Darth-Baiter

I read this 3x. Haha.

Mono backing ——> tape. -there is no shortage in opinions. My fishing store uses this cool knot I can’t recreate or reverse engineer. It’s solid. Lots of opinions on how to get braid on a reel. I use my shop for braid on my spinning reels. Hasn’t failed me yet and braid lasts almost forever. If the spool has wiffle-holes, can’t we knot up thru one? On a baitcaster? Just a thought. thanks.

I agree. I have been searching for a suitable punch rod all morning. I might go to a fishing store. I think a longer handle would be paramount. dunno. I am so new to all of this. there is no way to escape the physics of a big weight on the end of a long rod. except add more weight to the other end of the pendulum I suppose.

crap!! I am the older friend!!! darn whippersnappers. hahah.. thanks for the comments bud.

while I am no expert. I just dragged a shallow diver thru weeds. Hyacinth? the stuff aquarium guys use. it was thick!! I watched a video and the guy said to choose a crankbait that has an eyelet embedded into the bill versus one that is screwed in. the lower clearances allow the bill to blowthru and not hang up. I gritted my teeth and yanked it thru and to my amazement it would usually clear!! I got maybe 20 bass on a crank bait yesterday. more than in my entire life. eureka!!! I use to only cast open water, which might have been my error all along.

this exactly for me. I have only started using the Sandiegojam this summer. I never had troubles with the improved clinch for flouro, but I'm not looking for anymore trouble. I can see the merits of two loops on the baits. I always thought the SDJ was called the Jimmy Houston knot..but who knows? to be fair, I would add the dropshot-knot to my list since I fish it so much. I am can't seem to get a palomar to sit right.

I can flip/pitch all day long. punching is a different animal altogether. my buddy never has the pedestals. we stand for 10 hours. only sit down time is when we are under boat power. :D. I might ask him to bring a pedestal next time for me.

I think a lot of it is about equipment. I punched-fished lots of hours yesterday. First problem; I cast right handed, but I punch and pitch lefty. My weak side. Secondly; I purchased my punch rod i when I didn’t know squat about punching. All my kayak rods have shorter handles. Wrong! I believe a punch rod should have a longer handle to brace against body and forearm. Third; I should lift weights. Haha. I am beyond sore today. Enough so to call my buds and cancel a kayak fishing trip. Left elbow, shoulder..mild pain. Visions of carpal-tunnel injury:( I should have dropped down to a 1oz weight when we found thinner mats. I was too lazy to take off the honkin 2oz cuz I don’t love the snell knot. Duh. I might buy a lefty reel to put the rod back on my strong side. At least I would be able to switch sides to rest. Unfortunately I am committed to catching a giant bass punching mats. My bud got a 5lb and it was pure pandemonium when he set the hook. The line was screaming in tension against the weeds, fish was throwing huge water, it was wild. injury from fishing? Who would have thought?

Lots of action. no let me start at the beginning. I woke up at 2:15am to meet my friend at 4:30. We idled his bassboat out into the dark. My first boat trip of 2022. It was exciting…but super windy. My dreams of a frog hot-bite was dashed. I threw a spinnerbait and he thru a chatter. Nothing. I switch to a Berkeley Choppo, he goes with a buzz. He gets one. Hmmmm I figured I should get on the board so I toss out a weighted Texas rig SENKO. Nope, current was too powerful so I had to stop and bump up to a 3/8 weight. BOOM! Fish after fish. 2-4 lbs. it was so fast it was just a quick gentle unhook, fix worm and catch another. I switch to a ribbon tail and bass got slightly larger. We didn’t even take pics. Then magic happens. I figure it’s a good time to try a crank bait. I was using advance techniques and casting it out to the shore and retrieving it into thick grass. I would yank to clear the hooks and as it exited on my side a bass would slam it. It was magical. He was getting hit on the chatter. As the tide came up, so did the sun. We switch to a punch rig. I sent in a cast and chased out a huge crawfish. I was skittering across the water. We watched hoping it would get eaten. Nope, bit it was cartoonishly bright red. We both dug thru his boat looking for red creatures. I got my first, second and third punch bites. Once I figured out what a strike felt like and how to let the bait sit, the bass cooperated. amd when we packed for home I handed back the loaner frog rod and he said, “nah you take it with you - I have three”. I have a starter frog rod! Leaves me time ti get a better skipping and pitching setup. what a day. Nappy time! There is no telling how many fish we caught. It was d**n luxurious on a bass boat.

my worst habits to be honest with myself are my fishing slangs. Biguns! really? that isn't even a word!! "choked it". "smoked it". I need to stop. I am so happy I quit saying, "now that is what I am talking about!!"..

x1000! this worm is so effective my friend and I call it the "sensei worm". he used to call me Sensei when I was showing him how to catch bass. he is probably better at it than I am now.!! (the student has become the master) but the worm I gave him for his first ever bass was the "sensei worm". we were crushing it once and a bunch of guys asked us what we were using. to this day, I've often wondered if they went to TW and searched Sensei worm. hahha.

at least the line is within my budge!! haha..thanks. I had a chance to buy a similar rod, but the guy retired from Gloomis before I got a chance to jump on board.

