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icehewk posted:There's a fly fishing blog I follow that fishes fairly close to me here in Wisconsin. Here's a story he posted this morning. The site is down at the moment so not sure what's going on there. According to google search's cache of his blog he decided to close it down for some reason. He'll be updating at http://blogs.wisconsinoutdoorfun.com/blogs/wof/wofharrisblog/ but "at a very reduced pace"
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May 11, 2012 19:16
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Drunkboxer posted:I have a dream of mounting a 4 foot gar and putting a bottle opener in it's mouth. From what you guys are saying this would cost approximately infinity dollars? Hahahaha, I like the idea though.
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May 16, 2012 23:01
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EnsignVix posted:Any pointers on using top-water frog lures in very patchy still water? I started using one and I get a TON of interest but I can never seem to hook up. Almost all the strikes seem to occur shortly after my lure hits the water, a few are while I'm reeling slowly but mostly it is on splashdown. I've found frog fishing to be pretty tough, I've had a lot of missed strikes but here's some tricks I've found: I use an Spro Bronzeye like this  One of the first things I recommend doing is cutting about half an inch off those skirt legs if yours are similar in style and length. I've noticed that helped since they wouldn't start their strike so far behind the lure. I reel it in pretty fast with a walk-the-dog zig zag motion. For hook setting I generally try to wait until the lure is either completely under or I just can't plain see it at all in the splash. I miss strikes still and I think it's just the nature of the game with such weedless designs but I'm starting to hook them more than I used to, at least.
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Aug 8, 2012 17:03
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Yeah I'll have to give the waiting thing a try myself. It's hard though because seeing a good top water strike gets me all hyped up. 
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Aug 8, 2012 23:20
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So with all the lures I've been caught up with trying this season it seems I kept overlooking the simple plastic worm. A guy at the boat launch passed me a pack after having a great day and I had a rather blah day despite fishing in the same area. The first time I went out with them (zoom finesse worms/watermelon seed) I caught 22 largemouth in about 4 hours by texas rigging them with a 2/0 gamakatsu hook and fishing along hydrilla/milfoil mats and some sunken lumber. Granted they were smaller fish, maybe a pound to a pound and a half and only one or two longer than 14 inches but they were still quite fun to pull in. Since then I've mostly been fishing with the finesse worms and occasionally a bone spook and regularly pull in 10 or more a trip, mostly on the worms but I get hits on the spook when they're feeling really rowdy. So remember that when you feel lure-crazy. I bought quite a few this year but in the end a $5 pack of 20 finesse worms produced the most fun. I'll try not to forget about them again.
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Oct 3, 2012 09:01
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Dik Hz posted:Fourth quater bonus: 7'6 4wt glass rod Good luck! Never been fly fishing but I imagine it's a blast.  The other day I finally hooked my first bass of 2013 right before I trailered my boat. Been slow going bite wise on Guntersville for awhile now but it should start picking up here before long as the water warms up and the whole spawn activity stuff kicks in. My birthday was in January and I decided to splurge and picked up a Lew's Tournament Pro reel. Now I can only compare it to my old $30 Pflueger Monarch but it blows that away and so far it has been an awesome and super smooth reel. So smooth that you really don't feel the gears at all when reeling or fighting a fish. I've heard a few people complain about the lack of feeling that but I personally like it. It's quite light and it casts lipless crankbaits a mile. The main draw for me is the fact that I can actually cast into the wind now and not get brutal backlash which is a big deal on Guntersville! Something I learned after I bought mine of course, that might be of help to folks in this thread looking at reels: Tackle Warehouse offers a "demo reel" program. I guess you can pay for shipping (and depending on your order history with the store, a deposit) and demo a reel for a week. Seems like a cool way to try it out on the water before buying. PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 16:03 on Feb 12, 2013 |
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Feb 12, 2013 16:01
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Well it took 25 years (I was 7 and caught a 5lb even bass on a snoopy pole..) but I finally set a new personal best. 22" and weighed in at 5 1/2 lbs. I was actually crappie fishing but brought my bass rod just in case. The crappie weren't biting so I picked that rod up and cast between two docks. About halfway back to the boat this one just slammed my lure. I was surprised to see it was bedding already so I just took a quick pic, weighed it and released back where I caught'em as quick I could. Of course my celebration was short lived since the guy I borrowed the scale from told me a 12lb'er was caught two days ago just up the way from where I was. In small worldness, I found a photo of it: edit: better picture, also he confirmed that he released it. 12.14lbs.  the release  
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 05:39 on Feb 26, 2013 |
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Feb 24, 2013 19:52
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KiddieGrinder posted:Question for anyone: I realize this is from awhile back but I just saw this gif and thought of your post. 
