fishwizzard

I was thinking of a pair of Loomis MagLight/XF spinning rods that I have. They both have pretty stiff tips and bend quite far into the blanks. In this case, it works out as it lets me both get a solid hookset on t-rigged plastics and keep even a smaller fish well pinned. But the action is nothing like the other XF rods that I have.

I kinda wish the general term "XF" would get split into two different categories. I have an XF rod that has a noodle tip that shuts off very fast and others where the tip is far stiffer and the transition between tip and backbone is less pronounced.

I usually get out about 2-4 times a week, depending on my work. I travel a lot for it so there are 2-3 week runs where I never even see water, but then an equal amount of time when I'm not working and can go every day. My main issue is believing the weather reports, it was supposed to rain today so I scheduled a few phone meeting for this morning. So of course is overcast and cool with no sign of rain. 2 more meetings and I can hit the pond!

I am about the same way. I have an a pair of L/XF rods for dropshoting and small jigs and another M/XF for poppers/walkers/jerkbaits, everything else is either an MBR taper or close too it. I like an XF rod for finesse plastics to actually work the lure and set the hook, but casting them is far far more pleasant on a slower rod.

I was! That had also not occurred to me. I believe on that cast I landed it in the water, but casting along the wall like that does result a some collisions that could have weakened the line.

That is what I feel must have happened, but this is a super super suburban pond and while there is a good bit of litter, it is not really the shot-up can kind of spot. I fish this place so often that I feel insulted that there is something on the bottom I don't know about. ? I had just re-tied maybe 20 casts before the break off due to a bobber-stop failure and I am sure I ran my fingers up the first three or so feet of line, I habit I made myself get into last season. It was at Allen Pond, so unless you know something I don't, I dont think there are any picks in there. I agree that it does look like a pick bite. But, this might be the answer; As this picture reminded me, there is an ancient evil that lurks in this pond; His name is Bitey and here is is pictured destroying my huddgill. It really didn't occur to me until I saw that pic of Jason that it could have been a snapper bite-off. I have never had one without a heartbreakingly hard pull first, but this pond is full of turtles and I kinda think that old Bitey just had another $3 added to his tab.

I had a very odd experience this evening. I was fishing a pond by my house, a spot I hit 2-3 times a week. I was making my way to the car to head home and was making long-ish casts along the bank, which is a stone retaining wall with maybe 3-4' of riprap before the muck bottom of the pond starts. I was throwing a t-rigged craw on 12lb Invizx. I made a cast and was letting the lure sit on the bottom on semi-slack line for a moment. I believe I saw the line start to move, though the setting sun was in my eyes a little and the lure was a good 30y away. I went to lift the slack out and reel down and found there was nothing on the end of my line. When I got it in it looked like this; The line felt like it was almost melted, with a burr on the cut end with a long wisp of line attached. I have never had line break like this before, even when I have had to pull it until it breaks. I maybe felt a tiny bit of pressure before the line went dead, but it was a good distance away and I was not totally in the zone. The only fish in this pond (that I have ever seen caught that is) are LMBs, assorted sunfish, channel cats, a few crappie, and stocked rainbows. I fish this place all the time and usually end each session making these exact same long casts along the bank. I am reasonably sure that there isn't any sharp cover on the bottom along this stretch, but I suppose there could be something new, but the water is too stained to see more than a foot and I was casting into maybe 3-4' of water. I am pretty sure there are no pickerel in this pond, but I supposed there could be? It was very very strange and it's driving me crazy trying to figure out what happened.

I have bought a ton of stuff from Sierra Trading Post, they sell new-old stock gear and have been around for a while. They get great reviews on most hiking/camping forums.

If Armilo came in smaller diameters and in bulk spools I would use little else. Their 11lb is almost thin enough to work well on small spinning reels, a 7lb version would be amazing.

My best encounter like this happened at a park I fish at a lot. It’s got a decent pond and an enormous playground, so it’s full of kids all the time. I was fishing the bank between the parking lot and the playground when a group of about fifteen kids all around 4-5 walk by with their daycare providers. One of the kids shouts “When are you going to catch a fish?” I reply “Soon I hope!” and then a split second later I get a hit. It was a nice 3lb class LMB. It was a super active bass, jumping and running. The kids all went insane. The daycare workers tried to control them, but three adults vs fifteen exicted kids is no contest. The kids swarm me and it’s all I can do to land and unhook it while keeping them from stepping on my combo. Once I got it unhooked and all the kids who want to got to touch it, I release it and start to get my gear sorted out when one of the kids runs back over to me and says that I had caugh “a very important fish” and that he “was very proud of me” and then sticks his litte hand out for me to shake. So I shook his hand and when back to fishing.

I try to couple inexpensive ones off of Amazon and they were all kind of terrible. I ended up picking up a Daiwa BBB and it's well worth the money. Once it's fully set up it feels rock solid. It does have an extremely short handle and the action is on the Mod side of ModFast.

I have caught some nice bass by letting the gills peck at my Ned as I slowly work it back in. I assume the commotion the gills make is enough to get the bass interested in my lure. When fishing clear stream I can see it happen, a few tiny gills chasing and pecking at it and then BAM, out of nowhere a smallie will rocket out and grab it.

The t-rig swimbait let me down today big time, spent about three hours throwing it and couldn't buy a bite until tried pitching it in the holes, but I couldn't hook up with anything. I'm heading back tomorrow to see if a weightless worm or a craw will turn them on.

I have all three and have not noticed a real difference in sink rate across them. I will say the solid colors are in general noticeably heavier then the more clear ones.

I have an FMJ and a GLX 783 and honeslty if the Daemos was ligher in power I would sell the GLX and buy it. Don’t get me wrong, the GLX is a great rod but that FMJ is amazing.

Turntable? A true enthusiast prefers wax cylinders.

I fish a ton of pickerel waters and I enjoy the little bit if “danger” they bring to an otherwise chill day of bass fishing. I have a very good Pickerel Protocol in place, so landing and unhooking them is pretty painless, especially from my yak. They do destroy lures, but right now turtles far far out-class pickerel in the dollar value of lures ruined/lost. Hell, just yesterday I watched a little baby painted turtle swim up to a sinking wacky senko and nip it in half, just to swim away after. In one pond I fish the pond-king snapper’s damage tab is up to like $50, thats just one turtle in one pond.

I will postulate that picking a single combo is less stressful then picking three or four combos. Also most of my rods are pretty versatile tapers so picking just one is mosly a function of the cover I think I will be fishing the most on a given day.

I listen to old radio dramas and this was a plot point in one of them, so the industry has been like that for a while.

I stick a wine cork over the hook point and just toss them into the front pocket of my fishing sling. Same thing with jigs.

My main issue with most fishing youtubers is a huge lack of editing skill. A shanky chest-cam is bad enough, but the first time I see a black screen when you bend over, I am clicking through to the next video. I do think most people are getting better about the audio side, or maybe good mics are getting cheaper.

I once, seeing what I though was a lube-port on my first baitcastet, filled it up with grease as I was going to use it in brackish water the following day. It worked about as well as you would expect.

Our old wooden picnic table has some mushrooms starting to grow out of it. I was going to drag it out into the “sun” to try and let it dry but honeslty they are kinda pretty.

I get “tricked” by carp every time I see or hear one. It always takes me a moment to remeber and to calm down.

Hah, yea, I was far too chicken to do it myself so I sent a few spools that needed work off to TT. Very reaspnable pricing and fast turnaround.