casts_by_fly

the belt is a belt. It goes around your waist. The top might fill but if you have a belt on it is easy enough to fold down the top and most of it comes out.

That's a watersnake. The banding is wrong for a copperhead. Copperheads will have skinny dark bands and wide light bands. Water snakes will be the opposite as in your picture- wide dark bands and skinny light bands (hourglass shape).

A skirted weight will generally come through cleaner than a jig because of the line tie. That said, a Sieberts supreme grass jig has a straight eye and comes through pretty well if you want a jig. Benefit of a skirted weight is changing up weight and color easily. If you want a smaller plastic you can put on a smaller hook to go with it. Its a lot more flexible and if you're starting from scratch it will give you more options with less gear. Hooks are no biggie. A regular straight shank flipping hook comes through pretty well.

If its cold outside, I want the sun and warm water. If its bright outside I want some shade. if I feel like throwing a spinnerbait I want some breeze. If I want to live scope I will pick calm. All of those are hard and fast rules for bass. Until they aren't. Then the fish are where you find them and then you go to them regardless of direction. When would I pick that spot? When I thought fish might be there. You've got a nice variety of depths available for prespawn, post spawn, and summer living. Now you just need to fish it and see if they are there.

ah, I do have some of those in the box, but not in the beast sizes. They are 3/0-5/0 and under a quarter ounce. I should have realized they make them bigger.

I didn't realize those were 10 year old units! To that extend, they won't be worth much on the used market. Maybe $100 each? To that extent, if there is no signal degredation by networking them I would still add them in. Splitting screen is fine, but if you don't have to then don't. You have to network the console and bow anyway, so you might as well add two more cables while you're at it. You can always upgrade the head units later. I'm finding that the more and more I am fishing offshore type places the more that I want maps on all of the time. If I'm motoring and using side imaging then I want to see the contours to image over them. If I am using live scope, its often where I have marked a waypoint for a rock pile or some other stop to check out. Then I want mapping up to see where I am relative to it (and how close) so I'm not running over it. If you have mapping up shared with 'live' then you're just losing screen realestate on the live image.

Not sure which trolling motor you have, but if its a minn kota or similar you can get a weedless prop for it. Then add a ninja grass blade for $35 and it will get through most stuff. I have a skirt on all of mine, but no trailers

We have timber rattlers and copperheads here. I've not seen either in NJ yet. We get a LOT of eastern milk snakes here at the house (and some garter snakes). We used to get a lot more when we had pavers for our back porch and they could get into the voids around them hunting. Same with the tiny ring neck snakes which used to hunt salamanders and worms in the pavers. Our woods behind the house are filled with rocks and voids so I'm surprised we don't get more of the poisonous snakes given how many chipmunks and mice are around. I saw one in NY when we lived there. It was mid summer and I was walking the dog in some WMA swampy/thicket. We were heading out and I decided to take a shortcut walking along a chainlink fence that was securing a small pumping station because they weed wacked all around it. We were creeping under the trees when I looked not 20' in front of us to see one sunning in an opening. Solid 36" snake. Fortunately that dog had good recall and we avoided the issue. I definitely had to change my shorts when we got home. Water snakes are everywhere around here at the lakes and ponds. This part of NJ is very upland so swamps and damp areas everywhere so plenty of water snakes and their prey. I thought one was going to climb in the boat yesterday. It was a bigger one and avoided me as I went down the bank only to circle around behind me and start closing in on the stern. It eventually left. The biggest one I've ever seen in person was at a pond nearby. A solid 36" snake and as big as my wrist at its thickest: Baby milk, about 8". They have tiny teeth and like to use them when threatened. And everything threatens a baby snake. Adult milk snake ~(28") Adult ring neck, about 12" (super docile)

10x4 or 10x4.5 (can't recall which) LH RC airplane prop. I can pull the spec if you're interested. Its a higher pitch and you'll pick up 0.3-0.5 mph over the stock prop at top speed. There is a little more slip at low speed, the spot lock will feel a little 'off' in intermittent winds, and it is USELESS in any type of weeds. It also invalidates you're motor warranty if you read minn kota's terms and conditions (not sure how they would know). That said, if its a rocky lake then I use it with impunity and don't worry. When I was getting 3.9-4.0 on my stock prop I was at 4.3-4.4 on the plane prop. Now that I'm down to 3.6-3.7 on the stock prop this one will get me back to 4.0.

