FishNTexan

I gave these hooks a shot a week or so ago. I sometimes do wish I had just a tiny bit of weight to keep it under the surface when trying to go faster.... They might be great hooks for those in more open water. But fishing these in pretty thick grass/vegetation, they just got all jacked up and had to be cleaned every single cast having that swivel on there, plus half the retrieve was wasted because it was all gunked up so bad. So I can see they might work for some, but here at Fork when the grass is full up, it was a no go for me. Back to regular EWG hooks for me and just deal with the occasional popping out of the water when I fish it too fast.

Thanks for all the replies , it stinks you cant find Ray's or Roro spools anymore. I would consider trying the SDS , that was sort of the point, to look for a cheap option that if it did not work I was not out too much time nor cash. And if it turns out I like it , I could go down that path further and drop more money to get quality gear. I was eying the Daiwa BF70 Tatula and the Daiwa PX BF70, but thought I cant justify spending $300 on a reel I might hate or never use for this sole purpose.

I was thinking about trying BFS , but the only fishing i do that is even close to finesse is a shaky head. Some might not even claim a 1/8 shaky head is worthy of the BFS label. Its the only reason I have one spin rod on my deck. I thought that of all the finesse type things to fish, the shaky head would be the easiest and seem natural to try on baitcasting gear. Since I do not use anything else I dont need to go crazy spending money trying to swap to BFS. So I had a spare Daiwa Fuego CT sitting around and figured Id look for a way to possibly convert it to do shaky head duty and not take a spin rod. I have searched and read several threads and comments on a couple possibilities, but the issue is most are a couple/few years old and I cant find the items that were brought up. A couple big ones I saw were Ray's Studio and Roro. Unfortunately , I do not see those spools in stock anywhere on the web. So figured I would ask you guys for some alternate places or brands to consider. If you think that at the weight I fish a shaky at most times could be accomplished with another spool type I would listen to that advice as well. I just want to be able to throw a 1/8 with a small trick worm/roboworm far enough with a bit more control than a spin rig.

Ya searching for that online doesnt get much...Id look up the new sniper rods and find the one with the same specs as your grinder and it states on their site what it should be used for. Probably about as good as you are gonna get.

Booyah Counter Strike is probably what you were using, I have a couple and they are good cheap spinners that produce.

Its interesting that most people just like their own waters so much and not many prefer another body of water. I happen to live on Lake Fork, not much needs to be said on this lake. The potential to catch a really nice fish is pretty high, from pretty much anywhere on the lake. Id say the average fish caught is 4 to 5lbs. Most any other lake I fish 2lbs is probably the typical size. The biggest con of Fork is how pressured it is. Id bet its one of if not the most pressured waters in the country. Some weekends I plan to go do my thing and find out there is yet another tournament happening. Some times its straight up not worth getting out, some tournaments can bring in 2000 boats. I have watched boats queue up and wait in line to fish the row of docks along my shoreline 7 or 8 boats deep. It amazes me they will sit and wait and try a dock that was literally just picked dry by 6 boats right in front of them. I am on the less preferred side of the lake , so that helps. Most people stay on the east side. It is nice to be able to sneak down at lunch time or end of the day after work in the middle of the week for a couple hours. So Id rate it at a 4.5 for the sole reason of being so popular, otherwise it would be a 5 all day.

My home lake is Fork and I can tell you that the shallows on my side of the lake, has been taken over by catfish , the gar are always thick in the shallows as well. But you cant catch a bass right now in my usual spots, oddly enough...sandbass also have taken over. I have never caught sandbass touchin the bank like a LM bass, but I have caught 2 in the last week. Then I will catch a couple catfish, Im talking spinner bait, crank, swimbait...I will get a catfish and no bass..when the bass were spawning it was constant LM bass catches. I have been present for the shad spawn 4 days in a row, not a single LM bass, nothing but sandbass and catfish. I suspect the bass have moved to secondary points at least. But also just heard that another round of spawning bass has been noticed. Its pretty frustrating to slay them for a few days, then all the sudden the next few days its like the bass were pushed someplace else and there is nothing but catfish.

I actually really got into shaky head fishing at the end of last year. I was sorta forced to as my only access for fishing was a handful of boat docks along the bank. I started with casting gear and 1/4 shaky head. It worked, but never great. I swapped over to a spin rig and went to a 1/8 shaky head and it changed everything. I got hung up less from the lighter weight and I was able to get the bait into the spots i wanted easier. So I will say it depends on how deep you will be fishing and what kind of structure or whatever you will be fishing around and in. Like I said, if its more open and you dont need to really throw the bait far or you want to fish deeper, then you can get away with casting gear and a little bit heavier shaky head. Otherwise I would go spin and light as you can get away with. A lighter spin rig will also be much more sensitive. I had to really watch the rod tip with the casting gear as it just wasnt as sensitive for the light bites you get on a shaky head. Its always a very slight tick tick and then usually the line will start moving.

I would of for sure gone this route if I had seen this earlier. But I am happy with the deal I got. I just got the network cable and about to get the mounts so I can get these installed asap, its fishing time already so I need to get this done.

I saw Bass Pro had that deal, but they do not have any in stock and wont get anymore, that model is discontinued. If you have a link to another vendor that has that price and in stock id probably go that route.

Thanks for all the replies. I found a new 73sv screen only on Amazon for $579, this should fix me up.

I get how to connect them, I just meant finding just a screen at a decent price. If you did connect a 7cv , will it show everything like side view correctly? or does the CV only mean the transducer that comes with the CV screen and not the screen itself. If this is the case, this is probably the best answer. I can just put the 7 on the console instead and the 9 up front.

So I have a brand new 93sv UHD with transducer that was gifted to me still in the box. I have a new to me boat I want to put this on, but I want a screen added up front as well. I will not be adding live scope to this boat as its sort of just to hold me over till other things taking priority are done and I can get my boat I really want in a couple years, What is the cheapest screen only you can get that can be connected to the one I have? I assume you cant connect a 7cv to a 9sv, they seem to be the lowest cost I have seen so far, its kinda hard to just find screen only and most are the same price as with a transducer.

Sorry for the long pause, I had a plumbing issue pop up over the weekend... Thanks for the replies so far The Curado is a 7.4 and the Tatula is a 8.1. I guess I bought the Tatula for this use as its the only 8 speed I have.

I just got a new frog rod. Daiwa Tatula 7' 4" Heavy frog rod I have a Daiwa Tatula 100 and a Shimano Curado 200HG wanting a new rod to call home, which of these 2 would you pick for a frog/flippin rig?