casts_by_fly

I have fished the bucoo head turner for a year and I have the expert version on the way now. If you like a faster rod with power up high in the rod then it’s a great action. Just today I handled the bucoo 6’6” ‘Herm’ and I think it would be a great spinnerbait rod if you like a short rod. A little less power up the rod compared to a head turned but a little more than the 7’ rods. rick

Doubtful. I have a truck and put it in the bed. I also leave 35 lb of battery, and another 5lb of packed items in the boat. It makes for a hefty lift into the bed so cartopping would require changes and a good lift (and ideally a lower car, not an SUV).

My autopilot is stable enough that I just put a foot on the top gunwale and lean into it. The boat tips about 15-20 degrees and stops. No issues unless it is windy/wavy. Gotta remember to move the coffee cup to the other side of the boat though... I rarely sit except to tie on a lure or take a break and enjoy the sunshine (i.e. the fish haven't bit for a couple hours and I'm getting tired of it). I guess I treat my kayak the way I would a boat and not a kayak, but that's just how I fish.

I fish for fun and from a Kayak. Last weekend I had three different chatterbaits rigged and 'on the deck'. Why? They were catching fish so I had three different color/profile options. Turns out they didn't want the white one- glad I had the other two ready at hand to just bend down, swap rods, and keep casting.

I'm of this position too. I've done a few rods with match guides before there were other light options on the market. I have a 9' 2-pc Lamiglas casting rod that I build as a steelhead/salmon float rod in roughly 2003. I was living along lake Erie at the time and fishing the rivers 4-6 days per week most weeks. To mix it up a bit (I already had fly, spinning, and centerpin rods) I did a baitcasting version. It worked great but if I were to do it again I would definitely not use the match guides. This rod was spiral wrapped with alconites on the transition and then match guides the rest. I think size 5 alconites would have been a better choice then and now the worlds your oyster. The match guides are delicate. They bend out of shape easily in transport or catching on branches. And, a size 3 match guide feels about the same overall weight to a lightweight #5 with the benefits of a larger ring and lower profile on the #5. That said, I've used that rod for 'other' things as well including a couple north sea boat trips to fish wrecks. I took that rod as a mackerel catcher with a medium shimano round reel and some 30# braid. With a half ounce weight and a mackerel rig you could have some fun catching 12-18" mackerel up to 3-4 at a time. thanks, rick

This cold snap the past 4 days has been sub freezing for most of the 24 hours in a day so I'm sure our lakes have dropped a few degrees, but it happened last year too so no biggie. Let's call March a bonus. It might have gotten chilly here, but our water is open. Feel free to make a drive down! The next week is 40/60 low/high for a solid week with some warm rain coming in. Things should warm right up. thanks, Rick

The OT sportsman series was designed for stability with a wide bottom and almost a catamaran style hull. I've got the autopilot 120 but the PDL and paddle versions are the same bottom. I stand all day in mine and even will motor at full speed while standing. I'll step all the way to the front (straddling the motor) if I'm pitching and its still stable.

You're pretty close to my suggestion as well. I like Falcon rods and for ploppers the 7' Heavy (lizard dragger) is great, but I'm only throwing the 110 size. A 130 size might be too much at which point the Amistad is the next choice. I bet the amistad would throw the 110 well also (I'll find out this year). I'm maxing out at 3/8 oz for a buzzbait so I throw them on a 5-power Falcon (mostly the 7' MH). The 7' H would work but isn't ideal so I leave something else tied onto it.

very different question to all around or 'just one' type questions. if you want a burner, then a 1/2 oz strike king double willow with the razr blades. That's my usual first pick for a spinnerbait when I'm trying to cover water. You can burn them fast and they stay upright. They fish a lot heavier than a 3/8 would but aren't a beast to cast like a 3/4 and up. I tend to throw them with a 3.3" Keitech SIF as a trailer.

