casts_by_fly

I feel you guys. My AP is 152 lb assembled weight, but no battery, tackle, or me. That's the seat and motor. I'm topping 200 loaded up. I leave the batteries in all the time, but the motor and everything else comes out to get in and out of the truck. So its basically 150lb 'empty'. Most of the access points around are pretty easy and I can back down to the water, but you still have to lift the boat up and down into the bed of the truck. rick

get the bigger ones. I have both and fish both depending on the size of the bluegills (time of year often dictates that), but you can cut a half inch off the big ones to make a small one if you need to. You can't glue on a half inch.

What part of PA are you in? Opossum lake? That's a lot of what I fish here, so jigs in all of the cover, texas rigs as you're already fishing them, frogs when the vegetation gets up again, and buzzbaits before it does. If you're in a boat, the outside weed lines with plastics, spinnerbaits, and chatterbaits.

its about 7/8oz total weight last one I weighed. The particular rod I referred to is a 1/4-3/4 MH F rating and it just eats up casting that CB/Zako combo. Short casts, long casts, it will pinpoint them. It does fine with a 1/2 oz total weight bait as well, but a little extra weight seems 'sweeter' on this rod. The next power up in the same length and rod series is also rated 1/4-3/4 but H F. The same lure doesn't feel as good in casting. It works just fine, but it isn't the sweet spot for that rod. Same lure weight rating, same action rating. You'd think the MH would be overpowered and the H would be better but that isn't the case for me. My point is, what feels best for a given rod is entirely personal preference and you're not going to get that straight from a spec. thanks, rick

I'm still pretty clear in what I typed last night after rereading it this morning, so it must be you. Let me simplify it down to my first and last comments: Sweet spot is a nebulous term that you’ll never get from specs. It is entirely personal preference. .... So for a given lure/bait there are no guarantees based on the rod spec. Thanks rick

Action can be personal preference, so go try a couple if you can. That said, for me a MF MH is what I’d use for what you describe. I have the falcon bucoo 7’ mh MF trapcaster and I use it for all of those things. I fished it with a bunch of lines over the past year, but it really started to sing this year with 30 lb 832 braid. It’s a super light rod and has a really light tip but a good overall flex. I’ve been trying a bunch of different things on it and it handles them well. It also does just fine on big fish. For $100 it’s a great buy. thanks rick

Sweet spot is a nebulous term that you’ll never get from specs. It is entirely personal preference. For instance, a direct example from tonight. I fish a lot of 1/2 oz chatterbaits, usually with a zako on the back. I also fish falcon rods. I started with bucoo sr series last year and have upgraded most to the equivalent expert series this year. I have the 6’10” 1/4-3/4 heavy and the 7’ 3/8-1 heavy rods in both the bucoo and expert. I also have the 7’ 1/4-3/4 MH in the Bucoo and the 6’10” 1/4-3/4 MH expert. They all throw the same 1/2 oz chatterbait just fine. HOW they do it and what they feel like are very different. The higher modulus rods (expert) have a lot more ‘jump’ to them and the bait just seems to fly that much further for a given cast. The faster action 6’10” rods flex a lot less than the 7’ MF rods. But then put the same lure on the MH F where it might be a touch too heavy for the blank and the blank comes alive. Since it’s a very responsive higher modulus blank it can handle the extra weight and feels great. Also remember falcon rods are considered slightly ‘under’ for a given rating. So a MH is on the lighter end of MH, a 6 power heavy is closer to a MH from some, etc. So for a given lure/bait there are no guarantees based on the rod spec. Generally a total bait weight in the middle of the range is a good guide, but finding the true sweet spot for a given rod depends on so many factors that include personal preference that you just have to start casting. thanks rick

bluegill is no problem here. Definitely my most productive last year (spring craw so far this year). Chatterbait original or custom with bluegill skirt and bluegill rage menace (baby early, regular later in the year) was my best by far last year. A dt-6 bluegill was my best crankbait last year. but this is what got me thinking about perch. We don’t have a ton of shad here. We have golden shiners in a few places but limited. Alewifes are the most common forage (pic of one that froze in the ice) but sexy shad does a pretty good job there. Bluegills are everywhere, especially in the shallow weedy areas I tend to fish, so made the most sense to focus on as my main color choice. The fact that our water is weedy and normally 6’+ visibility in most lakes pushes you to naturals anyway. However we have a TON of perch around. Bass eat whatever swims by, so if they see a lot of perch they must eat a lot of perch. And yet I’ve never thrown perch patterns in anger. I picked up a Siebert tremor in tiger craw which is basically black with orange, yellow, and green bars, but I haven’t tried it yet. What jerkbaits are you guys throwing in perch patterns? I don’t fish jerkbaits much and I don’t throw perch much, so maybe this is the combo I need to get me over the hump. rick

