casts_by_fly

I’ll have to look tomorrow for pictures. My biggest bag is labeled “glad- rubbish”. Not far behind is “hefty”.

Pulling this one back to the top. I saw tw has them now and thought someone might have gotten theirs by now. Mine is inbound.

The bg is designed as a workhorse type of reel. That 2500 is a bit over 9 oz which is a little heavy for a modern reel of that size, but not long ago that was a common weight for that sized reel. if you like it and want to keep it, then go for it. It should last you many years. If you feel like the combo is unbalanced, then return it for a different reel.

Even a half full spool will cast more than 10’. Certainly it will contribute, but I think there is more going on. I still think a picture would go miles here.

The biggest lake in this state is 2400 acres. The bulk of what I’m fishing are lakes <1200 acres. So I hear the questions you’re asking. The classic ‘first dock up a creek arm off the main lake’ type of pattern may or may not hold up depending how many creek arms you have. If your lake is a single winding lake with no or only one arm then that pattern will be a pattern of one. And that’s the limiting factor on smaller lakes. Finding areas that are ‘the same’ gets harder when there are just fewer areas in total. So instead of the first dock up a creek arm, you have to broaden the criteria a little if you want to try to fish pattern based like that. It might have to be docks on the shaded side of the lake with at least 6’ of water off the end. Or rocky bottoms in 8-15’. You might even have to just pick a water depth range to target.

Less the cranks but for top waters and jerk baits it’s the falcon finesse jig for me. It also throws the smaller cranks fine but I have other rods for that.

Since I basically only order from TW I build wish lists. Then when I get to a point that I need something on the list I move it all to my cart and order.

1- you’re going to struggle in high wind. Even if you’ve got double poles down (which isn’t a normal ffs scenario) you’re still talking about lighter baits/line/rods a lot of the time. And at that wind speed you’re going to be doing everything you can just to move the boat around. 2- we have pike and musky, so same body shape as gar. Play with your setting a little. You should be able to recognize the difference between long skinny fish and shorter chunky fish. Now a 15” crappie? That looks just like a bass. 3- depends on the transducer you have. Mega live 1 doesn’t have enough power to do well much beyond 50’ or so. At that range it’s losing power too much to differentiate shapes and sizes. Not sure which xd you have though. 4- that’s just the fish you have and the techniques you’re using. Could be the time of year and the mood your fish are in. Plenty of bass have been caught deeper than 10’ on ffs. 5- fish laying on the bottom are tougher. You need good target separation. Play with your settings. Dial down the contrast so you can try to make out the edges of the cover and the edges of the fish. Get closer and set your range to 50’ and your depth to 2’ deeper than the water. That will get the most pixels on the fish. From there you can compare the fish to the grid size on the screen.

Every year I’ve done at least one trip where I picked a technique or theme and only did that. It started with the “all plastics outing” a couple summers ago. Last year I did a finesse only trip. I don’t limit it to one particular lure but to a theme that I’d like to be better at so that when I need to pick it up in the future I have a good basis and confidence. After the all plastics outing I actually swapped from throwing a jig to throwing a Texas rig for the bulk of my pitching. Last year I caught so many bass on a ned rig that I’ll never not have one tied on. I’m not sure what this year will bring yet. It might be a big bait day (nothing smaller than a 6” magdraft). Might be a FFS day and only catching fish I can see first (minnow, jerkbait, etc). I think a day of dragging (Carolina rig or football jigs) would serve me well also.

Thanks. I didn’t think so based on fitting it together but not fitting together.

Hi gents, every shimano spool I’ve had has been interchangeable within a size. A family friend passed a couple years ago and his wife was recently getting rid of some of his fishing stuff. My dad saw stradic 3000 spool and grabbed it for me, knowing I have that size (he fishes vanford 4k size). It’s an MgB spool though and for the life of me I can’t see that it will work on my modern stradics. Was there something special about this spool that I’m missing? And anyone want to trade for a different stradic spool that will work for me? rick

Winter is done here. I haven’t checked the bigger lakes but all of the small ones and the rivers are thawed. The bigger lake around with a temp probe says 41 degrees and warming so that’s thawed out (it just needs another 18’ of depth). We are 60 and rainy now and 65 and sunny this week. Boat pickup is next weekend so I should be on the water Sunday…

The Cara amistad would do all of that. It’s rated down to a half and that’s about right. The tip is soft enough to throw a naked half ounce soft plastic but I fished it with 6” magdraft freestyles also (8/0 owner beast hook).

