islandbass

I’m in tune with just about any lure I use except the jig. I think you have a nugget there. We might be more in tune with some lures more than others. I’m with you on the jig. I still have never caught a bass on a traditional jig (ie, skirted jig) and trailer yet. As much as I try to stay in tune with it, feeling everything it’s dragged on, hopping it and anticipating the take on the fall, pitching it into a hole among a patch of lily pads, working it in the grass, swimming it above the grass, smackin’ it, flippin’ it, ribbon’ it down, oh no! I still can’t buy a doggone strike, ?. Hopefully sooner than later. Incidentally, I’ve had success with other jig setups, like a round ball jig head with a plastic, and for other species, feathered jigs. Go figure. @Columbia Craw: looks good to me. Sure would be nice to attend your seminar. ?

Yes it’s a risk. I dealt with Plussino. I was in a position where I had to travel home and unfortunately, even a 2-piece rod was out of the question. So I had to find a long, and telescopic type of rod. Plussino not only had the rod length I desired, it also came with the reel. I knew it was not going to be at the quality and caliber we are all accustomed to, but it really was my only choice — And I was willing to take the hit mainly because I knew what I was getting into. The spinning reel was crap. So I brought my own reels with me. However, the telescopic rod really surprised me. Or perhaps my expectations were so low, lol. The rod performed quite well AND it was sufficiently sensitive for the fishing I was planning to do with my family. I bought 3 for my two bros and dad. Unfortunately, my dad refused to fish, but he did come along. I was fortunate that what Plussino offered suited my needs and if it sucked or broke, I would not have gotten upset because I knew full well what I was getting into. Peace out and fish on, lol.

Then you’re in luck. My earlier post about using 8# mono and wanting to try 6# sometime in the future was done with my curado 101D.

My friend, that’s why we call it fishing and not catching. I believe it’s safe to say we all go through such times. As in baseball, slumps in fishing are fairly common. A couple of things — First, thank you for your service. Second, this is to give you hope. For years I tried to teach my brother how to fish. While he didn’t fish on his own much, meaning he usually fished when I visited him or vice versa, it took him 14 seasons to finally catch a fish. No joke. Just don’t be hard on yourself. keep in mind that every outing is an opportunity to gain experience to add to your personal knowledge bank. Catching fish is a bonus. And this is every experience. Think of it as putting in your time and paying your dues. During and after your trip take notes — literal if you need to and mental at the very least. What worked (lure wise)? In what conditions did it work? Sunny, overcast? Temperature? Time of year? Size and color(s) of the lures? Where did I catch them? You can gather that I’m a nerd, but all of us have to put in the time and effort and things will eventually yield positive dividends fishing wise. As I mentioned earlier, we call it fishing and not catching and sometimes, no matter how good we are, it is a fact that there will be times we will come up short and go home skunked. And as a shore angler, perhaps even more so. Hang in there and you’re already into something. Making the decision to target other species is a great idea. When the bass don’t want to play ball, I take my bat and glove and play ball with other species. Them blue gill, pumpkinseed, trout or perch better watch out, lol.

Indeed. I’m sure it’s happened to all of us at one time or another. Fortunately, I figured out out to avoid or at least minimize the possibility of it hitting you. However you set the hook, if you make the conscious effort to never set the hook directly in front of you, ie, set the hook to either side, then anything that flies out of the water cannot hit you because you are not in its path. The one case where this won’t work is this. Say you yank to your left and the lure comes flying back to your left side. No problem, as long as you don’t move or move in the path of the lure. Kind of like when you played dodge ball and instead on moving to avoid the ball, you unintentionally move toward the ball and get hit. This also works when attempting to free a snagged lure. Simply never yank with the line directly in front of you. Just yank to either side. One last thing. It behooves you to where shades or glasses. You ever see a treble in an eye? No thanks, ? lol !

I’ve never heard of line dig for lines that weren’t braid so I don’t think it’s an issue to be concerned about. 8# mono is the thinnest I’ve gone on a bc reel and without a single issue. Haven’t tried 6# but I imagine that would be fine too.

