casts_by_fly

With a silicon shirt and wire tie, that skirt isn't going to move, bunch up, or rot away. You do lose the ability to swap on the water, but how often do you do that? I only fish a fairly limited set of colors so I'll take permanence. That's true. But with wire tied you don't have to fix them at all. And Sieberts has every color you could conceivable need on a range of heads and hooks.

You really think 80's? I remember seeing them new in pack in my grandma's shop in the early 90's. Maybe they were out earlier and I don't recall them. I'm was young then. And I meant I have the lipless version of the floaters, aka the standard floater. same as the lipped one you pictured, just minus the bill. I just checked the box and have at least 5 of them, maybe a few more tucked away.

if you fall in from a kayak, you’re going to submerge. At a minimum, you’re not falling feet first so anything above the wading belt is getting soaked. Falling into 45 degree water you’re going to be freezing no matter what you’re wearing. I’ve swum in 50-somethingdegree water for a triathlon and even with a wetsuit it takes your breath away. So in that case, I want the thing that’s going to make it easiest for me to be able to get back in the boat as quickly as possible and get back to shore.

What water and air temps? I don’t wear a dry suit ever. I also don’t go to waders. At ice out up here I’ll be in rain pants with polypropylene thermals and fleece under them. Similar on top. It keeps you dry but still able to move. My logic is that if I fall in with either waders or what I wear, I’ll be wet. Water will fill the top of the waders and seep through your clothes to everywhere. It’s a lot harder to get back in the boat with waders. of course it goes without saying to wear a pfd in cold water. The 120 rule is for hypothermia but that’s my rule for a pfd. Air temp + water temp = 120 or less you’re at risk. otherwise, winter is like summer. Know your boat and tackle, keep your stuff organized, and know your limitations.

that looks early 90’s era. I have one or two downstairs. I have the lipless versions too. Also a couple glow in the dark from the same era.

swim jigs come in light, regular, and heavy gauge wires. I fish all three at times. The weight of the head doesn’t have to correlate to the gauge of the hook either. I have 1/2 oz with all three types of hooks. If I’m in lighter grass, docks, rocks then I probably have a lighter wire swim jig on. If it’s heavier grass or wood then it’s probably a regular or heavy wire hook. The weight just depends on the depth I’m fishing. if you’re fishing a heavier wire then you want a little more power in the rod. You can accommodate with using braid and a little faster action but not in a heavier power. That’s how the swim jig rod would be. It’s a medium heavy but designed for light to mid weight swim jigs on braid. It could do a 1/2 oz jig and a moderate gauge wire just fine, especially if you’re throwing braid. That’s the upper limit and if you’re throwing 1/2 oz heavy wire hooks often then I’d recommend a different rod. It sounds like youre coming to that conclusion.

I throw mine on a medium heavy and with braid. My specific rod is the falcon bucoo trap caster. I think the swim jig rod will be even better but we’ll see.

gotcha. Just so the outer tip of the rim scrapes the blade.

Not sure what you mean “up” but I pinch mine hard on the wire side of the rivet so it can’t move to make the squeal. I also use a sugar buzz and bend the blade side of the wire down until the tip of the blade clacks against the head enough to click but not stop the blade. The blade plops, the rivet squeals, and the head clicks. It’s a lot of noise fished fast but the sugar buzz blades seem oversized and you can really crawl them along.

in that case, the swim jig Cara is the right answer. It’s rated 1/8-3/8 but that’s the head weight, not total lire weight. Only rod I’ve ever seen rated that way. It will fish a 1/2 jig and trailer but 3/8 is the sweet spot.

what this guys says. I prefer a buzz bait as slow as I can fish it. I also fish them in the dark and low light. For me, that means a bigger blade and black. I also want it to run true. I throw it into the dirty stuff. Pads, weed beds, wood. I cast when I see a retrieve line and want it to track out the line I see. I tune mine incessantly until they track how I like and then I just start casting. If a fish bends it out I fix it. The noise a buzz bait makes depends on the rod tip height. Higher and it splashes the water. Lower and it plops more. I do better with a slow plop but YMMV.

