casts_by_fly

Not dissimilar. I smoked a sweet Jane a couple weeks ago. It was fine. Similar profiles for lightness and sweetness.

retying to throw on a new weight is always my inertial barrier. Two solutions for me. The neko rig for one. Swap weight and bait with a quick change. Two- more rods in the deck all Texas rigged. I had four the other day with 1/8 to 1/2 ounce plus a neko.

I bet it has to do with the processor capability. The Solix and Apex had the same UI and similar processors while the Helix had far less power, hence the xPlore upgrade and Solix discontinuation. I bet going forward they harmonize better on the internals between xplore and apex to make it easier on the engineers up front. this is a good shout. A small bottle brush around the connections plus some dielectric grease is always a good thing to do.

I'd be curious to see this same data from last year's (and 2023's) tournaments as well as if BASS elites did somethign similar but we unfortunately don't have it. Like noted above, my conclusions on this are: - it puts a greater disparity between the haves and have nots in some cases. If you know how to find fish already and are on them, then FFS will allow you to maximize the amount you catch. If you don't know how to find them in the first place and/or don't have a good strategy for the 4 days, then it doesn't matter if you have it or not. - Corrolary- the anglers who are good with it are really good with it. When some guys are doubling their period weights and some guys are catching LESS weight with it, that tells me that the bottom guys are using it to hope and pray. - Venue matters as does time of year. This goes to my wanting the past years' data. This is also pretty obvious without the data and is known to the organizers of both tours given the location choices they made this year. Early season prespawn/late winter fish are particularly susceptible- they are often schooled and/or doing the same things, they are chasing bait and feeding up for the spawn (previously known to happen, but hard to target at times), and the vegetation hasn't grown up yet to hide the fish. Contrast to Harris chain or the Potomac which don't set up great as FFS fisheries (or with currently known FFS techniques). If you fished a northern highland reservoir in early April I'm sure you'd see the same as you do on Conroe, Fork, and the rest- lots of FFS for school chasers and open water roamers. I've seen it on my own lakes in the past but didn't have the ability to capitalize. This spring will be different (didn't have the boat in 24 and couldn't fish spring '25). My opinion as an angler doesn't change- I have it and will continue to have it. Sometimes I just want to beat the bank and I ignore it. Sometimes the fish aren't there or aren't cooperating and I'll go offshore and scope around. Sometimes I want to use it. For me, it is another way to fish and I'll use it situationally. My opinion on it in tournaments mostly doesn't change. I think it should be allowed (fully, not just in 1 period) and I think the organizers should choose the venues and times of year so that in some cases it is in play and in some it isn't. That said, the 1 period in 3 does add an element of strategy and also limits how far the guys who can really use it can get ahead. I'm not opposed to that continuing, not because I think it ruins the fishing but because I think it adds a strategic element that wasn't there before. BASS can't do it since they don't have periods like that of course. Always be skeptical of an AI tool that is drawing information from the internet regardless of topic. I would love to see what the AI tool is saying to contradict the above data given that the data is actual data compiled from official results directly related to the topic. I agree on both counts. Kinda how the big swimbait guys held it in as long as possible until Ben Milliken started sharing videos and the cat was out of the bag. I will be taking some 'nieces' fishing in a couple weeks and using FFS plus live shiners. we'll be looking more for crappie and hybrids but I'm sure bass will be around. I can't imaging a live shiner swimming on its own very near a cruising bass won't get crushed.

This is also what I would do. The helix requires an adapter from the ultrex plug, but the solid shouldn't. He'll just have to take the adapter cable off to plug it in. Interesting. I thought that they could but I'll take your word for it. It would be good to know if they are networked, but if they are independent on the transducers then that helps debug his problems.

The side imaging single side only is a known issue with some units. When that happens, it is because one of the two piezo units in the transducer has gone bad (broken wire internally usually). That means a new transducer. Are the two sets networked together (solix and helix) and what SI transducer is the Helix using (TM built in?)? The lines look like interference. In the first/next to last picture it looke like you were motoring along with all that interference and then let off the trolling motor to take the picture. And there is no interference there. So that tells me the motor is interfering with whatever transducer is generating that image. If you tell me that the two head units are not networked and that the trolling motor is the transducer for the SI and 2D for the Helix then my suspicion is the transducer in the TM is the culprit.

Acid blondie, blue label original. 38x4. It's a smaller cigar to begin with so not a 90 minute commitment. Light flavor, slightly infused, sweet tip. It stays lit, smokes easy. And not expensive.

Depends on the squarebill and how much water you have. A lot of squarebills are 3-5’ divers so if you’re running across the top of submerged grass that is 1’ under the surface it won’t work. You’ll need more of a baby 1 minus or wake crank type bait. Or a rattletrap.

You can be on Okeechobee in 90 minutes, so there's that. And the saltwater...

I have a spool of the Bass pro KVD line that i picked up a coupe years ago, so made in 2021 likely. I found it to be stiff and wiry, even after line and lube was applied. It was 17 lb and it is stiffer than then 20 lb big game I have here which is saying something. It didn't have a nice smooth coating on it either which worried me a little. I fished it for part of a season and got rid of it.

“There he is” if I”m with someone else. I say the same in my head if I”m by myself. Just habit now having done it for 35 years and learned it from my dad directly.

Braided line dates back to at least the 50’s with braided Dacron but I think the modern super line craze largely started in the early to mid 90’s. Fireline was an early one and I remember using it then.

