islandbass

If I understand this correctly, it Sounds confusing but it’s really not. Your accurate cast has to go some distance, regardless of its length, lol. Accuracy is important, for sure, but to me, it can be either directly to my intended target or indirectly to it. Ex. of direct - perhaps a hole among lily pads that I want to drop my lure into Ex. of indirect - if I have a target in mind but I am at a distance I know my lure will pendulum away, they my pitch will be a little passed my end target so that my lure eventually gets to where I really wanted it to be. Take for example a crank bait. If I toss it right on top of where I want it to be, it will be out of the zone right at the start of the retrieve. I will need to calculate passed my intended target so that my crankbait dives to its intended depth and in the zone. Line type and diameter can affect the depth it will dive and the speed of my retrieve too. So many variables, but it’s all good, lol. For these last two cases, both look like a missed but they’re really not and this is another aspect of being accurate.

That’s funny, lol. It is a “just off the bottom” technique so you should do fine. keep in mind that if you use traditional ds hooks, a cross the eyes hard hook set is not required. That is actually possibly detrimental. The the fish will basically set the hook on themselves more often than not. When you feel the take, reel up to remove any slack and a slight tightening of the line with no more movement that a wrist flick usually wil do the trick.

Since it’s already on, just use it until you lose it, and you will, lol. The recommendation of 10-15# test is excellent so 12# will be a happy middle ground. My first cast with a bc reel was awful and I was ill prepared. I put on 30# braid and didn’t know all the brakes were off. I made my cast. I let my thumb off the spool too late and my practice weight slammed into the ground in front of me as the spool spun at light speed with no thumb on it. The infamous “fwarahthrupp” sound was heard right before the spool stopped abruptly. Yup, I wasted an entire spool of braid with one cast. It was so bad I had to cut the braid off. I will give one piece of advice. No matter what, your thumb must stop the spool from hitting anything — hopefully the water’s surface, lol, but anything — the ground, a tree branch, etc. It doesn’t matter how you stop the spool. Stop it cold turkey, or feather the spool to a stop. The bottom line is that the spool must stop spinning before your lure or practice weight hits something. Learning this out the gate will get you far if you do this early on. ?

Yes, the drop shot will work. All the time? No. It is better to have and not need than to need and not have. So yes, you should at it to your repertoire. If you could see them, then they can see you so it is not too surprising they didn’t commit. Now go get’em with the drop shot, lol!

Never had a daiwa bc reel be at ease if you please, because I’d get a steez. or that older yellow pixy.

I think you should go through the motion to set the hook, so not stupid. Not necessarily to catch them if there is no intention to but for me, it is to yank it away before they get to the hook. Letting it be greatly increases the chance of them getting the hook deep in their small mouths and it can be very difficult to remove a deep hook from them that they’d probably die from that.

All I can add is that if certain plastics haven’t worked for you, don’t give up them just yet. It just means that the right conditions just haven’t been met. sometimes the color of the plastic can be what gets their interest. just a personal example. The 5” senko and yum dinger. For years I couldn’t buy a strike. From 2007 to about 2019. Well, I wrote them off. I was using 222, white ones, black with the white glitter, and the green ones with red peppering. Enter 2019. I decide give senkos another try. I went with baby bass. I couldn’t keep them off. I try those previous colors and no hits. So the bass in my waters will gladly take baby bass color and green with blue flake and in water 10’ or less. Weird. I am reasonably optimistic that the other colors would work, but I have yet to find the right time, and water conditions where they might be willing to take those other colors. Got my first bass with a 3” dinger just this season a few weeks ago. I also cracked it getting my first brush hog bass. This one doesn’t count but I got my first on a paca craw. It was my first using it so that’s why it doesn’t count. Things are looking good right now for me with regard to plastics, lol. To the topic, I think the regular zoom fluke is on the list of plastics for which I’ve yet to get a strike. Fortunately, I am feeling confident that if I go continue to do what I’ve been doing, I’ll get it on the fluke too.

Right spot and I’m sticking to it because she said so too, lol. When I first started fishing I would make beautiful and excellent presentations but I was wondering why I had no takers. Then it hit me. It doesn’t matter good your presentation is. You cannot catch what is not there. It was a big doh! moment.

You’d be surprised how such a plausible thought is not always true. In my area, some places forbid the use of trebles and as a result we're forced to go single hook. I have seen zero ill effects from going single hook by state mandate. And I actually prefer single hooks when possible. It might just be me, but I think the single lends itself to a more solid hook set. To the OP, I don’t know what size to pick, but as a best guess, I think I would try a siwash hook whose gape is at least the same as that of the treble. Siwash can come “open” eyed and this make it very easy to attach them to lures.

What line is on the spool? Braid perhaps?