In addition to the people who changed jobs to work from home type roles, a couple million people retired who ordinarily wouldn't have. I've seen estimates of 3M people retired 'early'. On a workforce of 150M, that's 2% of your entire workforce that chose to stop working. thanks, rick

I will normally have something white tied on for most of my trips. I'll drop it over until I can't see it. Reel up until I do. Check depth and repeat once. I'm looking for a general idea of how clear it is and also the water color. A lot of natural lakes here in north jersey are clear, but colored. There is a lot of dark water here that you think isn't clear, but then you can see a bait down 5'. Few of the lakes I fish have a significant stream coming in, so they stay pretty clear.

thanks tom. Last weekend was a blank working it through. I started at the top left of the picture where the flat turns to the steeper break doing what I did the previous time- throwing lipless up on top, bouncing through the rocks on the top, and letting it drop down the front face. I made a couple passes with different colors. I did a couple more passes (always keeping the boat deeper and perpendicular) throwing a soft swimbait, a sexy dawg, and a single colorado spinnerbait slow rolled. Then when none of that was working I figured it couldn't hurt to position shallower for a pass or three so repeated some of the lures, also threw in some other crankbaits (DT6, OG6). I didn't have it in me to slow down to a jig, though I did make a few casts in high priority areas with a TRD tickler. I think I threw a swim jig through it a few times also. Before I left the area I got up on the shallow side that isn't mapped above so I could map it but also to see what it looked like. Its a mix of bowling balls and some big flat rocks (small table size) interspersed on a gravel/sand bottom. That's what I thought based on the red eye shad feel. I had good visibility to 4' and didn't see any fish but that makes sense since the water was still 49 degrees there. I'm sure they are still holding in the 8-12' bracket. This weekend is COLD here, but next weekend I might run over. Maybe I just need to dig out the snorkel gear....

I have horizontal rod holders, so overpasses and low trees aren't a problem. Though I do have to watch my left side when I am getting close to brush, walls, or docks. I'm not usually that close that it matters unless I'm going in for a stuck lure or in significant standing timber. I also don't run a crate. I just have a tackle bag that sits behind my seat in place of a crate. Its a soft sided, rubber bottomed plano bag with 5 3700's, 1x 3600, and some pockets for soft plastics. Its not bad getting into that from the seat. The problem is if I want to get further back or into the front hatch. The front hatch means crawling over the trolling motor. The rear means a long reach. I don't normally carry anything in the far rear since my net sits there when I'm fishing. If I take off a rain jacket or if I have a small cooler it will go there. I have a small plastic bin that will fit there, but I don't normally need to carry that much but it would be nice to be able to put the things that I DO carry into lockers/hatches and not have to make guesses at the start of the day what I may or may not need. With the design of the autopilot (motor in the front middle of the boat), I don't see a lot of options for built in storage. I understand why there isn't much and why that's the limiting factor on this boat compared to a Hobie for instance. If you didn't have the scupper holes in the front floor, then I could see a perfect flat area to build in a hatch. Definitely big enough for 4x 3700 boxes, more in the 136 AP. Scuppers would have to be relocated to the sides though (engineering and assembly problem) and the hatch would have to be absolutely waterproof for the event of a front deck flooding (I've had it happen a couple times). The rear well could be hatched, but you'd lose storage space so I don't see the point. All around the sidewalls aren't tall enough to fit a 3500 let alone a bigger box. thanks, rick

If you were local I’d give you the spool I have here (1 reel filled off a 300 yard spool). That’s about how much I rate it.

We’re iced out here and I’ve gotten out, but lows in the low 20’s for four days next week, highs barely 40, and grey all do not make me happy. I had 52 degree water last Saturday in spots and I will be a lot colder next weekend. at least it’s wet.

The mono? I find it hard and keeps memory. Ties good knots and good abrasion resistance, but curls almost as bad as p-line cxx. if you want to try suffix mono, elite is much better. I use 14 and 17 for most everything with 832 in 30 and 50 for special applications.

I've always been 2 coats of low build. I have never found a finish that looks good enough with just one coat regardless of the build type. So low build does a better job of penetrating and truly coating on the first step and gets the finish about 60-70% of the build I want. Then a light to moderate second coat finishes it off. thanks rick

