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?

OK, I was pretty set on the reel, but the rod was still up in the air, I will take a look at the TW clearance rods. I have never used a 13 fishing before , but would be willing to give them a shot. I just got a Tatula cranking rod a couple weeks ago and its a nice rod, so would check out the spinning rod as well possibly. On the Fuego 2500, would you suggest the regular 5 ratio or the 6 speed? Both are the same price

OK, so I found a Fuego at BassPro for $80 , looks likes its just slightly better than the Exceler for the same price, and was considering the 7' St Croix Truimph MF spinning rod for $110. I have 3 Fuego baitcasters and they are great reels , especially when you get them on sale for $80

I only have one spinning rig at the moment , and I love the setup . Its an Abu Garcia Zata spinning combo I got on clearance a while back, basically the price of the combo for less than the reel only. I find that there are times I wish I had another spin rig for light stuff and dont want to retie the Zata. So thinking about getting another . I like to stay in the $200ish range for the combo/pair if possible. If I find another Zata for the same price I would get it, but thought Id try out another brand as well. So Ive been looking at the Daiwa BG 2000/2500 combo, A couple Pflueger combos like the regular President and the Supreme. I dont really see any Shimanos as most of those are more expensive for the middle range models. What do you guys think or suggest for me to consider? I fish large mouth 95% of the time as my inlaws live on Lake Fork

I use the Palomar , and have seen when I do anything wrong on the knot , it will have a pretty bad curly cue going on the end of the line, I didnt see this when it happened, but for sure wont say its not possible. And it was just far enough away that I could not go over the sticks , and he hit very near them so by the time I see him going sideways towards it was too late, I was walking the direction to help with it, but he shot sideways instantly. It is what it is. I would not use the same rod again for using the frog, but I do use it with other top water lures and never had any issues. Oh well, guess its one of those just chalk it up to wasnt meant to be, I will be back and get my revenge, heh.

I have not noticed anything else really that could of caused it with rod and reel so far. These sticks , I dont know what else to call them...its a ring of what I am guessing was some small trees that was around the pond and at some point the pond got bigger and the sticks are left poking up, they are all just small diameter up to maybe a couple inches tops, thats funny on the barbed wire as I joked with my brother who was there with me that the fish put razor blades around the sticks just under the surface...they are typical no branches left simple sticks poking up, not over rough as I have had to get a lure,the choppo to be exact as those hooks seem to grab anything that gets close...and they are not totally rotted, but are not fresh and strong either. This is why it did not make sense how it happened, I would not of thought twice about it if the same thing did not happen the very next day. I mean I have gotten caught on stuff, had to pop and pull at times, some as far as straight back pulling to just break the line and it took effort to make it happen. Again I dont usually fish frogs this way on these rods, but had to do what I had to just so I could fish, you know how it goes sometimes. I just thought maybe somebody would come up with something I was not thinking of on how it could of happened is all.

OK, hope this is the right section to create this post... Over the weekend I fished a forgotten pond on our land that has not been fished for many years. Im gonna give probably more detail than needed just to help save questions asked and hopefully get to the answer faster. I bought a couple new frog lures to try out , Spro Poppers full size... I was using a Daiwa Fuego CT with 15# Berkley Big Game mono as there was no slop at all on the pond, but there are some sticks around one side about 6-8ft in..I tried one for a while and got nothing so decided to try a choppo as it was late in the day and water was pretty smooth, caught a 2.6lb bass probably a dozen casts in. I only had 2 rods this day and had one rigged with my trusty fall back weightless senko. So after no more hits I decide to change back and retie to the frog again. I get a nice one to inhale it right away, start bringing him in and he goes right away for some of the sticks that poke up about 2ft out of the water, the instant the line touched the sticks, the line just snaps. No tangle and snap, not hung up or anything , just sorta went around at a 45 degree angle and snap...I was upset to say the least, this fish was for certain larger than the one I caught on the choppo. Line was a tad rough feeling around the break, but nothing major and it was cut clean, not a knot failure, I know what those look like, as I have experienced them like Im sure many have on occasion... Fast forward to next morning...I had bought a white belly and black frog...so I try the one I had left. And close to the same general location I get another one that just kills the frog right away and the fight is on, start bringing him in and sure as heck, he does the same thing by going at similar, but not the same sticks in the water, same exact thing happens, the line just snaps and Im left holding a rod with the line waving in the wind. I examine the line and its the same, its slightly rough near the cut, its cut clean and not a knot failure. Needless to say, I lost $25 worth of lures and lost 2 decent fish in the process. This is a brand new spool of line I got about a month ago from Amazon, did not appear to be a knockoff or anything like that. I had used it already and caught fish with no issues. If I fish a frog and its got more weeds and such I will use another rod and 65# braid, but went with what I had for this day or I would not of been able to fish.... What can be causing this to happen so easy? Again, this is not a hung up and tug on it and it snaps deal, this is just hitting the sticks swimming side ways and bam..Should I strip the line and replace with something else? Anyways there is my story, any insight would be greatly appreciated.