Craig P

After a week of the ribeyes, I might be ready for the pork. I’ll never get to know, my wife shops like we’re poor and only buys steak if it’s on sale.

No dressing for me. I’ve been making them myself for many many years. Think of the old CP or Swiss Swing but I use solid brass beads so they’re heavier. I typically only use Brass Blades but if the water is off color I’ll switch to a white blade. Mine vary from .13 ounce to .19 ounce depending on the scenario I am fishing.

Not Bass related but….I’ve been a trout spinning angler my whole life but lost touch with it the last 5-6 years chasing bass. A friend is dragging me back in so I took a BFS setup out last week since I am now experienced with baitcasters and played pseudo guide. I found some advantages but no negatives and had fun! so I thought I would buy a rod for future outings that was a little better suited. Shimano 24 B54UL Trout One NS. It is exactly what I thought it would be, a mini Expride B. Can’t wait to give this a go. I paired it with my Aldebaran BFS.

Even at a 15% tariff, we're still saving vs buying from a US retailer. I am all for supporting local businesses, but these megastores chased away all of my local sporting good shops. Now they control the pricing and they aren't doing us any favors. I have a Digitaka order coming tomorrow as well. It is at my local Fed-Ex so I am banking on the "system" if you will, not catching up to the delivery guy tomorrow am.

My boat is in my garage and never gets below freezing so I do not. If I stored my boat outside, I would pull them and put them in the garage or basement. I would do that for two reasons, freezing of course but that is subjective but mainly so if critters got into the boat, I know an electrical fire can’t happen.

Agree but I have been on a BFS kick and sometimes us anglers outsmart ourselves. LOL.

I ordered a couple in the 1/8 ounce size earlier this year. Pricey little devils and I hate to admit, that video posted by bass sniper gave me the itch to buy them. I have been on good spinbait bites and switched to only slow production. Switch back to spinbaits, back to catching more. I tried the larger well known blades jig variants this year and feel I have them down pretty good. I just think this version is too light and doesn’t provide enough action like the well known larger variants that the fish around me like to see. I won’t give up hope yet, I’m going to get my value out of them! lol

I went on a bladed jig binge for a couple of weeks to try and get better at them. Success! Nothing huge but good numbers. Wasn’t happy when a large fish, I assume Muskie, took my pricey Thunder Cricket. At least it wasn’t an even pricier bladed jig. Other than that, I just can’t put spinbaits down, just too much fun. Why does the forum change Jack you know the rest and cheddar bait to a bladed jig?

When you cast it out, do you let it sit for a few seconds? It helps.

As a lifetime stream trout spinner angler, I always cast upstream. It is difficult to get the spinner to the bottom going upstream and I’d rather be in their face than chance spooking them from behind. I fish smallies the exact way but smallies will turn and sometimes chase too, making the hit hard to hook and keep up with. My first time I ever fished smallies that was my experience and I enjoyed the heck out of that and the addiction ensued.

SE Pa here.

Aldebaran BFS. It doesn’t satisfy many presentations due to its low drag and spool size but it’s the style I use most often.

Bank fishing, leap frog eachother, this way you are getting the first cast/bait in front of the fresh fish. If he is catching behind you, you’re not feeling the bite. Ask him exactly what he is feeling and then pay attention for that. You may still not catch but you’ll get another clue to the puzzle. One thing I’ve learned fishing with others, some people just aren’t as good as others, it’s just like sports. Different people have different levels. Practice practice practice will get you in the game.

Thank you all for the sanity check. I guess I don’t need a straight jacket yet.

I have to think I am not normal. Maybe you can convince me otherwise? Yesterday I was fishing the Delaware River with a couple of friends trying a pricey JDM bladed jig with several different trailers I’m convinced will catch a fish……one day. All the while, my friends are catching on spinners. Ironically, I personally hand make those spinners. Why would I dare change to that to catch fish? I don’t though, I continue to try other baits. When one proves to work consistently, I switch to the next one. I do this almost every time I am out. I rarely stay with a bait I know works. It seems I don’t care what catches them, I seem to be more interested in finding out what doesn’t catch them. Half of me thinks I am just compiling an arsenal of baits and techniques that could be important one day? The other half of me thinks I am just crazy! lol Do you have days where you do what I do because you just have to know?

