txchaser

Tat SV is more forgiving in casting into the wind and with light baits, zillion's two-stage is better in all cases but those two, at least at my skill level. I have quite a few of each of the above. I'm not running to retire the 17 or 20 tat SV's, but all the new reels I'm buying are the 21 zillions, which means my most-used rods all have zillions.

I don't think crankbaits are a good choice for trying to catch big fish. 3/5 of my biggest fish were on crankbaits, deliberately hunting big fish with them, and couldn't get bit on the usual big fish presentations. Yep, I'm disagreeing with myself. It has been a presentation of last resort, or where I think everything is lined up just right. But at some point I have to pay attention.

And this is how my tackle pile keeps growin' even when I thought I was mostly done. Appreciate all the suggestions, there were a lot of good ideas in here, and it gave me a bigger range to think about for these almost-prespawn fish at that depth range. And I remembered that I had some Curve 55's which will get me to 7-8 ft and not be too wild, and I found the Duo Realis in ~1oz too. Learned a bunch this year with crankbaits, particuarly how picky the fish can be about little stuff that hasn't seemed to matter as much in other presentations, like "today we'll bite yellow but not chart"

Someone here (maybe roadwarrior) posted about just putting it on a long drop shot if you are trying to fish the bottom of the water column in deep water. Then just let it fall all the way to the bottom, just using the DS to skip the slow part. With that said, unweighted probaby no deeper than 7 feet unless I just know for sure it is the deal.

Fair point. I may be overly concerned about having to go slow in the low 50's. 100% will make sure I have one on.

Same here. Just occassionally happening. Like it is looking for a cookie that isn't there.

For me it is mostly about whether I can figure out what the bigger fish are doing and eating that day. There's not any moment like putting together four or five weak signals that might be barely over a hunch... and then the rod just loads up hard with a nettable fish. It feels like a eureka moment for me.

Do you have a favorite flatside that runs deep? Or is there an alternate presentation I can put at 7-9 that will be subtle in movement and sound? I'm hunting 'biggest fish of the year', if that matters. I wouldn't have normally turned to a crank for that, but it has been working for me in colder water. A flatside has been a really good presentation for me in the early prespawn, call it 55-57 degrees. Usually fished as slow as I can stand it, and it hasn't mattered whether I'm hitting anything or deflecting. Very tiny/subtle rattle. I'm going to hit this area a little earlier, best guess would be 51-53 degrees. Weather here is volatile so it could be warmer. Really hoping is back over 50 though. My hunch is that the fish are going to be a little deeper, and I'm going to need to present at 7-9'.

GL down here, although it is pretty dang cold right now and ice on the streets. It'll be pre-pre-spawn I suppose. I hope it warms up for you, and you are staying a few hours east anyway. On the MH, would you put it as a good moving bait rod that can also double duty as a bottom contact, or the other way around?

Karls has bull shads in stock.

Thanks!

Learn anything interesting before they were gone?

Fair enough, rods get fully loaded and unloaded 1x week, and ride in the truck all week. I really need to get a boat. Re easy fix - dang.. it's too late, I thought it was totally trashed. Now I know.

A deciding feature for me was Hbird's auto mapping. If being able to make your own maps, or add precision to the existing ones, is important to you, it is hard to pass up. Be aware you'll pay 100 bucks to unlock the good version of it though. Second feature was the DI/SI quality seemed to be consistently better than other brands. But no touch screen The g3 and g4 models appear to have different resolutions, roughly a 25% increase, and especially on the SI unit I care about that a lot. Enough that I've been thinking of upgrading, because I'm having a tough time picking out fish on SI on the g3. Some of that is certainly operator error, I'm no SI master. Random, but it took me a while to buy an anti-glare overlay for it. I wish I would have done that on day one, I can see it so much better. I think it is a hyper-competitive market, and in the mainstream the price/performance/features are all really close. At the upper end different companies start to pull away for 360, FFS, etc. Doesn't seem like I hear much about "I had brand X and was sad and I got brand Y and now I'm happy"

I broke the handle of a rod in a tragic car door accident. Sooo careful with the tips, but a side crunch on the handle doesn't look like it does much until you cast and it comes in two. And it was a rod that gets used almost every outing because it was so versatile and a good fit for a couple of key presentations. Anyway I fish it so much I'm thinking about an upgrade for the replacement, and the AGS guides don't fit my transportation style, I'll break them. So that's got my eye wandering towards a poison adrena. Anyone have a poison adrena MH/R or MH/RF and can describe it? Ideally relative to daiwa's MH/R. One of my most-used rods was a tatula elite MH/"regular" - was super versatile, and I liked it for: bigger cranks (10-15 but not true DD), minimag squarebills, 3/8 chatterbaits esp with smaller trailers (but not 1/2oz, went to heavy for that), and medium-wire swimjigs. The daiwa had a lighter tip on it so it wasn't sensitive to being underloaded, and the tip had some give on moving baits during the retrieve. There was a big of a stage two bend with a fish on that wasn't parabolic, but definitely seemed like it was pinning them without being a floppy crankbait rod or a glass rod. I think the action was something like a mod or mod/f but I don't have anyone elses rods that are MOD to really compare, except a poison adrena H/RF "fast moving and big bait" rod. The H is almost perfect as a bigger chatterbait, or heavy wire swimjig rod. But it is stout enough it is hard to intuit what the MF version of R or RF will look like from Shimano.

