PAbasser927

Just wanted to share some pics and a good story from my yearly fishing trip in upstate Pennsylvania. I was up with my dad, brother, brother-in-law, and a friend. There were 3 new PB's set, all over 4 lbs. I am happy to report that one of those PB's was mine at 4.12lbs! Caught by swimming a topwater keitech soft body frog over a cove filled with Lilly pads. The blowup on this guy was awesome and ensuing fight did not disappoint. However, it was my brother-in-law's fish that took the title for "story of the week" tipping the scales at 5.04 lbs! Caught on a nose hooked 5 inch curly tail worm with a #8 baitholder trout hook. Gear used was a 5ft zebco trigger grip casting rod and spincast reel spooled with 6lb test mono (it was his first time ever bass fishing). It was getting towards the end of the night and he was just casting out 15-20ft from the boat to pass time until the rest of us were ready to call it quits. He was tired of getting snagged all day so he rigged the tiny hook because he thought it would catch less weeds. After casting for a few minutes and barely paying attention, he accidentally put his worm between a patch of Lilly pads and thought he got snagged until he realized the "snag" was pulling the boat. When I saw his rod thumping I dropped my gear to help him land this fish. While trying to make sure he kept tension on the rod and keeping him in position so the line wouldn't rub against the bottom of the boat (like I said, first time bass fishing), we were able to land his fish. Afterwards, I realized he had the drag on his zebco locked down as tight as it would go. Also, as it turns out, this was his first ever bass. Against all odds, we were able to get her in for a few quick pictures before releasing her back to be caught another day!

I was just out there myself and returned last week. It was gorgeous! I got this pic, also while visiting rocky mountain national park. Even got to experience a great bugle out of the bull, it was wild!

For my drop shot/Ned rod I found a new Daiwa Procyon 2500 on eBay for just over $100. I have it spooled up with power pro 10# braid and either a 6 or 8 lb flouro leader depending on the situation. It has been working out great for me.

You are going to get a lot of different answers depending on the situation. Ultimately it comes down to practicing your knots and using the ones you are the best at. For tying off to a hook I use a Snell knot. For crankbaits I use a loop knot to impart more action. My best leader knot is a slim beauty. For just about all else I use a double pitzen.

Not sure if this is my favorite because it is one of my first fish or because of the killer fashion statement!

After my first season using straight fluoro, I am also going back to yozuri hybrid. I never had an issue with knots breaking but line memory on slack line techniques was an issue. Even storing the rod indoors and using generous amounts of KVD L&L the night before and during every outing. I went with 12# Tatsu since it is praised as the best and I wanted to give FC a fair shot. I just feel like at $40 for 150 yards, line memory should not be an issue. Maybe I just got a bad spool, but it wasn't for me. That being said, I am very happy using FC for leaders on my rods that are spooled with braid.

I am a righty a use a left handed retrieve on both spinning and casting.

I also use braid to fluoro leader for dropshotting. I prefer it over straight nylon of any kind because braid mitigates the effects of line twist. With dropshot, you have the fish shaking and swinging the weight all over the place and I notice the line gets twisted up fairly quickly for me. This could probably be remedied by using a swivel but I prefer the leader knot to a swivel.

I put a wrap of painters tape around the spool, then a wrap of electrical tape around that. Painters tape so that it doesn't leave a mess of adhesive if I were to remove it, electrical because it is soft enough for the braid to "seat" into. Super easy.

