NorCalFishinguru

I get to hit up the foothills almost on a daily basis since I can walk through the back woods from my moms house really quickly. You pretty much need a boat to fish riverfront effectively since there's little shore access. I've launched my 14 foot porta bote in both lakes. I've been doing alot of fishing from shore and my boat at Lakewood, my dads neighborhood. It' kinda behind safeway raley's area. There are two man made lakes loaded with bass and a few catfish and bluegill but not really in catchable numbers. I've caught about 190 bass to five pounds outta there since march. Next season looking for that double digit because most of my fish came sight fishing

Btw BLee i live in Windsor. We should fish sometime

I may have to join in tonight but hopefully not. I have to get some sleep to be able to wake up at 2:30 am and head over to lake amador with some buddies from dark to dark. Hopefully ill limit out on trout and be able to toss a hudd around for a bass bite, who knows? Or maybe ill just wing it and stay up posting, lol

Perfect, thats just what i was waiting to read someone say. The trailer size upgrade helps create a slower fall when the bass may not be too aggressive whereas you may want a smaller trailer when the bass are active and your stroking(ripping) the jig. Its not quite AS much to target the bigger fish

It makes no difference in flipping because your dealing with a fixed amount of line

Huh, I didn't know these hooks were supposed to help in the hookset. I thought they would mostly come into play during the fight because it'd be harder for them to use the bait as leverage and twist them out

Hey guys, finally got a flipping stick and I'm fairly new to the technique so before I become accustomed to bad habits I'd like to know the proper spool tension for pitching. I used to think and have practiced/fished a bit with it very loose but I'm starting to think that it may be better normal (lure falls slowly to ground without overrun) because you get a little help with the brakes and sometimes it seems like I can pitch it out right over the surface of the water for a quiet entry. which is it? Thanks for the help

The drawback is that the cheaper ones have plastic inserts which can be cut by and fray the braid, and also are harder to peg. Sensitivity is a wee bit hindered but shouldn't affect much if your punchin

Thanks guys, looks like ill give 65# sufix a try this coming season because Ive only ever tried powerpro so id like to see how they compare

Competition between rod companies for your dollars in this economy is fierce! Just look at some of the Lamiglas Excel, St Croix mojo bass, abu garcia vendetta, wright and mcgill tessera(skeet reese), or falcon bucoo to name a few... Good time to buy if you have the $

Ardent reels in general are bulky, ugly, and heavy imo. Id go with some other reel that could serve as a better pitching reel but not be limited only to that one techique due to the otherwise impractical design.

If its not too late you might consider the pflueger president as well. Excellent reel and ultra smooth. I have a supreme and the only real difference is the weight.

;D Buy everything that you need then what you want

When you see my Steez reels forsale you will know that I have died. I think Charlton Heston said it best, "From My Cold Dead Hands". Hahahahahaha, ahhhh, man thats funny!

What braid/superline/spectra do you guys recommend for overall performance? Id be using it mostly for punch fishing and frogging. Probably the most important factors would be durability and castability. Thanks

Ah, right, right. I knew the hook keeper itself would make a good drop shot weight holder and contemplated mounting one on my loomis dropshot rod that only came with the crummy sleeve but I never considered that the location itself would be more convenient for storing a dropshot rig. What's more is that it's directly behind and not off to the side. Don't ask me why but overall not a huge deal

You don't see too much hype about the lamiglas excel series or lamiglas in general all to often because word regarding the quality of the product and brand gets around by members like us of the fishing community rather than advertisement like the W&M tessera rods. So far I love my excel xl 7116 c rod. It would be nice on my particular model to have a foregrip to help muscle fish out of heavy cover but overall it's still very light for a heavier duty rod and I love the split grip and reel seat. I'm not sure why they went with the hook keeper below the reel, seems kinda inconvenient, but it's convenient to slip a t-rig in due to the design. The color was okay at first but now I've grown to love it. Sensetivity seems good but I haven't really put it to the test due to it's applications. One if the better aspects about it is that it's hand crafted here in the U.S.A so you can have full confidence your buying a quality product that they're going to back up with a great lifetime warranty should anything go wrong.

I slapped a daiwa viento on mine but im looking to buy an abu revo inshore with a power handle. The black widow 2 looks really cool with the matching accents.

The thomas buoyant for sure! Especially in the copper color which has a red stripe back, black, yellow, and red dots. there have been times when i have thrown the tackle box at them and this baby was the only one to produce. You can retrieve it slow with an enticing wobble or burn it back faster and it spins wildly producing maximum water displacement and vibration. other must haves include the kastmaster, rapala countdowns, a selection of mepps, panther martins, and rooster tails.

I fished a couple ponds last week and only took a pack of roboworms, dropshot hooks, dropshot weights, and a dropshot rod specifically to practice the technique. Im sure i could have caught fish on other techniques because one of the lakes looked like chocalate milk, but i learned alot more about how to identify different objects like rocks, wood, slime, and rooted vegetation, and strikes among other things with a dropshot rig. I also missed a few strikes at first because i tried to set the hook like normal instead of that nice fluid sweep. Of course now im ALOT better because of the practice and full concentration on one technique. Sometimes its good to leave the box at home

The catch-22 is castaic's response to the poor quality of the platinum with the 22 fish guarantee from the same hard head soft body concept. That should tell you something. But for $6.00 def go for it

Owner soft plastics. The yuki bug in particular. It seems like it will prove to be very versatile.

Rick Clunn did a bit on it. No rattles in clear water because it may confuse the bass. If It looks like a Shad but it sounds like a small beaver they might be more disinclined to hit it. In more stained or muddy water where fish rely on their lateral line and vibration more than sight, rattles all the way.

Interesting. I haven't fished these hooks enough to get quite the same result but I did experience the tip bending on the dropshot hooks with some minor snags in brushpiles that didn't even snap my 6 lb test. I'm just curious to know as to if you've tried paycheck bait's punch hook? It's manufactured under gamakatsu and you have to apply the shrinkwrap barb yourself but it seems like it's one of the better punching/flipping hooks on the market

Have you used the Loomis DSR? Which one did you use and why didn't you like it? I have the dsr822c. I bought it to pair with a curado e7 to tackle most of my finnesse applications without resorting to a spinning rod. I need to mention that i havent drop shotted with any other casting rods but as far as this rod goes, the action is perfect. I like how you have just a tad bit of give in the tip being x-fast action allowing you to feel even the weight of the tiny finesse worm pretty well, not to mention the actual lead weight. It also has the backbone to drive texas rigged plastics home as well. The only thing i still dont like about it is the rear handle shape. It's cilyndrical the whole way through without any taper. Maybe it's to balance the rod out a bit but it is somewhat aesthetically unpleasing. Not a big deal at all since the looks dont really matter much and it's a super easy minor personal preference problem that's easy to look past.