fishwizzard

Kayak trolling around here is a shallow water (5-20’) and short line affair, most guys use 2500-3000 spinning reels loaded with 20-30lb braid. I was thinking of going like 12lb YZH so it’s a little easier to break off when I snag a crab pot or whatever. I guess I also had the idea that I would use the same combos for casting and jigging when I got sick of pedding back-and-forth, which was why I was looking at the SV reels.

Hi, I’m looking for a pair of reels to use for trolling for striped bass out of my yak. They are going to go on a pair of Fenwick Smallmouth Elite MH/F rods. Almost all of my other rods are Daiwas and I want to stick with that brand and the Tat SV seems like a good contender for this application. I’ll be doing my fishing and brackish tidal rivers and from what I can tell the Tat is salt water safe. It also holds enough line for my uses and it looks like I can get a pair of them for like $300 off of ebay. Am I missing something that would make them not work as well as I think they will?

Cool. I think I am close to sorting out my reel/spool matchups. I have a 6.x:1 sv103 on a MB Hyuga 72H (swimbaits, frogs, mag topwater) that will get two sv103 stock spools, one with 55lb braid and one with 25lb Defier Mono. Next is a Ringa SSS on a XX Tour Versatile (single hook moving baits) that will get a pair of Zillion SV spools, one with like 40lb briad and one with 17lb floro, depending on water clarity and cover. That leaves the 7.9 sv103 on a FMJ ( jigs/t-rigs) and a Steez sv tw on a mbr783c (everything in it’s range). One will get the 1012sv and one will get the stock sv tw spool, I just need to test them both in both reels. In non-dawia news, I picked up this combo for poppers/light topwater. It’s a Adle50 on a Avid 6’2” M/XF. I am still warming up to the reel but that rod is quickly becoming a favotate. It’s great for everything I’ve tried for so far and it’s becoming one of my favorite bushwhacking sticks.

Cool, thanks for the info. It sounds like the ZPI PG might be a too fast for me. I actually have a second RCS 1012 sv that is still NIB that I was keeping that way with thoughts of selling it to fund a ZPI spool, but I like my other one so much that I think I might just keep it and stick it in the SV TW. Have you tried the stock SV TW spool in a sv103 yet? That is where my 1012 sv is living now. Speaking of the sv103, my 7.9:1 model has a new home... Picked up an FMJ the other day and did a little yard casting with it today. It, with the sv103/1012 sv, is a pitching machine and will cast a 1/2oz jig further then I would ever need. I cannot wait to get it out on the water. The other rod is a XXX Black Themis with an Alphas FC on it. The jury is still out on it, I need to wait until I can fish it with warm hands to see if it is sensitive enough to replace my current dropshot rod, a XX DS spinning rod. I also have not found the sweet spot with the reel to let me cast and pitch tiny plastics without fussing with the brakes. I have found it with other rods, but the tip on the Black Themis is really fast and I have yet to work it out. I really like the Alphas FC and think I want to send it out for a tune and upgrade as I think it's a "forever" reel for me.

So just today I was playing with new rod in the yard when I noticed the barn cat was stalking my jig as I was dragging it along the driveway. Not wanting to hook her, I whipped the jig back in and hit myself right in the wedding tackle. That cat better catch a lot of mice this year.....

Thanks! I use a triline knot for most everything, I will have to see if I can even tie a palomar around such a large and snaggy lure.

Do you know the actual breaking strength of 25lb Defier? I want to fish a BBZ Rat around edges pads but lost one on 15lb YZH, which I though would be strong enough. It is very close in diameter to 25lb Defier, so I assume they are around the same strength? I have a spare spool for my reel loaded with 55lb braid, but it seems like overkill for the cover I am fishing.

If you are willing to buy used, cosmetically rough reel and buy rods and parts from China, you can get a UL trout bfs combo for like $250-300. Still way more then a Uglystick combo, but within a reasonable range of a “nice” spinning combo. I dont fish for trout very much, but have a bfs combo I use for white perch to cast inline spinners, spoons, and micro-cranks that works great on stocked rainbows as well. The only real advantage casting reel have over spinning reels is less line twist issues when using lures like that.

