casts_by_fly

If you're planning to go with livescope in the future, go no smaller than a 9" screen. A 7" doesn't have enough pixels in the screen to give you any sort of range out or down. Even a 9" is pushing.

The lithium batteries used in scooters and small applications are different battery chemistry to LiFePo batteries. And all lithium batteries are Chinese made cells.

I assume you have a section of anchor chain and a long rope? I think the recommended ratio is 7:1 rope length to depth of water.

I plan to hit round valley this year. The freshly submerged vegetation is a lot more interesting than what it was 3 years ago. Did it fish well? I struggle with Merrill. Plenty of big fish and great cover. But I love to fish the two hours before and after sunset/sunrise. And the gate times are not that. So I can’t be bothered to go fish it.

That’s a fun trip! I’ve caught a couple little reds and various surf species but never trout and certainly not a red that big. That’s super fun and always great to catch stuff that you wouldn’t ordinarily get a chance to.

I haven’t fished it yet, so take it for what it is. But in hand it feels good. Not tip heavy. It’s a big rod but it doesn’t feel like it.

I had to use them yesterday. 1-2’ white caps and I had to go quartering into them to get back to the ramp. It was a wet ride but the bibs and jacket were great.

15’ below full pool. If we get the 2.5” of rain forecast over the next week that should pull it up 3-4’ but that’s still not enough for the ramp to be usable. The water line is about 6’ lower than the end of the ramp and then it has to come far enough up the ramp to launch. boat buckles would be nice. They offered them as an option if you ordered new, but this one didn’t have them and I didn’t ask to add them. Two straps are no biggie and I can just throw them in the truck side boxes easily enough. The first year I had my kayak I fished hopatcong a bunch. I’d usually launch around 3-4 am and get a few hours before it got crazy. Even still I’d run the kayak everywhere on the lake. Head on a swivel. This boat will be more than enough to be safe on the lake but at < 7mph that’s a tough go for a lake I don’t actually like to fish. The fish are there but if you don’t like to fish docks or deep weed lines you’re pretty stuffed.

very nice. I actually went to Hopatcong. Spruce run is 17’ low and the ramp is not usable. And with 15+ mph wind I was worried it would be a little wild up on RV. I don’t like hopatcong but all of the other gas motor lakes around are closed to fishing due to trout stocking and even though I wasn’t fishing I wanted the option. So I just went for a nice boat ride in the sunshine. Good suggestions for add ons. The steps are on my possibles list. Yesterday I crawled down over the front and onto the trailer frame. Then hopped into the bed of the truck and stepped over the edge onto the tire to stay out of the water. It worked and I’m young and spry enough to do it. But the steps would prevent the inevitable slipping off the wet trailer that I know is going to happen. I don’t have a motor toter (dealer said not needed with just a 9.9) so I don’t miss the motor mounted tilt switch. It is weird that they don’t put one on. My dad’s 20 has one on the motor. I do need to grab a spare tire though. It didn’t come with one and that’s a no go for me.

not a quest. I thought about it, but I was on the terrova path initially. I ended up with an ultrex because of the cost of live imaging mounts for a terrova. Going to the quest would have been another step up in price.

correct.

Maiden voyage today went well. Finished the first break in of the motor. Now just have 7 more hours of not running wide open for long periods. The gas motor ran like a champ once I primed it. I think I want a new prop though. This one is the pro kicker which is designed for lower speed control. I had to get it because I needed a long shaft but wanted power tilt. This prop is a 10x5 and I was topping out at 6.8 mph when it was calm. always good to have a spare prop also. The ultrex is a machine. It pulls the boat along at 3.5 mph if I need to. Power steering is crazy awesome. My biggest hangup with cable steer motors is resolved. And, with the mini remote I can treat it like I did my kayak and not even use the foot pedal. I don’t have a recessed tray, and I don’t like a front seat so the remote will get some work. The xplore units are nice. The touchscreen is awesome. It’s faster to adjust things than the helix. I need to reread the manual now as there were some things I wanted to change but couldn’t figure out how. The menu system is a bit different to the helix even if the terminology and functions are largely the same. Mega live 2 is better than 1 for sure. I still have a lot of tweaking on it. on the whole, a successful break in trip. It loads onto the trailer easy and pulls like nothing.

grab a lil man in your favorite color and add a bag of rage Ned bugs or Ned craws. They are great in the water. If you’re fishing pressured water they are the skirted jig version of a Ned rig.

just do it. Sniper jig, lil'man jig, and all of the swim jigs. great products and great price. And also a board sponsor.

