casts_by_fly

I was joking about trolling it. When a question comes up here about texas rigs, wobble heads, jig trailers, chatterbait trailers, or any other place you might think of one, it tends to be recommended. That said, on a 1/4-3/8 jig head I bet you could troll it and catch fish. it has enough of a baitfish profile. I'd still prefer a paddle tail in that scenario but I bet it would work.

Big topwaters- walking baits and pencils- assuming the water is reasonably clear. You'll pull smallmouth up 20'.

Depends if you're fishing them in sparse cover or heavy vegetation. Lily pads and matted grass (we get both up here) require a heavy or heavier yet rod. If I'm throwing it in loose grass, pads with holes in between (something you could also swim a jig through or maybe a buzzbait), or around docks then a MH is enough. It will depend on the specific rod and how much butt it has. I assume you're using braid. I'm currently using my Amistad (7'3" very heavy) for heavy frogging and the head turner/pitchin stick (6'10" 'somewhat' H) for lighter frogging. 50/30 lb braid respectively. The 7'3" is a bit long and I'm looking at the 6'11" bayou which was designed for frogs. That's still longer than you're 6'6" though.

look at the carlisle magic angler. Bit cheaper than the BB paddles and works great. Also very light and two piece of you need it to break down. Hook cutout on the blades and ruler on the grip. Mine is strapped to the side of the kayak so I just hold a fish to it as I drop it in the water for a quick length.

It has to be a rage bug, right? What can't it do. A floating rapala in size and color to match your baitfish. if you have to stop it will float up and not snag.

I've been throwing mine on the 7'3" MHMF Hudson special Falcon Expert. Its a big rod and maybe not ideal but I'm experimenting with some of my options. Its great for bigger ploppers like a 110 (it throws a 90 fine but a little lighter would be better) but with 14 mono it can cast further than it can get a good hookset. I had a couple instances of 35-40 yard casts with a hit in the first few feet that I couldn't get stuck (I think the initial bend in the rod plus the stretch in the line). Its no problem for 20 yard casts. I'm experimenting with 30 lb 832 braid now with it. If your rod is casting them fine and you're getting good hooksets then you're fine.

I subscribe to both of these sets of logic but at different times. When I have a TW cart built and I see, "it's only $3, I might as well grab one of those too" I am following the first theory. Then when I have to cut something out of the tackle bag because its bursting at the brim I am in the second camp. That said, the last time I was pitching a beaver I started with a GP. It got beat up so I grabbed a watermelon red and couldn't touch a fish. swapped back and picked up 6 more. Maybe the flake was too much? Who knows. That's what they wanted that day.

This is my approach too. In my case it was a turbo fattyZ and an unpegged texas rig so the worm would float up and over the eelgrass a bit but the weight would still get down through it. Snake it through some, fish it standard some other. And a thin swim jig swum parallel to the strands (and if they have a consistent direction ideally in the direction they are going) if you can will slide through really easily.

With guests staying for a long weekend, I got out this morning before work as my last few free hours for a couple days. Again, it was supposed to stay cloudy but the sun came up with clouds and burned them away quickly. There was no topwater bite before or after daylight like I hoped, and after the sun popped up I could see there was an algal bloom happening. The lily pads had grown in like I was hoping for and the milfoil that was sprayed last month was dead, however the stalks were in a mixed state of clumping, floating around, drifted into the pad edges, and generally everywhere. It was a mess and made throwing anything into the pads difficult. If you landed on the edge you were immediately covered in dead strands. If you managed to find a hole in the pads you could work a swim jig to the edge but were then hung. I opted to stay just outside the edges with a chatterbait and then pitch a beaver into the middles. The beaver didn’t produce but the chatterbait did. A pair of 3.5 lb fish plus a smaller 14” fish made for a nice start to the day.

TW is T-wing I believe.

I went out this morning to one of my locals up here that did NOT have a HAB advisory. I launched at 4 and the visibility was <12" with a flashlight which was odd. After the sun came up it was clear that it was algal bloom. I swapped colors and got into a couple. Black and blue chatterbait like I said above. Biggest 18.5" and 3-09. which lake were you looking at?

Something like a 3/0 j hook (not ewg) Texas rigged and texposed will get you through branches about as well as anything. Maybe a 2/0. I don’t have a 4” senko to say for sure.

you kinda have to define “larger”. Sure, you’re not going to run spot to spot all over a big lake to pick one here and one there because they are sitting on the third purple wooden dock in from a main lake point. It really helps to have a plan of attack so you can make your movement efficiently. I find 1500 acres to be a practical limit so as not to be limited to a chunk of lake. It also depends on the shape. A skinny and long lake is harder to cover than a round bowl. We have one here that is 2600 acres, 9 miles long, and has quite a few big coves. I can’t fish all of it from end to end in one day. From where I launch, I pick upper or lower and go to it. Another one at 1200 nearby with lots of coves and fingers can be done in a day no problem. You’re not going to zig zag the lake so if you want to fish shoreline cover pick clockwise or counterclockwise and a starting point. this is all relative to my autopilot and 4 mph top speed. If you’re in a faster pdl boat and getting 5+ maybe you fish more?

If you still have line on the spool after a long cast I would just add backing. Go out into the yard and make a long cast. Strip off what’s left and note how much more there is. Then put a bit of big game 10 lb on as a base layer.

In that case, I'd say just keep backing it off from where you are now and gradually get down there. You'll build up the thumb memory quickly with minimal risk.

