Junger

VA has been doing significant amounts of data collection, for 15+ years now. As you said, you only have anecdotal observations. Blue catfish are more destructive in the Potomac river tributary, yet they don't have the same stigma. You are well within your right to kill them as you see fit. In the river tributaries that I fish that have snakeheads, I catch way more LMB, with the average being 3lbs+, very very healthy ones. So my anecdotal observations are the opposite of yours. If you are really interested in some facts and data, here are the 2018 Snakehead Symposium videos: https://units.fisheries.org/va/snakehead-symposium-talks/ Short video of Snakehead summary:

It's just muscle memory, if you keep doing it eventually it will feel normal. What I did was take a rod and reel, with no line/lure and just retrieve it on the couch while watching TV. After a few weeks, it felt normal and I have no issues reeling left or right handed. Casting takes a while longer since it takes actual time outside.

Keeper Trophy Wife! Glad it all worked out, the Curado DC is very fun to throw, you'll enjoy it on the water even more.

Nice combos! I'm holding onto some of my "beginner" set ups for my kids. Right now they're using 6' spinning rods, but one day they'll use some of my other combos.

Just FYI, I'm not sure where you're getting instructions to leave the tension knob alone, but I think what Shimano is suggesting is to first set the tension knob to remove side to side play, and then no need to adjust it. Personally, I like to remove side to side play, and then add another quarter turn or so.

Either your DC unit is defective, or you need to adjust the tension knob to the actual lure you've tied on. I would start by doing the old "drop your lure straight down to the ground" method. Start with the tension really tight so it drops slowly, then decrease tension until it drops down fast enough where it makes 1 or 2 backlash coils. Then try doing a full cast again and check the results.

Same, I asked him why he set up the Daiwa reels (MagForce-Z) the same way as the Shimano reels, and tried to discuss the differences with Daiwa's magnetic braking vs Shimano's centrifugal brakes, and he immediately went into fanboi name calling mode, pretty immature. Tackle Advisors is a very good non-biased resource. But he doesn't do "distance testing", however he does tear down reels to compare components and quality, which is what I care about more than overall distance.

Last year they had a April 15th tax stimulus sale, but this year they did not. Memorial Day is usually 15% off, and another 10% off for vets. My TW Wishlist is ready!

Mustad swivels: Stay-lock, crosslock snap, tournament snap, fastach https://mustad-fishing.com/products/swivels

If you're going to cast it out, use a lighter weight lure. When you're reeling the line back under finger tension, you're trying to push the twists back out to the end of the line, and if there's something heavy there, the line will resist it.

The Spro popping bronzeye in rainforest black is my best producing frog, I basically just keep it tied on my frogging rod and don't use any other ones I have. I did get an Evergreen SoftShell in black that I'm going to try this year. It has a semi-cupped face, and a fur type tail.

I'm glad Daiwa decided to not make it confusing at all......

Never had problem with windknots with braid on a casting set up, and I have some set ups with 20lb braid. I think you can assume that the cause is either 1) twists in the initial spooling of the braid, 2) twists from your lure spinning in the air while casting. Are you fishing from a boat or the shore? If from boat, you can let the line out while trolling and get it nice and wet, then reel it back onto the spool with tension from your fingers or through a wet rag. You can do the same thing from the bank, but you'll need to walk it out.

If this reel is going on a dedicated rod where you're not changing the lure much, and you're comfortable with Shimano brakes already, get the K. I personally like the form factor of the K more than the Tatula, and it just feels more well built.

Made it out Saturday the first time out on my boat this year with my dad. We got to Slavin's at 7:30AM, and off shortly afterwards. The lot was almost full, and saw lots of kayakers as well. We headed up the creek, past the trail wall to get away from crowds and we were the only boat up there for a couple hours. The weather was picture perfect, overcast with the sun peeping in and out at times, almost no wind until about 11:30AM when it picked to gusts of about 12mph. An adult eagle swooped down from a tree and landed on this log about 300 yards away. I saw juvenile eagles flying around too. Magnificent birds. The main creek was stained and a little muddy, with about 4-6" visibility and 66 degree water temp, so I headed into some pads hoping for some cleaner water. I had some success in a spatterdock cut across from the trail wall so I started there, but got nothing on chatterbaits and paddletails. When we exited the pad cut, the vegetation transitioned from pads to pickle grass and there were some nice pockets to pitch. I told my dad our best chances were to probably pitch the chatterbaits into those grass cuts and then slow roll them back to the drop off. My dad is a stubborn man, and just threw 4-5' off the edge closer to the channel. Then next thing you know he's hooked up...I guess his 40 years of fishing told me to shut up. 6.3lb snakehead which gave him a heck of a fight on his 6'6 MH spinning rod. Ultimately, the pattern I thought would work did, and I produced a nice largie shortly afterwards with a black and blue chatterbait. I had two more on but both shook off at the boat, both would probably have been over 4lbs, with one of them maybe more...it had a huge head that I saw as it came off and shook out the hook. Winds picked up, and I tried a spinnerbait but no takers and then the clouds disappeared and we decided to head back around 1PM. Lot was full and some trailers had to park on the side of the road when we put back up.

