Darth-Baiter

It’s a good looking fish for sure. My acquaintance is hammering them at Oroville but that’s yet another 3.5 hour drive. Grrr.

I havent fished for awhile. weekend before Thanksgiving was my last trip out. holidays demanded my attention at work and home. this past weekend, I took a chance and roadtripped to Shasta Lake. Solo. I booked a very very lackluster hotel room so I could fish Sunday as well. I have hooked Spotted bass before, but I really paid attention this time. the toothy mouths, the great colors, and the fight..that spunkiness. my first bite I thought it was a "good one!". nope..13" fish. they all fight like crazy fish. you pull them from the water and they flare gills, and get rigid and curve their bodies. if one falls into the bottom of my kayak, it is like trying to catch a greased chicken. I got into the numbers, but no biggies..I want one now.

I know a guy that puts his GoPro on a small dumbbell and simply lowers it into the water with a buoy. he sets it up next to bedded bass and comes back later to film the bite. me. I bought the GoPro clamp and just connect to my paddle and jam that under water with marginal success. been trying to film bluegill beds in gin-water for a couple of years now.

I am the undisputed distance champion at our Lake Texoma striper-fest. I cast Power-Pro. Curado DC reel. I beat the spinning reels. I took the win in Brazil on the amazon river as well. casting off the back of the mother ship one evening after drinks. for me it is about the bigger braids. going smaller, things can occasionally get exciting.

I'll buy an X10 the "O" is actually the letter "O" not the number Zero. I'll buy one and let you all know..for science.

ahhh... sorry, I tried to skip coffee today. haha..THAT LEADER!!

my drop shot leader is the long tag end of the line I am using. you all tying on a separate leader? for the hook? or sinker..?

my frog reel is a Tatula SVTW (TWSV? - I forget) its fine. I'm usually not long range casting my frogs for the most part. same 50lb line. no issues.

plus in my experience most braids float. so the line does the parabola thing down to the bait. until you start picking up the line and working the jig. I get so many jig bites right at the splash. I want a faster action rod..with a moderate tip. I like how the looser tip lets me work a jig slow, so when I tap the movement, I dont imagine my jig doing huge 3 foot jumps underwater. then I want to shaft to get fast..if that makes any sense. my X-Bites kills as my bottom contact light jig rod.

I have a I-something. I dont love it. I just can gel with it.

I'll get back at it soon. how do you know how deep the bait is running? and more importantly, are the hits violent? I imagine a bass trying to kill a flee bait is violent.

I'm not going to say I love it. I like it a lot. I am in my second half of my life and I aint wasting it on being negative. one thing I learned is that other people pick up on it quickly and you trend towards a thing I call "friendless". I love picking up my phone and wishing people I havent talked to all year well wishes. I sure as heck aint ruining anyones else's holiday by being a.....forgot how to use English. I have no kids, so I cant glam onto their holiday spirit. it is the easiest 2 weeks of the work year for sure and that isn't hard to love. Monday I am taking out my entire team for breakfast to celebrate them and a year of kicking butty building bridges for the traveling public. I put a few hundred aside to do this annually. making them happy, definitely ricochets back at me some happiness as well. my inner-scrooge can suck it. this year! wife and I promised not to gift to each other. she broke her promise and bought me a fishing rod!! left me looking like a doofus, gift-less. we both laughed at it. I jumped on the bathroom scale, and found out that I have dropped. below 190lbs in my health efforts. she looked at me and said, "and that is the best Christmas present ever...your health!" and that is how you do it gentlemen!! live well.

I have some. and I suck at them. zero bites, and my waters are too cloudy to tell if I am even working them correctly. next spring when I get to a gin clear lake, I will fling one out again. I truly dont know what I happening at the end of the line except that no fish is interested.

I am starting to buy some stuff for my upcoming Mexico fishing trip. I dont want to buy it all at once anyways. so I found myself in a well stocked store. I walk by and see they have the rod I have been eyeballing. the Bandersnatch. I want a moving baits rod. chatters, some medium sized cranks, moving stuff. etc. the rod is very light feeling. ethereal almost, but I cant really tell much without a reel on it, and line. its action feels right at moderate to me. like a a dobyns fury..hahaha. with a Zillion on it, it might be fun. my wife got me a rod for Christmas in the form of a giant gift card.. anyone fishing a BanderSnatch yet? too soon?

I feel the tour-V is also a bottom contact rod. but that's prob just me.

Update. It turns out that catching fish will help in loving a rod. I used it on the 3.5” poop bait and it was a slug fest. I had the wrong hooks for the application, so I really appreciated the backbone on my enthusiastic hook sets. the softer tip casts baits like a catapult.

I with this guy. Casts better than I imagined. Everything eats it. I have Buzzjets. Fun! But the buzzin cranks seems to pissthem off more.

I’m not a coffee snob in the fact that I don’t give a ratsass how you enjoy your cup. I like mine fine as a pour over, strong, black, hot, and about 16oz. Peets is my regular brew. Major Dickerson. Note- never order it as major Dicks w cute female baristas. They will snicker.

usually. from a hookset that sends the tungsten weight into my rod. I couldn't make that shot in a million years on purpose, but it has happened twice.

hahahah.. I am hitting this lake for the first time this year. prob will need to camp in my truck to make it worthwhile. I want a decent smallie desperately. I will be fishing the rock piles I hear about. I think I know where they are.

too add: the hooks on the V110 are great, but not that strong. I stay with OEM on replacements. I am not messing with the weight/balance.

easy. I am hitting some distant lakes - mainly in the hopes of catching some Smallies. CA lake Trinity and Almanor to be exact. this will require some added complication of sleeping in the back of my truck. and I am fishing Mexico. going for Mr Big. or Mr. Many.

I'm not great at jerking. but the Vision 110 is the one I catch them on. I think I know why. the V110 is more delicate. you cast too far and land one on a rocky shoreline, you know what I am talking about. the lip shatters. I use mine on 10lb or 8lb line and I can just tap them ever so gently to get them to run right. I got this insight fishing a gin-clear lake and I could see my bait coming in from afar. I can twitch it. and it jumps. my other jerk baits need a hammier fist.

Thank you. I’m hopeful authorities measures work. …..but people….people are the wildcard

So did the measures mitigate the issue down south?