islandbass

How are you planning to target them? Berkeley Power bait or eggs (artificial)? Inline spinners or spoons? I guess it really doesn’t matter, lol. I would look at Okuma’s Celilo line for their L and UL rods. They are excellent bang for the buck AND perform very, very well. They also come in a variety of lengths. I would choose the longest I can get away with. I have their 7’ model and this rod is responsible for catching more fish than all of my rods combined. Not only that but it could handle bait style and hardware and that’s a plus. I’ve even drop shotted with it for trout and pan fish. I also use it against bass in UL mode. As long as the cover is light, the bass loses every time. BAM! I don’t dink around with 1000 and 1500 sized spinning reels. I use a 2000 sized reel on my 7’ celilo. I want the added line capacity and longer casts are possible if needed. This is my opinion but I think larger spinning spools cast farther for the same effort than smaller ones. I also have a custom made 9’6” UL that is usually mated to my 2500 symetre for when I really need to get it out there. Like the celilo, it too can handle hardware. I was out just this past Friday trying out the tried and true panther Martin black and gold (brass really) lure and nailed a trout on the first cast and managed to hook into a few more as well. I went 2 for 4 and I blame the stupid stock treble, lol. And then I caught 2 more with a homemade inline spinner with a Colorado blade. Ironically, I was targeting bass but I ain’t complaining. The celilo when I got it was just under $20 after tax and this was a very long time ago. I have seen them for about $25 and up depending on the length you desire on the A site. As for the spinning reel, I’ll leave that up to you. Depending on the reel you choose, you could have both for around $50. This rainbow ? trout looked way better in real life. One of 4 caught. Lastly, since you’re doing this only once a year, this will probably last a lifetime.

I was just about to make a similar post, lol. I don’t why it so affects me or at least I don’t know why it makes me cringe. That said, if I get the notion they’re experienced, I won’t bother them to let them know. But if it’s a kid who you can tell is a newbie, I’ll be more inclined to help. This actually happened this season and the little kid was so happy. one incident at Fenwick I got to talking with a guy who was scoping things out. He mentioned he’d been fishing for a very long time. This was the day Fenwick finally yielded and I caught 7 bass a number of ways. He got really excited seeing my pull in bass after bass. Sure enough, I saw him there the next day with a spinning rig. We chewed the fat for a few while we rigged up and lo and behold, he holds the spinning rig upside down and casts out. If I had my casting rig in hand with a cast in the air, I would have surely birdsnested with my eyes fixed on his cast instead of them being on my cast. I thought, it’s his style and he ain’t a noob so live and let live.

20’ too close? Ha, that’s too funny and must definitely be relative. We have something called “combat” fishing in WA state and it is usually on a dock or in a river, but really any body of water. This combat fishing involves being shoulder to shoulder with other anglers. On docks, everyone casts directly straight out to avoid line crossing. If you cross people you might have your line cut. On a river, people cast up river in order to drift with the current AND not get tangled up. It is somewhat akin to when people do the wave at a stadium game. So 20’? That’s a generous spacing. When I first heard of the concept of territoriality in a sociology class, I thought it was a ridiculous and stupid, baseless concept. Boy was I wrong, lol. All of us have a sense of this whether we realize it or not.

Never tried shrimp creole but man that looks good!! ?? That bottom pic kind of reminds me of Filipino tocino. Yum.

Pacific NW greetings to you! Yeah, we have bass here too, lol. Okay

JIGS JIGS JIGS! JIGS JIGS JIGS! JIGS JIGS JIGS! JIGS JIGS JIGS! JIGS JIGS JIGS! JIGS!!!!!!!!! That Motley Crue song girls, girls, girls goes through my head but I’m hearing jigs, jigs, jigs. For every year that I still ain’t caught jack with them. This however is going to change. For those struggling with the ned rig, I’ll trade you. The first cast on the ned rig and I nailed a bass and it was awesome. So I put it on the back burner and focused on other techniques. By JIG I mean the traditional skirted jig and trailer. Jig head and worm? Check jig head and beaver? Check. Jig and pig? ??? @PotatoLake hang in there. It took me a long time to finally figure out the buzzbait too. Keep these two things in mind. You can’t force them to bite the bait you want to catch them on and you also can’t catch what isn’t there. If a lure is not working, take your mental notes and add them to your memory bank. Then toss something else. You’ve done all that you could do with that bait. The knowledge you’re gaining is incremental and will pay dividends later.

