casts_by_fly

At work we have hot desks so I don’t really have a desk or office of my own. However I work from home 3 days a week so my home desk always has something fishing or hunting on it. Since it’s prep season, I’ve got 17 rods and reels right behind me and all of my tackle packs within a quick reach away. I’ve sat on more than a few calls just clicking and reeling away. When it’s fishing season I will rig rods that I’m going to use that day or the next day.

Started the reorg today with the hard baits. Snapped a quick picture before cleaning up for @king fisher to peruse. This was organized into the every trip, the sometimes trip, and the basement storage boxes. Now it will be a little different.

Owner beast 6/0 is my hook of choice for them. A good second is the eagle claw trokar mag swimbait in a 5/0.

wait, readers make everything 1” bigger? What if I buy her the 3x model?

As a supplier to walmart, I'm familiar. And when that happens, the product going to walmart will have a different item/part/SKU number for ordering purposes. There needs to be enough differentiation usually so that another retailer doesn't have the same product for a better price. Clamshell packaging vs box with a spare spool for instance. In this case, Falcon doesn't differentiate. I also think that's why they have dropped the Evo lineup. They had the Evo and HD at the same price points for basically the same rods. And that price point was high for walmart's every day shelf price. So they have cut the Evo and launched the attrax at $30 cheaper so that they have a budget offering.

The Evo wasn't made just for walmart. All of the Evo's come from the same line in the same factory. No walmart specials on them.

congrats!

I have a bunch of flambeau zerust equivalent inserts, but I have plano boxes so I just slip one or two under the lures in each box. I also don't put lures away wet. Anything I cut off goes into a tray which gets dried out before anything goes back into a box. So the only water that gets into the boxes in the first place are when they are open during a rainstorm (which isn't much). Also don't forget to take off any heavy salt trailers. Some hook don't care (presumably they are coated), but some you'll get really bad rust even without any moisture.

I am still fishing a seinna (maybe sierra) from the mid 90's. It's traveled the world with me and still keeps kicking. The tolerances are loose so no wear to speak of that's noticable within the loose tolerances. Just keep some grease in the gears and you'll be good to go.

We got 3” of slush Saturday night which was a real bear to clear. Then the temps dropped where it froze into solid ice. We were due anywhere from 0 to 24” of snow in 2 days as recently as yesterdays forecast but now it looks right balmy. That’s ice melting weather right there.

The falcon head turner is my rod for those uses. It’s designed as a light pitching rod. Great for 3/8-1/2 plus plastic. Works great as an open water frog rod (or light cover). It does a ton, but this is its wheelhouse.

the couple electric only lakes are small. The main one I fish is 115 acres and I might use 10 ah in the kayak. I’m pretty sure that a 24/50 will be plenty for me, but I can add another in parallel if I find it’s not. pictures a plenty in a couple weeks.

yes, also considered. A couple of my lakes are electric only. The regulations in those lakes are just ‘electric only’. Zipping across one at 25 mph on plane would be cool. Pushing the regs of what 9.9 hp actually is when converted to electric might be possible but I don’t have anything big enough where something bigger than a 9.9 would be warranted. And I thought about a straight 9.9 electric but the benefit over a gas 9.9 isn’t there for me.

I have some of these in every 3700 I carry. https://www.flambeauoutdoors.com/FIshing/Divider-Systems/Zerust

