casts_by_fly

Get a spool of 10# big game and a spool of 14/15# big game. Use the first for backing and the second in your spinnerbait rod.

I've been doing a lot of boat searches lately myself so have a feel for the market (at least up here). At that price point, you are going to be looking at early to mid 90's boats and individual condition will be more important that the brand and model. You don't say glass or aluminum specifically, though do reference two glass boats. Not sure where you're located but if you're in the south east or Texas you might have a better selection to choose from. Up here, $5k will get you a stripped out 1990 ranger with torn seats, limited carpet, and a 150-175 2-stroke. The trolling motor may or may not work and don't look for any electronics. If you go aluminum, then you can get into a late 90's or early 2000's tracker with a 40-60hp and half decent shape.

I very rarely get hung up to the point where I can't get it out by moving the boat over to it. But if I do I'll wrap the line around the handle of my pliers which are always just an arms length away and pull till it pops. If I'm fishing braid that's usually a straightened hook or a broken tree branch. Mono always breaks at the knot. I agree that cutting and leaving a long line is awful. More than a few times I've gotten hung up on some 50# braid that someone cut 30' from the snag and that wrapped up in more branches further down the bank. I always go in and cut it out as best I can. Don't do that. It's hard on the internals of the reel, even if you are thumbing the spool. I think DVT has posted about that here before and it's made me change my ways as I used to do that too.

like choproz said, the rod and line have to work in tandem and there needs to be a little give somewhere for moving baits. You're right that with braid you can feel every little bump and nick (try it with a red eye shad sometime!) but the rod has to have enough flex. For that reason, I don't prefer braid with chatterbaits and spinnerbaits. I have one rod where it might be a good combo (I've fished heavy fluoro with limited stretch on it with CBs before) but that's not my preference for type of rod to fish those baits. I prefer a faster action rod which means a stretchier line.

The NJ LM record is 10-14. I'm not saying it isn't going to happen, but that's a pretty big fish for the short growing season, relatively infertile waters, and abundance of fishing pressure. If its broken, it will be from one of the lakes that is stocked with trout or has a major trout stream coming into it. The smallie record is 7-02. I think that one is ripe for breaking. There are a few 6+ caught every year in the state and while an extra pound is a lot, I think it's possible. There are a few smallie lakes that have good populations of baitfish and one or two of them have relatively low fishing pressure. I know where I'd predict it to be broken, and if it happens in the next 3 years (likely spring 26 or 27) then you heard it here first.

it depends on how you fish as to which of those are going to be better choice for you. The decision of motor vs no motor is the first one. A lot of guys love their pedal drives. And with the old town style pedal you have instant hands free reverse for holding position. You never have to worry about the batteries dying either. That said, a motor is just a lot easier if you don't mind dealing with the added complexity of a motor and battery setup. Since you're going to trailer anyway, leaving the motor and battery hooked up will be fine. Then which motor depends on your style of fishing. A bixby or torqueedo will give you a bit more speed and range, but a bow mount (or autopilot) will give you spot lock. For me, I've found that spotlock (and navigation!) are incredibly useful in a kayak. Having used an autopilot for 4 years now I wouldn't be able to fish out of a kayak that doesn't have it. I stand to fish so using the remote to motor around while I'm standing fishing is great. Set a navigation heading/speed and just go down the bank making casts. Hook a fish? Hit the spotlock button and don't get pulled into the cover by the fish. Want to pick apart a patch of pads or a dock? Spotlock on one side of it, fish it, jog 10' to the other side of it and repeat. It's a shame you're not closer. I'm selling my autopilot currently and it would be a great upgrade for you.

For me, it's lake and time of year dependent. Grass is a big factor. In your bogs, FFS would be pretty useless because of all of the vegetation and lack of depth. I have a lot of lakes like that here. The bass are up in the vegetation and FFS doesn't penetrate vegetation (maybe the next FFS should be x-ray waves...). I can tell you that on my 'home lake', the grass grows from about 12-15' deep to the surface. The thermocline sets up at 15' in the summer. So either the bass will be in the weeds, or they would have to be travelling open water in 0-15' over 30' of water (the lake is largely a big bowl that bottoms out around 30'). I can tell you that they don't do the latter on that lake as I've looked. This lake also has a lot of muskies, so I'm pretty confident that the bass are staying in the vegetation. In that scenario, FFS is pretty useless outside of seeing the weedline (which you can see pretty well anyway with the 5'+ water clarity). In a lot of the videos you'll see, the guys are using FFS to chase bait and find the fish that are eating that bait. While fish are eating bait year round, that's largely a winter/spring/prespawn deal in a lot of places. Wintertime bass are following or ambushing bait and they continue that pattern until they get the push to spawn. Look at the tournaments on Lake fork and Toledo bend in Feb the past couple years and that's the same pattern. I imagine on the highland reservoirs that don't have grass you could do this year round. If there is grass then its harder. FFS also lends itself to some techniques better than others. If you're offshore then it helps. If you're going down the bank casting to targets and cover it's less useful. It's not great in <5' of water. You can put it in perspective mode and use it kinda like a 360 imaging, but that's not what you're seeing on youtube videos. If you want an example of that, scott martin on okeechobee last year. He used perspective mode to find big spawners.

I’m less worried about trebles. Typically everything that I fish with treble hooks has a snap and I only put the lures on when I am in the boat. It’s more ease and weight plus keeping guides and lines separate.

