txchaser

I haven't. Thanks for the recommendation.

You're not that far north of me; it's really windy here on the water, thermals I suppose. I had 40mph gusts in my face on Saturday. Let your takeout point be downwind of where you are fishing. Worst cast you can drift back. For the same reason, an anchor is going to be a must-have. Otherwise you'll miss at least half the fishing days because of wind. You'll get out there and turn right back around. I carry 18lbs or 28lbs depending on the wind, and that's to anchor a 12' or 14' jon boat. And it isn't always enough. But bad wind is also big fish time. You can't swim knocked out, and you can't swim when you get dropped into cold water unexpectedly - wear the life jacket all the time, every time. I'll even have it on in a 21' boat with the TM down, in calm water.

z-man's flukes float, or very nearly so depending on the size of the hook.

Defiant 210 8.25" in fast sink. Those are line-through hooks, but on top. It's big brother the 247 is on the list, but I'd like to get some confidence at this size first.

I was really hoping these would work on vision 110's, but they are too heavy, at least in 55 degree water. Really a bummer as there's a lot of bruiser-class fish and often some nasty cover too. It is december and there's still green weeds around, and they will go right into the slop. Point being the vision hooks are scary thin. If they get a whole mouthful it'll be fine, but one hook point just isn't going to be enough. Options on strong hooks that will leave a 110 with a suspend or a very very slow fall in 50-55 degree water? 45zn's left it with a pretty fast fall.

8 carrier braid will make a huge noise difference, but I don't think it cuts through vegetation as well as 4 carrier. There's a few great brands out there; I'm a big Vicious (no-fade) and Fins (sling braid) as they are tightly woven and don't fade at all. On straight flouro, the 22lb tatsu is pretty amazing. It's goofy strong, like wrap it on a boat cleat to break off a snag kind of strong. Double SDJ is the only knot for flouro, it solved almost every mystery breakoff I had. Seems like a great place to experiment!

10% discount on gift cards in prior years.

Kistler Heliums are $209 right now. (40% off) I don't think there's anything even close to the rod at that price point, unless it is also 40% off. Same blank as the zbone which is their flagship rod. Two of the tackle shops online are doing 45 and 40% off on St Croix, but it comes as a gift card. I don't have one, but if I were going to buy another rod it'd be a st croix legend x - I'd like to try that blank with titanium and torzite guides. But you have to know you are going to use the gift card so there's that. Anyway find a $350 rod at 40% off and you'll be very very happy. 7'2"-7'4" - there's probably never been a better time to buy a really nice rod. IMO you are describing two rods Rod 1: finesse jigs (this one gives me the most concern) 1/8-1/4 Texas rigs weightless Texas rigs (I assume a senko? should be fine on a medium heavy but if you mean a trick worm, or something that light a MH won't do it -this group is all under 1/2 oz Rod 2: chatterbaits swim jigs (maybe) light frogs. -this group is all well over 1/2 oz I'm not telling you to buy two rods, just that you might have to pick your priorities between the two groups. And if you couldn't buy something on sale, the Tatula Elite 7'2" Med Hvy Howell is one of the most versatile rods I own. I've replaced it twice because I broke it (my fault both times). The tip loads really easily and it does just fine with just about everything. A 1/2oz chatterbait with a zako (.85 oz) starts to load this one a little much. I can't find an upgrade for the action on this rod, I'd own it if I could find it, and I've looked.

I didn't think it was possible to feel bad about living in Texas. But wow, this is epic!

8"-10" soft swimbaits, and big glidebaits. Built some decent confidence with heavy(ish) 6" this year, but I have no instinct at all for the hardbaits, or when it is time to get out the bigger soft ones and grind. Or at least as important, when it -isn't- time. My current plan is to either establish a pattern then use that as a jumping off point, or fish in places that I know already hold bigger fish. But maybe I just need to grind.

Thanks! Sounds very similar.