Welcome from someone also from a W state!

Finally had the opportunity to target salmon Monday afternoon. It is possible to catch pink and coho salmon. It was a beautiful day perhaps one of the last sunny days here for some time. I brought 3 rigs and two of them were bass rods. Why? Because I only have one dedicated rod for salmon, lol. I’ve since learned that depending on the scenario, bass rods can be used. I tied a few jigs and brought along the spinners I made a few weeks ago. The ones on the left were the ones I made for salmon. The one on the top left I seriously screwed up. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve tied Palmer style jigs and I couldn’t remember a few things so I tried a systematic approach and it was a failure. Went to YouTube and the light bulb ? turned on. I started my 8’6” Lamiglas mated to a curado 201d with the pink jig. The feather action was pretty good. Not too shabby for being so rusty. Unfortunately, no results after about 30 minutes despite signs of coho jumping all over the place. Time to switch gears. I tie on own of my homemade inline spinners to my 6’6” Daiwa AirDX, which was mated to a curado 101d. I’m not joking, lol. On about the 4th cast to the middle of the river, I got my first hit at the end of the drift. I felt it and set the hook. First salmon! It was an old male pink, but I’m on the scoreboard. I was going to release everything anyway today so no matter. It was unusually large for a pink. He fought hard and strong but I knew that even my Daiwa rod and curado were up to the task. Rod in one hand, recording with the other. That shiny thing just left of the fish’s head is my spinner. He was clean and shiny and motionless until I tried to take a pic. I quickly snapped it, removed the spinner and sent him on his way. It’s always cool when you catch a fish, but it’s even sweeter when you catch one on a lure you made. BAM!! I switched back to the jig, but I switched out the pretty in pink one for its ugly sister, yeah, the messed up. Guess what? Yup, I quickly hooked into another salmon. Unfortunately, it was another pink in the same condition and about the same size. I didn’t think it was necessary to take a cookie cutter picture so he was quickly released. By that time, my fishing liberties was just about spent. In the time I fished only 3 salmon were caught. Although I caught two, the lady next to me, also fishing a spinner landed a beautiful coho. All in all a good day.

You’re asking a lot from one rod. Are you going do more bass/fresh water fishing or ocean pier fishing? If you’re leaning toward the former, I would recommend getting a 7’ rod at least and medium powered fast action. This is about as all around you can get. Be fully aware that there will be compromises, but since you need a Lord of the Rings rod, one rod to do it all, that’s what I would recommend. A good medium powered rod can handle light plastics, drop shot, and even handle treble lures including top waters. It will do in a pinch for lighter spinner baits and lighter jigs. With care, it can handle real bait, but you will just need to be careful you don’t cast too hard since that could throw the bait off. If you can find one with a 1/4 - 1 oz lure weight rating or something like 1/4 - 3/4 oz you should be alright. For the reel, I would get a Shimano or Daiwa 3000 sized reel. Why? Because they are usually the same size as their 2500 sister, but it has more line capacity that your ocean fishing would benefit from. You can step up to a MH, ie, medium heavy, but the lighter weight range might suffer. Good luck. I remember thinking and searching for the one rod to do it all. It simply does not and cannot exist but you can still get by.

Don’t go through too much trouble. I can relate. To make a long story short, i was fishing for trout once and only had one bass rig. I give the guy next to me because he asked, the scoop on how to use bc reels. I was so confident in my teaching skills that he’d get it right in his first cast. He was reluctant but I insisted and he acquiesced. He makes the cast. It was awesome. Unfortunately, as many who come from a spinning background, just can’t make the timing change and he was no different. The cast was followed by that dreaded sound, thwrrruppp! The birds nest was so bad that I had to call it a day. My fault, and I should have taken a picture, lol. Lesson learned. Never teach a newbie how to use a bc setup if it’s the only one you have on you, lol.

Agreed on the fish, but I want to see a pic of the professional overrun, lol.