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Mar 30, 2013 04:08
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Dik Hz posted:Anyone know anything about catching crappies in NC? I don't know about NC specifically (check out the NC board on crappie.com for local reports ) but the past couple of weekends I've been out crappie fishing in Alabama and have had decent success. Last weekend the water hit about 57 degrees and they started moving shallow to spawn. I hit my limit without going into water deeper than 8ft. They were schooled up in a relatively current free cove with a bunch of bream mixed in.Gear wise I usually just stick to a single line (4-6lb) with one or two 1/32 or 1/16 jig heads about 1 to 2 feet apart. Orange, blue and unpainted are my usual head colors and I pair those with bobby garland baby shads in monkey milk, blue ice or on cloudy days chartreuse & white colors. I only fish for them from a boat so my technique is to go back and forth over the area I feel they're in, looking for something like this on the finder then give the line a small jerk/twitch every 10 seconds. I caught four in this spot before the bite quit and I had to repeat the finding process.  For shore fishing, I see tons of people who pull over on the side of the road and fish under small bridges with slip bobber setups.
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Mar 31, 2013 20:04
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Dik Hz posted:Thanks. Oh that bites. The Alabama board is kind of a mix between boating and shore spots though usually every spot that gets mentioned there gets swamped for a few days afterwards. I've heard of punches being thrown at some of the more "premium" spots. It's ridiculous and I'm glad I can motor away from that. If you can find a quiet spot somewhere maybe you can throw a few trees into it and attempt to make your own honey hole, doesn't help immediately of course but that's something I've considered doing to avoid the madness when everyone has crappie fever.
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Mar 31, 2013 20:34
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Operating Rod posted:How does Carolina rigging work? It's mostly useful in grassy areas, that's about the only place I throw it. Ideally you want your leader length to be about as long as the grass on the bottom is tall. I usually go up to about 2, 2 1/2 feet at the very most because more than that and I feel it just gets awkward to deal with. I'm usually using a 7' F/MH rod with it. I use a 1/4oz or more bullet weight, small plastic bead to make a 'clacking' noise and to protect the knot from the weight, small barrel swivel, ~2ft leader and finally a 3/0 hook with a fluke or trick worm on it. Skin bury the tip of the hook back into the bait to keep it weedless and you're good to go. Cast it out and just kind of finesse/bounce the weight around the bottom. The fluke will float weightlessly and stay on the top or near the top of the grass while the weight cuts through it. The main benefits I see to it are mostly that it eliminates line twist thanks to the barrel swivel and you don't have to yank the weight out of the fishes mouth when setting the hook like you occasionally have to with a texas rig.
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May 19, 2013 17:03
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Got talked into going garage sale shopping this morning, hit the jackpot when we came across a guy selling some tackle and he was ready to be done with it. $40 got me that, current MSRP puts it all at just under $200 and that's only the ones I can ID. There's a few in there that have been custom painted and the maker's marks are covered. Lotta DT-16s and Bagley DB2/3s with a couple Strike King XDs and a King Shad that isn't pictured.
