fishwizzard

I have a pair of Ci4+ reels and while I do like them a lot, other then weight they have little to recommend them over a Daiwa BG. In your case I would go with the Ci4+ unless you can find a good deal on the FK.

I keep hooks and plastics mixed in the same planos for a few years and have never found any rusting so long as I never put wet plastics or hooks back in. I also use z-rust tabs, cutting them in half and putting them on the compartments that the hooks are in. Come to think of it, I think the only hook rusting I have ever experienced has been with a worm hook I left stuck in a foam fly-holder in the pocket of my pack where I dump wet lures while on the water. I think it was there for most of the spring before I went to use it and found that the point had a light frosting of rust on it.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/VMC_Dominator_Shakey_Head_Jig_4pk/descpage-VMCDMSK.html I have some of these and I think they are like a 3/0 or 4/0 hook.

Last time I was in NOAL for work I asked one of the teamsters on the dock where to go to get some crawfish. He and one of his coworkers got into a pretty heated shouting match over what spot to recommend to us. We ended up trying both places and they were both great. So I can't speak to "refined", but in all matters of quality, I will trust a cajun any day.

This past year I gave away about 75% of my plastics. I kept around my favorites of each “category” of plastics in three-ish colors, a dark, a natural, and a bright. I still have too many plastics but it was a good start. My new “plan” is to start fishing different plastics head-to-head to see what one I want to stock. Like, right now its Roboworm 6” worms vs Zoom Swamp Crawlers. For the presentations I use them for they will both work so I just need to pick one over the other.

I use an Avid M/XF for jerkbaits, poopers, walkers, or really anything that I want to twitch or pop. The tip on the Avid is very soft however, combined with mono mainline I have a pretty good hit:landing ratio with treble hooked lures.

I get a cramp in my pinky some times when I have been fishing heavly. I find that taking advil before I go out helps a lot, as does switching over to a spinning rod for a while.

Oh, I think I have some of those as well, they look very similar to the owner bulletheafs but with an extremely fine wire hook, right? I don't think I ever fished them as the hooks been out under such little finger pressure that I didn't really know what to make of them. The Nailbombs have a hook far closer in thickness to the owner Ultrahead.

If you like those Owners, take a look at the Decoy NailBomb jig heads; I have settled on them at the best "weedless Ned" jig head that I can find and they are great for thin worms as well. I like the perpendicular line tie for fishing in current and with the soft zman plastics or with thin worms like Robos, the smaller hookgap isn't an issue and the more compact total package again helps with preventing snags.

Nice! I have been trying the same thing but on Owner cutting point hooks, which unfortunately have a wide enough point that I can't really get appropriately-sized shrinkwrap to slip on.

Oh man. I have tried Parasite clips before but they grab weeds/grass like crazy. Your idea is a great one and I bet is a far more weedless then a metal clip.

Just had this happen the other day. Bass grabbed my DS weight off the bottom, got it stuck in his gills, and I was able to land him. It popped free the second I was able to slack the line.

I have had a lot of good days this summer, but the bad ones have been miserable. Six hours without a bite, so soaked with sweat I look like I fell in, legs covered in cuts and ticks, just awful. It was so hot and humid the other day the sweat dripping off my elbow got the top of my shoe wet enough for me to notice it and look down. It's still better than the winter is though.

It's pink plastics for me. I spent a lot of the spring trying to make a pink fluke and Trickworm work, but I caught very little on either. I think next year I am going to try Merthiolate colored ones instead, maybe I need a different shade of pink to make them work.

Yea, I don't know why though, they are the best "pre-rigged t-tig" I have come across. They are my go-to for t-rigging Zoom Lizards, Robos, Rage Menaces, and small curly tail worms. I just used them tonight in fact, a 1/16oz Slider Spider with a Swamp Crawler on it, maybe the best "bass" presentation I have found for Light power spinning rods.

Has anyone tried a small drywall screw? They might be sharp enough to cut into the worm. The "stacked cone"-style pf generic tungsten nail weights are sharp enough to drive into eleztech, but a 1/16oz one is like $0.30, so it ups the cost of the rig a lot more then a $0.01 nail. But, if one can get enough bass off of a single rig, then it could be worth it to save the fuss of heating up a pin.

I know, I wear M gloves in most brands and the Alphas platform is comfortable on every rod I have put on one. All other reels are situationally comfortable at best. I just got my first TD-Z and it is pretty great as well. I feel like I am going to need to start hoarding older reels soon. In any case, my interest in the Curado DC, other then wanting to try the tech, is to use fishing a 68 Special this winter. I want a reel that I can set for max control when the wind kicks up so I can cast with a glove on my casting hand. I think the reel will hold enough 25lb Defier Armilo or other thinner mono to be useful in the smaller ponds around my house.

Well, I think the Alphas line is about the perfect size low-pro reel, so most every reel seems too big for me. I think it is more about overall shape for me though, so I really want to hold reels before buying at this point. I would love that, let me know!

There is this line if you want the same idea in finesse sizes;

Man I really want to try one of these things! I suspect it will be too big to be comfortable for me and I am reel-heavy at the moment, but I really want to play with one.

The M/F is going to work far far better then an UL/M. I have tried to fish a Ned on an UL a few times and I was missing a ton of hooksets. Even with the super small jig hooks I prefer, I was really struggling.

This is why I am not buying new reels without getting my mits on one first.

They are noisy for sure, but gritty makes it seem like they were defective? I have two pairs, one in a Pixy and the other in a Alphas FC and they really improved casting at the extreme lower ends of both reels.

Ok, so if I am reading this gadge correctly; then it looks like the upper Potomac is about back to normal? Anyone been up that way lately? I have most of next week off and I have yet to do any wading, thinking about heading up that way for a few days if the river is reasonable.

Good luck! I work at the fringes of the marketing industry and it is a meatgrinder.