Chris at Tech

There’s a few good YouTube channels for lawn care. Find the one closest to you and watch a few vids.

I've got a few Champions, and one Extreme in my arsenal. I find them to be extremely comfortable to fish, and I use them primarily for moving baits. At this pricepoint, I think you can find rods with better sensitivity, but they're certainly not bad in this department. Customer service in my experience is excellent!

Just got back from another Spring Break on Hilton Head Island. The bass fishing was slower than I would have liked but thankfully the redfish were hungry! My all-star guide Captain Brian Vaughn delivered yet again and put my wife and I on some feisty redfish. It took a little while to figure them out, as they just were not responding to artificial lures, but nothing can resist a nice live shrimp! After a day with my guide, I set out on my own to a brackish lagoon which I had not yet had success on but that changed. I landed a nice slot red and a small trout to start off. A few min later, my rod bent in half and the fight was on. I wrestled this monster red to my feet and then stupidity took over. I had my head on a swivel watching for gators, and in my infinite wisdom decided to pull him up the small embankment by the 15-lb leader instead of grabbing him properly. Brilliant! I managed to get a short video of the monster paddling around in the tailwaters, and if you look closely you can see my white fluke sticking out of his mouth. I know for a fact that I fought and won against this beast, but without the good fish pic it still feels like a loss. Oh well, lesson DEFINITELY learned!

I figured the “grunge” name came about when @Glenn showed up for shows after not showering for a few days.

Don't listen to @Dwight Hottle. He doesn't know a darn thing about jerkbaits. ?

Hammondsfishing.com has both the 6” cherryseed and the 5” June bug lizards available via their website

Not needed for iPhones. Apple generally prevents viruses via the way they manage their App Store

Short-term pain for long-term gain.

*** Fishing

I almost gave up on using Sniper due to similar mystery breakoffs. Once I started using the San Diego Jam knot (and stopped using the palomar), my breakoff issue disappeared entirely.

Hmmm...interesting... I was browsing around Mudhole to see what they had along the lines of your feedback and came across this. https://www.mudhole.com/G2-Carbon-Handle-3.35-Butt-Grip-for-Split-Grip-Handle-Set What I'm thinking is that I ream this to the depth I need to restore the total rod length I'm looking for. I'm not a rod builder but I always assumed such pieces "should" be reamed so that the blank slides deep into the butt grip. But if I ream this new butt grip shallower than normal, what would that mean for the structural integrity of that butt grip?

So I've got this rod which I've come to love for jerkbaits, poppers, DT-6's and balsa cranks. Perfect tip, action and length for me. Of course what happens is that somehow there was a clean break towards the bottom of the butt of the rod (I have some questions about how the heck such a break occurred, and why/how it was so clean a break, but I'm not gonna go down that rabbit hole now). I was able to remove the short broken section, epoxy a new buttcap in place and continue using the rod but the missing 1.5 - 2" is really making a perceptible difference. Right now, the handle is simply too short -- it's like halfway between a pistol grip and a traditional handle. Any suggestions on how I can add that 1.5-2" of length back without breaking the bank?

Search this section for old posts I made about my trips to Panama City Beach. I give some location and bait advice in them.

Hey @Topwaterspook -- good as can be down here! I haven't gotten on the water as much as I'd like either! I haven't been back down south either -- the wife keeps finding new "projects" for us to spend on but I will get back by whatever means necessary. Ha! I'll keep you in mind when the wheels get put in motion. Regarding the guide -- I have fished with him myself. I've not had my kids out with him, but my close friend books with him every year and raves about how well he does with the kids. He suggests you ask the guide to take the larger bay boat though, as that's got more room over the skiff.

We keep 1792 and Four Roses small batch on hand. Along with a few others ?

Give yourself a treat and fish the salt

That must have been miserable ?

Howdy Stitch! http://www.shorethangcharters.com

Braid and diameter are important in this instance. Some brands/versions are just more manageable than others. For example -- Invisx 8 lb will play nice on a spinning reel, but I've never had success taming 8 lb Berkley Trilene 100% on that same spinning rod. In the same lb test, the Berkley is thicker, and also not as supple.

@A-Jay - what color did it used to be? Chrome sexy shad?

I do REALLY like the KLX and Heliums I’ve picked up over the last few years, but the new prices are a bit tough to swallow. Good thing Kistler runs sales frequently.

T-handle for me please.

Yeah, that's a nice bonus to have stuff of that quality down there without the need to lug it yourself!

Hey @A-Jay -- seems Kistler is making travel rods now. Maybe that's another option you can try to break fish down south. Ha!

What kind of baits or lures are you fishing? Upon retrieve, some lures keep a rather constant tension on the line, and generally that results in the line spooling well back in the reel. A Spinnerbait is a good example. On the other hand, some techniques like spooks and weightless jerkbaits are generally fished with some slack in the line. That results in your line being quite loose when it returns to the reel spool, and could result in the type of line mgmt issue you’re experiencing. Try this. Every little while, make a long cast and retrieve it with the sole purpose of tightly packing the line back on the spool. Pinch the line between your fingers so you’re retrieving under tension. I also suggest you learn to spool yourself. Plenty of vids on that subject and it’s not at all hard. As some mentioned above, the shop spooling job is as good as the person running the machine. I once had a guy spool the line on in the wrong direction!