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May 26, 2013 03:05
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Jose Juan Carlos posted:What are the benefits of a baitcaster reel over your average spin reel? Someone mentioned to me that you can't properly texas rig on a spin reel, but that makes no sense to me. It sort of comes down to personal preferences but as far as I'm concerned baitcasters are a bit more accurate, can handle greater test line, shines with larger/heavier lures and seem to be a lot easier to winch in fish through things like heavy grass. I prefer spinning reels when I'm wanting to use a light line (I usually use 8lb braid and 6lb mono) and go for a more finesse approach. I prefer to throw my plastics on a spinning rig since they can throw lighter lures better than most baitcasters (trying to throw a 1.5" spoiler shad on a normal baitcaster is just asking for a birds nest). You can most definitely texas rig with a spinning reel. The only reason I can think they said that was because you can't put your finger on your line to feel for a bite, but generally spinning rods are quite sensitive and you can feel the bite in the rod instead of the line. I have had no problem with it personally. PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 18:19 on May 30, 2013 |
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May 30, 2013 17:45
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Well I finally did something I haven't done since I was 15. I managed to get a treble hook buried in me. I took my zell pop off to put on another lure for grass fishing. I promptly hooked a good sized bass and forgot that I had set the zell pop on the side of my tackle bag (rather than in the tray like I should've...) and went on my merry way. Fast forward about 20 minutes, I reach down to move my tackle bag and hear a rattle sound and a really sharp pain. I pulled my hand up and saw that I had about half an inch of hook stuck directly in the middle of my thumb. Cue freaking out to myself for a minute or two wondering if any of the other boaters around saw this sad display and thankfully they hadn't. Finally I calm down and decide to cut the hook away from the lure because the weight really hurt, so I grab the first pair of pliers I can find (split ring ones) and try to separate the hook. Crunch, The damned pliers broke and that hurt worse than getting stuck with the hook in the first place. I decide that's not going to work so I tried to push the hook rest of the way through my thumb, it wouldn't budge. Eventually I just said screw it and started yanking on the hook and pulling it as best I could with another pair of pliers until the barb started showing then I just gave it one more good yank and it popped right out. Of course I use my left hand to thumb my baitcaster so I threw a "mandaid" on it (electrical tape) and went back to fishing.  From the pliers to the tip of that hook was in my thumb. Yeesh. Always put'em back in the box, kids! PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 00:04 on Jun 2, 2013 |
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Jun 1, 2013 23:55
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Planet X posted:I read an article that a potentially world record setting 17 lb snakehead was caught in Virginia. Good lord I bet that put up a fight. I haven't caught one which is both good and bad, they look fun to catch but at the same time if you're catching them that means they're tearing up the native fish. I guess a few have been caught around here in Tennessee (the first being back in 2006) but I have yet to even see one.
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Jun 6, 2013 19:55
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Caught my new personal best this morning, 29" 9lb 11oz blue cat. Was really fun reeling it in and it sure loved to do its little roll move every time I got it near the boat. Landing it without a net was a challenge. I'm glad I had fireline crystal on the reel since the fish's lips were so abrasive it probably would have destroyed the mono I had on there until yesterday.
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Jun 9, 2013 18:58
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Some Other Guy posted:That's a good catfish, though, to me it looks like a channel cat. But, can't really tell for sure without looking at the anal fin. Channel cats and blues look a lot alike, especially bigger channel cats. Interesting! Here's one next to a ruler that kind of shows that fin, maybe that will help with the ID? http://i.imgur.com/3gO19eX.jpg Definitely agree regarding the fight in them! I fish on Lake Guntersville which is a huge bass lake and after 7pm activity just flat out dies, blows my mind. I love catfishing as much as bass fishing. I caught that one on a medium action bass rod and there were a few times where it bent in half while the cat charged under the boat. Last fall I had something (catfish, maybe a huge drum) take a worm that was dragging on the bottom and just freight train to deeper waters. I tried to slow it down/turn it and it just kept on chugging til the line inevitably broke. Argh! One day... Glad you had some decent results with the gizzards! I've been meaning to try those since while I had a lot of bites on livers, they were such a pain to keep on the hook even with the pantyhose trick or elastic cording. The one I caught in that picture was with a lil smokie, haha. I soaked a bunch in vinegar and garlic for 2 days and they seem to work pretty well. edit: speaking of bass, last trip out this was the best of the bunch. 4lb 5oz, 21". Caught it on a 4" berkley chigger craw. 
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 00:14 on Jun 25, 2013 |
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Jun 24, 2013 03:52
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Corla Plankun posted:I have read good things about the Trilene knot but I haven't tied it myself yet. That's the one I've gotten into the habit of using a lot. It holds very well both on mono and fluorocarbon lines. Once you've tied it a few times it's almost as quick as the palomar.
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Jun 25, 2013 16:44
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Bangkero posted:As for knots, I'm all about simplified snell knots for hooks. All the force is transferred directly onto the line when the knot is tightened (ie pulled). Thanks a lot for posting this. I decided to give it a try this weekend and it did seem to help the hookup ratio over the trilene knot I was using. Only missed one and that was because it held onto the tail of the bait until I got it right next to the boat, I thought the fish was hooked it was so deadset on keeping it. Didn't catch a ton though, just a few largemouth and a tiny catfish that went for a crankbait. Being out on the water in the mornings when there aren't tons of boats is great. Makes those sunrises even better. 
