islandbass

Some cranks have “speed limits” as you’ve discovered and i cannot say with certainty what the true culprit or flaw in its design is. A trusted brand that doesn’t seem to suffer from that for me a rapala. I think the DT6, if they’re still being made fit that bill. Fast, slow, ultra fast, I have never ever seen one out of the box misperform.

15# braid? It’s a miracle you aren’t experiencing line dig, lol. Many people experience line dig with 20# braid on a casting reel. The general rule I mentioned for thinner line was more so for non braid line, so kudos to you for handling it without line dig.

Ouch. It reminds me of a story when my brother had the largest trout hooked. A lady grabbed the to catch it but unbeknownst to everyone, there was a huge hole in the net. As the lady raised the net out of the water, the trout gave one last desperate squirm and freed itself from the hook, hit and fell through the bottom of the net and fell back in the water. My brother was bummed and I had mixed feelings. I too was saddened, but at the same time, I couldn't stop laughing. Dangit, I'm laughing now as I type this, as fresh as the day it happened, and it was over 10 years ago.

I'm also in the roughly 3# camp, perhaps 2.75 - 3.75 lbs. Please note that for your area, that might be considered a decent bass. It's not you live in Texas, Florida or Georgia. In my neck of the woods, that's a good size bass. Definitely get a scale because our eyes always think we've caught something heavier, lol.

This. If the reel is properly set, and the weight thrown is within the range of the rods limits, the only thing left that could influence casting distance, especially if it’s less than it should be, it must most likely be the angler’s mechanics. Please make sure your rod is being is properly loaded by the weight of the lure. oops. One last thing. Line type can also affect casting distance. Generally, thinner lines cast farther. In other words, don’t expect 20# mono to cast the same lure as far as say 6# mono.

That is really short! Reminds of how short those "pistol grip" rods were. Gosh, it must feel like you're wielding a light saber.

I like the idea. The handle could actually come in handy when pier fishing in the puget sound. Sound butt ends of my rods are long that I will accidentally bang them on the pier railing during the retrieve. I don't like that as it hinders my retrieve and cadence. My only "concern" would be with the winn grip. Don't get me wrong. I love winn gripps and have them on my golf clubs. I do know that they don't last forever, maybe 3-4 seasons and after that, it would be time to replace them. Not a complaint but an observation. I wouldn't want to have to replace my winn gripp after only 3-4 seasons because I am not a rod builder. Does anyone know if St. Croix has a plan or designed the grips to be easily replaced as a golf club grip? I have cork handles on rods pushing 8-9 years and older that I still use that are still in excellent shape. Unless the replacement it relatively doable without too much trouble, this might be a show stopper.

Certainly. You could even bring it in with 2# if there were no cover. All you need are a rod rated for the line weight and a reel with a decent drag. If you have the skill, you can pay that bill of battling a 14# bass on 2# line, but it would seem uncool and unsportsmanlike to intentionally drag a fish through that kind of battle.

Great topic, Mobasser! I sure could have used a therapy fishing stint today. The last couple of days have been stressful as I took care of some home repair projects without help. I managed to take this fishing as therapy to another level a few days ago, after working some really long hours. What did I do? I bought some night crawlers, meal worms, water gremlins, and a couple of floats, and went back to the basics... just float fishing — fishing in a simplified manner. As bass anglers, we sometimes get caught up and overwhelmed with this lure, or that technique, the latest technology, color, so on and so forth. My stress level was so high that I didn’t want to mess with any of that. I put my bass gear away (okay, it was in the trunk, just in case), grabbed my ultralight rig and went to town. Staring at the bobber, looking around, appreciating the scnenery, nature, contemplating, etc. Watching the bobber go down was therapeutic, even when I missed. If you didn’t know, float fishing with worms is like a box of chocolates... Because you’ll never know what you’re going to get. By the end of my 30 minute stint, I caught a LMB, perch, blue gill and a pumpkin seed. I am glad I made that decision.

I hope you give up that belief, because it is not true. Drop shot (ie, weight is placed after the hook) and Carolina rig (ie, weight is placed before the hook) are universal and appeal to a myriad of species, and not exclusively bass. I have caught the following on it: trout blue gills pumpkin seed lmb smb perch tilapiab rock fish rat fish saltwater catfish sierra leeza parrot fish There are a whole bunch of other saltwater fish whose names I can’t recall. So yes, the drop shot is highly effective on smallies, but it is also effective for other species. I see no reason for you to give it up. Hope you don’t drop the drop shot from your tactical arsenal.

They are tools. Just to let you know, I was in the exact same boat as you with regard to buzzbaits and spinner baits. I went through 14 years of trying both and couldn’t even beg for a strike. This season, I decided to give them a try, a heck of a lot more focused and did my homework. I have now caught bass on both and on multiple occasions. I went 5 for 7 on A $1 Walmart spinnerbait in 15 minute fishing stint. I was shocked and stunned. 14 years and now I can’t keep them off and I have 15 minutes to get to work? Irony. One miss was a short strike. The other miss was my rod and line got stuck in an overhanging tree during the hookset and I couldn’t set the hook. Do do some research on what blade type or combinations might be suited to your waters. For example, those bass I caught were tuned to a single willow blade. A willow and Colorado combination did not appeal to them... at all. So keep at. No need to worry about them not working until you go through a 14 year spell as I did. ?

That pink color in the braid might eventually wear off and show as white, which should be an acceptable girly color. I also wouldnt go higher than 20# braid which should have a mono equivalent diameter to 6# mono. Lastly, give her fair warning to be careful freeing snags with only just hands. Braid when taut can cut through skin like a knife through soft butter. Have a thick dowel or similar item (outside of plier jaws, is, when closed, also can work) to help free snags or break off when necessary.

