Big Hands

Almost thirty years ago, when the bug swimbait craze was in full blown insanity mode at Castaic, a friend and I were helping a certain well known person manufacture his baits because he couldn't keep up with demand. They were technically a (jointed) lipless crankbait and were typically 11" or 12" long and we occasionally made some 'magnum' models that were closer to 13" long. Things were a little nuts around the ramp as WRB will attest. Everybody was looking at what everybody else was using. People were being accused of fishing with live trout. All kinds of madness. We thought we would get do a little 'trolling' our selves just to see if we could wind up a few people that were already wound up, so we made a 30" model from a length of 3.5" split rail fence stock. We found a humongous boot tail plastic to finish it off. That monstrous thing actually swam quite well, LOL. We put a Penn 4/0 Senator filled with 50 or 80 lb mono onto a roller guide Sabre tuna rod and would put that in his gunnel mounted rod holder sticking up with that ginormous plug hanging from it when we launched just to watch heads explode and tongues wag. As soon as we left the ramp, we'd put it away and fish how we wanted, and then put it back in there when pulling the boat out.

Possibly, possibly not, but absolutely wise to consider that this may be true. It's good to have choices.

I have several Phenix Feather rods, and I would say that it's closer to half a power down. They are definitely a little lighter in power than my rods from Shimano and Daiwa, but not a whole level IMHO.

I have found that Walmarts vary quite a bit in the selection of tackle and amount, likely based on what sells at that store and what doesn't. Back in the mid-90's, I went to visit a friend for a week in Waco, TX. They had a Super WalMart that was loaded with tackle. They even sold gillnets, which will get you a quick trip to the Graybar Inn where I live. One of my friend's neighbors was a local guide and fishing TV show host named Charlie Pack that had his own line of crappie rods and crappie related tackle. The local WalMarts in Waco (I think he told me there were six of them locally that had his gear there) not only had a full display of his gear, they had a life-size cardboard cutout of him next to it, LOL. ====================== As for the best, I can't say any stand out for me because they all have their strong points and their weak points and I have, over the years, been into various types of fishing, boating and rod building. But, I do like to visit local tackle shops when I travel because they all have their specialties and 'personality'.

I use both a M/F and a ML/F for dropshotting. For me, the biggest difference is that the ML/F will cast lighter baits a little easier and/or a little further. I used only M/F rods for that for quite a while, and it was fine. I actually have three M/F rods primarily used for dropshotting, but If I could only have two rods for that use instead of. . . . four. . . . I would keep one M/F and one ML/F because they are slightly difference and I can take advantage of the that versatility in some situations. Horses for courses, blah, blah, blah. But, if I could only have one, either would be fine for that use and I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

It happens, LOL. I have also seen a woman swing on what she said was a stump. Then, the fourteen pound stump jumped clean out of the water.

