casts_by_fly

I used to have a 3700 with all the things that I could normally want on a trip anywhere like a set of rage bugs, some paddle tails, a few flukes, a few senkos, a section of spunk shads, and an ‘assorted’ section. That box came on every trip and I refilled it after trips for the things I ran out of (mostly trailers). Then on top I had a couple speed bags that I would throw in depending on the time of year and what I thought might be happening (big worms, other senkos, other packs of what was in the 3700, colors I didn’t have already, etc). When I moved into the boat, I kept the 3700 intact and kept the speedbags but added a bag. Because the boat is bigger of course. Shortly after, I got rid of the speedbags for the hard plastic plano worm folders that @gim suggested 6 months back ($13 at Walmart and they fit a crap ton if that’s important). The speedbags were getting wet in the boat and the plastic boxes are waterproof. I reorganized again based on shape. I’ve had intermediate steps also. What I’ve learned is- most of what we carry isn’t important most of the time. There are a handful of shapes in a handful of colors that are important for where/how you fish. Keep those handy. The rest are all for the edge cases when a green pumpkin something bug doesn’t work but the fish really want a white sparkle trick worm swum over their head. Those edge case lures are the ones that you don’t need a ton of and they can be a little burried in the boat. But when you need them you need them. Once you figure out the things that are important to you, organization becomes easy. If I were starting again and know my lakes the way I know them, I could get by with 6 shapes across 2 or 3 colors in each and be good. (15 packs would be fine). I’d have a few more here or there for variety, but that would be plenty. For the most part, I leave everything in the original packaging now. The 3700 example above was pulling 2-4 of a given color/shape and putting them all together. Now, I leave them all original and just go with it.

Yeah, there is zero chance the fish in that picture is 14#. Pictures are always tough but a couple things stand out. First, he’s long arming it a bit. Second, the mouth isn’t much bigger than his hand/fist. Third, we dont know how tall he is but once he’d bring that fish closer it looks like it would stretch from the base of his neck to above his belt buckle. I’m 5’10” and that distance on me is about 21-22”. Generously you could call that fish a spawned out 24” fish. If you told me it was 8# I’d believe you from that picture. 14? No way.

Hi gents, yes, I’ve extended (and repaired) plenty in my time building so I’m good on that end. I was looking for something without cutting off the ‘butt cap’ which is a hand turned cork/composite cap. If I cut that off and decide I don’t like the rod longer then I either have to fix it or have a rod that isn’t usable. I was hoping to find a solution that was minimal effort to revert back if I don’t like it. Maybe a perfect fit copper tube over the current grip. I did that on a net handle and it works pretty well.

Hi team, Are there any aftermarket rod extensions (or quick and dirty approximations) that would be considered bolt on to an existing rod? I have a 6'6" St Croix Avid crankbait rod that I built a long while ago before I knew what my preferences were in a rod. I built it with only a 6-8" rear grip and while the grip looks great (burl inlays and rings, A grade cork) it's too short. In a pinch I can make it work but I'm a two hand caster and I can only get a finger or two on the bottom on a cast. I'd like to extend it 3" or so and I think it would be a dandy rod. I know I can tear the grip apart and rebuild it. If I decide that I love the rod in extended form I'll do that. But I'd like to fish it a bit with a temporary solution before I commit to ripping it up. Any good temp solutions to extend a rod?

Congrats! Its looking ever the standard of Mariott that we've used for dogs years. I'd love to know which city you're in.

I meant you can. At least once… The extra heavy mounts and trailer are a good chunk of the difference in how much you spent on it. It also makes the difference in loading and unloading for sure. I was just using basic yak attack quick attach mounts which aren’t cheap, but they aren’t a BBT double graph cockpit mount or similar. That’s a really nice setup and certainly helps a bunch with the setup and tear down. Before I settled on buying the boat I was pretty close to rigging up a trailer for the kayak and would have done something similar to you. Alas, i went boat.

