Boomstick

There is no easy answer here. Cigars do get stronger in the back third. It sounds like you might be smoking cigars with a Connecticut in particular, which in turn can be bitter if not aged properly and of course more bitter on the back end. Other wrappers may give off spice in the back end more than bitterness. You might just not like the strong back end. My suggestion is to smoke it a little slower as you get to the back end and it starts getting strong and see if that helps. But you might be one to buy longer cigars to avoid smoking it down to the nub (not necessarily fatter, just longer to have more front end). I'd also suggest trying different cigars, different brands and different wrappers and seeing if you have the same effect. Try a Camacho Corojo (red). Those are available most places and are fairly smooth start to finish.

Generally, I get 13-15ft pretty easily like I said. If I really need to, I can get them a little deeper. I put those in my box because they have good depth without being too heavy to overload my rod - although my particular rod can handle a little extra weight than rated. But these seem to cast really well.

Our local shop carries small batch cigars from brands like Dunbarton, Black Label Trading Company, Espinosa, Aganorsa Leaf and others. When I go into a typical larger brand name store, it's hard to find stuff that compares without spending a lot more. I do occasionally take a ride out of town for the Ashton VSG specifically in the enchantment size, they're much spicier in that one size. If you can find it, the Dunbarton Brulee blue, aged extra long for extra natural sweetness would be a great choice.

Deflecting off of the bottom is a good thing, it triggers strikes. You generally want to reel, hit something, pause, reel again. Should you snag weeds, sometimes pulling it out of weeds can trigger a strike. As far as depth goes, crankbaits often do not hit their advertised depth. In order to get that, you have to reel super slow, use thin fluorocarbon line for maximum sinkage and a consistent, slow reel (no pausing) to keep it down in the water column. For example, I use River2Sea Tactical Bassin cranks that are rated up to 18ft but generally closer to 13-15ft in the water column under normal usage.

@Swamp Girl it sounds like you've got the right idea. You can only do so much when the bite drops. By the end of the month, the bite should at least be more consistent. This time a year, you get one day colder than the prior and it's tough to catch them the next couple of days. It's amazing how quick they went from eating anything that moves to barely eating anything at all. At this point it's a matter of finding what they'll bite that doesn't get caught up in weeds.

I would suggest smaller swimbaits like Storm WildEye Swim Shad, in 4" or even the 3.25" version for a small swimbait this time of year. I'd also move off the shore, pretty much regardless of how your lake looks like. If you have hard bottom in the deepest spot of your shallow lake, it would make sense they'd be there. Try dragging a finesse jig across that. Last week, I noticed fish were not in spots I normally catch them but there were a few further from the shoreline in deeper water in that area.

In Pursuit of Giant Bass by Bill Murphy is a great book. Highly recommended.

I just completed my last 8 day camping and fishing trip to Lake Dunmore. This trip, the bite has really died off quite a bit. I was expecting it kill it. Last time I was there in mid-late August a few years ago, we caught more fish than I can count. But all of the spots that regularly produce fish were dead. I did not even see a lot of bass on the fish finder where they normally are. On Sunday, my kid caught one largemouth. On Monday, I caught a nice 18" largemouth. On Tuesday, I caught two fish including what was probably the smallest bass I ever caught on bass gear - it tried to eat my crankbait but was no larger than it and ended up getting side hooked and my kid caught two. We also broke off a couple of large ones, in the same area and around the same time. He said his was definitely a large bass. Mine could have been a pike, I never got a good look at it but it was strong. Large pike do reside in that area of the lake. When I broke off, my line looked like it was dragged over rocks, and I had recently cut off a couple feet of line that had been, so I'm guessing it was a pike. On Wednesday, we had to get some groceries and firewood. We decided to use that day to go hike some of the trails since time was limited. I have since wished we went out on our kayaks and bought sausages or burgers at the camp store and went for supplies and hiked Thursday or Friday considering how bad the wind was. The plan was to walk around Silver Lake, and then walk up the fire tower trail on the way back, however I wasn't sure which trail was the fire tower trail. We picked a trail and ended up at a lookout with a great view, which I included a pic of. We ended up running down the hill figuring we could get back to the store before they close and get maple soft serve, but they closed at 6 during the weekdays so we didn't make it. On Thursday, we had planned on hitting up the south side and seeing if bass were in the shallows. We went out for a few hours but the wind was brutal, 15-20 constant and 29mph gusts. I could barely pedal against the wind at the bottom end of the lake, we tried another couple of bays to see if the wind was better, but there really isn't a place on the lake to escape a wind blowing from the south. The mountains block out a lot of wind blowing from other directions and also make a little bit of a wind tunnel in places. I've been out with 33mph NW winds and it was tame compared to this. We ended up heading in early and finally getting our ice cream at the camp store. On Friday, we didn't even bother going on the kayaks. We got up late, made our morning tea, read for a bit and had some actually fairly nice downtime. We did shore fish a few hours before dinnertime and my kid caught the best fish of the trip. Maybe even the best fish of the summer between the both of us. I was disappointed it wasn't a 5 or a 6 from the way this thing fought to be fair, I've caught larger bass that fight less. On Saturday, we had heavy rain and thunderstorms, so we went to see the new Conjuring. We're both horror fans. It was still a fun week, but a little sad that I have to wait until June for the next one.

