dgkasper58

Do you use any commercial lure retriever or do you make your own? I have been fishing a lot of rock and wood from shore and losing a bait a day is getting pricey. Looking at making or purchasing one. Let me know what I should look for/make. TIA Don

No scale issue. I was going to call the DNR since I was pretty sure it is a lake record but she was tired and I wanted to get her back in the water ASAP. The Length to Girth chart put her at 7.3 but I don't know if she was that big. I asked the question in the forum if the charts are accurate during the spawn most said yes. BTW I am 6'3 295 lbs

My New PB fishing with my students!!! Huge girl for around here!

Is this uncommon? I am new to taking my reels apart but would imagine that this is terrible for the longevity of the reel. Does is come in from the bottom of the reel or somewhere else?

Oh man do I wish I lived in FL...

I read an 11.71 Was just caught out of Crab orchard lake at a tourney last Sunday.

Or my old equipment is too junked up lol. I had super slick braid on too. So it definitely would have been worse with mono/floro. I definitely think the reels are a huge variable.

I figured as much- Made me feel better about my purchase and worse about my older equipment.

So I finally got to go out and test my curado K yesterday! I was very surprised at how smooth it was but had to turn on 2 of the four brakes (while keeping magnetic brakes on 3). For a majority of my reels I have either no brakes or 1 brake on with similar baits and line. So I thought do different companies have different standards when it comes to brakes? This is my first "higher end" Shimano reel and had some solid backlashes the first few casts when I speed up the cast before turning on brake #2. Once it was on, no issues after that- just was curious about other reels. TIA

I caught a large bass this Sunday from shore and did not have a scale with me. She was tired and I wanted to get her back in the water ASAP so I did not look around for a scale. I was wondering are the length to girth converters accurate for spawning fish? I live in Il and was able to find a Florida bass weight calculator and think that it is TOO big for what I caught... I know it was over 5 for sure. Just not sure if it was this big since she has such a big belly full of eggs.

Do you find that the slider jig head inhibits the bait rocking/lifting back up? I see the jighead being nice for running through the weeds- but think the weight of the hook and jighead design would inhibit action.

+1

10 in the boat or 3 from the shore. For a trip it would be everything I could fit after I had the essentials.

It's a small mushroom type jig head with a small stick bait on it. Very finesse presentation. It's main attraction is that the very light jig head stands straight up and even when you are dragging it along the bottom once you stop the buoyancy of the plastic raises the "tail". It is a very popular trend that has come back to fishing.

How light do you go?

I agree! I am obsessed with the line tie position and line tie angle on the head of the jig for my particular cover that I am going through. However, I never really cared about the brush guard. I usually trim it down to as light as possible for the cover/application. Do you find there to be many different brush guards? I am used to stiff black ones and the medium soft clear ones. Any information would be appreciated.

Love the Ned rig for hard bottoms. I was wondering- Does the Ned Rig concept work for silt/weed bottoms?

Bone or clear blue are my go to colors in clear water.

Well knot wars was just a series that compared two knots to one another in breaking strength. The FG knot beats the alberto hands down when compared to one another. So it is thinner, more resistant to abrasions, and stronger- All of which are important attributes in my opinion that make a knot good. Like I said I have a hard time tying it and am wondering if I need to just keep practicing it or jump ship and tie the easier (less effective) alberto knot. As for the other knots that people were throwing out there. Since I never heard of them I thought maybe I would reach out to them to see their strengths- but I guess that's not what the forum is for?

Don't get me wrong. I understand there are tons of different knots out there. But why waste your time if it is KNOT the best for your application (other then if you have issues tying it) Have these other knots been on knot wars? If so, where do they compare?

Dicks- Got a price match from another site. Then was able to apply another code.

I have gone to about 95% online. Too many good sales out there. Many stores price match as well to avoid shipping costs and get great promotions. I found the Curado K for $109 deal shopping.

Thanks... I just looked up knot wars from 2010. Modified albright did beat out the Uni to Uni. Guess I will go try that one a few times. Thanks

I left it out because I did not use it- and it lost the the FG knot in strength... Would you consider it to fall in between the Uni to Uni and FG knot?

First post! Hope all goes well. After searching through numerous posts about braid to leader material I found myself hopping back into the discussion about which knot to use. Many of the discussions that I found were people using thin braid and moderate fluorocarbon on spincasting gear. I wanted to know what knot would be best for heavier braid 40-50lb to similar sized fluoro 10-12lb. I am new to the FG knot and after tying it 30 times I finally got one that looks OK... I am good with the Uni to Uni and it is very similar in size (the line I used) but has the tag ends in the front and back so it catches more. Do I go with the Forever Giving me a headache and wasting my material and time knot or get annoyed in a "thump" in my line at the guides? Set up is on my Curado K 8.4 ratio-Medium Fast rod planning on using it for swim jigs/ripping traps/texas rigs Haven't used the rod or reel yet, so need to make sure they will work for this application.