islandbass

My Columbia has straps with Velcro at the ends of the arms. It does a good job keeping the rain going up my arm. So maybe some Velcro straps or rubber bands, lol. hope this is what you meant. It has its limits but slonezp’s recommendation is 100% effective. ?

Braid is the last line you’ll want to use learning a baitcaster. Choose a good mono anywhere from 10-14#. Yes, generally speaking, a thinner line can cast farther, but there are other factors to consider. last piece of advice. Do not use a braid (after you’ve gained experience) less than 30# braid for your bc reel. Just don’t. Remember when I said other factors to consider? That same trait of being thin casting, does not always translate with very thin braid on a casting reel. That same thinness can make the line on on your spool “dig into” itself and can actually hamper your casting distance. You make a cast and all of a sudden your lure stops mid flight, lol. choose a worthy reel learn with mono learn to use the rod to load to cast your lure. The poor mechanics of whipping your rod forward without loading the rod, which you can get away with spinning gear ain’t gonna fly with casting gear. take It from someone who was where you are now. BTW, I love using both reel types. You will ask why you didn’t try learning it sooner, lol. I currently don’t have braid on any of my bc reels and actually haven’t used it in quite sometime but it is a good line. You’ll be blown away at how it transmits info to your hands and amazed at what near zero stretch really means.

Thanks for sharing. I use the Albright but I’ll look into learning the ones you recommended.

@snake95: I forgot to say good on you for doing this. It can be a great bonding time. I forgot to mention that I used plastic body cbs. I primed all of them with white and let them have at it. top water bodies are another good option for drying, no problem. All you need are paper clips and old mono. Convert the 2 clips into an S. Tie the line to both, no more than say 10” one clip will be used to hang on something like a horizontal dowel if you want to get fancy, and the other to the plug via their wire body where they attach the hooks. If the blanks don’t have those, no big deal. Just get some tiny screw eyes. you can also use this same system to help the epoxy balance out over the bait. Pm me when you get there. ?

Paint brushes like they might still use in school And those cheap plastic palettes to hold and mix those paints. acrylic paints you find in Michaels or joannes or Walmart that cost like $0.99 each color. let your daughter pick the colors. https://www.walmart.com/browse/arts-crafts-sewing/acrylic-paints/1334134_5899871_7445675_5577403_8242343 buy 2 ton epoxy to serve as the final coat. don’t worry about how they’re painted. I used to do this with my daughter when she was that age and the neighborhood kids. She’s now 20.

That is a sweet stick and I can assure you most people in my neck of the woods use it for trolling spinners and wedding rings. It is ultra whipping but that is a good thing and something I like about it, as it was designed to keep them soft mouths intact and hooked during the fight. I keep eyeing it when I see it in the stores. I guess you can tell I live in WA state, lol. Let us know how it casts. If it casts great I’ll buy one even if I don’t need one, lol. My okuma celilo UL might get a little jealous. Please give a review when you get a chance.

Spoken like one who has a strong baitmonkey! ?

Sorry I can’t help out, but I have to say, I also would love to get the scoop on this too. I might actually pop some popcorn on the stove for this. ?

I ain’t biting the hook, line or sinker. Monkey stay down!

Sorry! I missed that part completely. ? I wouldn’t sweat over 1/2”. In this case I think close enough is good enough. ?

I don’t. Don’t be fooled making the assumption that lower gear ratios of a spinning reel means a line recovery rate lower than a high speed casting reel. It is not an apples to apples comparison. You might actually find that the 2500 5.x spinning reel might actually have a higher line recovery rate than a typical 7.x casting reel. Can’t speak for the crazy 8.x and higher reels. Compare the line recovery rates of the reel and not simply the reel’s gear ratio when comparing spinning and casting reels. A well versed angler with both should have no need to get accustomed or readjust when switching reel types. Well, at least I don’t. I credit this to over the winter over-think. Can you tell I’m suffering from it, lol.

His name was Mr. Kaufman. Great guy who loved his craft. Before then I’d use a butter knife in place of a flat head, lol.

