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DoctaFun posted:Catching fish on underpowered gear is a blast, so definitely get that. This reminds me... Yearly time to remind you to hold all your fish proper: https://www.wired2fish.com/fish-biology/what-happens-when-you-hold-a-bass
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Jul 19, 2023 22:32
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DoctaFun posted:Catching fish on underpowered gear is a blast, so definitely get that. This wasn't intentional, but my friend hooked into a lake sturgeon on 6 pound test. It took her like 45 minutes to land the thing because it somehow wouldn't break off. Efforts were taken to revive the fish and it swam away in good looking shape.
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Jul 20, 2023 12:54
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Would anyone care to critique my first fly setup before I make the purchase? Stuff is complex. I pretty much exclusively kayak fish the San Marcos River in central Texas. It runs about 12ft deep and ~10 to 20ft wide. I've mostly caught bass on spinning gear, but thought it would be fun to see other species. There's panfish, cichlids, crappie, channel catfish, spotted gar, largemouth, smallmouth and guadalupe bass. With spinning gear, I don't often hook into largemouth over 5lbs and the biggest smallmouth I've seen is 4lbs. Looking at Moonlit rods, fairly cheap modern glass that are nice and shiny. I thought I'd start with a 3wt, but multiple folks have instead suggested to start with a 5wt. I suppose that makes more sense if I'd want to be able to toss sinking nymphs and small streamers for black bass and sometimes target panfish. So I'm looking at a Moonlit 5wt, maybe an Orvis Batenkill II or III, and not sure about the line. Moonlit has cheap $35 weight forward line on sale. Scientific Angler, I get a little lost on the temperature ratings. This week it's been between 104-107f but it's a spring-fed river with 72 degree water. Everyone says floating line until I get good, would sink tip be a mistake as a total newbie? I feel like I'm so close to making the purchase, I'm just a little lost on which +/- $100 reel and which line. Won't be casting much beyond 30ft, usually much shorter. Brain fried from trying hard to understand.
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Jul 20, 2023 23:16
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Anyone had success finding cheaper tying supplies than Hareline?
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Jul 20, 2023 23:19
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COOKIE DELIGHT posted:Would anyone care to critique my first fly setup before I make the purchase? Stuff is complex. Phone posting from the road but I also fish bass on a fly in the river. With fly fishing in your price range the most important area to spend money is on a good fly line. Line > Rod > Reel is the order of importance. The only thing you need your reel to do is hold the line. 5wt is generally considered a great first setup because it’s the all arounder weight. You can fish panfish and small stuff but you can also throw medium sized flies and streamers for bigger fish. Floating line is great. That doesn’t mean always fishing topwater since you will have a leader that sinks. A sinking or sinking tip line are great in niche circumstances but you can do 90% of everything you’d normally want with a floating line. Hekk fucked around with this message at 00:15 on Jul 21, 2023 |
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Jul 20, 2023 23:42
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Hekk posted:Phone posting from the road but I also fish bass on a fly in the river. With fly fishing in your price range the most important area to spend money is on a good fly line. Line > Rod > Reel is the order of importance. The only thing you need your reel to do is hold the line. Awesome, appreciate your help. I'm definitely down to invest in the best line that I can since I'm saving money on the rod and reel. There's at least one local guy who fishes Moonlit rods, I can probably shoot him an Instagram message and see if he can recommend a particular line. I think I have a better understanding now than the first time I walked into the local fly shop. Their cheapest reel was $300 and it was going to be $740+tax for a 5wt TFO setup. It's a bougie touristy area so I suppose it makes sense.
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Jul 21, 2023 00:19
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gamera009 posted:Anyone had success finding cheaper tying supplies than Hareline? Try Montana Fly Company? If you have a Bass Pro/Cabela’s nearby you can usually get some house brand stuff there that’s cheap as well.
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Jul 21, 2023 00:33
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 Who needs money anyway
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Jul 21, 2023 19:35
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iwentdoodie posted:
it says free right on it though (nice reel!)
