Big Hands

Maybe he was like a soldier that quickly realizes that they have stepped down on a land mine and then freezes in place before lifting their foot. If you fish often enough, you will witness odd behavior by the fish. That it happened is one known. Why it happened is something something that only the fish and their hairdresser know for sure.

It's not always the same reason(s). Sometimes I: want to spend time with friends or family. want to spend time with a fellow angler (not necessarily to be confused with friends or family). want to be alone with my thoughts. want to have some sanctuary time and get away from whatever I have been immersed in at home and/or work. want to try a new bait, technique, or gear. want to chase a big fish. want to feel the tug. want to be on the water in a boat. want to be outside in a more natural setting. It could be any one of the above or a combination of them. They all can be motivation for me to go.

That crab spoon is. . . . awesome.

I recently received this anonymous text: ;~) The Bait Monkey merely offers to provide a unique service. Whether or not you wish to utilize that service is up to you. Warm Regards, Bait Monkey

I said as much to a friend back in the late 80's and he invited me down to Seal Beach one Friday evening in the summer time during a full moon. He told me to bring the heaviest, longest setups I had that I could cast a long way with. My 8' Truline O36 (similar to a D8 jig stick) with an ABU 9000 2 speed and 25 lb monofilament was the closest to that I had at that time. We used a 1 ounce egg sinker with a 5/0 5x treble hook and pinned a whole fresh dead squid to it, and cast it out as far as we could into the surf. He had rod holders that were 5 ft tall to get the tip of the rod as high as possible. I caught seven bat rays that evening, with the smallest being 12 lbs and the biggest going 60 lbs. His wife caught a 90 lb bat ray. You have to use the strongest treble hooks because those bat rays will crush a normal treble hook in their powerful jaws. Supposedly they get up around the 200 lb range in the surf right there in Seal Beach (and who knows where else). That 60 lb bat ray took me for quite a ride on 25 lb test on an 8' rod. It was like battling a muscular half-sheet of plywood.

nvm

Lots of people are talented anglers, but being able to be 'the total package' of a professional angler that could 'dominate' at the upper levels of the sport and would be willing to do what it takes to do so is rare. And it's not easy.

A little insight into your avatar pic?

There are a lot of artifacts and inconsistencies in this image when blown up in Photoshop that lead me to believe it could very well have been manipulated. If so, it's certainly not the worst hack job I have seen, but there are some things about it that just don't make sense unless it was manipulated. The part that is baffling to me is why someone would go to that much trouble to manipulate an image that way and then attempt to pass it off as real. Of course, I could be wrong, but it don't look right to me. I wonder if there are more than one shot of it available.

Wow, mine is only barely 10.5". I feel like the only decent thing to do is offer you my screen name should you desire it ;~) I don't seem to sensitive to being able to palm reels since they have gone to locating the drive gear in a lower position on 'modern' reels, but everyone has their own way of handling a reel.

Be careful putting a Daiwa Kage LT 2000D-XH reel on a Daiwa Kage rod too. It's a Fuji VSS TS reel seat. I suggest that anyone thinking of using this reel seat with any spinning reel try the reel in the seat to make sure it's not loose at the rear of the foot. I ended up using a shim made from clear plastic packaging to get it to stop squirming. Daiwa uses two different reel feet on their spinning reels and both had issues. Oddly enough the Kage reel fits beautifully on a Tatula rod with essentially the same rod specs (but they use a different reel seat). SMDH.

I may have a use for my 'flippin stick' afterall. . . .

I really don't see myself needing more than 100 or so yards of line on my baitcasters, but YMMV. Seems like the extra rotational weight alone would be a downside, and I would just put backing on a deeper spool anyway. If you don't need the capacity of a 150, why not go with the 70?

I went and put all the Senkos and Roboworms that I got at Walmart in with the other Senkos and Roboworms that I got from the tackle store where I paid a buck or two more a bag. I hope I can find a way to separate them.

