casts_by_fly

I have no problems standing up in mine (autopilot 120) and I’ll stand up on the seat too for a higher viewpoint sometimes. Getting up and down out of the seat is pretty easy though I appreciate some people don’t have the same ankle mobility I do. A pull rope tied to the nose handle or similar is a good idea if you have a little grip strength.

this is where I’ve settled also. I could pick out a falcon pretty well from their descriptions now. That said, I own a bunch of different ones so I’ve got most of it covered. there IS a standard but the major manufacturers don’t use it. Custom builders largely do though so if you want to compare two rods you can look up a lot of common cents data online.

I haven’t but a bunch of guys on the Facebook group have. Couple options it seems but I don’t know enough to explain them since I don’t have live scope. if you’re not in the Facebook groups have a look and search around.

I have the Hudson in the expert line and have fished it a bunch now. I have it rigged with 14 lb suffix elite so take my findings in that grain. I have the bucoo trapcaster, pitchin stick (head turner) and lizard dragger. I have the expert finesse jig, head turner, amistad, hudson, and lizard dragger/table rock. it’s a very good mid to big crankbait rod. I’m talking DT 6 up to DT 14 or even a 20. I’ve fished buzzbaits on it, both 3/8 and 1/2 oz with trailer hooks and trailers. I fished a Texas rigged toad last time out. I put some time in with a 3/8 swim jig. I think I’ve had other lures on it but that’s the majority. the closest in your arsenal is the swim jig. I felt one at a store and it feels similar unloaded. The swim jig might have a faster tip but similar power mid-rod. The Hudson wasn’t enough to fully set the hook on a toad. Casts great and I could put it wherever I wanted but hookset wasn’t enough and I lost a couple that I let take a toad but couldn’t drive the hook home. For a buzzbait and sharp hooks it was good. I didn’t set into any fish on the swimjig but for a lighter wire style swim jig great. For a heavier wire maybe not. what’s the rod best for? Great for a 90 or 110 plopper bait. Treble hooks, lighter wire hooks. Maybe if I wanted to put braid on it then the rod might give a little better hookset. I would think of it as an amistad with 2/3 the power. The amistad is great for driving a heavy wire hook home- perfect for jigs and Texas rigs. The Hudson is not a heavier single hook bait. Compared to what you have, I’d throw a swimjig or jig on your head turner and a buzzbait on either the head turner or the finesse jig even. I throw swim jigs on both of those rods (up to 3/8 on the finesse jig and 1/2 on the head turner). One has 14 elite, the other 17 elite. For a buzzbait rod, the bucoo sr lizard dragger isn’t a bad shout. I fished it with 17 elite last year for chatterbaits mostly but it also doubled up as backup big cranks and random “other” stuff that wasn’t heavy cover and heavy wire. The trapcaster with mono wasn’t quite stout enough for me for single hooks, but with 832 braid like I have this year wouldn’t be bad and it would be a good choice for lighter swim jigs. The elite table rock I think is underpowered for the rating. Maybe I need to fish it more, but it feels like a 5.5 power not a 6 power.

We have grass so I need something to slide through it. I’m using either a siebert shot caller or strike king tour grade.

Adding heavier and/or feathered trebles to walking baits. Heavier rear treble will cause it to sit vertical in the water and jump up and out at times. The feathered treble is for spookier fish or fish just not quite there to chase.

The falcon bucoo sr 6’6” treble hooker is the right rod for the small cranks. 1/4-1/2, medium moderate. A 4-power falcon is fairly light and lighter than I prefer for crank baits but would be a good choice for the lighter crank baits. I prefer a 5 power in the falcon line and the trapcaster/all round is my preference but that’s 7’. A great one for double duty with small cranks and top water is the 6’10” finesse jig/top water. I’ve fished bomber a’s and dt fat with it. Makes a great spook and popper rod. Little longer than you want but a great action for all of that.

