islandbass

You weren’t kidding! That has got to be one of the worst places to put a hook keeper on a casting rod. Loved the story about helping the lady.

It can help in snags. Better to lose only the weight vs. the weight, hook and bait. imho, the tear drop shape is a good all around shape and my preference when I used to buy ds weight and I loved the quick drops. The two shapes I like are tear drop and pencil. I am still a drop shot person, but I no longer buy traditional ds weights. I “make” my own. No, I don’t melt lead or any of that. I have just devised a more economical way to make ds weights that also gives me maximum flexibility, economy and yet still provides excellent performance. I think I posted what I do but it’s an old post.

Thanks, Glenn! Much appreciated. ?

I’ve never seen one so I couldn’t tell you. But I did stay at a Holiday Inn, saved some $$ by switching to Geico and must say, nice bass!

Awesome report. Mama said there’d be days like this, lol. I liked that you persevered and at the end of the day 6 bass caught is better than none caught. ? Given pdx in your screen name, I’m betting you’re my neighbor just south of me in Portland. Nice to know there are other Pacific Northwesterners here. I’ll be heading there in a couple weeks to visit a brother who I have not seen in a while but he doesn’t fish, lol.

I had about 30 minutes to kill waiting for my son to finish a class so I headed to a nearby lake. Senko, nothing. Spinnerbait, nothing. Then one lure catches my eye. A small lipless metallic gold Cotton Cordell super spot, which is basically a rattle trap type of bait. It’s been quite sometime since I tossed any type of crankbait because I’ve been giving my attention to senkos and spinnerbaits these couple seasons such that I dedicated 3 casts just to develop a cadence and rhythm and yo-yo-ing, lol. Now that I was “ready” to fish it, I had to make a backhanded cast to avoid people on the dock. I over shot and my bait landed and caught onto the top of the dock rail. Funny and embarrassing but oh well. I freely let it drop it by hand and proceed to walk away from it with the bail open and rod hanging over dock. As I was walking and the bait was descending, my line got caught on the dock and that naturally tightened my line. Right at that moment, I felt bump, bump. The first bump was my lure hitting the bottom. You all know what that second bump is! I instinctively closed my bail with lightning speed and quickly pulled up the slack. Fish on! I said out loud my usual line, “Got’em,” and smiled. The bass was hooked in the center of the lower lip by only one tine of one treble. It could have been easily shaken off. Whew! I lipped her, removed the lure and quickly to a photo. This is perhaps the strangest way I have caught a bass or any fish for that matter. It’s still a bit inconceivable that a hand-dropped rattle trap type of bait that gets taken the moment it hits the lake bottom. I guess it gives me new meaning to dead-sticking. Definitely a weird catch, but I’ll take it. ? Rod: Shimano MH Compre Reel: Shimano Symetre with 8# mono This is the same rail the bait hooked itself on, lol. I seriously do not like selfies, but in these situations, I am forced to take pictures like this.

Welcome!!

Sorry for those losses. How often do you check for wear and tear or both your leader and main lines? Also, generally speaking fc isn’t as resilient as mono. Huge hook sets and snags might have stretched the fc beyond its ability to rebound back. if you know with reasonable certainty both were in good shape, then perhaps a toothy creature is a likely possibility. I always inspect where the break happens but sometimes it reveals a reason. Given what you described I best guess it at a toothy fish. Why else would the line have broken so easily if all things were good?

That makes so much sense. Thanks. Great video, Glenn! As usual, you’re making look easy. ? Totally makes sense, and I have also done that but unfortunately with usually mixed results. Do you toss back in immediately or do you let things settle down before trying again?

I have gained experience with 5” senkos rigged the texsposed and weightless within the past 2 years. Honestly, I don’t think I’ve missed a strike until last week. So we all know the adage of tossing a senko after a missed strike, right? This question dawned me, Okay. So what in the heck do you toss if the missed strike was on the senko, lol? I was fishing a black senko and decided on a smaller black and chatruese spinner bait with a willow and Colorado blade combo (double willows seem more productive for me but I didn’t have one) and bam. I got him. This was probably more luck than a precision choice, so I can’t or am not willing to make this a personal axiom. It was getting darker and was overcast and black (actually darker colors but I only had black or green senkos) seemed the choice to use. What do you or would you toss after a missed strike on a senko? I did throw it two more times to no avail, before switching up to the spinnerbait, somewhat akin to have tossing a couple of fastballs and then throwing a change up to get the batter, lol.

