casts_by_fly

My swim jigs for grass and light cover go on 30 lb 832 and no leader.

since I’m by myself in a full sized truck, my rods sit in the passenger seat like prized cargo. They are the last thing I’d transport in the back. When my mother in law was sick and we went home for an indeterminate amount of time, the rods rode shotgun while the dogs were in the back seat. I put a 2’ piece of 4” pvc over the tips so the dogs couldn’t catch a guide or anything. The motor fits in the rear tank well (laid down) pretty well and I think I could squeeze the tackle bag in There too in a pinch. I never take my batteries or seat out. Same with my two kvd speed bags of plastics or my net. That’s all under a tonneau cover in the bed so there is no issue with wind or dirt.

@FryDog62 I’m with you. The AP is a beast for sure. I’m lucky that most of my lakes have a good launch or kayak launch area. I’m usually launching when others aren’t and the ramps are never so busy that can’t just fish another 10 minutes while someone else loads up. I’ve considered a trailer, mostly to avoid lifting in and out of the truck bed. I’d also leave my tackle bag in the back (strapped down) and possibly the fish finder and livescope pole. I could at least leave the pole connected electronically. Then it’s just rods (that id carry after parking) and the motor (which I could install before launching). Maybe this winter as a winter project. As it is now, I have to make three trips from boat to truck. I pull the boat out of the bed, flip the rudder, move the net out of the way, and flip out the rod holders. First load is the motor and helix. I hook up the motor and just leave the helix in the mount. Next is the livescope pole and tackle bag. Both just get dropped into the boat. Lastly, I’ll grab rods and my thermos or ‘other’ if I have anything. If there are people around I’ll skip this and just move the boat from the ramp to a dock or beach (or spot lock it off the dock) and carry the rest down. Usually that’s not the case though. Once I’m on the water I’ll connect the fish finder and motor wires. Loading back into the truck is similar, though I try to disassemble everything before I’m back on the dock. If it’s empty I’ll dock dump everything while I’m sitting in the boat and load it into the truck while the boats on the dock. If it’s busy then I’ll make a trip or two to the truck so that loading is just ‘throwing’ the boat in the bed. Either way, it’s a bit of hassle on either end not being able to leave your gear in the boat. Definitely need a system that you stick to (especially fishing in the dark).

Don’t know about him but I love mine on my kayak. Imaging is great.

So I’ve got a new twist in the 8-pt saga and it burns me up. After jumping him Saturday and seeing him hustle off, not bleeding, I was sure he would make it. I didn’t hit gut or anything vital, just flesh. Turns out that’s lethal too when there is a pack of coyotes around. I heard them howling Tuesday night when I had the dogs out and they only do that around here in a fresh kill. I thought maybe, but put it out of my mind. This evening I had to walk from home as my wife has my truck and I decided to make it a long walk which took me past where they were howling. As I approached there were three buzzards and I knew what was coming. Sure enough, there he lay with two days of scavenger chunks missing. I’m sure he would have made it otherwise but for the coyotes. This weekend I’ll harvest the rack and probably put my buck tag on him. It sucks that no one gets the meat so I’ll have to find an extra doe for the food bank.

I fish rods from 6’8” to 7’4” as my regular set. Lots of similar actions and powers across them. Length gives you a bit more casting distance, shorter more maneuverability. In practice, there isn’t much difference unless you’re at the extremes. I’d pick based on the specifics of the rods in question.

If you're not around too much cover then you'd be okay. The main limiation on a medium is power- power to cast heavier lures, power to set the hook with heavier hooks, and power to pull fish away from cover. If those aren't factors for you and you need to be able to throw a true 1/4 oz, then a medium isn't a bad choice.

good luck orange ninja! I had a grand plan for today and tomorrow. I have a 2-3 hours break this afternoon and was going to do set a stand to creep into before daylight tomorrow morning (I have tomorrow off). It's a piece of public land about a 5 minute drive away so just enough time to set up for the morning. Alas, then I remembered that we're down to 1 car right now and my wife is in the office. So we're going to try something a little different and start walking here from the house and walk the whole way to a bordering piece of public land that I've hunted a time or two. Then dark is going to fall about when my wife is coming home so she can pick me up on the side of the road.