Based on what I’ve read in the previous posts and your description, my best guess is that the line was not properly spooled - Not necessarily twisted. I would also lean toward thinking the line might have accidentally been laid unevenly such that it might have been, for lack of a better term, “forward cone shaped” I learned of this from my Shimano symetre’s manual the possible ways line can be laid on the spool and that Shimano provided shims to correct line lay if they existed. This forward cone, means more line has been laid toward the top of the spool than in the rear (think of line laid as if it were an ice cream cone) and as a result, that line on the top would naturally “jump off” regardless of whether the line was twisted. Best thing to do is removed the line and spool it yourself with the line of your choice. These type of problems for me are love/hate. I love the mystery of a challenge but I hate it if it’s going to cost me fishing time, lol. I hope you figure out the true culprit.

I’m sure they’ll work. I think you did a great job. Heck, they already caught us Anglers here and you didn’t even make a cast yet, lol. I was planning to do something similar to my spinnerbaits when the current skirts need to be replaced.

That is awesome! Congrats. They only get bigger from this point forward, lol. Just a couple of things: 1) You might need some sandwich bread and jelly or jam to go along with your PB. ? 2) If you have the time, take a picture of your bass holding it in two hands (one hand under the belly) with the bass’ head or tail lined up with one of your shoulders. It can give a fair perspective on the bass’ true size lengthwise. It also makes for a nice photo.

To quickly swap out top waters? Then yes, indeed! I mean duo lock snap and not swivel snap. For the purposes of walking the dog, snaps make it or at least to me seem to help do this easier than direct tie (ie, non loop). I also use them to swap out spoons and inline spinners.

Snap for sure. Loop knots are okay the snap allows quick change outs instead of being forced to retie.

@slonezp Tom MacDonald? What can I say? Powerful 16 Tons - A killer song. Thanks for the exposure to Josh turner. @Hammer 4 Nice performance. Acoustic presentations are tough to beat. All good stuff. Well, I have little exposure to country music, it as a kid, I enjoyed listening to Kenny Rogers. I had forgotten how good Kenny Roger’s songs were. Introducing Philip Arabit from the Philippines: Solo version live version

Yeah, it’s unfortunate that some reaction like that occurs. Maybe a chemist can chime in.

Me too!! I was thinking the worst. I learned a lot from his show and did some reading on him back when I first started fishing in 2004. I was a very active member on his forum page. I was even given a signed T hat ? as a token of appreciation for my writing contributions. Although I’ll never wear it, I love this hat. It’s too precious to use. One of my favorite fishing momentos. Bill Dance is the man. ? The song was alright too. ?

That motivates me now. I have only caught one bass with the zoom flukes regardless of size and it was pure luck. I simply haven’t been able to give the right presentation. What retrieve(s) do you use and what environments (eg over grass, through grass, rock bottoms, to the side of cover, open water, etc.) do you use them? I was about to tie one on this evening. It was already cold and dark and after I broke off my creature bait, I said screw it. I’m too cold and it’s too dark, lol. To the OP @rtwvumtneer6: strangely enough, inline spinners and t-rigged creature baits (with 3/16oz bullet weight) have been working for me as of late. I live in the Pacific NW out weather is already turning. As a result, I know my bass window as a shore angler is fast closing. I never caught a bass in October until this season. I need to hurry, lol. I have tried spinnerbaits, crankbaits, and jerk baits this fall, but my bass didn’t want them. Sorry I can’t suggest more. 25 rigs? Dang! That won’t fit in my garage, lol. ???

Welcome, from the Pacific NW!

Too bad it wasn’t captured on film, lol. Must have felt pretty cool. ?

Perhaps that’s how the wacky set up got invented. The original person probably wasn’t getting bites the traditional t-rigged or nose hook way and voila!

Welcome! Another I learned from the good folks here is https://postimages.org It’s when fall and winter approach that I wish I lived in a state like Texas, lol.

@ATA: That is awesome. ?