A floating rattle trap will dive a couple feet and slowly float back up. The position of the line tie vs the nose determines how deep and how fast.

I’m a couple hours late to the party but I’m also a siebert customer. Best hooks in use and all the colors you could want. The “swim jig” and “mini swim jig” are my preference for grass. The pointy nose slides through nicely. The shot caller comes through pad stems and wood great but the others are better for grass. I also like the dirty jigs swim jig. The 1/2 ounce (size I fish most) seems really compact and fishes grass well.

Well, we share the good and the bad, the successes and the failures. Last night was a failure. After thinking about the buck I passed I decided that I wouldn’t have passed that buck before and why start now. My time is running down so I made the decision that if he came through again I was pulling the trigger. Sure enough, a cluster of 4 does/buttons came in and were grazing. One doe in particular seemed to have my number. I’ve hunted the same tree 4 straight mornings and evenings this week because of the back cover. I think she got wise that something was happening but never smelled me or truly made me. I’m in a saddle so I can hide most of my body behind the tree. Every time she came in yesterday (morning and evening) she’d be looking at me anytime she was within 50 yards. After the does came in and calmed down I saw antlers coming in. I grabbed my bow and it turned out to be the buck. He came through where I thought he would but I didn’t have a shot. He did a loop around the does and came back to my shooting lane. I got drawn without the suspicious doe seeing me but he stopped a foot short. I leaned out a little far to see if I had an opening and the doe blew on me. They all trotted off 75 yards and I figured my night was done. like before though, they didn’t smell me so about 15 minutes later they filtered back. The buck followed the does in but an ornery spike came from the other way and distracted all of them. They all ran around a bunch totally distracted which let me get drawn. As soon as he stopped in my shooting lane I centered the pin on his lungs and pulled the trigger. There was an awful sound on the shot and I watched in horror as the arrow hit two feet right, straight into his rear end. I got about 6-8” of penetration and watched him bounce off, lighted nock showing the way. I saw the arrow fall out 40 yards from me and didn’t hear any more crunching. I snuck out of my tree and went in the house. Replaying everything in my head, I think my bowstring was impinged on the saddle bridge rope and that was the noise it made on the shot. I didn’t notice it as I was angling for the shot. I shot the bow this morning on a target and it was fine. Of course replaying the shot I worked through the possibilities of the hit too. I knew it was in the rump but the question was if I hit anything vital like an artery or a gut. 25 years ago I hit a doe in a similar spot, got a pass through, and she bled out in 40 yards as I hit a main artery. This would be the best case scenario and he’d be dead on the hill. If it hit guts then he’d almost certainly bed down quickly and bleed out overnight. Turns out I was right that he’d bed down quickly. He went about 60 yards from the shot and laid down for the night. I bumped him as I tracked him this morning. He ran down the hill and stopped, too far to shoot but close enough to see that he wasn’t bleeding anymore and the wound was clean. He didn’t show any signs of a gut hit and didn’t bleed a drop past his bed. He’s clotted up already and will be fine. All in, it sucks I screwed up the shot but for as bad as the failure was, the outcome is about the best case scenario.

Absolutely. Technology trickles down. Something new comes out and it’s only available in the top of the line because it’s expensive being first. Over time the technology gets cheaper and trickles down to lower end product lines. Also consumers want the next best thing. What better way to upgrade your second best lineup than to give it first best technology. Of course that only works if you have something new for first best. in practical terms, you can get entry level rods now ($100 bucket) that are better than $250 rods from 15 years ago. Yes, the top of the line from years ago will still be awesome, but the top of the line comparable now will be better.

If I didn't have to walk out to the garage I'd show you the exact same bait as DB above with a new hook for the same reasons. I went gamakatsu though. I like the magic eye round bend hooks. I keep a pack of 4's and a pack of 6's in the house, usually one of the two is the right size for a hard bait.