Any clicker knob mod for the tension knob? That's actually the only thing that I think my reel lacks...

Yeah same. I just recently discovered this platform, since I really didn't pick up fishing until after they were released. I kind of graduated from Tatula SV -> Zillion SV -> SV103 -> SV105....probably have to go with the new Alphas CT at some point. Does shipping take several weeks? I bought a 90mm off Ebay and the estimated delivery is like June. The 95mm handle off Amazon is OK, it may just feel a tad too big for the Alphas SV. I think the 90mm will probably suit me better...when it gets here. I couldn't find any 90mm cheapo carbon fiber handles on Amazon, otherwise I'd probably replace all my handles with them.

Alphas SV105P on the Tatula Elite 7' M/MH Ehrler AGS. I couldn't take the 80mm stock handle, so I bought a cheapo carbon fiber one off Amazon, unknowing if it would fit or not. It does fit, but there's a slight amount of in/out play on the knobs, so I have some spacers coming to tighten up the tolerance, still not awful right out of the box though. This is pretty much my favorite rod/reel combo at the moment, it throws 90% of my tackle, and most of it really well.

I one up your culinary PBJ masterpiece... Two slices of bread, peanut butter on each one. Place each one aside, peanut butter facing up. Take third slice of bread, jelly on both sides, then in between the other two slices with peanut butter. Triple decker PBJ....the Big Mac of PBJ's!

I reached out to MD DNR via Twitter, here's the response: So although they did not directly answer the question, C&O canal is not considered part of the mainstem Potomac River. Edit: DNR followed up, and they confirmed the C&O Canal is not part of the mainstem Potomac River and you would need a MD fishing license for it.

First topwater fish of the year! Hit it on the jackall pompadour jr on the pause near a rock pile. Started with a spinnerbait from Anglers to the towpath bridge and only got one hit, but saw several bedding bass that were not interested in any artificial lures. This stretch is so pressured, they seem to know what's a real threat vs not.

Fishwizzard and I met up for an impromptu fishing session at Widewater in the AM. He first scouted out Swains Lock, but said the water was way too low, barely a trickle. Started at the water overflow structure around 9AM and walked up the towpath. Fishwizzard got the first one with a chunky 2.6lber on a 6" stick bait. We kept walking and looking for fishy spots, as our goal was to get up and cross over to the Berma road side and fish back down to Anglers. At the towpath bridge, I saw a good one around 4lbs at the first bridge piling. Threw a chatterbait, a swimjig, a paddle tail but nothing. Went with a finesse spinnerbait to try and coax a reaction strike but I only got the small male to chase for a moment. Water felt too cold for spawning, but I think they were in spawn mode or close to it. The female was not budging much from the piling. We finally crossed over to Berma road and stopped at a couple places but nothing. Then we finally saw some nice wood laydowns and I was on with my first on a shad spinnerbait with a rage menace trailer. A small one probably just over a lb. We kept going in and out of fishy looking nooks, ones with timber laydowns and then I stuck another one. I knew it was a good one, but had stuck it in about 8 feet of water, the laydown extended way out and the water is deep on that side. The bass had wrapped once around a log so I kept it pinned until it finally decided to swim to the left and miraculously it unwrapped and I hauled in a nice 3.6lber. Fished a couple more fishy spots and then I called it because I am leaving for NJ for easter. Fishwizzard is probably going back this evening so hopefully he'll post some more pics of some monsters! Happy Easter/Passover everyone!

Clean it up with a mild soap, let it dry, then seal it with U40. But personally, if I bought a Fury, I wouldn't expect much out of the cork. Gotta be somewhat realistic.

spit out my coffee.....d**n you!

Yes, otherwise you're doubling up on loops which could impact the action of the lure. The one caveat for me though is, chatterbaits. I use a snap to the built-in snap on a chatterbait and I feel like it actually helps the blade action get started up faster.