casts_by_fly

You don't have to replace you hooks to do what you want. You're not gut hooking fish, you're just dealing with treble hooks the same as everyone deals with treble hooks. Yes, in a small mouth you have to manage three hooks. Get a pair of pliers or hemostats that can do it. Pinch your barbs down first. If its still a problem for you, then cut one of the three bends off a hook. Then you're only dealing with two. If its STILL a problem, cut off another bend. You can do all of that without having to buy anything. If you find that you still prefer the single hooks then at that point convert some of your lures to singles.

One thing I like on lakes with herring type baitfish that are always roaming is to pick a windy day and fish the down wind side of a major point or saddle. The wind blows the plankton that way and creates a bit of a current in that general direction. The points and saddles make eddies and faster current areas respectively. So that collects the food and collects the baitfish. The predators wait on the back side just like fishing the back side of rocks in a river. Spot lock is your friend if you have it, but if not you're still tucking behind the points to fish them so you get a bit of a wind break. On a southwest wind, I'd be looking at these areas. There is a nice long wind tunnel to push food around and areas for it to collect.

to drop shot on a baitcaster, just push the button and let it drop. Even easier that a spinning rod. The bigger thing is how much weight you have and are you casting it. To me, anything over 1/4 oz or so is a baitcaster. Specific lure doesn’t much matter.

Yes, there are PM’s. I’ll try to shoot you one. I’m not sure if you have enough posts just yet.

Hi All, The same lake I posted about earlier this year looking for smallmouth help is calling my name. Knowing that 4+ lb smallmouth live there is like a drug that keeps pulling you back. If it were most any other normal smallmouth lake, I'd be looking at points, humps, and other rocky structure in or near deeper water. This lake isn't that. Its a big bowl that tapers from 4' to 12'. Its a silty bottom almost everywhere There are two sections that have rock- a flat in 2' of water that drops gradually to 5' and then more quickly down to 12' (where it turns silty) and another rock pile mid-lake that is 2' on top and surrounded by thick weed bed. The rock pile also eventually gets down to 12' and silt. I figure there have to be some smallies around those two spots, but I can't imagine that every smallmouth in the lake is in those two places. I was thinking to ride the entire lake and chart bottom hardness, hoping to find some harder areas that are hidden. Maybe waypoint the weedlines and target the edges, especially where they hit harder bottoms. I don't associate smallies with getting burried in weed forests. Should I change that perception? I was figuring bottom contact stuff like swing head or tokyo rig rage bugs, swim jigs, a dropshot setup, and maybe jerkbaits or lipless off the bottom. The bottom itself has a lot of filamentous algae so you can't get too deep down into it without getting a mess on your line. The grass is a combo of milfoil and pondweed and is sporadic in places and a forest in others. I've heard that some guys troll the lake to cover water and catch them in the middle of all of it (its 300 featureless acres with 40 acres around the perimeter that are interesting), hence my looking for something in bottom hardness or weed edges. Anything I'm missing here? I'm going to take an aquavue to check out anything that looks different on the Helix in the middle of the lake.

Interesting. I was specifically looking for glass boats, but I still haven't seen trackers listed. You can get rowboats here and bring your own motor for them. A couple places do that. I wouldn't mind renting a 17' tracker for a day though.

Your profile says sussex county. Where abouts are you? I'm on the border of Sussex and Morris practically. I can be on Musconetcong, Cranberry, Budd, or others in about 20 minutes. Aeroflex and twin are about 30 for me.

good luck. I've looked for bass boat rentals before and only seen them in Texas. Your best bet will be to find someone locally who has a boat and will rent it to you for a day. You might want to look at bass clubs in the area and shoot emails to the club officers.

can't help with maryland, but most of the clubs up here don't use websites. For the most part, everything is facebook. I'd start there. If you search bass tournaments "southern maryland" (or insert your area here), you'll get some hits for who is holding tournaments and when. At a minimum it is a listing of active clubs. You could also show up a bit before weigh in time and chat with the organizers. Lots of kayak tournaments around which would mean getting a kayak, but you could use it as networking. Or just get a kayak and start exploring yourself. After a bunch of back boating, tournament fees, gas money, etc you'll be able to get into a kayak pretty quickly for the same money.