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Jul 21, 2023 23:27
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DoctaFun posted:Catching fish on underpowered gear is a blast, so definitely get that. This is a very valid critique, I appreciate it. The great thing is that the fights don't last any longer than with reasonable sized gear with the fish we have available, everything just feels like Nessie when it hits. I'd be highly pissed to see someone hook into an 80 lb catfish or something with these things, because the reels 100% would extend the fight dramatically with such a large fish. Which is bad. Catch and release should be done as fast as feasible, otherwise the resource gets depleted. That guy that caught the sturgeon is an rear end, full stop. It's not about dick measuring, it's about extracting all the fun you can while being sustainable.
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Jul 22, 2023 02:47
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iwentdoodie posted:
Looks like a tuna reel!
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Jul 22, 2023 04:49
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joem83 posted:Looks like a tuna reel! That's what it's primarily for I think. It's gonna get used to yank grouper off the bottom, jig for snapper, and probably some reef donkeys cause it never loving fails I'm going to hook one and be tired for the rest of the day. 2 speeds are just awesome for pulling grouper off the bottom before they rock up, then switch gears and haul their rear end up before a shark says hi. Hooked a ~33" one last year on a 5500 size spinning reel with 30lb braid on it. Somehow got it to the boat but fml my arms felt like I did a years worth of push-ups.
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Jul 22, 2023 20:55
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iwentdoodie posted:That's what it's primarily for I think. Looks like a Fathom 40 if my eyes do not deceive me.
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Jul 23, 2023 08:07
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I'm gonna try to catch a ton of bluegill this coming tuesday. maybe I've been too unfocused in strategy, just going for whatever and getting skunked.
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Jul 24, 2023 01:07
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I went to the local pond today at sunset to try to catch some catfish. I threw a rod out with a sliding weight and a piece of shrimp for bait (my favorite catfish bait) and on another rod I threw a Texas rigged plastic worm around the lilly pads to try to catch some bass while I was waiting for the catfish to bite. A few casts in with the worm and I hooked onto a... Catfish. Not huge, probably only a pound and a half. Add plastic worms to the list of oddball lures ive caught catfish on like spinners and swimbaits. Channel cats are weird. I think they must have better eyesight than the other species of catfish like Flatheads because they seem pretty eager to bite on lures from my experience.
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Jul 24, 2023 04:30
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Charliegrs posted:I went to the local pond today at sunset to try to catch some catfish. I threw a rod out with a sliding weight and a piece of shrimp for bait (my favorite catfish bait) and on another rod I threw a Texas rigged plastic worm around the lilly pads to try to catch some bass while I was waiting for the catfish to bite. A few casts in with the worm and I hooked onto a... Catfish. Not huge, probably only a pound and a half. Add plastic worms to the list of oddball lures ive caught catfish on like spinners and swimbaits. I thought channel cats wernt strictly bottom feeders like flatheads. So them taking lures makes sense.
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Jul 24, 2023 05:14
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waffle enthusiast posted:Try Montana Fly Company? If you have a Bass Pro/Cabela’s nearby you can usually get some house brand stuff there that’s cheap as well. Def been down that route. Not much cheaper than online stuff. Fly tying is turning out to be as bad a money sink as anything else fly fishing, and yet still cheaper than buying the flies haha!
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Jul 24, 2023 06:15
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I went to a local pond with my Dad, and we absolutely slayed some bass (not in actuality, all catch and release). Probably caught 30 or so between the two of us over the course of 2 hours along with a couple of crappie and some gorgeous sunfish. Partway through the trip, I rigged up a bastardized fly setup with a jitterbug on the end and cast it like i was doing chuck and duck. Managed to catch a bass first cast and am now hooked. I ordered some actual popper flies and am going to try it the right way as soon as I can. I've only ever done chuck and duck for salmon so actually casting a fly is going to be a whole new world
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Jul 24, 2023 07:09
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joem83 posted:Looks like a Fathom 40 if my eyes do not deceive me. Close enough, fathom ii 60. I think the only immediate visual difference other than size is the cross bar and connection points.