It works best for catching fishermen, but it works on fisherwomen too. Brown/dark green are basically the same. Just a little darker than normal white mono. Supernatural comes in ‘moss green’ which is a dark green almost brown depending on the light. I like it for my moving baits and I also think that the green is a little more slick in the coating than the plain. I don’t think it is coated per se as an added step, but I think the dye they use changes the slickness of the surface just a little.

My father in law's lab was on galliprant. My slovak (12+ now) was on Rimadyl (a similar pain med). Galliprant works fine as does rimadyl. Ask your vet if Librella is appropriate. We swapped our slovak to librella and she is like a new dog. It is a once monthly shot which is annoying, but our vet is 6 minutes away and I can always steal away for an early friday appointment before work. It is a monoclonal antibody that targets the joints. For the first two weeks after the shot she bounces around like a puppy again. By the fourth week it is wearing down but still equal to when she was on rimadyl. it is about the same price per time (I pay 110 a month) but the slight bit of expense and the extra 20 minutes of my time are worth it.

It’s been generally slow here. The neko rig has been saving a lot of skunk trips and it might be my preferred finesse rig now since you can fish it everywhere in any depth with varied weights and it is simple to change anything without rerigging. And, when they hit it you just reel into them to set the hook. Fish it faster or slower. last night was no exception on the slow. People everywhere on the lake- paddling, boating, swimming, fishing. Every third house down the shoreline had a swimmer or fisherperson. My single offshore spot on that lake had a pontoon boat anchored over it with rafts out. After a while everyone just departed and it was me and one other boat. I hopped over to the offshore and picked a quick one on a big worm. I’m still figuring that spot out but I think those fish were moved off from the swimmers. Went into the pads and got a good one (18”, 3#) and then a couple smaller ones. Thought my spinnerbait was done for but it managed to bend back. Couldn’t stay the night which was unfortunate since the full moon was just popping up and I’m sure they were about to turn on. also saw a first. A red ear slider eating a dead eel. Eels come into this lake from the river to spawn but I’ve never seen a dead one. And I’ve never seen a slider eating a dead fish before. Two for one.

Yep. I used to resize everything and had a separate folder on the phone for resized photos. I learned this trick here on BR so I spread the love.

You can do it just fine on iphone. When you click 'choose files' on the BR reply menu it pops up your photo library. select the photos and before hitting 'add' look at the bottom right corner of the screen. There is a two slider button- tap it. Then choose the size of photo you want to upload. Large will usually do it if you haven't edited the photo at all.

Most FF have a demo mode, but they are not default shipped in that mode. The screen will continue to scroll whether you are moving it not. The transducer is constantly pinging the bottom of the lake and showing (on the right of the screen) what it sees. What is scrolling to the left is what it 'saw' a few pings ago. If you're not moving then it's going to show the same thing right to left but it's going to keep scrolling and pinging.

So based on that, you're going to need to put in some legwork. First, figure out what the baitfish are in the lake. You might have done that already. Then figure out where they are now. the various points and draws in the picture have varying steepness and flattening to them so put in the shoe leather (I'd think about an ebike) and start fishing around. It doesn't look like a lake with much tree or aquatic vegetation in the water. For something like that, crankbaits, jigs, topwaters, etc are all in play. Your texas rigged senko is a good choice basically year round for big and small fish. It is a slower way to fish, but will catch fish year round. For me, I'd start with baits that can cover water at a range of depths. A lipless crankbait would be a pretty good shout (there is a thread about them in the tackle section incidentally) as you can make long casts, fish it shallow or deep, draw reaction bites or target active chasers. They catch bit and small bass. If crayfish are in play, a wobble head would be another good water covering tool. A 1/2 oz wobble head with a craw or beaver trailer will fish down to 15-18' reasonably well and you can cover water.

For rigs that have variables like a texas rig, I have my standard 'anchor' options which are my starting points. Then I let the fish tell me what is working that day. Doesn't matter if that's what worked 2 days ago. Or if something worked two days ago it is probably still on my rod so I just start there and adjust.

If you're maintaining the speed limit in the right lane, then he can just go around in the left. Pet peeve caused by a pet peeve are the speedy gonzalez drivers that, when seeing a left lane hog, decide the best course is to move 3 lanes right and then 3 lanes back left trying to get around only to find that they are back in the same place and have just endangered a half dozen other cars. Just have a minute of patience for the slow driver to clear the jam and proceed normally.

welcome to BR. Are you in a boat or on shore?

Yeah, in that case you should be okay. I think big game would be the better mono for that (and there are probably better options as well). But since you have the advance now, go for it. I've fished a little saltwater like you are when I was in the UK. We were dropping 120-180' into the wrecks with 8-16 oz metal with a meat strip on the back looking for cod and lingcod primarily. Sometimes we were using double hook dropper rigs like you're using. We were using heavy mono though, 50-80# for abrasion resistance on the metal wrecks. This is an internet pic, not mine, but we were looking for cod, pollock, and these guys (ling)

Not sure what application and reel type you’re using it on so grain of salt time. I found advance to be stiff and wiry for mono. For me, in fresh water, where I’m using mono I like supple and low memory. Suffix Elite is better in that regard. Sunline supernatural is even better yet. I’m going to guess you’re bottom bouncing with a round reel so elite might be a good shout. It has a pretty decent coating that is slick and has good abrasion resistance. Big game would be a good choice for that application also.

Tonight, for the first time in recent memory I lost a fish due to a less than perfect hook sharpness. it was a spinnerbait (from the mid 90’s actually) that I’ve caught a bunch of fish on lately and hadn’t checked the sharpness. I made a long cast and the fish hit it as soon as it hit the water before I could even click the reel over. I had him most of the way back to the boat and it shook free.