Yes and no. Depends on a few things. The weight of the lure and the line you're using are the main thing. Even with zero spool tension (which is what I run) there is still resistance to pull line off the spool- the line itself has some friction with itself, the guides, the water tension, etc. It isn't a ton and you can minimize it in different ways but there is some. And the spool itself has a little albeit minimal. The weight of the lure has a big impact. Throw a 1/8 oz head on a 3" plastic and there is no problem. Throw a 1/20 oz head and a 2" plastic and you'll get a pendulum. Two trips ago I saw it with a 1/15 oz and a 3" ned. On a 50-60' cast you could arc it in like Tom says and get a good 10-15' drop straight down. While it was dropping I could give a little pull on the line to get the spool moving and it would mostly be okay. Get down below 20' and the line drag in the water was more than the weight of the bait and it was penduluming back. That was with skinny 6 lb mono (supernatural). I have seen the same with 832 braid. Sinking braid or fluoro might help and I'll find that out this spring. A heavier head is fine. This was all watched live on FFS as I had a clump of standing timber up on a hump where the edge of the hump dropped from 5' to 35' almost pure vertical. The fish were along the base of the timber, but you'd also get some haning at the bottom of the drop in 30-35'. It was tough to get straight down to the bottom of the drop with a BFS setup (a spinning rod was no problem with an even lighter lure).

I just went kayak to boat. I too had a pretty spec'd out kayak (9" helix and mega live, spotlock motor, etc). Not a dual screen, torqueedo, 20k unit but pretty well spec'd for a non tournament angler. Most of the lakes around me are 300 acres or less, restricted motors (either 10 hp or electric only), and negligible pleasure boats. That all sets up well for a kayak (especially motorized with spotlock) and it fished well for me for 4 seasons. I went kayak because of storage constraints and the fact my wife didn't want a boat sitting in the driveway. I don't think she realized that I could fit a good boat in the garage so she was adament on no boat. I am glad I fished from a kayak. It gives a certain intimacy with the lakes others have noted above. You can slip in and out of skinny/quiet places. I was able to fish basically every lake around and know what's here. I didn't shy away from the couple bigger lakes with pleasure boats. The autopilot could handle all the wakes they could dish out and I'd be mindful about when and where I was at times. At the end of the day, I swapped to a boat for ease and range. The downside of the kayak was that I had to load and unload it every trip. That meant 4-6 rods, tackle bag, fish finder, etc. Not terrible, but I always had to make a choice of what rods were being left behind, what tackle I wanted to carry or not, do I bring rain gear today, etc. Lifting in and out of the truck wasn't great but I'm still young enough to be able to do it. Range and speed on the bigger lakes wasn't great which meant either a preplanned path around the lake or not fishing those lakes when I didn't have enough time to devote to travel (meaning evening quickie trips were limited to other lakes). With the boat, I can go to any of the lakes around and be fishing much faster than with the kayak. Just the loading and unloading gives me back 20 minutes a trip (considering I make a lot of 2-4 hours trips, that's a significant percentage) not to mention travel time on the water. The boat has opened up the couple bigger lakes and I've taken advantage of that. The boat was still 2-3x the money put into the kayak and I'll have more ongoing costs that I ever would have with the kayak. If I could have both I would. I've given up a couple smaller lakes that I can't get the boat in but could with the kayak. They aren't set the world on fire lakes, but they are close and have their merits some times. I'm still happy with the trade though.

<Science mode on for a minute> The most dense water is 39 degrees. Anything warmer or cooler necessarily will 'float'. Of course some water on the bottom that is 40 degrees in a body of water that is 39 degrees isn't going to float to the surface in a chunk- as it would rise in the column it would mix with the colder water and cool. But what that means is that in a static body of water the water is going to try to reach an equilibrium between the soil temp, the water temp, and the air temp. If the soil (lake bed) is warm still because the lake has been 50 (and the soil has a ton of mass) but the water temp has cooled off then the lake will still be warming the water until the water cools off the lake bed. That will make a localized warmth on the bottom (when the water temp stabilizes in the winter, the lake bed is probably the same temp at that point). The same thing happens on winter sunny days when the sun warms the lake bed or rocks- you get a degree or three warming. Early spring warm up- look for the south facing banks with rock and wood that absorb heat. So how does that apply here? To have a hot spot on the bottom, it means there needs to be a spring or some other warming feature to create it. It could be a flowage from a nearby creek that settles there. It could be a sunny spot. Could be vegetation breaking down and releasing heat. Figure out the 'why' and that will guide you to the where. A rock dam in the sunshine will absorb sun and warm the water locally. That slightly warmer water will settle along the rocks and into the crevices keeping a localized warming. Dense wood dock pillars will do the same and slow the mixing. Weeds will do it. Anything that stops the mixing of the warmer water with the colder main lake will do it. Wind blowing warmer water across the surface will heat the wind blown bank a little. And for deadsticking? More power to you. I can't do it when it's 80 degrees, sunny, and I have a beer in my hand let alone in 40 degree feels like 25 in the winter when 1 fish is a good day.

