Tim Kelly

I was supposed to be going out to sea in a boat today, but the weather foiled that plan. Instead we took my boat on the river. It's been tough this year generally, but today capped it all. Almost impossible to get more than a tap off the fish. By the end of the day the dog gave me this look. I feel like I've let her down.

I have both. I've never particularly liked Shimanos previously, but an quite enjoying the Stradic. It's different to the Daiwas that I usually use. The Daiwas seem free and effortless, where the Shimano feels tighter, but maybe more precise? Just a perception thing really, they're both good. On balance I think I still prefer my daiwas free feel for finesse, the stradic would feel nice for some more power spinning techniques, but really, it doesn't matter. Definitely splitting hairs.

Ours are doing pretty well after a slow start. We always get nervous st this time of year as blight will strike at some point, but if you keep a close eye on them, trim most of the leaves off and harvest them at the first sign of blight it gives them as long as possible to ripen naturally. Any unripe ones when we finally pick them go in paper bags with bananas or ripe tomatoes.

Close to a proper fish. ? Spend most of my time trying to avoid them, after years chasing them. Fickle or what? ?

Close, but no cigar!

I've never been able to make the moon correlate with my catches, but it seems to be a widely enough professed theory that it would be daft to ignore it if you have the pick of times for a trip. I'm almost as excited as you about the prospect of your fishing trip. I missed three this year due to the pox, so am happy to live vicariously!

Full moon again?

Shhh, it's a penguin. ? One of their last trips to the beach together.

Terrier impersonating a penguin....

The first time I fished a rod with torzites I was blown away. They are insanely expensive though, so I would find other ways of making the guide train lighter if I were building a rod. I don't think there's much difference between alconites, SIC etc though in practice. Microguides, as small as fits your situation, are a great way of reducing the weight on the tip section of a rod.

41 days and a wake up AJ!

I have a 20 suzuki on my 12ft John boat that's fitted out like a mini bass boat, so it's fairly heavy. I have my motor on the transom and run it with the cavitation plate pretty much level with the bottom of the boat. Your jack plate it taking the weight further back, which is probably not helping. I would try putting some weight in the front of the boat to see whether it will get over the hump with better balance. I use a 10p prop, a 9p is slightly quicker on plane, but hits the rev limiter. I have recently re-fitted a whale tail thing to the motor as it helps lift the stern.

Their CS has a pretty good reputation, so I would guess you've been unlucky.

I think Tom Monsoor had similar trouble at the weekend, he could barely get his fish out of the bag and dropped one of them.

AJ's trip is essential for my sanity, especially this year. You can tell them at the border.

The zander seem to have upset the balance over the last few years and the bass and pike fishing have suffered. The zander numbers seem to be settling down now and the bleak shoals are returning, so hopefully the bass fishing will improve again.

Hi Beboson. I'm from England and have been to Spain many times to fish Cijara for largemouth. Missed out on my May trip this year of course. Do you fish there?

Take the braid off and put a few yards of mono on the spool before re-loading the braid. Braid is slippery and it slips on the spool without a little backing.

Sounds a bit high, compared to other people's set ups, but hard to imagine it's causing your issues. It might be worth calling Lund and asking what prop they recommend with the 200 Vrod. I'm sure they will have tested it thoroughly and will have a suggestion. It might just be that the bravo isn't the best with that set up.

Good luck. Hope that resolves it for you.

Absolutely love these nogales suwacky hooks, size 4 or 3. They are just evil. If you hook the fish, you will land it, then have a battle getting the hook out of it! Baits, Reins bubbling shaker 4" in scuppernong or a Keitech easy shaker. I use a 3/16 weight more often than anything, usually pencil shaped. https://www.varivas.co.jp/en/Product/searchgroup/name:Nogales+Suwacky/type:/view3:2/id:3108

Deep into double figures. tick tock

Is your motor fully tucked in in that photo? It looks like it's trimmed out a bit. If the motor isn't tucking in fully you might well have the problems you describe.

In the video it almost looked like it was reading the thermocline as the bottom. If you've reset to factory defaults and it's doing it it pretty much has to be the transducer angle, the sounder doesn't care what the depth is, it either works or doesn't. Does it do the same thing when the motor isn't running?