fishwizzard

The Hudd Gills get the most hits but have the worst hookup:landing ratio for me. It's very very demoralizing. I think I was both not setting the hook hard enough and not getting them in fast enough, both things I am going to work on. Snapping turtles also love them so it's an expensive lure to fish in a lot of the ponds that I like. But man, they by far got me the most hits of any "big bait" I threw last year. I think the S-Waver was the over all best in terms of both number of hits and hit/landing ratio.

Hot chocolate powder mixed into coffee with a little brandy splashed in?

Im in the same boat, I throw those three lures plus assorted soft Bluegill swimbaits in smaller ponds and do quite well on them. I almost never see anyone fishing them around here.

Me too, but now I just keep my entire hand in front of the reel stem. It's very comfortable, but only on rods who's reel seat is designed with that kind of grip in mind.

I have a Megabass Hyugra 72H that I use for toads, 6" glidebaits, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits, and ploppers. It's a XH/R rod and I use 40lb braid with it. The tip isn't great for walking a frog, but I use it for them pretty often and the slower taper really keeps them on the hook. Never fished a buzzbait on it but it does well other single hook moving baits.

It amazes me how poor of a job Daiwa has done getting the message out about this. Like they have gone so far as to promote "Making it harder to mess with the spool tension" as a high-end feature just to keep people from messing with it, but I don't think any of the Magforce Z or SV reels I have bought NIB have come with any instructions about how to set them an a head's up that their brake system is different then most other out there.

We heat our house with a woodstove and the "paper basket" seems to have more and more Japanese news papers it it every year.

Wow, 1 week is very reasonable. I am self-employed and the last minute work I get tends to be the most lucrative so I hate making plans too far out to only then have to cancel. I think I might give it a go this year, assuming I am in town on Jan 2. Thanks for the info.

It took me a bit to find them, they were filed under "Hard Baits, Finesse" rather then "Jigs, Finesse". I really got to clean the tackle hoard up. They weigh .102oz, so I assume they were built on 1/16oz heads. I think I prefer them on 1/8oz heads to get a bit more casting ease and so they move slower in current. In any case I would love to buy a few more as it will be a while before I get my stuff in order to try my hand at them. It seems like our year of weekly rain is almost over and I think one of my wading spots might be low enough to fish in a week or two.

Hah, that is a great score. Would love to know how it got in that Zillion SV box.

I am almost positive I asked this last year but here I go again: How are co-anglers assigned to boaters and how far before each event is everything locked down?

Thanks for the info @Paul Roberts! I have a small pile of assorted material from the perch jig project, I will look through it in a bit and see what I have. Unfortunately, the whip finish has been a stumbling block for me, I cannot do it either by hand or with the tool. It’s absolutely infuriating as I’m generally very good with knots and even worked as a rigger for a while. There is something I am not getting about it dispite watching a hundred videos over the last year or three. It’s been a few months since I last gave it ago, I will have to give it another go this weekend. Any week now I’m about to embark on the winter “clean and re-organize” project in my little man cave a lot and I’m actually going to take the time to make a little tying area instead of just trying to work with the vice clamped to whatever open corner of my bench I can find. I am about at the point where I cannot reasonably claim to “need” to buy anymore tackle, so the only logical thing to do is start making my own.

The TT crew mics line when they do reviews of them any mostly lines are about as advertised. Also the nano poppers are getting thrown on 8lb Braid in order to provide immediate negative reinforcement if I ever decide to try to lift a bass by the line again.

It looks like Andre Tournament Mono is .30mm at a 10lb rating. So it looks like the JDM lines are closer to actual raw strength.

A roadrunner with a little grub on it is a fun lure to cast and retrieve with. The hooks on the small ones are soft enough that with like 8lb line you can bend them out of snags and keep on fishing them.

Anyone here willing to give up a bank spot near Shepherdstown, WV? I am heading up there weekend after next with my wife and some friends and I should have some time to sneak in a little fishing. I suspect the Potomac will be too high to wade, so that rules out driving down to Harper's Ferry. My current plan is to drive across the bridge, park at Lock 38 and start walking north until I find a good spot.

Forget affording a boat, I can't find an affordable indoor place to even store one! Actual storage unites are like $250 a month for one big enough for a boat and despite living in horse country, it seems like no one has a structurally sound barn sitting empty. I could afford a little jon boat and my wife is a welding wiz, so we could add a deck and all the trimmings with ease, but it has proved impossible to find a spot to park the darn thing. I know in my heart I am not the kind of guy who could keep up with storing one outside.

I kinda like the ROF5 for 8-10', it forces me to reel it super super slow to keep it on the bottom and I need any help I can get in that department.

Making them might be the kick in the butt I need to start tying. I have a vice and some supplies, but other then a few awful looking perch jigs, I have never really sat down and played with it. I love those little hairjigs, but I loose them constantly, which is a good motivation to tie them. Thank's for the parts list, I will look around for some hackle butts, I think I can just borrow a few strands from my jigs for the legs.

What are some examples of these lines? I would love to have a baseline for thickness/strength.

I was under the impression that JDM lines are sold by the raw strength while USDM lines are sold by "average knotted strength" or something like that. This is Trilene XT: This is Sunline Supernatural Mono: So unless Sunline can somehow make mono that is approaching twice as strong per diameter, there must be different naming/labeling standards at work.

That Sunline is likely rated for raw stregnth rather then knotted strength, the diameter is the same as 12lb Trilene XT, which suggests it’s about the same actual stregnth.

$125 will get you a very good condition Daiwa sv105 off of ebay. If you are gonna do light line then you might as well go all in.

I thînk Green Top by Richmond carries high end St Croix and/or Loomis Rods, it might be worth calling them to see what they have in stock.

The rest of the haul; I use beefy paddle tails a lot in place of toads to cover water in pad fields. I was using Skinny Dippers but they don't stay weedless for long. I love the Gambler Big EZ so I though I would try the smaller ones. The Sniper is part of my quest to find a heavier floro for jigs. The Armilo is for swimbaits. Next season I am going to devote myself to the senko until I get more comfortable with them. I use them and they work, but it's always a fallback presentation. The Fat Aces are for shallow pads, like the Slug-gos. Reloading on some trailers and giving the Netbait trickworms a try. I use the OG ones all the time and the Netbaits seem to be the most beloved copy. The gloves are another try to see if I can improve comfort a little. They have a wrist pocket for handwarmers and seem like they will be great. After much fretting I finally picked up a proper swimbait rod. I fell like I went too light, it does not feel much more powerful then the one I already have. I spent about 2 hours with that big Millionaire on it and then switched it out to a much smaller Ringa SSS. I want to use it for 68 Specials and big rats, so we shall see.