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 20:07 on Jun 30, 2013 |
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Jun 30, 2013 20:04
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Hand of the King posted:And what is the fishing technique for this? Cast into the water near vegetation/rocks, let it sink a little, then bob it up and down, reel it back in, re-cast x 50? Sounds like you're on the right path. Texas rig is my favorite way to fish worms. Senkos do great texas rigged and a ton of people swear by wacky rigging them but I don't have much luck doing that. I also really like watermelon colored zoom trick worms. I use a similar setup except I have 10# line on mine. I usually use a 2/0 or 3/0 gamakatsu EWG hook depending on how much action I want to give the worm (smaller hook = more action but higher chance of a fish not eating it all the way to the hook) and for the weight it kind of depends on the wind and thickness of grass and such. MOST of the time I'll throw a 3/16th, but on windy days I'll step it up to a 1/4oz or more if needed. That's pretty much it, just thread the bullet weight on the line, tie your hook and rig up the worm how you'd like. I generally fish it like I would a jig, which means hopping it (pull it up off the bottom 3-6 ft and let it flutter back down but don't go all crazy hopping it. 6-7 seconds between hops is pretty good and most of the time they'll go for it when it starts to fall back down) or sweeping which is just pulling your rod to the side letting the worm drag on the bottom slowly. quote:Also, I plan on picking up some crankbait. What do I need besides the crankbait? Any weight? What technique do I use with crankbait? You don't really need anything other than the crankbait, the size kind of depends on the depth of the water you're fishing. You can't go wrong with the strike king ones, the 5xd and the 6xd are my favorite 10-15ish feet deep ones. For shallow ones, just about anything in a shad pattern will work. Most of my crankbait bites are on a crankbait that isn't made anymore, a lucky craft combat CB that dives around 8ft and has a purple back, yellowish white middle and a yellow bottom. It's some sort of shad color but I can't remember what. Keep in mind that while not always the case, bass do like to eat upwards so you kind of want to get one that won't quite reach the bottom but comes within a foot or two. Good lord I could talk forever on this. Sorry, haha. I do hope you have fun and catch some fish! As for catching fish, sorry for the lack of a smile. I was in the middle of talking my fishing partner on how to take a photo with my phone and I didn't realize they took one. Haha. Not a bad day today. Went out around 6:30am and called it at 9:30am when the sun got hot. Caught about 7 12" to 15" tiny ones and then a 3 1/2lber (not pictured) a 4.3lber, and a 4.7lber. The 4.3 was on a white jig with a craw trailer and the 4.7 was on a black and chartreuse jig with the same craw trailer. Most were in 3-5ft of water. 
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Jul 12, 2013 17:14
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DixielandDelight posted:Hey all, been seeing some pike in the last few pages reminded me to ask y'all about catching fish in the northern US. I'll be in Michigan and Ontario in late July to early August and I'd like to catch some new fish! Namely pike, walleye and smallmouths. I'm from the South so I'm used to catching LMB and channel cats. I'm going to talk to locals about individual places, but I come here looking for general advice on lures and where to fish on a body of water for pike,walleye and smallies. I befriended a guy with a boat last summer and I caught some lake trout but I didn't find trolling around Grand Traverse Bay too much fun. Also I was wondering if my gear would be suitable - I've got a 6'5" baitcaster with 14lb test mono. Would this hold up to pike and walleye? Unfortunately I can't help you much on the pike/walleye stuff but I've always heard drop shotting around structure and bait columns is a great smallmouth tactic. Here's pretty much everything you would want to know about the rig if you're not already familiar with it: http://www.richz.com/fishing/articles/dropshot.html DixielandDelight posted:Typically in the summer you want to stick with mornings or late evenings when fishing for bass. Yeah this is pretty much the summer rule to fish by. Granted you can catch'em in mid-day but it just gets real slow. Last year on Guntersville temperatures were getting up into the 110 degree range so people were bass fishing lighted docks at night (~9-10pm) with black spinnerbaits and had decent success.