Not sure that I've seen this asked yet, but what type of lakes/cover/habitat do you like to fish? Florida is shallower weedy lakes (which you already know from living there). If you start into the carolinas you'll be on a lot more big impoundments/highland reservoirs. Of course there's santee cooper available which isn't highland and others. My opinion hasn't changed. I'd scap the autopilot, grab another pro-V bass, and live in SC.

short answer yes. I carry talking spoons, moss bosses, weed walkers, and another spoon that I won't name. The level of slop, slime, and type of grass make a difference to which one will fish better. There are times where the action of one of them is the only thing the fish want all day. Also, no one else is fishing them and everyone is throwing frogs and toads so...

Great writeup. All of the things you've concluded are right. One tip for the boat specifically, carry both props on the water. I carry three actually. You never know when you're going to break or chip one that makes it rough to use. Also, you can change out props on the water. This time of year I have to do that. I always guess wrong which prop I need. I'll default to the weedless now and if I'm wrong then I'm just a little slower. If I'm on a bigger lake then I'll swap out. If I start with the standard prop and find out that the weeds are higher than I thought I will DEFINITELY swap out because it makes such a difference. I also carry the airplane prop for those bigger wide open lakes. Also if you haven't put one on, get the ninja blade on there. It won't help with buildup on the nosecone like you describe, but it will keep everything off the prop, even with the regular prop.

That's probably not far off on the price for two biugger units and a live imaging option. The specific units and any deals/rebates going on will influence it. Since you have two already and the HDS units are pretty good units then I'd probably stick with Lowrance if you're happy and then network them all together. Leave the two there and add two (unless you need to sell one or both to recoup cash). A newer unit at the console for side imaging, leave the current one there for mapping. Add a new live imaging unit at the bow and leave the HDS there for mapping/depth charts and waypoints. The only thing to consider is if adding the HDS1's will degrade what the new transducers are showing. Sometimes when you hook up an older unit to a network the lower common denominator/spec wins out and everything degrades to the lower level.

How far do you consider 'casting distance'? That means different things to different people. My SV/TW and all of my SVS/MGL setups will do 45-50 yards no problem with a 1/2 oz plug. I was doing yesterday morning with a 1/2 oz sexy dawg on my 6'10" Head turner and 16 lb supernatural. Similarly the previous generation (Gen 4) Abu garcia STS will do the same with braid and a 1/2 oz red eye shad. If you're looking for longer casts than that, then the BB1 is probably it. Another that I'd throw out there is a tuned round reel like an Abu Amassador or a Calcutta. A 1/2 oz might not be quite enough for the benefit but those round reels can really sing line.

Thanks for that. Do they make underspins appropriate for 6" swimbaits (like a freestyle as an example)? I've never looked for them that big. I fish underspins on 2-4" all the time. Thanks for those. Both look pretty tasty. New rods are fun, but that's not one for this year I don't think. I'm going to stick to the 6" range for now.

I love the ‘tick’ when a bass picks up a Texas rigged beaver knowing that he just inhaled the entire thing and then the resultant hook set. Doing that at short combat range is a ton of fun, but not my favorite. I just started fishing bigger swim baits the past two trips and like Fred Lemons says, that thunk when a fish hits it is something. You can tell they are hitting it to kill it. I can’t say it’s my favorite after just two trips, but I can’t say it won’t get there. A buzz bait is the answer though, fished an hour before the sun comes up right through to sunrise. It’s the painfully slow plop-plop-plop when it’s dark and quiet out, so quiet that you can hear your rivet squealing from 20 yards away, and then the sudden gulp when a big one makes a bucket sized hole in the surface of the water. And all of that on a chuck and wind bait that you can throw in open water or in cover.