Just use a shorter leader. I’ve been using 5’ when I need to put a leader on braid for some reason. My reasons are usually either toothy fish around, super clear water and a stop/start lure, or treble hooked topwater and light braid. A 5’ leader of 15# fluoro is just fine then.

Hi all, like the title, does anyone have consistent success with perch patterned cranks (or even blade baits)? We have a bunch of perch in most all of our lakes here from 2” up to jumbos. I’ve never had faith in perch patterns but with how many we have here it is hard to ignore that they are getting eaten by something. If you’ve had repeatable success on them, what the type of lake you’re on and what pattern/lure do you prefer? I was thinking something like a rapala shad rap profile (longer than it is tall or wide) but open to suggestions. thanks rick

Scratched one more out tonight. I thought with the stable weather the past couple days and the warmer nights that the water would be in good temps. This is my local lake and I’ve been trying to crack the smallmouth for the past year. I didn’t believe there were any in there all of last year up until I caught a 4-03 in March this year. So I’m back to the same two rock banks trying to figure it out. The temp was 62 when I launched the kayak so I thought I was golden, but that was just next to the ramp. It quickly dropped to 57 but that’s better than 52 from last time I was there. I figured some combination of square bill, spinnerbait, chatterbait, or jig would get me there. Lo and behold, about cast number 6 I was on. I thought I had finally figured it out, alas the rest of the night was casting practice. I know there aren’t many smallies in there but there are enough I should be able to put more than a 1-bass pattern together.

this is your answer. Great rod for what you describe and more.

this is me exactly. The baby menace rigged vertical on a trimmed swim jig has a great profile for small bluegills. I fish both the baby and regular size on chatterbaits (vertically oriented).

Also forgot this picture. First one I’ve ever broken. Dt fat3

I shared these in the bass pic thread too because I was bass fishing and caught a bass on the trip, but I’ll share them here too. Who knows how I didn’t get bit off on the pickerel. The closed mouth picture actually has my crank bait in his mouth. @A-Jay this is as close as I can get to those pretty golden walleye you catch. This perch at @13” was bigger than some of the walleye I’ve caught. That’s a half ounce chatterbait and a full length zako it inhaled.

Made it back out tonight like I noted above. I didn’t have a ton of time so went to the closest lake which is still a pretty good lake. Water is up to 56-57 so getting there. This lake has no contours at all. It is a flat slope from 2’ in the top end to 6.5’ at the deepest. That’s all over a mile and a half span, so it’s a pretty soft, flat bottom. It weeds up in the summer and gets some heavy lily pad patches so those areas concentrate the fish in the summer, but this time of year it doesn’t seem like there is any particular thing holding them. The fish are where you find them so cover water. A chatterbait is my best producer on that lake but it wasn’t doing anything today. Lipless and shallow cranks are a good choice when the grass isn’t thick, so I went through a couple until I found the right combo of diving depth and rod/line. Turned out to be a bomber model A tonight. Managed a bass, a perch, and a pickerel on it plus a bonus jumbo perch (13”) that inhaled a chatterbait. That’s a 1/2 oz chatterbait plus a zako in its mouth. Not sure how the pickerel didn’t bite me off. It hit at the boat with 4’ of line out and I boat flipped him straight in before he could saw though it I guess.

