raydomz

Beautiful fish, beautiful landscape!

Not all baits appear on live scope the same. My guess would be either their material content is more easily picked up by live scope, or the behavior of the lure is more applicable to the tool.

Ned rigs and blade baits here in SE MI, but we’ve also been slow to warm. Hoping this past week of warm rain gets things going.

Fishin fool 90% of the time. Easy, reliable, works with any type of line.

I was going to say mine do this and it’s been ok for me, but further digging says it needs oil on the spool. Give that a shot.

I did end up having the extra SDS spool. Shoot me a dm and I’ll get it out to you. It’s a cool bit of kit.

I went with an SDS light spool on my Fuego when I wanted to dip my feet in the bfs water. Here’s some food for thought… I went with the SDS spool called “long cast” or “hyper cast” (something of the sort). It’s bfs but not as crazy fragile as that honeycomb model above. I don’t think those super-lite models offer much beyond looking cool. Maybe there is some supposed benefit where you could throw ultra light lures on them? But here’s the thing - the brakes on your Fuego are going to keep you from ever getting true bfs performance. If you’re sticking to your shakeyhead, you’ll be fine, but if you start to say things like “ooo those karashi’s I keep hearing about sound nice” then look to your spinning rod or a purpose made bfs reel/rod. I think you should try the spool. It will work for your use case. Edit: ill double check tonight - I think I have an extra SDS spool you can try/have.

Nice! This was one of the ones on my list before I decided to go with a Nucanoe (I could try one locally, bonafide, I could not). Let us know how you like it.

I love when a good jig bite happens - even better if you find it out early and never need to switch up gear! I’ve been getting skunked here in MI with the water temps what they are, so even a day full of dinks would be a welcome day to me. Thanks for the report!

I came in to recommend this same rod. I love my Classic BFS more than any other rod because it excels at throwing almost all bfs lures I have. I can take it to the river and fish neds, jigs, throw on a spoon, throw on small jerks, toss a karashi, throw a cicada (my favorite) - all without leaving me feeling like there must be something better out there. I use the 5’8” model the most as the river gets pretty slim in my favorite spots. A longer one is on my buy-list this year.

Good looking brownies! I find this time of year to be the most challenging and I think your assessment of finding what works and working it, vs trying to make work what you want to work, is the best advice you can give. Hell, I’d take your luck over here in MI right now!

Awesome! What river were you guys paddling?

I’ll make sure I bug you lol. And I hope it goes without saying, but I wouldn’t expect to not have to pay for the opportunity.

While I appreciate the attempt to find a novel approach to hiding wire, the cost makes this unapproachable. Curious to hear some initial reports on it though. I could see the clear wire not having enough rigidity and causing the jig/trailer to hit the spinner as they both close in toward eachother on a quicker retrieve.

This is truly the most fun way to fish and I commend your effort!

If you try this, please let me know! I would love to try one out. I have been trying some Japanese flys with bfs gear and so far they are fun, although a bit light even for my SUL rod.

Throwing on regular fly gear I presume? It’s a neat looking fly!

Nice work and beautiful fish! What kind of depths were you fishing?

I would up here in MI. The bass here hammer them on straight retrieves this time of year. Always reliable for pike as well.

I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this after some use. Looks nice!

Sounds to me like you’ve got what you need 👍 There’s always going to be a “better” setup to have or a better line to try or a better this or that. Fishing is fueled by the best marketers in the world. That said, I do tend to agree with everyone else about the flourocarbon on the spinning reel. I wouldn’t run out and buy new line, but know that you are likely to start having issues with it over time. Once I put my kids in the canoe/kayak with me I realized much of the rules I thought applied, aren’t rules at all. My youngest son catches bass with a frog on a medium bait caster with 12lb mono. He also catches em with a buzz bait on a Ned rig rod with 6lb line. 2oz glide on a MH rod? Why not. I spend all this time and money trying to set it all up correctly and he comes in and says “why not this rod?” - and proceeds to catch fish 😁 nothing is impossible, just slightly more suited to this or that.

I’ve been using an older tatula that I have 15lb braid on. I go braid -> stopper -> weight -> swivel, and then about 20-24” of 12lb flouro and the hook. The swivel + leader + hook is what I keep a couple of in my bag.

I need to find the research paper, but when I investigated this last year or the year before, the researcher concluded it was indeed genetic and posited that it could be an adaptation to help them see better in stained/dirty water. The idea being the lighter color surrounding their pupil helped reflect light toward it better. This is not proof - but the rock bass and smallies I catch in local rivers all have red eyes (its consistently stained and/or muddy). The rock bass and smallies I catch in local lakes do not (most always clear to 10ft +.

Wow! What a day, nice work!

Can you explain this to me? Is it rolling all the time or can you take pics with it? Man, I sound old but I swear I’m young-ish.