Always stop the spool from spinning right before the lure hits the water. No ifs, ands, or buts. Period, lol. If you see a couple of overrun loops after the lure hits, it means your thumb didn’t stop the spool in time. It is minor and highly manageable, since you practically have to just pull on the line to lose the overrun, but the thumb was late. For a lure to land on the water and the brakes come to a stop at the same time is possible but is probably a very rare thing.

If I were a fish, I know I wouldn’t be biting on this one. Looks to be a variation of the drop shot. Perhaps it is intended for heavier weights, larger baits, a more powerful rod and an angler who is an OCD and adamant about avoiding line twist. I’m neither against it or for it, and no I didn’t read anything on yet nor ever even heard of this. but you can bet people will be buying them.

Me too, and until now, I thought I was the only one experienced this.

Throwing too hard would never cause line dig. Actually, throwing hard resolves the issue as a strong enough cast will overcome line dig. I have to ask, what # braid do you have spooled on? I’m going to guess 30# or less. As already mentioned earlier, line dig happens more the lighter the braid and you’ll most likely encounter it with 20# or less and depending on the braid, sometimes even 30# braid. I keep forgetting bring a dowel so I wind up using my pliers. I carefully wrap the braid a few times around the outside of the jaws (pliers shut). I do his whenever I try to free snagged lures regardless if the line. I always take my rod and reel out of the lure freeing equation because it practically reduces the chance of damaging rod and reel to zero. Well, unless you break it by stepping on it, forgetting that you put your rig on the ground, lol.

Welcome fellow Pacific Northwesterners! This is a great site. I’m just up the road from you in Seattle. Edit: oops! Wrong portland, lol. Welcome anyway.

I should, somewhere in the garage. Thanks.

From one shore angler, the ideal is to have one of each... period... ‘nuff said. But since you wish to self impose the constraint of using only one rod and you mentioned you use finesse techniques, then I would recommend spinning. Why? For this class of lures, the spinning is just as effective as a casting reel but two things where spinning will outshine casting is when you need to max cast into the wind with a lighter lure, from the bank. As shore anglers, we don’t have the luxury of having a boat to bring us closer to our targets as a way to counter strong wind or to reduce the distance to cast to our intended targets. Therefore, based on what you described, spinning.

Thanks, DVT. That wasn’t even close to being on my radar. What I was planning to do was hopefully insert small dowels or if I have to, “half” dowels into hopefully 4 locations (ideally 4, worst case 2). These should create the space I need to inject the epoxy into the empty spaces between the dowels. That was my plan and if it doesn’t work, And now, with that extra information you’ve given me, I will start pressing of the grip into the blank to join the two from the butt end and work toward the reel seat. That should help to push out any air. I would have just willie Nillied this step, lol. Hopefully I can buy a hollow needle locally since it is better to have and not need than to need and not have.

I will. Thanks. My wife’s uncle also had an exact one made for my son and his came out just fine.

Awesome! I really like your ingenuity. I will show you another thing you can do if you didn't have the bobber stop and this is primarily for "in a pinch" moments. I find that the cylinder and tear drop shapes are best overall and in transmitting data to you. Use of a bullet can work but it does not do as good a job through mushiness or grass, but hey, it's better than nothing. Tie on your hook and develop your tag end. Tie a double surgeons knot at the tag end. Don't worry. It sounds complicated but it is one of the easiest knots to tie. 1) Form a loop with your tag end. 2) Then similar to the Palomar knot, create an overhand knot as you do with the palomar. Before you cinch down, make an additional overhand knot. You should now have a closed loop. 4) insert the loop completely through your bullet (or egg) weight 5) Wrap the loop around the the weight as you kind of do with a palomar knot. BAM! The weight is fastened. You can undo this and remove the weight by reversing the steps. Remember, this is an "in a pinch" scenario. I no longer buy drop shot specific weights. One, they are not cost effective. For almost the same price of a few ds weights, I can buy a pound of pencil lead and make a ton of DS weights. I will also use bass casting weights, which will function also in a pinch. If I don't use the loop, I will use a lightly tied and modified improved clinch knot to join the line and the bass casting weight. Instead of the standard five wraps, I will only use 3 or maybe 4. Also, I won't cinch/close the knot 100%. The purpose for this is to simulate how a real DS weight allows you to break away from the weight when your stuck. The fewer wraps combined with the lightly cinched weight do this quite well as I have experimented with and discovered. Screw DS weights for the given prices. They can kiss my bass. I have also been in a trying new mode this season too. Ned rig, and a renewed vigor for both buzz and spinnerbaits. It is a great feeling to increase and expand our learning.

Yup! I do this too. I will also nose, wacky or texas rig my bait depending on the situation. For example, if the nose presentation isn't cutting it, I'll switch to wacky (and vice versa) to change it up and it can pay off. If the environment is grassy, I will t-rig it with the appropriate hook. To the OP: If this hasn't been said already, one way to guarantee that your hook will be correctly positioned is the hold your hook upright such that the point is facing the sky AND, the big and... You start the palomar knot inserting the line into the hook eye. The direction of the line is toward the ground and not skyward. Continue to finish the knot. Another thing I do is run the tag end through the eye after completing the knot, and once again from the top.

Thanks! I have a few "honey do" projects and hope to get this done before next week. The rod fishes great and its light action beautifully signals a trout's strike when fishing with power bait or eggs.

@MickD: I would say that the upper 1/2 to 1/3 is loose (closer to the reel seat) and the lower part is anchored down so I don’t think I could slide the grip off without damaging it. Or else what you suggested might be a viable option. I will admit that I have been tempted to consider that, even though I don’t yet have any experience.