casts_by_fly

Yeah, that's me. I carry 5 rods most of the time and sometimes 1 is a non-power technique when I leave the house (and sometimes not). Depending on lake and time of year, I'll definitely have some combo of spinnerbait/chatterbait/swim jig/buzzbait/frog rigged. Earlier season I will have two rods rigged with snaps for crankbaits and jerkbaits (they become impractical on most of my lakes from May onward). I've just picked up bigger swimbaits. My default is to keep moving. Even when I throw a texas rig I'm moving it pretty quickly to cover water. Only after I catch one will I slow down and work a location. A couple places that I know bass to be consistently I will plan ahead and have something slower on, but that's not most of the time.

weighted hook and a fluke/dshad or similar. It will hang up on grasses and then pop free.

1' of water visibility and I'm not bothering with a 3" minnow that has no sonic profile in the water and that you'd have to put on the fish's nose for him to see and eat with FFS. Certainly not on my kayak where fish move, the boat moves, you move, and the transducer has to move to keep up with all of it (and I have to make that movement while at the same time casting to fish). There would be no margin for error with only 1' of visibility. In that scenario a jerkbait is going to be a much better choice or even a spinnerbait. Look at the conditions the pro's were fishing at the start of the year and what fish they were targetting. It was pretty clean water and prespawn fish that were eating (not spawning bass) in open water. Look at last year's tournaments where FFS was winning and it was more of the same- cleaner water (the cleaner the better) and bass that are chasing/following bait. In that case, if you know and can see that fish are actively eating why would you not try to catch those fish? Like others have said, its a tool for certain conditions. Clearer water, deeper water, open water are all good options. Muddy, shallow, weedy, brushy, and negative mood fish tight to cover are less optimal conditions. Sure there are other cases where it works (look at Scott Martin on the opens at Okeechobee this year) but as a general rule stick to cleaner stuff.

watching intently. Dragging is one technique that I don't know- both carolina rig and football jig. Offshore has never been my thing but I'm learning it the past year or two. I'm like Daubs and I have a lot of weeds and a lot of mucky bottoms with filamentous algae and green slime. But I do have a couple places on a couple lakes where I've graphed hard bottom in the middle of nowhere. So next time out on those lakes I'm going to give the carolina rig a try. Do you guys fish a C-rig through thicker grass beds? I've got a spot or two where I could throw up into the grass and work it back out into the clear water. I'm thinking that's got potential but also going to be a lot of pain with hangups..

I'm a kayak guy and use a truck. I wouldn't have it any other way. The kayak goes in the bed. Gear goes in the back seat and front seat (rods). I'm in a full size ram with the short bed (5'7"). I don't typically bring any gear with me that isn't going in the boat, but if I do leave anything behind its in the cab of the truck nice and secure. I also have ramboxes on the side which fit a 2 pc 8' rod if I want (and I keep my trout rods/gear in there from March to June). The only downside of a truck is the size and accompanying fuel economy. Mine has a big back seat to fit 3 adults comfortably. I can haul anything in the bed. Its incredibly easy and comfy to drive. I get 16 mpg around town and general driving. With road biased tires I can get 20 mpg on the highway. I have a more agressive set of tires on it since I don't do that many miles and I get ~18 on the highway (19 if I keep it to 65 mph). Whichever you pick, pick it for what you're doing most and then adapt what you do less often. You'll get your biggest benefit that way, even if your 'fun' activity is a little tougher to do.

efficient? No chance. I guess maybe it depends on the amount of visible cover you have. If it’s a lake with only a little cover then hitting the couple lay downs that are there would be great. But for going down the bank and targeting cover vs casting at fish you find on ffs? Definitely more efficient (fewer casts and less time per fish) with ffs.

There are enough non C&R fishermen around here that keep every fish they catch regardless of size and species that I'm not worried about harming population dynamics when I don't harvest. At the same time, I have no qualms if I want to keep some here or there.