For getting it in and out of the car, if its 70 pounds then just muscle it. If it's 70 pounds then that's some thick plastic. In that case, gravel, concrete, grass, etc I'd be dragging it. if you want some wheels, you can get cheap kayak carts on amazon for under $50. For a 70 lb kayak they would be fine enough. Don't just pop it onto the roof of your car, that's asking for trouble. Stick it in the trunk, leave a trunk lid open, strap it down, etc. If you stick with this kayak then work on a roof rack. First port of call though is getting some seat time in it. Are the seats movable? If so, I'd take out the front one and move the back one up halfway so its roughly centered. That will give you a bit of space behind you. Have you been in a kayak before? That shaped boat isn't very stable if you haven't. First time out I wouldn't take anything with me. Just a paddle and PFD. You're going to be sitting VERY low to the water and I think your butt will be below the waterline. Don't mount anything on top of it- if you do it will accelerate you going for a swim. At first it will be fine, but as soon as you start to tip to a side it will push you over if there is any weight to it. I've fished out of kayaks like that before. It isn't an easy experience. You have to be very comfortable in a kayak to start. You will have no room for gear and you'll have to plan accordingly. Everything will be wet after every trip. At some point you will dump the boat over so be prepared with a rod leash and no loose gear.

In water that is dirtied from mud I would agree with you, but in these algal blooms I've not seen GP or variants produce. That color just disappears in the water.

If you're used to a tighter spool tension, then go slowly to this brave new world. I was always a drop and stop spool tension, then back off the brakes most of the way. I've largely changed to the opposite with minimal spool tension and keeping the brakes higher, just enough to stop an early overrun. I almost always am thumb braking at the end of the cast so end of cast backlashes are rare. The first trip or two after swapping was some learning experience. I'll also say that I get very few backlashes but when you get one... I had one last Tuesday that's the worst I've had since learning a baitcaster 30 years ago. thin mono (12 lb supernatural), negligible spool tension as always. I had turned down the brakes before I put the rod away last time and didn't turn them back up before I went to bomb a cast. The mono mainline was touching the spool under the backing and the last wraps of backing were loose on the metal spool. I had to cut that one out.

On my Amistad, I lock it down pretty tight. I'm using 50 lb braid and heavy hooks, either heavy flipping hooks or heavy frog hooks. I'm not worried about a fish big enough to over stress the setup, and if I hook a fish in the pads especially I want it coming to me with no slippage. I also pitch jigs with my Head turner/pitching stick which is a full power lighter. I'm using 17 lb mono on that one and fishing lighter cover. I also use that rod for swim jigs, chatters, spinnerbaits, etc. There is a very real chance of an incidental musky or northern on that rod and I do not lock down the drag.

No hooks taken, just a 3/8 oz jig straight back to the manbits.

I do what you said. Algal blooms call for black and blue for me, one of the few times I use them here in north jersey since we normally have 4-10' visibility (and I go to GP and equivalents). The cover determines the lure but a chatterbait or spinnerbait (single colorado!) is a starting point as a search lure. A plopper if they are feeding on top. A big bodied jig (swim and pitching both) with a high motion trailer (paddle tail or rage) if they aren't chasing anything. if its a big creek with a lot of water then that might give you some relief from the bloom, but unlikely this time of year. The algae moves quick and wind will stir up the water. This was last september up this way. Visibility less than a foot due to the bloom.

Unless you realize that and hold the rod at waist height instead... Ask me how I know.

Just a quick follow up, I got the Zillion yesterday afternoon. That's ordering on Thursday after they were closed for the day and getting it on Monday. That's incredible. I spooled it up with some 17 lb elite and put it on my Falcon expert head turner which is my 6'10" heavy/F for fishing swim jigs, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and just general fishing. First impressions are that its a pretty nice reel. Definitely a step up from the Revo STXs which I like a lot (I fished the STX on that rod last night for a bunch of hours). It is a comparable reel to the Chronarch in fit and feel. Heck, from the top down it even looks a lot like the Chronarch. The reel is a bit smaller than I imagined. The Chronarch is just a touch longer I think (it's in the truck right now), the Zillion is just a touch 'thicker' i think maybe top to bottom. It might just be the proportions since it is shorter it looks fatter. Either way, it disappears in the hand and that's the most important bit. It feels lighter in the hand than the same rod with the STX but I can't confirm that in data yet. I don't love that the drag star is a molded composite material. I know its almost certainly fine, but on a reel in this class I'd expect aluminum. As an engineer, the T-wing is really cool. I never expected it to move in the manner it does (the entire levelwind mechanism rolls forward). I need to get time on the water to evaluate it fairly, but 15 minutes of pool casting and I've learned how to skip a jig. I don't know if the reel is better at it than others (need to go try and skip with my other reels now) but it definitely taught me how to skip. Before I was only able to skip a 1.5 oz soft swimbait on a moderate actioned crankbait rod with no accuracy. Now I'm tossing a 3/8 swim jig and craw chunk into 2' gaps and getting 5' past the 'bar'. If that is the only thing this reel is good for then its one really good thing. I would say it feels about as smooth as the chronarch (which is a good thing). You guys are dangerous. If the Yen keeps moving the way it has been over the past couple months (ignoring the dip the past couple days) you're going to have me ordering another one.

last night I went to a lake a fished over a month ago and surprise- the milfoil was bright green and looked freshly grown. The eelgrass was the same. I'm thinking maybe last year I started fishing a couple of these lakes in July so I didn't see the early growth and subsequent die back. I need to see some more lakes right about now and see what we're looking at. And, maybe go fish the big lake that I was fishing a lot in June/July last year to see if it had a dieback also this year.

Definitely should be a sticky. There was a time when graphite for rods was only the offshoot from the aerospace industry and the material classifications meant something. That time was long ago. So much marketing and specialization in the technology that it doesn't mean much of anything anymore in fishing rods. The scrim and resin make as much a difference as the graphite, and the design of the taper has to play into all of it.