casts_by_fly

i bought mine in used-excellent condition from the major online dealer specializing in used gear. I think I paid $149 for mine and free shipping. I have a bunch of falcons now and rate them highly.

I have the expert version (the Hudson special) of the falcon you are looking at. It is a great deep cranking rod, though I don’t do that much. I fish it with dt 10-16 sized and have fished a dt20 on it. It’s a good choice for all of those things. I use mine as a big topwater rod (buzzbaits and ploppers) and I also think it would be a good chatterbait rod but I haven’t done it yet.

Plano 3600 for me for that size. My color choices are fairly similar and they don’t bleed that much so I lump them all into two or three sections of a 3600. Bigger ones (5”+) stay in the factory pack and I’ll grab a pack or two depending on the day.

I think you misses the brief. talking about your day while drinking a glass of wine is you asking her how her day was and then shutting up for 30 minutes while you drink wine.

That's an interesting bottle that I would like to try. I had to look it up. It's a Barberra Passito. I love barberra (northern italian grape varietal) and I love the appassimento method (using partially dried grapes in full or in blend and sometimes passing regular wine over the pressed dried skins). It adds a lot of sugar to the wine but it also really pushes the fruity jammy flavors. Valpolicella ripassa (baby amarone) has a similar process. I've never seen it with a barberra though.

That's not a half bad idea actually. There's enough current that you could tie off a planer board to get your bait to pull a ways out. For stripers and holding a herring under a float that might be just the ticket. A pain in the butt, but I can see some scenarios.

I'm a wine snob so grain of salt time. I'd say none. Under $10 bottles can be 'acceptable' but I wouldn't class any as 'good'. You might find $12-$18 bottles marked down to $9.99 which are good, but going on MSRP you're not going to have any under $10. That said, if you're looking for the most value for wines in the $10 range, typically look at portugal (largely unmarketed for regular wine), Chile, and Argentina. Certainly pre-pandemic when shipping prices were good you could find some really good value wines. I suspect that costs have pushed the half decent $10 wines to $12-14 now. European, Australian, and American wines in the $10 bucket are going to be from lesser makers, larger productions, and/or lower quality areas. Sometimes you find a gem, but you're going to go through a lot of rocks. For varietals, Sauv Blanc and pinot grigio will give the best value in whites. Malbec, Cab, merlot, and the range of portugese grapes (like Touriga National) will be your value reds. They are all among the easier grapes to grow and have pretty high production volumes. I don't recommend cheap pinot or chardonnay. Pinot is too hard to grow to sell it cheap. And cheap chardonnay usuall has been oaked to death or is otherwise boring.

Malbec, merlot, and aglianico are all different gapes. The first two commonly originate from France and the third from Italy. Malbec is now more associated with Argentina since the wine makers in Argentina have done some great things for the grape. In France it was mostly a small varietal (called Cot) and a bit of a blending grape (some in Bordeaux reds). The commonality to the three is that (depending on source) they can be fairly fruit forward with jammy or stewed fruit flavors like plum and blackberry. Old world merlot may be a little less so and more balanced, but new world merlot will usually be fruit forward. Younger Malbec from the new world will be similar. Aglianico will vary depending on the maker, but is usually a bit less fruit forward and will have more acidity. Same fruit notes though.

I set a similar goal this year, albeit smaller size. I got within an ounce, but was still an ounce short. I'll set the same goal for next year and keep plugging away. I certainly enjoyed the trying.

A Met or Bantam for $225 if you prefer Shimano over Diawa. Same price as the Zillion. I bought a Zillion and a Met, but haven't fished the met enough to have a preference yet.

