop. Even easier that a spinning rod. The bigger thing is how much weight you have and are you casting it. To me, anything over 1/4 oz or so is a baitcaster. Specific lure doesn’t much matter.

Yes, there are PM’s. I’ll try to shoot you one. I’m not sure if you have enough posts just yet.

Hi All, The same lake I posted about earlier this year looking for smallmouth help is calling my name. Knowing that 4+ lb smallmouth live there is like a drug that keeps pulling you back. If it were most any other normal smallmouth lake, I'd be looking at points, humps, and other rocky structure in or near deeper water. This lake isn't that. Its a big bowl that tapers from 4' to 12'. Its a silty bottom almost everywhere There are two sections that have rock- a flat in 2' of water that drops gradually to 5' and then more quickly down to 12' (where it turns silty) and another rock pile mid-lake that is 2' on top and surrounded by thick weed bed. The rock pile also eventually gets down to 12' and silt. I figure there have to be some smallies around those two spots, but I can't imagine that every smallmouth in the lake is in those two places. I was thinking to ride the entire lake and chart bottom hardness, hoping to find some harder areas that are hidden. Maybe waypoint the weedlines and target the edges, especially where they hit harder bottoms. I don't associate smallies with getting burried in weed forests. Should I change that perception? I was figuring bottom contact stuff like swing head or tokyo rig rage bugs, swim jigs, a dropshot setup, and maybe jerkbaits or lipless off the bottom. The bottom itself has a lot of filamentous algae so you can't get too deep down into it without getting a mess on your line. The grass is a combo of milfoil and pondweed and is sporadic in places and a forest in others. I've heard that some guys troll the lake to cover water and catch them in the middle of all of it (its 300 featureless acres with 40 acres around the perimeter that are interesting), hence my looking for something in bottom hardness or weed edges. Anything I'm missing here? I'm going to take an aquavue to check out anything that looks different on the Helix in the middle of the lake.

Interesting. I was specifically looking for glass boats, but I still haven't seen trackers listed. You can get rowboats here and bring your own motor for them. A couple places do that. I wouldn't mind renting a 17' tracker for a day though.

Your profile says sussex county. Where abouts are you? I'm on the border of Sussex and Morris practically. I can be on Musconetcong, Cranberry, Budd, or others in about 20 minutes. Aeroflex and twin are about 30 for me.

good luck. I've looked for bass boat rentals before and only seen them in Texas. Your best bet will be to find someone locally who has a boat and will rent it to you for a day. You might want to look at bass clubs in the area and shoot emails to the club officers.

can't help with maryland, but most of the clubs up here don't use websites. For the most part, everything is facebook. I'd start there. If you search bass tournaments "southern maryland" (or insert your area here), you'll get some hits for who is holding tournaments and when. At a minimum it is a listing of active clubs. You could also show up a bit before weigh in time and chat with the organizers. Lots of kayak tournaments around which would mean getting a kayak, but you could use it as networking. Or just get a kayak and start exploring yourself. After a bunch of back boating, tournament fees, gas money, etc you'll be able to get into a kayak pretty quickly for the same money.

I wear an apple watch. Its still a generation 2 and 5 years old now. I'll replace it when it finally dies. I wear it pretty much every day, fishing or not. Its fully waterproof and can take a beating. I like it for fishing because when someone messages me, I can see what it is on my watch and know if its important. Sure, I'd love to say that every time I'm fishing I am unreachable. That's hardly ever the case though so not pulling out a phone all the time is nice. if I really want to I can reply to messages or even take a quick call from my watch. I get weather alerts if there is a sudden storm coming (which is nice to get your rain jacket on before its too late). And yeah, it tells the time too. So does my fish finder though so if I have to be back by a certain time I can just look in that bottom left corner.

I find the double Uni to be bigger (sometimes a lot bigger) than the crazy alberto with no difference in strength. I think the fact that the tag ends stick out at 90 degrees makes a big difference in making the uni 'catchier'. A crazy alberto is the thickness of two leaders with no tag end to catch. I also find it more consistent for me to get a good tie, especially on the water. With the double Uni I find it more sensitive to the diameters of the two lines and don't always get a good tie. For mono to mono or mono to fluoro its not bad, but braid to mono/fluoro the braid digs and cuts too often for me.

The falcon amistad will do it also. 3/8 oz of total weight is pushing it but 3/8 oz 0us a plastic or a 3/8 jig/blade bait is enough. I’ve thrown 1 3/8 spinnerbaits and a-rigs far in excess of 2 oz. A keitech 6.8 (1.5 oz) plus a 3/8 swim bait hook is no problem. I use mine as a heavy pitching and frogging rod.

Sometimes you just have to keep casting. Might not be the best looking and you might not think fish are there but just keep fishing it.