casts_by_fly

Interesting. I could see that. A 1/4 or 3/8 oz blade bait jigged on the bottom.

not sure about around you, but our local did a big sale on 1.75L bottles in April. Instead of $30 bottles a 750ml it was $40 for 1.75. That’s a great deal (and I bought knob and Bombay x2).

Take your hot melt, a knife, and a lighter with you just in case you missed something.

8-10” pvc is the usual solution. I still don’t like it and would rather have them in the cab but 10” pvc holds more rods than you can carry on the boat.

Those are the days you convince yourself that straight braid is just fine. The fish don’t mind…

I've had a double uni break on me too many times when tying them. I'll tie it at home and really test it and its too inconsistent. I'll use it for a backing knot, but not a leader knot. The Alberto is stronger, just as easy to tie on the water, and 100% consistent for me. Its also a smaller knot if you're going to pass it through your guides, especially with heavier lines.

Hi all, So I went ahead and ordered the Curado. The price was too good to pass up if it would do the things I wanted. I got it yesterday morning and since I was going out for an evening session anyway I threw a reel on it and went. My hope for the rod was a lighter version of my Falcon Swim jig rod. The Swim jig is a fast action with a really light tip. The rating is nonsense (1/8-3/8) as it was rated based on the weight of swim jig plus trailer it was designed for, not the total bait weight. The practical rating on it should be 1/4-3/4. The Vertus equivalent is 3/16-3/4 and I'd go with that. The swim jig is one of falcon's three best blanks IMO but with a 1/8 oz weight and tiny plastic like a boar hogz you're pushing the weight limit a little. Make that a regular rage bug (or a midi) and 1/8 is fine. I normally throw 1/4 plus a standard rage bug on it this time of year and that's a great fit. My hope was to knock 1/8-1/4 bait weight off the lower end of the range for a more finesse texas rig setup while still keeping the same overall action on the rod. The curado is a nice rod. I fished my dad's current model 6'10" medium last month and he has a stable of IM10 curados that he loves. This feels a lot like that 6'10" in action and casting feel. However its not the rod I was looking for. Its listed as an extra fast but I wouldn't say that at all. Its on the slower side of fast. The falcon is listed as a fast and I'd put it on the faster end of fast (maybe even an extra fast). The curado is listed for 3/16-1/2 oz. That's probably about right. I threw a midi rage bug and 1/4 oz for a bit so that would be pushing 1/2 oz. I wouldn't want to go much more. A 1/8 oz lil man jig plus 3" rage bug comes in right at 3/8 oz and that was a good weight for the rod, maybe the perfect weight. I didn't go much lower because I was focused on the spinning rods last night. I also threw a 1/8 weight plus a swamp crawler which combined comes in around 7/16 oz. That's also on the upper end, but it fished really well. The curado is 0.1 oz lighter but you wouldn't know it to hold them side by side I guessed the other way around before I put them on the scale. I know some people like them but really hate seeing extra weight in the guides on a rod which in this case means double foot guides for the first FOUR guides. Totally unnecessary. And then the running guides to the tip must be 6's, maybe 5's. The rod feels a lot more moderate actioned because of that weight if you do the wiggle test, but if you just static bend the rod you can see that the blank is a fast action. I think that's the discrepancy here in the rating and the fishing actions. The falcon has much smaller guides and less tip weight. Bare rod vs bare rod the curado is heavier up top for a lighter rated rod. That isn't what I was looking for. What would this be good for? Despite my own personal preferences and knocks on the rod above, its still a pretty sweet rod and for $129 it would be a good choice to fill out a hole in your lineup for not a lot of money. I can only carry 5 rods at a time in a kayak and my swim jig does about everything this does that I need to. That said, do you fish a spinning rod but would prefer a baitcaster? Stuff on the lighter end of baitcasting but a medium spinning rod? This is a good rod for that to swap into a baitcaster. It was pretty perfect for a 3/8 total bait weight finesse jig. Light texas rigs would be a good choice. I want my rod a little faster, but this still has plenty of backbone. This would be a great weightless 5" senko rod (and probably a 4" also, but I don't have any to check). With a lighter spool reel like an MGL or SV you could split shot rig a 4" finesse worm. All in, I'm not keeping the rod. Its not what I am looking for and I don't have enough space in the boat to just add one. Practically speaking, I think what I really want is a 1/8-5/8 rated ML/XF rod. That said, I'm giving it to my dad for father's day. This time of year on his home lake he fishes a 1/8 plus swamp crawler a lot but on a spinning rod. He doesn't like fishing a spinning rod. This rod has about the same power and feel as his 7' Zodias medium spinning rod and will handle all of the same things he puts on it. I think it will be perfect for that usage for him.