"not bad" would be my answer to the question. Every year I set goals to 1- effectively learn a new lure or technique, 2- learn something on my 'usual' lakes, 3- explore a couple new lakes, and 4- really learn one of my local lakes in depth. I have a standing 4 lb smallmouth/5 lb largemouth target since that size fish around here isn't exactly common, though not unheard of. So against that set or goals: 1- a swim jig was the big winner this year. I'd never fished them before this year but I caught a lot of bass on them. Days when the pickings were good and days when it was tough. A swim jig salvaged a few potential skunks. I have one tied on every trip now. I also did a 'plastics only' day on the water (published here in the fishing reports section) to get out of my comfort zone a little and do new things. I caught some fish and now knowing that lake better I think I could do better to do it again. 2- My 'usual' lakes fished a bit differently this year. The grass grew early, quickly, and thickly but then died off in a lot of places in June. That put the bass out of the dying grass and forced them into other areas. Places that held fish last year were barren all year. Places that were barren last year held good fish this year. I still managed to catch fish, but it took some working out. My closest lake is a big shallow bowl with lily pads and grass. No real hard structure, but plenty of 2-4 lb fish and more than a few 5-6lb are both caught in tournaments and F&G electrofished in every survey. Last year, there were large lily pad beds with milfoil under them that held fish across the lake. This year the milfoil died and those pads largely disappeared. The remaining pads had some fish, but I caught a lot more fish on empty banks. My favorite lake from last year had a similar grass die off this year. It fished great before and then was tough after. There were some fish on last years areas, but not like it was. One particular dock string that gave me multiple 3-4 lb fish last year yielded one 13" fish. So these two I learned that sometimes you have to fish the whole lake. Another local I learned the smallies. I thought I knew them last year but could never connect. This year was much better. 3- I explored a couple new lakes to good effect. I found a neat little 20 acre lake in a beautiful setting and caught some decent bass in the early season (april, 50 degrees). I fished it late season (august) and the grass was too much. Its 25 minutes away and I can back down to the water, so I'll do it again maybe once a year. I also explored one of the biggest and most popular lakes around. Pre-spawn and spawn were pretty good with a bunch of 15-18" fish. Not bad for the first two trips there. Then the lake lowered 25' over the summer in the drought and I couldn't bring myself to fish it. I rode around and mapped a few things for next spring though and you can be sure that the stump field in (what should be) 8-13' will be one of the first places I head next spring. An OG6 on the shallower side of the flat and a chatterbait tight on the stumps should be a winner there (a lipless crankbait will feature heavily also). I also fished another local lake a couple more times this year throughout the year (compared to a single late season skunk last year) and learned it enough to know that I probably won't spend much time on it going forward. I also fished a 3-4 others that didn't impress for whatever reason and I don't know if I'll go back to. 4- Last year I fished a particular lake once. I had a bunch of blowups but never really connected, catching 2 smaller fish I think. Talking to my dad on the way home, I said I'd never fish it again and they must have been all small fish. It wasn't worth going back to this highly pressured 40 acre lake. He said that if you got a dozen hits then the fish must be there. Fair enough, and he was right. I fished it a half dozen times this year and have it fairly figured out. This was a swim jig lake for sure this year. Also, the fish stay pretty deep in the grass. This lake has a lot of muskies, so I can imagine that a 12" bass out of the cover is just asking to be eaten. The ones that stay in cover survive and continue to stay in the cover (and grow into plenty of 3-4 lb fish as I learned this year). Swim jigs slide through the cover well. 1+1 = 2 And most of the pressure wasn't bass fishermen, so there's that. 5- the first fish I caught this year was on a whim. I was fishing one of my locals that I knew must have some smallies (though you'd never guess when you pull up to it). I tried hard for them last year to no avail. I actually went for early season pike this year but got tired of throwing an ounce of spinnerbait on a magnum rod. So I put on an early season favorite lure for covering water and started casting the other side of the lake. Sure enough a couple casts in was a 4 lb 3 oz smallie. Not bad for 40 degree water and March 11th in NJ. The largemouth proved elusive. My favorite lake from last year had a weird weed kill this year and the fish didn't behave most of the summer. Late august I finally managed a big bag there (around 18 lb for 5 fish) but the big one was 4 lb 15 oz. I had to weigh it a couple times to be sure, but it was consistent. Awesome fish, and especially eating a buzzbait well before sun up. I thought I had a small musky when I first got it in the net and had to put a light on it before I lipped it. Overall the quality of fish this year was up probably an inch or maybe more on last year. Thinking ahead to next year? More time on the big lake in the spring for sure. There are lots of big fish there, so focus the best time of year with one of the best lakes. Two trips wasn't enough this year. I'll cull out a couple lakes from my list again. From last year to this year, I pretty much eliminated the biggest lake around due to pleasure boat and fishing boat pressure and spent that time elsewhere. I'll do the same again next year with a couple lakes. I've got a half dozen lakes still to try. I also have the Delaware river to fish in the spring. Lures/baits/presentations? Not sure yet. I'm not ready to commit to learning finesse techniques. Maybe do a single day of it like I did the plastics day. Big paddletail swimbaits are an option. Maybe smaller hard swimbaits. Maybe I'll commit to throwing a spinnerbait more often. Still plenty of time to sort through it.

Standard Zako's are basically a do-nothing plastic. I'm sure you could texas rig it and walk it subsurface, but otherwise the tail has no real action to it. On a chatterbait it gains action from the jig moving without taking away action from the blade. the paddletail Zako might be different but I haven't tried one yet.

