Snakehead Whisperer

This is only a dim memory, but I seem to remember hearing that Nanofil is fickle with knots and that there is a "Nanofil knot" that is recommended by Berkley for that line. I have never used Nanofil, so I'm just repeating what I've heard before. As for drag setting, I usually set mine to approximately 1/3 of the breaking strength of the line. So if you're using 10lb test, set the drag around 3-3.5lbs. On my jigging rods I will set the drag at nearly maximum, but the drag is still approximately 1/3 the line strength (10 or 12lb drag on 30lb test braid.) Many will recommend the drag be set to only 1/4 the strength of the line. I set mine by feel, but using a scale is the only way to be sure of what your drag setting is. Adjusting the drag while a fish is on should be a last resort, and rarely leads to good results. Set it properly to begin with and let it do what it's supposed to.

TLDR part is too long, didn't read any of it btw, welcome to the site. But seriously, I am still having breakthroughs in fishing (for bass and other species.) Learning how to locate and catch fish in less than ideal conditions is the real blood and guts of angling, imho. The reason why some anglers are catching fish on days when nobody else can buy a bite is because they've paid their dues (time on the water, paying attention, learning from mistakes, studying, and getting skunked of course.) Making lemonade out of lemons is the essence of the sport, at least in my world.

I've seen a lot of guys go broke just fishing for the love of it, myself included.

One time I was fishing the area around the boat ramp after dark. I used my bow mount trolling motor to get back to the ramp because I was only a few hundred feet from it. Long story short, I forgot to pull up the trolling motor and proceeded to power load my boat onto the trailer. The crash was horrendous. Trolling motor was fine albeit a little bent, but the deck was a different story. This isn't the worst thing that's ever happened to me, but it's getting up there.

Really depends on the mood of the fish on any particular day. When they're in a positive mood, a couple casts to an area will usually solicit a strike. No strike, no fish there. When fish are in a neutral/negative mood they might not bite at all, or until you put a lure right on their nose. I've casted to areas literally hundreds of times to catch one fish lurking there. Might have been because the fish got ticked off, or might've been because I eventually cast within a millimeter of it's face...or maybe because of some totally different reason that it eventually struck. Only the fish knows for sure. Too many variables though. Sometimes it takes 10 casts or more to get a strike on a black and blue jig, but a green jig will get devoured the second it hits the water. This year I can't seem to buy a topwater bite most days, but a dead sticked soft plastic will elicit vicious strikes. Totally different pattern than last year in similar conditions. My opinion would be to make as many casts as it takes (or as many as you can stand.)

It takes a certain personality type to become a successful professional angler. Even if I had the chops to compete with KVD or whoever, there is no way that I could endure the lifestyle of garnering sponsorships and promoting myself the way that they do. There are many anglers who fish on a professional skill level who simply don't care to play the game or aren't outgoing enough to do it, many post here on BR. To each their own. Pretty much. I'm a professional in my line of work. I was a professional paint bucket stacker at one point in my life. x2. When I think of professional anglers, I think of anybody who makes a living from their fishing. A good analogy is that not all golf pros play on the PGA tour, many of them teach golf, etc (although most are PGA members.) Pilots are similar as they barely make enough to live off of working for regional airlines, but the experience they gain in flight time is the big payoff. Should I count instagram likes as my payment, and then in turn consider myself a pro angler? By this logic however, many of the pros who fish BASS/FLW tournaments are actually not professionals. Look at their career winnings which are posted on their bio pages, and many have been fishing for years and made a modest amount of money (some as low as a few thousand bucks over their entire careers.) This doesn't take away from their skills/knowledge. Even the losers in these tournaments are incredible anglers.

I've caught a 40'something lb. blue cat and a 16.5lb. snakehead on this rod in a 6'9" dropshotting, and the rod held up like it was nothing. It will handle a 10lb. walleye with ease. It could probably handle a big pike or muskie. I love these rods.

I can't possibly express how important it is to take a boat safety course and to wear your PFD and Kill Switch. I recently took an unintentional swim in cold water and the PFD saved my life. Invest in a good quality PFD that is comfortable, and that you will actually wear. As for fishing, the only advice that I have is to keep an open mind. There will be deep and shallow fish year round. There are exceptions to all of the rules. Use your time on the water to gain experience, and use your brain to put the pieces of the puzzle together. A detailed fishing log is a must. The one here is a good start. I keep mine on a spreadsheet, which makes it extremely easy to search, update, and recognize patterns.

Around here I catch decent bass in areas where longnose gar are present. Not sure where the OP lives or what type of gar inhabit the waters... but longnose/shortnose gar seem to coexist nicely with bass.

Ice Cube

Glad you were able to break it in. For what it's worth I often prefer XF action in a jigging rod, especially if fishing heavy cover.

Perhaps you don't have enough confidence in the new setup. An example is that when I am fishing baits that I'm confident will catch fish, I tend to slow down and work the baits more naturally. When I throw baits that I have little confidence in, I get frustrated after a while and my presentation becomes less natural. Whatever it is, I feel your pain. Getting a new setup and not catching a fish on it is rough. My current favorite crankbait rod made 5 fishing trips with me before it even had a fish swipe at a crank I threw. Now it's a tried and true part of the arsenal. Give the rod a chance, it might pleasantly surprise you. Can't speak for the rod, but PQ in 7.1:1 is a solid reel. I own 2 of them and they're workhorses.

