casts_by_fly

Use the lightest guides and tip top as possible, at least in the running guides. And use the lightest blank possible. You can move the seat up, but as you found there are limits. And the rear butt can only be so long before it starts snagging in clothes or other.

As is 832 and pex8.

I’m a reader- I read web pages. The last actual book (or ebook) I read was the last Harry Potter I think.

thanks ajay, that's clear. We did a similar routine for a while when we were in the UK. No processed foods, no alcohol, no added sugars or refined sugars, leaner proteins, etc. For a long time we tracked calories and macros, but that was to understand portions and quality of food since we had never done it before. Once we got a good feel for what a real portion looks like (a normal UK portion or a 'half' US portion) we stopped tracking. The goal of that program was to understand how each of our bodies reacted, what worked well and what didn't, etc. I learned that heavy dairy (heavy cream, big creamy sauces, the richest cheeses) is no good for me. Any cream plus white pasta isn't good either. White flour plus fats generally is bloating so I minimize those and for that matter minimize pasta/bread anyway (my carbs are potatoes and rice primarily). The more important thing that we took out of that session is 'make good choices'. Like you said, it's all straightforward but if it was easy everyone would do it. What I've learned for me is that I can't do a rigid program the same as you are- I need flexibility to make other choices at times. We might go to an italian restaurant and if the gnocchi comes with a fantastic sauce then I'm maybe going to get that. Not all the time and it's more the exception but if that's what I really want I'm not going to skip it. Same with alcohol- we love wine and cocktails and it would be a major life choice to give it all up. I understand the implications, so we make choices to limit those. That said, doing a full month 'detox' of the things that aren't good to us is a big help. And doing it this way is something we can stick to.

I quick scrolled through the last 10 pages or so but didn’t see any note of it. What is your nutrition regime to go with the workouts? In my experience, nutrition is 70% of the puzzle for maintaining healthy weight. I’m doing ~1500-1800 calories of workouts a week most weeks (mix of strength, HIIT, and other) but I know that with my food and alcohol intake I am treading water right now. After the holidays I’m going to tighten back up and I’m pretty confident of the results but I’m curious what you’ve managed to stick to for 25 years or whatever it was when you started it.

Nice. Did you power it up before you mount it up? Just in case.

Yeah, I think you got there. 10% off means you’re paying 90% of the price. If it is 20% off it means you’re paying 80% of the price. 80% of 90% is 72%. That’s 28% you’re not paying. and it just dropped today. My order will be incoming. I might end up with two- one to top up things now and another bigger one for the spring sale.

Good on cosmo. No matter how old they get or tired their bodies are, they never stop until you make them stop. also, good shooting to you. But mostly good dog cosmo.

I seem to recall pat brown talking about this in another thread and that NC where he is normally fishes in the winter but they were getting ice last year. I can tell you that NJ is certainly north of the line most years, but a mild winter with some sun and wind will keep the lakes open. So far 2/5 have been semi-open water winters since we’ve lived here.

I bounce across a few. I've always fished and hunted in some form over the past 35-40 years regardless of where I was living, what the target species were, or what the method to get them was. I have a personality where I need constant new things so picking a new fish (trout, salmon, bass, carp, greyling) or gear (fly, conventional, float, etc) has kept me pretty content over the years. I'm also a strong introvert so I need that time to myself in the quiet that only being on the water or hanging in a tree can provide. That said, you can't always do either of those all the time so wine/spirits/cocktails/food have held my interest for a while now and my wife shares in all of those. We scuba dive, but only on vacation (not locally) so that takes an amount of mental energy when we're not doing it as well as time when we are doing it. I also used to do photography which I combined with fishing, hunting, and scuba diving. Lately I've added cigars into the mix as something to learn about and pass a little time with friends.