Also, pretty sure she wasn’t fishing for bass. I think she was panfish fishing and caught a bass.

you'll get lots of replies about many topics about how to catch bass. Everyone learns differently, lakes fish differently in different areas of the country and time of year. There are dozens of different types of presentations supported by dozens or hundreds of lures and variations of lures. And that's not even going down to color. That's a lot of variables right from the start. Then there is the biggest variable- you. So watch videos, maybe get a guide, etc, but try to simplify. Pick the things that you do well or that agree with you and stick to them. Get good at them. Focus on one lake. Learn how it fishes through the year. Once you figure out a few things and get good at them, then learn a few things that are adjacent. Like moving baits and fish a spinnerbait and crankbaits all the time? Great- try chatterbaits, lipless cranks, and swim jigs in similar situations. You could do a lot worse than sticking a couple different jigs on a couple different rods and not putting one down ever.

shame she didn't have a scale to get an actual weight. she estimated it was 8lb and the picture supports that. I wouldn't be surprised if it was even bigger.

Yeah, but at $1k for a 90 Ah 12V that's a pretty hard sell when many people are still stuck on lead acid. For a few special applications I can see it appealing if someone had the money to burn. Reservoir boats that are electric only but big. You need the energy density to push a 16-18' boat all day but need to keep it light. if someone were to go with a 'big' electric outboard like the 150HP sized merc that launched last year (maybe year before) then the space savings for a solid state would be necessary. if you were doing a bigwater kayak and trolling all day with a newport or similar rear motor then solid state would be nice to get you 300 Ah in the space of a group 31. All of those are going to be really expensive though. $800-1000 per 100 ah/12V. Similar equivalent on the 48V systems.

they are not thick around here. Last year there was a picture of one on the archery forum I'm on that was about 10 miles from here. I thought that was close. I'm right on the edge of farm country, mountains, and suburbia. Plenty of wildlife corridors for bobcats, bears, or other things to roam, but go in the wrong direction and said animal now has animal control called. Fringe habitat you could say for something like a bobcat. I suspect it was a younger male that is roaming and expanding his territory looking for a mate.

completely agree. I went LiTime. They have been around for at least five years continuously and guys have gotten good results from them. I had amped in the kayak for four years and they were good. LiTime is 1/3 the price and I can have a new one in three days in the worst case.

if braid is working for you I’d just stick with it. You know how it works for your style of fishing and the rods you have. Maybe try different braid if you want something different. If you’re fishing 4 carrier like original power pro maybe try 832 or 131 braid. for me personally in that scenario I would fish thin mono on the baitcaster (something like sunline 14/16#) and 10# braid to fluoro leader on the spinning rod. That’s what I fish now for most things.

lighter yet (half lithium), faster charging. The price will come down in ten years, but until then it is early adopters and super special applications. lifepo lithiums have a nominal 13.6 float voltage while lead acid is 12.6. Chargers for lithium need to charge at 14.6 or even higher. a wedge between the boat and jack plate.

your first three are what I was about to type. I need your wife to talk to my wife.

depends on water clarity and color a little. Fishing pressure a little. Is straight braid working for you? If so then stick with it.

I hear you guys saying that red is a dirty water color and it can be. But keep in mind that there are lots of variations on red/orange and combos thereof. Here are a couple of things across the spectrum. For me, I never have muddy or even dirty water (<1' visibility) and rarely have < 2' of visibility. I'm more likely to have 3-5' than < 2'.

If I only have an hour, that means I'm hitting one of the two ponds that's within 10 minutes of here, neither of which has anything over 15" in it. But, if I know I'm going to have an hour to pop into one, I'll have a rod rigged with a small soft plastic kinda like you did there (looks like a missile bomb shot). I'll carry a second plastic on a second jighead (or weighted slider) in my pocket with a pair of hemostats clipped to my shirt. If I catch so many that I ruin all of my plastics I'm happy. If I lose both before an hour is up then it isn't my day and I go home.