Thanks @WRB If this is the one you are talking about, it sat right there in the winter box next to the flutter spoons. I even had the tools and didn't put it together.

Threadfin. Trying to chase the fish that go unmolested for all of deer and duck season All daytime, can stretch into dark. Usually weekends.

I had one of those "I can see them but dangit I can't catch them" days. Water temps ~49-50 at the surface, 52 at 20ft. Surpisingly warm actually. Air temps dropping over the last 14 days, but water not moving much (2-4degrees maybe?) Water was murkier than usual, probably 2ft vis vs usual 3-4ft. Full sunshine, wind steady around 7-10mph. Shad were consistently setup at 27ish feet in 30FOW, next to a ledge that in many cases started around 20ft. I could see a bunch of fish in there with the shad. I could also see fish on the 20ft ledges 'overlooking' where the shad were. Fish not relating to the shad balls were mostly suspending around 11ft over 20-30ft water, or on the bottom in 10-12fow. I'm guessing based on where I saw them they were shore fish. This place has two distinct behaviors, one is pursuing and relating to shad (pale, pelagic) and one is up shallower mostly chasing gills (have a tan). Consistent all year round in terms of different approaches/bites/behavior. Caught a single fish on a tail spin, tried two types/colors. Lift to 1ft, then drop. Also tried 4" and 6" spoons (rip and drop), jig w/pork slow drag, cranks (albeit not heavy committment), some dropshot with maxscent flat shad set at 18", slow rolling a chatterbait around 1ft off the bottom. And a lot of a-rig, both heavy head and light head. Pretty sure I got both above and through the school, fast and slow. Both a-rigs were bladed - heavy one with white swimbaits, fat impact 3.8 , light one with natural color, tight wiggle 3.8 (jackall). Thought about but didn't try: 1) heavy underspin. 2) Repositioning boat to change casting angle, although this is tougher with no spotlock. Can anchor in 20ft, but 30ft seemed a little sketchy. One fish I did catch deep was on a drive-by... I saw them while I was moving and just chucked it past them and kept moving. But continued to fish that school with no further results. Most days I would have just moved on and chased the fish that were up in 11FOW, but I was trying to figure out the winter deep shad bite. I did catch one of them near sundown as I started throwing a white swimjig up shallow-ish. Anyway if you made it this far, thanks for reading the wall of text. Often on the drive home I get some idea on what I missed or what else I might have tried, but I'm coming up blank.

Eventually ended up trying these out. Doubt I'd go back to anything but a CPS hook, but that doesn't fit quite right on a t-rig. Tried the baitkeepers, all of it seemed too fiddly to me. [Mustad Grip-Pin] I bought some of these ryugi keepers to try too, but haven't gotten around to trying because the grip pins are working really well for me. Might use these on spinnerbaits with no keeper.

Responsible for 50% of my fish today. Was a tough, so that means one of my two fish. 30 FOW (deepest bass I've caught) relating to shad, right at the break where it transitions from a flat to a slope. Fished a more typical tailspin with a willow blade that has worked in this lake just to make sure the gyro wasn't leaving catchable fish behind, no takers. Definitely feels like a tailspin/blade bait, not a mini lipless. Be aware that it has a bigger presence that most tailspins - the blade on the tail is pretty big, and it is not subtle. The water was murky today so I think it was a plus given the conditions. Anyway it wins a spot in the winter box for now as an alternate presentation, or when there's heavier cover. If it gets stuck it'll be stuck for good though.

IMO just learn the regular view and DI first and run them side by side on the screen together. When you get comfy with that, add the m360 and look at it in areas you have already looked at on the DI. I remember the first time I waded into someones 360 and was like what am I even looking at, where is it, this isnt helping me at all, and turned it off.

Two things - one, the military knocked the nonsense right out of me. But it certainly isnt for everyone, just turned out it was exactly what I needed- more challenge and intensity not less. Two, and this almost seems silly to bring up, but I'm curious what he said when you asked him the same thing you asked us?

More episodes are out...

Flat sides have done extremely well for me in early prespawn, and were producing big fish last weekend in 46 degree water too. I threw them on a hunch because the deepest water for a long way was about eight feet, and I knew gill presentation had been productive in this area before, chatterbait low and slow wasn't working. I fish them as slow as I can without it rising up. That doesn't get me a lot of fish, but whew the big girls love it. I'm not deflecting off anything. I'm just swimming like a swimbait a couple feet off the bottom. S...L...O...W...