Hook2Jaw

The Shimano Casitas outperformed most other $99 dollar reels in the 99 dollar reel shootout done by TheReelTest on YouTube when it came down to casting distance. The Daiwa Fuego CT is HUGE bang for your buck, casts a few feet shorter or longer depending on the bait in those tests if I'm not mistaken, and can be had for around 70 bucks. Oh, and the Magforce Z brakes are foolproof. Oh, and Fuego translates to fire. It's also interesting to note that the drag was also tested at a full pound heavier than advertised.

I've used garlic and Berkley bass attractant, I can't tell the difference between scented and unscented.

Yessir, I plan on it Wednesday after work! The pond is also eat up with crappie. It's gonna be a fish fry down here.

Why are bluegill attacking my lipless? I caught four this size.

This is so awesome!

Awesome, violent fighters. Hellacious teeth. Slimier than a Krispy Kreme donut but you won't catch me eating one. My grandfather used to shoot every one we caught with a .22 revolver. If you still massacre every bowfin you catch, please go read American Wolf. Draw your comparisons between the coyotes that overpopulated Yellowstone years ago, and realize the Elk did as well..once the wolves were gone, the coyotes decimated the rodent population, the elk were given free reign of the saplings near the water and the beavers were gone, just like that. The birds of prey were gone because all the rodents were gone. Once the wolves were reintroduced, the balance came back. So go ahead and kill the wolves and allow the coyote to overpopulate and watch your average coyote go down in size because when you tip the scales one way, the other side is comparatively lighter. In short, please stop killing bowfin unless you're gonna eat the nasty rascals.

There's no reason for passing a loop through the eye when tying a Palomar. Stick the line through the eye and pull some on through, and put that tag end back through the eye. Voila! Loop. Before I figured that out I used to bite down on the end of my loop and make it a little sharper. To heck with fighting a loop through an eye.

I typically tie a Palomar for light line setups, an improved clinch with heavy lines, and a Kreh loop for jerkbaits. FG knot for braid to fluoro or mono. Bimini twist for mono to fluoro. I do this very rarely. I have been known to tie a Brazillian Slim Beauty Knot with an overhand turn finished with a glob of tobacco spit to get the line to fuse together before I finish it with an Acapulco termination hitch.

Thanks @Fishingmickey, I c'aint justify spending the extra money on Shimano reels. I've got friends who use them exclusively for inshore fishing, while I'm a stalwart Penn guy when it comes to the salt. Yes, I could spend the extra money, but I think I'm gonna get more bang for my buck at 70 a reel from Daiwa and be able to afford some good electronics for the Hobie this year. Yes, they're definitely good reels. I don't believe they're good enough to spend 30 more bucks each, not for me, anyway. Chippewa Classic Loggers here, brother.

Todd Standings is Bigfoot, confirmed. This mystery is solved, now I'm gonna go enjoy some Scooby snacks.

@blckshirt98, it's my OCD kicking in. I've been wearing the same boots for 12 years.

@ClackerBuzz thanks for the honest opinion, further slamming me into Daiwa fanboyism before I've even held one. I don't really flip, but my pitches aren't like your pitches. I do it from a kayak so they're a sidearmed pitch. Still keeps the bait low, still keeps the entrance soft. Still very accurate. I've been doing it with a 7' Medium Heavy and was hoping I could get a bit more distance with 3" added on. I'll try to test a 7' versus a 7'3" before I make the call on the pitching setup. How do you like the Aird-X for cranking?

Buy a Hobie and never paddle again! Just messing. I never break out the big paddle on the PA14, but I do have one of those hand paddles to make tiny adjustments or to back out of a tight spot. It sirs on the deck of the kayak. If I were you, I'd get a hole saw and some PVC, heat it up with a heat gun and shove a beer bottle into it to widen it out. That's what I did for my old Wal-Mart kayak. Shove that pvc into the hole you made and you've got some solid rear rod holders for trolling, as well as taking more setups with you onto the water. If you've got a rear tankwell, get a crate and attach PVC to that. Mine has 9 rod holders on it and holds 6 3700 plano boxes. As far as paddle holding goes, I always liked the taco style paddle clips and had two mounted on my old sit-inside close enough together to still be able to clip into for longer periods or to outright just sit on top of for short periods of time. Unless I directly knocked the paddle off, it wasn't going anywhere. Alternatively : https://www.yakattack.us/YakAttack_Paddle_Holder_p/grp-1001.htm?fullSite=1 Lots of people swear by these guys.

I'm about to ride down that way now, @NittyGrittyBoy. Trophy guy can catch and release these hands! I'm kidding, and understand your frustration. Sorry to hear about your loss.

