Lead Head

This! In my early fishing days I had fish chase my Texas rig back to the boat when I was burning it in for another cast. Since then I have started killing it for a second just before I can see it. Sometimes that's 3 or 4 feet away, sometimes its 10 or 15 feet depending on water clarity. Over the years this has resulted in some really Interesting hookups. Overall I wouldn't say I have caught a lot of fish doing this but definitely enough that I keep doing it.

It has the GT20 transducer. Mine will be here today Fortunately, (or unfortunately depending on how you want to look at it) I am working 6 days a week with lots of overtime right now so who knows when I'll actually get to play with it. I was looking hard at the hook2 5 until I stumbled across this. Just a heads up, you will need a 32 gig (I'm pretty sure micro) sd card to make your own maps. From what I can tell it must be 32, no bigger. Your very welcome on the heads up. To be fair, the monkey made me do it!

Don't know if you pulled the trigger yet or not but basspro and cabelles has the echomap plus 63cv on sale for $299. It has the gt transducer not the cv. 6" screen, lake maps/mapping, and all the wifi goodies. From what I can tell it does everything except side view and hd.

If your wanting actual shoes that breathe really well look into any Merrell shoe that says "ventilator". I love the MOAB series (technically it's a boot but wears like a shoe to me) and I can actually feel a good wind moving through them. They have water shoe options too but a mid height MOAB ventilator gives great support, breathes incredibly well, and dries pretty quick. They have waterproof options but those don't breathe nearly as well... obviously.

The only time fish frustrate me is when I have someone new to fishing with me and cant get them to bite. 95% of the time this is not the case. I love fishing, catching is the goal, but I love fishing. I love being on the water and I love nature. The reason I love the river so much is because I can get away from civilization when I want to. This means I'm not fishing traditional hot spots most of the time but I'm ok with that.

What gets me swinging is when I hang a submerged branch that moves to me when I apply light pressure, then when I ease off it takes up slack returning to its natural position. I either end up sheepishly trolling over to retrieve a buried up jig, or doing Matrix impressions on the boat deck. If I set into a stump with the confidence I have on those swings I would probably break my rod.

Usually if I can't get it loose its deep enough I'm not worried about it hitting me. Wrap line around the boat paddle and pull. On the rare occasion that this happens, I regret always getting "grid iron" jigs from Siebert. I tell myself the next order will be lighter wire hooks... but it never is. It's usually not the hook that's hung up anyway.

I remember the flashers! My dad had one when I was younger. Just having a transom mount letting me know if I'm in 10' or 2' of water will help me keep my lower unit out of trouble. Its not uncommon for the water to have about 3-4 inch visibility on the river I frequent.

Its possible that when you originally spooled it up everything was nice and tight and over time (and digging deeper into the spool for backlashes) it wasn't packed as tight and set higher on the spool. I have also seen line bunch up from holding it tight too close to the reel as you described.

Will be mounted on the transom. If I find myself actually using it as the tool it is ment to be, the long term plan is to move it to the trolling motor and get a bigger unit with side scan. I fish mostly shallow muddy water but make a few trips to clear deeper lakes. I REALLY need a working depth finder and have decided to go ahead and get a unit that will give me some idea of how modern mapping and sonar can help my fishing. I understand that electronics play a massive role in today's fishing but until recently haven't had the money or desire to get into learning them. Sorry for the long answer to your simple question Tom, but I figure the more information people have the easier it will be for them to throw out recommendations. If you guys have any other questions please ask, and thanks again for your input.

Thanks! The hook says it comes with c-maps, I'm not sure what the difference is between the maps. Guess I'll dig into that when I get up this afternoon. I overlooked that particular unit because of the small, vertical screen but now that I know it does what I'm wanting I'm going to look into it. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I've decided to get a fish finder before I knock the lower unit off my boat. I have very limited experience with anything that gives information beyond depth. I'm mostly just a hack bank beater but want something that will let me find/mark some offshore stuff. What I'm basically looking for is the cheapest reliable unit that will give me downscan/imagining, sonar, and contour maps. Right now I'm looking at the hook2 5 because it has everything I want for around $300. I'm steadily reading up and trying to learn more about this stuff but it's a pretty steep curve. I wanted to see if you guys could point me at a few other options in the same price range. Maybe in a few years I'll be back looking for a big boy unit with side scan and all the bells and whistles but for now cheap functionality and GPS with maps (not just mapping) is all I'm after. Thanks for any and all input.

Just getting started I would suggest ned rig and/or senko fishing. You will have a much better experience if you start out with high percentage baits. This should get you started off really cheap and you can decide just how far down the rabbit hole you want to go from there. I'll let the other guys more familiar with your water give advice beyond that.