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Jul 24, 2023 23:54
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I went crappie fishing
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Jul 25, 2023 01:18
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:I went crappie fishing If you caught that on a crappy rod it must have been a lot of fun.
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Jul 25, 2023 01:20
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It's insane that crappie is pronounced crah-pee
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Jul 25, 2023 01:29
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Charliegrs posted:If you caught that on a crappy rod it must have been a lot of fun. Technically a kiddie pole, it was wonderful and wholly unexpected, because I did indeed just want crappie for dinner. Blew up a pink paddletail crappie jig 2ft from shore, then sent my drag screaming into some lily pads. Less than a minute later I got that 3-4ish pounder in my hands. 10/10, would do again. i caught nothing else though
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Jul 25, 2023 01:30
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:I went crappie fishing What a crappie catch
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Jul 25, 2023 01:44
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camoseven posted:It's insane that crappie is pronounced crah-pee Try living in FL where they get called specks. And so do sea trout.
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Jul 25, 2023 02:18
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iwentdoodie posted:Try living in FL where they get called specks. ‘Sheepshead’ 
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Jul 25, 2023 13:28
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spincasters own and it's funny that people get so weird about stuff like that
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Jul 26, 2023 00:18
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i went bass fishing i don't think im good at targeting fish
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Jul 26, 2023 02:07
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:i went bass fishing Channel cats are like the bass of catfish
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Jul 26, 2023 06:06
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Charliegrs posted:Channel cats are like the bass of catfish Yeah I'm too impatient to leave a rod in the water with something rigged up for them, so it's always a nice surprise when I pull one in. They really seem to like white, every single one I've pulled in this summer has been on something white/silver. That one legit pulled me in the water a couple steps, it was a fight and a half on the tiny rod. It also hit my buddy in the balls on the grab, it was wonderful but it meant I didn't get my own picture with it.
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Jul 26, 2023 07:06
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  Not a bad day. Now excuse while my arms fall off.
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Jul 27, 2023 02:38
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iwentdoodie posted:
Why are some of them red? Bacterial infection in the slime coat?
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Jul 27, 2023 18:12
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Desert Bus posted:Why are some of them red? Bacterial infection in the slime coat? Red snapper.
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Jul 27, 2023 18:20
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Desert Bus posted:Why are some of them red? Bacterial infection in the slime coat? Red snapper and 2 monster rear end beeliners (vermillion snapper.) Others are a blackfin tuna, 2 rainbow runners, a bunch of almaco jacks, and the biggest drat porgy I've ever seen. Also jinxed myself and first drat fish I caught was a 60lb amberjack.
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Jul 27, 2023 18:52
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Fish aren't real Wake up sheeple
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Jul 31, 2023 02:41
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:Fish aren't real thought it was birds
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Jul 31, 2023 02:48
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:Fish aren't real I went carping today. Hard agree.
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Jul 31, 2023 03:26
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SeaGoatSupreme posted:Fish aren't real Just got back from my 4th fishless outing in a row, can confirm this is true.
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Jul 31, 2023 16:32
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Chicken Thumbs posted:Just got back from my 4th fishless outing in a row, can confirm this is true. thought I was the only one in this thread. feels like the past 6 times fishing I haven't even gotten a nibble. maybe I need to find a much smaller body of water, cause otherwise I could tell you that there are only 2 fish in this entire river and the only reason I know that is because I watched them hit the surface all around me all afternoon.
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Jul 31, 2023 18:03
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The difference between fishing and catching can be an impossible number of variables. Right now in texas, we are living on the surface of the sun. Its so hot and most fish don't want to loving move. Fishing about any time of day for most species will be an exercise if futility. Catfish are eating good though and going out to catch catfish is a great time as they are post spawn and starving. If I went out on the boat to fish for white bass or largemouth, I might get skunked. If I chase the catfish, i might not have enough room in the livewell. Just gotta weigh your local options.
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Jul 31, 2023 18:38
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