looks good. @Siebert Outdoors- when are you going to offer more colors?

Trout/lake trout.

@Pat Brown- I can't recall if it was an article or video posted here or where (most likely youtube and maybe BFHQ) about a study that was done 'down south' a number of years back. The researchers took a set of 4 basically identical ponds and put fresh from the hatchery bass in them. The left two ponds alone at first and fished the first two (call it 1 and 2 for sake of argument) with the exact same bait for the same amount of time (I think it was a senko). Both had extraordinary catch rates at first. Then over time the bass got used to the bait and rates dropped. They kept fishing rates the same but in pond #2 they changed the color of the bait. There was an immediate bump in rates (not as high as the initial) which then dropped down the same as the initial color did. Pond #1 rate stayed low. They then introduced some of the bass from ponds 1 and 2 into 3 and 4. Remember 3 and 4 were identical to 1 and 2 initially so you'd expect the catch rates to be similar to the initial rates. But what they found were much lower rates, more in line with the 'conditioned bass' from 1/2. The conclusion was that the conditioned bass from 1/2 deterred the bass in 3/4 from hitting in some way. It was a pretty well done study and I'd love to see the published/reviewed paper for it. It clearly showed that bass can be conditioned by seeing baits, that changing baits helps for a while, and that bass can learn and likely teach others.

You also asked for big fish stories. Nothing crazy, but the first real trip out with the current iteration (Cara BFS 7’2”, shimano aldebaran, straight mono) ended up with a bunch of smallies and the biggest was just a hair under 20”. And the last trip out using it (seeing if it would be a good small jerkbait rod) finished up with a pickerel bigger than the first smallie.

My experience is mixed. I hated spinning rods for bass. Fished them all the time for trout and salmon but hated them for bass. I had a couple for bass but they weren’t great. Simultaneously I picked up an entry bfs setup and a good spinning rod. I’d fish both with similar lures but the spinning rod was just better at it. I liked the casting rod though so i upgraded the bfs setup while also adding another spinning rod. My plan for the bfs setup was light bottom contact (Ned and light Texas rigs) and it’s great for that. I have used it for some other stuff as well. I settled on 6-8lb supernatural mono for now as braid wasn’t doing it for me. With a 1/16 head plus 2” soft plastic I can pitch with it just like my jig rod. That was great for targeting bass on beds with small plastics earlier this year. At the same time, I’ve lost my distaste for spinning rods (good gear will do that for you) and I think a spinning rod is a better choice in a lot of ways. Accurate casting and fluoro mainline- bfs shines. Otherwise? I think I like a spinning rod better.

I just got a pair of prescription sunglasses this year for the first time (I've always worn contacts and regular sunglasses in the past) and they are raybans. They are another luxotica brand so if you're off them then ignore this but they are fantastic for clarity. Mine are glass and have the Chromance lens with a mirror front and beige/green kinda of lens color. They are a little heavy but the lens is what has kept me on them. I have a pair of older raybans that I bought in the UK 8 years ago and I've been nursing them. Also chromance/amber and they are my primary fishing glasses. I can't get them here or I would get another pair. I broke them 3 years ago (they were dangling around my neck int he early morning and a hookset took them out) but I was able to get a new bridge and fix them. I think the next break is the end. I'm also a big maui jim fan. I forget the model but the lenses are also great. That said, you can get knock off MJs on Amazon for $20 a pair. They are basically as good and you can have a couple pairs stashed around for the price. Just a thought since you wear them so much. Of course not in prescription.

