PhishLI

For baits this light where distance is your priority, ditch the plastic line and go light braid mainline to leader, or no leader, and fill your spool. Your distance will increase by quite a bit either way. Line twist related problems will practically disappear.

You'll need a tungsten nail weight with a diameter no larger than 1/8"(0.125") or (3mm) for this to work, but it works just fine. Great for rattles too.

Word

I'm glad I asked him if there were any gators around as I walked out of the garage with my gear. He said "not lately" but casually mentioned to listen for rattlesnakes! No biggie, right? No mention of having any anti-venom on hand either. "Have fun. See you soon, maybe." 🤣

An impromptu trip to South Carolina had me packed lightly and with no fishing gear, but that was barely the point of going down there. My mom had to have open heart surgery, so fishing wasn't on my mind. That said, the ICU kicked us out each night, and with so many HOA ponds scattered within the Dell Webb development it was hard to say no, and many of which were much larger than I'd imagined. My father further encouraged me by pointing out this spot and that spot, so I decided to do a few 1 hour trips out at dusk to see what's what. He has a few spinning rods in the garage, but they were all sketchy. My brother-in-law and his sons are all ham-fisted, so every rod was busted one way or another from their previous expeditions. I settled on a Black Max spinning rig with about 7" of its tip guillotined off, and a 2000 sized reel spooled with 20lb mono. Guitar string on a spinning reel. Uhg. Ran to Wally's for a bag of black/gold flake 5" Big Bite worms and some screw lock hooks. These ponds all have one particular feature; Steep banks lined with tall grass. Pops has been unable to fish them for several years because it's too tough on his knees, so I went to different spots than he recommended that looked good to me with the caveat of staying out of the tall grass due to rattle snakes. I did just that. Sheesh. I started off throwing a wacky rig for a bit, but no play. Went to a standard weedless rigging and did the slow drag thing and started getting bit. Then I started converting, but it was weird with a rig that lacked much feel at all. Good thing having that 20lb mono on after all though as I needed to shore flip every fish 5' up then 5 feet over the grass. Had about 6 shake off into the grass, but luckily, they flopped back in. Good for them that they did, because no way I was going in to save them. I imagine me getting killed by a poisonous snake during her recovery might've pushed mama over the edge. Got some bites, and they all fought like crazy. It was a nice way to end at least a few days of stress and monotony sitting in a hospital room from dawn til dark. Mom's home today and doing well, and I'm finally on the board again.

My brother has his spooled with 30lb Daiwa J8 and it holds all the line you'd need.

I like these in 6/0 or 7/0 for 7" senkos. Any hook with enough shank length where its bend penetrates the egg sack is a plus for longevity. Fusion19™ Swimbait Hooks - Berkley® Fishing US (berkley-fishing.com) Swap out the stock springlock keeper for an Owner CPS (L)Large and the bait will last way longer. Stick-Os are also way tougher than GY senkos. Owner CPS Centering Pin Spring | Tackle Warehouse

Not...yet. 👍

Just tell her it could be worse. Way worse. If she demands proof, here ya go: P.S. You're welcome.😁

Watching Scott Martin's screen at the Okee Open was something to see. Wow. The rule at the Fork Elite would be just the just-right compromise, especially if the TWP model was followed by all of the state's agencies.