You sure they're not walleye? I have a spot that I regularly fish for bottom hugging walleye in water that is 70-80' deep. It is all vertical jigging. Jigging spoons, jig and grub, and drop shot are the go to baits. While most of the fish that I catch there are walleye, I have caught LMB on the bottom in about 70 FOW there (as well as crappie and flathead catfish.) The bass were a blueish hue and their swim bladders were bulging through the gullet. There is no way to safely C&R a bass caught at those depths, so unless you're planning on eating these fish I'd leave them be (even then the fish caught may not meet size requirements, necessitating the release of a fish that has little to no chance of survival.) I eat the walleye and crappie that I catch here. The flatheads seem to be fine after the ascent from the depths, and are released. The bass I unfortunately fizzed and released, and I doubt that they made it far. In the future I will most likely harvest any bass caught incidentally at that depth, although it is extremely rare for me to catch them that deep.

I have encountered a few of these spots in the wild, and I will never tell a soul. Secret spots can be hidden in plain sight too, on bigger waters. A lot of spots aren't so much secret, as they are overlooked. A good friend of mine is a farmer in Virginia and has 2 ponds on his farm that are just like this one you describe. He doesn't fish except when I go down there. I'm pretty sure nobody fishes the ponds other than him and I when I go visit. First time we fished them together he said they hadn't been fished in over 10 years.

I'm glad they're taking care of it. Too bad they're not closer, but at least they're willing to fix it.

I agree with this pretty much. I do take gear ratio into consideration when purchasing a reel, but that's because I'm considering other performance questions besides speed. Different sized gears will yield completely different results compared to other reels of the same ratio, so for most intents and purposes the IPT rating seems to be a better gauge of rate of line retrieved. Unfortunately my assumption is that when one asks about gear ratio it is in reference to the speed of retrieve and not other factors. The original post in this thread mentioned speed and nothing else other than the type of baits that would potentially be thrown with the reel.

I read it as he crossed the negative terminal with the positive terminal of the same battery, thus shorting it. Just trying to cover every conceivable scenario. Apparently my reading comprehension isn't what it used to be.

Ok, that's correct. I have an active imagination, and I've seen some pretty crazy stuff in my life. MotorGuide makes a good trolling motor. My last one lasted me forever and had been abused since day one. I hope you can resurrect yours.

Yes, the automatic reset will protect your trolling motor. Although it would be preferable to have a manual reset. If things are functioning properly you should only have to switch a manual breaker on once per outing. Your warranty may be void if you don't have the specified breaker installed, however. The circuit breaker is important to have hooked up at all times as it prevents current overload to your trolling motor, which can fry it. Maybe I read this wrong, but did you literally cross the + and - wires between the terminals? This is not how you hook up batteries in series or in parallel. If so, you're lucky you didn't get shocked or start a fire. At best you've shorted the batteries. If this is what happened the circuit breaker would've protected the trolling motor, but not the batteries. Sorry, but the wording is ambiguous. Please disregard if this doesn't apply. Either way I am glad that nobody was hurt and hope you get it sorted out quickly.

When I saw the title of this thread I was a bit curious and picturing something more like this... Glad to hear BPS took care of you. They've always been good to me too.

Sorry to hear that. I learned that lesson more than once. The fuse/circuit breaker is there to prevent this from happening. Hope they can fix it without any cost to you. On a side note I bought my latest TM at a rather large well known fishing retailer (won't say who.) It was on sale and I got a great deal. I had been using fuses up until that point, but decided I'd like to get a circuit breaker this time around. I asked if they had the 50A and the clerk told me no, then proceeded to recommend that I get a higher rated circuit breaker (100A if I remember correctly.) I tried to explain to him how this is not sound advice for customers, but it was pointless. Needless to say they wanted $60 for them, so I would've passed either way. Got mine at a marina in Baltimore for $7. Works great and it's 50A. And for you MinnKota people... I've seen them burn out too.

I use a Maestro grinder at the house. As far as coffee makers it's pretty hard to beat a simple pour over dripper like a Beehouse. It's also hard to go wrong with an AeroPress. I would stay away from the Starbucks though.... not sure where you live but Ritual, Four Barrel, Verve, Intelligentsia and Stumptown all ship AFAIK. My old lady is a pretty serious in the coffee industry, so we're pretty much coffee snobs.

I really like the slo mo swim of the first fish.

I hear ya man. Won't be spilling the beans on my spots. With all of the tournaments and heavy fishing pressure out of Smallwood, there are still a ton of mostly unknown structure on the Potomac and undiscovered spots in Southern MD. I'm definitely trying to keep it that way. I just hope the bowhunters leave some snakeheads for me.

This is the truth. Gear ratio tells you little about how many inches of line the reel retrieves per turn. Gear ratio is a relative term, IPT is a precise measurement.