I wear an apple watch. Its still a generation 2 and 5 years old now. I'll replace it when it finally dies. I wear it pretty much every day, fishing or not. Its fully waterproof and can take a beating. I like it for fishing because when someone messages me, I can see what it is on my watch and know if its important. Sure, I'd love to say that every time I'm fishing I am unreachable. That's hardly ever the case though so not pulling out a phone all the time is nice. if I really want to I can reply to messages or even take a quick call from my watch. I get weather alerts if there is a sudden storm coming (which is nice to get your rain jacket on before its too late). And yeah, it tells the time too. So does my fish finder though so if I have to be back by a certain time I can just look in that bottom left corner.

I find the double Uni to be bigger (sometimes a lot bigger) than the crazy alberto with no difference in strength. I think the fact that the tag ends stick out at 90 degrees makes a big difference in making the uni 'catchier'. A crazy alberto is the thickness of two leaders with no tag end to catch. I also find it more consistent for me to get a good tie, especially on the water. With the double Uni I find it more sensitive to the diameters of the two lines and don't always get a good tie. For mono to mono or mono to fluoro its not bad, but braid to mono/fluoro the braid digs and cuts too often for me.

The falcon amistad will do it also. 3/8 oz of total weight is pushing it but 3/8 oz 0us a plastic or a 3/8 jig/blade bait is enough. I’ve thrown 1 3/8 spinnerbaits and a-rigs far in excess of 2 oz. A keitech 6.8 (1.5 oz) plus a 3/8 swim bait hook is no problem. I use mine as a heavy pitching and frogging rod.

Sometimes you just have to keep casting. Might not be the best looking and you might not think fish are there but just keep fishing it.

The expert series has what you want. The 7’ all round for up to a dt10 and is great with lipless. Hudson special at 7’3” for dt6 up to dt14 or so. Table rock for up to a dt20. If you’re fishing a lot of 1oz and want a big rod, then the Tennessee ledge rod is the one.

my dad and uncle each bought the same fenwick 5’6” pistol grip casting rod when they came out. My uncles shattered and splintered the top third somehow. My dad stopped using his. I fished it a little growing up but it was a broomstick. I might ask him if he still has it and see if I can come up with a use for it.

which crucial do you mean? My dad fishes the im-10 series (and I have one of the crankbait rods) and I’ve fished his next to my experts. I prefer the experts personally.

The gen 4 Revo STX at $145 is a good deal. A curado mgl at $200 would be a step up if you want to spend the full budget.

With a rescue strap you can have it hooked to the opposite side of the boat and run it over the ‘top’ of the capsized boat. Then start climbing up the foot straps. It will pull the boat over. absent straps, you have to go the the stern to roll it or climb up on it. how did he flip it in the first place?

If you’re trying to get through the solid pad mats we have around here, a 3/16 isn’t enough. A 3/8 with a skinny plastic and picking your spots will get down just enough but you have to pick your spots and drop it into holes. I normally rig a 3/8 at home and work my way up depending on the cover on the day. Thursday I was fishing 3/4 to get through it. as far as rods, the falcon amistad is a great heavy pitching rod. 7’3” heavy, made for doing what you’re talking. I have the expert series but they offer it from the bucoo up to the cara. Since you’re semi local you could try mine out one day if you’re considering it.

interesting…..

At the time, boron rods that launched were “brittle”. I think the scrim and epoxy made them easier to break relative to the market rods. There were a lot of problems with early ones. Given that, I think the marketing killed them.

Falcon expert. Head turner. Great for a 3/8 oz jig +/- weight range. If you want to be that and heavier then amistad.

Are the 3701 a lot thinner than the normal 3700? The 3700 spinnerbait box is a bit thinner but the plastics box is thicker. If the 3701 is the same as the spinnerbait box then another box is interesting.

Looks like widgeon grass or maybe horned pondweed. https://wric.ucdavis.edu/photo_gallery/photos_aquatic_weeds.htm

if you’re standing and twitching rod tip down, then I can see the shorter rod. That’s what I was taking from your original post. I stand all the time and 6’10” is my shortest rod. It’s just short enough to fish tip down, though it’s not tip straight down like some fish. It’s more 45 degrees which is more than enough for walking a frog and even helps a little to keep the line just above some flat lily pads or matted grass. i don’t know dobyns rods so can’t help on those, but there are plenty on here that can. For the falcon rods, about the only options for you would be the low rider head turner or the bucoo equivalent. They are listed heavy fast and I think that’s accurate. They are on the lighter side of heavy but not by much and you get into the power quickly. With 50 lb braid either one is a capable frog rod for lighter frog uses. also, you’re in Texas so you might have an academy around and they should have the bucoo version on the rack to check.