I turn the reel handle to move the bait so slowly that the sloths ask me to kindly 'pep it up'. If the bait hangs on anything, then I may have to use the rod to work it through whatever is hanging it up. I use both heavy Carolina rig setups and the more finesse slipshot rigs. I like the feedback the heavy weight provides. If I am anchored up and using a 3/4 to 1 oz weight, I will often close my eyes so I can just concentrate on the feel, and what it would look like slowly, tediously crawling up and over the cover. Time and a place. And it's getting to be that time in the places I fish.

I have had Daiwa reels not play nice with the reel seats on Daiwa rods, even on a reel with the same family of rods. I have to wonder if they ever fished with a **** (rhymes with 'hog-ay') reel on a **** rod. It would squirm so much when setting the hook, that it would startle me and I would be wondering if the reel was coming out of the reel seat. I tried it on others of the same model, and had the same result. Not cool. They have a couple different reel foot designs, and none of them worked with this reel seat (a Fuji reel seat if I recall correctly). I was able to return the rod and exchange it for another Daiwa rod that was at almost the same price point with Daiwa's own reel seat that holds the reel perfectly. I tried some different shims and they didn't end being quite the elegant solution I had hoped for. In an industry where the components are often modular, you would think there would be standards for such things, and I would think that reel feet would not be terribly difficult to come up with such a standard.

If you're a TL/DR kinda person, you probably you probably want to beat me with a shovel. If you like details, you still may wish to beat me with a shovel, LOL. Verbosity is my blessing and my curse. Probably more of the latter, but I digress. . . . blah, blah, blah, blah. . . . . ;~)

Give, give, give. Never take.

