casts_by_fly

@Catt- what's that first jig in your picture? It looks like the head is oversized vs the skirt but I'm wondering if its the picture.

I’d still throw a walking bait and work it fast if you know they are there. It just takes one to get fired up. If they won’t hit it I’m dropping to a jerk bait fished fast like Dwight said. If that fails I’m going to throw an underspin for a bit and see if they’ll eat it. I don’t like it though so if that doesn’t work quick I’m calling it a day or going to fish for largemouth.

The dredge from sieberts is my preferred pitching to cover jig.

For once or twice a year musky fishing, I would pick the best frog and heavy cover rod for bass you would like. I don’t prefer long rods for frogs so my choice is a 6’11” heavy. Then for muskies I’d pick up a cheaper inshore angler for $50 or an ugly stick for similar money. You don’t need sensitive for a musky rod, you need tough.

A small thrust trolling motor run on medium will take more electricity than a higher thrust motor on low. I have a 43lb thrust in my kayak and at fishing speeds (1-2 out of 10) just working the bank it uses basically no electricity. I can fish for five or six hours that way and only use about 4-5 AH. If that’s all I did I could get away with the tiny fish finder batteries or a drill battery.

Instead of thinking of bass as always being focused on a spot, think about them as roving living beings that just as likely might be 50 yards from a spot but still relate to that spot for some reason. They might like the bottom composition in a 10 yard stretch but they will roam a hundred yards from it at times. So history matters but understanding why they were in that area in the first place will help you figure out why they might be there next time.

this is my answer. That whop-whop of the blade and the squeal of the rivet are putting so much noise into the water and drawing attention. Then the splash and wake is enough to drive a bass nuts. aside from this spring’s spinnerbait bass, all of my big fish the past two years have been on a buzz bait.

If you’re putting a 3/8 oz weight in one you can throw that on any baitcaster you want. That’s plenty of weight for any baitcaster but put to a choice I’d throw that on either a mh or light heavy (both fast) depending on cover. incidentally I was just flipping with a tube the other day on my 7’2” mh/F though I was only using an eighth ounce on a Texas rig.

I carry two ‘heavy’ rods by most peoples definitions. Falcon has two levels of heavy (6 and 7 power). I have a pair of 7’s that I carry all the time this time of year. Ones primarily a frog rod and the other is heavy pitching. Both have 50 braid. Both are rated to at least 1.5 oz. My amistad will throw 2.5 oz in an Alabama rig no problems.

considering no one has used both of them yet to be able to compare, I'd say the answer is 'meh'. Given the closeness of the specs from the big three plus powerpole on their top end brushless motors (~115 lb at 36V, ~90 at 24V) it tells me that the underlying technology in much of a muchness. You're either hitting the technical limit of what a brushless motor can do or there are 1 or 2 common sources of parts in a limited supply scene. I suspect the former. So it will come down to the implementation and how they perform on the water which we can't know until they are out in the wild.

so were you the one that bought it? I see it is gone now.

All of what you’re talking are pure preference. For what you described, I’d be in the mh/mf range. It will do all of it. The specific rod/brand makes a difference so you’ll have to find your preference vs the brand you pick. if you have an academy, check out the falcon bucoo sr series. They usually have a few around. The 7’ medium is their lighter cranking rod. It’s called the Mansfield. It’s a little light for single hooks for me. It would be fine for smaller square bills and up to a dt6 or so. Bumping up to the 5 powers in the falcon lineup you get a lot more power in the blank. That’s a medium heavy. They normally have the 6’8” spinner bait rod and maybe the 7’ trap caster. I have the bucoo trap caster and it would be a good choice for what you’re saying.

The shot caller is a great all purpose jig for swimming and bringing through wood or grass. There are better for both but to have one jig it’s not a bad choice. Swapping trailers will help depending what you’re doing. I don’t love the shot caller down into bigger chunk rock but it doesn’t stop me from throwing it there when the situation presents itself. An arkie head is the other all purpose. Mike makes an arkie jig. It’s very similar to the dock rocker. Both are going to fish very similarly. for me, I stock up on swim jigs and dredge jigs. The dredge head is an all purpose (but not swimming grass) for what I fish and the swim jig does the heavy grass. as a pitching or swimming jig, a 3/8 oz is a good all around starting point. Vary your trailer and you can fish 0-10’ pretty well. If you’re in the <3’ range a lot then maybe drop to 5/16 or 1/4. If you’re always in 8’+ the a 1/2 is a good one to have. If you’re fishing shallow and around thick grass then go a little heavier. colors are personal preference, but if you just had black and blue and some version of green pumpkin you’d be just fine the world over. For me, when I order I pick the next color in mikes color pallet that looks good to me. Some variation of GP, someone variation of black/blue, and the occasional brown variant. In a swim jig you can throw in a white variant either with chartreuse, silver, or something else if you have shad and stained or dirty water.

