bulldog1935

@Bluegillslayer much better company than the brown recluse he'll eat, but if I found him in the house, or even a wolf spider, I'd move them outside

a welcome guest who's been hanging out in my garage for a few days (shot offhand w/o flash) kept these as pets when I was a kid edit - I still can't believe all these men are afraid of a little spider - - ok, it's a major spider, but I used to let them run up and down my arms.

@Chaos10691 for me shock load is snook, but yes, setting the hook - even that 1/4 weakest link may be too much to prevent break-off or even rod break if you high-stick a set at the same time a really big fish explodes.

Johnson's Sprite was my go-to spoon, both for bass and fall jetty Spanish Macks. When I was 12, walked up to Lake of the Ozarks, cast the sprite across a log, skittered it across the top of the log, let it drop, and caught a 3-1/2-lb smallie. That's when my dad bought a semi-vee to take me fishing. I've seen flats wizards imitate crabs with a black-nickel Johnson Silver Spoon. Kastmaster is in my surf box.

I have one mid-grade worm-drive Tica I bought because it was cheap, and tinkered it. The felt-composition drag washer couldn't reach the 1 kg drag they boasted. I swapped it for carbontex and instantly dialed-in the 2-1/2 lbs drag I needed. Independent of anyone's formula, a shock load is 4x to 10x the force of a static load, so if you want a formula, 4x is a good one with a basis in fact.

That red coreless paracord around my reel foot and rod has a paracord buckle... ...that clips to a bungee leash - the leash slides freely on my kayak trolley line. Any rod out of sight and out of mind is kept this way. The working rod up front doesn't need to be clipped to the leash, but still wears the rod end so I can swap it into a leash when I change rods. Here's the rod end, paracord buckle and cord lock, 650 coreless paracord ends each tied to buckle using single turn with two half hitches. Can seize the paracord tags with acrylic/PE-film tape, or get salty with twine wrap. Last time I had a bad backlash, there was a one-turn line wrap around my rod tip. I swapped the reel with my back-up. Necessity is the mother of invention, and lost rod badge is a dubious honor at best.

If 10-lb leader is your weakest link, you should be using 2-1/2-lb drag set.

my late cousin was head graphic artist and ran catalog publishing for the Commercial Appeal. One year his team won Whole Hog. When we covered it, I mentioned our chili cook-off entry, where our venison chili pot had the only line for sampling, yet someone else with some soup-looking ground beef entry won the trophy. We both agreed it's about politics. What is this sauce thing? In Luling and Lockhart, sauce is anathema.

I run Trout in the Classroom for Texas - the classrooms raise trout from eggs in refrigerated aquariums, then release them in the Guadalupe tailwater. While we have 32 tanks in that many classrooms, this year, only 7 of our schools could participate because of health restrictions. Yesterday, four HS aquatic science teachers from Houston and San Antonio brought their trout to the river, their families, and some brought friends and helpers. We met at the BBQ stand in Sattler grabbed food to go, then headed to our benefactor's beautiful home in the river bend. We also had an amazing window in the recent rains just for this. Next Thursday, two classes of fourth graders have a field trip to the river to release theirs - each kid gets to net their fish and release it in the river - always the highlight of our TIC year.

Valleyhill bass rod. Pretty remarkable wide lure range - described as RF to fish most niches, feels very fast to me, but haven't cast it yet, between fishing the salt and arriving home to rain, and a back-acre that needs mowing... a metal reel seat - haven't seen that in a long time - with a nice knurled tightening ring - in spite of that, a shocking light-in-hand rod, well-balanced, goes nicely with the magnesium-frame reel. and nice details including Ti/SiC guides I've already fished my Steez modified with Roro-X spool on my inshore small game rod. But for the wide range of this rod, will need to use a spool with the SV complication for start-up brakes on heavier lures. Planning to load a Ray's Studio honeycomb SV spool with 100 m PE#1.2 braid (27-lb), and 12-lb fluoro leader. ...break in the rain here, got the back acre mowed late yesterday, and we're about to get 24 hours of flash flooding. But the window allowed first cast of the rod with a 2-g jighead. Took me a couple of casts to get aiming the short rod, after fishing the 8'2" small game rod last week. But I was able to duplicate 3-in-a-row 100' casts with 2 g. Looks like a natural for Ned rig, and plan to put it through its full-range paces when I get to kayak our no-motors reservoir.

