Tatulatard

It'll be 33 the weekend before and then 49 and 66 on Tuesday and Monday. I suspect you're right about the bite being garbage but I'll make a two day vacation out of it and try to hit up other non trout stocked bodies of water in the area too. I NEED to fish.

Let's say you discovered a 1000 acre lake that stocks trout on Monday and you recently got into the big swimbait game with line through trout, hudds and glides in the 8" range but have been fishing a shad based system. Now is a chance to try a trout based lake. The water temps are going to be upper 30s to low 40s. Do you fish the day of the stocking or do you fish after? Do you wait until much later when water temps are warmer?

That's normal where I live. I kayak in that paddle only. Just part of "being outside".

The idea is that a casting reel will cause the bait to pendulum away from cover rather than sink vertically like a spinning reel. Which has been 100% true thing for a long time. This is due to people smashing down on the spool tension knob and making the bait unable to strip line off the spool. The strong braking effect of spool tension use also can impede the amount of line dispensed on the cast laying on the surface and available for the senko to consume and still remain falling vertical. At some point people began to realize we don't need to smash down on that knob and if set up properly, which is a smidge of side to side play on the spool or just eliminate it at most, and proper casting technique you can send a senko out there on casting gear and have a ton of flouro coiled up on the surface slow sinking to feed that vertical fall be it a normal cast or skip cast. Skipping weightless plastics and getting a vertical fall is my bread and butter presentation. ML, M and MH rods with casting gear. I skip up to those docks and I have seen my bait sitting on the bottom exactly where it stopped on the surface or even slightly behind. I even frequently employ back gliding rigging to sent the bait gliding way back under a dock.

I have one of those coming too. They have a more subtle action in the tail than the 68 special. We'll see if any of my rods can handle it. That's part of the appeal of the 68 special too. My existing big bait rods can handle them no problem.

Depends on the rod. Some can't even handle their rated baits while others can easily exceed them.

I was referring to small braids like under 10 lb.

I just push the thumb bar and line strips off on its own. This is actually one of the things I prefer about baitcast reels vs flipping a bail open. Were you using spool tension?

It's an old issue these reels have. The tatula was the 1st reel to use the flipping style t wing. I'm guessing they couldn't recess the dial into the side plate and offer a cutout to touch the dial like older reels due to having to accommodate the t wing traversing to the non handle side. Their solution appeared to be to move the dial flush with the side plate and then make the very outer edge knurled. You end up with a rough circle sticking out of the side plate vs the old style recessed dial with beveled smooth edges like the old zillion seen here: The issue still persists to this day on the tatula 150/200 and tatula/fuego ct reels because they use the same side plate or even are the same reel as the old 2013 tatula and 2016 tatula ct. Other reels have gotten an update like the catalina tw, old zillion hd and the newest reels use a dial on the bottom of the side plate. This new style dial creates a separate issue for guys casting the reel while in a palming grip as they can bump the dial in the new location when casting. Ironically these were the same people that never had an issue with the old dial because they typically don't palm with 3 fingers in front of the trigger. Daiwa made sure to make a dial just to upset them too.

I won't defend the spinning rod frogging but for skipping an 1/10 oz ned head and plastic under a dock on 10 lb sniper I'll stand by my alphas sv 105 as the proper tool. Egg beaters and 10 lb sniper are no fun. I'm not a line twist enthusiast. I will not tie a swivel to a tree and walk across the yard to the neighbor's bewilderment. I will not troll an imaginary lure behind the boat with the bail open. I will use a shallow spool sv reel on a ml bfs rod purpose built as a shallow cover finesse rod and be happy.

Hey I've done both those things. I actually prefer casting for 1/20 to 1/10 oz head ned rigs because i primarily swim them and like winding on a baitcast reel more than a spinning reel. I'll also skip them under docks and dead with 8-10 lb flouro on another rig and prefer a baitcast for that kind of line. Also the rods are bfs rods and have more backbone than any spinning rod I own. Oh yeah, the biggest bass I have ever seen with my own two eyes came on a strike king grass popping frog my dad threw into scum on spinning rod with 30 lb fireline on an Iowa state park. I had to pull it up and clean the slop off it to discover the biggest bass I have ever seen. No idea on weight but I bet it was double digits.

The really skinny braids will floss between the spool and frame of a BC reel and ice formation is still an issue in super cold weather. I don't think egg beaters are going anywhere.

And so it begins. There is no turning back btw.

Daiwa scandinavia has some as well. A site called waveinn will sell them to you. You gotta like purple though.

Isn't the new style lexa with the t wing a tatula 300? Man, they look the same. I actually recently got an old lexa 300 and like it. It's long but it's solid.

The appeal of the little ones is the small size. I suppose the 70 sv will cast lighter baits better than a tatula sv with the shorter and more narrow spool making it lighter. As far as tatula 300s go, I don't have one but I plan on getting one for a swimbait rod and paying under $200 from AE instead of full sticker like Hank Hill. At nearly $300 it's not a bad buy but would cross ship with other reels at that point.

Tie to the rear hanger and cast it as hard as you can. You will either free the weight xfr or sent it back into the lake from where it came.

Streams or lakes? If you are stream fishing and hiking in a trout stream rod would be great. If you want a longer rod with some power deep deep down then an ajing could be good. I'm not aware of jdm panfish rods so you woukd have to take something from another species line that would fit your use.

How useful an ajing or trout rod is going to be for you will depend on what species you are targeting. A solid carbon tipped UL rod will be great for crappie but struggle to get hooks into a bass unless your really load the rod.

Another thing to consider is species. Something that works well for trout or paper mouth crappie is not going to be the same as a similar power rod designed for bass.

Some people prefer the steez spool. More than one person has sold their zillion spool and put a steez sv spool in their zillion. Just list it honestly for sale here. A used (2nd hand is "used") like new zillion 1000 6.3 with steez sv tw spool. Box and paperwork included. You'll come out ahead of paying the $140 for the spool alone.

Consider ajing rods too if you want a long rod with solid carbon tip and some backbone. You also have normal spinning rod bass lines as well. Finetails = trout. Ajing = micro jigs for salt shore bound fish. Bass rods = bass rods. Also your 1/64 ounce jig head will have the additional weight of a hook and softbait. You might want to invest in a scale and weigh some baits to see what they weigh and what rod is best suited. Just gonna drop off this link to the new day's rods just because. https://www.majorcraft.co.jp/days360/

They are the same design as the alphas 800 without the pinion double support. These are a higher end platform trickling down rather than trying to put lipstick on a tatula ct. And that's a good thing.

It's not real double support unless the pinion itself is inserted into a bearing.

As someone new to swimbaits since last year I have now only recently discovered that crawling a hudd with a wedge tail in coldwater is a thing. This sounds like the 1st swimbait presentation I should try this season targeting big fish off points transitioning from winter to spawning coves. Great. There is one problem. All the 68 special rof 12s are all backordered. As a possible alternative to the 68 special I see there is a savage gear mullet in what I assume is a slow sink 6" and 8" as well as a fast sink 6" only. They are line throughs with hopefully a top hooking option like other SG baits. The fat wedge tail and narrow base of body there the tail is located gives me hope that these may be more willing to thump at slow speeds compared to their pulse tail trout. There is a jig hook pulse tail but it's small and my experience with jig hook SG trout boot tails is that they are nose heavy and will plow into the bottom rather than belly slither. These mullet line throughs look like a decent 68 alternative but there are no reviews? I have an 8" and 6" on the way. Not that I've ever caught a fish on a hudd to compare but I can give some feedback once I fish them.