Nibbles

Hit up Medicine Lake after work in a rowboat. Didn't expect to catch much, was proven wrong to my delight. Didn't have a ruler with me, but felt pretty hefty in my hands. Glad I had 10# braid on since I didn't have a net. Not sure I could have landed it on 4# fluoro.

I've got the T-shaped spring-loaded remover with the gaffe-shaped thing at the end. They DO work, but can tear the fish up sometimes with barbed hooks since the hook "popping" action is mostly just yanking the hook out barb and all in one swift mechanical motion. Not always a bad thing though, especially with a deeper hooked treble where the only viable alternative is keeping the fish for dinner. However, anecdotally I find my 12" curved hemostats to be way more general-purpose while still being good for deep hook removal. The graduated curve along the nose makes them much easier to thread through the gill plate for cases when the bass is gut hooked at an awkward spot/angle.

I'm guessing they're releasing a new video or podcast series in partnership with a sponsor or pro?

Haha, as a fellow tackle enthusiast I completely understand the sentiment. If I ever decide to sell mine I will ping you first!

I mean you still see TD-Z 103/105HL's on ebay now and then, sometimes the R/R+ ones too. Not quite an Orochi, but close?

Slow day on Tonka today. Plenty of fishing holding off points in 15 - 20 FOW but refused to bite. Tried jigs, deep cranks, suspending pointer 110's, etc. Caught a dink pike off the weedlines of the islands in southern Cook's bay, in about 5 FOW on a black/chartreuse LC Fat CB BDS 3. Finally got sick of fishing deep and hit up Seton Lake to fish the docks, where I caught a decent one in half a foot of water. That's right, you heard me - half a foot. We had trolled into the area of the lake choked by lilypads, and I had just tossed a 1/16 oz wacky jig w/ a 4" Coppertreuse Big TRD into the shallows planning to drag it toward some docks in between, when I saw a big fish shape swim up to it. At the time it was sitting in mere inches of water, clearly visible. Being so shallow, I thought the fish was a carp at first since you can see them cruise the shallows all the time on Minnetonka. Figured I'd twitch my worm anyway, and to my surprise saw the fish engulf it, so I set the hook! Turns out it was between 18 - 19" Saved me from getting skunked!

FedEx is quicker in my experience. Asian Portal Fishing shipped my JDM Luvias reels via FedEx and it took 4 business days after I received initial email notification of the shipment. This was back in late July.

Ever try a small ziptie? Just tighten it around the middle of a stickbait and then clip off any excess material with nail clippers? More durable than an o-ring, less prone to slippage. Can buy them by the thousand (4" or 6" ones) online.

Well, sounds like there was an inventory mix up and I won't be getting those Jackhammers after all

https://www.threeriversparks.org/page/watercraft-rentals

Right on - this is why I honestly prefer the clicking CC knobs on my OG Zillions. Enough resistance to prevent you from accidentally adjusting it in most cases, and if you do you'll hear very distinctive clicking. Also easy to dial things up and down in even increments.

CBD + Glucosamine does wonders for my iffy knees, ankles and hips. I ruined mine through years and years of trail running with barefoot running shoes, combined with overtraining on deep squats and heavy deadlifts at the gym. Younger me had no idea the human body was not built to handle regularly running very long distances on uneven terrain while carrying an extra 20 - 30 lbs of lean mass ?

Was making a Siebert Outdoors order for some jigheads and spinnerbaits and couldn't resist jumping on the jackhammer bandwagon. Gonna have 3 x 3/8 oz Brett's Bluegill ones coming in soon

Well we launched out of Surfside yesterday around noon, and made our way up to Seton and then Harrison for a few hours before finally heading south toward the islands in Cooks bay. Caught a few smaller ones tossing wacky jigs into docks. Found some holding off points but couldn't entice a bite with a shakyhead or wacky jig. Didn't have my crankbaits or I would have tried yo-yoing a lipless for a bit. Later in the day caught a couple smaller 14s on a ned rigged Big TRD (hot snakes) and a decent 16" on a chatterbait (3/8 okeechobee craw, green pumpkin rage baby menace trailer) on some windblown flats off the big island in Cook's bay, just ripping it across weedbeds.

Certate for its smoothness and magseal

Probably Surfside park, start from there and work our way east hitting up all the buoy marked points and maybe a couple of cove weedlines along the way. Ill probably be throwing a combination of 3 - 3.5" paddletails on light wire 3/32 oz jigheads and 1/8 oz weedless wacky/flickshake jigs with green pumpkin/chart 4" TRDs.

I should be hitting Tonka launching off the ramp near Mound on Tues after work, hopefully I'll catch one of these silver LM as well haha

I have a Fuego LT and while it isnt as smooth as my Ballistic FW LT or Luvias FC LT's, it's still enjoyable to fish with. Don't let the magseal be a detractor, whether you need it or not is irrelevant if the rest of the reel is still great.

New to me reel. First Megabass one, the Orochi Cover Hacking 10CHL. Almost stock, previous owner replaced the stock frame screws with red ZPI ones to match the color scheme. Pretty sweet and reminds me of a souped up, more refined TD-X. I might get to be the first to spool this baby up and fish it Probably pair it up with my OG Cielo TD-CEL701WJ heavy worm/jig rod

Don't forget about the Luvias LT https://fishing.asian-portal.shop/category/select/pid/301310 This one seems to satisfy most of your requirements: 6.2 gear ratio, 93cm (36.6 in) IPT 150m (164yds) 6# line capacity, far less than 240 yds Priced in between $49 and $449 Daiwa LT model If you want a shallower spool, you can always wait for the FC 2500S-XH to be back in stock: https://fishing.asian-portal.shop/category/select/pid/300974 I ordered both the FC 2500S-XH and the FC 2000S-XH from them and they both arrived in 4 days with no issue. If you'd rather wait for the FC 2000S-XH to be back in stock, watch this one instead: https://fishing.asian-portal.shop/category/select/pid/300972

Another +1 for blaming USPS rather than the merchant. Seems like all my FedEx/UPS packages have been on time recently, but the same cannot be said of USPS ones. Several occasions where stuff got lost for 2 - 4 days in some distribution center before finally being found and forwarded to my local area post office. Results in packages being delayed by 3 - 5 days.

I mean it's basically no different than with a car transmission. You go faster when shifted into the higher gears but give up torque in the process. Now I'm just wondering when Daiwa will release an overly engineered enthusiast reel with gear shifting...

The Celilo 802UL might be right up your alley then. Not very expensive either. https://www.tacklehaven.com/okuma-celilo-specialty-rods-casting-kokanee-choose-your-model/ Or the SST-C-802UL https://www.tacklehaven.com/okuma-sst-casting-rods-choose-your-size-model/

That bait monkey chatter is why I recently ordered a pair of nicer JDM spinners. Have an OG Fuego 1000 and Fuego LT 2500, but they just can't compete with my higher-end finesse oriented casters in terms of feel, smoothness, build quality, etc. Now I need to find a 2nd rod to match my 2nd new spinning reel...

We code monkeys have to do our part to support our fellow cousin bait monkeys after all