Time and a place

The lake is low, but not necessarily shallow. The lake has places that could be 300' deep at full pool, so now with it over 100' below that. . . .it is low, but not shallow. You shouldn't need to fish in more than 30' of water at this time. I didn't fish deeper than that even in the winter. There are places that you could reach 50' deep with a shoreline cast. Some places you might only get to ten feet, and there are a few places where there are humps, islands, and points that extend out that you might not see. But for the most part the shorelines are on the steep side. There are schools of bass that live offshore, suspended, and feasting on schools of baitfish for much of the year. There are others that spend a lot of time relating to structure and cover along the shoreline, and others that are in between that. All of those bass have to eat to stay alive, so you should conceivably be able to figure out a way to target any of them if you have the time, patience and equipment. Searching for those offshore schools in a rental boat is going to be a challenge, but you could literally drag crankbaits across main lake points or even out in the middle of the lake, and you will have some success. I have done it, and I still see others doing it. BUT, IMHO, it isn't going to be anywhere near as productive as targeting bass that are relating to shoreline structure and cover. I understand that many of us just have methods we enjoy using more so than others. Others really don't care as they just want to learn to catch as many as possible regardless of the method. I know that jigging spoons in 50 to 60 feet of water in the winter time may be productive for some anglers. I don't care to fish like that, and since I mostly fish solo, I can choose to fish any way I'd like. If crankbaits are your jam, then you can do all you can to learn to catch fish on crankbaits. I caught my PB (just under 13 lbs at Castaic on a crankbait), but I'd be a lying sack of manure if I tried to tell you I had a great handle on the crankbait fishing there. I have found it to be all over the place as far as what works. From topwater to 25' deep, I have caught fish on crankbaits, but I just haven't put much together as a particular pattern that holds up over time. No need to buy dropshot rigs. I tried the store bought rigs and didn't do much with them either. My advice is to save your money. They are a super easy setup to rig yourself. Use a palomar knot to tie a hook on your line and leave 12" to 18" of tag line. Attach a dropshot sinker to the end of the tag line. It really is that simple. One could argue that a splitshot rig is a tad simpler, but they are two sides of the same coin. IMHO, the best part of renting a boat is that you can use it to access shoreline that hasn't been pressured as much. There are several folks that do quite well from a rental boat. You can nose the boat into a sandy bank, use an anchor to work an area. Use the anchor to drift, stop, drift, stop along a bank, or let the breeze move you along. Some even use the gas motor to back into the wind as though they are using like others would a trolling motor. I think it's first come, first served. Now that we're past Labor Day, the pressure should be much less. Not that I am aware of. But you could get checked by other official personnel. Fish and Game violations can get ugly though. . . . The lagoon is like a completely different type of fishing experience. Lots of shallow water, and some places where it's 60 feet deep. Lots of weeds in the summer, all the way to the surface in some areas, none in others. You can only legally shore fish from the East shoreline. You can usually fish from the fishing pier 24/7. I have no particular hot spots to recommend from the shoreline. They are kinda random hit or miss for me. Fishing from a boat is a different animal. It gets shallower in the middle from south to north. The northern quarter of the lake doesn't get much over 10' deep or shallower and can be mostly choked off with weeds, for better or worse. Some anglers know how to fish that stuff. I'm more of a fiddle around the edges kinda angler and catch a fair number of bass that way at around the 18' to 25' depth at the edges of the weeds, but that is quite a ways from shore. In the springtime, it's very good along the banks too. I suspect that the lagoon has just as many if not more big bass than the upper lake if you know how to fish there. I go back and forth for periods of time. I'll spend weeks at one without touching the other once I get dialed in. I am looking forward to the weeds dying back a ways in the mid to late fall. The 'spots' I know on the lower lake were mostly gifted to me by others. In my mind, they are therefore not mine to freely give away, especially on the internet, especially while they are hot. If I home in on them myself, then that's my business. I have some on the upper lake like that too. Same with techniques and patterns. If I read somewhere that carolina rigs fished deep are producing and I go to a deep spot that makes sense and I figure out that 4" Keitech Swing Impact in Electric Shad on a 4' leader with a 3/4 ounce weight slowly crawled along cover and structure in 18' to 25' is killing it ;~), then that's mine to do what I want with. If someone else turns me on to that, then I'm not talking about nothing but 'deep plastics'. Nothing personal, just common fisherman's courtesy/code IME. Some plastics that are not secrets by any stretch of the imagination. Here are some that are readily available and will catch fish: 4.5" Roboworm (they make at least three different 4.5" plastic worm baits and they all work): Oxblood - light red flake, Margarita Mutilator (MM III), and Hologram Shad. There are others, but those three colors are different from each other and should have you covered. 5" Senko - Color #297 C3 Shimmy in Neptune Shad (a local baitmaker that sells off of FB and some local tackle stores). There are people fishing out in the middle of the lake. Some are trolling Yak flies on lead core line catching stripers, and occasionally bass (LM & SM). Renting a boat is still a good idea because you can to several different areas, and it's easier to to fish more areas in a boat. Mornings and evenings are best. Mostly, I have been fishing very close to the shoreline, as in casting parallel as close as I can to the edge of the water, and I have been getting a large percentage of my bites close to shore, but on steep banks, and cliffs. It's easier to fish like this in a boat, but you can fish parallel to the bank from shore if you're kinda stealthy. Most of the time these days, my boat is positioned so close to shore that I have to keep an eye out to make sure the motor isn't banging the shoreline. I'm usually within a boat length from shore, but the bow will be around 12-14 feet deep or more. The water level is down more than I have ever seen it, but there is still plenty of water that is deeper than many here will ever fish. There are tons of smaller fish going ape crazy right around the launch ramp area. The dam is a good spot to try even though it looks like a nothing type shoreline. Hopefully, now that we're past Labor Day, the throngs of 'other' lake users will be spending time on their other hobbies. I fish plastics 90% of the time, and although I may fish slowly much of the time, it's anything but a sit and wait type of fishing. It takes focus and concentration to keep connected and the bait is generally moving as much as it's pausing. That is regardless of whether I am fishing weightless wacky rig, dropshot, texas rig worms, slipshot or carolina rig. Lately, for me, the bites have been as soon as it hits the water to about 20% of the way back to the boat. That's not always the case as I would normally work a bait all the way back to right under the boat (especially if I am fishing 20 feet or more deep). Texas rig 4.5" Roboworms (ALL types honestly) in the popular colors have all been money lately. Weightless wacky 5" Senkos are the other top producers for me. I'm not saying you have to have those to get bit, but if you're having trouble, those would be what I would suggest. I have seen things like jigs, buzzbaits, crankbaits, Flukes (jerked), other plastics of different types are all getting decent action. No harm in asking questions. Some I will answer freely and they are worth only as much as you paid for them. I fish Castaic once or twice a week on average. I have been four times in the past week and a half. I know there are others that fish completely different than I do and have excellent results, but they're not all here sharing with you like some of us here. Locals that fish Castaic on the regular all have their own things that work well for them. Many, many of them have much better results than I do, but I have been doing alright. Good luck out there.