Building on papajoe’s post on workhorse reels. We all have an idea of what we think they are. I imagine most would agree that it is a reel that is reliable and serves the angler well day in and day out. With that said, surely there are other factors we take into account when we call a reel a workhorse. For example, for me at least a “workhorse” casting is as I described above but it also should be “great bang for the buck”. If so, should there be a price at which we say this is the workhorse range and above that is the luxury class and below that is the “don’t even bother with those reels (like a Rhino reel a buddy gave to me). But then again, does it need to be a best bang for the buck reel? I think when I bought my greenie curado, it was $149. I think my curado d had an msrp of $159 give or take and the curado k hovers around $179. As you can see it’s really creeping up to the $200. Another angle — For an angler who uses a high end daiwas and shimanos day in and out, wouldn’t those be their workhorse reels and as a result, “bang for the buck” doesn’t really apply. I suppose durability, longevity and reliability are things worth considering in a workhorse reel. You can tell that winter is fast approaching when islandbass starts wasting mental energy on such topics. Share you thoughts on it but know that there aren’t right and wrong answers. My goal is to have everyone that posts in this thread share how they define what a workhorse reel is to them, primarily because it will be interesting to say the least, and hopefully help those looking for their first casting reel some ideas.

Indeed, lol! Matter of fact, I only have two RH reels. The first is the first casting reel I bought. I was thinking I’m right hand dominant so I should get a RH reel. I was a noob back then and didn’t know any better. I bought it as a combo from a friend who only used RH reels and wound up training myself to use it. Every other casting reel I bought has been LH since but I can use either quite well now. I do prefer LH when possible. The second one was given to me by a fishing buddy who decided to stick with spinning. It is a Rhino so no wonder he gave up quickly, lol.

Heck yes. These are refined Clydesdales, lol. I will never give away my greenie, even if it’s a lefty, lol.

In the spirit of thanksgiving. Why did the turkey cross the road? Because the chicken had the day off. Why did the turkey cross the road twice? To prove he wasn’t a chicken.

@CrashVector Thanks.

Thanks! When I looked at it, I was thinking there’s the jig head, but where’s the hook? I didn’t know they made such a thing but it makes sense now. I tried the ned rig once quite a perhaps in 2019 just to try it, and I actually caught a bass in the first cast and a hop. It was awesome. However, I put it back burner because I was focusing on another technique.

Crash, what’s that nut head looking thing at the bottom? It kind of looks like a jig head but I don’t see a hook with it. Thanks.

I came home feeling a bit worn out from work but something came over me. Chicken fried steak and it was supposed to stop there, but then I came across some onions and mushrooms that were going to go bad if they weren’t used. So I made an onion and mushroom gravy to smother them in. Unfortunately, I sometimes lose my appetite after I cook so heck — I’m going to go to the gym, worn out or not, lol.?? My 17 year old son can probably eat half of this by himself, lol.

Well said, Raul. I just saw The Doobie Brothers in concert in September. Not only do they still sound for being in their late 60s and early 70s. They even came out with a new album recently and Michael McDonald was with them. For the most part, they just don’t make songs like they used to, but there are some newer artists who have been able to capture the essence of older genres and the young uns think it’s fresh, lol.

Thanks. I knew it was somewhere in the east coast, lol.

Under the I-90 bridge with Mt. Rainier in the background. I am practically at the start of I-90 and if I’m not mistaken, it goes all the way to New York (update - it’s Boston, not NY city per MN Fisher) . ? Taken just yesterday at a local lake. You know fall is here. Much of the vegetation is now gone and the stench of rotting foliage mixed with mud fills the olfactories. Those pilings you see in the background are barely visible if at all in the summer. I shot myself in the foot getting both places (not the same day) there with only 15 minutes of sunlight remaining, lol.