How are you liking this spool in the SV TW? I have one the the stock spool isn’t really blowing me away even after a flush/oil. I have a SV 1012 spool I want to try in it, but it’s currently full of 17lb floro and I am too cheap/lazy to respool it to try it in the SV TW.

This season I am trying a Megabass xxx Black Themis casting rod for dropshotting and general finesse plastics. For casting and pitching ease and accuracy, it blows my previous DS rod, the Orochi XX spinning rod, out of the water. It will get the rig much much further so I can cover water faster and cast way closer to cover then I would dare with the spinning rod. I am not sure it can match the XX in sensitivity though, but it has been such a cold spring that I need to fish it more now when my freezing hands are not the limiting factor before I can get a real sense of it.

Hah, well, my “crank” rod is literary what ever one I have with me at the time, so I am at times under-gunned on line. I am going to give braid+leader a go on casting reels this summer, so maybe I can save more cranks by using stright 30lb braid.

One thing I do when looking for spots to bank fish is to spend time during the spawn scouting for beds. It’s the easiest way to be sure you are fishing water that holds bass. Once I have found a new spot, often via google earth, I will drive over to it and make a quick lap around the shore line looking for beds. If I don’t see any I might still give it a shot, but I will give up and move on a lot quicker.

Get some strong magnets and some Velcro strapping and stick your combo to the wall or roof of the van? My my old car had a really raspy headliner and I would Velcro a small UL combo to it.

I know I’m like a broken record on this, but MajorCraft is almost always an answer to “I want a thing that most American rod manufacturers don’t make”.

I’ve been using both Chartreuse/Black Back and Ghost Minnow in most of those spots to. pretty good affect. As for Cash Lake specifically, you’ll know you found one of the most productive spots on the lake when you start losing a crank on every other cast. Someday I will bring a grappling hook there early in the morning and try and drag out whatever has been stealing my lures for the past three years or rip the bumper off my car in the process.

The thing I’ve always wondered about discussions of line stretch is this; The things we are dealing with are the rod, the line, the fish, and the fisherman. The rod will flex per it’s power and action, the line will stretch, and the unsuspecting fish will move a little before the hook penetrates and if we are fishing from a boat or kayak, we could move a little too. So when looking at “line stretch” in isolation, are we really getting useful information, assuming we are testing line stretch between two fixed points? What percentage of the total “stretch” in the entire system comes from the line, and what is caused by these other variables, especially the rod?

A Daiwa sv105 or any Alphas series reel. Cheap, compact, and a ton of spool options. But make sure you secure your weight with an overhand knot and check it often, if it flies off during the cast you end up with this.

I just picked up my third rod from the series and really dig them, every time I think about selling one off I can never bring myself to do it.

We have this thing called “summer” down here and the poor little trouts self-poach in the streams and ponds, so we have to add more every winter. It would save a lot of trouble all around if the state would just set up little food trucks along the bank and sell us smoked trout on a stick.

If the lure body was made of cork or some kind of floating plastic I bet I could clear a pond of stocker trout in a single afternoon with a presentation like that.

I did a little messing around this past Fall using a big rat bait in some of the "barren" ponds a bit north of you and was pleasantly surprised at how often I would end up with "larger than average for this spot" bass. No monsters yet, but the results were encouraging enough to get me excited to try them in more places.

Do it like the song says. I have gotten more hits fishing it crazy slow but better hookups when running it a bit faster, so it's a moving target.

Hah, I have had a crazy year so far for big picks in freshwater, it seems like they are way more active then in pervious years. Oddly enough, the tidal river guys all reported a awful season for brackish picks, with worries of a population crash. I now now have three BBZ rats, so I am going to start throwing them at some of the better pickerel spots to see if I can find a monster. The MD record is an 8 pounder from 2015. That is a big old pick for sure, but I have have gotten a few that seemed not too removed from that one in legnth, but never on that thick.

I bought some Gator spoons last month and was actualy out fishing them for for the first time today. I used a grub as a trailer and really liked the action. I already use Draggin' Heads for 10' Culprits so I think a spoon would be a good variant rigging. Does anyone make a spoon with a good hook? I like the Timber Doodle plastic keeper the best but the hooks on those things are awful.

I have never found a rod and reel combo where I could get a comfortable grip like that. If the line is all the way to the left I can get my finger on it and it really does make feeling hits a lot faster.