Checked in with Dad. These were from the first batch that he sold after advertising them and were hand made in his garage. He had been doing them locally on a small scale but then on one of the fishing shows he advertised them as available to order. My dad called him up the next day and chatted with him. They were hand dipped in his garage and hand packed onto the bags and cards he shipped them on. This was about 1983 or so. My dad ordered 5 dozen at the time and these are from that original order.

You're me last year. I upgraded to mega live on my kayak. I don't fish tournaments, but I fish a tournament style. Last year I used live scope primarily as I was going down the bank with it angled ahead of me on a 45 degree angle or so. I'd use it to see cover and weed lines to know where I wanted to put my bait that wasn't at the visible cover. Occasionally I would use it to track my actual bait or look for fish on isolated cover. Sounds like a lot of what you're doing. This year I still do that when I'm fishing the bank or fishing to cover I know. Some places I don't even look at it because I know them so well. Where I've changed though is that now on some lakes I will make an active choice to go 'hunting'. When the bank isn't producing (which has been a whole lot of this year) and I start looking off shore, instead of blindly fishing the points and drops I sit back in my chair and start motoring at 2 mph or so and sweeping the transducer, all with a jighead minnow in hand. Is it an improvement? Sometimes and maybe. It is an completely additional way to fish. There are still fish on the bank to be caught and depending on the lake live imaging might be useless to you (a couple of my lakes are like that). Then again there are also roamers and cruisers to target. And fishing offshore structure with livescope is a different experience than fishing it 'blind'. After a year and a half of it now I like both for different reasons/things.

1- No, not unless you're going to take the handle apart down to the blank. A rod builder could extend it for you onto a tube. I don't know of an aftermarket piece. You could maybe get 1" from a big surf rod butt cap that slips over yours. Or a cane/walker rubber cap. But I don't think that's what you're looking for. 2- you're already at 14 1/2" which is pretty standard for a nominal 7'-ish rod. how much longer do you want in the butt?

https://www.apcprop.com/product/10x4p-lh/

I'll have to check in with my dad when he first started ordering them for the shop. My grandma had a bait shop for a long time in the basement of the house. The basement door opened into a single room shop that was filled to the brim. Being in western PA, most of it was trout- joe's flies and rooster tails, powerbait and paultski's eggs, terminal tackle, etc. She was right on the river so got a lot of carp and catfish guys too so had plenty of stink baits, doughball, heavier lead, etc. Of course she all sorts of worms in the fridge in the back room stored neatly in dapartment store shirt boxes which at the time were 24" x 10" x 4" and hard plastic with hard lids. She must have had 4 dozen of them in there, all full in the spring. But my dad was (and is) a bass fisherman first and foremost. So he kept a modest bass section, mostly of things popular for the river but also things he was interested in. He hand molded/tied spinnerbaits and buzzbaits for the racks. I remember the grainy BASS footage from Guntersville where the Rat must have made its public debut. I was yound then, but we watched the tournaments every weekend on TNN I think it was.

interesting. I’ll have to ask my dad how old these ones are then. This would date them before 1989 then.

yep. They kept the white/black/chartreuse versions and added on. This was the first round. I don't know that Lloyd talent produced them for Mann's, but I would suspect so. The first editions were basically identical to the original. Here was a second or third edition in the mouse. Here is an example of the 'frog' vaiant. Note the wider and flatter back body. The ebay listing for this one is described wrongly as the rat. I also note the variants on the sides of the pack. That's what I was alluding to about Mann's expanding the lineup. The ghost was the walk the dog tube (pic below). There was also the goblin which I think was a little bigger. I have a chartreuse ghost somewhere downstairs I think. the pygmy frog was originally just the popper. Aparently the ghost and pygmy frog are still available.

