casts_by_fly

same. I don’t target them on the beds. When I said sight fishing I meant forward facing sonar ‘sight’. most every lake here has it. We also get the curly leaf variety which is actually worse for motoring through because of the quantity of leaves. Then we get coontail and milfoil. And then nyads which are thin and wispy and just make a mess of everything.

for all of the things you’re talking about throwing, you’re in the 14-16# mono range depending on the brand. A 70 size reel can hold twice as much of that mono as your furthest cast. And a 150 reel is probably the perfect buy once size for bass. It will do everything. The mgl and sv spools are great for throwing light and heavy. I have both and use both. The only time I adjust anything on them is when I start throwing 3/4 and up and the only thing I do it add a little more spool tension to save my thumb some work.

any of the 70/100/150 sized reels would be just fine. It’s just when you start into the 200 sized reels that you start dropping lighter lure capability. not sure how much you want to spend, but the pair of SLX mgls in the classifieds here is a deal for someone. I considered picking them up myself.

which size were you throwing? I have some 4” on the way but they are more for FFS open water ‘sight’ fishing. if you don’t already have some, grab a pack of yamamoto dshads and some owner light twist lock weighted hooks. Rig them texposed and then hide the hook point. You can put them anywhere so long as you don’t let it swing around a branch a couple times and they should fish really well in that type of water. Especially with the spawn coming up soon for you. this is the type of pondweed that I get a lot of. This is broadleaf and was in early April last year. It fills in more with coontail, curly pondweed, and pads. It’s 8’ deep there. A buzz bait over the top is a good choice but anything else has to be pretty weedless to get through it.

the 200 sized curado is not what I would call the most popular well known casting reel.

You can make it work. You’ll need a pretty stout rod if you’re in heavy cover. A lot of medium spinning rods don’t have the backbone to drive home a frog hook. Some do. I have an HMX fenwick that could do it with braid. But on the whole, most medium spinning rods are going to be too light.

no functional difference. Wire is more durable but you can’t just change it out. Band and rattle you can swap skirts if you need to. Rattle band you can add a rattle if you like. overall the megladon is a nice jig. I have a couple to use as a heavy swim jig in thick grass. afraid I can’t help on bacarat colors.

just get the jdm stradic and be done with it.

funny enough, I’ve been chatting with someone else here about just that. I have the hooks already so just need to grab a couple freestyles.

Well, we all make mistakes. I grabbed the BB from Amazon figuring if I didn’t like I I could send it back easily enough. I pulled it out this morning to compare. I haven’t fished it obviously. on first glance, it’s very similar to my Stradic- same size, angles, etc. I bet some of the parts are interchangeable. That’s about where the similarities end. I paid $113 for it. For an extra $30, get a jdm stradic. I don’t know if it’s the matte finish on the metal but something about the reel feels cheap. The bright parts on the outside are chromed plastic. I don’t mind both of these things, but not if I’m paying practically stradic money. Reeling it with an empty spool it’s decently smooth, but my Sierra from the mid 90’s which has been abused is just as smooth. The bail is a little tight to flip with the reel handle, though I suspect it just needs to break in a little. For clarity, this is a Malaysia made reel, not Japan. all in I would probably give this reel a 5 or 6 out of 10. If I had paid $70 for it then I’d be happy and would keep it for my trout rod which I use only occasionally. For $110 I’m going to send it back. You can do better at the same price point on a usdm miravel or Sahara I think and for $30 more that stradic just sings.

Amazon. If I am ordering from TW and need line I’ll grab it but otherwise Amazon next day prime shipping and it’s as cheap as anywhere usually.

I’ve got some freeloaders on order to try for FFS. I’ve been using the yum sonar minnow and the tiny fluke. The freeloader seems more of the same as the yum but we’ll see.

The 3741 is also a nice box. One compartment, deeper by a quarter or half over a standard, and gasket sealed. I use one for all of my Ned/finesse as the bags fit perfect and I throw a handful of jig heads and terminal in with it.

Probably lakers. 20-40’ deep in open water on an upstate NY lake with a long stretched out school.

I’m watching Memorial Day. I have a wishlist built and if they go on sale I’ll grab it. Otherwise I’ll wait for BF.

For largemouth, I bet you're just before. We are a week or two ahead of normal down here in north Jersey and Wednesday night I saw bass an bluegill on beds at 68 degrees, but the sunday before a different lake was 58-60 and I didn't see a single bed anywhere (it would have been warmer than that a couple days prior). If you're at 60 degrees you'll only have just gotten there so I'm going to say prespawn but very near to the spawning grounds. Should make for a good trip. I'd start where you expect them to be spawning and then back off until you find them. If it were me, I'd be looking in 8-10' or so which would be a jerkbait, mid depth crankbait, or similar. The smallies should be on beds or also very very close.