@Pat brown is probably right that if you had to pick one for all situations year round. But, you asked about me and I only own a single pack of senkos (and a pack of dingers). I just don't fish them enough and never choose them as my first choice (maybe this is the next "all something" outing). For me, a rage bug or similar beaver is my standard bait. I have clear water and weeds. 0-15' depths pitching to cover, weed edges, rock chunks, etc. A green pumpkin or blue craw standard sized rage bug is my #1. I play with colors and sizes. Sometimes I'll throw a palmetto bug because it is elaztech and I'm tired of plastics getting torn up (then I remember that I don't prefer elaztech for other reasons). I picked up a pack of GP rodents to pitch into thick weeds since they are a little more slim. I'll pitch a tube now and then in the same situations. However, the standard rage bug is my #1 still.

falcon head turner or Heavy cover jig. Both will do it. On the HCJ I'd want an SV or MGL type spool for the lighter end. For the head turner I'd want the expert model which is just a little punchier. The head turner is 6'10" and the HCJ is 7'4" so also some difference in your length preference.

Thanks. Five minutes after I launched the wind kicked up to 5-7 mph and I thought I was stuffed. The forecast was for 0-3. If that had stayed I'd have basically been limited to a texas rig (which wouldn't have been world ending, but it definitely would have killed the spirit of the outing. Fortunately it was just a 10 minute squall and it quieted after that. Thanks. You've got a pretty good box to work inside, so I wouldn't worry too much.

very cool. That's one old fashioned variation I haven't done. I love brandy cocktails and will order them every time when I see them on a good menu. But I don't keep it in the house as standard so have never made an old fashioned from it. What brands/bottles do you recommend?

I love to hear what you Wisconsin guys use for an old fashioned instead of whisky.

Just do this and be done with it https://www.digitaka.com/items/5/283/1/23+STRADIC+(New)++-+30%+OFF

Depends on the lake and time of year for me. I typically carry 5 rods. I have a horizontal rack that holds 4 plus one in my hand. Early season I’ll have two lighter casting rods for treble hooked baits. By may there is so much grass they are useless for that and I have the frog rod and big pitching rod swapped in. In the meantime, my head turner, swim jig, and heavy cover jig rods are pretty permanent.

The report is posted now: all in I fished a tiny spinnerbait, Ned rigs (couple baits and heads), weightless fluke, a small Texas rigged worm, a finesse jig, and a shaky head. The weeds were too much for the shaky head so it didn’t last long. The spinnerbait wasn’t the right thing so I only fished it a little. I did get a pickerel on it, but I also lost it to weeds and a bad knot. I had intended to throw other options like a drop shot, some tiny hard baits, and the micro buzzbait. I had split shots ready and a couple tubes handy. The rod that got left home in the end had a 3” curl tail grub and I bet that would have caught fish, but with how the Ned was fishing I didn’t bother. It was a good night anyway.