Funny you say that. That's how I grew up hunting. If you have a tag and its legal for the tag well... we ate every piece of deer meat we shot so for the most part it was all a meat game. Sure, a nice buck was great and fun to brag about and tell stories, but the meat tasted the same as a spike. My wife and I don't eat deer in this house though, so everything is a donation. To that end, I can shoot unlimited does and donate them. Over the past two seasons I've set a couple rules for myself on what I'll shoot. Only basket racked bucks (i.e. the main beams need to curve, which around here means a 2.5 year old deer or more), no does at the house (they are our 'yard deer'). This buck passes those rules. I also have a limited time period to hunt this year as we're getting a puppy on Sunday so I won't be able to pop out as much (I'll be the primary caregiver). So I REALLY considered it which would end my buck hunting for the year, tag me out with 2 modest bucks, and let me not worry I was missing out by not being out there. then I could go shoot does when it was convenient for me. And then I looked at the pictures of the two bigger ones running around. I already shot one buck this year so It's not as if I'm going deerless. And to give this buck another year would mean he'd be in the 'bigger ones' camp if he made it. So it was an odd decisions for me when my gut was telling me to shoot him but my brain said let him walk. Then again, tomorrow morning might be my last sit (pending how the puppy is) so if he comes through again at 18 yards broadside....

Let a smaller 8 walk today. Had him dead to rights at 18 yards but I am hoping for one of the bigger ones. No guarantee he gets a second pass though…

yes. I lost a big one on one on it back in April. I am running 30 lb braid primarily for swim jigs and buzzbaits and I’m pretty sure I just pulled it out of his mouth horsing him in. It’s a great rod overall, but I think it plus braid plus chatterbait is just not enough give in the setup. If I were running bladed jigs on it I’d have 16 lb sunline mono like my head turner. It’s a great rod but I prefer my head turner for bladed jigs. I fish 3/8-1/2 on it. If I were throwing 1/4-3/8 instead then I’d go with the finesse jig rod for a dedicated chatterbait rod, though the swim jig rod wouldn’t be a bad choice either.

Congrats! That's a pretty slick rig. Glad you managed to get it before the water got hard so you could get the break in done. Next spring you'll be ready to roll. Will this one draw about the same draft as your old one so you'll pick the same lines and run in the same river levels?

For a 24V lithium, something in the 50-60 aH range is plenty and will give you enough juice for later when you're spot locking in current.

the one you're looking at doesn't have ipilot installed. You might be able to install it later, but I'm not sure. Practically speaking, if you want spot lock then buy it from the get go.

if you mean the dredge brush jigs, then no, those aren't light wire. They are a fairly strong wire but they are crazy sharp. The brush guards that mike uses aren't too stiff either. Those are great jigs (and are my primary jig in general). You're right that for a jig rod you want a light, sensitive tip and good backbone normally. If I'm throwing a jig, I'm probably throwing it at some cover so I want a little backbone to pull a fish away from the cover. You're in the right ballpark with what you're looking for. The st croix spinning rod you have is a good fit. A pretty close equivalent in a baitcaster is the Finesse jig I mentioned above (6'10", 3/16-5/8 rated, Fast action). Still, based on what you're saying I'd say that the swim jig rod is the better choice. Just a touch more backbone and a tough lighter tip than the finesse jig.

Braid or 'other' and are they heavy wire jigs in cover or lighter wire jigs? For lighter wire and mono/fluoro the Falcon Finesse jig is a great rod. Mine is an expert series at $200 MSRP. If you're fishing both light and regular wire hooks then the Falcon Swim jig in the Cara series is a great rod for that. I throw 30 lb braid because I also use it for other things and will throw it into heavier cover, but it fishes great with 1/8 oz plus plastic on a texas rig all the way up to 3/8 jigs with modest trailers. It would be great with 14-16lb sunline mono for finesse jigs.

Very nice. Good combo of mass and length on that rack. Good sized deer too. I'm hoping my 8 which is quite similar in shape and proportion (though a little smaller) shows up soon. He's been around per our dogsitter while we were away this weekend. This is th prime week and I've got until saturday morning to get it done. Sunday we're picking up a puppy and my time is going to be absorbed I think. Good luck! Out temps just dropped and dried out which is perfect. They should be up and moving the next couple days as the rut kicks into high gear here.