@galyonj I wish more of the color had come out, the fish's back was the same purple as this Z-man Purple Demon Hard to hold everything when you're trying to get the fish back into the water quickly. and why on earth would a magnesium Steez with a functioning non-linear brake that doesn't need a chip be hype, and a plastic Scorpion with a chip isn't hype. Say just once that Hagane isn't Hype.

Cats Whisker in mixed colors is about all I need for bass. ' High-stick, it's a great dragonfly nymph, and stripped as a streamer in a ball of cyprinid minnows, you can't tell the fly from the live ones.

My Lew's Super Duty G is still my longest-casting reel with 1/8 oz and up (not counting surf Abu CT's). It took this far to duplicate it with 1/16th oz. I own exactly two reels in this price range. The Steez and a Shimano Vanquish. They're both perfect for were I use them. I also enjoy the tinkering of setting up my own spools. The Steez happens to be the only salt-rated reel out of my gang of bass-size reels. I certainly wasn't making a recommendation for you other than to enjoy your light-lure fishing.

Inshore drift fishing, sitting, 7' rods pretty much across the board. Sitting with a fly rod and sight-fishing in sloughs, 7-1/2' to 8' glass is perfection. Just picked up a kayak bass rod, again sitting, and it's 6-1/2' My kayaks aren't really for standing, but for distance and wind-slick.

I recently set up a Steez BFS reel, and already had a blast with it. Here, I was sailing a 3-g plug well past 100' with the wind behind me.

Fulton Beach Pier is back - it was destroyed by Hurricane Harvey. When my daughters were growing up, it was a ritual - dinner at Cap'n Benny's, fish Fulton Beach Pier for an hour, a cigar, and catch 40 nursery trout, then ice cream. It's where I honed UL skills for nite-lite specs. Lou and I just came back from a fun, though dues-paying Rockport/Estes trip

Here's the Japan Tackle Link for Daiwa spools, including the 105. Jun at JT has excellent English. Daiwa - Spools, casting reels - Tuning Parts (japantackle.com) Regarding how much difference, I put the Roro-X (fixed brake rotor) spool on a Steez, and the 6-g spool will reliably cast 2-g jigheads to 100' - that's with a spool capacity of 100 m PE#0.8 X-braid. The difference is night and day if your goal is fishing UL lures. The SV function is more important casting greater weight - SV adds extra inertia-brakes at spool start-up. Lightweight spools and light lures really don't have much inertia or overshoot tendency starting up - good mag-brake for mid-cast wind backlash is everything you need. Ray's Studio from Thailand makes SV-spools for Daiwa as light as 9 g - you can find them on ebay. I have one of those in the mail, too - matching it with a multi-niche BFS bass rod that's rated for 1/16- to 5/8-oz lures - that's a wide range and will need the SV complication. I fished Steez/RoroX and 3-g plugs for the first time yesterday, and was casting them completely across the tide pass I was fishing - - dug for this photo, different day, but I was casting 3-g plugs from this hard pack into the grass on the other side - had the wind behind me, so didn't need brakes for anything, and the outfit made for gratifying fishing.

Our endemic river bass hang in the tailouts for damselfly hatches, and you can clobber them on a good trico hatch. If I didn't already mention it on this thread, we've seen schooling white bass in a cove, backs out of the water, sipping trico hatches, and you couldn't buy a strike with anything but a dry fly. Here's the last time the topic came up on a different forum page How many fans of Bass on a fly rod? - Page 1 - Fishing Rods, Reels, Line, and Knots - Bass Fishing Forums (bassresource.com)

sweet BBQ in Texas? - in a smoked tri-tip's eye. with real TX BBQ, better bring your pocket knife