Both my PA friends use the backs of pickup. One uses scupper cart, the second guy installed Boondox Landing gear. The guy using a long bed Tacoma doesn’t use a bed extender. they don’t have any issues. I did meet a guy that puts a 13’ Titan on the roof of his Jeep Wrangler. He’s built like a lumberjack tho. I found necessity is the mother of invention. You’ll get it done. I know you’ve been scrutinizing the issue. Remind me, what you drive now?

thanks for the input everyone. I think a light paddle would be really useful since I use mine to sometime one-arm it to better position myself for a cast.

spark-shad or Mag draft shad?

are there single technique combos? for example, mine. it might be my punch rig. I only use it for punching weed mats. I only cut the bait off to change the weight from a 1oz to 1.75oz. if I bring it with me, it is only because I expect to find weed mats. I am rigged up for tomorrow's trip to the California Delta. is the Frog set up a single-tasker as well? I kinda want to buy a frog set up. rig it up with (dunno) 40ish pound braid? I could use it for pitching heavier cover I suppose. I suspect tomorrows frog or topwater bite will be on fire, and I am woefully unprepared. I just kinda pick my heaviest rod and go for it with varied results. my dilemma is that I DONT want a bunch of rods. I kayak fish so I cannot and will not bring a huge rod arsenal. I value rod combos that can play multiple tasks. the multi tasker. I think some shallow spool caster with a heavy rod would be useful. I dont cast frogs to the horizon, but will fling a whopper plopper as far as I can to hide my approach. see? I suppose I am evolving as a bass fisherman. I typically fish open waters like Clearlake. but I am venturing in the Delta more and more. somedays, it's like the "THUNDERDOME" of fishing. snags, sunken boats, etc. my medium heavy rigs with 12lb flouro seems like taking a knife to ,,,nevermind

I have one. the earliest model. very effective while sitting in a ground blind. I find the slightest breeze pretty much renders it useless.

no, it is clipped in securely. we pull them out and put them on deck when enter or exit the water. this goes triple for the beach surf launching guys. which is when they mostly flip. my friend flipped with his pedal drive pulled out of the drive-hole.

I have been wearing my updated Arnettes with Revant lenses. totally worth the $40 for the lens update. I havent worn my glass Costas again. opps. ( I will tomorrow) I found the Bajio glasses website the best at explaining the nuances of the various lens colors. Costa does a fair job as well.

the roll-cast. yup. I am working that into my repertoire. I kinda had to fishing off the back of my buddies bass boat. nothing sexier than a backhanded roll cast. hahah.. all that hardware back there demanded it. pole anchors, the motor..etc. stepping on the boat for the first time in 2022 tomorrow. I expect a complete yard sale the first few cast. yikes. need to recalibrate my arm/mind. thanks for the inspiration folks. on a boat I am so careful. I hate snagging since the entire boat needs to go in to save my failed cast. no pressure.

it was literally "hammer time"! happy belated birthday Sir!

I am reminiscing my friend flipping his boat. it was luckily the first day he elected to use the homemade leash I bought him for securing his pedal-drive. saved him a high ticket item from a watery grave. I saw it and really wondered what kind of friend I am. I made it from some leash better suited for keeping your wallet or work ID card from disappearing out of your pocket. really feeble. it worked that one time, but I wouldn't expect it to take repeated beatings. even mine is two old dog leash clips on the end of 18" of orange paracord. I looked and my paracord is sun damaged. faded, and some orange grit comes off when I rub it. time to replace. I looked at the official Hobie-Drive leash. it is $40!!! I was gonna buy my buddy one as well. $80?!! I couldn't do it. I found a very sturdy strap we used for survey equipment cases and clipped it to my pedal drive for now. it is at least fabric webbing material similar to our car seatbelts. STRONG. I am going to make a pair. my 94 old neighbor loves my projects for her. she can sew anything with her industrial sewing machine. I will buy more webbing material and make two. one for me, one for my friend. here is my question: do you have the Hobie Leash? what ideas can I poach off of it for my DIY leashes? is that buckle clip even necessary?

I always quit the jig when I start snagging and losing them. I'm not a great jig user. I just sorta pitch them into heavy cover and go for it. those Keitech Tungsten jigs get painful to lose after awhile. I'll switch to a more economical presentation. a weighted texrig, Hula grub by Yamamoto. which honestly, I can't seem to jive perfectly with yet. way more weedless tho. by a mile.

I had only one for a bit. I loved it and it was my most effective reel with respect to accuracy and stuff. I took a lot of bass with it. I use it mostly for unweighted or very lightly weighted Tex-Rig worms. the drag is pretty smooth. the drag tensioning thing is fairly "hair-trigger". tiny movements of the dial makes a dramatic difference in drag tension. that perfect sweet spot requires tiny inputs. not super ideal when you have to do that last minute, fish on!, "please dont come off!, "who messed with my drag (nobody, it was me - the dummy)?" fire-drill stuff. but that rarely happens. but I got OFF-TRACKED. I loved it so much I bought a second one. spooled up with the similar 14lb flouro. (reel #1 is 12 flouro) the new reel is great in all aspects. same hair trigger drag knob. but once I find the sweet spot, the noted drag is notchy, I can feel the tension undulate when I pull line off with my hands. it probably wouldn't be noticeable if I didn't have a smoother unit to compare it to. I even makes a barely audible "howl" when I pull line. I'm gonna keep using it and get it as dirty as the first reel. I am not versed in reel mods like some of you. you all change drag washers and oil or dont oil them? is this why? I'm cool with mine and I am sure I can still fight fish with the thing. it's fine, I'm sure.

headed to my garage right now to tighten down my drag!! I just loosen it to peel off the old line. I never free-spool it anymore. I always forget to tighten it down!!