MN Fisher

Pack the boats up, boys and girls. Just got back from an errand and Cooks Bay on Minnetonka is socked in. I wouldn't want to try and walk on it yet, but at least 90% is ice-covered. Emerald Lake and what I could see of Seton Lake were also solid. Boating season on 'Tonka is now over until at least April...unless we have a REAL early ice-out.

If you get any Strike King 3X worms...same issue as they're also Elaztech.

Which would mean that Sir John of Lisbon would have another 'early morning' with us. Works for me though.

It has an extra long skirt - pretty much it.

(stares)

First one was a blast. Join if you can.

I remember meeting Ron and Al at an event they hosted at my old college back in the late 70s. Morning was a seminar with them and a few others, afternoon was a fun mini-tournament. Ron will be missed here in his home state.

(starts doing a Happy-Dance)

What HAVE you been smoking, man?

One thing I do with all my BCs is run backing...yes, even with FC or Nylon. 70-80yds of mainline, the rest of the spool filled with 10# Big Game. Saves money in the long run as you're only replacing that 70-80 yds with a change-out...the Big Game can stay on there forever (near-abouts)

They add something like 7 new color schemes to the display options - that's it.

Ditto this - though I run 50# braid on my frog-rod...it's a Heavy power. Medium/Fast - good jerk, wacky, neko, shaky rod....bad frog rod.

All-in-all...I'd go with the thinner line. So if you're 'stuck' on the J...go with the 16#

You are correct, Sir...I have a tab in my tracking spreadsheet that has line diameters of a number of brands/types. The three 15# Seaguar FCs and the 12# YZH are all .013. Note that the 12# YZH has been tested multiple times to have an actual breaking point of around 19#.

I got gifted mostly-full spools of 15#AbrazX and 15#Tatsu. Probably going to put the Tatsu on my jig/T-Rig rod and use the AbrazX as leader material on my two braid rigs. 15# should be plenty for bottom contact - last year I was using 12# YZH and didn't have any issues.

I've said it before - I've handled a Dobyns Colt and I think my Aird-X is a better rod than that despite being less expensive. I am planning to upgrade to a Fury 735 or maybe even a Sierra 705...but that's next year - I'm out of funds for this year already.

Weeeellll, here's 2021's lineup for me Mitchell Avocet RZT-1000 - Diawa Procyon 7' L/F - Ned, light finesse jigs (under 1/8oz) President-25 - Fury 702SF 7' ML/F - Drop-shot, split-shot, finesse jigs to 1/4oz Trion-30 - Fury 703SF 7' M/F - Jerks, flukes, wacky, shaky, poppers Trion-35 - Okuma Stratus VI 7' MH/M - Shallow cranks (8' or under max depth), small lipless President-XT (7.3) - Fury 703C 7'MH/F - Jerks, flukes, wacky, shaky Supreme (7.1) - Diawa Aird-X 7' MH/F - Jigs, T-Rigs, C-Rigs Patriarch (7.9) - Fury 704C 7' H/F - Spin, Chatter, Buzz Fuego CT-H (6.3) - Fury 705CB 7' MH/MF - Cranks, Spooks, WP-60/75/90, Wakebaits Fuego CT-XS (8.1) - Diawa Aird-X 7' H/F - Flip, Pitch, Punch, Frog, Super Spook, WP-110 (Yes, I'm on a budget) I have some overlap - the Supreme could double as another moving bait rod and the Patriarch could do jigs for example, but I pretty much keep things separate. In your case, unless what you're tossing into is heavy slop all the time, I think some of your rigs are a little over-powered...a MH would be fine for T-Rigs and Jigs instead of the Micro-Magic...The Phat and the Silver Hawk other than length are pretty much the same - Phat casts further probably while the Hawk is more accurate (function of length). Nothing else sticks out at me right now.

That's exactly what my current frog/flip rod is.

What specifically are you looking to do? Trim it down, expand it, change it around?

Ya - shot from my deck-cam this year showing part of that patch...end of the day for that trip, heading back to the launch.

Ya - we might have a much shorter growing season here - but the cabbage makes up for it by growing FAST. You're welcome - anytime, Mike.

Give you an idea of where I frog in addition to flipping and pitching. Satellite shot of the bay I usually work. Boat launch is bottom center, the light green area starting just to the east of that and going up almost to the top...that is one single lily-pad patch. Look at the scale...this thing is huge for up here. I run my canoe through that, tossing frogs across the top or punching down underneath that 'mess'. Being further south, I doubt that you DON'T have areas like this. If you plan on fishing something like this. 5-power Dobyns or a heavy St Croix/Diawa.

Since you don't have your location showing, I don't know where 'up north' is to you. I'm in Minnesota and my pitch/flip/frog rod is a Diawa heavy - equal to a 5-power Dobyns. Since I toss frogs into lily pads, I want that power to haul them out - using heavy braid to cut the lily pad stalks if need-be.

Ya - the Dobyns rods are actually one step in power below the words Dobyns Heavy = Diawa or St. Croix Medium-Heavy For a frogging rod, I'd want a 5 power from Dobyns.