My experiences with Senkos have been the same as yours where it almost feels like a snag at first. What I have learned is that if you think it is a snag and you "test" it instead of setting the hook, you are much more likely to lose the fish. I read an article and watched a video both reiterating the point that about 75% of your bites on a weightless senko will occur during the initial fall or when it first makes contact with the ground after the initial fall. Since then I don't work it all the way back to the boat anymore. I'll cast, let it fall to the bottom on slack line, then twitch it once or twice, let it fall again, then reel in and repeat. A lot of times I never even feel the bite due to the slack line and just how subtle those bites seem to be. Seems like they just suck it in most of the time. I detect bites by watching the line for any movement, or more often than not, just a subtle ripple the generates off the line when the bait is sucked in. I have noticed a majority of the time they don't take it and run with it, they eat it and stay put. For that reason, I am ready to set the hook anytime I feel resistance on the first twitch just in case I missed anything in watching the line. I will say, when I set the hook in these instances it has been a fish MANY more times than it has been a snag. You'd be surprised how often there is something at the end of the line that you were not able to detect by feel or line watching. You can PM me if you have any questions (try to keep this from becoming an extension of the Senko FAQ thread)

I have my frogging/flipping rod strung up with #50 lb Power Pro super slick. Haven't used anythjng else but haven't had a reason to change. When I need to restring I would buy it again. My gear is a Dobyns champion 735 XP with one of the new tatula SV casting reels.

Caught my first fish on our "new to us" bass boat that my brother and I have been restoring all summer. It also happened to be my PB! Tipped the scales at just over 3.5 lbs. Great way to break in the boat!

Just last weekend... Spent the entire summer restoring an old Stratos bass/walleye boat. Drove an hour to one of the few lakes in the area that allows gas motors and doesn't have a horsepower limit. Got there and realized we forgot the lanyard for the kill switch at home. Newbie moment at its finest.

Tying knots with light fluorocarbon line. I consider knot tying one of my stronger points, but with light line it just takes me twice as long and I always want to overtighten. This of course results in the line breaking and having to start over from scratch

We used DAP Weldwood contact cement and AAT-390 for the trowel type glue. I know the contact cement has good reviews on durability but I have not heard of anyone else using AAT-390. Considering our carpet has been in for only a few days I obviously cannot speak to its durability over time but it seems like ok stuff.

Thanks everyone! Carpet install is a bit tricky. What worked well for us was keeping the old carpet to use as a template when cutting out the new pieces. We would trace the old piece, then cut out the new carpet about two inches bigger than where we traced. Then we layed it in the boat and pressed it to the edges. Then we used a razor to cut away the excess. We did this for all the sections where you are glueing directly to the boat. For these sections we used the trowel type glue so that we were able to work the carpet after laying it (rather than it being stuck immediately like it would be with contact cement). For the compartment lids and the removeable section of the casting deck that we needed to rebuild, we used contact cement. I MUCH preferred working with contact cement where possible. When cutting carpet for the compartment lids, we simply traced the lid then measured to add enough of a buffer so that we could fully wrap the carpet around the edges. The great thing about using contact cement on the lids is that you do not have to clamp while drying like you would with the trowel type. Once it is stuck it is STUCK. Even after being placed for a split second, it would likely rip the carpet if you tried to remove it. I don't know about any tricks to offer you other than to be very careful, but I can offer a few tips. First, make sure you cut the new pieces out of the fresh carpet so they are all oriented in correct direction. The carpet has a "grain" that runs one direction. If you are cutting with a goal of making the most efficient use of the carpet you bought, the boat will end up looking two toned as the light reflects off the grain differently depending on the angle you are looking at it. You should determine the front and back of each compartment lid and section prior to cutting and orient it accordingly. Next tip, make sure you have a fresh pack of sharp razors and change often. The razor will rip the carpet, rather than cut, as soon as it begins to dull. We probably used 10 blades on our 17.5ft boat. The last tip is only if you have never used contact cement before (I hadn't before this project). It is very tempting to stick the pieces together too soon. That will kill the strength of the bond. You need to apply the contact cement to both surfaces and let it dry until it no longer "strings" to your finger when you touch it. I typically let both sides dry for 10-25 minutes before sticking together. I believe the can says to stick the pieces 10-45 minutes after applying and that window held pretty accurate for us. The contact cement is intimidating to use because of how careful you need to be, but it proved to be a godsend for us over the course of the whole project. Good luck!

