txchaser

Did your hands get wet or was it condensation/sweating because you had the Huk gloves on? Would you be able to tie a knot or work a snap with the Huks on? When I finally got a chance to try them it was raining so it's hard to tell. No way on tying a knot. Snaps, maybe if they weren't too small. Paperclip style for sure. And I don't mind having the hands out for a sec, it's sustained wind and wet that really gets to them. The Huk gloves aren't thin, they just fit my fingers well and aren't crazy thick. Feels like they expected you to be able to do more than drive a boat with them. I have some nitriles around and thought about trying them, but part of what makes it hard is no spotlock, which means I'm dragging up an anchor rope, which is part of how my hands get wet too.

If I could change one thing about my sonar it is that it would be a 9" instead of a 7. Doesn't matter much for 2D or DI, but sidescan with any range on it fish are really small.

One alternative - Irod's Gen III alabama rig rod (rated 1-4oz) is mostly what I fish owner 8/0 beast hooks on, with a 6" soft swimbait. 1-4 oz. Might be a little soft for some on the hookset on flouro (which is what I'm using) but I do a big sweep on the rod and it's working well.

https://www.hukgear.com/products/huk-tournament-glove-huk-blue I'm at least ten pairs deep testing out winter gloves. Because of where and the way I fish I'm unlikely to keep my hands dry. Still a good bit of weeds when it gets cold here. And I had enough cold exposure in the military that my hands go from just fine to miserable really fast, and finger coverage is very important. I tried just about every waterproof glove I could get my hands on and the Huk is the hands-down winner for me. Eventually my hands got wet, but they kind of like neoprene so they were still warm. The touch-pads on the finger and thumb are also good for casting - I never once felt like I needed to take the glove off to thumb. It's kind of like suede. I did have to watch the spool during the cast though, as I couldn't feel it very well. Gill's waterproof gloves are great as long as you never get them near a treble hook. NRS gloves are all too tight, they are made for paddling not for fishing. I even tried the XXL, and I don't have sausage fingers. Glacier Gear have almost no dexterity as they are too thick. At least they are warm though.

Thanks @WRB! I’m a big fan of two tone soft plastics and I think these will be great on a Carolina rig or as a smaller alternative to the giant TRD on a Texas rig. The drop shot hooks will help force the issue, I probably under-fish (as in, almost never) drop shots. Just loading up the jerk bait box (another under-fished presentation) and I don’t have a finesse jerk bait anything near this size. Finally, nothing quite like legit hair jigs. I know just the rock pile where the bass set up by a drop off to feed on the Shad. Haven’t ever put a hair jig past them.

https://ngmdb.usgs.gov/topoview/viewer/#15/31.8783/-97.3927 If you look on the right you'll see historical maps. This particular link is for Lake Whitney in TX and has maps all the way back to 1892. Point being (pardon the pun) as @Catt mentioned, there may be additional information on the pre-fill maps for reservoirs.

These are the kind of BR nuggets that just pass right on by, and deserve some sort of 'pay attention to me' flair.

Sounds like an inexpensive way to build a marketing file with verified email and shipping addresses. From people who are definitely anglers and willing to at least try KastKing. Probably $4-5 all-in cost per person, offset by some people purchasing other stuff while they are there. It's an interesting experiment for them, especially if the line turns out to be decent.

When you get around to cleaning bearings with it... don't uhh, try to fill the whole container with acetone. There's a lot of plastic in there. Acetone+plastic is like Elaztech in a ziplock full of senkos. Apparently I should have been filling it almost up with water, then dropping a shot glass full of acetone in the water.

shipped Friday...

Thursday it's dropping from 55 to 15. And then to 10 the next day.... in Texas. 10. God help us if frozen water falls from sky. Last weekend the water was back over 60 after touching the mid 50's for a bit. And to think I was hoping for a mild winter.

I think there's a lot of personal preference here, but the glass hybrids are better than the pure glass, but I like just carbon. I have a really nice hybrid glass rod and it has been good to me... but it feels dead compared to CF. I'm comfortably throwing up 2m to 5m cranks on the tatula elite MH howell with a regular action. It's one of my favorite but least expensive rods. It's about 179 retail.

