FryDog62

Been there…

Funny thing, I went out early this morning and on my third cast hooked another rod on my backswing. Totally spooled the new braid I just put on… hadn’t had a birds nest like that in years..!

I have 8 vertical rod holders on my BlackPak Pro. It took me the first season to get used to casting around them at certain angles, but now I don’t even think about it. I had a bass boat up until a year ago. A couple years before that, I made the conscious decision to always hook my lures to the keeper on the rod when not in use and lay them on my front deck. Before that, If I was in a hurry I would just let lures dangle. More often than not, they would get tangled and weren’t ready when I needed to switch rods out quickly and grab one for a cast. I decided it was worth the extra 5-10 seconds each time to do it right. That transferred over to my kayak 3 years ago as well. Can it be a pain sometimes to hook everything to the keeper sure, but better than the complete PIA of having 2-3 rods in a tangled mess and 5 minutes to pull them all apart.

Nice hardware - be sure to double up on good leader material to ward off the toothy Scud Rockets!

Have had great luck with this spinnerbait - and no need for a trailer…

Interesting how many people like Black… a hard color to find out there, but sounds like it works!

Up North, down South, lakes, rivers, clear, dirty - it always works… Pearl Blue

I say you do it, let those of us that can't go live through you vicariously. Sounds like you learned a lot on your last tournament and can apply a lot of that to this one. Yes, I've heard Caddo is beautiful. Good luck if you go ~

Yeah, I was driving from Minneapolis to SW Florida and just swung through Atlanta to pick up that trailer. I think I saved a couple hundred bucks instead of them mailing it to me, and they did the entire assembly - I said sign me up for that!

I considered the Malone for my Autopilot, but because of the 65 mph rating I went with the Right-On Ruff Trailer which is rated to interstate speeds 70+ mph. No regrets…

Yes in the mornings and towards evening. Helps to key in on shades lines that come out into the water... great ambush spots.

There’s a lot of colors I use for smallies. But as I’ve moved around the country, I think the color(s) that work best for me for all 3 species are the Purple/Blues with a chartreuse underbelly. Seems to work in most waters - even Hybrids like it too 👍

I did a bunch of fact finding on reels for my jerk bait set up a couple years ago. First, I wanted something that could cast light, high profile lures like a jerk bait or buzzbait a long ways without having to over-throw it. Second, was an 8.1 plus gear ratio to pick up line quickly between jerks. The reels I tested were a Tatula SV TW, Tatula Elite, Shimano Chronarch, Metanium and Aldebaran. They all cast well except the Tatula SV TW (poor distance) and the best was the Tatula Elite. The Elite got easily 30% more distance than the SV TW, and 10-15% farther than the Shimano reels.

Nice job taking your time… curious what line you were using? Didn’t sound like braid, but it held up. And I have to ask - who fishes on purpose for gar? lol …

Will do, my expectations are pretty high for this particular rod so we’ll see. The GLX was just redesigned and it’s currently backordered which adds to the anticipation. It’s touted to be very versatile so I want to give it a pretty thorough workout with two or three different techniques and then maybe I’ll post back here with a review.

The Pooper Scooper !!

I converted from Diet Coke to Zevia soda about 10 years ago. Didn’t lose any weight, but got away from an artificial sweetener in Nutrasweet.

Yes, it can be hard to tell by feel - but I have done this in a swimming pool often enough to see the separation. If you want more separation, go up in weight.

These look great - size, price and pencil weights don’t “grab” the weeds like bell sinkers do 👍

Previously, I always did my own research in preparation for a day on the water. But I've relocated and have gone from a bass boat to an electric kayak with top end speed of 4 mph. There's some big bodies of water here and I need to get smart before venturing out since I need to be highly efficient in a small, slow vessel. Can anyone recommend some good fishing apps to help me do my homework? Weather, wind, current, etc are good, but I know some apps make recommendations for locations, depths, lures by time of year/temp. I just need a good starting point and can take it from there... Some apps are free, some charge a monthly fee - I'm open. What's a couple really good ones to look into? TIA

Yes, the rod is backordered, but should be here in a week or two… the Loomis rep sold me on the versatility of the MBR rods - football jigs, spinnerbaits and yes - even the dreaded turds 💩

I agree on these - a slightly leaner, lighter version (.4 oz) of the scat lure. It has a little slower sink rate than the others listed above and I like throwing them on weed edges or flats in 4-7 fow. A little more wobble/wiggle than their chunkier counterparts. They are also about 1/2 the price of the JDM turds which doesn’t hurt 👍

The Fish Arrow Heavy Poop is a good one at 5/8 oz. The Deps Cover Scat is another at 7/16 oz. And they are dead weight lures, a unique chunk to match to rod power.

You’re right - it shows the variance in weight ratings between rod manufacturers - where Dobyns says a 5 power and Loomis says 3, and the rest of the industry it’s a 4.

I tried it on an Xtasy 723c and it wasn’t powerful enough. Sent an email to Gary and he said at least a 4 power, and he personally would use a 5 power.