PhishLI

Wind is the X factor. Spawning flats here in the north will have some baitfish activity this time of year. Two days of rapid temperature drop combined with wind will render them lifeless until temps rise and steady out for a few days. Where I am there's no deep water to hold temps. 15' deep is like an ocean around here. There may be a random hole that deep, but 4-6 deep is more like it close to the center of the water bodies. Up to that point they're 1-3 ft deep. I measure temps. They chill rapidly with wind. The bass cope.

That may be true in a 100 ft deep mountain reservoir, or deep lake, but not in a 6-8 ft deep pudddle. A 25-30 degree temperature drop overnight in this scenario is lights out trash. Make that 2 days in a row as the OP describes, it aint going to be good. Never is.

One thing you can count on with a temp drop like that combined with wind is that heat will be sucked out of shallow water rapidly. Last Wednesday, after a few days of steady warmer temps, I fished a shallow lake. The bluegill I encountered were moving quickly when they spotted me, or when I invaded their space. Bass were hitting baits on a steady retrieve somewhere between slow and medium. We then had over night temps at freezing on both Friday and Saturday. It became quite chilly again by Sunday night when I returned. The slight green stain that was present on Wednesday had been shocked to clear by the cold and wind. I'm pretty tolerant of the cold when I wade, but my feet were hurting in short order where I was perfectly comfortable for hours just 5 days earlier. The bluegill I came across near the bank were frozen in place. When I pointed my light at them they barely moved if at all. The bass wouldn't touch a shallow crank in shallow water, or anything that wasn't a super slow rolled plastic. If the bluegill were any indication I doubt the bass were chasing anything. More than likely the bait needed to be dragged right past their noses for the hits I got. It's tough to get a hookup in this scenario on a skin hooked weedless rigged plastic. When they're keyed in on small baitfish on the bottom they'll spit anything out of the ordinary in a split second. Weeds aren't up yet here, but there's a blanket of filamentous algae on the bottom where I was working. A small swimmer on an open hook moved slowly was an exercise in frustration.

It'll never get it's due respect here because it says Lew's on the sticker, but this particular model is a truly great reel, and I have a slew of new Daiwas and Shimanos for comparison. If I were forced to thin the herd I'd sell many of those reels before I sold this one.

Slight flaws might exist in any casting, forging, etc. It occurs every day in manufacturing. Older guys here may remember Magnaflux testing. I doubt a reel manufacturer is going to any length beyond visual inspection which would only expose superficial problems.

Clip it on. Don't aim at boulders. Cast it out. https://www.amazon.com/Umpqua-Stream-Thermometer/dp/B00KFMX6R2/ref=asc_df_B00KFMX6R2/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=312154679201&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=14820855416670663549&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004440&hvtargid=pla-569615880699&psc=1

The brothers Phish can't shut up about bass fishing. If there's a family function at either of our houses we'll inevitably slip away into the garage, or out to the trucks to play show and tell, or to discuss tactics. My nephews have been exposed to us in bassin mode, but for some reason we could never really gain any traction with them regarding the subject. Their faces are always stuck in cell phones. The older one's in love, we all get it, but the younger one isn't yet. Still, we couldn't get him to engage about fishing. Invited him, but he wouldn't commit.. So, I was surprised by a phone call from my sister just before X-mas of '19. She let me know that nephew #2 really wanted to go fishing with us, finally, but he wanted his own gear. We made our recommendations, she made it rain, but winter was already upon us. Then 2020 happened, so that put the kibosh on taking him out. Last week he went down to my parent's house in S.C for spring recess. Pops is in a bass club, and nephew #2 couldn't wait to get out on the water. Completely obsessed they said. My father showed him how to rig a 5" senko, then on his first cast, Bingo! Mama Phish told me he was out of his mind happy. I think we have a new member of the crew.

Its frame is similar in size to the 150 and 200, so no, it doesn't feel like I'm fishing with a Tatula CT 100. And don't pay much attention to line cap ratings. They're mostly quite a bit off, meaning less than advertised. It holds 85 yards of .017 nylon. That's 255'. If you feel you're going to be consistently casting off that much line, or even close to that, use braid mainline instead and don't worry about it. I doubt that happens using a 7'8" rod anyway.. Step up to a 9 footer and it can be an issue. It holds enough line for my purposes and I do plenty of overhead bombing. The big Toxic Wade Frog is like casting a baked potato. I've come close to spooling it with that bait, and also with a 1 oz DS using the IROD 7'8", so I just back off a skosh on the oomph. I understand that other people make this a point, but I'm truly unconcerned about IPT and a low spool. I'm not typically burning baits in or using a steady retrieve. I like to mix it up. Get fancy. I got the 7 spd, so. It'll handle heavy baits without issue. It's essentially a Zillion HD. The gear train is robust as it has a true dual bearing supported pinion. I have both Tats and they're great for the asking price, but they don't have that important feature and they lack a full floating spool. The Catalina is a level above both in refinement and it's brake is tuned for slinging steel baits in saltwater bay fishing, AFAIK. The farthest I've thrown any bait with any reel/rod combo I've owned is with this reel in the equation. That distance is what saved my outing last week because all 4 fish were out that far, and a Dark Sleeper is what they wanted. ATD is different than UTD though. It took a bit of getting used to in the beginning. The clicky drag is shweet. My priorities may be different than yours though. I have a slew of bait/weight range specific swim bait setups already. What I didn't have up until now was a super versatile one. If I'm wading a flat with this setup I can tie on a belly weighted Berkley Champ Swimmer and sling it easily, then turn around and throw a 3 oz glide without walking back to swap rigs. The rod matters, naturally, but the reel needs to behave with somewhat lighter baits too, and the Catalina does due to it's spool size/weight. It's a big deal to me and this particular setup provides me with that wide range and convenience. Pretty fantastic actually.

