casts_by_fly

The Falcon Cara Heavy cover jig was designed for what you’re looking for. It’s a great rod for that I that is my primary use for it.

Honestly, I’ve found that the bait matters less on ffs compared to the cover. You can see tons of baits on FFS. If you’re casting to specific fish, then a minnow is a good shout. But if you’re just fishing to the cover then the lures you throw into the cover are the right lures. I’ve thrown spinnerbaits and chatterbaits along the grass line (not to active fish) and you can tweak the level they are running based on retrieve speed. If I am looking at a stump or lay down then I can throw a big jig into it and watch it bounce through the branches. If you have active fish, then all bets are off and the bait they eat is the bait.

Pressure on fish is a known issue, whether you are beating the bank or fishing ledges. Both of those things are long known areas to catch fish. Shaking a minnow on livescope is a different set of fish that haven’t been targeted before like they have been the last 5 or so years. So now that lots of people are doing it, the fish start feeling it.

Mine was on the kayak for the first 4 of the 4 years. I stored it inside, but if the boat was in the truck or on the water the scale was exposed.

Interesting. Do you have a link or parts list of how to do it? It is just an ECU swap and pull the restrictor plate (to hit a 20)? That would be a pretty sweet upgrade.

Yes. Pretty sure mine is the 9.9 pro kicker EFI. Long shaft and power tilt. Came with the blade 5 pitch that almost looks like a frisbee it is so flat. Doing break in with it and limited to 2000 RPM on that first hour was a whole 2.5-3 mph. The trolling motor was significantly faster. The nock was the one noted above, but there are quite a few in the north west that are limited as well. Lake Arthur, Wilhelm, Pymatuning, and tamarack all have 20 hp restrictions I think. There are a couple holders with 9.9 restrictions as well. Cross creek in Washington county is part of the Washington county parks system as is Ten Mile park on the Mon river. Cross creek is a 9.9. Lot of the fish commission lakes are electric only also. Size matters a little but Pymatuning is 17k acres and HP limited while conneaut lake down the street is unlimited at 900 acres. The only way to know for sure is to check each lake you plan to fish. My dad is in western PA and runs a 20 hp for the flexibility, but it sure is slow when he wants to fish the river (which is less than a mile from his doorstep).

I use the rapala scale. it came with a hook, but I had a grip that I put on with a split ring. It’s not huge, not small. I’ve not had to replace the batteries in 4 years since i bought it. It is bright enough in the sun, and has a backlight for the dark. It isn’t perfect, but it works just fine and i think it was only $40.

The first part of your description sounds like a battery going bad. When they age and you’re trying to draw more current than it can deliver it will go below the TM cutoff voltage. The last description sounds like a circuit breaker that is getting hot and kicking off. If you’ve tried a new battery and it does it then I’d look for the breaker.

With grubs, keep it simple. All of the action is in the tail. The body should be a robust plastic to stay on the hook after a bunch of fish. That also makes for a tail that won’t get bit off by bluegills. No need for a high salt, soft body plastic. The kalins are good. Zoom for sure are good. Even the BPS grubs (if you’re going to the store) are good and good value. A 3” white twister on a pink or red head accounted for a LOT of fish growing up. Smoke was the other color.

I have and use both of those heads, primarily for crappie but I have no problems throwing them to bass when I need the weights I have them in (1/16 and 1/32). I think you’ll find them similar you what you’re using- generic hook of average quality that is more than enough for bass to 4 lb.

Heavy or medium are power designations. Fast or moderate are actions. A heavy power would be appropriate for heavier cover.

glad you got the motion down. Shame they weren’t eating it. That happens some days. I find that if they aren’t hitting a buzz bait at dark/sunup that it is going to be a bottom say at best, finesse day possibly. Even if they don’t eat it you now have the day diagnosed pretty well. On my lakes if they aren’t eating a BB in the dark they aren’t eating a spinnerbait or bladed jig then either. I’m throwing a rage bug by 630 am at that point as my first pass lure.

this is diagram for a Minn kota but they should all be similar. Part 5 is the external plate that comes off the back. 18 is the seal. Thinking about it, my brushes kit came with a new seal I think. You don’t take 3 or 19 off. 9 is the brushes, 1 is the armature.

the tiny boat nation guys have a lot of experience and videos in that realm. I know they have gone from sheet foam to pour foam, to pool noodles, and back to sheet foam for different usages, boats, and locations within boats. They are typically stripping out a hull and rebuilding it from scratch or nearly scratch. If you are using pour foam, I think the manufacturer has the buoyancy/weight calculations listed on the can.

I'm also having the same issue with the legs. It is fine on a normal cast but if I skip it under something a leg will grab 1 in 5 times or so. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more. I'll keep throwing it but I don't think it is going to be a replacement for my standard buzzbaits.