Moron Moment? How about a Moron Morning? Late 80's. We had a fishing club at the aircraft plant I worked at, and we had a club tournament down at Lake San Vicente near San Diego. My wife's aunt lived in Vista, so we drove down the night before and stayed there. Back then, the 'city lakes' as they were known, had long closed seasons, and even when open, they were only open a few days a week. So, as a result, whatever lakes are open, they are very crowded. I get to the lake over an hour early, and start getting prepped. The line to get in is about a mile long. Seriously. As I am moving my gear from my car to the boat, I see the key is missing from the switch in the boat. I start looking for it, and can't find it anywhere. Soon, I am frantic. The key is nowhere to be found. I look everywhere. Three times at least. Someone suggests that Ranger only used a few different keys and I could probably find someone else in line that had a spare that would fit. . . . and that they would loan me. Walked the mile long line up and back. No dice. Then, just before that nannies opened the gate, I take one last look in the glove box, and way in the back, there it is. That was definitely a moron moment, but we're just getting revved up here. My nerves are shot as the line begins to move. If you've ever been to San Vicente BITD, you know 'the hill' that you have to climb to get into the launch area. All I could see were that each car would stop on this curve that I couldn't see past, and wait a few minutes, sometimes more, before proceeding. Then I get to the turn and see what's happening. The hill is so steep, that some need a few runs at it to get over the top. If they don't make it, they have to back down and take another shot at it or give up and leave. This whole situation has only served to wind me up a little more than I already was, but finally it's my turn and I make it over and into the line to actually launch. I found out later that my buddy couldn't get his Mazda B2000 to pull his 18' fiberglass Bass Tracker over the hill and had to drive to town and was able to pay a guy $20 to get him up over the hill. But enough about his moment, and on to my moron morning. It's finally my turn, and I back the boat down the relatively flat ramp compared to what I am used to. The boat isn't floating off the trailer as soon as it normally would. I get out. Look. Back down more. Get out. Look. Back down more. Get out. Look. Back down more. I get out again, and walk out on the dock. The boat still isn't off the trailer. I finally realize that I neglected to unbuckle the tie downs. I get back to the car, and the floorboards of the back seat have about 4" of water in them. I pull up into the parking lot to unbuckle the straps, and shamefully bail the water out of the floorboards and get back into the launch line. Now, the boat gleefully pops off the trailer as it should when I am functioning normally and I tie it to the dock and take my rig to the parking lot. I finally get into the boat and idle out of the marina ready to put all of this behind me and have a nice day fishing. Or would I? As soon as I idle out of the marina, I throw the hammer down and a surge of water comes bubbling up through the floor drain. I pull back and stop. First thought: "I know I put the plug in." Second thought: "This is not good." I flip the switches on both 900 GPH bilge pumps and they start pumping water as they should (at least they are working far better than my brain was). I was at least thinking enough to remember that if I get up and going, that it could help to drain water out. I stay on plane until water stops pumping from the bilge and turn the pumps off. I need to verify that the plug is in, so I quickly strip to the waist and hang over the back of the boat far enough to feel around to see if the plug is there as the water is slapping against my ear. The plug is there. Water starts coming up through the drain again so I turn the bilge pumps on again. I correctly surmise that I might have put the plug into a livewell hole rather than the drain hole for the hull and reach back down, pull the plug and put into the other hole. ** My third moron moment of the morning is finally behind me. I put my shirts back on and take off, headed somewhere. I don't know where, but I needed to go somewhere. ** Or is it? ** Nope. I run long enough that the water stops being pumped out, so I switch the pumps off and sure enough, water again surges up through the floor drain. What the monkey is going on here? I'll tell you what's going on. I turn on the pumps and stop the boat, strip down and reach down to find that I had taken the plug from one livewell hole and put it into the other livewell hole. I feel around and determine that two holes are alike and one is different. I put the plug into the one that is different. The water pumps out and stops and my fourth moron moment is behind me. My moron morning is also finally nothing but wretched memory. I get one bite and proceed to catch one of the bigger fish of our group and take some cash away from the event. I submit that four moron moments in one morning qualify me for a moron morning. I will also say that if I had to choose, as much as that morning sucked, I think I would choose my moron morning to having my butt pinned to my bed with treble hooks and needing the help of others to remedy that situation ;~)

My first DD was caught on a 6' M/F rod and a Shimano TX Aero ULS-A reel. They made a TX Aero 2-6 model reel for 2 to 6 lb line, but this reel was made for smaller line. The reel was filled with 6 lb Ande monofilament line. I was by myself and had never caught a bass over 5 lbs. The red arrow is where I hooked her, except the water level was about 65' higher. Once I could feel how large and powerful she was, I slowly eased the boat away from the bank so we could battle out in the deeper water. It took more than a couple of minutes to land her, but you kind of loose track of time in moments like this. This was my first time experiencing 'the double digit shakes'. It's real. I had no scale and no camera. The patrol boat had already informed me that the lake was closing soon. I put the fish in the livewell, and hauled butt to the ramp where they had a scale. 10 lbs, 6 ounces. I asked the lifeguards if I could go and put her back where I caught her. They reluctantly agreed. The boat I had at the time would do over 70 mph, so it took about two minutes to get there, a minute to release her, and a couple minutes to get back. To catch a fish that way, there is a certain amount of good fortune involved. Add to that, the preparation, knowledge, and skill required to have the best chance for a good outcome and sometimes we win. Sometimes the fish wins, which is as it should be IMHO. Darth-Baiter, when you described the condition of the hook, it occurred to me that one possibility is that the point of the hook happened to hit on one of the hard surfaces inside the mouth of the bass, and the hook simply didn't penetrate. It happens. I believe that when a hook breaks or bends, that this is often the case. If the hook penetrates down past the barb all the way to the bend, it is MUCH more difficult to bend or break the hook than if when you're pulling against the point of the hook. Even light line will bend or even break some hooks when that happens. If that is what happened, there's a good chance that you would have lost her eventually anyway. . . . maybe, maybe not. We could play the 'maybe game' until we're blue in the face. Maybe, if you would have used a heavier hook, it wouldn't have bent. . . . or maybe the extra weight of the hook would have made the bait not enticing enough for it to bite. Same thing with heavier line. It goes on forever, kinda like this post, LOL, so I will try to bring this all together and wrap it up. You could swear off the hooks and never use them again. Or, you could go out to the garage and tie one onto the same size line you were using. Find a piece of very hard wood, or even drill just a little bit into a piece of metal and put the hook into it with just the point into the material and pull on it. See what happens. Then put a washer in a vice so you can put the hook into it and pull against the bend and see what happens. If you pull against that washer, my money is on the hook bending outward (if it bends at all before the line breaks) and the best chance it would have to bend, especially sideways, is if the hook has barely penetrated, not to mention whatever the heck else is going on inside the mouth of a lunker that has clamped down on a meal.