Good gosh do we have an excellent name! Thanks for sharing. Glad fishing had such a positive impact on your life. With a nickname like yours, you’d probably fit in just fine here in the pacific nw, lol. Having a strong memory is definitely a plus. I like choices and approach in the spinning setups. Let the environment dictate or at least influence the line strength you’ll need to use. For example, when I drop shot, I’m in clear water no more than 20’ and primarily in rip rap and very little if any cover. As a result,I can get away with 6# fluorocarbon. Your situation might warrant 8 or 10 or even higher. Just an example. With that said as much as I like the traits braid possesses, I don’t usually use it, or even my well loved invisx in 6# test unless I decide to treat myself to use. The rip rap I face can be brutal and I can lose a lot of line from forced breakoffs as a permanently shorebound angler. When I first used invisx, it was around $13 or so and now it’s around $22 locally. I can lose half my spool capacity in a very short period of time so I use as a matter of economics mono for most everything. I still have invisx, but I’ll use it as a leader when 6# mono fails me. I haven’t had to do that in a very long time. It doesn’t take long to learn a technique but it could take a lifetime to master it. Well that’s something I learned about bass fishing early on — and I’m a late comer. I started in 2004 many of the traditional bass lures evaded me. I couldn’t buy a strike. I broke through with spinnerbaits in 2018, then senkos in 2019. 2020 was a fat zero because my state shut it down for much of the year. I broke through a weighted (3/16 oz.) t-rig this year with creatures, stick baits, craws, etc. It had been such a blast to learn these. The traditional skirted bass jig and trailer is one monkey still in my back. ? The trial and error, putting in your time and paying your dues — May you enjoy every minute of it, because I’m enjoying mine. ?

You’re preaching, brother!!! ?

Sorry! I just misunderstood what you meant. It just seemed like all those rigs were going on the boat. Now that you narrowed it down to 3, you can always choose the 3 rigs you think would best serve you well. Try to sneak on a 4th rig if possible, as it would help you better live up to your belief of being prepared. I too believe in that. Heck, if your name is really Alex, then we have that in common too! ?

Sorry, but it is difficult to make heads and tails. Was that 4 spinning rods? Im going to rib you here but did you leave any room for the boat owner? The first thing that came to mind was the scene in space balls when they panned to all the princess’ stuff in the desert. I’d try to limit myself to 4 max. And you can probably get away with 3. If 4 then: spinning 1 ML 1 M casting 1 M or H 1 MH Im not a boat angler, but if you brought all those rigs with you, even if you fished all day non tournament, I will bet you a floating rapala minnow that you will not use 75% of those. For the casting M or H, choose the H if you think you might encounter conditions that dictate it. If not the casting and spinning M and casting MH should give you the overlap and redundancy. All three should handle a lot of techniques.

Couldn’t have said it any better. Sad day indeed.

I was fully vaxed by March (moderna). since I work with seniors I was able to get it earlier than my age. With that said, I still got Covid in July. It is NOT 100% BUT I think it lessened its bite on me. Despite having history of some respiratory issues that run in my family, it seems like the bullet Covid shot at me just grazed me. I was asymtomatic for the first 5 days before any symptoms showed. I was thinking and wondering how in the heck I tested positive. ?I looked and felt normal those 5 days. I was ticked, lol. I did stay home and followed the state guidelines. At its worst, I was blessed to only have experienced cold symptoms. Sniffles, and coughing. That’s all. No breathing problems, no fever, no sore muscles. Matter of fact, if I didn’t get tested to know the result, I would have thought all I had was a cold. ? It got me thinking, shoot. I was contagious and would not have known it and spread it to others unknowingly. Goodness gracious, how many would have my same condition and also unknowingly spread it too? I don’t know if this would be an arithmetic or geometric progression, but dang. This has the potential to go wild and bad quickly. That was nuts. If you are also fully vaxed, let me dispel any illusion you might have if you believe you’re completely immune or that you can’t get infected or that you can’t spread it, because you can. You can get infected and you can spread it. If you experience any cold symptoms and not flu symptons, just get tested to confirm. If not for yourself, then for your loved ones in your circle. Peace out. Go fishing and remember to keep your line wet.

This. This is an “all around” as you can get from one rod.

It’s one of the realities as a fellow shore angler, especially if you live in a part by of the country where winter occurs. As shore anglers there will be times we cannot get to where the bass are. Period. You can’t catch what is not there. That said, don’t give up. Put in your time and pay your dues. Try to learn something new on each trip skunked or not. You can target other species or have your bait monkey introduce you to his cousin, the floating device monkey. Boat? Kayak? Pontoon? He knows all about those. ?