Darth-Baiter

I do. probably why I am not that successful. I keep moving on trying new waters. I haven't even fished Clearlake in 2025. sometimes I visit skunk-city..but that mysterious "what-if" song sung by a choir of Sirens is hard to ignore for me. my kayak fishing partners have all but abandoned me. hahha... they suck.

all is fair in fishing. if they can get in, fish!!! the vid didnt play

I just sent a Tatula SV TW to a friend to even the balance on the scale a bit.

I've done it. it didnt break. but I would be lying if I said I was pucker-less. but I have had hundreds of catches on the thing. including some giant catfish from Clearlake.

nothing I could legally keep. I did a bounce ball rig with a tattered anchovy. I am doing a party boat Saturday, which I dont love..but I get to hang with people which Is cool. rockfish harvest for my wife. next week, I'll try for rock fish off my kayak. should be interesting.

the recent Daiwa Tatula thread got me thinking, "hey I think I have one of those, where is it?" so I went to go look. I have a rubbermaid type shoe box in my garage where I have a few extra reels. yikes!!! it has several reels!! I need to sell some stuff, or give it to my brother. I went to look to see if I could put the Tatula on a rod to test fire it again. (I dont remember loving it). nope. I have no free rods. I DEFINATELY buy more reels than rods. or I broke a few. I did find an old LEWS loaded with braid I am going to rig up on a broken rod to meet the fish/game requirement of having a defender rigged up for rockfish pursuits. the rules doesnt say it needs to be perfectly functional.

I love me some more P5. but like mentioned above, I dilute them with Dobyns Furies in my line up. the FMJ was hard to warm up to. it feels clumsy to me sometimes. its because it is physically heavier to me. I have a Bantam on it. but I kept plugging away with it. perfect mid sized DEPPS Coverscat rod. perfect. it throws 1/2-3/4 jigs awesome, which isn't ideal since I tend to like finesse jigs way more. I am definitely warming to it. why? I am skipping baits! easy skipping baits like gill profiles, and the scat. but skipping accurately is fun.. the tip is pretty ideal for me. Saturday I hooked a 17lb catfish. I first thought it was a Giant bass, but nope. the FMJ was fun. glad it was NOT my whimsical X-bites that hooked the cat. hahah.. what bottom contact P5 is smack dab in the middle between the X-bites and FMJ?

you dont look at the lettering printed on the side of the rod? it gets me in the ballpark. I am not one eye-squinting diameters on my rods. but I do feel your strategy. my friend fishes with an old (its yellow) rod that is so thick. it looks like it is for the ocean. it is a noodle and he said it was made for crank baits. its yellow!! ugliest rod I've ever seen. wow...this thread was just looking for a catalyst to buy a Triza Aello. hahahha

I believe you are now up to speed

You’re fine. I do use 20lb braid tho.

let me ask him again.

I asked the camp chef for a stone on a recent trip. the other fisherman-guest looked at me like weird. one dude asked why I dont change the hooks out. with the right stone, I can get them into surgery needle sharpness levels. I change them if they bend any. I feel they are "work hardened " at that point and will fail me at the worst possible moment. now if the bait came with OEM hooks from some suck company. I change them right away. I have this one. I feel the divots are actually divots and will cause me some headache if the point drops in. if I do use it, I try my darn-dest to make sure the hook point ride inbetween the dots. I use the travel version for fishing. It’s been to the Amazon.

I'm right handed. to save movement/energy I just started pitching baits with my left hand. no need to swap hands to work the reel handle. I go out and pitch a practice plug when I am needing some distractions. (like listening to a work lecture with earbuds) I aim for a man-hole cover in the street. dong!! I just tried with my dominant side and I am sucky. I even brushed the rod tip on the asphalt level of sucky. if my braid wasn't still box-fresh, I would have tried a full on side cast. hahha.. I think I am full time lefty with the pitch technique now. I think I can work some lefty reels into the mix to keep things even.

This fact is never lost on me. My dad died when I was a tiny kid.

the Thermocell works. but only in certain conditions. any wind and only any part of your body downwind is covered. it works awesome in a turkey blind, but I'm probably adding sickness points to my lungs. when I fished the Amazon I treated all my clothing with that spray. it worked!! if I need a more often layer without chemicals ,I would try the mosquito clothing. I think it is thicker so they cant reach thru?

I had a conversation with my doctor. she wanted me to buy a home BP monitor and wean off my meds. she cut my dose in half. no affect...my BP stayed very low on the spectrum. she said it. "stop the meds". and monitor daily. I thought I would high-five myself and fist pump the air in jubilation. no..I got a bit nervous. I think the nerves brought up my BP, but never to the levels she called, "email me if.." its been two weeks and I have settled into the new routine of simply taking a vitamin. still jogging, still eating well. home cooking in healthy serving sizes and no sweets. I had time to think about it. off the meds, I now had room to fail again. I wrapped my brain around and I am committed to living the best I can. fishing, friends, loving wife, my awesome dog.. I have even pumped the brakes at work somewhat. I do my job, but I dont jump at extra work to impress the boss anymore. he isn't easy to impress anyways, so why try. I might fail. sure. I might fall off the sugar wagon, and have to get back on meds. I am not going to worry about it until then. hahahha. I should buy term life insurance now....I bet I get a better deal. BP is fine. what is funny is that a while back I bought a cool Japanese journal loaded with curated artisan paper to use as a fishing journal. got a cool pen. it is now my BP journal..hahahha... oh, the pen leaked on me. and my handwriting still sucks.

me too I think. I luckily hooked a bigger bass last weekend when I turned my back to shore and casted out into the deep, thinking, "hmmm...wonder if anyone is deep". the tick was immediate. got me thinking about the C-rig. its tied on now. 1/2 tungsten and a swivel. for the record, an improved clinch knot is not ideal for a spinning swivel. frustration exercise. this weekend is ocean fishing, but I'll be back. (sick day)

it is a hot bait in its motherland. my friend bought one last one, and two in the ocean colors. they were scarce.

Has to be a travel rod. This is a multi day backpack hike in ordeal. And once it’s over, it’s back to bass fishing. It won’t be trout use anymore.

all the trout. kern river is pretty big.

I'm actually imagining a Megabass Triza. do you have photos of all your rods?

I have a buddy that tells everyone the same answer when he hears, "hey what are they biting on?" "white powerbait."

I hope to backpack into the golden trout wilderness next spring. to make it more (PIA?) interesting, I kinda want to do the trip with BFS. a BFS travel rod might be the ticket. I tried BFS but went in the wrong direction, and hated it. or didnt love it at all. I want to try again.

my friend texted me from that exact store in Shinjuku. I was on Digitaka at the same time. less than Digitaka for sure, standing in the store. I'll be there soon. I am going with some BFS reel and stuff. my wife is braced for my "puuuullllleeeezzzeee!" crazy truth. my MN fishing buddy and his wife are meeting us there. we cant find time to get together her in the States, but in Tokyo.."See you there!"

NOPE!! I invited a few guys I know I run faster than.