I was waiting to update this with the final build spec and pictures (I just sent the order today), but you just about hit the nail on where I’m at. I went 9.9 because of my lakes. I have 3x hp restricted lakes at 9.9, plus 3 unlimited lakes that are under 300 acres. There is one lake around that’s unlimited where unlimited would make a difference, but I don’t fish it because of how busy it gets and I can still fish it with a 9.9. I strongly considered a jet. And if I’d have had better visibility of my bonus when it was available, there was a used boat that I would have bought with a jet. That would have been a compromise for my usual fishing for a couple trips per year to the river, so I didn’t do it on what I’m getting now but I was very close. I’ve gone ultrex. I was going to go with a terrova. I’m used to remote control from my autopilot, and spotlock and the associated functions were mandatory for me. The terrova is cheaper and lighter. However once I add on the mount for live imaging, the terrova plus mount costs the same as the ultrex (for which the included mount works fine). So I’m going with the more robust cable steer plus remote version. I’m humminbird, but I’m going similar features and type. I considered going helix for the deals going on and for moving what I have from the kayak. But I’m going to leave the kayak fully rigged and buy fresh which means explore series. I’m going 12” up front and 9” at the console. The console will be primarily side imaging and the front will be live imaging, both with the mapping linked for waypoints. Both are being mounted on ram mounts. The front might not, but probably. I haven’t made up my full mind on battery brand yet, but I decided to go 24v single battery on the trolling motor and 12v for the rest of course. Lead for the cranking and lithium elsewhere. I’m pretty confident that a 50 is enough for the electronics, but depending on the brand I go with it might be a 60. On the trolling motor, I am probably going 50 ah. That’s the same total power as a 100ah 12v. I’ve been fishing a 80ah 12v in the kayak as the primary propulsion for 4 years without a problem. Since I’ll have a 9.9 on any of the lakes I’ve run the trolling motor battery down below 50%, I think I should be okay. I was clear with the dealer that I start fishing at ice out, so here’s to hoping that happens. It might be my ice out or a-jays ice out. But we’ll get there.

too light for BFS? BFS is as light as you can go on a casting rod.

Yes, but because it was a big thing here the wardens do check the plates. I've considered this. And also swapping carbs/restrictor plates/ECU for 9.9 models to get them up to 15 or 20 while still having a 9.9 ID plate. But, I'm not that worried about it. Sure a bigger motor would be great, but I'm not planning on getting on plane and I'd rather keep it on the right side of legal and not mess about.

then you mean inline spinners. I guess technically a spinnerbait, but not what most call a spinnerbait. You'll have to play with it on the water. For the most part, swapping to a single single hook you'd upsize a size or two. Next time you're out, snip two points and see how it runs for you. And have a spare single hook ready to swap in if it doesn't look great.

yeah, used vs deep discount new (last year model) is pretty close. ah, you were suggesting a 100 AH for the electronics. I am going to have a dedicated electronics battery, just not a 100ah. A 50/60 is a good bit smaller and I'll have a limited space in the back. Its currently only set up for 2 battery trays, but there is space for a third and maybe fourth. I'm probably going to go with a 24V for the trolling motor also. Megalive 2 and ultrex together are no problem. The megalive 2 won't connect to the helix.

that’s a lot! I’ve seen that rate but not for a full hour. The big snow a couple weeks ago dropped an inch in about 15-20 minutes when the front first hit but then it let up as it passed though. It takes a special combination of wet air and just the right temp for that.

it’s got a swing tongue already (only way I can fit a boat in the garage) so plus one there! Im with you on ml2. But you can’t hook it to a helix so I can’t take advantage of the sales going on. why three 100 ah? I get two for the trolling motor (unless you’re implying 36v).

I’ll grant you that toothy critters are a question mark after I just reglued last seasons freestyles (pickerel in my case). But the average bass that ate a 6” Magdraft for me last year was probably 2.5#. I’d have to check my pictures for the smallest, but I’m not worried about any bass that I am intending to catch eating it.

we got lucky that the storm stayed south. I only have a inch and a half to clear today. With 4-8 more this weekend.

I'm in the 1448 camp. You have two small kids now- what are the changes that you take one and not the other? Three people in a bass raider isn't going to cut it. Even in a 12' boat you're going to be tripping on each other and gear. And they aren't going to get younger or smaller. In 3 years you're going to have a 6 and 10 year old. You'll definitely want the stability of the bigger boat at that point.

I mostly have 9.9 or electric only limits. Only four lakes have unlimited HP and three of them are < 300 acres so any bigger is not really helpful. The unlimited lake that's actually big enough to justify it has ten thousand boats on it every weekend so I don't fish it anymore.