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Jul 13, 2013 08:05
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fknlo posted:Caught my personal best smallie on a Hula Popper today: Nice catch! Those Hula Poppers seem to be consistently good lures. I just picked up some of that Spiderwire Glow-Vis braid they introduced during ICAST. Seems like it'll work quite well from what I've seen of it on the reel. I was using moss green PowerPro and it was pretty hard to see against the water for my old eyes. Hopefully this works as well as advertised! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVzfJYnbLeA PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Jul 25, 2013 |
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Jul 25, 2013 03:11
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Timbo posted:I see lots of spinning rods, am I alone in my bastard baitcast love? Most definitely not, I love my Lew's tournament pro and I also use some random Bass Pro Shops one I bought on sale. Both on 7' castaway m/h rods. I've got a Quantum spinning reel for lightweight stuff like crappie lures and things like that but otherwise I'm likely throwing with a baitcaster. I feel way more accurate with it. Speaking of photos, I hit up Guntersville this morning and it was gorgeous out right up until the thunderstorms started rolling through. Ducked into an empty dock til it passed, fished a bit more and just couldn't find a pattern for the life of me so I packed it up when I saw another round of lightning moving my way. 
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Aug 11, 2013 01:58
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Timbo posted:Mantis, do you like the buff that you have on? I am on the fence as to purchase one? They say they are breathable but I have tried one out yet. Oh yeah I love it! I wear it every time I go out fishing. I went with one of the UV blocking ones since I'm a baldy and one burnt scalp and neck was enough for me. It's pretty versatile and does a real good job blocking the wind when you're shooting across the lake or just dip it in the water to cool down on the real hot days. It's a bit stiff when you first get it but after a couple of washings it loosens up a little bit but remains tight enough that you won't have to fidget with it much at all. edit: yeah, they're quite breathable. I find it easier to breathe with one of them on while in a moving boat than without it. I also use it for yardwork since it's a heck of a lot easier to breathe without dust and grass flying up into your face.
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Aug 11, 2013 |
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Aug 11, 2013 02:47
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DocMcgillicuddy posted:
Looks like a solid arsenal, good luck with the fishing! There's a Spro-only frog tournament on Guntersville in a couple of weeks so I gotta practice my frog fishing. Frogs have such a sketchy hookup ratio but when they attack those it's the best sight ever. What frog is that in the middle? Those legs look pretty solid while still kicking a bit. I was thinking of picking up that Lunkerhunt Lunkerfrog they just put out last month but apparently the legs are really fragile and fish can rip them off with very little effort.
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Aug 17, 2013 04:36
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DocMcgillicuddy posted:It's the Rebel Buzz'n Frog. Weedlessness isn't great but those legs make just the right amount of noise walking the dog. Had some mean hits on it, it can take a beating. Nice, thanks a bunch! I think I'll give that a try because that looks exactly like it would irritate the hell out of bass on a foggy morning. I've never been pike fishing but I'm sure they can do a nasty number on lures. Especially soft ones like a hollow bodied frog. I had a ~4ft alligator gar rather viciously hit a bronzeye frog a couple weeks ago and it didn't do a whole lot of damage surprisingly, though it did pull some skirting loose. Pike are probably a completely different ballgame.
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Aug 17, 2013 05:15
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DocMcgillicuddy posted:
Nice catch and that is one manly as gently caress beard. I'm envious. That jet black pike sounds like a total badass. Similarly, on one of the local boards around here there's been some sightings of two albino alligator gars. Some aquarium dude registered just to post that they're worth like a grand if you can catch one while it's small enough to be released into an aquarium. Apparently they don't do very well in the wild since the white ruins their ability to blend in and the albino gene causes terrible eyesight so they're easy prey.
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Aug 18, 2013 03:20
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Planet X posted:Did y'all see the record halibut? Wow, that is insane! I've heard halibut are pretty good fighters to begin with. Add that kind of mass and I bet it was an exhaustive fight. Impressive.
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Aug 18, 2013 21:49
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Yeah I agree. I will keep my limit of crappie when they're spawning and I do keep catfish in the 3 to 8lb range but outside of those, I'd let everything go after a photo or two. The replica fish mounts these days are so photo-realistic that all you need to do is take a few pics showing the size and pattern and you'll get something that's almost an exact match a week later and a hell of a story/photos to go with it. Plus you let the next angler have a chance to catch their trophy fish as well. This would all go out the door if I caught one of those insanely huge tunas that sell for like $6-8k, however.