Or you could be half past catastrophe.

They've been working on the dam and were supposed to be finished up, but I heard they found some more stuff that needed to be fixed, so refilling it has been delayed. Hopefully no so delayed that they miss so much of the spring rains that it won't get filled.

I already know you like to pick the fly poop out of the pepper and then know what the fly ate for breakfast. It obviously works well for you and I appreciate that about you. I'm a little less empirical with 'data', but I can imagine there are times when knowing how much line was out would be useful. As for casting distance, I usually only have enough line over the backing to have some in reserve if I need it, but not too much more. I can usually start to see the backing on a long cast and use that to see if I'm casting as far as I usually do with a given setup, etc. Other than that, either I can cast to it or I can't ? I can't say that has never happened, doh! I have also spooled up as far as I dared to push it, only to have the line pile on more toward the center enough to have it hang up on the reel foot on a cast where I was really trying to wing an 8 oz swimbait as far as possible. So long SPRO Slow Sinking BBZ1 . . . . I'm referring to days gone by when 5'6" MH pistol grip rods (the softest casting rods I had) that were rated for 10-25 lb monofilament filled our rod lockers that were built in laterally because no one was using rods longer than that until the flippin sticks became popular. You could swing surprisingly hard on 6 lb mono on a MH fast taper rod with that setup. When P-Line first came out (Izorline too), it was so stretchy, you could swing as hard as you wanted on their 6 lb test and it wouldn't break. Wouldn't set a hook well either. Back then, I had to learn to do it. Now, I have to learn not to do it.

I wish I could remember exactly how much line I spooled onto them, but I don't. I do tend to fill my spools as much as possible so theoretically the spool doesn't need to spin up as fast when casting. One of the things that attracted me to the Curado BFS was the very shallow spool it comes with. I'm not a fan of having way more line than I need, but I do prefer to have a full spool. I can tell you that I can cast far enough to see the holes in the spool. As for the hookset, that depends on what type of rig I am fishing. If I am wacky rigging aa weightless Senko, I will reel up into them. With a Texas rig, I still give a pretty firm hookset to the point where the drag slips a bit of the hookset. . . . maybe a little more than 'a bit', LOL. That probably goes back to my days of fishing 6 lb monofilament on a baitcaster where I almost had to run to the back of the boat before setting the hook to get sufficient penetration. I think it's probably going to be the way to go for me going forward with the BFS baitcasters. It usually happens on one the first couple of Texas rig fish I catch, and then I remember to make a small cast to open water, pull the line out of itself, reel in under tension, and go back to fishing. Remembering to simply reel in under tension would probably save me this extra step.

I have been using 10 lb and 12 lb braid for the main line on my Curado BFS reels. The potential (and realized) problems arise when I make a number of casts with relatively lightweight baits, reeling them in with little pressure against them, making for the line being a bit loose on the spool. Now, when I set the hook and reel in a fish, it is not unusual to have my first cast hang at the spot where I set the hook. It's definitely a thing, and I should probably make a habit of using my thumb and forefinger to keep tension on the line as I reel it in during each cast. I think it's as much about the lack of tension that a lightweight bait has as it is about the size of the line being more susceptible to the line digging in.

I will pile on here and say that RW's professed love for the Senko helped to convince me that the Senko could be worth another chance. From May to September of 2021, the Senko was easily my most productive bait during that time. And, as far as plastics go, a lot of fun to fish too.

I have a broken off ultralight spinning rod that broke just above the first guide. I have attached an old Zebco underspin reel with 6 lb monofilament and tied on a 3/8 oz practice plug. It is known around our house as 'the cat exerciser'. It casts super easy using kind of an underhanded flip cast that will sling it into adjacent rooms of down a hallway. Cats love it, I also would let out a few feet of line and twirl in a circle like a lasso. That one would have the cat chase it until he had to stop. Have you ever seen a cat so winded that he had to pant to catch his breath? I found that cats hate to see it disappear. That could be through a doorway, around the corner of a piece of furniture, etc. It just triggers their predatory response as they don't want it to get away.

Hands down, this is the tool that has saved my bacon too many times to count for jobs just like this one. Way better than vise grips, much to my surprise. Basically, a 4" or 4.5" pair of channellocks. I call them 'my little darlins'.