In the tackle forum I started a thread about an all finesse outing. Every year I pick something out of the norm for me and do a full trip (usually an evening trip) and do nothing but. I take out all other rods and baits so that I have no choice. I do this to expand my horizons. I’m a power fisherman at heart with moving baits. That’s not always what they want. Year before last I added ‘plastics’ because I didn’t use them much. Not that I didn’t know what to do, but I just didn’t fish them. Instead I’d just keep casting and cranking on a moving bait looking for just that one bite. That plastics trip expanded a lot of things for me and last year I caught a ton of bass on a Texas rig on slow days (and even hot days). This year I decided it was a finesse outing. Originally I was going to make it an all spinning rod outing since I never fish them (and finally bought a nice setup this winter to force myself to do it). However I could only cobble together 4 rigs and one was a stretch (1000 sized reel on a trout rod effectively). I threw my BFS-ish rod in instead (6’6” medium lite/moderate custom build from a long time ago and a kast king zephyr). Sunday night I just happened to order the shimano curado 7’2” ML that’s on sale at TW right now and it came at 10am this morning. So…. I nixed the trout rod and threw a light reel on it with some thin 12# mono. It’s a medium light after all and that was the nominal target power. Lures wise, I dug back into the box and pulled out some oldies - 1/8 oz spinnerbaits and buzzbaits - Zara pooch and teeny torpedo (these are 1/8 oz or so) - a couple curl tail grubs and heads (they aren’t in the box normally) - tiny original rapalas in 3” on top of that, I took everything OUT of my box that had no place being there. My entire wirebaits box, jig and chatterbait box (one exception), all of my jerkbaits, top waters, swim baits, and all of my crankbaits but two. The exceptions were some small 5/16 oz bomber square As and a handful of Sieberts lil’ man jigs in 1/8 oz. I had a full complement of plastics and terminal tackle. I did NOT bring a fish finder (I know the lake well) which means live scope with a jig head minnow while chasing bass was out too. My plan was to have a little bit of everything rigged depending on the rod and line, then adapt as I went. For completeness, that’s a 1/8 oz bomber mini spinnerbait, a zoom 4” fluke (weightless), a Ned like rig with a standard Ika in smoke purple flake, a lil man jig with a rage mini, and a Texas rigged rage bug midi. A Texas rigged rage bug regular is a regular producer here so that was a safe option on the ml curado. I got to the ramp and a guy was waiting for his buddy to come back. They had been fishing a while for musky and he said he had a bunch of bass following musky lures. I thought it might be a chasing night despite the bluebird skies and zero wind so started with the spinnerbait. Very quickly I decided that wasn’t going to be it so I went to the ika. I probably could have stuck with it all night. The next 200 yards and 60 minutes gave up a half dozen bass including a 17” and a pair of 15” fish. I rounded the corner and was immediately in the sunlight side of the lake. I picked one bass on the fluke and the next hour was a dud. I shot back to the starting point and went down that shaded bank again. I landed a good one on the lil man (I need to fish these more) but the grass was being a problem for the single wire weedguard so I swapped to a Ned. Instead of the ika I swapped over to a Ned rig on a Bass Union weedless head. It was the back end of a 5” Yamamoto senko that I fished the other day. That’s what they wanted. I proceeded to go down the bank and back up over the course of an hour or so and catch another dozen bass. In one spot I caught 5 bass in 7 casts. All the same cast. When those 5 bass were done and nothing else was eating I swapped baits for a minute thinking it was a different profile I needed. No, I just needed a chartreuse tail tip. I had tipped the senko and it turns out that was the key tonight. I tipped another one and caught three straight. In preparation, I tipped a trd since I knew the senko wasn’t going to last much longer. The tipped TRD (‘the deal’ was the color) caught three more including the biggest of the night. all in I caught 18 bass (3 bonus pickerel). Two at 17”, a couple more at 16”, and the bulk of the rest 14-16”. Only one fish under 12” and only 3 or 4 in that 12” bucket. Conclusions and learnings for the night: - it was a successful night. My goal was a half dozen keeper sized. I tripled the number and with a ~12 lb bag of five that’s not bad for a lot of tournaments here this time of year. The number of 2# class fish was surprising. I’ll take that any day. - it was a lot of fun. 15” class fish on medium light spinning tackle put up quite a fight. Trying to horse in fish lost me two so you do have to take it a little easy. - I remember why I don’t carry a spinning rod much and why I didn’t fish them much. In my rod rack system they are a pain to rack. One is okay on an end but more than one is a pain. If I were in a boat, I’d probably keep two rigged, maybe three. In the meantime I’ll stick to one. That said, I’m going to try and bring it every trip. It means making choices on the other 4 rods that come (I have 5 that I usually bring). - I made the right choice in the Zodias this winter. It’s the 6’9” ML with a 3000 size Stradic. Longer might be better for distance and fish fighting on light line. Shorter is definitely better for working baits (I was throwing a 6’ rod tonight at times). This is the right compromise for what I need to do. - @Dwight Hottle made a great recco for 131 braid. I fish 832 and love it on baitcasters. Tonight I had 10# 832 on the bfs reel, 10# yozuri super braid (4 carrier) on two rods, and 10# 131 on my stradic/zodias. The extra little bit of stiffness is welcomed in this light line. I don’t know I’d love it in 50# but in 10# it will be my go to. - I haven’t been carrying the spinning rod the past month now that the grass is up. However a lot of places have sprayed for the grass and it is thinning. On top of that, I was surprised how well a lot of these light rigs came through the grass. The jika like rig was very good but did catch some. It was great coming through wood though. The bass union heads are no stranger to me but I hadn’t fished one this much. It was fantastic through pads and grass. The slider head with the Ned bomb would come through anything dead clean. The only thing that caught any slime was the tag ends of my knot. I could throw the slider and the bass union heads into stuff that I definitely shouldn’t have. Thick pads filled with coontail. Twice I had bass hit it on the drop in 2’ of water in that slop and was worried I couldn’t get them out. I could have thrown it deeper into it but would have definitely been stuck. -sunline fc fluorocarbon leader material is great. I got 8#. I had it in pad stems, coontail, heavy branches, and pickerel teeth. I didn’t have a nick or piece of abrasion. There might be better or cheaper choices for leader but I’m very happy with this. - Finesse fishing like this would be really tough with 5mph wind or more. A few times it kicked up and it was tough watching your line let alone feeling anything. Maybe with straight mono/fluorocarbon it would be better but I doubt it. Certainly with more practice I’d get better at it. I’ll definitely do this more. - There are more bass in there than you might think. I picked this lake because I know there are good numbers and I know generally where they should be. Had I gone down the bank with a Texas rig or jig I might have picked a few of these fish, but given how quickly they changed preferences I wouldn’t have had the night I had. 5 bass in 7 casts which were basically the same cast (the ‘2’ were poor casts) wouldn’t have happened in the past for me. It’s got me thinking now about 30+ fish mornings.