It is a digital, so it isn't 25 years old, but I'm going to wager at least 10-15, maybe more. I replaced mine in a minn kota. After taking the prop off, it is 2 screws to take the back end of the lower unit off. The armiture slides right out. The brushes are burried underneath that, each connected to a spade connector. It is about a 20 minutes job all in. Mine didn't require any new rings or seals, but if yours are as old as I suspect you might want to just replace them too. The harder part will be the parts. Motorguide isn't making trolling motors anymore and their parts are limited on their website. You'll have to find an aftermarket third party to source the parts (trollingmotorparts.com maybe?). I don't see your model listed there so you'll be best to call them. Their website isn't simple.

I’ll echo AJay above. Drive it like you stole it!

I carry and fish 6-8-10 Sunline FC leader. Normally I will have 6 lb on my lighter rod, 8 on the middle, and 10 on the heavier. All with either 131 or 832 braid and alberto knot. The cover dictates a little (any grass or pads and I fish 10, open water 6 or 8). The lure dictates a little- small and light stuff gets the lighter option for the cover I'm in. A 1/16 ned in open water goes on the 6lb rig. A 1/18 oz ned around grass and pads gets 10. Shaking a minnow in open water is either 6 or 8 most of the time but if I'm throwing a 1/4 oz plus 4" minnow that's going on the bigger rod regardless of the leader on it.

I'd be willing to bet that the 3% is a calculated number from a statistical sampling, not a hard production range of engines so they can't say specific date range 'x' is affected. Having been part of more than a few post launch investigations, what happens is failures in market above and beyond what you'd expect. You investigate and find something in the failures that either is out of spec or causing a complex failure that you didn't anticipate. You know that the root cause is a specific measurement or item, but you don't know which ones have it. In this case, it seems like something the dealer can check and verify so I don't see why you wouldn't take it in for the recall. Either they are going to pass it and you know it is fine or they will fail it and give you something else to drive in the meantime (which means lower miles when you finally do get it back). They aren't going to fail it and then tell you to drive it home. If something happened after they told you to drive it they would be liable.

been there, done that. I usually have a pretty good feel 24 hours out where I'm going and can rig rods safely. But the multispecies day was a good example. I was rigged for dragging rocks and fishing 5-25' deep. Every bass caught was in 2' or less in flooded vegetation. Somehow that 3/4 oz tungsten carolina rig wasn't looking so useful. At the end of the day, rerigging isn't the biggest thing in the world. Bringing a totally different set of rods is though. That day I left my frog rod at home and put in a light crankbait rod. That was a miss. A kayak with limited rods just exascerbates that problem.

It's a hybrid striper- half white bass, half striper. They are state stocked in that lake and a couple others around and don't reproduce. we have full stripers on the ocean side. I don't think we have white bass in NJ. Maybe in the delaware? Next trip to NYC area...

How well does that come through moderate to thicker grass compared to a texas rig? I have to imagine it is worse, but is it fishable?

hi all, I know I'm not the only one who has experienced it, but I'd love to know from the mods or admin why it happens or what in a post will trigger it. I can understand if there are keywords or lots of links that the site software thinks are spam. But more than a few times I've typed out long, informative replies that get flagged for moderator review. And then they just never post. Often the reviewed posts do post after being approved, but some just disappear into the aether. @Glenn- any thoughts you can offer so we can avoid triggering a review? thanks, rick

Funny, yesterday at the dock there was a yound kid who just got a new baitcasting reel and needed some help. I was helping him as best his gear would allow but he had a left retrieve reel. I've considered picking one up just for a couple specific scenarios where I don't want to swap hands. Surely it can't be hard to swap back and forth. I do it with a spinning rod all the time. NO CHANCE! It was so awkard for me to hold the rod/reel in my right hand in the first place and reeling was halfway to impossible. I've also been fishing a different setup the past couple trips to try it out. I picked up a used zillion here and didn't have a rod for it so I grabbed my 7' Bucoo 3/8-1 medium fast to fast action out of the basement. The reel came with 50lb 4 strand powerpro on it. First impressions in the pool were good. I tied on a dirty jigs pro-buzz with a billy goat on the back. It skips like none other and I can get it way back under the trees. The zillion keeps everything in check. The billy goat floats so the whole thing comes up to the surface fast, though I think the floatiness is making the bait roll on its side at times which is a no no for me. However, I can't get over the braid. It doesn't cast as smoothly or as far as mono/fluoro. The constant whine through the guides drives me nuts on a buzzbait. I'm going to have to swap it out for big elite. The rod is fine, but i maintain that the 7'4" heavy cover jig is the ultimate buzzbait rod for me.

The lake was so hot last night that the fish felt like they had come out of the fryer, not the lake.