Yeah you basically just turn the mapping on and it started making them. They are also viewable from the web, which is much more useful. You can do a web view without having to share your data, or at least you could 18 months ago. I can't see much on the tiny phone screen. Contours are way more important to me than vegetation.

I'm at the 'serious consideration' stage of livescope, but my situation is such that I have to make the whole thing portable, and there's no room for two units. I currently use an H-bird for making maps, SI/DI/etc. The mapping feature is pretty good. I'm expecting to lose and have to re-make my maps when I make the switch to a garmin (943xsv I think). But if the garmin user-made maps are junky it'd be a tough switch to make. Anyone have experience with Quickdraw or whatver the GPSmap series calls it?

This year I learned that slowing way way down gets rewarded with much larger fish.

I had a deeper chirp when I was bank-bound and it was great. In particular the mapping! IMO just throw it on your surf rod for a while and you'll get a better feel for what you want in a rod to throw it on, if anything. The Irods are great, but if you were going to buy your first $150 rod it should go to a setup where you'd get value from the better blank, ie in one of your main presentations. When you do decide to get a rod, the least expensive thing that fits the weight will do just fine; ideally your neighbor's used catfish rod.

Fat Impact is primary on single hook like underspins or swimjigs. Mix of Jackall. Fat Impact, and Divine paddletails on an a-rig. Colder water I'm trying to get a tighter wiggle and a more compact bait. Slowly whittling down colors to a natural shad, a pearl, blugill flash (which doesn't look like a gill at all), and green pumpkin. Fat impact - 3.3, 3.8, 4.3 mostly Jackall - 3.8 - there's a specific color that an almost perfect match for threadfin Divine - 3.3, 3.8 (moves like the jackall) If I had to pick just one, it would be the 3.8 Fat Impact in bluegill flash. Just two would add the Divine in 3.3 in white/pearl (low vis) or natural shad(higher vis). Just three would add a 4.3 in green pumpkin. Everything else just sits while I try to think of a use for it.

Oddly enough I find the Divine swimbait to be really good for a tight wiggle a-rig bait. I guess for this format it doesn't really fight a stiffer plastic. Anyone fish a spark shad over a fat impact?

Seriously though, when the gills are dark/muted this color is a big winner.

Anyone spent some time fishing these? They are kind of like the megabass spark shad in shape. I'm curious when you'd fish it over a Fat Impact or a Jackall Rhythm Wave (tighter wiggle).

I have and use both Fins and Vicious. The fins sling braid is great for a very smooth 8-carrier. Vicious is a little more rough, but a little more abraision resistant. I still use fins on spinning, but for casting the Vicious is a better fit for me, partially because the color is better IMO (the fins dark green isn't dark) and partially because I fish around a lot of weeds. Still using fins on spinning in bright colors. They both really don't fade. The first time I tried a no-fade I knew I'd never go back.

This. I have yet to want to strip off tatsu because it has some memory... L&L and a couple of casts and it settles right back down. At least on baitcasters. I'd be more worried about twist than memory on the spinning reels; I only do braid/leader on spinning.

I went and checked my 3700 jig box that I use for storage. A couple of the jigs had weedguards bent down, although generally not all the way to the hook. They straightened right out, and when I put them back I changed the angle of how the jig sat in the box so the weedguard no longer gets pressure.

I'm in!

For chatterbaits the 3700 edge boxes work great, and most chatterbaits will fit two deep without a problem. So you can (as an example) stack two 3/8 whites on top of each other, and two 1/2 oz whites next to it. Handy for the colors you carry a bunch of in the same size/color. Sounds like the 3600 would still be good for chatterbaits but not at all for jigs. I need to go check my jig storage box though, now I'm wondering if I bent up a bunch of weedguards.

IMO the zillion HD is a perfect frog reel and zillion is a better chatterbait reel. None of what makes the HD great seems useful. If you just want big handle and knobs hunt around for a replacement handle for the tat elite P/F model. Also: