casts_by_fly

what he said. Pick your gear ratio, pick your cranking hand and go.

We had a second one of magnitude 4.0 a couple hours ago. It was centered a couple miles closer than the first. I think they are done now but who knows.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08NP3F5MV?smid=A3GZEOQINOCL0Y&psc=1 you’re looking at usdm, not jdm.

i think the Cara dragger 1 is the right answer then.

JDM Zillion for $200-$210. If the bantam would come back down to that I’d say that (because I prefer that form factor). rick

I'd start where you think they were before the front and then keep backing off, one drop at a time, until you find them. The cold will chill them and might slow them down, but that just changes lures and speed. I'd wager you were probably right that some of the bass were starting to push up on beds, especially if its been that warm for a while. Then again 59-64 indicates that maybe not the whole lake has warmed up to that level or that its 64 in the afternoon on the surface, but the bulk of the lake is 59. That's still a little cold for true spawning. The early big ones will come in though and I think that's what you found in the 8 lb fish. I think you're right on the front edge of the spawning waves which means there should be plenty of fish backed off a little. I'd back out to the next drop and start throwing jerkbaits.

My wife was in the car a couple miles from here and didn't feel it either. Supposedly there is a predicted earthquake for over the next two hours in the 1.5-2.0 range.

1 oz total bait weight, yes (at least for my expert model). A 1/2 oz chatterbait with a zako on the back is just over 7/8 oz and I do that all the time. I've thrown a 3/4 oz spinnerbait on it but it was naked (no trailer, no trailer hook) and that's pushing it. That's where the bigger rods come in. The expert head turner is definitely a fast action though and not what you're describing above. I agree on the Amistad if you don't mind the extra length (7'3"). I would also suggest the heavy cover jig as a touch lighter and a little closer to moderate fast than the amistad but similar length (7'4"). It will absolutely fling a 1/2 oz chatterbait and zako combo. I throw 3/8-3/4 spinnerbaits on it.

We are 7 miles from the epicenter, so..... Yeah. We felt it. The walls shook and the windows vibrated a lot, but nothing broke. Just a couple canister lights that came out of the ceiling that I have to push back in. we're also having aftershocks since the event. Every 10-20 minutes one rolls through. Sounds like thunder, but no vibration.

I don’t know the name but I had some 30 years ago and I might still have a few downstairs.

but did you catch any big ones? That ones maybe 15? 17? Inches? glad you’re finally on the water.

maybe. But there are a lot of complicating factors. Preference doesn’t always indicate what the better thing is. Marketing and personal belief play in. We’re also talking about JDM market and US market put together with a weird exchange rate. You also have each company’s supply and demand plans and capabilities. Get your demand guess wrong and you’re constantly out of stock. With all of those complicating factors, I wouldn’t equate availability with preference or quality.

if you’re talking 3/8-1 oz lures then a 6 power falcon is the right range. The head turner is great but I think that will be a little fast for what you’re describing. The dragger 1 in the bucoo sr line is what you’re describing. It’s listed fast but it’s not that fast and is perfect for 1/2 oz bladed baits or thereabouts. I have the expert version and it’s a different rod in action and power. I think the Cara is more like the bucoo but I don’t have one.

I’ve got one. It’s my primary frog rod from June to September with 50 braid. If you’re throwing 3/4 oz bladed baits or heavier it’s a good choice. Pitches heavy plastics at short ranges well (like a half ounce weight plus plastic around docks). Would make a good 1/2 oz buzz bait rod but I have others for that. Action wise, I’d call it fast. Not especially fast, but faster than a moderate fast. The action combined with the power make it a fairly stout rod. It’s not a generalist- you need to have a use for it. If you have a need then you’ve found the rod.

I have humminbird on my kayak. My dad runs lowrance on his tracker which I've set up and tweaked for him. Like Frydog said, humminbird is better for down and side imaging with one caveat. The active imaging 3 in 1 (their best) is about equal to the smaller Humminbird transducer (their cheapest) that comes on the Helix 5 and 7. It can be tough to compare boat vs boat at times and I only get to play with and tune his two or three times a year. Maybe I could get more out of his, maybe the difference in lakes makes a small difference, maybe I just would rather fish when I get time with him and not mess with electronics. When I compare 3 in 1 to the bigger Humminbird transducer on the 9 and up there's no comparison. The helix 9 is far superior. 2D is basically the same for all. If you're going to go with live imaging at some point, then I'd go with Lowrance/garmin. If you want 360 at some point, then you have to go Humminbird. Past that and for just what you're talking about it comes down to price. If you are going to spend for a Helix 9, then get that. If you're not, then I'd look at the price between a 9" Garmin/Lowrance vs a 7" helix (they are usually close) and decide if you want 9" or 7" and if you care about touchscreen.

