redmeansdistortion

Most of the Japanese shops are using DHL and FedEx. I've only had one slow delivery, when my Digitaka order was forwarded from DHL to the USPS. The order got from Japan to Belleville, MI in just a couple of days, then it spent a week and a half in the USPS Package Soccer Championship. It has only happened the one time, so no biggie to me.

I really like high end gear. It's smooth and pleasing to look at, but I don't feel it really helps me catch more fish. Some of the most successful fishermen I know use nothing more than Ugly Stiks with whatever blister pack reels they find at the local store.

Okuma Ceymar is a fine reel as well. I have the C20 and use it often. Runs about $40 to $50.

I wonder how this stacks up with the Phenix Feather 71L? I have the Feather and love it to death.

Ambassadeur 5600AB. My aunt and uncle got it for me as a high school graduation gift. I still have and use it, but removed the anti-backlash mechanism.

Is it wasting time if you enjoy it?

Quantity seems to be the prevailing mentality when it comes to most forms of fishing. I understand, we all love to catch fish, but sometimes it isn't just about the fish. I do a lot of hike-in trips over the year, hiking deep into the bush for two or three days at a time and living out of a backpack. The sense of adventure is unlike anything one could possibly get sitting on a boat. This is why I lost a lot of interest in bass fishing over the years, it got to be too routine for me. There's very little exploration involved that touches upon every human sense or invokes curiosity like wandering the forest and taking in all the sights, sounds, and smells. The ultimate reward is a meal of wild trout and morel mushrooms cooked over a campfire to finish off a day of fishing. That said, I still like to go bass fishing for a couple of hours here and there to kill time since I can do it minutes from my house.

We barely even have skim here in SE MI. I was bummed, friend got me pumped for ice fishing and now we have nothing. We will have to heard north.

Welcome neighbor! Lake St Clair sure is fantastic isn't it? I don't realize how good it is until I go somewhere else.

Daiwa Alphas CT SV outfitted with a SLP Works shallow spool, mounted on a custom Lamiglas G1000 5'6" 2-8lb.

You won't need to go that thin throwing a true 1/16 bait. The lightest bait I use is a 1/32 jig with a 2" Powerbait minnow, coming in at 1.7g, slightly under 1/16. This is with my Alphas CT SV outfitted with a SLP Works shallow spool, 8lb J-braid and a 6lb Seaguar leader. Your Calcutta is a more finesse capable reel than my Alphas. To keep rotating mass low, use less line. I use no more than 40 to 50yd worth. You can use the 4lb no problem, just saying it isn't necessary to cast as light as you want. Now if you were wanting to cast Trout Magnets, then the 4lb may be beneficial to some degree.

Coaster trout. They're brook trout that live in Lake Superior and migrate back to the tributaries to spawn. They attain sizes of up to 26" or so.

If nobody had any hobbies, we'd all be reasonably well off lol

Have a look at the Daiwa Alphas CT SV, you can find them cheap if you watch Amazon Japan. I got mine for something like $180 each as I bought both the 6.3 and 7.2. They seem to fluctuate between $160 and $230 with prices more often being on the lower end. I can cast a 1.5" Slider grub on a 1/16 head very well, total weight of 3g, just under 1/8. This is using a JDM Daiwa Bass X 64LB 1/16-3/8 rod and spooled with 20lb J-braid. It's probably my favorite reel. If you ever wanted to go lighter, there are a few spool options available ranging in price from $55 to $175.

I can see that happening if the lake is warm since trout do very poorly in temps above 70. The DNR where I am stocks very few lakes, but does stock many streams with fish that either become residents or migratory.

I'm mostly fishing in closer quarters when using BFS gear, most of my casts are within 15yd so more line isn't needed on my part. It's also much easier to pick out a backlash with less line on the spool.

I grew up fishing trout, and they are still my favorite fish to pursue by far. Hiking in, setting up camp, and wading the streams is so serene, beautiful, and full of adventure.

I hear you there. I primarily fish woody impassable trout streams. My usual setup is the above but with a 6lb fluorocarbon leader. When I'm fishing bass I do run 20lb braid, but with the factory spool and not the RCS spool in the above photos. That said, I have caught some giant smallies on that spool while fishing for perch. It's a hoot when a big smallie is peeling line on that thing lol

The Japanese regularly run super thin diameter line on their BFS reels. The method I described above was learned from a Japanese BFS YouTube channel. Running thicker line on BFS is a largely American thing, whereas in Japan and Europe, they go thin. Remember, this is a rig for finesse presentations and running 20lb or 30lb braid is counter productive to the technique. 20lb is more adequate to a more power finesse application, a technique you'd use with something like a Tatula SV.

Wrap the line around the spool 4 or 5 times and tie it off with a uni knot. It won't slip. Use a piece of tape to hold the line in place to get those wraps on, then pull it off before you tie the knot. As you cinch the knot down, push the wraps towards the center of the spool. Then finish filling your spool. This is 8lb Daiwa J-braid, which is 0.13mm thick, a similar diameter to 2lb mono.

I'm really loving this guy. Got a RCS shallow spool for it too.

I don't fly fish, but I do have a friend that fly fishes exclusively. You'd think he would gravitate towards trout, but nope, he fishes carp and smallmouth on the fly. It's pretty impressive watching him land a big carp or smallie, and a lot of the time he will be catching fish when nobody else is.

Generally speaking, trout patterns work best because trout are aggressive towards their own species, although the bigger ones do indeed eat the smaller ones. One other thing, bigger trout primarily feed on fish and not bugs, so if you're looking to land a bigger trout, the minnow baits will perform best. I couldn't tell you how many times I've been throwing spinners and getting dink after dink, only to tie on a Countdown or X-Rap and get a 20" brown at the end of the line. Another fun tactic is mousing. A deer hair mouse fished at night will produce some of the biggest browns you ever saw. They like to snack on the terrestrial critters that swim around the banks. The top water explosion you get mousing is far more intense than you get with bass.

Something else to think about, hatchery trout wise up after as little as a few days from release. Having previously lived on food pellets, they don't know what is and isn't food once they're in their new body of water. Trout are very intelligent fish and highly attuned to their environments. Once they have it figured out, the bites become less and less over time. A couple weeks post release, they become as wary and skittish as their wild counterparts.

When I was a kid, left hand retrieve baitcasters were few and far between. As a result, I cast and reel with my right. I've tried using left hand retrieve many times over the years but just can't get used to it due to the lack of fine motor skills.