Thanks, but I'm not sure that a bearing would be an upgrade due to where I fish. Right now the water here is clear, but once it heats up it'll have a green tint with plenty of suspended, gritty, organic matter throughout. It gets into and coats everything. A properly lubed bushing may be the better choice in a reel like this considering that it doesn't employ measures to protect a line roller bearing like some reels do right off the bat.

It's reasonable to assume that there may be an issue with a bushing and not with a bearing, but no problems here. My buddy is a mostly spinner fisherman. His reels all get 30 and 40 lb braid because we fish very tough and snaggy spots. I've been running 30 lb Daiwa J-8 braid on a Daiwa BG 2500 for the past 3 years with zero issues. The line roller runs on a bushing, but like any other line roller I check it often and keep it lubed. I also run 20 lb J braid on a cheepo ABU card 10(1000 size). Again, a bushing, but no issues. YMMV

Yup, and yup. What doesn't kill ya...

Yup. You're probably right! But that guy is still a Richard for doing what he did.

That's really the issue. These spots are 19 and 6 acres. A few of us have spent time cutting paths through brush, making cuts to the water, and clearing overhead branches to areas that were previously unfishable. It's a hard pill to swallow when someone who's moved away is inviting new people to fish there. What makes things worse is that I'm pretty close to NYC. The red army bucket brigades find these spots through FB too. They strip the waters in my area. The fishing is brutally tough. Most new faces fade away quickly because they can't take it, especially if they happen to be targeting bass.

Sure. That's always the case. If your neighbor and fishing buddy moved away, then proceeded to post your dock's location on a FB fishing group directing a bunch of strangers to fish there, would you be pleased? Would you thank him?

I'm with @WRB regarding casting reels. All of mine get backed with braid. It's lighter than plastic lines and the connection knot to the mainline isn't as bulky. Also, it doesn't coil up during really cold weather, so on long casts where you get down to the backing it's not an issue.

Remove your spool from the reel, then place it on the table just as the spool is placed on the table in the video below. Starting from the rod's tip, feed the fishing line through your rod's line guides. Do not feed the line either under or over the reel's bail wire. Just feed it from the rod's bottom guide over to the spool which will be standing upright on the table. Keep your setup the same as the video. Have your line coming in from the left with the spool to the right and make your first wrap counterclockwise. Watch the video as many times as needed and try to execute the knot until you've got it mastered. You can do it.

I can't comment on the Phenix, but recently I picked up an Irod Genesis III JR Swim 7'8" 1-4 oz. I have no problem slinging a WP75 at 5/8 oz with it, or baits up to 3 oz like glides, wakes, and wake cranks. It's light and has a normal length handle, not long like most swim bait rods. It's quite versatile. I'm really digging it.

They start out that way, but it fades rather quickly. That's based on the 3 within my circle. Our Fuegos are actually quite a bit smoother after way more fish. Go figure. They're still totally fishable of course, but it irked my brother because of the extra maintenance he puts into his reels over a season.

Here's some Jimmy. Watched this today. Good one.

Zonked! This one would charge through a wall of flames if a cat was on the other side. In this case it was a Holly bush. Stitches. The cat made it to safety up a tree. Dogo Argentino/American Bulldog mix. Catching cats is in the program. Unbelievably gentle with toddlers, thankfully.

I really despise spot burners. I became friendly with a local at one of my spots. If we bumped into each other we'd sometimes team up to wade sketchy places together at night. It turned out that he was friendly with a few of the guys I fish with and occasionally fished with them. Went to a fishing show with him once. A nice guy. One day he told me he was thinking of moving closer to the yard where he keeps his business, but was hoping to find a spot very close to good water. He showed me several real estate listings on his phone that he saw as hopeful. Several months later he moved to one of them on a private lake and began hammering them and sent pics. While he never gave me his address, or the name of the lake, he did invite me out to fish there several times, but he always wanted it to be a bigger deal than I wanted: Bring the wife and dog for the weekend, yada, yada, so I never went. I think he was offended eventually. We lost touch. Fast forward a few years later and he starts a FB fishing page. I don't do FB, but my brother does, and I have his login info for when I want to browse fishing sites. I checked out my old pal's page and one of the first things I see is him answering a "where to fish" question by directing total muckin strangers from the internet to one of our prime big fish spots. I'm angered. Amazed. Dude moved 70 miles away and he's doing "this". I thought about it and remembered some of the listings he showed me back then and started narrowing things down. Did a google earth search and finally found a shot of his boat in his yard. I now have his address that he kept secret from me and everyone else in the circle of trust. I texted this dude and asked him why in the world he'd be directing hordes of nobodies to my spot. He gave me some BS about nothing really being secret, it's a free country, he's just trying to help people, blah blah blah. I responded by texting his address to him, and wrote that I'd never dream of sending total strangers there. His only follow up was to promise to delete any posts where he'd recommended my spot. Turns out he did it several times over time. His FB posts specifying my places were deleted within the hour.

My brother just broke his 2021 curse with a 7" Toxic WnC eater.

Corrected! Great deal.