What about the neoprene is so great? Any idea how thick the material is? In my head I am picturing wet suit neoprene which I know isn’t right but that’s a mental anchor.

yeah, I do that anyway. It’s helps a bunch but I can see having a dozen rods in a rod locker bouncing around as an issue. It also doesn’t work well with braid which a couple rods will have.

Thanks gents. I’m leaning mesh. That was my initial thought and all of your comments are keeping me there. Some great points and comparisons across the different ones.

I think most here would agree with you. Hot dry carpet and a flopping fish isn’t great and why mlf (who promote conservation with cwr) have the penalty. I think if you have a look through pictures here on this forum you’ll see a lot better handling that that.

I also fish braid for frogs and some other specialist stuff. Not sure why I started fishing swim jigs on braid. I think I was watching Jason Christie fish swim jigs on this same rod and it just stuck. I fished them with mono previously to good effect and will still if I put one on my head turner since that’s a mono rod. But if I think swim jigs are going to be a thing then it goes on my swim jig rod with braid. It just feels right. I’ll also use that setup as a lighter Texas rig rod (1/8 plus a light plastic).

yeah that would be way too soft for a jig rod. It’s even soft as a crankbait rod for me. The expert finesse jig is what you want. The Cara swim jig would also be a good choice.

which expert was it? The finesse jig/topwater model (5-1610)? Any reason to not get another?

Mono for all of those except swim jigs. That’s on braid.

hi all, I've not been a rod sock user before because I'm not carrying that many in the kayak and they stay separated on the kayak racks. In the boat though its an open rod locker and I can see the line/guide/tangles coming. I'm going to need about a dozen or so, so a $15 sleeve might be a bit much in bulk. Any good reccos for a cheaper buy effective rod sock I can stock up on? rick

It depends a lot on what lake I can go to. A few of my regulars here are trout stocked and shut until early April. I'm also not going to them the first 2 weeks of trout season. The lake I'll spend a bunch of time on this year that I know is 20' low at the moment and the ramp is out of commission. With ice out in 2 weeks possibly, I don't think its coming up 20' without catastrophic rains which would make it unfishable anyway. The two big lakes around would be more of a boat ride than fishing time, though I could see FFS playing into it. The small lake I normally start on doesn't have a public boat ramp (but does have a car top launch) but I might just have to pay to use the marina ramp for the first trip of the year. In that case, I'll have on some crappie jigs because there are BUNCH in there.

the motor came in already and the boat is on site. They were trying to work out a rigging slot. Since I was able to get these in, it might rig up next week which would imply picking it up next weekend.

Originally yes. Not weed free, but not for heavy weeds with the light line and open hook. However, keep the weight light and it will float over the weeds rather than bury. And when you are still hooking up weeds every cast then grab a couple packs of these and thank me after. https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bass_Union_Weedless_Ned_Heads_3pk/descpage-BUNWNH.html https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bass_Union_Weedless_Darter_Heads_3pk/descpage-BUNWDH.html

the water temp at the bigger lake with a monitoring station is now reading 3.5C. That's enough to get the ice melting plus the lake level is coming up a couple inches every day now with no rain which will help break up the ice. Now we just need a couple good storms to bring it up another 20'.

we'll have to wait and see how it plays out on the court. I'm leaning your way discochef that it was bad from the basketball perspective. But from a people management perspective and also a business sense perspective I agree completely. He zero'd into one player and didn't maximize his return. And he didn't manage the player in any way. If he didn't want to pay Luka then fine. But he got a lesser player from it and a worse team now and in the future.

I'll echo the comments about the FS mount. I like it, it's fine. For the price it is probably the best option around. After 2 years of use, I would have preferred the sniper or another rail mounted option that can pivot up. when I am traveling in the AP, I have to pull the entire arm out of the FS mount and lay it along the motor at my feet. There is a good bit of flex if you are running over 2 mph with it that I don't like. That said, would I pay double to have a pivoting arm? maybe. That's all just convenience at that point.

It’s getting real now…

Ok, so you're largely in the same place as me. I'm throwing the same sized baits (yum sonar minnow in 3" and 4", tiny flukes, 4 1/4" freeloader, etc and 1/16-5/16 heads). The past two seasons I've fished the Zodias 6'9" ML for this and neds with 10 lb 131 braid and a fluoro leader. I've not had any issues with distance, though I'm mostly targetting fish in the 50-60' range. Casting in that range is an easy wrist flick. Going further than that accurately or if using the lighter side of the baints (3" and a 1/16) I will swap to an overhead cast to load up the tip. The sweet spot for this rod is probably a 1/4 oz and 4" bait. My dad has the 7' medium and it would be a good choice also for that same range, though I think the lighter end would be pretty similar to my ML. The 7'2" ML+ is what I would order if I was doing what you are talking about and wanted more casting distance with them. I don't have it, but from what I read of it, its a stretched and little higher powered butt version of the 6'9". I also have the 7'1" phenix ML casting rod with a BFS reel on it. I didn't fish it for this purpose last year, but I will be this year. It's an ML, but rated 1/4-5/8 and that's probably right. Its a little heavy for true BFS, but 1/8 oz plus plastic and a BFS reel is a good shout (I fished it down to a 1/16 plus a light ned plastic last year). Its going to be my FFS jerkbait rod also.