casts_by_fly

The falcon lowrider heavy cover jig would be a great choice. 7’4”, 1/2-1 oz. $129 I think. I have the cara version and it’s a great rod for the power you’re talking. I too would swap out of braid for those applications. I run 17 thick mono for the same thing. If you’re sticking to braid then I’d jump to 50 lb.

My equivalent rod is the falcon eye crosser at 6’11”. I keep it for frogs and heavier moving baits. It would punch just fine but I have another rod for that. It’s a $250 rod so out of your stated range. To keep it in your price range, I’d grab a falcon low rider amistad. I have the expert for my punching rod and it’s a great rod for what you want.

Maybe for you, but around here 4-10' clarity is the norm with plenty of weeds. When they come in spraying like this is does exactly what tristate is seeing- the grass dies off and gets stringy, the algal bloom hits and clouds the water green like this, and the fish just shut down for a while. They still eat if you put it on their nose, but consider them neutral to negative feeding for 2-4 weeks. That's the situation you get.

I'd offer to show you live but I'm in a kayak so unless you're in a kayak next to it that's going to be tough. If you're interested though, shoot me a message. We're not that far apart.

This is a very good answer. I don't sit in my kayak so I forget about that. I still roll cast and can get up under some low docks and trees. From a sitting position it would be a better choice than pitching.

"do you want dark colors or bright colors?" Yes.

GP and bluegill shades are my usual go to colors for clear lakes. Downsize maybe. If there are shad or similar baitfish then a clear/ghost type if a good option at times. The green back shad color was a go to for me 2 years ago (not sure why I got away from it).

Man, I fish I could get onto a frog bite. The past two years have been miserable for it. This year isn't shaping up to be any better so far. Mike- back to your original question, I'd fish it the same as I do anytime I think a frog is the answer. throw it up onto the bank and start popping it back to the boat. I fish non popping frogs in thick grass (though I fish them tip down so they make a bit sploosh a lot) and I start by fishing them fast. Every couple casts I'll change my retrieve speed or how hard I'm popping it until the fish start responding. Regarding depth, I'll bring it back a couple feet into open water past the last vegetation. Doesn't matter how deep. If the fish are on a frog bite they are usually close to the surface under the weeds. We used to fish ponds that got matted in the summer the full width and catch fish right in the middle of the biggest mats (over 15' of water). Eventually you find out where they are sitting. Sometimes its 6" of water with their nose on the bank. I love those days.

A sportswriter I follow has a few tennets of the business of football to explain the happenings in the league. "deadlines spur action" is one. In this case, the line is "When the question is why, the answer is money". Just follow the money. Tournaments exist because guys compete for money. Money comes from sponsors.

If you've got long fingers and the bail is in the right position you can do it one handed. I can on my 500 sized reel and trout rod. But you don't need to. Where on a baitcaster you feather the spool with your thumb, on a spinning rod you feather the line with you index finger touching the rim of the spool. That slows the line coming off and when you're almost on target you pinch it tight. That stops the bait quick and then you can lower the rod tip to drop it in the water. Its a motion you have to practice. I don't think you'll be standing in that kayak. I'm sure you could and maybe if you have good balance it might be alright. I've stood in worse. But to do it all day and not worry about tipping out will be a challenge.

The TD advantage 150h holds 150 of 14 lb. A curado 300k is 180 of 14# for comparison (though $70 over your budget). In Daiwa a 200 size reel gets you 165 of 14#. A tatula 200 is $180 and might be what you need.

Whichever one you’re better with is going to be more accurate. For me, that’s a baitcaster. Feathering the spool with your thumb means you can adjust distance easily on the fly and make a silent entry into the water. It takes practice but you can do a lot pitching with a baitcaster.

funny that the poster says pesticide since that is defined as animal based control. It should say herbicide since that’s what fumigard is. It’s a non selective herbicide that will kill basically all of the types of aquatics vegetation around here (lists below). It’s one that they use around here too. It also kills the filamentous algae which is a nice benefit. It’s probably going to be tough going in that pond until the bass find a new routine.

live is a better tool than 360 I think if you are a visual person and can put the pieces together in your head. With 360, you get a picture on the screen of what’s around you but there is a lag of the rotation time. That’s fine for structure but doesn’t help with fish. It might show you fish were there when the beam hit them, but they probably aren’t there now. With live, you can see a real time image. And as you turn the pole you build the 3d image around you but you have to kinda see it in your head or picture it below the water in your head. Humminbird has a good photo I copied below. 3d shows you the snapshot in the photo as it was. Live gives you all of the cuts at the same time live but you have to put those cuts together and think like in the picture. Here are a couple pictures from a recent outing. With the side and down imaging you can build the picture and then back off and see it live. The live image is sitting parallel to the edge so it shows as a clean break. If you sit perpendicular you can look at the cuts also (or I could have turned the transducer 90 degrees). this is a rock/rock pile from straight on with me sitting deep and looking shallow. As you scan left and right you can see the ridges in the rock and if there are any fish on it.

