casts_by_fly

I don’t fish tournaments but we get a lot of them here. I keep an eye on the tournament schedules and won’t fish a lake the day of one if I can help it. It just isn’t worth working around other people if I can help it. that said, if I find myself in that situation then I don’t worry about other people fishing through except for if they are spooking bass (I.e. boat right into the brush to unhang lures, plowing through the grass). The main thing is to find something different that other people arent using. Downsize or upsize. If the guy was throwing power lures, slow down and pick apart what he missed. or, you can pick other water that no one else is fishing. On a 300 acre lake that might be tough but the second best spot becomes the best spot when no one has fished it.

I like to plan for a 10 hour fishing day plus some buffer. For that current draw, I’d want to have a 25-30 ah lithium for each. I run a 30 for my humminbird, but a 20 would have been enough. A 10 ah isn’t enough for a 7+” screen for me. in your case, I’d use the 23 for the head unit and get another similar one for the transducer. Then use the 7 ah for the accessories.

As a for instance, here is a navionics snapshot of one of the big branches/arms of the lake. Pre-spawn, this is a pretty good place to be. The steep banks and south/east facing slope give the bass close proximity to deeper water and shallow water quickly while also being some of the earlier water to warm. The fish slide out of the main lake along the wall and move up as they are ready. After the spawn, there are still plenty of bass that keep to these shallows while some will back out to the deeper water. now, everything in blue is dry. The big white flat finger bit is almost there. So all of the shallow bass will have pulled back to the white water. But after weeks of steadily moving out to keep wet, will they eventually just go to the deepest water nearby (I.e. the bottom of the wall) or will they just keep moving out of this type of finger altogether?

Hi gents, this is a new one for me as I’ve never had a lake dropping like this one is. It’s losing about 4-6” elevation a day at the moment and is down 13’ total. It’s lost 6’ over the past two weeks. Obviously the fish are going to pull back from shoreline cover since it’s dry now. How far and how quickly do they pull back? For the offshore fish that started in 15’ of water, are they going to keep sliding down the points they were on as the water drops? Roam the lake looking for new offshore structure? Im going to treat the lake like a lake I’ve never been to even though I’ve fished it a couple times this year. I want to head over tomorrow maybe and see what it looks like that low to take notes for next spring. At the same time, with the water dropping I’d estimate about a quarter of the surface area is gone and another 10% is less than a foot deep. So the fish are concentrated into 2/3 of the area. Using navionics and setting a color for anything that’s now dry, there are some interesting ledges and points that would have been too deep before that are now fishy looking. However, they would have been a long way from where I would expect bass in normal pool. any of you western guys that are facing heavy droughts have ideas?

ha! Yes, I was talking chain pickerel. I have never heard of walleye being called pickerel. Learn something every day

Youve got a lot of advice on walleye. Let me talk about Pickerel. First, they are not picky. They want any lure or bait that looks like its injured and getting away. Erratic is good. I couldn't tell you how many times they hit a lure as you're about to pull it out of the water. They have the same closing burst as muskies and pike when they are 'just following' and then decide they want something. second, they are not the top predators pretty much anywhere. they often live with muskies and pike in the same lakes. Even in bass lakes I'm not sure they are top dog. As such, they tend to be in 'smaller' areas. Shallower water, thicker weeds, backs of coves, etc. The bigger ones patrol bigger areas (keep in mind 24" is a big one) but the normal 15-20" fish are in the same places you'd find bass so fish for them like largemouths. I catch bunches of them targeting largemouths.

yeah, that’s a pretty good feature. With the zero lines card the storage is more than you could ever use but the built in memory isn’t a lot.

it was more than 10 hours for sure, and it isn’t time based. It’s simply the amount of memory taken up by autochart on the internal memory. I managed to get most of a 300 acre lake mapped plus a bit at other lakes before it was full. but like you said, it’s more like a taster feature without the card. If you think you’re going to be doing more than one lake, just get the card and be done.

i don’t know about beast but I sure do love it. It has the air suspension which rides silky smooth on the highway (plus dropping it down 2” is handy for loading the boat in the bed). The back seat is comfy for 3 adults to sit there, but even better is folding up the seat and folding down the flat floor. It gives me a full flat back floor which is awesome for throwing my fishing stuff when the boat is in the bed. The ram boxes are nice too.

2018 Ram 1500 Limited. I haven't owned a truck in 20 years since we spend 12 in the UK where it was impractical to have one. On moving back that was my stipulation. I absolutely love it and won't be without a truck now.

I've thrown up out of the back of a boat once, but it wasn't from seasickness.... We made the crossing from mainland Ireland to Aran Islands once. The bay is about 10 miles and semi shielded from the north atlantic by the Islands but the wind had been blowing 40 mph for 3 days right through the gap so it was 15' waves they couldn't cross in. We got there on day 4 with 25 mph and 10' waves so they were going for it. Mind you, this is a boat that sits 20 people wide in the interior and 15-20 rows front to back, plus space on front and rear decks. Its a BIG boat (35-40 m) for a ferry with a ton of horsepower under it. We made it about 3 minutes before the waves hit and another 2 minutes before the first vomit started. 3/4 of the people were throwing up. You can't imagine the smell of that cabin. That almost made me throw up, not the sea conditions.

it looks like you might have just enough thread in the hole. I'd start with teflon tape since its a cheap and simple thing to try. You could also try a more coarse thread of the same size and pitch to give a little more bite. Some loc-tite green might also be enough if its just barely slipping. Green is easily removed later.