Hi all, Oh, you thought I was going to write one? Sorry- not trained for that request. This is actually a request to the board. We have so many great informative threads on BR and I'd like another. I'm really curious about muskies. I have them in some of the lakes around me and lots of guys fish for them (trolling, casting, hardbaits, soft baits, flies). I catch a couple incidentally every year on bass lures, but not the bigs. Given the success that @T-Billy has had this year and the experience that he and others here on the board have ( @Further North, @gim, etc), I'd love to know about musky behavior through the year, where to look for them, what they eat (in nature and on a line), etc. For instance, with bass we have a pretty decent idea where they are through the year whether it is winter, prespawn/spawn, post spawn, etc. They relate to structure and cover in certain ways. Depending on the time of year you can have a pretty good idea of the depth range to find fish. What about muskies? How do they relate to cover/structure through the year? Are they cruisers or sit tight fish? Bottom focused or high in the column? I have no gear or inclination to chase them here. I just really curious about all of the above and thought others might be too. thanks, rick

abrasion. I have it on two casting rods for that purpose, otherwise I run mono for almost all casting rods. On braid to leader, because it sinks and also abrasion resistance.

@Glenn- send it over here. We are feet low on rain accumulation over the past 12 months. One lake is 25' low. The one I fished sunday is 10+' low. The ground is dry (I don't hate that for the dog yard). The air is dry (20-25% humidity). It is almost like a desert here with nothing on the horizon. And I know you will, but stay safe.

pertinent to Glenn's reminder about the 12-days sale- this is your best chance at the biggest discount combo of the year! One of the days is usually a 10% off gift cards. Buy them for yourself for next spring. Then in the spring TW usually does a 20% sitewide sale. Use giftcards to pay for sale items. Effective discount is 28% off on basically everything they sell. Some discounts are higher. For things that are rarely on sale, 20% off is pretty good but an added 8% is even better.

1- he's not wrong 2- I'll keep my waterproofing. 3- this affects basically no one. I think I'll just stick to the workhorse stradic in the medium body size that fits any spinning rod I'll every use for bass. Then I have a set of interchangable spools and parts should there ever be a need. @bulldog1935- do you know of an inexpensive/good value replacement spool for the FL/FM stradics besides factory spools?

And they're better than ever...

Thanks team! You can't win if you don't play. And being out on the water was better than sitting on the touch drinking a beer (or four) and watching football. Maybe without the heated vest I may have had a different opinion, but I had it so that's that. Heated pants next time at this weather. @Gonefishing0410- last winter was tough. I fished into september and hunted september into December but right around Christmas we had a combo of snow/rain/ice/frigid that put 4" of iced over slush on the ground. I normally would hunt up to Valentines day and then we get ice out 2-4 weeks later so just enough time to service reels, organize tackle, etc. Last year it was a solid 10 weeks of nothing and I was getting seriously stir crazy. I'd never had it before like that and afterwards it showed me just how much I need to get out.

I know how to get them to Mexico. Just for the cost of one flight from Newark to wherever you are…. Of course it would cost me even more than that with the bait monkey and all…

@Jig Man - it had been in the teens during the week until Friday afternoon. It was only 40 or so air temps and light wind, with no sun. But I had a heated vest under a hoodie under a jacket and over thermals so I was pretty okay. Sitting behind the wheel it almost felt like a heated seat. @Bird I had that thought about the reels today. We’ll see how the week plays out and if I can get another day before Christmas, but that’s unlikely. If that’s the case I’ll probably pull them and get the process started. There are a lot to go after. Same with the outboard.