My buddy has a fully loaded bass boat, and he has everything. I think he's up to $35K in electronics now. Screens everywhere, even in the back. I've been out on it in big upstate NY lakes. Yes, it's cool watching a bait drop down to a fish, but where I live even cheap fish finders are basically useless after June. My brother and I don't even use our Striker on the jon boat much anymore having already mapped out and made mental notes of the contours of local lakes we're allowed on early in the season before they're completely choked with veg. I really have no dog in this hunt. I'm not even offended by the pros using it actually. If not for Randolf crying about it constantly I probably wouldn't even consider the debate. It's out of my hands anyway, and I enjoy watching tournaments, so it is what it is. If they keep it, whatever. If they limit or ban it, fine. Anyway, last week my bass boat buddy was talking about a pro guide he goes out with who recently expressed sponsorship woes. Electronics came up, and he made a point of mentioning how addicted that guide is to his screen now. He'd been out on trips with him before FFS was a factor. He went on to admit the same thing about himself too, as that it's all he does now, just staring at the screen. I know this guy well, and I can tell that this is diminishing the fun factor for him. I could tell by his tone which was somber and disappointed. This is contrasted directly against his excitement as he'd incrementally build up and upgrade his gear over the past 4 years. I didn't ask if he regretted it and neither did I run down FFS in any way. I just listened then changed the subject. I'm in no way claiming that my friend's experience is the bellwether for how anyone else's longer-term experience might go, however, I could see some who've done it the traditional way coming to the same conclusion. Some time back a few years ago, and in one of my less civil moments, I made a stupid crack on this forum that if I were to catch my PB whilst trolling, I'd wear a bag over my head for the selfie. Kinda mean? Probably. But I laughed as I wrote it then, and I just laughed again visualizing that absurd picture. The bag has a sad face drawn on it. Personally, I'd have a similar feeling about accomplishing an all-time-for-me PB using FFS. No bag on my head this time for the selfie, but there'd be asterisks flanking my smile.

I guess Daiwa was losing $ on the now discontinued Tatula LTs. $300 for the new Elite which looks very much to be a LT. Even has an anti-reverse switch, thank heaven. A few tech upgrades maybe? I'll wait for a sale on the 3000. Daiwa Tatula Elite Spinning Reel | Tackle Warehouse

This was a good convo on Luke Dunkin's Traveling Circus following the Fork derb about youth in the sport and FFS. Begin at the 12 minute mark if the link doesn't automatically start there. Picture added so you're able to search for it if *something* happens to the link.

No excuses from this older guy.

It's possible, but these days with this tech it's hard to imagine anyone holding the throne for very long. I imagined the '23 ROY Joey Cifuentes coming out on fire having not only grabbed that title with so many high finishes last year, and also having 2 wins, but it didn't happen. 65th at Toledo and 85th at Fork so far. You wonder how? I think the answer lies in the fact that all of the younger guys have been on an accelerated learning curve over the past 10 years with YT, etc, so there's parity in their skills. It comes down to who can get to the winning spots and hold them. Perhaps that's always been true, but now that electronic sight fishing is the name of the game it's just different than in the past. I wish him luck though. Seems like a good kid, and his parents were thrilled. A great moment for all.

There's nothing better about the new format, with the rod section very sucky now. Used to make perfect sense, but not anymore. At least they seemed to have fixed their shipping issues. My stuff comes quickly now.

Can't wait for the century-belt-fest tomorrow will be!

Yup. Full buy out.

What a gut-wrenching roller coaster of a profession. Christie wins the Classic a few years ago, then places near if not dead last in the next tournament. Robert Gee killed em at Toledo Bend placing 4th overall and could seemingly do no wrong, but today he's dead last in 103rd place with one 2-9 fish. Talk about being blasted out of a cannon without a helmet. Fujita did terrible in the Okeechobee Open a few weeks ago placing at 193rd place, then slays them at Toledo. Just a crazy swing of fortune. Anyone who can keep it together over the course of a season and do well in this arena has definitely done something special. Not an easy task. It's hard not to be happy for anyone who can raise a blue trophy.

I'm with you. I have the earlier Magellan version of this H2OX sling pack shown in the last pic. Holds a bunch of stuff, and I barely know it's on while I'm casting. It's perfect for me and super durable going on 6 years now.

I used clear poly to fix mine. Dipped the guide's foot into the poly, then inserted it back into the wrap. Quickly removed it, dipped it again, then reinserted it. I felt this got enough poly down into the threads of the wrap, enough to where some of it pushed out. Cleaned up the excess with a q-tip dipped in alcohol. Poly dries slowly, like two days, but it's a strong fix. I've caught a few hundred fish on the rod after the incident while using straight braid. No problems since. Mine got knocked out when a fish spit a craw rigged on a swimbait hook, and it rocketed back at me and nailed the guide. Somehow the ring didn't crack, so it was an easy fix.

Is it a single foot as pictured below? I can't tell much from your pics.

The stream keeps locking up for me. Anyone else?

I resist looking at their auction page. So dangerous with the lots they offer.