I forgot to include the picture of the box lid. Bert was my uncle so these were reserved for him, hence why they never sold.

hi mick, I agree on the noise with fly lines. In my case, all of my lines were bad or worse. There were a few that were passable and for a long casting light tip high modulus fly rod the benefit is worth it. I have a 5 wt an 8 wt that I built specifically for that purpose. They are beautifully crisp. also agree on torzite on a fly rod. I was thinking more for spinning rods and even then I’m not sure how much better they could be over titanium sic to justify the price.

36. That’s the main gear and the only part of the reel that should ever get grease. All of the bearings and other get oil

Aside from the main gear, you don’t use grease on a baitcaster. You use a light oil on bearings and moving parts and that’s it. Just a tiny amount. the best course here would be to send in to DVT for a cleaning. Alternatively start wiping out as much of the grease as you can access easily. Leave the reel in the sun or a hot car to melt the grease some more. Get it clean and be done.

Hi all, I mentioned these in a thread over the winter that I might be able to get some original carded super rats. My dad dug them out for me and I’m sharing some pictures here for posterity and others curiosity. This isn’t the first frog lure but it’s the first one that worked really well for us. I don’t know the original creation date of the super rat but I remember fishing them as early as 1990-1991 I believe. They were designed for Alabama milfoil mats and that’s what we used them for in PA. They were especially deadly in the ponds and at night. Compared to modern frogs, these are lighter, smaller, and much softer. They are comparable to a pad crasher junior in size but they might just weigh 3/8 of an ounce. The body is very thin and soft. As such, you need a quite light tipped rod to throw them. There two other versions that were similar. There was a super frog which had a wider flatter body and one other which I think was more mouse shaped was a popping face and more square body. Mann’s bait company ultimately bought out the lure from Lloyd Talent Bait co and added some variants also. This is an original box as they came from Lloyd talent. There were no mixed colors, you got 2 dozen all of the same. These are just the leftovers we had. There were three colors- black, white, and chartreuse. I can’t tell you how good the white is on a full moon night in the ponds. Thanks rick

I fished in waders a ton for a dozen years or so before we moved to the UK between trout and steelhead seasons. I'd wet wade until the start of October and then lose the waders again in May or June. I went through a bunch of different pairs and types and my suggestion is "buy once, cry once". I settled on Simms G3 guides nearly 20 years ago when they were brand new and mine are still going strong. Reinforced knees, crotch, and ideally butt make a big difference for abrasion, especially if you're walking in through any briars, fences, and brush. Same if you're fishing around concrete or places with mussels. The other thing to consider might be a pair of waist waders if you're doing more hiking in with them. I used to swap between hip waders and chest waders, but waist waders have made hip boots obsolete for me. They wear like a pair of pants so your upper half stays cooler and far more flexible/less constrained. I don't go higher than low thigh deep in them so if you need to be waist deep then that won't work. But for smaller streams where you're not truly wading as much as using them to cross the creek here or there I love them.

While I appreciate the benefits of a longer rod noted above, I can't stand to use a longer rod for frogs. The extra length and heft kill my wrist in short order. I don't even like to use my 7'3" for them. My rod of choice is 6'11" and was designed by Jason Christie for frogs. Given my choice I'd lighten the tip just a little for casting purposes, but otherwise its a perfect frog rod for me. With 50# braid I have no issues making a 40 yard bomb and setting the hook at distance. I'm not fishing heavy slop as much so getting them head up on top isn't as critical for me.

I've done quite a few for fly rods to keep the weight to an absolute minimum. I don't prefer them though because of the way they sing as line goes through them. For a standard rod I wouldn't use them unless asked to. I've always kept titanium SiC as the top of the line for guides and see no reason to stop (I've not built a rod since Torzite came out).

Advice? Go trout fishing with it. if you insist on using it for bass, you’re talking #6 hooks and smaller. The sharper the better. And braid to leader will help