casts_by_fly

Tilcon will be tough. Not many in it from what I understand and it’s a bugger to walk a kayak back in to it. Solid 150-200 yard drag. Merill is a neat lake but the hours put me off. I always want to be on the water well before the gates open. Might not matter as much for salmon. I hear good things for aeroflex for landlocks. When it gets cold the salmon come up shallow and guys troll spoons and spinners in <10’. Drifting alewifes in the same zone works too.

both are going to be way to heavy for his suv to tow. His max tow weight is 1500.

Are you thinking about adding live imaging? If yes, just go to garmin from the start. If no ffs ever, go straight to humminbird.

832 yellow and be done with it.

What you’re describing is saying small aluminum. Even a 16’ tracker classic is almost 800# dry weight. A pro 170 is 880# dry so you’ll be 1100# fishing weight. But that’s a decked boat laid out like a bass boat. It will fish pretty well with a 50 or 60 hp. It won’t be a speed demon but for learning boat handling and learning how to find fish yourself it will get you there.

Stay with what’s been working. If it stops working, try something else. this time of year the bass are feeding up, often on the move, and often chasing. The where is usually the harder part. With only 11’ of water, it’s not as if they are following baitfish down to the thermocline and staying there. I’d start with a buzz bait early (or your favorite top water) and see if you can find them. When they slow down at sunup drop down in the water column with a spinnerbait, underspin, or a plastic depending on how active they are.

I fished almost exclusively 6’6” rods growing up and learning so I feel you. check out the falcon Cara 6’8” “medium heavy”. It’s one of falcons older designs and was originally called the spinnerbait rod. It’s rated mh/mf and that’s probably about right. I originally picked it up as a shorter walking bait rod for back boating. I fished it for jerkbaits a bunch this year plus the usual top waters. I also fished it with spinner baits and chatterbaits at times. What made a big difference for me was the reel. I’m used to fast action, light tips and shallower spools. This rod has a little stiffer tip relative to the backbone power and I had a bigger spooled reel on it. I still liked it, but it just didn’t have enough feel in casting. Going to a shallow spool (mgl in this case) was a difference maker. I carry it early season when jerkbaits and walking baits are a thing for me (up to mid may), but from then on it usually stays home since I only carry 5 rods. My head turner at 6’10” is just a little better at everything aside from jerkbaits and I don’t fish them after may.

The thill nail knot stoppers are the answer.

Hi all, I didn’t see one started so here we go! what are your plans? Goals? my season opens in a week but I’m traveling so I start when I get back on the 27th probably. I’ve been shooting my bow a bunch and it’s pretty dialed in at hunting distances. I’ve decided I’m not shooting more than 30 yards in the woods this year. I’ve shot out to 40 at targets and all is great. Latest revision of my arrows are flying great. I added 40 grains up front, a wrap, and went to a four fletch. I’ve been shooting it out of my saddle setup. I want to shoot a couple more days of pin gap distances on a 3d target. I’ve got deer coming in on cameras including a nice 8. And today a bear came through. So far so good! my goal is 4 does. And I wouldn’t mind one good buck. Doesn’t have to be a big one, just a solid 3.5+ 8 pt.

Good luck!

Maybe the head turner if it’s a remarkable one. The eye crosser if it smells as bad as it looks. Big bait rod if it’s been a couple days. super duty if it came out with a cape on In all seriousness, the falcon cara heavy cover jig would be my starting point. 16# sunline of your choice. It’s my standard Texas rig rod for around 1/2 oz total weight. I like the finesse jig for a 3/8 naked senko but at 1/2 oz the HCJ shines.

3/4+oz of weight? if less then swing away. Reel tight to the fish and sweep the rod. if more, reel tight to the fish and sweep. But every now and then one will just not quite set.

the accent wheeler finesse is a good shout for a scaled down version. 5/16 oz, not very big. put a 3” spunk shad on it and call it a day. (Leave the skirt on). And make sure it’s black.

I'd probably throw them on a crappie pole.

it’s a swinging sugar buzz and one of my go to buzzbaits. In a lighter weight you can really crawl them on the surface, maybe even slower than a cavitron. But a skirt adds water resistance and lets you fish it slower. This one also looks like at least a 3/8 if not the 1/2 oz. yes, but a couple things. The silver ‘head’ on the shaft needs to slide back further. With it there, it will nose down and change the attitude in the water. Also, a 5” bait off the back plus another 3” or so of lure in front of it makes for a big bait. You’ll almost certainly have fish grab just the tail and not the hook. If you’re not in grass or thick brush then a trailer hook will help. As will a smaller plastic. I also prefer a skirt, but maybe that’s just me.

if you have those then just try them out. My bantam is a ‘22 which has an MGL spool. The rod is pretty light in tip swing weight so you might be surprised how not heavy of a reel you need. Something 6-8 oz is about right.

reels are very much preference and personal feel. I fish mostly shimano reels. That said, a jdm zillion for $205 is the best deal going. It might be a little shallow capacity for the amistad if you go heavier line. My amistad has a jdm bantam on it with 20# big game.