Nice story. Now I suddenly feel the need to find road runners. Like you, I don’t think I’ve ever seen them in local shops. Actually Berkeley cherry wood rods ain’t half bad, considering the price. I have a 7 footer. IMHO, they honestly do respectfully well. Two piece means very little these days in terms of sensitivity loss. If there is, it’s going to practically be undetectable.

Not all fc lines are equal. I’ve never had that happen with invisx or red label. Then again, I did tend to go through a lot of line (rip rap 100%)

Congrats. The only thing I see wrong with them is that the handles are on the “wrong” side, lol. They look awesome.

That is profound! Hope you don’t mind if I adopt that. ? I fish alone because none of my friends fish. So I wind up fishing by myself anyway. The peace and solitude, are priceless and completely align with my introverted nature.

Welcome and greetings from the Pacific Northwest!

Welcome aboard. Also glad you too have found the awesomeness of UL fishing. You might want to plan on getting a snoopy/Spider-Man/Superman/Power Ranger/Sponge Bob rod and reel now for your son. Before you know it, he’ll be 16 and asking to borrow the car. Funny, but no joke. ?

@Bubba 460: I forgot to mention the bass in your profile pic isn’t too shabby. ?

Welcome and WRB is a walking encyclopedia for sure. I say think jokingly. Stop at WRB. Do not view the pictures of smallies from Jfrancho or Ajay(well, Ajay has some big largies too). You just might quit bass fishing and take up ukulele playing, lol. Really, just kidding.

From one bank angler to another, Sounds like a great way to end the day! Thanks for sharing. ?

If the worm is buoyant, then you have no problems. Fish as you intended. The challenge will, however figuring out the appropriate leader length. For example, in my home lake, if your leader isn’t at least 8’ long, you can forget about it. The trout ain’t going see your offering. Other nearby lakes and the length changes to like 5’ long. That looks a lot like the worms we use in my neck of the woods for steelhead. The Carolina is a universal set up. It has the potential to catch just about any species if the offering is right.

Thanks, Glenn. It showed up on my YouTube feed and I watched from there. Excellent info packed into a small time frame. ?

I don’t know how hot it is where you live so you’ll have to take my response with a grain of salt. I use mono a lot. I live in the Pacific Northwest. Our summers can hit 90 plus but nothing like Arizona and other like states. Incidentally, I’ve also used braid and fc and they too have never been affected by heat in the trunk. My rods can be in the trunk months at a time and I can’t recall heat ever affecting my lines, mono or otherwise. I think there is a difference between heat and UV rays. The latter can affect mono over time but I usually replace the line before that can ever happen.

It’s been mentioned. If you start the retrieve by first adding tension to the lone, you will practically eliminate the potential for loops. As for a twisted line, it’s going to happen over time and faster if you have lures that twist the line. One thing I found that helps when swivels aren’t in use is this. With the lure hanging about 18” (possibly more) from the top, I let the line “rest”. It only takes about 5-10 seconds but if the line is really twisted, you will see the lure spin as a playground swing that a kid twists up to spin around on like a helicopter. Then I continue fishing. Lastly, BaitFinesse’s point about the line being in the right spot of the line roller is critical. Even if you have some tension on the line, you run the risk of getting loops on the spool if the line isn’t in the line roller (ie, it could actually be somewhere on the bail).

I started out as a trout angler. I was fishing with a size 5 floating rapala minnow targeting trout. However, the first fish I caught was a bass. The rest is history, lol. The bass was probably 10 times the size of that floating rapala but it was enough the hook me into bass fishing for life. It was the same size and northern basser’s minnow image above but mine was all green.

I agree. I too prefer this type of hook over ewgs and preferably a straight shank (the one you have is offset like an ref). I have nothing against ewgs, I still use them, but just have a preference.