bad picture. It’s 1/8 oz, the blade is barely bigger than a nickel, and the whole thing is about 3-4” from line tie to back of skirt. My dad tied them up 30 years ago for river smallies. I haven’t fished one in that long but thought it would be a good option tonight

ahem also, trip in progress. Should be a decent report later tonight.

I saw that last night and was sorely tempted.

I'm in the same boat (almost literally) in that I'm in a kayak also. Last year I carried two speed bags year round with everything in them, and then my tackle bag had two side pouches full of soft plastics bags. This season, I took my basics that I use all the time and put a couple of each color in a 3700 box (my tackle bag is set up around those). I put the summer only (big worms), odd colors that I use occasionally, and things I don't need to carry every time into the speed bags. Now that its summer I throw the speedbags in the boat and leave them there. Early season I didn't bother with them. Come september I'll take them out.

MNFisher gave the technically correct answer. That said, I pretty much lock down my baitcasters and lighten up my spinning rods. On a baitcaster I'm fishing straight mono or straight braid. Regardless of the presentation, when I set the hook I want the fish coming straight to me. There is no chance that the fish is going to break my line because of a locked down drag. When it gets closer to the boat I can loosen the drag or use my thumb on the button if needed. I prefer this to setting it more loose and then using a thumb for extra. On a spinning rod, I want just enough drag to set the hook with the hook I'm using (which will usually be light wire on a spinning rod). Then any fish that is making a hard run will take drag easily on the lighter line I'm using (4-8 lb test). Separately, as if by magic my order of gamakatsu worm hooks arrived 20 minute ago which includes the standard finesse heavy cover in a 1/0 and the G finesse in a #1. And the 1/0 finesse heavy cover is the perfect hook for the mid size rage bug.

The standard gammy EWG in a #1 is truly a finesse hook. I use them for skinny 3-4" worms and then smaller stuff like neds. I'll throw them on 10# braid, but with a 4-8lb leader and a light drag. Definitely not a cover hook. The 1/0 are better and I don't mind them on 12# line.

I fish the gamakatsu EWGs in both 1 and 1/0 but they aren't a superwire hook. If you'll consider another hook shape, the gamakatsu G finesse worm hook is a standard J bend with a keeper. That's my usual hook shape and type for rage bugs and anything beaverish texas rigged. The G finesse are a thin wire, but they are really stiff and don't flex much in my experience. They have them in both 1 and 1/0.

I agree with this. It’s a great rye choice.

I’ve started down this path this season. I started with 6” mag drafts and freestyles (and some slightly smaller stuff). The reason I started there was twofold. 1- they work, and 2- at 1.25 oz it doesn’t take a special rod to throw. A bigger heavy like a big frog rod or heavy pitching rod is enough. First trip throwing the standard mag draft I caught a couple and was hooked. I didn’t do it to target double digit bass, but did want to tempt bigger bass with reaction strikes when they aren’t eating other things. I’ve found that they are good search baits when the water is quieter. And, I’ve caught bass down to 12” on a 6” bait so I don’t think I’m sacrificing bites. im certainly not the expert but I definitely want to learn. When one hits it you know.