While glorious for someone who can do things during the week and enjoys just being outside, this fall weather has sucked here for a lot of things. In september and October there was rain for both days on 7 of 8 weekends. I live in appple picking country where all the city folk from NY and surrounding come for nice fall days to hand pick their own apples. It ws a bumper crop for apples this year and a disaster level of no-shows on the weekends. The farms are struggling. They are trying their best to get people in the door, but those two months make the profit for the year. The long weekend and decent weather this weekend might help, but its pretty late and people have forgotten about fall hayrides now. This warm spell totally screwed up the rut here. The bucks are still mating the does, but most of the action is not during daylight hours. We had 75 degrees here the other day. That's a recipe for night time antics. I need to pull the last couple days of trail cam pictures, but since I see my camera from the house most of the day, I know what those pictures look like. I would kill for 20F and an inch of snow overnight tonight. Sunday will finally hit the 20's pretty solidly so I'll be in a tree. That said, my grass is in such good shape that had I known how warm it was going to stay I would have touched up the dog digging marks and they'd be full already. This year in general might have been the best every grass growing year in this area. Never above 85 for more than a couple days, decent rain, prolonged warm and sun into the late fall. My grass is one shade off being forest green right now. Remind me of this post when we get our first 2'+ snowstorm and I'm frozen to the bone clearing it.

A medium power can be a fairly light power for a lot of things. The difference between a medium and a medium heavy can be significant depending what you're doing and where you are. The two main considerations are the lure weights you're throwing and the cover you're in. For open water and light cover, a medium is just fine. If you're around wood or moderate grass (or more) then you might struggle at times. From a lure weight perspective, both are great in that 3/8-1/2 oz range where they overlap. If you're throwing 1/2 oz chatterbaits or spinnerbaits with trailers, then you're into the 3/4 oz total bait weight range and the medium is going to struggle there. If you're throwing inlines in the 1/4 oz range then the MH is going to struggle a little. Similar for texas rigs. A zman boar hogz with a 1/16 oz weight is going to be tough on a MH. A 7" ribbontail with 1/4 oz is going to push the medium's limits (not the least of which is the hook you're probably using). As noted above, the shimanos in that level are pretty true to rating. I wouldn't want to throw a pure 1/4 oz on the MH and try to get any type of distance.

Depends on what you’re throwing. If you’re throwing bfs, then the reel is more important. If you’re throwing moving baits then the rod is less critical than if you’re throwing bottom contact baits. if you’re pitching 20’ to lay downs with a half ounce jig, the reel makes basically no difference. You don’t need any brakes, you don’t need long cast spools, you certainly don’t need digital control. You need something study and metal that holds line. The rod though, needs to be sensitive, tough, and light. if I’m throwing a moving bait, I don’t need the lightest, most sensitive rod. Some weirdos throw chatterbaits and moving baits on fiberglass rods. But a good reel that is smooth to reel, casts like silk, and feels great in your hand will make a big difference.

Alice is dog #5 for us over the past ~18 years. Two labs, two slovaks, and one wirehaired vizsla. I used to small game hunt a lot when we lived in the US at first. When we moved to the UK, how I hunted shifted a bit. Now back to the US, my hunting has changed again and I don't small game hunt anymore really (NJ isn't great for that). That said, slovaks are lovely dogs. They aren't quite as high energy as GSPs and pointers- they are more in line with a lab. They need exercise and a job, but a fenced back yard and some retrieving bumpers every other day is enough. In the summer, swimming is great. In the house, slovaks are loving dogs. Mara is a big lab dog and bed cuddler. Big is an apt word. She's thick, long, and pretty tall. We have her down to about 75 lb now but that's about as light as she gets. In the realm of hunting dogs, Slovaks are among the biggest breeds on the whole. Weims are similar. Compared to weims, slovaks are normally a little more chill (the Czesky influence).

there is either 1 or 2 males left in Alice's litter.....

I think the phrase is, "Having a plan is great until you get punched in the mouth". I think I get punched a lot. I'm curious what and how for you. You're in a boat I think. Light line and rocky stuff? I can count on one hand how many lures I've lost in the past 3 seasons that weren't to toothy critters. One was a lipless on braid where a mussel shell got me. Two were soft plastics that a bluegill or small bass hit it and ran into a stump such that I snagged when I set the hook. Offhand, I can't think of another. That said, I'm fishing lakes with soft bottoms and not a ton of wood. Any time I do snag, I can usually slide the boat close enough that it pops free. I normally carry 5 rigged rods in a combination of moving baits and bottom baits. I'll give them a go until the fish tell me they don't want anything of it. I've gotten better at predicting ahead of time and also gotten better at correcting after an hour or two, but even still there are days when I get to the water and immeditely change something I've tied on. Most of the time our water is pretty clear so my color choices reflect that. Then I get there and the water has muddied for some reason or there is an algae bloom. Aside from that, I try to keep my decks clear. Used lures go into a little tray I made until they dry out. But if the lure has made the tray for the day, that means it didn't catch fish and isn't likely to get tied back on. So realistically I'm dipping into my box every time I sit down and cut a lure off. Get quick with tying knots and you're not losing that much time.