I initially felt the same way. The drag on my two Curado BFS reels is not what I would describe as 'beefy' in any way. It is smooth and the adjustment has a fine modulation across a relatively narrow range, which is great for lighter lines, but if you think you're going to just tighten it down enough to work with a 10 lb leader, you've probably got the wrong reel. You'd have to cinch down very hard to get that much.

Rookie Matty Wong is from Hawaii, but has been in southern California for several years now. He keeps his boat in the same storage yard as I have my travel trailer. I ran into him one day when I was there a couple years ago and chatted with him for a bit (before he ever became 'famous') as he was dropping his boat off. I'd been following his YT videos for a year or so, but just did the math and figured out who he was a few months ago after he won the Nations championship. He had one fish at 11 a.m. and then put three solid chunks in the boat. He's in 6th place after Day 1 of his Elite rookie debut!

Went to the lake for a few hours on Sunday morning. My daughter was visiting and hadn't been out on this boat that I have had for nine months, so we basically just went joy riding and didn't bring any fishing equipment. The weather was nice, and the wind was not terrible yet. The ramp was about half mucked, but there was one lane that wasn't terribly trashed so we were able to launch and then use the TM to get out past the muck before firing up the big motor. I'm guessing WRB will be able to tell from the 2nd pic where the water level is as it continues to fill back up. That pic also features one of our local celebrities chilling out on the shore. He even laid down and just watched us buzz around with the trolling motor, likely hoping we'd break out the gear and be able to throw him some shore lunch. After that, we were cruising in another cove and noticed a lot of 'stuff' on the exposed shoreline and spent a couple hours policing the beach. Lots of cans and bottles, fishing line, abandoned anchor ropes, mylar balloons and a couple of beach umbrellas that were long past their expiration date. Not sure how good the shore fishing is now (in early February), but accessing the shoreline is easier than it has been simply because the water is so much higher than it was, but not so far up that you can't get around.

Our smallies are mixed right in with our largemouth, with the largemouth being about 3:1 or 4:1 more prevalent. Since I've discovered the Keitech baits, the regular Swing Impact in Electric Shad has been my go to finesse bait in the winter season with the 4" and 3.5" VERY s-l-o-w-l-y dragged on a c-rig.

I'm not gonna lie, I have had some 'Three Stooges Go Bass Fishing' moments using long Carolina rig leaders. More than I care to talk about on an individual basis. I will say that if you care to fish long leaders on your Carolina rigs (and I do), be extra super careful casting. You will probably learn the hard way, just like casting a big fluffy spinnerbait into the wind with a baitcaster. Like telling a two year old not to eat sand at the beach. As soon as you stop paying attention. . . . yep. . . . you'll wrap that sucker onto something and try like heck to cast it into the lake before you can stop yourself. I will not reveal here & now how I know these things, but I do. I mostly carolina rig with 36" to over 48", usually around 40" to 50", and I mostly carolina rig in the colder months. It seems to work better here than in the summer months. In the warmer part of the year, I will use a slipshot rig with a 24" to 36" leader and a much lighter mojo slip sinker.

IF that is true: I think it could make sense to do it that way because the consistency of a leader could be more critical because it has such a short distance, whereas a segment that isn't quite the same could be more apt to fail when stressed in the short distance of a leader, especially with a braid mainline. According to Seaguar's own website, all of their 8 lb fluorocarbon line (from Red Label, to Tatsu, to Gold Label) is the same .009" diameter. Truly not on a mission to bust anybody's tenderonies, just seeking to understand because I don't know and would like to know. I understand that when you get toward the top of the food chain, a little better starts costing a lot more. It's like that in so many pursuits, and I like that options like that do exist even if they are priced beyond what I am prepared to pay, at least on a regular basis. If I paid $3500 to enter a tournament and I am counting on getting a check so I can provide for my family, it might be a more viable choice. Just like a professional photographer wouldn't shoot the Super Bowl with a kit lens. Just to be fair after starting this thread, I will get a spool of Gold Label and give it a try.

Of the reels you mentioned, I have the: Daiwa Tatula SV TWS Shimano SLX 150 DC I also have: Shimano SLX MGL 70 Shimano Curado 200K Shimano Curado BFS Daiwa Tatula 100 Personally, I would rather use the Shimano SLX MGL 70 than the SLX DC 150, even for use with a MH/F rod. I like it more for four reasons: It casts better It takes less line to fill it It's plenty strong It costs less I like the Daiwa SV TWS better than the SLX DC 150 too. They are all excellent choices though. JMHO