My wife's away for a long weekend, so I get to fish daily more or less from Friday to Tuesday. Unfortunately we had a stormfront come through Thursday so Fri/Sat/Sun were all clear, cold nights and high bluebird skies. The wind calmed down Sunday finally which at least made it less miserable to fish. I fished last year's favorite lake Friday afternoon. The water was at 52-54 so I thought for sure I'd be able to pick a few bass. Its a small lake at ~120 acres, almost a perfect oval, and grasses up pretty heavy in the summer in anything less than 10' deep (which is a lot of it). Last year this lake produced 15+ lb bags for me a couple times with two bass just under 5 lb but I only fished it from July onward so I was excited to fish it pre-spawn. The excitement is waning and the skunk is to blame. Not sure why I couldn't find them, probably because they had pulled back into the thicker deep grass that remains and weren't interested in coming out to chase anything while I was also not interested in diving into it. I eventually called it when I was tired of looking. Skunk day one. Saturday I went to a new lake that I tried to fish last year but couldn't get down to the water. I should have taken better notes and had a longer memory because it still sucks. The parking lot is ~50' of elevation above the water. That wouldn't be bad if it was a winding path, but its a short path with 5 or 6 steps that due to washout are ~18" high with a steep gravel/dirt path between. This year I had a kayak cart so I loaded up the boat (about 230-250# fully loaded) and wheeled it down. At each step I just lifted the wheels down the step. At the bottom, the state put in a floating kayak launch dock which you could walk out onto from the last step. Unfortunately, it was broken away from the shoreline so it meant a 2' step down on rocks that you then had to lift and drag the boat over. PITA but I eventually got launched and underway. This lake supposedly has a great population of smallmouth, so my plan was to entice some up with a sexy dawg, throw around some crankbaits and chatterbaits, and if I really needed to I could throw some finesse baits. Unfortunately, the water was barely over 50 degrees so that scuppered my plans. I still fished the moving bait route for a while, but then the wind kicked up so I figured at least get a good motor around the lake and see what's going on. Its a 650 acre lake and almost 3 miles from top to bottom so it was a long ride up. In that time, the wind picked up even more and the ride back down got hairy with 25-30 mph sustained gusts and whitecaps pushing from behind. I could have spotlocked in and fought it while fishing, but the cold and wind made it pretty miserable and my dogs needed to get out at home. I made it back to the launch but now had to reverse course. Of course the wind decided it was time to stop and the sun was as intense as ever. After a couple trips unloading every last piece of weight on the boat, I finally muscled it back up the steps to the top. I'm never doing that again, even if I was catching 3lb smallmouth on every other cast with topwaters. At least the view was good and there wasn't much of anyone around. Skunk day two. For Sunday I changed plans from a big, deep windswept lake to a smaller one that's half the distance away. The weather was another cold night and bluebird day, but with less wind. I figured if I was going to get skunked I might as well save some gas getting there. I fished this lake once, late last year when the water was dropping and around the temp its at now. I semi skunked (caught some pickerel and a big crappie but no bass) but I know there are bass in there as there are a couple tournaments there each year (I tried to fish it 3 weeks ago and there was one) and it takes 12-15 lb to win them. The water was surprisingly warm (56 to start) and warmed through the day. Despite that, it was a rough going for the first 4 hours with zero bites and only 2 pickerel follows in the 10'+ clear water. I did manage to see some small bass and a bunch of bluegills cruising the shore though, so as a last resort I did one of my least favorite techniques and pitched docks. I'm still trying to skip with the baitcaster and Sunday just wasn't my day so it was mostly pitching the edges and supports with a bluegill looking swim jig. I figured the high sun and crystal clear water would push a few bass up under the docks where the bluegills were hanging out. Sure enough, I managed to scratch out two 2-2.5 lb bass and a hammer handle pickerel in a 100 yard stretch. Getting the skunk off was enough for me so I called it a day. Today's looking to be a much better day. Overcast and foggy/drizzly all day, zero wind. I'm going to hop up to a local largemouth lake that fished well for me last year. Now that I know where they hang out in the summer (this lake is a big flat bowl, 6' max depth, with no noticeable structural breaks anywhere), I'm going to target those areas now as there must be something pulling them there. Being shallow and after the past two days of sun I'm thinking 56-58 degrees is likely and this overcast might get them chasing a little. thanks rick

Dry Fit the arbor to the blank. Dry fit the seat on top. When you’re happy glue it in place.

here’s the picture I promised. 18” less tankwell and 8” more handle would add up to too much for me.