Don't get me wrong, we had a great trip, and I figure we paid up all our late dues and advanced enough for our next two trips. On paper, this was the best-looking tide of the month, big swing, perfect timing to spend the morning in one of the cuts, and even a NE wind to create the eddy that stacks bait in the cuts. What Went Wrong We launched from Palm Harbor at 6:10 am - right off, Lou was fighting his rudder cables coming loose from their fittings, each one at a time. Wind was due N at 13 kt, would pick up to 15 through the morning. The wind was predicted to ease to our favorite NE for Trout Bayou later in the morning. The thick overcast would last into the afternoon. We rounded Talley and paddled to Trout Bayou cut to Aransas Bay. We began in chocolate water, could almost make out the turtle grass along Talley shore, and returned to chocolate water before we reached the cut. This would have really been a day to fish bait rather than lures. In spite of the great harmonic, there was so much rain runoff in Aransas Bay, there was never a tide current this day. No bait concentration in the cut, the bait was spread thin along the shores of Talley and Traylor islands. We fished about an hour in Little Cut without fish sign, then paddled out to drift the flat. The problem with the North wind, we couldn't parallel any shore, instead, every drift was across the flat from Talley to Traylor shore, so we didn't get much time where there was bait sign. The best you could do was try to zig-zag down Talley shore. We each registered two strikes for the effort. We were in Little Cut at 11 am - still, zero tide current. I did manage a couple of tourist trout on my UL (below). When the wind began to lay about noon, we paddled out again, and finally found the NE we wanted to drift the slack tide along Talley shore. I had the right lure selection for overcast and water color, and one of the two was getting attention. About a quarter-mile from the end of Talley, at 1 pm, I nailed a monster red. He pulled me downwind with three long winds of his own peeling 5-lb drag set. HERE IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE LIFTED THE DRIFT SOCK. When he turned and charged, it was too late. When he passed the boat with his shoulders broached, he was 32 inches if he was a penny, and turned right into my drift sock. I jumped out of the boat in soft bottom, tried to get the rod under the drift sock, but the braid wrapped worse on the drift sock lines and snapped. I know I looked and felt like all the Keystone Cops at once. Lou watched it from his drift, and thought hornets were after me. At 2pm, we regrouped at Sandy point, and paddled in to pack home. The sun was finally breaking, and the overcast that rolled through all day ended in a solid seam to blue sky. What Went Right I picked the right lure for the chocolate water and heavy overcast. While TSL Plum Treuse would have probably worked as well, I didn't have one rigged, and couldn't turn a fish on Golden Roach. My 1/8 oz baitcaster was rigged with Z-man Purple Demon. As soon as I began casting it, little trout were attacking it, and it took the big red that I muffed. Had a baitcast reel I was done with, and rather than sell it, gave it to Lou, especially since he already had the right rod. When he got to the wide spaces in Little Cut, he was casting it well. My 1/16 oz baitcaster worked like a dream, there were a few little trout, and plenty of glass minnows in the cuts. I could cast a 3-g plug across the width of Little Cut, from the hard pack into the grass. I set up these freshwater trout plugs to imitate glass minnows by swapping the bronze trebles for Owner salt singles. Tried all 3, but in the chocolate overcast, only the lure on bottom had the right combination of rattle and color, with dark on top. We traveled well. Lou and I went down the afternoon before, had a fishing shack arranged at Rahi cottages, and grabbed a late lunch at Van's BBQ - halfway stop from San Antonio. After settling in, we had some soda pop ritas at MoonDog's. And their fabled soft-shell crab sandwich was the perfect meal. I brought a DVD player, and we rounded out the evening with "The Man Who Never Was" The rest after traveling in made it easy to get up the next morning, fish hard most of the day - we paddled about 8 mi in 15-kt wind - then pack out and drive home. Before leaving Estes, we made the smart call to grab a Steer Burger - it wasn't this size, but their Ranch Hand burger is the single best hamburger I have ever eaten.

I'm very fond of ML steelhead rods for ease of casting distance. This is a Lami MTC, and another friend, same rod is his go-to for lures in the surf.

tomorrow morning, after a 3-mi paddle across the flat, I'll be on this sunrise with the same wind and tide... When we got to the cut below last Oct, bait was so thick they were thumping our boat hulls. The combination of outgoing tide current with incoming wind current creates an eddy that stacks the bait.

It's the sport that makes this Fishing instead of Catching.

Even twice on the same day - this thread has detailed answers Asian Portal Fishing - Fishing Rods, Reels, Line, and Knots - Bass Fishing Forums (bassresource.com)

My Costas are over 20 years old, bought on sierratradingpost close-out for $35. They're still perfect, and nothing sticks to them. Costas are amazing for salt spray not sticking, even riding in a power boat in coast wind. Dark Gray. Choice glasses for wide-open water surface glare and bright sun. My Smiths (also bought on sierratradingpost discount) are for river fishing, give fine detail into the water under wide-varied light conditions. Light Copper. My Serengetis are for driving - non polarized, and double your sight distance in fog. Brown photochromic.