All of my bank fishing is/was ponds and all are very grassy in summer. So.. A frog or two, a couple plastic worms with the required weights for that pond, a jig or two and that's about it. I'd leave the second rod in the truck unless its a pond with big bluegills and crappie. Then the second rod is a spinning rod with a couple small jigs and I throw a stringer in the pack.

casting rod/reel I assume? the Shimano SLX combos (when you can find them) are the best value. You can get them for $129 and its the SLX rod and reel. Each one sells for $100 individually and are worth that on their own. I don't see any that are available right now though online. In that case, you're going to be better off buying a separate rod and a reel. For crankbaits, jerkbaits, jigs and small swimbaits you're looking at a medium or medium heavy power in a length of your preference. For the reel, most any casting reel will work for you, you're not doing anything particularly heavy or light. A new SLX A reel with an SLX A rod would come in right at $200 and is a pretty solid choice. My own choice would be a Lews Speed spool (on sale at TW for $75) and a Falcon lowrider at $129. The finesse jig model (6'10" MH MF) or the all 'round (7' MH MF) would both do just what you're asking.

Abu STX gen 4 in the 7.1:1 with 50 lb 832 braid. It casts a mile, far further than you could set the hook reliably, and feels good in the hand. Plenty of capacity. At the retail price I wouldn't buy it (there are better values) but catch one on sale and its a great choice. 28 lb drag if you want to lock it down.

For me, this is one reason why I stick with Falcon rods. Aside from them being great rods and fitting my preferences, I've fished enough of them now that I can predict pretty closely what a falcon is going to feel like in my hand based on the rating and description. That helps a ton when you aren't buying in person.

You might be referring to the common cents system, developed 20+ years ago now, initially for fly rods but equally applicable to all types of rods. Read through the CC pages below and that should help. https://www.common-cents.info the problem with aftma fly rod ratings is explained in the common cents pages. While there is a numerical rating that is supposed to correspond to a weigh range, it’s not used the same by all manufacturers so one company’s 6 weight is another company’s 5 weight distance casting rod. With a numerical measurement like the CC system, there is no subjective evaluation.

we have a ton of lawn games among us. Our friend plays cornhole in two leagues so we don’t play cornhole as much. Kubb is a Swedish throwing game we like a lot but the throwing distance is almost horseshoes length and takes a lot more skill. Can jam is frisbee based and a good one for the beach. Bucket ball is beerpong with plastic buckets and a racquetball. All have their pluses and minuses. We play them all depending who is playing and where we are. And we’re always looking for the next good game.

no, it’s a Finnish lawn game where you throw a wooden baton at pins on the ground. Knock them over, set them back up, and knock them down some more. Each pin is worth a unique number of points. First to 50 exactly wins. It’s a good casual lawn game.

I’ve only seen my little guy once in the past two weeks so maybe he’s moving in. in the meantime, we have friends staying for the long weekend so I made the start of a court for the game Molky. I cut it about an inch shorter than the other grass and will keep it that height this weekend while the rest of the grass grows around it. I also got some sand to start leveling everything.

go to the clearance page on TW. Then scroll down. At the bottom is a lot of text for used items. Its in the first couple. And the discount is now being applied in your cart. I just added it to my cart and it came down to $161. Better buy it before I do.

go to the clearance page on TW. Then scroll down. At the bottom is a lot of text for used items. Its in the first couple.

if you want to consider used, there is a Falcon Cara Head turner on TW clearance section right now. The HT is a great bottom contact rod also, though its 6'10" so not sure if that would put you off. It was originally built as a short range pitching rod, but it functions great as a jig/texas rig rod, bladed bait rod, even walking baits and most anything else you want to throw. I think I left my head turner home once in the past two years and I only carry 5 rods in the kayak. It takes a very specialist day for me to leave it home. Its listed at $189 right now and supposedly there is 15% off that with the 4th of july sale, though I haven't figured out where the discount gets applied or how. If you can get it at $160 (that includes the discount), that's a steal. Even if you end up not liking it for a texas rig rod you can either sell it on here to recoup your money in full or keep it to do other things.

I had this scenario a couple weeks ago. Small natural lake, similar weed conditions as you describe. Shad were everywhere in big balls. I could watch them on mega live. Later in the evening they were on the surface and you could see them individually. There was nothing feeding on them as they roamed the open water. My theory was that the bass were just hanging out on the weed edges and waiting for the schools to pass. Anything that got too close would get nabbed. So I ignored the schools and worked the grass edges with a shad crankbait. In my case, a DT series across the top of the deep weeds (DT14/16). I'm sure other options would have worked similarly.