casts_by_fly

I don’t have a good local shop for bass stuff so I’m ordering from somewhere regardless. I agree with you on Amazon. The prices are often MSRP plus shipping even for prime members. Some sellers and also Amazon will do MSRP and free shipping which often works out about the same as ordering on sale and paying shipping from other outlets. And then you’ll get deals on Amazon of 20-40% off for whatever reason. These Abu Garcia reels are one. Falcon rods from swansons is another (the low rider all around fast is under $100 now and free shipping). I’ve got a couple things that often go dirt cheap (missile baits, original chatterbaits, etc) in my saved for later and when I see them cheap I’ll grab a couple.

Amazon has the revo sx marked down at the moment. It happens every couple weeks and the model varies. At the moment it’s the left hand retrieve high speed marked down to $120. That’s a steal for that quality of reel. the STX gets marked down to $160 frequently also and is a great buy at that price.

All of my diving has been salt water, primarily tropical locations. Visibility varies. We've never done 'chocolate milk' dives like in a stirred up quarry (who wants that?) but we've had more than a few dives in upwellings where you get a cloud of microorganisms and nutrients and you can't see more than 5'-10' or so.

Yes. I can't help from the bass perspective, but as a scuba diver I can tell you that even on dark days when the boat passes overhead you know it. I can also say that sonar pings are noticeable underwater. Most dive boats don't have them so I've not felt it before but we were in the bahamas in November and the boat we were on was a multi use boat that also trolled for bluewater fish. They left the sonar on while we were diving and every time you passed near it you could hear the pings/clicks. If you went directly under it it was actually painful for my ears as it created a pressure wave inside my ears/sinuses. I'm not sure if it bothered anyone else but it did me. I have to imagine that the bass feel it to since they are more attuned to being in the water than I am. rick

I use the falcon expert 6'10" finesse jig/topwater rod. I'm fishing it from a kayak. I don't hold the rod vertical, I'm more of a 45 degree and can walk a spook or sexy dawg with no problems at all. I throw 14 lb suffix elite on that rod. rick

we are now largely ice free. Main lakes and big lakes are pretty clear. Back coves and smaller lakes have some ice, but not fishable ice. Some skim formed last night, but we're hitting upper 60's with rain this weekend and its not going below freezing in the forecast starting tomorrow. I might even get out Sunday! can't complain much about that.

sounds like the Nock and isn’t terribly different to Hopatcong here in NJ in terms of distance. Hopatcong is about 6 miles long and roughly a half mile if you want to cross it at most any point but it was originally two lakes that combined when the bottom lake was dammed so it’s not just a single valley and there are a couple big coves to factor in. That’s the biggest one I fish and manage it on an 80 Ah for the motor. I launch in the back of a cove roughly in the middle of the lake and have to pick left or right for the day. If I wanted to fish the full perimeter I think I could mostly do it but that would be a looong day of shore pounding and not stopping to work much of anything in detail.

A bluegill colored chatterbait and appropriate zako. It’s a rare occasion that I can’t manage one on it. Sometimes more than one, but almost always one. I will have a chatterbait of some color tied on every trip, often bluegill and often greenback shad, and if the fishing is tough then that’s the rod and lure I’ll work it out with. There are too many bluegills in these natural lakes and a chatterbait covers too much water to not eventually put it in front of a hungry bass. rick

I have an autopilot and run an 80ah battery. I have a meter to watch it. Some lakes I have to run a ways (they are 2000 acres and up) and I’ll burn most of the battery fishing a full 8-10 hour day. I mostly transit at full speed but I keep an eye on the meter and towards the end of the day I might throttle back a little. On the 500 acre and smaller lakes I don’t even worry and blow around at full speed any time I need to.

you mean something like this…

If it’s a brand new lithium then it should be higher than that. Did you charge the battery before you put it in? Most are shipped at 50% charge or so. rick

I use it to find structure because I’m in a kayak and a lot of what I’m fishing is shallow and unknown to me. I can fish my way down a bank with autochart on and watch side imaging for anything interesting. I will do it before the grass grows up so the bottom is cleaner to see. Then I can go back to those hard spots and rock humps in the middle of a grass flat later in the season.

