casts_by_fly

Kinda something like that. Half truth, half tongue in cheek. The truth is that being in a place where there are really big bass (like Texas) and having live scope (with an idea of how to use it) is an express code to finding big fish. Cover water, look for what’s there, and fish for it. That model has been proven by more than a few people the past 5 years or so. Which is more efficient- finding high likelihood areas that a book says to check (by fishing throughout the year with various lures) that you then have to put the time in to fish OR motoring around with a camera showing you what is actually there and then using the time to focus on what you see and what those fish eat? (I didn’t say more fun/enjoyable, i said efficient). The tongue in cheek is that you need an idea of where to look in the first place and what they might eat. Not to mention how to present that thing and when. Still, there is finding fish and there is catching fish. I think the first is the hardest part. In the past you would fish high productivity locations, put in the hours on the water over years and maybe build up a knowledge base of where they should be. You could only learn the first by proving the second though. If you were in a place where there are active fish but throwing something they were definitely not interested in, then you couldn’t tell if you were in the right spot or were fishing ‘wrong’. You had to get A and B both right to learn something. Now, you can know A by looking around. You can learn B by trying something and seeing how it does (then adapting). As a way of learning, it is definitely more efficient. So I agree time on the water, but there are ways to cut the learning curve that aren’t books.

save the money on the books, get FFS on your boat, and spend all the time you can on the lakes that have the giants. That will get you as close as you can get to finding them as quickly as possible. Now you just have to get them to bite.

speed skating and curling. One because you are in awe of what they are doing and the other because you go 'I could totally do that'. I'm not saying which is which but...

I haven't watched any of it yet, but there is a commercially avalable system out there. I think it might have been posted here on the forum about 6 months ago. It looks like a foam/plastic block that sits on top of the rod locker lid with long channels cut out for the rods to lay in.

Not sure if anyone else got the email, but I believe the new owners are up and running now. I think they are called “The Rod Locker”. Exact same location. Grand opening email came through today with some Dobyns deals. Also, what looks like the same set of used gear as ALF had at the end.

Obligatory winter picture. After i clean all the reels up and strip them down I like to take a group pic before the season kicks off just for memory and insurance purposes. This set is missing two rods (one at my dad’s, one backordered) but the gist of it is 11 falcon casting (3 expert, 8 Cara) and 4 shimano spinning (3 Poison adrena, 1 Zodias) rods. Reels are 3 Zillions, 3 Metanium, 2 Bantams, 2 Chronarchs (one new model, one 200e), and an aldebaran on the casting rods. A set of Stradics on the spinning rods.

Allbirds were launched around 10 years ago as a sustainable materials type shoe with good design and (in the tennis shoes) decent support. They have them in wool and in a mesh material. I really like the original wool runner. It is a low top casual shoe that you can wear with socks, with invisible socks, or barefoot. I have a half dozen pairs still. They created the mizzle versions which are modestly waterproof. I haven’t dug into their latest versions in the past 3 years or so. All super comfy. And machine washable.

how waterproof and what boat? In the kayak I either wore muck boots if it was cold or crocs if it was warm (socks if chilly or for bugs). Since moving to the boat, I've just stuck with my allbirds. They are super comfy for standing all day, stretchy enough I can put some sucks under them but also breathable enough that I can wear them in modest summer temps and not fry. If it is 80+ I'm barefoot anyway and that's flip flop weather in the boat. I ask how waterproof because they aren't like a rubber boot. If it's raining hard all day and water is running down your raingear pants then you feet will get a bit wet. If it is just off and on drizzle then you'll be fine. Mine are the wool runner mizzle but the equivalent would be the wool runner mid waterproof. Those even look nicer than mine with the thicker sole and middle fabric portion.

In that case, would suggest you get some hands on with the rods you’re thinking about. Just going from what you have to a modern 7’ rod is going to be a huge change for you. Adding a foot of length from where you were is a big difference in feel.