No, that's mara our other Slovak wirehaired (roughaired) pointer. That's what Alice will look like when she grows up. Slovaks were a cross between Weims and Bohemian pointers (Czesky-Fousec) after WW2. The Czesky is more is less a griffon variant. The aim was to keep the coat and temperament from the Czesky while adding size and stamina from the Weim. They are great versatile dogs for rough shooting. They point birds, retrieve anything you want (birds, fur, small deer), will blood track larger game, etc. They are closer working than a pointer or a lot of GSPs. I don't know if Mara is typical, but she'll range out to 50-75 yards in more open terrain and tighten up in thicker stuff. As far as pointers go, she's got a steady and intense point. She probably works a little too close, but that's maybe because of her training before I got her. I don't know how she'd do on grouse, but on pheasants she's great. She's also maybe the best crippled bird finder I've ever seen and I was on quite a few shoots in the UK with a range of different dogs. She's come back with birds I thought I missed. For the guy that just likes to go walk around mixed bag hunting, a SRHP is a great dog.

Thanks guys!

I fish braid to leader on spinning rods and mono on most baitcasters, braid on some. If you’re fishing braid on the medium baitcaster already then that’s where I’d stick with it.

Hi all, This is Alice. Alice joined us on Sunday at 11 weeks old. It’s been quite the emotional journey to get her, but she’s here now. Alice is a Slovak roughaired pointer. It’s a pretty rare breed most anywhere but especially here in the US. I estimate fewer than 100 born in the US per year. We know the breed because back in 2018 when we lost our lab, we decided we wanted an adult dog and we came across Mara who at 5.5 years old needed a new home. They are a lovely breed and incredible gun dogs We always said we’d have another one someday but when we moved back to the US we thought for sure that meant importing one. We found there are a couple breeders here but not many litters per year. Then one day this spring I was looking up breeders for something and came across an ad for a litter. And it was local to my in-laws. After some back and forth emails we had a phone call and long story short (1) he was 2 miles from my in-laws and (2) the dogs were closely related to Mara. We wanted one so badly but 4 dogs in the house would have been just too much. We agonized over it but it was the right call for us. less than a month later ruby died. A month after that Mara nearly died. Fast forward to a week and a half ago and the same breeder had another litter from the same pair with one female left. It would be the last time this female would be bred. We knew we had to do it, even though we are still planning to add one more in the spring. Alice is now happy with her two buddies here at our house. She’s still got some settling in to do but I think she’s going to be just fine.

probably small fish. Smaller bass under 10" will often blow up but not actually take it. A decent bass that wants the frog will eat the frog. Also, frog fishing can be infuriating some times. They eat, you see it disappear, and somehow you still don't connect. Toads aren't much different. It just comes with the territory. All that said, if they are eating a frog on the surface then you can get them to eat other things. Note where the frog blowups were and come back a half hour later with a small worm or another small topwater. The fish won't be far away and there's a good chance they are still aggressive.

Maybe not the only option, but certaily the best one. Based on the things you're saying, I'd suggest the optimal 1-2 punch is a ML spinning rod and a MH casting rod. A MH casting rod will go down to 1/4 oz or so depending on the rod and reel and will go up to 5/8 pretty comfortably (again, depending on the rod). A ML spinning rod will throw 1/8 oz pretty well and go up to 3/8 or thereabouts comfortably, maybe more or less depending on the rod. Both would handle the wackies and texas rigs depending size and weight. The MH would take the bigger stuff, the spinning rod the neds and smaller stuff. Since you already have a medium, the question is, can it handle the bigger stuff you're throwing on it or can it handle the lighter stuff you're throwing on it? You said above that its a bit too light to set the hook and that's what I'd expect from a medium trying to throw heavier hooks. It would be fine for trebles and lighter single wires. So if you're able to throw the lighter end of your lure spectrum on it, then great- you just need to add a little heavier one. I'd be surprised if a M baitcaster would go as light as I'd want for neds but YMMV. I'd start by adding a MH baitcaster- something ~7', do it all, 1/4-3/4 type MH/MF and just get to fishing.

well I’ll be. I never knew they still made them but there they are on the website. for anyone fishing pressured ponds, fishing for pan fish, or stream bass- get yourself a couple of these. They are tiny and you need a spinning rod or maybe bfs. But they catch fish.

A true medium is pretty light unless it’s a fast or very fast action and has some power up the rod. that said, you’re talking about throwing a Ned rig. Unless you mean a trd with a 1/5 oz head, you need something with a lighter tip. Most medium heavy won’t throw a 1/15 head plus a trd. my suggestion would be to go for a medium heavy to cover the heavier end of what you’re talking Barbour and keep the medium for the lighter stuff you use now.

Did you tell it to go a previous track/mark by accident?

by tiny, do you mean the little 1/8oz versions? Those were fantastic little creek smallmouth lures.

ha! Stupid autocorrect.