Our anniversary is May 27th and that usually kills me every year for some chunk of time...

Thanks! Last year we had a big vacation planned for the end of May (just over two weeks) so I missed some prime time. We are away Sat-Wed coming, but then not going anywhere until August so at least we're home for all of prime time spring. Granted, we're getting a puppy in < 2 weeks so my time may be iffy at times for that... 40 degrees is tough. high 40's is a different story though and that's where I normally start fishing especially if its a steady warming trend. If the weather takes the water from 45 to 50 a degree a day the fish are going to keep moving to follow the warm. It might take them a day to start moving through so the ups and downs kinda hold them tight. When it hits 50 and stays that way for a week you know its time.

Are those numbers inches of snow forecast? We've had 2" of rain the past 48 hours with another inch today. Its also 40 degrees and 15 mph sustained (gusts to 30). Not pleasant. But coming up... That's a spring trend I like to see. Consistent sun, no cold overnights, and then warm rain. Plus fishable wind.

I bet there is a very regional component to each year. It was an odd year for us here in NJ because we had a really warm spell really early. We often get one warm spell in Feb and one cold snap in March/April, but the intensity of them this year was more than normal. I managed to get the boat in the water a couple times in Feb when its normally ice. Then March has been so cold and wild that even if you could fish any day you wanted you'd have had a hard time out. We're still in the very early 'bonus' season as I descibed on your other thread so take it for what it is. When this current storm passes and we have a week of sunny and 65 as forecast I expect catches to shoot up in this area. The water is about 47-48 depending where you are but that sustained warmth will heat things up. Looking back at pictures from the past two seasons, most of my pictures really start the middle of April and that's my target to be on the water as much as possible.

1- you already missed her while you were typing this post. 2- tents and all nighters 3- depends how big the babies got in the eggs. Some of those little 'uns just don't want to pop out 4- she's a good mama but knows her strengths. mothering isn't one of them. peace out. in all seriousness, the guys above covered the real answers.

for the future, carry long nosed pliers that can reach all the way to the back of a fish's throat easily. If you do gill hook one, skip the pics and weight and get it back as quick as possible. If its a single hook on a soft plastic and I can't get it, I have no qualms of snipping the line and pulling the plastic off but leaving the hook in. Those are usually the bad ones that bleed everywhere. A gut hook you can unhook through the bottom of the gill plate pretty easily (linked above). Sometimes that approach helps for gill hooked too. Just pull the hook backwards down the gill plate and snip the line.

As the guys covered, its how many times the spool (baitcaster) or bail (spinning) turn per turn of the handle. Retrive ratio is how many inches of line are pulled in per turn of the handle. That's a combination of retrieve ratio and spool size and a better way to think about how 'fast' your reel is. I have an 8:1 reel that only pulls in 29" per turn while another is 33" per turn from the same maker. The difference is spool size. Whether it matters to you pulling in a lure is another story (I'd argue it does sometimes, but mostly not). Another thing to note, changing the handle to a longer handle does not impact the gear ratio or the IPT measurement. It just means your hand goes a longer distance per turn of the handle. That doesn't change the spool/gearing/IPT. I don't know about you, but they weren't teaching algebra in my 4th grade.

Nice! That's a good success rate. I killed my first turkey in 1993/4, though it wasn't turkey hunting specifically. We were small game hunting for grouse and rabbits. The PA license came with a spring and fall tag at the time and fall could be either sex. We rounded a hillside and a flock busted like grouse at 30 yards. On instinct, I swung on the first bird and dropped it with the old 16 ga ithaca pump I was carrying. We collected it and at that point I realized that we had a grouse, two rabbits, and maybe a squirrel or three already in our game bags. And a mile back to the truck. That was the last one I'd shoot while small game hunting. I shot a couple after that in the spring, but never got heavily into it like some do. I still have all of my calls and vest in the basement and this time every year I pull out the old slate call because we have a flock of 5-7 birds that live behind the house. When the weather clears and warms later this week I epeect to hear the gobbler start up, so I'll give him a few clucks and get him up close to the house.

nj has a similar season setup. One month divided into 5 seasons. M-F for each of the four weeks and the four saturdays as the fifth. Then we’re broken down by zone and I don’t even know how many zones we have. So you have to pick your zone and hope you can get a tag for the time period you want. Tags are limited (some areas more than others). If you’ve never been part of this type of system before it takes a couple reads before you even understand it. I grew up in PA with the same regulations. You couldn’t buy the second tag then, but otherwise it’s the same. PA has a lot of turkeys for a season like that.

let us know here how it is when you have it in hand.