How small of a square bill are you going down to? Bomber A’s? Big difference casting a model A and a dt-fat.

if you’re set on trying braid, 832 is hard to beat. 10 lb on a ml spinning rod would fish well for creek bass with an 8lb flouro leader, maybe even 6 lb. But given all options, I’d fish something like 8-10 lb Sunline supernatural mono. Growing up we fished 6 and 8 lb trilene xl for the same as you’re describing. Having just spooled supernatural 12 lb, I’m confident 8lb supernatural would be great in a creek.

Not sure how I missed this, but here are my thoughts. I have the same unit and have no trouble getting good images in a kayak. Keep in mind that this transducer only has side imaging and then uses that image to piece together a down image. It’s also not mega plus. So you’ll get a good image, but the amazing ones on humminbirds website are for the bigger units and transducer. looking at your mount, I think you are fine. Based on the scum line on the boat it looms like you are fully submerged and nothing in the way. i can’t tell from the images but I’ll assume you are in the mega range and not kilohertz range. You’re only in 10’ so stick to mega. Below 25’ I’ll drop to kilohertz sometimes if there is a soft bottom. Hard rock bottom is clear below 30’. It looks like for down and side imaging you need to up the contrast I normally keep my contrast up around 16-18 and will adjust if the picture isn’t good enough. Sensitivity starts around 10. Sharpening low. You are also only going 0.5 mph or so. You can still get a good image at that speed but it’s tougher. Scroll speed at that boat speed should be around 2-4 depending on your preferences. I’ll scroll at speed 6 for 2-4 mph. That seems like the right balance. you’re in 10’ of water but your side imaging it set to over 100’. You won’t get a good return at that range in that depth. Best side imaging is 3-4x depth. You can stretch that to 6x or so. If you look at your side image, you can see the picture falling off about halfway across the screen from the centerline. Imagine eliminating that half and stretching the middle half out to full screen resolution… It looks like the same hump in both images, though the side image was taken second after you dropped off it further. A little more contrast and the bottom on the down image will clear right up. Keep in mind you adjust contrast and sensitivity for side, down, and 2d independently. Also for much bottoms I turn the sensitivity up a couple points. 2d is a different animal but similar settings. I often run side for 70% of the screen with down and 2d splitting the rest. I used side to show me structure right and left, down for things I run over, and 2d for bottom hardness and confirming 2d.

I don’t fish xds but I do fish dt-20’s. I use the falcon 7’ heavy (called lizard dragger or table rock) or the Hudson special (7’3” 5-power). Both are similar power and action even though the Hudson is a 5 power. I’d call the Hudson a big 5 and the lizard dragger a light 6.

For sure. Infini brake is pretty good. Gen 3 stx and gen 4 sx have them so it’s still current in the lower mid range reels. It works pretty well for a wide range of weight. Just not a bfs system.

I have the bucoo in the 7’ 5-power, 6-power, and the pitching stick (head turner). They are pretty good rods especially for the price. I haven’t used all of the $100 rods on the market but I’m confident they would be near the top in a test. Compared to the expert, the bucoo pitchin stick/head turner is just a touch stiffer a touch higher, has about the same last 12”, and the same bottom 2’ of blank. I retired it when I got my expert but it’s coming back out with braid as a frog rod.

yeah, no. They are a pressed fit from the factory. I’d get your money back from Amazon.

the alf does not have ivcb braking. It is infini braking system.

I’m a big falcon fan but I’ve only handled the HD, not owned or fished one. They seem fine at the price but I would go bucoo for a couple dollars more. If a low rider price is in budget that will upgrade a bucoo to cork, a little better components, and a little nicer blank.