It sounds like you're just general surf fishing for the little beach stuff like whiting, small reds, and 'whatever comes along'. I've done a bunch of that in the outer banks just up the coast where you'll be. Depending on the surf and tides I was throwing 1-4 oz and a two hook rig on lighter surf gear (9-10' rod, 6000 size reel, rated for up to 4 oz). I fished straight mono and it doesn't have to be heavy. My lighter rod is 12# pline CXX which is actually pretty big diameter and tests out around 18# (and is a hard/slick mono). My bigger rod has a similar diameter. All of my bottom rigs are on 30 lb cheap mono. If you're fishing 30 lb braid, something like 20-25# big game would be fine for what you're doing. Abrasion is the biggest issue when you're only throwing a couple ounces and big game is good and hard/slick.

d**n it Andy I was trying to not cry today. So glad to see this video.

First of these of the year for me. I end up catching a couple every year fishing for bass. This one was only 20” but later in the evening I floated over a 40+” fish. One day one of those will eat and it’s going to be a wild ride in the kayak.

The closest I have myself is my falcon 7’2” swim jig rod which is certainly fast though it’s more MH than medium. That said, I fished my dad’s shimano curado 6’10” medium/fast and it’s a great rod. 1/4-3/8 spinnerbaits, shallow to mid crank baits, light swim jigs or finesse jigs, etc. anything you’d throw 12-14 lb line for it’s a pretty sweet rod. I don’t prefer foam handles but otherwise is a cool rod.

Put some plastic beads inside the body. It will give you weight without sinking it. Also adds a little rattle.

same here for me. Since the Fuji concept guides came out that's all I ever used for sizes. Then running guides as small as practical to the tip.

No, only if you go to extremes. For me, I run low spool tension and higher brakes. I only adjust if I'm starting to fluff the spool. I can throw 1/4-5/8 easily enough without touching anything assuming there's no wind. With wind, I'll up the brakes a little for lighter stuff. Any adjustment should be minimal also. You're not doing anything extreme (extra long bomb casting, very heavy or very light lures, etc) so you're right in the sweet spot of what just works without adjustment.

In another thread earlier today I told someone they didn’t need a new rod and apologies to the bait monkey in one swoop. In fact, I said “please forgive me bait monkey, I'll do double duty next time”. The monkey heard that and said “hold my beer”. my schedule has been tight lately so when the stars aligned I took an afternoon trip to my favorite local lake. I haven’t fished it this year and was curious where it was in the cycle. It’s a natural lake and in the hills so it’s usually cooler than the others around. That was incorrect tonight. While the lake Sunday was 59-61 and the big lake around is at 59, this one was 66 degrees. Going down the bank it was a mix of bass and bluegill on beds. It was a spinnerbait kind of day (overcast, light breeze, etc) so I started there but after seeing how much grass was already up and that the bass were on beds I gave up on it after 15 minutes and one pickerel. I had to take a work call so I plodded around the lake watching live scope while on the call and saw nothing anywhere (not surprising, the bass here relate to the grass). I hate bed fishing, so I decided to throw a wacky senko along the bluegill beds and hard cover looking for post spawn ears. I managed two bass that way but I hate fishing like that so I needed something else. Cue the monkey. Every year I pick a thing or two that I want to try and/or fish a lot more and get good at. After watching a bunch of Tyler Berger I decided to try a magdraft this year. I only went with the 6” since I had rods to handle it. I had just watched his lake break where bass were around beds and it turned out some were eating a magdraft pretty well. Turns out they were doing that here too. I landed 3 plus a bonus musky plus had that many more knock it sideways and not hook up. These were definitely post spawn fish as a 19” fish was only 3-08. In two months that fish will be a pound heavier here. The musky was a clean 20” fish. I had another 40+” musky watch my lure go by disinterested. I have to say, fishing a magdraft is a lot of fun. I’ve fished big keitechs and other soft swim baits before but the MD is just different. In the super clear water up here (it was 5’+tonight) I can see it working well. I might have to grab one or two more now, maybe some other high end soft swim baits, a glide or two and a rod to handle them. I can see how people get addicted to this.

I prefer a buzz bait myself but only because we have weeds and the trebles on a jitterbug are a problem. At night in the ponds growing up a jitterbug was unstoppable.