Friday Report

[Ca_Bass]

All though I missed the mad fisherman I did have a good couple hours of fishing.

Fished from 230 to 430 I caught 6 fish. 5 largemouth all a little less than a pound and one tuc that weighed in at a even 4lbs. This was the hardest fighting tuc I've caught to date. He put my brandnew shimano sustain 1000 and 6ft shimano crucial to the test and they passed. This guy was draggin my basstracker all over, stripped off a whole bunch of line and had me in probably 40+ ft of water at one point

I caught him in a school that was doing some solid busting. But as soon as I hooked him the busting stopped. When I spotted the busting I crept my boat up and the first cast was short, second was right on the money and WHAM. I wanted to stick around to see if they would resurface but I had to pick my son up from daycare (I got off work early today and headed to the lake).

I saw a TON of shad balls but they were mostly being left alone. One ball I was watching closely got attacked by a single tuc and boy was he fast but that was it for the most part. I didn't have enough time to get a great feel but it seemed like the tucs were less lethargic then they have been the past few weeks...hope it continues.

[skunked]

Nice fish! Sustain and Crucial! Awesome! My guess is that you went to see the friendly lady at Roy's that I mentioned to you. You should've got the Stella 1000FE for the special price of $579!! Have fun with your new combo. What line were you using?

[Ca_Bass]

Yep went to Roy's also picked up another curado. Although I would like the stella I can't justify it. I can't really even tell the defference between the sustain and my symetre. I was using 6lb mono. I spooled up some 8lb flourocarbon on my worm rod and I really don't like it. Last Sunday I broke off 5 fish. I've tried the lighter flouros a couple of time before and always have this issue. All though it is more sensitve and I guess invisible I find it too brittle. Does anyone else have this issue?

[Float Tube 27]

Nice info. I'll be on the lake soon so I hope the fish are active when I go.

[Boatless]

Actually Ive found flourocarbon to be on the brittle side too. Is there a special way to care for it once spooled and used? After 1 or 2 uses it sorta reminds me of old mono thats been used in saltwater and on the reel for a long time.

[skunked]

Fluorocarbon is a pain. Not like I am an expert,but the two things that worked for me are to use kevin vandam line and lure conditioner and to use seaguar invisx line. It stretches a lot, but is the only manageable fluoro that I have found.

[fisher dude]

I think fluorocarbon is more for a leader the strong ones cast bad and tend to tangle and the good casting ones break off to easily. Use a good casting line and splice in a good strong fluorocarbon leader. I use leader couple feet J line fluorocarbon the red version is super strong and stiff I use 6-8lbs and never had problems braking off. but they only come in small spools expensive but if you splice it in a couple feet at a time it last a long time I tried seaguar and would never buy it again.

[Pegasus]

I have a couple of Quantum reels that need repair/ service. Roys is one of the local warranty dealers and 5oceans 7 seas is the other. Anybody out there have an opinion. I see that some of you go to Roys for other things, so I thought you might know. Thanks for the help.

[skunked]

I think fluorocarbon is more for a leader the strong ones cast bad and tend to tangle and the good casting ones break off to easily. Use a good casting line and splice in a good strong fluorocarbon leader. I use leader couple feet J line fluorocarbon the red version is super strong and stiff I use 6-8lbs and never had problems braking off. but they only come in small spools expensive but if you splice it in a couple feet at a time it last a long time I tried seaguar and would never buy it again.

I think your idea is good for those who are using it just because it is less visible to the fish, but the reason I use it (even though it's love/hate) is because it is WAY more sensitive than mono and it sinks, so it is good for cranks. A common myth however, is that it stretches less than mono. That was proven to be false by a controlled test on tackletour.com. Funny how you disliked Seaguar. I have never heard anything bad said about Invisx. People really hate some other lines like Vanish, but they seem to like Invisx. Worst ones I've personally tried were Vicious 8# and Stren 100% 4lb.

[fisher dude]

Hey skunked I know it was seaguar brand blue and yellow box maybe it was an diffrerent make of seaguar I don't remember seeing invisx. A buddy from cali sent me a spool of 6lb test so I spooled up my brand new shimano he sent me and the first day I use it whipping I lost 1/4 of the spool from tangles and knots coming out just casting. So from there I got turned off maybe a bad batch? You guys use um for spinners to or you talking about baitcasting reels. I used mine on a spinning reel.

[kahuna bass]

Ca_bass,

Nice Tuc! It's always a good thing to see those 4lbs + size fish.

It's funny how far we have come along, with PE and Fluoracarbon line. Though each has it's challenges, the new line is far superior to what we had when we were all young.

On my medium to small size spinning reels, I've gone to PE line with 3'-6" topshot/leader of fluoracarbon.

My crawdad rods (8' to 8'-6"), I use medium size spinning reels with 20-30lbs PE, with 4' to 6" leader of 12 - 15lb fluoracarbon.

My trout/small bass rods (6'-6" to 7'), small spinning reel with 10lb PE, with 2' to 3' 5lb fluoracarbon.

I have no problem casting and still have the sensitivity that I need with the gear.

Good luck all,

Mel - Kahuna bass
Darkside tackel ho!

[Ca_Bass]

One of the things I do on two of my spinning rods is use 8lb braided line then use a dropper loop knot(kinda like a blood knot) to splice them. I really love the casting I get from the braided line. Originally I wouldn't use a mono or flouro leader but one day I saw 4 consecutive fish chase aggressively then turn away. So I put the leader on and haven't gone without one since.

I've tried Seaguar and the vanish have the same issues with both. The thing that really irritates me is that I get far more strikes with the flouro compared to mono. But it does. Little good if you keep breaking them off.

I can see the benifits of cranking with flouro...and it won't get knicked up as much like it does when I use it to worm.