As a shorebound angler, numbers tends to be a luxury and difficult to produce for me targeting bass. What I mean is if I catch a bass with bait X, it is so unlikely bait X will catch the next fish (largemouth typically) It is almost always a bait Y and then Z. I have not been able to crack that puzzle yet. Within the past 2-3 years, the spinner and senko have at times produced two LMBs in a session, but as mentioned, it’s not too common. I get the feeling the bass I catch are loners, lol. Against smallies or rock bass, the drop shot is my killer set up. I love crank baits, but they catch larger fish for me instead of numbers.

Thanks. Now I know what everyone is talking about. I just called them neck warmers, lol. Buff to me could be muscular, or what you do with turtle wax on a car or someone who is well versed in something like history, lol.

That is awesome. I caught a bass with the bed rig on my first cast with it. It was awesome. I only had about 15 minutes to fish so it was a great feeling. Unfortunately, I misplaced my ned rig stuff. I need to find it.

And neither did his mom,lol! I also could care less what people think about how I look when fishing. I remember before one mtn bike race that going to happen in muddy conditions and icy rain, I constructed fenders out of Gatorade bottles for the Dow tube and rear tire. My buddies laughed their rears and teased me to the bank, but I didn’t care. It was a nasty and gnarly race and by the end of it, they looked like frozen muddy snowmen while I could have been in a commercial for Irish Spring soap. I was chuckling so hard in my mind you would have heard the laughter if you were standing next to me. To the topic, I am actually going to do a better job protecting my skin from the sun so I appreciate this thread. Those gloves look functional and I like functional. I do need help however. What is a buff? When I tried googling it, the searched pointed toward buff muscles and such. ?

Dang, I’d be all over this if I weren’t on the other side of the country. What an excellent offer.

For the most part, I would say no. We can call it memory because the line takes on the shape of the spool. It “remembers” its form and place in the spool for lack of a better description. Twist is just that. The line is twisted about itself. Let me help you prevent losing more brain cells overthinking this. Memory is a given in mono and fc lines. Period. It doesn’t affect performance of the line. Can it look ugly? To some. Can it be managed? Sure with a line conditioner. But is that necessary? No. I personally don’t condition either line type. You were pretty much spot on in your first point. I am a shore-angler so I don’t have the luxury of panning out line like that. Instead, I will take the short amount of time to let the lone “relax” and untwist itself letting the line with the lure attached spin back and forth as you described. It works for me, and take it from someone who suffer from this occasionally. Don’t overthink, lol.

To be honest, any of those reels will be good. I highly recommend you search for all the threads here with advice and tips for beginners learning to use a bc reel. It will speed up your learning curve and show you the subtle differences in the mechanics of the cast. Trust me, as one who went down this road as you are. Good luck.

Also 6# Invisx. Main line. Only line, 100%. Done deal. The limpness and having the amount of stretch I want is what sells me on it. This is my finesse set up for DS. If I have go up, I’ll using casting gear or 8-10# mono.

Loving the play by play reporting of your thread. Thanks for sharing. ? ?

First one on a top water lure? You’re in trouble now, mister, lol! Congrats. Nothing like a top water hit. Nothing.

Nice! All these plays on words are too much. I love the action of the jointed floating rapala minnow.

You’ve got to be a proud papa! ? And nice bass too.

This is an addendum to my “Nemesis Lake” report from last Saturday. More actually happened in that fishing stint. In the words of the honorable Paul Harvey, it’s time for “the rest of the story. Saturday 5/5 Lake Dolloff I got to my nemesis lake, Lake Dolloff at 20:10. Fishing with a brush hog, I land my first bass out of this lake and my first bass on a brush hog. iPhone photo says picture taken at 20:20. I continue fishing until 21:00 and nothing else was caught. And now, the “rest of the story” I leave Dolloff at 21:05 and already had in mind to go to another lake called Steel Lake on the other side of the freeway. History has taught me the evening window is from 20:30 to sunset if the stingy bass in Steel decide to cooperate with you. I park by 21:15. Despite my gut saying to switch to a spinnerbait, my pride and excitement in catching my first brush hog bass gets the better of me and I fish the same set up as Dolloff. 15 minutes pass by. The sun is pretty much gone and I finally switch to my gut called first choice, the spinnerbait. Wouldn’t you know it, bam! The bass fought well but to no avail. Victory was mine. iPhone show pictures were take at 21:42. Two lakes, two bass, in just under two hours time. So unusual, so not typical for me, as a shorebound angler. I am not one “two” complain, and I’ll take this “two” the bank, lol. -ib

He likes it, he likes it!!! (Old school cereal reference)

Unbelievable. Had a staff lunch today. Coworker ordered Mexican food without taking orders. Practically had my name in it, lol.