I've been fishing frogg toggs Pilot series for the past 4 years out of the kayak and have just moved it into the boat. I also wore the jacket for power washing the patio a couple times and a couple other heavy rain events that weren't fishing. Nary a problem. $180 each. https://www.froggtoggs.com/pilot-ii-guide-jacket https://www.froggtoggs.com/pilot-guide-bib

Its not the weed wing but if they still made those I would probably pick one up.

fine. black sand. just enough for the sun to bite on.

when I see a lake like this, I always think that a snowmobile with a big lawn spreader filled with the blackest ash ever is the right answer.

Strike while the iron is hot! I don’t know your storage space, but I was limited to a 20x8’ garage which is about 2-4” shorter than that each way. When I looked at this one in the showroom, on of the guy there had just upsized from the 1600 to the 1700 and had the same sized garage as me. With the 1600 in and the door down, you can slide between the door and the folded tongue. With the 1700 you have to step over the tongue. I considered the 1700 and if they hadn’t had the 1600 floor model cheap I would have gone 1700 for the extra storage hatch. Both would have fit. if you have a bigger garage, the xfc is really nice. I ogled one in the showroom.

Part of the compliance part that allows a person to own an auto inflate and have it uscg approved is that you have to inflate it (manually is fine) and rearm it per the manufacturers spec (mine is annually). So I hear you on restuffing it, but it’s not unachievable.

local stream here in NJ. I’m not making the point that I’m a stellar trout catcher, just that there are times when a spinning rod will outdo a fly rod for functional reasons. and I’m with you on the bigs. When we lived in Yorkshire I had a local chalk stream fed lake that had a great $5 nightly pass. You could throw the usual nymphs and catch fish. Some guys would put an egg fly under a float and just keep drifting it (there was a mild current from the inflow). That was fun sometimes but chucking big streamers is just too much fun.

What made it the most comfortable for you- the power hump, the negligible seat, or the all cork design? You can find most of those attributes individually on rods, but none that are going to be the same. You might have to go custom for it. The Lews KVD has a similar skeleton seat in a factory rod but no hump and it's foam.

I have rods from 5'3" up to 14' in the basement (used to have a 15' but sold it a while ago) and from 2 to 12 wt. I never got good with spey casts and similar, but I can do a pretty solid roll with my 11'9" 7 wt (was my steelhead switch type rod for a while) and it will straight overhead cast a shooting head a mile (by that I mean a full head plus running line). I'll contest your trout assertion though with a 'depends on the stream and the time of year'. My best recent day was 87 trout and at one point I caught 43 or 45 in an hour's time in one spot. It was as fast as I could get it in the water at that point. A fly rod would have struggled to get the right drift and unless you were fishing a 5 wt with 8 lb tippet you wouldn't have been able to land them as fast. You also wouldn't have had any fly line out past the tip so would it really have been fly fishing at that point... That said, a 75' wide freestone stream with a decent amount of water in it is just made for a fly rod.

take one of the hook points and bend it almost 90 degrees out. Now stick it back in the hole. The barb will hold into the plastic of the bait better. Super glue the gash. I've heard a lighter works too from some musky guys but haven't tried it.

I'm a home coffee pot whether I'm working at home, going to the office, or heading to the lake. I go through about a pound of coffee a week, plus we like premade flavorer creamer at another $8 a week. So that's about $13 a week for us in coffee (about $700 a year). Could I buy a couple rod and reel combos for that- sure. I'd also be a much less happy person every other day of the year that I wasn't using those combos.