in a recent post, Katy said she liked reading all the reports, not just the successful ones so... The good: I made it home safely, nothing broke, nothing was lost. The bad: The rest of it. It's getting cold here but since I'm not hunting I decided I was fishing as many times as I could. The ponds are all frozen over here from the cold spell last week, but keeping an eye on the USGS gauge on one of the bigger lakes said 42 degrees. I could live with that, so I packed it up for the big lake across the street. The forecast was frigid on Thursday and Friday with Sat and Sun looking almost identical so I decided on Sunday to give it an extra day to hopefully not have shore ice when I got there. I even waited to leave the house until 11 and much to my surprise not only was there no shore ice but the lake was 46 degrees! I thought for sure I was in for a decent one. 5 hours to play with, fish in their winter patterns. There were a handful of boats on the lake but they weren't bass fishing. Basically the place all to myself for what I wanted to do. I just needed to find the baitfish. Crank up the fish finder and start moving. At 6 mph and a 150' range either side I can cover a decent amount of territory. Start with the high probability transition spots (points and ledges). Put the boat in 40' of water and see almost to shore on one side and out to ~60 FOW on the other. Anything out of the ordinary, drop FFS into the water and check it out. NADA. I rode around for 2 hours and covered over 10 linear miles. I did a lap of the lake with my 40' methodology and then made a couple crisscrosses over much deeper water looking for anything at all. I came in closer to standing timber thinking maybe they all holed up there. I ran along the dam with its big chunk rock areas in case they were looking for warmth from the sun. I stayed out of the wind, I scanned the windblown side. I watched the other boats to see what areas and depths they were fishing to see where other life might be. I found exactly one fish through all of it and that was strictly luck. I was out in 90 FOW and thought I saw a bait ball way out on the end of the range of my FF so I hung a quick turn and dropped the TM in the water. There was no bait, but there was a random fish in 25' over 90'. I grabbed the big jighead minnow and it chased a couple times, but never comitted. That was also right after the wind picked up (not forecasted) to 7-9 mph and I was a mile down reach of it on the lake taking the worst of it. I still had 2 hours of daylight left, but after all that I was done. All I got out of it was a bunch of waypoints for future use (isolate rock piles on an otherwise dirt bottom), some cool pictures of the old house foundations, fences, and road that used to be there, and a crossbow bolt from someone who presumably missed. The Ugly: It's going down to 8 tonight and not cracking 32 for a couple days. The water temp is going to start dropping and I'm out of days to get out. So that December bass is going to have to wait for next year I think.

@Bazoo- JDM is japanese domestic market like smirak just noted. It means buying from outfits in Japan to take advantage of the exchange rate and differences in line pricing. For example, a JDM Daiwa zillion is $230 with free shipping. Tarrifs look like 10% right now, so $255 all in let's call it. The same reel from TW or any american outfit is $399. In some cases there are differences in the products and in some there aren't. Pertinent to the question here, he could get a JDM Steez limited CT SV TW pretty close to that $500 mark, though I don't know what that gets over the zillion or if its worth it.

@A-Jay - I keep meaning to ask- what is the rosetta stone for your colors?

If you're willing to go JDM on reels but not on rods, then you'll get more for your money by buying the JDM reel. That said, for a generalist reel the metaniums and zillions are so good that I don't see any point spending more there. I'd be very tempted by a poison adrena. I have two in spinning form and they are excellent. If I wasn't totally sorted and set on falcon I might consider one in a casting rod.

sounds like the perfect place to have a generator on hand. also sounds like a pretty perfect place to live.

Goal number one is to get out more. I didn't do a bad job of that in 2025 and was better than 2024, but not nearly what 2023 was. Some of that in 2025 was due to going to the gym more (3 evenings a week) so I can't say it was a bad reason why I didn't go more. I just need to get a few more days on the water, especially in prime time (mid april to mid may). Goal two is either a PB or a 20 lb bag. I don't care if it is smallies, largemouth, mixed, etc. I've had a couple days this year that approached 20#, but didn't tip over it this year. Last year and the year before yes. I've lost a couple fish locally (not this year) that would have been PBs so they are around. And having the boat to open up a couple places more readily should help too. And being out in prime time will help. Goal 3 is to fish with my dad more. I usually get 1-2 trips out and I'd like to try to get an extra 1-2 in there. Goal 4 is my usual goal of adding one new waterbody that I either haven't fished or haven't really fished (much or lately) and then to fish one of my known lakes and really get to know it. I added one this year (and also got to know it pretty well) and I think that will be the one to really get to know through the seasons now. I have to pick a 'new' to me one for next year. Lurewise- get better with jerkbaits. I think I have my rod choice sorted out now after some trial and error that means I don't need a new one. Fish a jig more- I know they catch fish and big ones. I just have moved to plastics more. Refine my lure boxes a little better, take out the things I'll never fish. @bigbearstroop122- if you want some in person help with the helix just ping me. I had a 7 and then a 9 for a couple years on my kayak and had them pretty well dialed in.