Thanks. I went through their store and didn’t see that one before. It clearly says revo sx4. I guess I was looking at drilled out spools.

I think you'll be really happy at that price. Would this be the one for a Revo SX gen 4? I know mine has the short spindle and it says Revo4X in the description, but I can't quite tell. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256801193375156.html?spm=a2g0o.detail.1000014.9.a3c062a4bNvekd&gps-id=pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller&scm=1007.40050.281175.0&scm_id=1007.40050.281175.0&scm-url=1007.40050.281175.0&pvid=1384a592-82eb-4008-80a1-b76bfb78a0ed&_t=gps-id:pcDetailBottomMoreOtherSeller,scm-url:1007.40050.281175.0,pvid:1384a592-82eb-4008-80a1-b76bfb78a0ed,tpp_buckets:668%232846%238108%231977&isseo=y&pdp_npi=3%40dis!USD!29.99!29.99!!!!!%402101c5a716874650307657395e2997!12000015889232064!rec!US!

That's my head turner/met rod. Primarily spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, jigs but I'll throw a walking bait or popper on it as needed. Lately its soft jerkbaits. In the spring it was hard jerkbaits. It throws a squarebill great. It will throw a 5" unweighted senko if I have to. My choice is 16 lb supernatural mono right now and I really like it. if the rod is soft enough then 30 lb braid would do. Though, if its too much rod (too fast action and heavy power) then you might just want a little stretch from mono.

I'm a sucker for a BBQ, swiss, and mushroom/onion burger. I love all burgers but if I see that on the menu somewhere I'm probably ordering it. We're also lucky to have the best butcher in NJ (voted multiple times by NJ magazine) 3 minutes down the street. I watched how they make their ground beef one time. All of their beef is primal cuts and they cut it all daily or every other day as they think they will need it. They will also custom cut you a thickness, french the bones for a roast, or any other customization you ask. All of the cutoffs go into the tub and when the tub is full it gets ground (they will add lean or fat as needed to balance). So today's ground was the end of a tenderloin or ribeye yesterday. They will even grind fresh for you if you want to cook some rare at home. Without a doubt the best ground beef I've ever had and I don't hesitate to buy their premade patties.

I upgraded from a Helix 7 to a Helix 9 with mega live back in the winter/spring and have been using it for four months now. I'm in a trolling motor kayak, not a big boat, and mine is on a pole mount, not the trolling motor. I'm a 'weekend' angler as you describe it, though I tend to get out weeknight evenings and some weekend days. I'll average 1 days a week from March through October, though its concentrated a bit in the spring and late summer. So far, I really like it. Its taken me about 4 months (75-100 hours on the water) to get to a point where I'm dialing in the settings and knowing what I'm looking at. I still have some ways to go, but I can confidently use it to look at cover and see fish swimming. I can track my lure some of the time. I've used it once to target a school of fish and actively catch one from it (they were perch). I don't use it like you see the pros do on TV- casting to a school of bass and watching them hit your lure on the screen. I have a ways to go before I'm there and I don't know that it will be possible in the kayak. Its really hard to track moving fish. Its also really hard to track stationary fish when the boat is tail swinging when spotlocked. You have to find them, make a cast to them, then adjust the pole mid-cast as the boat swings around. I need to be an octopus to do that. In calm water with no wind that's different and possible. Target lock might be the solution, but for another $1500 I'm not there yet. What I use it for most right now, is when I'm fishing down the bank and want to see what the slope looks like or where the grass is growing or what the cover looks like ahead. You can do that with side or down imaging, but then you're running over it and not fishing it. Also in my kayak limited by an electric motor motoring around to graph spots is a waste of battery and time (my two limiting factors on the water). Has it gotten me fish I wouldn't have caught otherwise? Yes, a couple. I talked about it in a recent trip report (the beauty of small places) where I used live imaging to see what the grasslines looked like and decided I could fish a big crankbait to hit the right depth. I caught two that way. I wouldn't have considered a deep crankbait in a small lake (practically a pond) for that use. As I use it more I expect I will find other opportunities where it contributes. I have an idea for it that I will be trying in the near future, so watch this space. What can't it do- show you inside a weed bed. You can dial it in to show you individual strands of milfoil on their own but once you get to that front edge of the grass bed you're done. If the fish are inside the grass you might as well turn it off. That said, I figured I'd be done using it here once the grass grew up. That's true in a couple lakes around but I don't use a regular FF there either. At this point in time, I load it on the boat every trip and just turn it on. I'll fish the way I want to fish and every now and then glance at it. If the fishing is slow I might go play with it for a bit to take a break. Is it worth the money? Only you can answer that. I had a helix 7 which couldn't take megalive. I wanted to stay HBird. Using as much mounting equipment as I could, selling my Helix 7, and buying a Helix 9/megalive/pole mount netted out just over $3k. If you have a compatible head unit already then you can do it for half that. We happened to have a really great bonus this past year and I decided to splurge on myself a little bit.