I think that 'guideline' referred to is for surf applications with 10-14' rods that are trying to crank a bait to the horizon. In those cases you're talking about winding up a rod almost like a roll cast, but with 10' of line out and generating some significant centrifugal force. I've thrown 4 oz on 10 lb line and while it was more like lobbing (the rod was overpowered, but you go with what you got) there was never any chance of the line breaking. I've broken line on the cast 1 time and that was throwing a 3/8 oz spinnerbait (I think the line wrapped on the tip and I didn't notice). Also, any website that refers to the rod as a 'pole' loses credibility points in my book.

seconded. And seconded. I’m in a kayak with spotlock and on windy rainy days I’ll actually choose the big lake because that’s one time I can fish it without most of the pleasure boaters. I can sit on the backs of points and let the wind blow the baitfish around it.

Well it seems like my prediction was wrong by a couple weeks. My main lake to learn this year is now ice free and 39 degrees. Just in time for me to fly to Florida tomorrow for a non-fishing trip. Maybe when I get back if it’s still open I’ll go after some ice out slime darts while I do some bottom mapping.

I’d love to be excited about this, but it’s only 48 hours. We then get 5 days below freezing, some as low as 13… I said in another thread, but anyone tried spreading black ashes across the ice to help absorb some heat? thanks rick

yup. Those couple days of highs in the upper 50's had me excited for an early thaw. Then 6 degrees killed that idea. 58 degree rain right tonight and tomorrow might pull a little more ice off until the weekend when its not above freezing for a couple more days. Tis the season of the tease. Last year it was mid march before the lakes were half thawed. I think it will be later this year given how much ice we have. Ever considered sprinkling black ashes all over a lake to help the ice melt? I might have considered it lately...

I don't choose rods because I'm in a kayak. I chose the rods based on what I want them to do. They do the same on land or on a big boat as on a kayak as far as I'm concerned. The only small caveat I'll put on that is that for tip down presentation rods I'm running a 6'10" and would go shorter if I found the right rod. My feet are roughly level with the waterline and I'm 5'9". so a 6'10" rod with a 10" rear handle means a truly vertical rod isn't happening but even using a 7' rod makes a material impact on the angle I can hold the rod.

I have the AP 120. I truck bed load it, no extender. The seat, my net, and two lithium batteries (80 and 30 Ah) stay in all the time while everything else comes out into the truck cab. I couldn’t think about lifting it onto the top of a car myself without some type of aider. I’m 40 and fit. that said, it’s an amazing fishing machine. I stand to fish the whole time on the water. Spotlock is now mandatory for any boat I use. The lack of dryhatch storage (or general in built storage) is annoying, but that just goes to show that it’s being compared to a boat and not a kayak in expectations. if you’re in nj or can get here you’re welcome to try it out.

I’m also curious to know where the raw data comes from. Wind and weather is easy enough- lots of data sources. Water temp it looks like user sourced but that is going to potentially have issues with small sample size and accuracy of data. Still, I’m going to keep an eye on it this spring and compare to my own. It would be really helpful to know if a lake is warming faster or slower than expected. I entirely missed the 60-degree range last year. We were traveling a little and the water warmed up while we were gone. I saw mid fifties, didn’t fish for a week, went away for 2 weeks and got out a week and a half after we got back. So four weeks went from 55 to 70. Had I known, I’d have gotten out at least a little in the week before and week after.

i don’t video but I do share pictures. Mostly of my hand, the fish, and a touch of the net/water. Occasionally I’ll post a picture of a lake, but only if it’s one that’s already highly pressured. We have a ton of lakes around here but the majority of them that I’m fishing are under 200 acres, some as small as 15. Adding just 1-2 people makes a difference to how you can fish it so I don’t post anything about the smaller or more sensitive lakes. I also fish alone in a 1 man kayak so taking someone isn’t a choice.

I have the 6 power in the bucoo sr. I don’t prefer it for chatterbaits or spinnerbaits but it’s my primary jig pitching rod and I rarely don’t have a jig tied onto it. If I’m somewhere I need multiple chatterbaits then it does double duty and I image it will be pretty good for heavier swim jigs.

Falcon expert 6’10” 5 power. Called the topwater/finesse jig. Incredibly light, super sensitive. Casts or pitches a 1/8 oz and a small worm just fine. I have an abu mgx on mine for a featherweight combo. Great rod.

Not fished it yet but I was seriously considering it this year. That’s a LOT of big fishing moving through the river.

Growing up the state stocked hybrids in the big rivers in large quantities. Every spring when the rivers would flood the hybrids would hit the creek mouths and you could really get into them for a couple weeks. We don’t have the hybrids here in the rivers, but we do in the lakes. Some guys target them specifically. I treat them as a nice surprise while bass fishing. This guy was 24”+ on a big spinnerbait.