im really curious about the stop and go you experienced. I have the ap and I bass fish out of it pretty exclusively (lots of guys use them for trolling or saltwater). About the only drive based thing I would like from the PDL versions is instant reverse. On the ap you have to turn the head 180 degrees which is slightly annoying but manageable if you think about it (like going for a snag on the bank and turning the head before you get all the way in). what I’ve found super useful on the ap is cruise control paired with heading control. On a straight bank I can set a direction a couple hundred yards away, set cruise control to 0.5 mph or so and start casting. Speed up or slow down depending how much cover there is you want to hit. But I only touch the remote once and I’m good for 15 minutes. this is definitely true. I got a kayak because I couldn’t get a boat (storage). The autopilot handles much like a boat given the autopilot motor and I can launch it in places that don’t have a ramp or into places with ramps a further ride away. But it is lacking in some areas compared to a boat. I want to have my rods and tackle inside the boat when I launch. I want to keep my rain gear in the boat constantly. I’d like to be able to access all of the things I’m carrying without having to crawl to the very front or back over top of what I have. If I had a boat, I’d probably sell the kayak. I wouldn’t lose any important fisheries and I’d get the benefits above. rick

and they are supposed to be tasty I hear. 5 lb fish on the regular that taste like crappie and are an invasive fish? I’d be keeping a couple week.

I used my sahara 4000 as a steelhead and salmon reel for years without issue. I fished it for bass and trout some also. Then I took it to the beach and stuck it on a lighter surf rod. Over 2 weeks it got dunked a time or two and towards the end of the trip is basically quit working. I even rinsed it well daily (dunk in the pool to flush out salt and sand, rinse with freshwater to remove pool water). Brought it home, took it apart and there was sand everywhere inside. I used degreaser and pulled it down to parts. Every bit of sand and crust was removed. Things were starting to work again (the anti reverse bearing being one thing). The drag is pretty smooth. But the reel just isn't the same. The Sahara isn't designed for sand. There is a combination of plastic and cheaper metals inside that just don't hold up. Sand is one of the hardest minerals on earth and it does a number of metals let alone plastics. Functionally the reel works and I'll use it when I'm not steadily casting and reeling. But it was a $60 reel 15 years ago so...

Not sure your experience with fishfinders, so forgive me if this is my version of teaching egg sucking. But a couple basic things: 1- The shallower the water the more you have to be right on top of them unless you have some version of side imaging. A 60 degree cone angle (common for 2D) will have a span of about 15% more than your depth. So in 5' of water, you've got a beam covering about 5.5' wide. Assuming the fish are on the bottom, your boat has to pass directly over them. If you're in 60' of water, you get about 69' of coverage. So you get about 35' either side of the boat which is an underhand flick cast. 2- 2D is good for showing fish arches of they are off the bottom, but only if you have it set up well. I wondered for a long time why I never saw arches and just got dots. Increasing scroll speed on the FF was the answer. I now run it 2-3 speeds higher than I used to and the imaging is better. Clarity, sensitivity, contrast, and other settings in your unit will vary so look up a tutorial on your unit specifically and FF generally to dial in the settings. For me as a bass fisherman, I don't look for fish specifically, but look for cover and structure. Seeing fish is nice but not my goal. I want the clearest picture of the other stuff. That said, when I'm crossing the big lakes and just scanning I like to see what else is down there. I have a couple lakes around that I want to go troll, but just never really got into that. And when all else fails, throw a whopper plopper at dusk/dawn. Never know what you're going to catch (like this walleye and others next to it). thanks rick

If you can go 6'10" the Falcon Bucoo Finesse jig would be my choice. I have the same in the expert and its a great topwater rod. Falcon also has the Herm at 6'6" but I haven't cast it so can't tell you the action.

I was going to say pretty lures and silky line... To the original question- dirt, grease, and corrosion are what will stiffen up a reel. A tear apart clean down is in the cards and I'm sure you'll find it. thanks rick

This for me too. I prefer to fish moving baits to visible cover so doing just that on a lake I know I don't really need it or use it aside from water temp and time (its easier to look down on the display than pull my phone out to check the time). That said, I think I have maybe 3 lakes that I know well enough to do that on. All of the lakes here have half decent maps from the state and Navionics maps are pretty good too. Being new to this area, I find it very help to target general areas based on a map. But then when I get there I'll autochart the lake to really pinpoint some of the structure. I've found things while charting that aren't on a map and you'd never know were there to fish without a good sonar. thanks rick

Went out this past foggy Saturday morning looking for those same smallies from last trip. No dice there, but got a really nice pickerel (24”, 4#) on a chatterbait. Also managed a couple crappie and perch on a trd ticklerz just to see if they were around. I’ll go back this week and keep a dozen or so. I also learned this lake has tons of white perch. There was a school of at least 10k fish in the backwater. I had to snag one to see what they were. I thought they were shad at first.