black and blue. That's the same clarity/color as the HAB lakes get around here and that's been a good choice for me. Or, chartreuse and white. Depends on the day for me. Brighter days get charteruse and white, darker days and lower light get black and blue. Also, good luck to you. When the lakes get sprayed down here, it seems it puts the bass off for a couple weeks. I swapped lakes on Tuesday when I got to the ramp and found out it had been sprayed recently. They did it last year around this time so it shouldn't have been needed this time.

The rage neds are not buoyant like Z-man elaztec. They sink just like all other rage products. Another option for the minimax is the lake fork live magic shad in 3.5". I just received a pack and haven't fish one yet, but size wise they are perfect for the minimax.

With the wind tonight and clouds all day I thought it would be a spinnerbait bite. I fished one for a good while to stay with nothing but a pickerel to show for it. Started pitching slow and fast baits, some other moving baits, and some frog work. Nothing doing. Went back to my original thought but downsized and went straight white instead of perch/bluegill. The next hour and a half managed three with the biggest right on 3#.

The rage Ned sized plastics look great on a jig. Pick your poison. https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/rage-magnum-bug-rg-mgn-bug1 https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/rage-ned-bug https://siebertoutdoors.com/products/ols/products/rage-ned-craw

If you don't have a drying motor setup, you can use a manual method. I did a lot of rods like that at first. With a moderate thickness epoxy you plan for 2 light coats. Apply to each wrap and when you're done put the rod on a horizontal stand, guides down. Turn the rod 180 degrees every 30 seconds for the first 5 minutes, every minute for the next 5-10 minutes, every 2 minutes for the next 10 minutes, and then every 5 minutes for the next 30. For most epoxies that will get you pretty close to the point where there is no more fluidity in the coating. Do the same on the next coat in 24 hours. Its something you can do while you're watching TV and just set an alarm on your phone. If you're only doing one rod here or there, its more than sufficient. If you're doing one a day it gets tedious.

Finding and consistent fitness routine is one of the best things you can do for your total body health. Doing 'something' twice or three times a week that you can stick to will pay off in spades and you'll really notice the difference when you stop for a week or two and start to feel sluggish. We started training in 2009 and kept it up at 3x per week until 2019. This was a mix of training and most of it with a personal trainer. We did a lot of HIIT and a bit of weights. We did some cardio early but it was mostly to drive high heart rate via a treadmill, bike, or rower. No sense doing long slogs of cardio and paying a PT to watch you do it. We ran a few runs up to half marathon length and I did a couple sprint triathalons. We also put a lot of mobility work and support muscle group work into the mix. No sense having the strongest quads if all of the muscle and connective tissue in your knees can't support it. All of that is a long way of saying: find a routine that works for you and that you can do consistently. If that means a 30 minute walk from your house around the block 3x a week or its 4x 90 minute HIIT sessions. vary the specific things you do if you can. A 30 minute walk around the block is great. A 20 minute walk up and down the hill a block over once a week is good variety. If you are lifting weights in the gym 3x a week, maybe take a half of one of those sessions and do stretching or yoga. Make sure you're doing enough to get your heart rate up a good bit. Exercise is for everyone regardless of age or body shape. If you haven't worked out before, I recommend some time with a personal trainer if that's an option for you. Things like form corrections, exercise modifications for injury, and hitting the right intensity are the things you benefit from a trainer That all said, even more important is your nutrition plan (not diet plan). Body health is 70/30 nutrition/exercise. You literally are what you eat. Find your correct calorie needs and then work to eat a balanced diet of protien, carbs, and fats across a mix of foods, the less processed the better. Track your intake! You'd be surprised how much or how badly you eat if you track it all. Apps like Myfitnesspal are great. The free version lets you scan barcodes of things you've eaten, has TONS of foods prepopulated in the database, and tells you how many calories you're getting from each of the 3 main macronutrient groups. Each person is a little different depending on your goals and needs, but if you ate a 30/30/40 balance of fat/protein/carbs every day you'd be in a pretty good place. The main thing is to find something that works for you and that you can stick with. Its easy to do something for a month. Another month is fine. Keeping that routine up gets hard so find something that works for you.