I have a helix 7 MSI also for my kayak and its a great unit. Like you said, it will take a bit of time learning what works best for your lakes. Up here, I have a mix of soft bottom, sand bottom, and rocky bottoms. We have a lot of weeds. The softer the bottom the more you need to up the sensitivity. Also, starting with a higher contrast and lower sensitivity is what I've found best. I like a low sharpening level. Too much and it is distracting I find. Water column sensitivity will clear up any residual speckles in the column. Also play with color palettes. Each color set will be more or less visible to your eyes. It will also have an effect on the sharpening/sensitivity. White on black is already pretty high contrast so you need a little less. Dark orange on black (HB standard) needs a little more. Weeds can make side imaging useless. When it is really thick up here, side imaging will only show a rough line at the top of the weeds in the water column and not a whole lot beyond them or in them. That's when down imaging is helpful. Also with heavy brush piles and trees- I like both in that scenario. Charting is good, navigation is less useful for me. My biggest lake is 2200 acres, so mostly I just use navigation to show me the quickest route back. And, I'm using the charting map to see it and not the navigation map. I keep meaning to hide navigation but forget. Charting is useful. Autochart will make a depth map of your lake as you fish. Navionics and other contour maps are fine to start, but charting it yourself will give more details and clarity. You can find the hidden ditches and cuts that aren't on big maps. I've done that with at least one lake here and its found me fish. Just be advised that the built in memory is enough for about 250 acres across all of the lakes you try to map. Try it on your most fished lake or location. If you think you'll use it more, get the zero lines card for 'infinite' storage. Do that before you map more, because the internal memory doesn't transfer to the card later. I have the card and I just turn on autochart when I turn the helix on. It can record while I fish. On slow days I'll fill in tracks where I didn't fish over to complete the chart.

In crystal clear water and bright sunlight there should be enough light to make chrome flash. I've seen it at 60' while diving with barracuda schools and they are flashing. That said, that is crystal clear seawater. Most freshwater will struggle to have that clarity to more than 20' or so. If your primary baitfish around are shiny silver, then chrome would be a good option regardless of the depth. The baitfish and the crankbaits will be at the same depths experiencing the same light conditions.

Aluminum oxide is ceramic. They are one in the same when talking about guides. You can't just change the inserts on a guide, you have to replace the guide itself. if you want to do it yourself, google rod guide wrapping and finishing. It isn't hard and might be a good project for you and your son. If you want to have someone else do them, you'll need to find a local rod repairman. That said, the price to replace all of the guides will be cost more than buying new rods. A normal rod will have ~7 guides. You'll pay $10 for the guides and at least $5 a guide to wrap them. That would be $50 once you factor in a tip top. I seem to recall lightning rods selling for less than that.

I think you'll find that's a very good choice. I'd suggest 14 over 12 ( I have both here, also 17 on a bulk spool). The larger diameter of the 14 will be an asset when it comes to picking any backlashes.

Fluoro sinks which is fine for some/most things. Putting a mono leader on it won’t help with any topwater technique that has more than the leader length on the water. For instance, if you’re fishing a walking bait and have a 5’ leader, you’re going to have more than 5’ of line on the water. That line is going to sink down and pull the mono with it. Also, most techniques it doesn’t matter how visible the line is. Braid is the most visible and I use a lot of braid direct to the lure. Fluoro also has other issues. I wouldn’t advise it for what you’re saying.

Based on those lures and where you are, 14 lb-16lb mono will be about right. For a new angler like you say you are, inexpensive mono like big game in a manageable size (not too heavy, not too light) will be effective. Jersey doesn’t have a ton of wood. It’s mostly grass and pads with some rock and docks thrown in. A tougher mono like big game in 14 lb should do well for you and is cheap.

Here in nj, a green pumpkin beaver, Texas rigged. We have so much grass and such clear water that you need something that will get down through pads and mats, slide through all of the pondweed, and still be subtle enough in the 10’ visibility water. I’ve not seen a difference in the brand or specific shape, but color has made a difference for me.

I’ve had mine almost a year and I’ve not had any issues. Most of the complaints are around the side plate “falling off” which I still don’t see how it’s possible. The revo SX is the same mechanism also. I don’t think it’s a $400 reel like MSRP. But it is definitely a $200 reel and a great one at that price.

this is where I am. A tip heavy rod, especially when you start longer than 7’, gets tiring to fish. I find the sweet spot for me is in the 6’6”-7’ and as light as possible. If it’s as light as possible the it’s hard to get tip heavy on those lengths.