Here comes the FG knot train. You don't need to hold the knot all fancy with a fancy FG knot tool, just get that braid in your back set of toothers and hold a wee bit of tension on it by letting the rod fall away from you. Wrap that fluoro toward you, then the other way on the opposite side. Wrap that sumbitch 21 times, because 21 is blackjack and that's lucky as hell. You're gonna need that luck. Once you've got blackjack, take your braid tag and overhand it to secure your wraps about, eh, two to three daggum times. Cinch that puppy down until your braid starts to discolor, and then nip the tag of fluoro. Stick two to three more overhands at your clipped fluoro. It's the best braid to fluoro knot. Tied properly, it is stronger than the braid and fluoro individually. Learn it, live it, love it. It's thin, and the thicker end of the knot is towards your reel. No more bamming and framming through the guides on the cast.

@TnRiver46 man, I'd toss them thangs in, pop them up off the bottom with a short upward twitch, and give them a reel turn or two. Seems the fleeing effect set them off every time!

@TnRiver46 I went out and slayed them this weekend with the poor man's ned rig which consisted of a YUM crawbug and an itty bitty jig head.

Decided to learn jigs this year too. One of my first jig fish was a 10 pounder, my current PB. I haven't really stopped throwing them at things since. I fish them pitching, but I also enjoy casting them.

I'm looking into a whole lineup of Fuegos. Thanks for making this thread and all the positive feedback!

Went back to the basics this weekend and caught about 50 dinks with a zoom curly tail grub on a jig head as well as a YUM crawbug. The little guys were fun. There's not much forage in this pond but some large cannibalistic females that will try to eat their babies off your bait, and the small bait for small fish to get the sharks hungry has become my go-to tactic. This is the pond my 10 pounder came out of, and a 13.5 was caught out of it last year. I'm after her. I managed one good bass doing this, getting them close with the small fish and then tossing a jig and craw chunk in their face. She's the one pictured with my Abu. Then I found a savage staring down some bream beds and had the finesse rod in hand, and I'm so surprised the tiny hook held. Penn reels have great drag. I also caught what I'd estimate to be an 8 pounder on the same pumpkin jig with craw chunk, and my phone was on the charger at home. She hit in about 2' of water early in the morning, I guess she was up there feeding. The pond owner has me asked me to remove carp, so I was actually trying to snag what I thought was a carp when I casted to her. She picked it up as soon as it splashed. Here's Craig the Bass, who also happens to like to catch big fish. This is his PB 4.5" swimbait. I'm looking forward to taking the kayak out to the lake soon, beating the banks has made my legs sore on this Monday morning at work!

I truly appreciate the suggestions, everyone! While I could go up to 300 a combo, I think I'm going to keep them around 100-200 a combo by going with Daiwa Fuego CTs and a variation of Daiwa rods. Here's my plan. I'm open to suggestions! It was due to suggestions from this thread that made me really look into the Daiwa Fuego CT. Frogs/Large Topwaters : Daiwa Fuego CT 8.1:1 on a 7'3" Daiwa Fuego Heavy power Fast action. 40# braid. Pitch/Flip/Punch : Daiwa Fuego CT 8.1:1 on a 7'3" Daiwa Fuego Heavy power Fast action. 40# braid. Jerkbaits/Small Topwaters : Daiwa Fuego CT 6.3:1 on a 6'6" Daiwa Aird-X Medium power Fast action. 12# monofilament. Cranks/Lipless : Daiwa Fuego CT 6.3:1 on a 7' Daiwa Tatula-XT Medium power Regular Action. 12# fluorocarbon. Texas/Carolina/Jigs : Daiwa Fuego CT 7.3:1 on a 7' Daiwa Aird-X Medium Heavy power Fast action. 14# fluorocarbon. Spinner/Blade/Swimjigs : Daiwa Fuego CT 7.3:1 on a 7' Daiwa Aird-X Medium Heavy power Fast action. 14# fluorocarbon. Swim/Glidebaits : Daiwa Millionaire S300 on a 8' Daiwa Fuego Heavy power Extra Fast action. #30 copolymer. A lot of thought went into this with room to have a complete lineup with a lot of matching setups so they can pull double duty in the situation where I want to cycle through two colors/sizes to accommodate the fish and really nail what they're after. The choices were also made in the case my girlfriend or brother is fishing with me and we're tossing the same baits. Should I go with a slower gear ratio reel for spinnerbaits, bladed jigs, and swim jigs or is the 7 speed money? How does the Daiwa Tatula XT 7' Medium Regular do for cranking and lipless? Is the Daiwa Millionaire S300 a decent reel for swimbaits? How does the 8' Daiwa Fuego Heavy power Extra Fast action sound for swimbaits? I think it should work for stuff with stout hooks, but treble baits probably won't work out. Tagging @ww2farmer and @ClackerBuzz for their experience with the Daiwa reels and casting rods. Give me your thoughts, fish junkies!

I've fished the St. John's near the Jaguar stadium once before I knew anything about fishing the salt and caught diddly squat. I wanna get up early one morning, very early, and hit Lake Seminole. I don't have a bass boat and prefer my kayaks to the jon so I haven't river fished much this year.

Thanks man!

I would say so. They're all swift water fish and they make for a hell of a fight, and I feel they're on average larger than an Altamaha bass just due to competition from the abundant cats and gar of the Altamaha.

I prefer the Savannah to the Altamaha!