casts_by_fly

Falcon topwater/finesse jig for poppers and walking baits falcon eye crosser for frogs i will fish a sexy dawg on the head turner (one power heavier than the finesse jig) and also on the 6’8” medium heavy but the finesse jig has a better feel when casting. also, you didn’t ask about buzzbaits but the 7’4” heavy cover jig is my buzzbait rod.

Living in the UK, a 2.0L engine was a 'big' one. And a big truck was a ford ranger, the size that Ford is now selling in the US. There were a couple other brands, but the ranger was popular among my shooting friends. I forget which engines they were offering at the time, but it was a range of 2-3L turbo diesels. Roughly 30-35 mpg on the highway. Great off road. I seriously considered one when we moved south so that I only needed one vehicle. Instead I kept the jeep and got the SLK. I think I made the right choice. we lived about an hour from the channel tunnel and would drive to Brugge a couple times a year (2x one-hour drives with a 1-hour train ride between). And when we lived up north we drove up to Scotland a couple times also (all the way to inverness). The SLKs are great little cars. Small. Don't fool yourself into thinking they are bigger than they are. They are two seaters with good seating space for anyone under 6'2" and 225lb or so, but if you're bigger than that you're going to struggle. Obviously there is no back seat. But on top of that there is also basically no space between the seat and the rear bulkhead. Its enough to put an umbrella or I could slide a laptop bag in there. That's about it. Its also a hard top convertible so when the top is down it takes up most of the trunk. You could fit a couple bags of groceries under it or two carry on sized suitcases laid flat (but not upright). That said, once you get the hang of it you can pack for a weekend away for two people. And as a commuter car it was brilliant. Mine was the 2012 SLK 200 which was a turbo charged 1.8L making 185 hp (I think) from the factory. However, that's the same engine and turbo that they used in the C class there to make 220 from the factory and it could be tuned all the way up to 245. Mine was around that 240 mark. In a small and wide car it was quite zippy. Up to 2015 or so they offered a 3.5L and then the AMG beast- 5.5L, 415 HP, 398 ft-lb of torque in a tiny two seater. I haven't driven one, but would love to. In 2016 the renamed it the SLC and moved the big engine to the 43 variant. I drove one of them and its impressively fast. That's also the engine we had in the GLC and its a great engine. Alas, the SLC are discontinued also. I had an A class when we first moved to the UK. Mine was a 2004/5 and only had the 1.8L engine so it wasn't much for speed but it was like a mini van inside. The floor was flat and I could take out the back seats which I would do at times. Utility wise it was great. The first gen A45 was considered a monster. 355hp from a 2.0L was crazy. They got there by jacking up the turbo pressure and using high performance cams. It was the first AMG in a compact and for that engine block they kinda overdid it. There were issues. In the new one they've gone to basically a diesel engine block to support how hard they are pushing it. That said, I wouldn't spend that much money on a hot hatchback like that. There are too many other good cars out there to have a tiny hatchback. When we lived down south in the UK we were about 5 miles from the McLaren world headquarters. I would see at least one every day that I drove to or from work. For as expensive as they are it was amazing how many were around that area.

I've got a similar pond here- 30 acres, 35' deep glacial. Weeds grow out to about 25' bottom depth and anything less than 15' they are to the surface. last year I threw a DT16 in 20' of water and just skimmed the top of the grass to catch some.

check your head unit software first. If they just installed it I would expet they updated the firmware also, but double check. If not, then do that first. same time, do as TB said, check the Navionics card and make sure if works. Both of these things are good things to do.

I’ve never been a big car guy. I grew up riding around in pickups and had mechanics in my family but fun cars were never a thing to anyone. However, when we moved to the south of the uk my 3.7L engined jeep liberty wasn’t going to be great for a 30 mile commute each way at $5-$8 a gallon. I kept the jeep for fishing and shooting but got a fun car as my commuter- a Mercedes slk 200. I miss this car all the time. At the same time, just before we left (and before we knew we were leaving) we got a new lease for my wife on another gl-c. Her previous was a 2.0L turbo diesel which was great. This one (stock picture below but that’s basically exactly what we had) was an AMG 43 with a twin turbo AMG tuned 3.0 L that pushed 360 hp and 0-60 in 4.9s and sounded beautiful doing it. On top, it was sooo easy to drive and we took it from the UK through the alps, to Italy and back. Going through the tunnels it just purred. But the SLK was my baby. I had it ECU tuned and it was putting out around 240 hp. I had an aftermarket control chip and could drop the roof from my key fob as well as a few other neat features. I put in a skinny under seat subwoofer. If the weather was 25-85 degrees I had the top down because it had an air scarf system built into the seat headrest that blew warm air. Everything was clean and tidy. And of course it was AMG Mercedes level fit and build. By far the most fun car ever for the place I was in. I’ve looked at getting one here but mercs are much higher priced relatively speaking and I can get a new corvette for the price.