I can show you 9 different rods in the Falcon lineup (across the Cara, expert, and bucoo lines) that range from 6’8” to 7’3” that are all rated 1/4-3/4 oz and have basically the same line rating. If falcon didn’t have two different numerical ratings for ‘H’, they would all be considered MH. I have experience with 6 of them and own 5. Even the ones with the same action and power ratings have very different actions and feels. Action and power are entirely subjective from the maker. Line and lure weight generally will get you closer to what the rod can do, but even then there is a lot of variation possible. While you can logic that if everything was exactly the same except for the length that the longer rod would give better casting distance (and that CAN be true), you’re not going to get two rods that are identical in a lineup aside from length. The best bet is to ask on a place where people are knowledgeable about the rods in question (like here) and can speak to the specific rods. Specific to your usage, I would caution against a 7’6” rod for spinnerbaits and vibrating jigs unless you’ve fished one that long before and like it. While they can bomb a cast and sometimes that is useful, it gets to be a handful as much as you are casting and cranking, especially if you’re going up over a half ounce bait a lot.

@gim - what website is that for those models? That looks pretty cool. We do not have the same forecast. At least a little bit of sun plus partly cloudy (as opposed to cloudy) plus 34-36 degrees for a couple minutes will help clear up the edges of the snow a bit and some of the road intersections that are sloppy.

We’ve picked up a couple things over time as we’ve moved around. I have a lot of canvasses of photos I took, mostly hung in stairwells or side areas. But we have a couple cool things for one reason or another. We found these prints in an art shop in Belgium and got them framed when we got home. These are just posters but the colors of wine poster was in one of our favorite restaurants in England but we never knew where to get it. We then found them in Beaune so had to get them. These are woodblock prints. The artist in London carves a wood block negative and then ink rolls them like a lithograph. The shark is 1/100 print because he didn’t have one and I asked for it. I bought Rachel a set for her birthday. This is a painting and our first expensive thing to hang on the wall. It was a run of 40 pieces painted by Bob Barker (uk painter) and it depicts the pub that we loved. They held a dinner event to show the first one and you could order from there. Ours is #27 for our anniversary. Interesting fact- there are only two colors of paint used. His thing is only using two colors but using technique to blend them in unique ways. This last one might be the coolest one and we didn’t buy it. Someone who worked for my wife made it for us as a thank you and going away gift when we left the UK. She took a bunch of my underwater photos and hand drew them in colored pencil. We got it framed when we moved back here.

should be a fun watch. Looks like a best 5 fish with a cut to 15 anglers after the second day. Not sure the full rules (FFS and whatnot) but putting the best of the best all together is never a bad thing. I'm curious who is paying for it. That's a lot of sponsorship dollars going into the purse but I don't see a sponsors list.

So I picked up some PEX8 in the 12-days sale at TW. Not as cheap as noted above from japan, but it was down around 832 pricing for a spool (which has 50% less on it than 832). I was debating between this and sinking braid for a FFS minnow specific setup. Almight has some inconsistency issues reported so I went PEX8 in the 16 lb rating. That is 0.148 mm or 0.006" (GOU 0.8 in the table above). It's THIN! It says 3lb mono equivalent above, but it is more like sewing thread. Size A rod builders thread is thicker than this. Sunline supernatural mono, which is my usual mono and already thin, bottoms out at 0.165 mm at 4 lb test. This line is really thin. Since I'm keeping it as a more open water minnow shaking rod I'm less worried about abrasion being a factor. I'll still be running a longer length of 10 lb fluoro leader so even if I do get into the timber it should be okay. It ties a heck of an albright knot- super tiny tied to 10 lb fluoro backing. And with a thin and limp as it is, I can see this casting a mile if needed. I'll be limiting it to 35 yards or so since it's on FFS and I top out around 90' range on a 12" screen. Can't wait to get this out on the water.

yeah, every one I buy from mike is wire tied. It just makes for a permanent solution. The skirt never moves on the jig, it never wears out the band or falls off. If you want to use an elaztec trailer you don't worry about the trailer melting the band. It's just a better solution. Hand tying them with braid or thread is also a good choice.