That was me last weekend. 52-53 degrees, 2’ visibility, overcast. I had a chatterbait, spinnerbait, sexy dawg, and a jig tied on. The chatterbait, sexy dawg, and a red craw OG slim produced.

like the others said. A longer boat of the same design will track better if you’re paddling. If you go a PDL I’m not sure it will matter as much. Storage is a real concern. Here is my rear tank well from today. I travel with not a lot and I wouldn’t want to have to add much.

To answer your question I refer you to you previous statement. You may think you only will take 2-3 rods and a bag of plastics. You might think "I'll just get the little one, it will be enough for me". There is a big difference between the 106 and 120 (let along a straight 10'). If you're going to sit to fish and only bring a smaller bag then I'm sure a 106 is lovely. Since you're alternating with a bassboat, I predict there will be times when those 2-3 rods aren't going to get it done for you. If you're the type that likes to have 5-6-7 rods rigged on the deck, then only having two hanging out of the back of the kayak is going to feel limiting. You're always going to be wanting a bigger boat. So I refer back to the first statement- buy your last one first. I went autopilot 120. I debated the 136. My reasons for not getting it were (1) I didn't want to deal with a bed extender for the truck (or god forbid a trailer!) and (2) I didn't "need" a bigger boat. Having fished ~250 hours in the AP120 now, I'd still struggle with the decision 120 vs 136. I'd probably go 136 since its my only boat. I have no limitations that force me into a 120 (garage space, car topping, tiny arms) so the extra 12" in the front and 6" in the rear well would be bonus space. rick

This is my starting point until the grass gets so bad that throwing either is painful. Once the grass is up, I'm going here. By that point in the year the water is 75+ and the fish are eating topwaters pretty well from sunrise +/- 2 hours. If the grass has hit the surface and a buzzbait can't get through clean enough then we go here. Its a favorite because it covers a lot of water, the fish love it, and i just love a topwater blowup at the crack of daylight. That makes it a favorite for me.

I like that a lot. What body is that?

The very first rod that my dad and I built together (Pac Bay IM6 maroon blank, 9' 4 wt) we used minwax polyurethane. It works great, kinda like a poor man's version of permagloss- same properties except it yellows like none other. The wraps were cherry red, no color preserver, gold trim. So the yellowing from the finish over time didn't matter. I couldn't tell you how it looks now though, it was stolen from the back of my buddy's jeep 20 years ago when he borrowed it. All epoxies will yellow eventually with UV exposure. Its just a fact of life. How long it takes and how yellow it gets are down to the UV protectants in the coating. LS Supreme is a good finish and one I would recommend for a first time rod builder for a couple reasons. Its a good build thickness. Permagloss is watery and (for the look I want) takes 8-10 coats. That's a lot of time and I get bored going over the same guides again and again. Other high build epoxies (I never got along with Flexcote) are too easy to use too much and don't flow well enough for me unless it is 90 degrees in the room (more on that in a minute). My application method is two coats with any epoxy I'm using. The first coat is to fill tunnels, wet the wraps, and have enough build that its all covered, but that I can still feel a little bit of the threads here and there if I run a fingernail over them. The second coat is to put a thin, even coat across the wraps that levels out and makes for the thinnest coat that has no dips or bumps. All of the important functional stuff happens on the first coat. Coat two is aesthetics and protection. Another good thing about LS supreme is the working life. Working life of a mixed pot of epoxy varies with room temperature and epoxy blend. I remember using one epoxy that was great in all facets, except you had about 10 minutes to get it on the wraps before it was starting to thicken. The 30-40 minutes claimed on LS is about right.For a beginner, the more working time you have the more flexibility you have if you make a mistake. Sure, you can always just throw the pot away and start again but in reality you're going to try to fix it and get it done. Lastly, the LS kits have the syringes and for single rod jobs by a beginner a syringe is mandatory. When I was doing lots of rods I would use a clear disposable cup with marks and its fine, but a syringe is more accurate. I would recommend that you use LS Supreme for all of the above reasons. At the end of the day, you're putting on an organic poly urea/urethane/epoxy coating to a certain thickness. It doesn't matter which of the chemistries you're using, the difference in weight between them is negligible. So then use the one that gives you the best chance of success in making a rod for a lifetime. thanks rick