That’s probably why you hate changing them, lol. My wood shop teacher’s golden tenet was the right tool for the job. Sure fingers work the the split ring pliers do it easier and faster. I’d do just as you proposed. Add the ring to your baits then attach the trebles. I can tell the size ring but there are images online that can show you the recommended size for your trebles.

I clicked on the link and it took me to Facebook. Is that correct? I backed out, lol.

I don’t think you are looking at this the right way. A longer rod will cast farther given the same effort used with a shorter. This difference won’t usually much if your are talking a 6” difference in rod length. Maybe 3-6’. Remember I am say with the same effort of cast. With that said if you want to maximize your casting distance, you increase your chances when: 1) the rod’s lure weight range is truly capable of efficiently throwing your intended lure. I say this because some rods as an example might say 1/4 to 3/4 oz. lure weight range but struggle to bend well enough for a 1/4 oz lure and yet feel over powered when trying to cast a 3/4 oz. lure and that ticks me off. I have typically read such things from our brethren here with some rods. Then there are rods with the same specs that can easily handle any lure in that range. 2) the line you choose. Don’t expect your rod to cast a 1/4 oz. lure the same with 20# mono and 20# braid. 3) the reel you choose. Most bc reels worth their weight IMO, and I ain’t going to be humble about it had better be able to cast 1/4 for me, or it won’t even be considered to be in my line up. Period. Going less than than, the possibilities start to narrow greatly as they will with a typical bass bc rod. Many more power fish and even while there is a finesse market, they are geared more toward spinning. Yes, there are casting setups out there but many are not going to come cheap. So if you ask me, you’re just gambling going along the lines that a longer MH will be thinner at the top so it should cast lighter lures further. It might but not necessarily for that reason. Also, how are you defining light lures? For me 1/4 oz is not light for bass fishing but “standard” and “normal” by which I mean my rods and reels had better cast this without a problem. Light starts from 1/8 oz. This is just how I define it for myself. Lastly, I recommend that you become proficient if you aren’t already at utilizing the rod’s traits in casting your lures vs. trying to muscle it out there. Just think of your rod as a bending catapult or better yet, a spring in which the lure’s weight loads the rod on the way back and springs or catapults it forward. This is the key for any cast in reality but it is even more critical if you want to cast light lures and not initiate an unintended backlash.

Nothing wrong with that, bird. Fish don’t know what we’re fishing with anyway. To the topic, I can second Okuma rods. I have used the celilo series for my UL and heavy salmon fishing and the value is just incredible. Lamiglas. Loomis schloomis, lol. Their high end stuff is as expensive as the high end brands we know so I’m being specific to the lowest class of bass rods. Again, excellent value, bang for the buck. It also seems stores sell them for less than the MSRP which helps.

it seems you have the right gear and what AJ described on the hook set is pretty much it. With the nearly circle hook like traits of a typical DS hook, the fish practically “set the hook” on themselves. Bird’s image is great but one thing I will do when I can get away with it is leave my hook point exposed. I will only texspose if grass and weeds (not heavy grass or weeds) will get caught up on the point. The reason you might be missing could be the fish’s activity level. When the bass are active, they’ll scarf down a DS rig in one fell swoop and swallow. But if they’re less active and more finicky, they might actually slurp the plastic worm from the tail end and nibble the bait up to the hook. If you try setting the hook before they get to the hook, we’ll of course, we’ll miss on the hook set. The hook was never in their mouth so we never even had a chance, yet. I’ve seen them do this. In this situation, you will need to have some patience until you know they have the hook in their mouth. Then do what AJ described in the hookset. Mosquito hooks are incredibly effective. I use size 2 though. The in pacific NW, a 4 pounder is a monster,lol. Now go get’em.

Or add a 360 degree camera ? to the lure, lol. Yeah the thought of missed and undetected strikes is sad but true.