Just received my new stradic from Digitaka. Paid the 10% up front (and they do the balance). Ordered Wednesday at 330 PM EST. Reel got here monday morning 10 AM. Unfortunately I ordered the wrong one. I wasn't paying attention and grabbed a C2500 and not a regular 2500. No worries, I can swap some reels around to get what I want where I want.

I got the M+ PA here and I'm glad I went with it. Initial impressions are that it's what I was looking for. A 3/16 head plus a 3" mooch minnow are just enough to load the tip (not sure how a 1/8 plus mooch will do) but I can see that the rod powers up very quickly. I'm pretty confident that a 3/8 head plus 5" bait will be fine. Definitey an extra fast action from the solid tip. Putting a good flex into it, the rod doesn't bend hardly at all up through the second guide. That's more than the bottom half of the rod. Then you get a little flex up to the solid tip section before the solid tip gives way. In a lot of ways it is similar to the UL/M poison adrena I've reviewed here separately and which will be my 1/8 oz minnow rod. This solid tip M+ feels great with a stradic 2500/3000 sized reel on it. Unfortunately I was paying attention when I ordered the reel from digitaka and grabbed a C2500 which is a 2000 body reel. So the C2500 is going to go onto the UL/M which is much lighter in the top of the rod and can handle this little reel and the 2500 from it is going onto the new one. It's going to be a great rod me thinks.

Forget about using it as a follow up bait. Just tie one on and go fishing. Great for covering water and getting a reaction bite. For me, they are best when there is sparse grass- just enough to catch a piece here or there but not so much you’re getting it every cast. That means early season in most of the lakes here- up to mid April for me. After that the grass is usually grown in so much that it’s not efficient to throw anymore and swapping to a bladed jig is better. I see a bladed jig and a lipless as similar baits in a lot of use cases. Light to medium grass (less rock for me and definitely not wood), 0-10’ ideally, searching style either because the bass are active and moving or you’re just trying to put it right in front of one (reaction). Because of when the grass grows here in NJ and how thick it gets so quickly, a bladed jig tends to be a better choice for me most of the time, but when the cover is right and the fish are eating a lipless it’s a great bite to get on. They cast a mile in the wind, you can feel them on the least sensitive rod in your locker, you can fish them in inches of water or 10’ of water just the same, and they are snack sized to bass.

I keep a couple EZ skirts in the boat that I have taken off lures. Super easy when you break a skirt band mid trip. If I’m doing up lures in the winter (due to start on that this week) I’ll use regular bands and tabbed skirt material. And if I’m really feeling like putting a little more effort into it I’ll wire tie them.

I wish I still had ponds like we used to have. Those were ponds where my dad knew the owners for years and had fished them for years. True farm ponds, surrounded by cattle or other agriculture. Very fertile. Usually 1’ visibility most of the year. Grassy in the summer but spring mostly clear except for what survived the winter. Most were in the 1-3 acre size and bottomed out at 15-20’. The second biggest bass I’ve ever seen caught came from one. Back to back casts my dad caught an 8+ and a 5+ from the same laydown. My 5+ PB came from another one of those ponds.

@Swamp Girl Winter fish stack up in spots and when the water warms they stack up on the warm spots. They are hungry and also reactive so a small snack like a Lipless crankbait that zips past them (try a yo-yo) they will just grab if you put it in front of them. Find the spot and keep casting it.

We used to fish the local farm ponds all year and almost every spring we were throwing lures while there was still a sheet of ice covering part of the pond. Usually the first warm spring day when the sun had just melted off a chunk and was warming one side of the lake. Rattletraps were always the lure. 20-30 bass days once you figured out if they wanted chrome, chartreuse, or another.

I saw a meme /picture on social media that said in 30 days the sun will be setting after 7pm! I’ve noticed it staying lighter later so keep it coming.

Of all those choices, the 12 lb P-line. Maybe even the 10 depending on the cover. CX is pretty hefty for a given rating. My usual line for bladed jigs is 16# sunline mono but there are many ways to skin a cat on this one.

@Big Hands - I should have been clearer, I meant the fitment, not necessarily the knobs themselves. I think all of the current shimano knobs all have the same spindle and can be interchanged.