This is going to sound super remedial to people here but we forget what it’s like to pick up a rod the first time. For us, it’s built in, it’s simple, right? But we learned too, many of us having to just figure it out ourselves because that’s what our dad told us to do or at best, we watched his hands operate the reel and handle, with little understanding what the rod actually does. So here goes…. Have him hold the rod and pendulum the bait/lure back and forth slowly while holding the rod parallel to the ground. He will get a feel for the momentum in just a few seconds. Then tell him to focus on what the tip of the rod is doing, the swing of the lure weight and the tip working together. That will only take a few seconds as well and he will have an understanding of how to control it. Now it’s time to learn when to release the line. That one gets fun, stand opposite of where his rod is pointed. He will just need to work on timing. In a few minutes, he will be well on his way and can increase his speed and effort. I did this lesson just last Sunday with a new angler. A young adult but the concept is the same. In a few minutes, she stopped putting the senko in a tree above to hitting her mark in the water.

Within viewing distance with a good pair of polarized lenses. Say 30’? With the rest of your post in mind, I had livescope for 4 years and felt it taught me everything I wanted to learn from it so with my earlier statement, I moved on as I felt it would deter learning more. FWIW, I learned a TON!! using it. It taught me everything that I was seeing on sidescan and downscan. Kind of odd but when I look at side and down imaging now, my brain sees it in 3D. Without livescope, that would not be possible. I also learned a ton about fish behavior. Seeing on screen what a jerk or pause could do to a fish blew my mind and I now use those methods every cast. I would not suggest not using livescope, it is a great learning tool.

I removed my livescope last year after seeing fish on bed scatter the second I pointed the transducer at them. They would come back, didn’t care that I was around, turn the transducer towards them, boom, gone. I tried this on several beds I found that day, same result. I always thought that livescope was a hindrance when fishing up close so I would turn the transducer off. After seeing what I seen last year, my thoughts were confirmed. Still has its purpose obviously but it’s something to pay attention to so you know where to be selective.

If you like St Croix, look at their Physyx line of rods. I don’t see it mentioned much. I have one in spinning, ML for small swim baits / jigs and one in casting for BFS style spinbaits. I can’t say enough about this series. Put a Physyx in one hand and a Poison Adrena in the other, it will be difficult to tell which is which. Casting accuracy, off the charts. Just find the power for your frog duties.

I’m a pricey floro fan using Sniper Assassin FC on all of my baitcasters except ones I have dedicated to the gnarly stuff. A $30-40 spool of floro is little expense compared to what I’ve spent on setups.

I'm right with you, I don't like the smell on my hands. The best solution, wet your hands before touching any fish. It's not 100% perfect but it is 95% IMO. After that, a regular wash with dawn works for me.

I learned last year, the easiest way to scatter a bass off it’s bed was to point my FFS at them. You need to keep your distance.

It’s a nice reminder. Safety cannot be taken lightly. A guy from my old hood just died a couple of weeks ago, rough water, small boat tipped, no life jacket. Today on the news was someone installing a buoy in a creek, they’re searching for him now but his like jacket is rolling around at a dam. I wish I could chalk it up to not knowing? But when I see people kayaking in 40 degree water without a life jacket, it blows my mind. Aren’t people typically fearsome of water?

I noticed that my MGLs got smoother after I did the first service to them. Not that they were bad but I was pleasantly surprised how much nicer they got. I recently spoiled myself with an Aldebaran so now my MGLs feel a little geary but it’s only because that Aldebaran is so smooth, just relative. Also to mention. A friend recently bought a daiwa zillion, spooled at the store he purchased. No idea what they used but when I tried it, I didn’t think it was that smooth. Fast forward, he was complaining about the line while we were fishing. I handed him a spool of my sniper assassin FC and we re-spooled it. What a difference! Now smooth and much better composed for him. Line matters, age of line matters too.

OMG! What a finish. That was insane!