Sometimes I am lucky to catch 5 fish. Of the times I do, sometimes it's like 10lbs or less. My best day was around 22lbs.

These boxes are great. They also solved the problem with the Plano 3700s where the boxes "lock" in a halfway open state. I once dumped out all my terminal tackle when this happened and I didn't realize it. Aggressively Average Anglers recommended it, so I decided to try it. I now buy these over Plano 3700s besides the specialty boxes.

The Tatula Elite is the furthest casting Tatula, but also requires the most thumb assistance. If I was looking to cast distance, I would consider a Shimano MGL 70 in whatever line suits you (SLX is honestly fine).

Well what do you want to throw that you can't? I would think a heavy rod for flipping, punching, frogs and smaller swimbaits would be good or a ML/XF spinning rod for various finesse tactics

I have sold some on Facebook Marketplace last year. I listed them for the most I thought I could realistically get for them, and they sold fast and I got what I asked for.

I have one rod with microguides, a St Croix Axid X ML/XF. Because I am using light line, the connecting knot passes right through no problems. I would probably buy a casting rod with microguides at all but if I did I’d run straight fluorocarbon or mono

Plano 3700 and Flambeau Zerust boxes have a water wick to soak up water, which I find generally works alright. I usually open the box, grab the lure I’m after and stick it on the holes in my Pacific Yak Angler front tracks on my kayak made to hold lures and then toe it on, so hardly any water gets in the box. The lure I take off then also goes on the lure holders until it dries.

Cherrywood rods have generally been some of the best cheap rods on the market. They are just that though so don’t expect too much.

3x the depth is generally recommended. I do find that in most situations, 1.5x to 2x will hold with the right anchor on a kayak. My compact anchor wizard with 45x feet was almost always good for up to 20 feet of water.

I have no experience with Kast King reels. I have been told they may not hold up as well as others but perform really well at a low cost. I have bought other Kast King products and they are all solid. A floorstanding rod rack, a 3700 box that is an improvement on the Plano 3700 (the lip doesn’t get stuck) and I got my kid some Kast King split ring pliers a few years ago and he still uses them to this day and they’re as nice as my more expensive Berkleys - which is a discontinued model but some of the nicest I could find. I would probably give their reels a shot if on a budget. I am personally too partial to Daiwa’s braking system or the Shimano MGL 70 for bomb casting light lures so I save for what I want but that’s because I can and I have enough reels to get the job done so there is no critical need.

The Twing works fine and so does the classic style. No complaints from me

The one real downside to the Bigwater PDL over the 120 or Autopilot is the space in the back. It fits a 13x16 Blackpak pro but I can only put rod holders on one side unless I raise them or lift the whole blackpak up. Maybe someday I’ll figure something out, raising the rod holders means I can’t put stuff on top camping amd putting something underneath, while it would keep my entire blackpak dry defeats my goal of simplicity for quicker launches in addition to a whole process that the kid and I got down. My kid’s old Topwater 120 (paddle) used to fit a small cooler and his water bottle and his Blackpak but don’t think it’d fit a whole Engl cooler, maybe? My other kids Voodoo did fit both though and he used to come out with a lot more so we could all use that.

If I wanted to carry some sort of a block to put my Blackpak pro on, I could comfortably carry 11 by adding three more rod holders to the right side. 12 if I want to keep one up front all the time but that makes switching a pain. It wouldn’t be too bad to access them, proximity to my flag would add a small annoyance but nothing too bad. what kind of kayak lets you carry both an Engl cooler and a 16x16 blackpak?

There’s two reasons not to. First is if you are dragging braid over rocks, it will cut up your line. The other is if you were to get the weight stuck in a rock where you can’t go to the other side and pull it out, good luck getting the rest of your line back. Past that, braid should work great for a C-Rig

This is generally my approach as well. I have a couple of purpose rods but I can use others as I see fit to make a lure lineup that should work for me

I've had some 2 piece rods in the past. A couple of times the rod popped apart, but it's pretty rare. I wouldn't be too terribly concerned, it's like any other rod. Back when I had a truck, I used to keep a two piece rod behind the headrests of the back seat year round. You can stick the reel under a seat.

I need a tip guide for a rod and this is what I did. They sent it to me for free.