Good luck! on second thought, you’re leaving Texas to go find a dd? Sounds counterintuitive…

I had today off for Juneteenth but with the heat and a fried throwing a pool party later I decided to make a night of it. First time in a while I’ve pulled an all nighter but it was worth it. Launched at 1130 and came off at 530. The first 3 hours were great. I had hoped for a buzzbait bite and got it. First cast while still tied at the dock had one eat it but I lost it after a couple head shakes. Proceeded to go for a lap around the lake and caught a dozen, lost one more, and had a few more blowups that didn’t get a hook. When the moon set I had a couple more nip at it but wouldn’t take. I knew the buzzbait was done and the fish might be also. Fished another half lap with a range of things to have one more bite in 3 hours. All in, 13 bass but a limit of 5 bass all over 3#. Only one dink also.

Budget means different things to different people. There are a couple threads for ‘best rod for $x’. There are a lot of really good rods at the $100 +/- $25 range on the market. But to a lot of people I don’t think that’s considered a ‘budget’ rod. what price bracket do you have in mind?

At the farmers market this weekend we found morels and truffles. So I added a small strip steak and…

It’s hard to beat 832 for the price, especially if you buy by diameter and not rating. It’s stronger than rated by a bit. if you want a slightly stiffer braid then 131 is fantastic. A slightly stiffer 832.

https://www.tacklewarehouse.com/Bass_Union_Weedless_Ned_Heads_3pk/descpage-BUNWNH.html just do it.

the price on jdm shimano has corrected upwards now, but I bought my met and my bantam for right about $215. My zillion was $205 around the same time so basically the same. I’d take another met or bantam over another zillion in a heartbeat. The zillion is great and at current pricing it’s the highest quality to price ratio on the market. I prefer the shimano form factor though.

https://www.academy.com/p/magellan-outdoors-mens-pro-angler-gaiter-hoodie-130550721?sku=gray-light-01-xxx-large&ref_src=kibo_recs&icid=pdp_rec_YMALbyColor this is the one I’ve been wearing the past two years. It’s still like new. And on clearance if you are the right size and color. I love the neck gaiter. It’s loose fit and cool as a turtleneck and covers the back of my neck. If it’s chilly I can pull it up. When the sun is baking or the bugs are awful I pull it up to my chin and throw the hood over. I also use the zipper chest pocket all the time for my phone or keys.

How light? 1/8-3/8 type light then an SV or MGL spool reel. If you need to be lighter then you need a bfs shallow type spool.

glad you found it helpful. The thing to remember with falcon is that they have two powers of ‘heavy’. The heavy cover jig is a 6-power which will match a lot of companies ‘medium-heavy’. Except for the swim jig rod, use the lure rating to compare across companies when it comes to total power. tthe swim jig rod is an anomaly. It’s rated for the head weight of the swim jigs it was designed for. That means almost nothing unless you’re using a swim jig and the trailers they used. In the vertus lineup the approximate equivalent rod is rated 3/16-3/4 and I’d go with that for the swim jig. It’s not what I’d use for a 1/3 oz swim jig plus trailer. The HCJ definitely is.

No

I ordered some last year so probably. I haven’t found a spot in the rotation for them for me.

I have one. Light athletic material, very breathable. Is it as cool as a tshirt? Maybe not always but the sun bearing down on you bakes your skin after a while and makes you hotter yet. Also great for bugs.

They will be in there but you need to find the spots inside of it. 65 braid, 1 oz

Over the past four trips and 60 fish landed I think I’ve dropped 6 on top of that where I’ve hooked them and they’ve come off en route to the boat. That’s about 90% and where I’d expect for single hook baits. Most of those dropped fish were from me horsing them in on light line and not having a solid hook set. Had I taken my time on them I’d be up 3 of those 6. throwing other baits it will drop to 80-85% give or take. im not counting pickerel because I reel them as fast as I can with preference that they fall off en route.

I can tell you that a snap which weighs about half as much as any split ring id consider putting on a frog is enough to pull the nose down on other walking baits. I learned that one this spring with my dad and I throwing the exact same bait side by side. I swapped to a loop knot and immediate result in the action. That’s what I’d do if you really want to try it. Or you could just learn how to walk one for real.

It will make it harder to walk. The ring will catch any little piece of grass. It will also weight the nose down and you won’t get a clean walk.

Same. It was toxic that put me onto them for d-shad last year and they are just right.

On something like 14-16 lb mono about 10 seconds if its free to fall and not penduluming back to you. That said, adding a 1/16 oz weighted hook is a big improvement for me. It still falls pretty slow but you can work it more actively without it staying on top of the water.

For the most part I would agree. If fish are actively eating it often doesn't even matter if you change color of the same bait, they will still eat it. Then there are some days where they only want a specific form factor and fall rate. If you match that they will eat. Then there are those days where only one thing will do. In any given week you'll get 1 of the first, 1 of the last, and the balance in the middle somewhere.