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Aug 19, 2013 01:17
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SERPUS posted:I'm having lots of trouble with my new reel, a light spinning reel. It came pre-spooled with 6 lb. line. I'm using small 1/16 jigs and spinners because I'm just trying to catch these small crappie and bass from the lake. It seems like each time that I cast, I get a huge tangle that comes off of the spool before I can start reeling in. It looks like 3-4 different lines are coming off of the reel and tangling up around the first rod eye. What am I doing wrong? Every now and then I can get a clean cast, get the baler closed, and start reeling in, but for the most part I spend cutting out huge tangles and starting over. When the line is slack does the line kind of look like a stretched out slinky? Given that it was prespooled, the line probably has memory issues where it's been on the spool from the factory so long that it wants to come off in coils and can jump off the reel while the bail is open. The multiple lines issue stems from it jumping off the spool and wrapping around itself during a cast, usually. I'd say get rid of the line that came with it and put fresh line on. I use both of these lines and I highly recommend the Vicious line, it's quite strong and with the right drag settings should land most fish but if you want insurance in an area with some big fish lurking you may want to use the Fireline Fused Crystal superline. I use 8lb myself but according to their chart at the bottom of the page you can go up to 14lb and it would be the same thickness as 6lb mono. Vicious Panfish Fireline Fused Crystal With that Vicious on my cheap spinning reel and a 6'5" light rod I can cast 1/16 and even 1/32 jigs without much of a problem at all.
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Aug 22, 2013 20:27
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Rythe posted:You and me both, this heat has been so horrible, even fishing at dawn has been horrible. On the plus side with winter right around the corner, that means catfish season will be upon me and I am looking forward to that. Thirding. Yeesh, today was terrible. Went out at 7am, powered through "realfeel" temps over 100 til about 2:30pm. These were my two largest catches:   Koivunen posted:One day countdown to launching in the Boundary Waters! That sounds really cool, have a good time!
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Aug 25, 2013 06:05
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Falukorv posted:And perches, man, they are in a way pretty voracious. Pikes have the reputation of being voracious and basically going for anything, but perches are the fish that as far as i've experienced, go for the biggest bait relative to their body size. They jump on spoon lures more than half their size. You've got to admire that kind of boldness. I love when there's a fish that doesn't realize its size. I bought a new Jackall lure a couple weeks ago (the Kawashi Mikey 140) and finally got a chance to try it out yesterday. First fish on it was this guy:  The lure alone is almost 6" and he hit that thing with all he had.
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Sep 8, 2013 18:39
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Been a little while since I've been able to hit the water, but Santa brought me a 7'11" 13 Fishing Omen Black and I've gotta try it out soon! Threw my Lews Tourny Pro on it and it seems really balanced. Tried a few practice casts in the backyard and the tip loads real nice for flipping jigs and such which is perfect for Guntersville.
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Dec 25, 2013 |
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Dec 25, 2013 16:54
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Took my 7'11" 13 Fishing Omen Black out for a spin and the rod performed great both flipping a jig and regular casting of a Spro Aruku Shad. It absolutely launches the Aruku. There was one issue however and I'm not sure if it's the rod or the line. I put 20lb Spiderwire Stealth "Glow-Vis" braid which just came out earlier this year, on my reel. It worked like a champ and I was quickly sold on it since it had good strength and was a lot easier for me to see against the water than PowerPro. I believe I made a post in this thread commenting on it. Lately it's been in the mid-twenties and enough to ice up on the reel, so it's not the greatest conditions but not the worst I've fished in. My first time out with the new setup everything worked as expected but I didn't catch anything. The next day however, about three casts into the day my line snapped at the first guide on the rod mid cast. I was able to grab the floating line and get my lure back at least. I stripped some line off the reel and retied thinking it was just a weak spot. The immediate cast afterwards it did the same exact thing but this time snapped more towards the middle of the rod. Unfortunately on that cast I lost the lure completely. I ended up stripping even more line off, put on a beat up rat-l-trap that weighed less than the Aruku and it cast repeatedly without problem so I went about my day. After probably 15 casts I had a strike so I went to set the hook and the line snapped around 3ft from the knot. That's when I just packed it up and went to my crappie rig for rest of the day, haha. I just bought a spool of FC Sniper fluorocarbon line which a friend has used in the same conditions without issue so I'll give that a try next week and hopefully the braid was the issue and not a line guide on the new rod cutting into the line on casts or something like that.
