Hook2Jaw

Why does it need to be under 10.5?

She won't let me take him until he can swim. I've breezed through absolutely everything daily leading up to this tournament. The rain is scheduled to last through next week, I fully believe I'm going to be on chocolate milk trying to buy bites close to cover on spawning flats or ditches running into those spawning flats. I'm planning my lineup as 1/2oz jigs in BB and GP with water displacing trailers. 3/16oz finesse jigs on the next rod, same type of trailers. Wacky worming. Texas rigged worms and craws. I may try to topwater some and hope they're hungry since they should be staging to bed and the water will be a mess. I'll probably throw a lipless as well, maybe some cranks. I might order a handful of Colorado Blade spinnerbaits. I am nervous.

I was bending my Ugly Stik.

Cut my finesse rod in half as it was laying behind me while casting an S-Waver 168. Once showed my now fiancee, then girlfriend of a few months, how strong an Ugly Stik is. I proceeded to bend it and then break it in half. Fished all day for some eats off Tybee Island, caught one 26" redfish. Proudly pulled it out the cooler to put it on the measuring board and show my buddy, who got a goose egg, my fish tacos. She flopped right off the board and swam away.

You're very welcome. My comment was mainly aimed at the video that Glaucus posted.

Well, if we're debating smoothness -- I've owned two Black Max and they're not as smooth as my Daiwa Fuego CTs or Tatula 100.

About to order a replacement rod for the 7'1" MF 13 Fate Chrome Spinning my S-Waver collided with and cut in half mid cast, and no, it wasn't on that rod. It was leaned up in some dog fennels and I caught it making the cast. Just clarifying because I had some folks thinking I was silly enough to try glide baiting on a medium powered stick. ? Anyway, I'm getting a Daiwa Tatula XT. I'm pretty firm on that stick. I was wanting your input on the power rating. Here are the rods; TXT701MLFS ML,F 7' 6-12# 1/8-3/8oz TXT701MFS M,F 7' 6-14# 1/8-3/4oz Either rod will be carry a Daiwa Fuego LT 2500D-XH with 15# braid to 6-12# fluorocarbon leader. It'll be throwing from most often to least often; weightless YUM Dingers on 3/0 EWGs, weightless Flukes on 4/0 EWGs, 1/8 and 3/16oz Shakyheads with various plastics, Neko Rigged Worms and Craws, and the occasional 1/4oz hard jerkbait or crankbait. This rod will see some heavy work when I travel to Santee Cooper for a KBF Open on the 29th of this month. I'm leaning Medium, but I'd like to see if anyone had any reasons for picking up the ML.

I've got my eyes on a Daiwa Tatula 150 5.5:1. I've been throwing some 22' divers on a 6.3:1 and I don't find it comfortable at all.

I'm in the camp that you can accomplish everything just fine with an Abu Black Max. Yeah, you can get more performance and ease of use with Magforce-Z with Daiwa or a DC system from Shimano, but you're never going to see 250 dollars worth of difference. That's just my not humble opinion.

I got Friday off, but I keep Jr. on that day, every week. The weekend after this one I'll be headed to Santee Cooper fishing the KBF Open there. It'll be a second before I can make it to Ocmulgee.

I stepped on a 3' alligator in a Savannah Georgia marsh, again, at work. It whirled away and hissed louder than any cat and I set two records that day -- the backwards leap and whatever octave my voice hit as I shrieked like a little girl.

Squarebills and other crankbaits. I want to be a crankbait fisherman so bad, I really do. I try my best to have good days on them and I have, but that has been around active fish. So active they didn't even need to deflect. Just wind and whop. Sure, there are also times when I can smack vertical timber and get a reaction bite, and this past weekend I got hung in cypress roots and managed to get it free and as soon as I did I had a two pounder on. Beyond that, I'm always dredging bottom and bringing back loads of leaves, pine straw, and algae. My local ponds just aren't crankbait compatible. The one lake I frequent is very clear and I've read crankbaits aren't the best presentation for clear waters. I'm planning on hitting Clark's Hill this summer and learning to deep crank, though.

Had a baby cotton give a rubber boot absolute hell one day at work about ten years ago. Thankfully I have chicken legs and he didn't manage to get any flesh. Agreed, be careful. I don't kill snakes and the poisonous ones I have found at work I've moved to a safer location with rakes and sticks, those have been mostly rattlesnakes. Cotton have an affinity for standing their ground, so be super mindful of where you're going. If you really need to get deeper into grass or thick brush to make a cast, beat the area with a stick. You'll find them if they're there sometimes. Boat guys, be mindful of overhanging limbs and trees.

I prefer the manual inflatables. I don't have them go off if I get in the water and don't have to have it, but it's easily accessible if I do. It also doesn't take up much room. Those NRS jackets are cool, but I don't need 20 pounds of tools on my front.

Someone needs to take this thing to Mordor and throw it into the fire.

Pictured : A unicorn enters the reel business, and poops her first model, the Rainbowshite 2500, circa 2020, colorized.

I'm headed that way now. Gotta beat the weekend weiners.

You are a committed man.

I'm curious to hear opinions on EWG hooks for pitching and flipping heavy cover. I've done some sparse wood with great success with a MH and a jig, but haven't yet forayed into pitching into the gnarliest cover with a heavy weight, hook, and plastic. I know Matt Allen from TB does it with an EWG, but I'd like to hear opinions from other folks who do the same. I'm on a kayak and don't really want to add 4/0 and 5/0 flipping hooks to my terminal tackle.

I like braid to mono for topwater. I love the casting distance. 30# Kastking Mega8 to 12# Berkley Big Game. I've found I really, really prefer higher carrier braid. It's so much smoother and more manageable. I use straight fluorocarbon for crankbaits, jerkbaits, paddletails, etc. Moving baits. I use braid to leader on my spinning rods. The same Kastking Super8 to fluorocarbon leaders for weightless worming, fluking, shakeyheading, Neko, dropshot, etc. I use braid to leader for bottom contact. I'm on a budget and don't have the most sensitive rods, and braid to leader truly helps me feel more bites.

When we going, old son? I'm not above snagging shad with the trebles. Papa needs a new PB! I got a cork for those beasts to knock down and a circle hook to sink.

That's a no-go from me, dawg.

I bang on them at Lake Juliette. Oh, and hi, Nick. I think we might be friends on Facebook.

Just from looking, I can tell it's a stable pedal drive kayak that will be fairly slow in comparison to most. It's got a lot of storage and weight capacity. I think Greg Blanchard fished from one for a while. Do it. Report back.

I can't get bit on them.