Just think of the used gear that’s going to flood the market now…

Yeah, I'd go with all of that. I think you're right in the sweet spot for jigs and texas rigs. With trailers you're in the 3/4-1 oz total bait range which is just right for pitching on that rod. I would go as light as a 3/8 weight and a 4" beaver which is right around 1/2 TBW and it did well, but 1/2 plus the same beaver was perfect. I threw up to 2.75 oz worth of A-rig and it handled it fine. If I was throwing it all day then maybe I'd go a different rod but if its the occasional a-rig it will be fine. I also threw a 7" keitech on it with a 3/8 weighted hook. That's somewhere around 2.5 oz and it managed it fine. Again, if I was throwing that size all of the time I'd go with a bigger rod but it managed. It will also throw a big buzzbait well and set the hook as far away as you can cast it.

This sounds like a lot of the natural lakes around here also. The water is super clear and the grass grows deep. There is one lake around that the grass grows all the way out in ~25' of water and makes it a couple feet off the bottom there. Anything from 20' and shallower it tops out on the surface. On a separate note, that lake also gets big blobs of green algae which are incredibly annoying and what put me off fishing that lake. Phish has you pretty well sorted and local knowledge always wins. I also love the early mornings and late evenings into the night this time of year. The bass are largely cruising the edges to eat. Then when the sun comes up and they just tuck back into the grass. Sometimes they just settled to the bottom, sometimes they bury back in. I think light levels, predation levels, and human presence are what drive those decision for the fish. Sounds like you're on a tougher lake with plenty of humans, so if you're not fishing on a wednesday after no one has fished it Tuesday or Monday then there's a good human presence to deal with. I would still fish that grass . Start with a 3/8 but don't be afraid of a 1/2 or more. Beavers have been my go to for a general search bait in this scenario. Use your fish finder to mark the edge- start out deep where there isn't any and move in shallower until you see it starting to grow up off the bottom. Set a waypoint if you can, or make a mental note of how far you are from the surface grass. That's where you want to start. They will cruise or set up on the very outside edge where the grass stops at times and these are the easiest ones to catch. They are deeper and harder to fish (you have to have a mental picture of the bottom or FFS) but they are the fish that are actually eating. You can drag parallel to the edge to good effect. Just watch for a thermocline. Right now its at 15' around here and there's nothing below it. If the fish aren't there, then move shallower and pitch to every little opening or pocket you can see. Use enough weight to get down to the bottom of it. Its mentally exhausting work to work a grassbed like that, but sometimes that's the only way to catch them.

What line are you throwing on it? In the falcon lineup there are a handful of rods that just stand out and the Amistad is one. If you fish 1/2 oz plus lures frequently its really the right rod. I had the expert and currently have the cara (replacement when I broke the expert). The expert is slightly stiffer than the cara. As with quite a few direct model comparisons between expert and cara, the new experts seem to have just a little more stiffness to them compared to the caras. Its subtle but its there. They both have about the same power in the lower half, but how you get there is different. The Cara's tip is maybe just a touch softer and goes a little further down the blank while the expert tip is really a top 1/4 of the rod and then it largely locks up. That said, they are basically interchangable and both are excellent rods.

Yeah looks backwards to me also. The leader should have any twists in it as part of the knot.

What AJay posted is a good shout if you have all of those components. You basically make a texas rigged plastic swimjig. Or a swimming punch rig. Or a texas rig with a skirt. The name doesn't matter as much as the fact that its texas rigged plastic (very snag resistant), a good profile, and weighted appropriately. That will come through a little cleaner than a true swim jig with a brush guard, but both will work. I carry a set of strike king swinging swim jigs for the same purpose. Less flexibility in the weight and skirt, but easy to just tie one on and grab a trailer of your choice (mine have trailers on them in the box already). The pointed nose comes through pretty clean. I also agree on the flukes and swimbaits. They come through wood well. A D-shad on an owner lite 4/0 with a light weight is my go to. I'll throw it up on the bank into the trees and brush and drag it out from there without worry. And if you do snag one you're not out $10 for a vibrating jig (for instance).

if its just floating duckweed (the stuff that looks kinda like green oatmeal floating on the surface) then a fluke worked just under it would be a good choice.

I'm not an old guy but I've built a bunch of Tennesee handle rods and still have a few myself. The original tennessee handle was just a straight cork with no rings. You taped on the reel seat. A tenn spin grip can be great. The flexibility on location helps with balance (especially with longer rods). The extra cork all the way to the butt is also helpful there. On a full sized rod (not a shorter ultralight) the grip is usually a little larger than a plastic seat if you prefer a thicker grip. And if you're going the tape route you can use athletic grip tape which is cushioned. Lots of customization if you want.