I looked into finesse casting gear and almost built that blank into a casting rod. My original test run for the ned cost me less than $25 and finesse casting gear is far more expensive than that! After catching so many fish with the spinning gear I found that I enjoyed using it (braid really does make all the difference for me). I also wanted to build my first spinning rod and this was the perfect opportunity. Unfortunately, I'll almost certainly build a bfs casting rod from a spinning blank eventually... and then the hunt for a reel will begin. Hopefully I can keep the monkey satisfied with other builds for awhile. I try to be as budget friendly as possible with my fishing gear but rod building is like fisherman crack, one hit and you suddenly cant stop. Nice drum btw... I hauled in one in the 4-5lb range yesterday on the spinning rod we are talking about.

I have always been a baitcaster guy and shunned any presentations that required the use of spinning gear... until last year. Around March I decided to give in to the hype and fish the ned (thanks bassreasource!), so I went to academy and bought a $15 medium spinning rod. I dug a OLD spinning reel out of the closet and put 20lb kastking braid (with fluorocarbon leader) on it. For about $22 I was set up and ready to prove the ned rig wasn't that great. WRONG... wrong, wrong, wrong... I was so wrong... about everything. Not only was the ned HIGHLY productive, but I also found myself really enjoying catching fish on the spinning gear. So much so that by June I decided to build a dedicated ned rod. The new setup is a ML Rainshadow Immortal with microwave guides and 15lb suffix 832 to 8lb fluorocarbon leader. It is pure joy for ned fishing. All of that just to say this: Ned rigs catch lots of fish Don't avoid spinning gear, it is a useful tool Braided line does eliminate most of the what I didn't like about spinning gear As long as you can cast a 1/10 or lighter ned rig the rod quality don't matter much I prefer a longer rod for longer casts Sorry I went into storyteller mode but it seemed relevant in giving my personal opinions and experiences.

What has helped me as far as ned rigs go is separating the "ned rig" from the "ned technique". If someone says they are using a "ned rig" I know they mean a small plastic on a jig head. If it is 1/10th or less I think of it as the "ned technique" and if it is heavier I think of it as more of a bottom contact presentation (whatever you choose to call it). From what I can tell from reading and watching videos the "ned technique" (as I like to think of it) is more about fall and flutter, almost suspending the bait off the bottom. Just the way I have started thinking of it to make sense of the way people with more experience and knowledge than me separate the weights of ned rigs. Feel free to correct me if I'm looking at it all wrong. I'll also mention that even in the muddy Arkansas river the lighter weights have been better for me.

Things might have changed, but years ago when I worked at Academy they were not allowed to advertise when shimano stuff was on sale. If you didn't stumble across one in store, or know someone who worked in fishing, you would think shimano never went on sale.

I keep 8, 12, and 15lb copoly and 50lb braid in my tackle bag. One of those will be pretty close to what I need 99% of the time, and it takes about 5 minutes to respool. If space was a big concern I would probably just bring 10lb copoly and the braid.

FG all the way. I use about a 6' leader since I'm not crazy about having the knot on my spool.

The code ends 5/7 and can be used twice... at least that's how I read it

This thread is the devil!

I feel like your on the right path. For me personally, fishing from a boat, I would rather have 3-4 budget set ups than 1-2 nicer ones. Everyone is different though. I also agree with the rod before reel upgrade line of thinking (especially with fuego ct). While I'm not familiar with the cherrywood, I will say using braid will help compensate for any lack of sensitivity they have, especially for bottom contact presentations.

I've never fished a high end rod, but I have felt bites with my finger that didn't even come close to affecting my rod in any way. This is most common when I'm using enough slack to get the most vertical fall possible.

Are you fishing from a boat, kayak, or the shore? If your walking the banks, 2 mid level combos is probably the way to go. If your out on the water I would stick to the cheaper, multiple combo plan you currently have. The fuego ct is an excellent choice for your baitcasting reels no matter what you decide. They are the same reel as the tatula only without the t-wing and an amazing value at $50-$70 from Ebay. I personally would go mh and h on the bait casters, especially if you plan to throw frogs. You would need 50lb braid on the h if you go that route, but this is just my personal preference because I don't finesse fish much.

I have wade fished some of the smaller rivers around here (Saline, Ouchita) never ran up on a gator but people swear they are around. In my experience most of the snakes people call cottonmouth (or water moccasin) are harmless banded water snakes. Not saying it's never a cottonmouth, just that the water snakes are far more abundant and 90% of people I know declare every snake they see in the water a moccasin. I have come face to face with a swimming copperhead while wading waist deep water on lake ouachita.