Do you live in Utah?? I caught a bat ? once. I had just finished retrieving my lure about to make a new cast and a bat comes dashing in toward my jig. It made a last second swerve away from the lure probably when it realized it wasn’t a big. It managed to not only get hooked by a wing, it also managed to free itself. Whew!

Lucky I didn't have a cup of coffee in hand. You are right about the reviews on Amazon and other sites. It behooves you to do your research and due diligence. In my neck of the woods as a bank angler, it's definitely a no go to bass fish. That's why I hope you develop that app. Something has to help us bummed out to make it through the winter, lol.

I'd play it, lol. Thanks for the advice. I recently ordered 3 plussino telescoping rods and let me pepper this by saying that under 99.99999% of the time, I would never ever consider buying any telescopic rod. But need and reality met and I had to swallow the fact that a telescopic rod was the "most practical" choice for me. The true travel rods were too expensive and usually not long enough and if they were the length I wanted (minimum 8'6"), I knew that 2-piece rods weren't going to fit in my luggage. I also did not want to mail them home ahead of me. To make a long story short, I was expecting junk out of the box, but the cost of the 3 rods was well within my margin of disappointment, lol. (I was willing to risk it and get burned, lol). They performed surprisingly well for my brothers and me. Honestly, I couldn't believe it and I recall seeing the reviews on how some broke on the first try. We worked them hard in four trips and I had one monster on that I never saw. The 8'6 rod did its job and matched that fish every second of the battle. Unfortunately, my fault 100%. I had chosen 10# mono based on my SW fishing in Mazatlan thinking this would be sufficient. Definitely not for my home away from home in the Pacific. I knew what I spooled up was not going to be sufficient the moment I looked at the conditions we faced, but you have to use what you have, lol. And I could kick myself in the rear for knowing in my gut to go with main braid and a 12-20# leader. It was an awesome battle. A violent take... waves crashing during the fight, and this fish pulled so hard. It was a beautiful thing. The cheapy reel's drag actually held up. Another shock, but I would bet longevity would probably be its Achilles heel. I was praying that the fish would not run the line over some sharp rocks or coral but after about a good few minutes of battling, the line was cut but either teeth or razor sharp coral. I might as well have used sewing thread, lol. The rods should hold up for my brothers and dad, but I will be getting them something like a 5-6000 sized penn battle or something like them so that they can handle the brutes back home. On the bright side, on our last outing my brother and I saw a large sea turtle and even more cool, a black tip sharp. I almost jumped in to follow it, but even islandbass knows he is not a match for crashing waves, razor sharp coral and rocks or being withing 100 feet of a serious deep blue drop off, lol.

Can’t say for sure, but its probably a good idea to back the drag off if you know it won’t be used anytime. I back the drag off at the end of every outing without fail.

For spinning reels, fc can for the most part be stiff and wiry and hard to manage of spinning reels. this is why you’ve been told by many here already that they don’t go passed 8#. there are a few fcs out there that are a bit more supple, like invisx but even then, I wouldn’t go passed 8# either. if you can get away with it, step down to 8# (I use 6# for my drop shotting when I feel like buying fc) or even better, 6#. good thing you asked us here first, or you probably would have been disappointed and frustrated with fc not initially know it’s traits before using it. anything in the 10# test realm for fc in general, unless the line is supple, is better suited with casting reels.

And even harder for shorebound folk like me, lol. I’ve been tempted to buy a surf rod to really get it out and offshore from a shorebound POV. I need to force myself to actually force myself to bass fish in the winter. Prospects are nearly zero chance from the shore this time of year for me. I don’t think I’ve fished for bass more than 5 times this past decade in the winter. Sad but true.

Memory is ugly to look at but it is my experience that it does not affect performance including casting distance for me. If it is a show stopper for you then consider sufix mono. In my experience, it seems to acquire memory the slowest and I’ve just about every domestic mono line out there. Big game, trilene, ande, McCoy, stren, etc. there is sufix siege and the other whose name is escaping me but I think it is elite or something like that. It would be kind of like trilene XT siege, to XL elite. A very loose comparison.