Ah I forgot about the bounty fish. No fish for me on it either, or maybe just a dink. But topwater was poor all year, so they'll get another shot. Seems like a great spook-like bait but for more weedy places, which is much of my reality. We'll see though.

There's a podcast called Sitting Dockside that's about pond management, much of which translates to larger scale waters as well.

It's nearing what passes for winter here, so how about a winter thread kicked off by me finding stuff when organizing. X-zone swammers? I bought some, but sitting in a box full of Keitechs or Jackall's it is hard to reach for them. But perhaps I don't know when to prefer them? z-man hella craws? hought about getting some, then looked at a box full of rage craws and thought I should just fish those until I hear a bunch of people here excited about them. And in the more recent launches, z-man Hellraizer topwater? I've fished mine a little but the topwater bite has been pretty marginal before it launched. Any new baits for you this year that were launched to much fanfare then got quiet?

I kind of want to see it with my own eyes so I can have a go at catching the bass with the biggest juevos in the lake.

This is 100% on my bucket list to see now.

I never knew I wanted a Van Staal, but I kind of did, at least for a few minutes. Last one I'll ever see at $500.

Custom knives are often like this too. There's a lot of demand, and so the price stays high. And the capital to scale up the business to meet the demand is a bit out of reach for many small businesses. It takes a lot of skill, so it is tough to hire out the work and still have money left. Often there's just enough margin to make a decent living but only if you sell direct... it's a labor of love.

Ah this is super helpful... I thought the 2d also had a multi-frequency wide cone. Gonna have to dig up the manual. I'm going to watch closely and see when I notice either one happening. It might be when I'm drifting vs under power that I see DI blob with no SI. Yeah that's pushing me to just get the garmin unfortunately. There's also no speed-keys on the 7" which means view switching is a bit tedious unless the views are together, and on that size screen flipping between the 2d+DI and the SI is often useful. Ah I keep it on mega all the time. But I'm not usually scanning more than 50' out unless it's pretty deep. Something for me to think about anyway. While we are on the topic I saw something recently that was interesting - looked like a thermocline, but was showing on the DI and SI. Down around that depth too. Basically everything under about 20' looked like it had junk in it. Water temps mid-50's. Fall turnover maybe?

Yes please update it!

She found a new hobby so the actual gift part is pretty easy this year. But I think I've figured out if I write a page-long card to her she'll keep it forever, and probably cry like I would if I got a gift card to a JDM site.

I ordered from Kiwi recently to get some hardbaits that are only JDM. They were dramatically less expensive than other places, but I definitely gave some (but not all) of that back on shipping. Everything showed up well packed and in good shape.

this is what a tree looks like on down scan side scan looks the same but you dont have to be over it on 2d it'll look like a blob instead chirp is better quality 2d Between 500-600 the 7" helix G3 with DI and SI is a great price. It's the older model but I don't think any of the g4 model changes are that useful anyway. Can get a g4 about that price new on ebay as well. I have this one, and I like it. I'm upgrading to get livescope, but otherwise have no issues with it at all. However, it can be a little overwhelming. You might get something like a standard helix 5 for $200 and learn the 2d first. Same deal with ebay, there a lot of people selling what they took off when they upgraded. Basically decide if you want to buy a starter unit and learn and then upgrade when you figure out what you care about, or bite the bullet and just buy once. There are a bunch of kayak anglers on here with electronics that can probably tell you about what they like.

Yeah I don't want to give that up either, but think I'm willing to trade it to get the + version of livescope. It seems dramatically better than anything that came before it. I think part of the trade is how many big fish I haven't caught because I could see a detail on the DI/SI. Certainly get more fish from having it, but they seem pretty obvious when I see them. Kind of related I'm on a 7" now and it's a little too small - it's only a few feet from my face so I don't need a 12", but I'd need to upgrade to an 8 or 9 anyway so it's a complete do-over either way. While I have you - I notice my DI and 2d disagree all the time about whether there's a fish there, and it continues to do it even with sensitivity changes. Sometimes it's the DI showing what look like the usual blobs, and nothing on the 2d, and sometimes arches on the 2d and nothing at all on the DI. Have I lost my mind? If not, what am I seeing or not seeing when it does this?