Hi all! Just wanted to share a few pictures and talk about a 4 month "first boat" restoration project that is finally coming to a close. Back in May, my dad and my brother and I came across an old walleye/bass boat that was in ROUGH shape. It is a 1994 Stratos 217F, 17.5 ft glass boat with a 1993 60 horse Evinrude. Being that we primarily fish small electric only lakes, the underpowered outboard was not a concern to us. We would be putting on an 80 pound thrust Minn Kota Terrova trolling motor that we picked up for a great deal. The boat had been rear ended in travel both bending the motor out of it's bracket and busting the winch post on the trailer. The entire finish was completely oxidized to the point where it looked like it could be impossible to bring back the shine (spoiler: we did). A portion of the casting deck was clearly rotting and needed to be rebuilt. On top of all that, the carpet was torn throughout the boat and smelled as if animals had been living in it for quite some time. That, plus it was just generally filthy throughout. Consequently, this thing was priced to get it off the lot. Looking through all the flaws, the boat seemed to have good bones and the electricals were all in good working condition (it did end up needing some light rewiring). My uncle is a boat mechanic and part owner of the shop and vouched for the boats structural integrity. The three of us are quite handy and knew it would be a lot of work, but we knew we could make this boat nice again. So we decided to chip in to buy the boat and get our restoration project underway. This is a picture of the boat the day we took it off the lot: Shortly after we got it home we started stripping it down to the bones and got to work: One of the many tedious tasks of removing the old carpet glue: Lucky for us, my brother is a welder so he was able to weld a new winch post back on to the trailer (the shop gave us a new winch post with the sale). The second issue caused by the accident we also got lucky in that we were able to bend the motor back into place. We were able to brace the motor bracket against a telephone pole with a steal beam to keep the whole trailer from sliding across the road (learned the hard way that is what would happen). Then we used tie down straps wrapped from the telephone pole to a farm jack to the boat motor. It took both my brother and I winching the jack but the motor bend back into place and moves perfectly within its bracket when trimming up and down. Wet sanding, compounding, polishing, and waxing proved to be the most tedious part of the project as it took 3 full weekends to do the entire boat. Before and after pics on a small section below: The next cosmetic upgrade was painting the motor cover since the sun had taken its toll over the years: My brother made a custom dash in order to reposition the gauges and fit our fish finder mount conveniently: This weekend we just finished glueing in the new carpet, installing the new seats, and buttoning back up all the odds and ends we had to remove over the course of the project. As she sits now, ready to fish!

I think the key to a good dropshot knot is that the hook sticks out perpendicular to the line and pointing upwards. Most people will advise this is easiest to accomplish with a Palomar knot. I use a double pitzen for just about all of my fluoro setups, drop shot included. Hook sticks out perpendicular, pointing up, and I have yet to have this knot fail on me. If your trilene knot accomplishes the same result, no reason not to use it!

I am in the same boat. I figured in a worst case scenario I could cut them down some and use them as jig trailers. I have never been picky about what jig trailers I use as long as it beefs up the profile.

The 735C is listed as a medium heavy because it is categorized with Dobyns' heavier flippin rods. It is a 5 power rod though and fishes as a heavy when matched up with their general casting rods. I have never handled a 736 but I understand that rod would be more appropriate for the really nasty cover rather than the light flipping duties you are after. When jumping to the beefier 736 you lose the great tip that the 735 has to cast/pitch lighter lures.

I did the same exact thing buying 10 packs for free shipping hahaha

+1 on the DC 735C XP. Just picked up one of these last week for the exact purposes OP is looking for and it is fantastic. I paired it up with a Daiwa Tatula SV, 7.3.1. I'm am sure there will be more Dobyns rods to come for me. They can be had for considerably less than retail with a bit of digging.

Dicks flash sale on a few fishing items. Used it to stock up on keitech crazy and noisy flappers - 2 for 5 dollars. Deal valid till 10PM tonight.

Can't think of too many better ways to live!