Mann's bait bought out these super rats from Lloyd talent. When they bought them out they added some new colors (grey and brown that I know of) and some new shapes (a mouse, a little tube like a spook, maybe one more). I also just remembered what the third original shape was. It was a flat face andmore square body kinda like a popping frog. It was about the size of the standard Arbogast Hula popper (about 2.5" long and 1.5" wide).

you're basically looking at a ML power to get down to 1/8 oz. Not a bad idea to look at BFS rods. The phenix rods are highly rated and about that price on sale. Incidentally there are two in the for sale pages here right now that would do what you want at nearly your price. Another thought for stream fishing is the Falcon bucoo SR ultralight. Its very light and only rated to 1/4 oz but its rated down to 1/16 oz so you'd be in good shape on the lighter end. At 5' it would be a really cool small stream rod. I've thought about picking one up just to play with it. I haven't pulled the trigger yet though. I assume you already have a reel picked out that can handle 1/8 oz.

find the cleaner water. With that much rain you usually get a lot of runoff mud at first and the fish don't like that much dirt in the water at first. If its normally a muddy lake they are better, but if its normally a clear lake the mud will shut them off at first. Find the clean water coming in or head towards the dam where the particles have had some time to settle in the water column. If you find a stream running in that's clear then there will be fish there.

How did he get them to all line up like that and stay still for the picture? Also dear god, I will never go into an old barn in texas ever.

When I was still early fishing for steelhead I was fishing with a guy from another forum. He was throwing the 10'6" St Croix noodle rod which is a 2-6 lb rod and MAYBE rated for 1/16 oz. I always thought that rod too light for steehead until I watch him with it that evening. He said "point the butt at the fish" and he wasn't kidding. 10-12 lb steelhead one after the other came in on 4 lb line like that. Fresh fish too, just out of the lake and angry. That was a learning experience.

I used to fish steelhead in PA/OH a lot for a number of years that coincided with my building rods. I lived in Cleveland for a year and fished 250+ days that year, mostly for steelhead (and entirely for steelhead from September to may). While I didn’t build any sick swan blanks, I built quite a few lamiglas which I’m sure were inspired or related. They had a 10’6” on a high modulus graphite similar to a imx at the time which was fantastic. 2-8 lb test and 1/32-1/4 if I remember right. Perfect for the mid sized streams in that area. It makes for a great trout rod on bigger trout water (because steelhead are trout after all).

I’ve gotten nipped a few times. Only non poisonous snakes. Garters and milk snakes for the most part. I’ve handled black rat snakes and water snakes and both will get you good so I don’t take any chances there. Ring necks are so docile that you can just grab them. anymore I don’t mess with any unless they are in the yard. I picked up a pair of tongs a couple years ago when we were getting all of the big ones and use them once or twice a year. I get a bunch of little ones that I’ll pick up with my bare hands and a stick.

It will depend on your console arrangement and size. Another thing to consider if you already have two slots cut is to put both of your current in there. Then when you get the new big unit for the front you just need the one unit and can go bigger like a 16” for the price of the two you were going to buy. Then you have two flush mounted at the console which would be nice and only one up front. Of course this is dependent on the transducer from the new one working fully with the old ones.

Depends on how much give is in the rod. I straightened a snap hooked to a crankbait when a big pile ate it near the boat. Not enough give in the system. Then again look at the guys fishing ned and other finesse rigs on braid. Plenty of give in the rod.

I agree with you on the on the hourglass markings and maybe it’s just a bad angle on the picture. Copperheads have the hourglass in the dark band, i.e. the dark band is the skinny band and the lighter color is the wide portion. Northern water snakes have a reverse hourglass where they are mostly the dark color and have the lighter color as the skinny hourglass. Looking at your picture, the back of the snake is on the right and the skinny hourglass is in light tan. https://www.raritanheadwaters.org/2020/06/05/creature-feature-northern-water-snake/#:~:text=Identification%3A The Northern Water Snake,white%2C yellowish%2C or orange.

yes. Check your model vs the list, but I think it will be the MKP6. The ninja blade is third party and there is only one.