When I first started fishing the pretty clear and pretty pressured waters here in NJ I thought for sure that natural colors were the only way I was going to get bit. Clear/smoke/translucent skirts on moving baits, pale colors on soft baits, etc. And then bass started eating all white or chartreuse and white spinnerbaits, black and blue everythings, and plenty of other things that you'd say aren't the right choice for super clear water. BTW, they also eat the more subtle stuff too. So if they like black and blue in your lake then fish it. specific in this case- a A rig- the cost is in the rig and the jigheads. Swapping plastics between black and blue and all white takes all of 2 minutes to rethread a couple plastics. It doesn't hurt to try and if it doesn't work swap over.

nice. It's that time when any fish is a bonus so that sounds like a pretty decent day out to me.

@TOXIC- I get you. the first is basically my Ned head (bass union) for lighter weeds. The second is another Ned head (I have them in that head type and with a football head with weed guard) that I’ll fish around rock plus a little wood or docks. Neither is coming through heavier weeds as well as other options. I’ll give the shakies a try on the rock lakes and probably stick to the other choices on the weed lakes.

Volunteer to lead the church’s water quality and habitat commission and offer to test and monitor her water also. Just to be sure it’s safe for all the boating and skiing they will undoubtably be doing.

Lightly weighted hook, Texas rigged. Fish it like an underwater walking bait in the top 12” of the column. Great when there is grass growing up but not yet to the surface. Work it fairly quick until you hit a hole in the grass and just kill it.

@TOXIC - I picked up some buckeye heads and rigged them Texas rigged so the hook was perfectly fine. The head was a flat bottom so I’m sure that doesn’t help but even still getting it through weeds wasn’t happening. And throwing spinning rod level line into the heavier stuff doesn’t bode well for getting them back out in some places. There are some screw lock shaky heads with pointy noses that would be better, but at that point I don’t see the benefit of having another rigging option to carry when a Texas rig or Ned head would do the same in that situation. Not saying I can’t be convinced, but I’m just not seeing it for me yet. Now on the 2 rocky lakes around here, I need to do a better job with them.

You shaky head guys must all have hard bottom lakes with no grass. Being away from bas fishing for a while there were a few techniques that got popular from 2005-2020 that I had to get acquainted with when i picked it back up again. A shaky was one. I picked up a pack or two of heads and there is no chance i could get them through the grass in lots of my lakes. I can completely see it for grass less lakes, but not in grass.

I’ve had a few more since this last post and am working through one now (winter sucks if you don’t smoke in the house). Currently working through a Le Bijou petit robusto. It’s a little big and heavy. I can see why it was award winning because it is consistent and smooth. The flavors are just a little more than I want. I’m not good enough to describe cigar flavors yet but I can describe characteristics. It is dry. I’d call it cedar but it’s a burnt heavy cedar. It’s rich and dark The reviews say creamy coffee and that might be true for the first couple puffs. But it gets heavier after that. The last third gets a bit linear and ashy. It’s good for sure, but not good for me. The flor de las Antillas was pretty good. it was a super easy draw (like the le bijou) and it had a spicy profile. Great burn. Still not as good as the padrons, but still nice. The padron series across the board has been my favorite. Bigger question- what do you guys do in the winter to smoke? I can’t smoke in the house or the truck. The garage is a maybe but I’d have to have the door open and it’s COLD! Tonight there is no wind so I’m out back under a heater but my legs are still pretty cold.

Stay safe @Glenn! What bit of Washington are you in? We drove from Seattle to the border islands last year and that looks like the area being hammered right now. I remember what it looks like and I can’t imagine what that many inches of rain would do to that area. The streams and are are all wide and flat so the flooding has to be extensive.

And you can't wait until it's gone! Here's to hoping you are off by a month in your prediction and you're wet in March. We'll see how NJ goes but if it's mild enough I'm hoping to get on the water at least once a month somehow.