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Jan 2, 2014 20:35
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DoctaFun posted:Hmmm, that's definitely an interesting problem. I do know that braided line isn't recommended for ICE fishing when it's below freezing because it will freeze up, but I'm not sure if that compromises the strength of the line or if it's just an inconvenience. Thanks! For some reason doing that never occurred to me. I just did a visual examination of the guides and they all seemed to be in good shape. When I get home tonight I'll give that a try since I still have a quarter of a spool of that braid left to play with. Last year I was fishing using the same reel with PowerPro on it in similar conditions and it seemed to be just fine. Maybe whatever they do with that UV coating on the Glow-vis makes it more susceptible to the cold/ice, I'm not really sure. Strange, regardless!
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Jan 3, 2014 16:51
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Thanks for the responses! I did both: running a line through the guides for a bit and then followed up with some cotton balls and the guides all checked out okay so I'm guessing the line just does not agree with the cold water (water temps were ~40-41, air temp was lower than 27) which is disappointing but not as disappointing as if it was the brand new rod! Funny enough I was kind of leaning towards getting a duckett micro magic rod before ending up with the omen black and the salesman told me that when you fish cold weather the micro guides on the duckett will ice up really fast and slice through line left and right. Then that whole episode with the line happens on my second trip out.. terrible feeling! tesilential posted:I hate when my gear fails, if I had a nice snook or red on I woulda been really pissed. And now I have lost some confidence in both pieces of gear. Ugh, yeah no kidding. I'm definitely going to hesitate before throwing any of my nicer lures on the new rod for a couple of trips since I don't believe it's going to warm up here anytime soon and there's always going to be that nagging feeling. That jig breaking is something else, I suppose a silver lining is that you had hopefully caught enough fish to wear it out at least!
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Jan 4, 2014 02:55
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Went fishing off a dock with my pops this morning and caught at least 120 fish. Though 115 of them were shad that were in a feeding frenzy for a few hours straight. Despite them being a rather useless fish, they're fun to pull in when they're kind of large and biting every single cast. Also caught a yellow bass that I honestly think was close to the state record but I misidentified it (forgot white bass don't have broken up lines at the bottom) and tossed it back without much thought. State record for the yellow bass here is 2lb 8oz, I didn't weigh this one but it felt every bit of that. Crud. On the plus side, apparently the fish would have had to die to certify it and that's not really cool so I'm glad it's still out there for someone else to catch regardless.  
PREYING MANTITS fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Nov 10, 2014 |
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Nov 8, 2014 20:36
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LingcodKilla posted:Shad is a really good food fish but you need to be loving filleting ninja to deal with the double rib bones. Oh interesting, I didn't know that! I always assumed they tasted terrible given the reaction many people have to them. If I have another streak of fishing like that I might have to give it a try then!
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Nov 8, 2014 20:58
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extra stout posted:I've got a week off for classes and I'm pretty much exclusively spending it reading about fishing in hopes of that first trip hopefully not sucking. Debating on a small trout stream vs. a bigger lake. I'd like to aim mostly for yellow perch, pumpkinseeds (or whichever sunfish is biggest) and maybe some trout. Should six pound line be fine for all of this? I want to be lazy and use artificial bait and was told to get trout eggs for trout, and powerbait maggots for perch and sunfish. Any opinions or other ideas are appreciated, also still need to learn more about bobber and sinker sizes when aiming for these fish. I use 4lb mono (exact brand: vicious panfish) while crappie fishing and I've caught all sorts of creatures on it without any problem. I think the biggest was a 7lb channel cat. So yeah 6lb should be plenty! The most critical thing is having your drag set right, it's not a terrible thing if a fish can pull some line off the reel so keep it low-ish. I've never fished for trout (I'm missing out  ) but as far as the perch/sunfish go, it's hard to keep them off what I use for crappie which is Bobby Garland Baby Shad in "Monkey Milk" as they replicate the local minnows/shad pretty well. I've also had success with the Bone White/Chartreuse and Chart/Red Glitter colors as well. Pair them with a 1/16th jig head in black or chartreuse like I did here, bounce the rod tip around to make it dart while you're reeling in slowly and you should get some action if there's a hungry fish there.
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Mar 30, 2015 08:13
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DoctaFun posted:Where are you located? Honestly, if I knew of a spot to consistently catch 10"+ bluegills I would take it with me to the grave. I watch a youtuber by the name of Flukemaster that guides on a huge private lake in Georgia. He catches mutant looking bluegill out of it like crazy and it looks like so much fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT-mnrtzHbI skip to 5:43 for the 2 1/2lb one.
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Jun 5, 2015 19:51
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