fishwizzard

Maybe 3-4" paddle tail, with a pegged weight to act as a nose-cone to let it come through the weeds cleanly?

I also have a full beard and I wear a fishing hoodie with a very deep hood stretched over the brim of a ball cap. Between that and the beard, my face never even really tans. On very bright days or when I am in my yak I button up the neck and add a buff as well, but only pull it up to my chin. The beard filling the buff out like a goiter looks as amazing as it sounds. ?

I have been fishing a lot of mornings as the rain seems to be less intense then. I have been doing pretty well with loud topwaters fished pretty shallow. I did ok on a wacky senko this evening, cast around inflows. The ponds I have been hitting are full of grass but the muddy water seems to keep me from finding a bit in the grass, but working around the edges with jigs and plastics seems to be producing a bit. But a Rat in the shallows has been by far my best producer over the last week or so.

They are such great reels. If you find the braking too strong, getting the inductor spring swapped is a very cheap and worthwhile upgrade.

I will say that the "flat baitfish-imitator plastic rigged sideways" is a great presentation, I do that with the Shellcrackers sometimes and they skip like a stone and have a really erratic flutter to the bottom.

I have looked at them a few times but the though of “shooting” a 2/0 hook into my hand has kept me from buying them. I do fish a lot of the very similar shaped SK Shellcrackers and they are skipping monsters, so I think the theory is sound.

I will clean up lead weights with a steel punch/pin, but moslty just for my piece of mind.

Sure, but I am not really concerned about what MD DNR “wants”. LMB are/were an “invasive” species, same as the wild horses on Assateague. Give the snakeheads a few more decades, they will be thought of just like bass are now.

The pain of getting into jdm tackle late in the game is missing out on so many cool rods. But, being able to pick up a Pixy for under $200 is a nice consolation prize. OP, if 3oz isn’t a firm upper limit, then look at the MB Hyuga 72H. It’s also oop, but they are still around. Imho they max out around 2.5oz, but it’s been a great rod for me so far with everything I have fished on it.

The problem with out of production MB stuff is sourcing them for a reasonable (for MB at least) price. I am a little regretful that I didn't jump on a SRD when they were still in-stock at US retailers.

3/16 and up, flipping weights as they are a bit wider at the base, below that I use worm weights.

Yea, but it seems like the Ochos go on sale far more often!

I am a huge fan of the Large CPS pins. The Medium ones are good but in any plastic the Large will fit it, it will hold like crazy, I don't think I have had one rip out yet.

The 40 is pretty great. I still like the big one but the 40 is so versatile.

Yea, 4oz is way too generous. I feel like at 2.5oz the Rat 50 is about the rod’s limit. It will lob it a mile and has plenty of power to work it back or even burn it back like a foot down, but for short range pitching and casting, the rod feels a bit too light to make soft landings easy. I wish there was like a Rat 45 at like 2oz or someting. At ~1.5oz, an S-Waver 168s is a perfect fit, casts amazingly well and the rod’s taper keeps them pinned with almost no effort.

Very nice! I am really digging my Hyuga, it's good for such a range of presentations. I mostly bought it for small/medium swimbaits, but it has worked out great for heavy topwaters and frogging. I

I stick with 1/4oz swimjigs as I find them to move through most cover far better then heavier ones do. If I want to keep a paddletail deep I tend to go for a weighted swimbait hook so I keep it slow without worrying about snagging.

It’s more like getting up out of a chair after a few beers, depending on wind and current

I mosty stick to Greens and Blue/Black/Purple colors for plastics and do well enough. I do fish white/bright colors at Cash some times due to how stained the water is there.

Look up the Owner Ultra Head and the Decoy Nailbomb heads. Both work well with zman plastics but both give worse hook up ratios as compaired to a #2 open hooked head. They are the best weedless-Ned solutions that I have found. I know someone one here uses Slider Heads for this application as well.

Yea, I am super bad about writing down what line I have on what reel, so I do the float/sink test a few times a year. Floro clearly sinks and most monos do a slow float off the bottom.

Sitting on the bottom, no. In the stomach of a waterfowl, yes.

Yea, it’s a tough call to make, fighing a bass is easier when standing, but I want to get seated before I bring the fish too close. I use grippers that are teathered to my yak and get them on the bass as soon as I get it’s head up at boat side.

For the Ned specifically, I do 8lb braid to 8-12lb floro, with the leader being maybe a foot shorter then my rod. I like a heavier floro leader to help in keeping the lure down in the water column and for a bit of pickerel protection.

That is what I do now, but the moment where I go from squatting to landing my butt in the seat is still a bit hit or miss.