I'll second the amistad as that's what it was designed for, but I'd say to get the expert or Cara version for the extra sensitivity on a bottom contact rod. I have the expert and fish down to a 3/8 weight and a beaver up to a 7" swimbait with 3/8 oz weighted hook (all in about 2 oz). No problems with sensitivity on the lighter end of things and it handles the heavier weight just fine.

If he likes the Herm and you don't want another Bucoo, then why not a lowrider? Only another $30 and you get cork and upgraded components. The 7' All round fast would be a great choice for what you describe.

I caught another 18"+ last night (from the lake that gave up the last two of them) in a quick evening session and it got me thinking about this thread. I went back through my pictures for July and it was close to 90". Mindful that I measure against my paddle right before the fish goes back and I only check to the nearest half inch, I had 87.5" in July. May is the same. Biggest fish came in March in 40 degree water (a 4-03 smallmouth). August is off to a good start with an 18.5", but I'm still searching for the 20's this year.

A humminbird Helix will using autochart (which is built in). I have a helix 7, but I'm pretty sure the helix 5 will do it too. The head units have a limited memory but you should be able to get most to all of a 300 acre lake before it runs out. If you will be doing more than one lake, then you'll need a zero lines card for $100 which is an SD card with lake outlines built into the map. If you're doing more than one lake, get the card first as headunit memory doesn't transfer to the card later and you'll lose what you charted (kinda, it will be on the head unit still but with the card in the head unit you can't get to the memory of the head unit.)

that was my logic as well. Live wasn’t part of humminbird when I got mine and garmin/lowrance were out of the price range. 360 was fairly new and high price. I figured I’d never need or use them. Now, I would like to upgrade to 360 but can’t. That’s why I always advise if someone thinks they might want it in the future, get a unit that can handle it now.

I run a Helix 7 MSI GPS in my autopilot. I use it for side imaging, down/2D imaging, and lake bottom mapping. Its a great unit (I've used it for 18 months now). Image clarity is fantastic once you dial it in. Its unobtrusive in size for a 12' kayak. Touch screen would be nice, but once you are used to the button interface its just fine. I would like a little bigger and with 360/live capability for the future which nominally means a Helix 9 in my future. The 7 is fine for single screen. If I want to split screen I can make it work by adjusting the splits, but another 2" would be better. The autopilot has a transducer mount built in and either molded gaps or through hull grommets for running wires. Its a very clean install and everything is hidden except for the last 12" of wire. I have a yak attack mount for mine on the rail.

quarter into it and make sure the bilge pumps are on auto. I get wakeboats on the big pond here (that I'm fishing tonight) and I'm in a kayak. If I'm motoring with the electric motor I quarter into them and expect to take one over the nose. if you go to direct into them you will take every other one of them over the nose. If you're parallel with them you'll rock side to side a lot. Its enough that it might just roll me on a big one. I have to make sure my scupper plugs are pulled ahead of time if there are WB around. If I'm fishing and one comes through I can usually ride it out nose to quarter on without taking on water. If the waves are coming from behind you then you shouldn't have too much problem- they should lift up your back end enough to not swamp, but again with the auto bilge. One coming from behind me might turn me sideways and the next will get me so I usually turn into them if I know in time.

I fish those swimbaits on a baitcaster (my lighter crankbait rod in fact) when I'm fishing them, but similar line setup to what you're saying. I'm using 30 lb 832 to 10 lb red label. On my 7' MH (which is closer to M) that will work down to a 3.3 keitech with an eighth ounce head or hook or a 2.8 with a quarter. I pitch it a lot rather than cast so I'll keep my leader to 5' or so such that the knot is outside of the rod tip. If I'm casting a swimbait all day around docks, then I'm on straight mono. Yeah, I know a spinning rod would be better. When I eventually fish the delaware for smallies I'll have a spinning rod set up with one. For lakes I don't normally carry the spinning rod so I need a BC that will do the job.

I used to fish ultralights for PA smallies, so a ML is more than enough. Have your drag set properly with a reel that has a smooth drag and you'll be in good shape.

No. As much as the blazing sun and heat have sucked the past 4 weeks, I don't welcome fall fishing. Summer fishing is great- the days are long, the water is warm, the air is warm. I don't care if I get a little wet in the kayak. A cloudy/transition day like we have today is usually good enough to turn the fish on providing you can fish those days. Plus with fall you're on the back end of the year and your days are limited. Depending how cold you will fish you're into the 'couple weeks left' part of the calendar. Up here we get ice so no year round fishing. And, archery season comes in in september so competing interests and all that...

this is an old town PDL and not mine, but the theory is the same.

I'm not great at checking my snap knots either, especially this time of year when one rod lives with a snap (it gets a plopper, a crankbait, or similar depending on the lake). Also if you're a snap user, check that its closed and always use a good quality one. I lost a big pike in May that pulled a snap. I got it back part straightened. I think it just pulled the wire through and it wasn't a heavy enough wire snap. It was a leftover snap that I had laying around and I think was already on the crankbait when I pulled it out of the box so it just got tied on without thinking. Needless to say, all of those lighter snaps are gone.

welcome. You know where I'm at when you get some time.