Erik's fishing rants

Lake i'm at in nw corner of ct. is a trout management lake. While you have to work for the trout, chances are for some big ones. I've caught everything from kokanee, brookies, to large browns rainbows, and tiger trout in there. Been asking the state if they ever intend in stocking some lakers as they now have in other nearby lakes here.

 

Added some of my uncles baits to my bag, its filling out nice with these slim 3600 cases. There are a few baits not in the picture as they are tied on rods right now, but generally I dont like to leave baits on rods.

 

Those slim cases are great, aren't they? All my terminal tackle goes in those. They are so easy to be made modular for different fishing scenarios.

 

They really are. After using the normal 3600s and seeing how much wasted space was in them, im glad I switched. If I wanted to use all the space inside a normal 3600, I would have to stack so many lures that it would just end up impossible to get things out.

Plus, 3 slims fit in the same place as 2 normal boxes. So I can fit 3 in my sling bag, and 6 in my bigger bag.

 

I carry a multi rod holder when going out on my boat...it holds 5 of my favorite rod/reel combo's, plus 2 others all rigged with different crank baits, and plastics when going for trout or bass. I can switch up any time necessary to what is working best. The large tackle box sits idle the majority of the time near me. More time your in the water fishing, and not rigging rods, your chances improve for catching something big.

 

I usually tie on baits before I go out, and take them off when I get home. My cats love playing with the fishing baits and chewing on the line, so when I put the rods away I pull the baits and reel in all the line (I have indoor and outdoor cats, so no where to hide the rods). Once I get a real boat, everything will end up living on the boat with the exception of my truck rod and tackle.

 

I know Arizona folk throw huge swim baits for bass with the Calcutta. I really want to get a bait caster setup like that.

 

Im really excited to give it a try, I threw it on my cheapy 7 foot bait caster rod last night, but I didnt put enough weight on it to cast right. But I got some updated shipping info on the next box my uncle sent me. The box is 89x4x4 and weighs about 14 lbs. So that should be a few rods! And judging by the rest of his stuff (and what I know about him) they should be some pretty good rods.

 

Hell yeah dude ! Coming up big time.

 

Be very careful with cats...we had a siamese cat that loved to play with my rigged rods. One day came home, and the poor cat had a hook embedded deep in its mouth going berserk. I had to take him to our vet where they put him under to remove the hook. Very expensive fish. The cat was no worse for wear the next day.

 

Yep, thats why I remove all my baits and put them back in their boxes when I get home. But as a added layer, I have lure wraps on all my rods when I come home in the off chance I dont get a chance to remove the lure before putting the rods back in storage.

I prefer my catfish to have fins over legs.

 

I don't know how the cat found my rack of fishing rods, as i keep them out of reach in the garage let alone the cat getting in there. At any rate haven't replaced the cat so all has been good. Sometimes you gotta learn the hard way.

 

My uncles rods showed up today! 5 in total, he sent them in a pvc pipe with caps on the ends!

But I got -
zebco rhino 6f6in
rhino kevlar 6f6in
rapala tournament class 6f6in
bionic blade 6f
st croix triumph 6f


In all a few hundred bucks worth of rods, the zebcos being the cheapest and the st croix being the best. Im going to throw some reels on them (4 spinning 1 casting) and add them to my rack. He sent 4 reels in the first box, but I have a spare quantum sx3 kicking around so I can put reels on all the rods.

 

you fishing yet?

i'm gonna yank the skirts off some chatterbaits and try them with just some rubber trailer. Saturday. gonna be windy but i'll go early and get off the water before the winds blast me.

I actually get buyer's remorse when I buy baits. I keep using the same things successfully, YET I still buy new crap to try. then on my kayak, I tie on the old reliables. and catch a crap load of fish, it is viscious cycle. I am getting off that ride.

 

I went out twice this year sofar, 1 time bank fishing just to make sure my rods are all working and in good shape, then I took the kayak out last weekend. Got a bunch of trout and a small bass (he had some fresh bite damage on his tail from a pike). Hoping to get out on monday if the weather is nice, might go see how the river looks this weekend too. Thinking of bringing a few of the new rods after I check the line on them all.

 

St croix are really good rods, and not cheap. I don't even use one for fear of breaking one. I found the okuma rods really good for the price..got some penn's that aren't too bad either.

 

Im hoping that this st croix rod opens my eyes to better rods. Right now every rod I have is a ugly stik gx2. They are pretty cheap, so I got those when I first got back into fishing. I think this summer I will be going out and trying other new rods.

 

Swung by walmart this evening to pick up some new camping cots. The kids are having a sleepover, so there are 5 kids sleeping in my daughters room... only had beds for 3 of them. But while there I grabbed some more creme mini crank baits. I already had a full set, but I figured I could double up on them incase I lose any. Also grabbed another mini craw crank bait.

Also got a new mystery tackle box today, wasnt super great of a box, a few hooks, a spinner bait, a bunch of soft plastics, and a really fat crankbait... the fat crank bait is too fat to fit in my slim 3600 boxes, so its sitting out right now and will probably go into a normal 3600 when I start getting more of the fat baits.

 

Imo, really depends how often you use your gear that would require good rods. You get what you pay for. At any rate i've found you can get a decent rod for $50 or so if you do some searching. I've had some really good cheap rods over the years too. Those ugly stiks aren't all that bad. I've had them, and still use one.

 

Got some rod floats (foam tubes that go on the rod) last night to put on my new st croix rod for kayaking..... cat quickly made short work of the foam... he tore it all up, so now I have to remember not to leave the floats on the rods unless I am in the kayak.