I usually take 4 or 5 rods with me in the boat. I am in a 16' Tracker Grizzly with no built in rod storage, so it can get cluttered even though I fish alone the great majority of the time. For me though, I find myself usually taking at least two very similarly rigged combos if I feel like I will be concentrating on a specific method/pattern. Lately, that has been looking something like this: 2 @ medium power fast action spinning rods with either a 2000 or 2500 reel filled with #10 or #12 braid to 7 lb fluoro leader. One rigged with dropshot, the other with weightless wacky hook. 2@ ML /L fast action casting rods with Curado BFS, #15 braid to 7 lb fluoro leader. Both rigged for light texas rig, though the weight and/pr hook size/style might differ a little. 1 @ some type of moderate action casting for some type of crankbait or topwater, 40 lb braid to 10 lb fluoro leader. I'm usually only fishing for 3 to 4 hours in the morning or evening. I like to have something along to switch away from fishing with plastics ALL the time, but the truth is that I usually don't spend a significant amount of time cranking plugs. I know I could take only one of each of the first two and be OK, maybe even one rig that could do it all, but with only a limited (feels that way to me) amount of time to fish, I like the idea of being able to grab a similar rig and quickly get back to fishing if something gets fouled of a leader breaks off. Are you a wide variety type of angler, or a redundant systems type of angler?

There may be days (or periods within a day) when fish and game are more active for whatever reason, but I haven't necessarily found that I am successful (or more successful) during those times. And, for the record I have probably fished at good sixty times over the past year, and never in that time have I been skunked (pretty sure this means that this shoe will drop my very next time on the water, LOL). Once I only caught one, and maybe a time or two that I only caught three. Most trips are two or three hours to half a day. I have come to attribute the success that I do have to consistent time on the water and never letting my patterns get too far away from me. I do look at the tables, but haven't been able to link them to my success rate. Sometimes I have great days when I shouldn't be able to buy a bite, and not so great days where they were scheduled to be lining up to jump in the boat. There are also so many other variables that it's difficult for me to use that information to increase success. Sometimes I struggle more during the seasonal transitions until I get the pattern established. Most of the times that I am not as successful as others, I have come to the conclusion that it's most likely me that is the problem if I'm not catching fish. And it's up to me to fix it.

Amongst other places. . . I can say that I have caught more bass on a 'shad' color crankbait and my PB came on a shad colored crankbait, but I have also been in many situations where they were definitely interested more in other colors. Thus, I don't really have a definitive favorite color for a crankbait. Whatever they're eating is my favorite color that day.

It's nice to think that if one rod in a series is great, that the rest will be equally as wonderful (or useful to a given angler for their purposes), but I don't think that applies in many cases. I am left to speculate why someone would want a rod in the $200 range and another in the $150 range. Are your son and brother both going to do the same thing with them? Maybe it would be better to get one that costs $120 and the other in the $230 range if the budget is hard and fast. The lack of pertinent details makes it difficult to offer much more than a very generalized answer. My inner project manager is getting the best of me and I think I may be way too anxious to help someone else spend their own money, **facepalm**