I used to fish a fly rod exclusively for a number of years and built tons of them, lots for bass. The st croix bob clouser rod (8’9” 8wt) was one of the best ever made for smallmouth and largemouth. Perfect action and feel. I have a 9’ 8 wt Dan craft blank I built that is my go to. For me, if I’m fishing a fly rod for bass I am throwing a hefty fly for big fish so I want a bigger rod.

nope. I have a scale and I have a tape measure printed on my paddle. I have no use for a board. Most Anything 18” and under isn’t getting weighed. I’ll weigh a couple early in the season to calibrate my brain but that’s it. I’m fine with a length. Bigger fish get both, but they rest in the water in the net for a minute or two to relax after the fight while I pull out the scale and/or camera.

I’m stealing this, that’s great. Like asking for a left handed screw driver to the new guy.

Straight braid if I’m pitching vegetation. The fish don’t care about visibility and it’s a reaction bite mostly. Wood or general pitching it’s mono since I don’t really run straight fluoro for anything. Same goes for swim jigs.

Not sure the brand, but outriggers will solve 1 and 2. I think ajay has them on his. I’m pretty stable in a boat and can paddle a kayak/canoe/paddle board standing up no problem, but the primary/secondary stability is something to get used to. My autopilot has amazing secondary stability but the first 10-15 degrees of roll take a minute to get used to. Now, I can stand a foot on the gunwale, tip it to 15 degrees, and get rid of my coffee.

got it, thanks. also found some new plastics on their site I haven’t explored before.

is that similar to a zoom split tail in form and size?

is the 3” a scaled down version in all dimensions and keeps the same overall ‘look’? i definitely need to try them. I used a rage menace for a shorter and tall profile and a big zako for a full sized. A smaller zako would be pretty sweet if it keeps most of the height but looses some weight.

If a Zako is too fat (I disagree) but a blade minnow is too thin then the razor shad is right between them. I fished then a good bit last year and the light grey with dark grey back was my go to on a green shad chatterbait. The action is great and they are durable. My issue with them is that I leave trailers on my lures and I don’t just use elaztec so they melt into each other. I’ve stopped using elaztec for trailers for that reason.

That's why I've stayed with it. I converted in the first place because the rod I was using them on was lacking just a little bit of oomph for lipless crankbaits especially when popping them through weeds. The braid tidied up the combo nicely. Then I left it there after fishing it all spring and loving the feel. Every little tick of grass you can feel it.

I fish 30 lb 832 as my main crankbait rod (7' MH/MF) but I'm just as happy to fish anything from 10 lb fluoro up to 17 mono depending what it is. I have fished the same rod/line for topwaters and it works okay if you add a length of mono (braid tangling on walking baits is real for me). If I were choosing between those options, I'd go with 12-14 lb thin mono, something like supernatural. In fact that's what I have on my topwater rod and I also fish crankbaits on it every now and then.

exactly. I actually meant the pros (that come with the extra arm). I don't use the extra arm for what I'm doing but for this purpose it would be good. So the solution for me, is that you put two omega pros on the front of the tracks facing forwards. You're talking about 7' rods or so (or longer if they are crappie rods) and that would be plenty of distance from the tip of the rod to where the paddle would need to be. The front of the track is far enough forward that you're not reaching that far up when paddling. the rear two would be omega pros either directly on the rear rail and facing backwards, almost parallel to the boat or close to it. That would keep tangling to a minimum with the other rod on that side It should also keep that rod low enough that you're paddling over top of it. If that doesn't work, then add a might mount on each side of the boat next to the seat to mount the omega on. That would place the omega behind where you're paddling. If you need to get the holder further out from the boat the sidearm helps there. There are also options to to raise up the rod holding bit to be higher off the deck, though I don't know if Yak Attack do them or only other manufacturers. Guys who troll for salmon typically have a raised up setup (and also beefed up).

My grandmother owned a bait show in her basement for as long as I was a kid and she was alive. My dad did the inventory and ordering. She ran the shop. He picked worms in the spring for hours and nights on end and I ‘helped’ sometimes. He had a pair of wooden boxes that were 2’x18”x12” deep and I know of some all nighters where he’d fill both on a Friday night after working all day. He’s get in to grandmas as she was waking up, around 4-5 am. I’d usually be sleeping in the truck if it was a night I got to go. My dad would keep a good inventory on of powerbait (or zeke’s before powerbait came out), rooster tails, hooks and sinkers, some carp bait for the river, and plenty of worms. That’s what sold so that’s what they stocked. My dad was a bass fisherman but he still ordered from Bass pro and others. Id love to have a local shop that stocked tackle warehouse’s goods. I’m lucky that I have some shops that carry bait for when I take a kid fishing.