Bass are stupid and will eat anything

[TurbineBlade]

And this coot followed me around and went surfing in the current, for who knows what reason.  I guess animals have phylogenetic reasons for doing the things they do, and it looks funny to a bystander when the behavior is taken far out of context.  

Oh, so about the bass -- I no longer believe that "eyes" help bass flies.  I also don't buy into the "throw 'em big stuff that really pushes water", etc.  That crap is ill-suited to casting with fly tackle and doesn't work any better than basic marabou and unweighted bucktail patterns.  You really lose the real benefit to using fly tackle with that nonsense.  When a bass is ready to hit something, I don't think it makes a bit of difference what is on the end of your line.  

All the usual stuff out there biting, and I had the place to myself Fri and today.  2 of my 3 sets of breathable waders leak now, but that's part of the game.  

BTW -- a 7' fiberglass fenwick in the 6WT configuration is about as good as you can do with fly rods.  Great rod.  Nothing they've designed since is as good -- I'm done with graphite unless I need to travel.  

Gene ("absolutes") TB

[Terry C]

I'm going to the my bass flies to look like your thumb

[TurbineBlade]

Well, make it a sparse thumb whatever you do!  

Okay!  Back to the party!

Gene ("absolut") TB

[namfos]

Nice SMB, Absolut Blade.

If you can find a 20-25 year old Cabelas Fish Eagle fly rod, the ones they labeled with two line weights, you'd find them suitably slow and forgiving where one can feel the load. At my raffle-won casting lesson with John Bilotta, he had me put his reel with a 7wt on my 5 weight Sage DS so i could better practice double hauls by feeling the rod load. Well, I might just fish a 7 weight line from now on. ;-) I also hear the yellow glass Eagle Claw rods are pretty sweet and dirt cheap to boot. Been thinking about picking one up sometime.

Mark

On Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 11:10:28 AM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote:

... I'm done with graphite...

[D. Walker]

Mark,

Greentop in Richmond on 95 has the yellow glass eagle claw rods FYI

[TurbineBlade]

I have the eagle claw in the 6'6" 3/4 weight configuration.  It works fine, but I prefer the taper of the fenwick ff706 a bit more.  There are some shorter fenwicks (and plenty of other companies from way back who made excellent glass rods) out there but there's something about that 7' length that is very enjoyable.  

Gene ("Oh, my head") TB

On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 11:26:21 AM UTC-5, namfos wrote:

[Carl Z.]

Mark, 

Don't get me started with slow rods.  I love em.  I haven't tried the Cabella's Fish Eagle, but there are so many good graphite rods from the 1970's and 80's.  And the old Fenwick 8' glass rods are my goto rods for bass.  The only problem with them are they are all 2pc rods. 

I have been looking at the new Reddington Classic Trout rods as a modern moderate action rod.  I've been quite impressed with the one I cast (and the price is right).

Gene,  what happend to the FF807 that you used to like. Has the FF706 taken it's place?  

Carl

Carl

--

Carl Zmola

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[TurbineBlade]

Hi Carl - I actually don't have a ff807, but I do have (and like) the ff857.  I also fish a couple of ff80s and like those too.  I've heard people say they like the ff80 with a 8-weight line for bass at short range, and I think it works well for that too.  They're also great with a 250gr sinking line for shad. 

The ff706 is great -- lighter, shorter, lower swing weight, it's just a nice rod.  I Think I'm going to hit the SNP with it heavily this coming year, though I can't be sure I'll like it better than the longer TFO finesse I usually use for that (389 config.).  For warm water canoe fishing I think it'll be ideal.  

A lot of folks like those Reddington CTs.  I can vouch that the finesse 389 is quite moderate for graphite, but I've never cast the reddington.  Sometime we'll get together and I'll bring the finesse -- you might like that rod too.  The TFOs don't come with rod tubes, but I don't like rod tubes that require reel removal -- I just use them for "extra rod in the truck in case of accident" and throw the rest in the basement to be forgotten.  

Of course, my tube + reel cases all say "Caution:  Contains live snakes".  Potential thieves have to think harder...

Gene

On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 1:26:32 PM UTC-5, Carl wrote:

Mark, 

Don't get me started with slow rods.  I love em.  I haven't tried the Cabella's Fish Eagle, but there are so many good graphite rods from the 1970's and 80's.  And the old Fenwick 8' glass rods are my goto rods for bass.  The only problem with them are they are all 2pc rods. 

I have been looking at the new Reddington Classic Trout rods as a modern moderate action rod.  I've been quite impressed with the one I cast (and the price is right).

Gene,  what happend to the FF807 that you used to like. Has the FF706 taken it's place?  

Carl

Carl

--

Carl Zmola

On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 12:08 PM, TurbineBlade <doubl...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have the eagle claw in the 6'6" 3/4 weight configuration.  It works fine, but I prefer the taper of the fenwick ff706 a bit more.  There are some shorter fenwicks (and plenty of other companies from way back who made excellent glass rods) out there but there's something about that 7' length that is very enjoyable.  

Gene ("Oh, my head") TB

On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 11:26:21 AM UTC-5, namfos wrote:

Nice SMB, Absolut Blade.

If you can find a 20-25 year old Cabelas Fish Eagle fly rod, the ones they labeled with two line weights, you'd find them suitably slow and forgiving where one can feel the load. At my raffle-won casting lesson with John Bilotta, he had me put his reel with a 7wt on my 5 weight Sage DS so i could better practice double hauls by feeling the rod load. Well, I might just fish a 7 weight line from now on. ;-) I also hear the yellow glass Eagle Claw rods are pretty sweet and dirt cheap to boot. Been thinking about picking one up sometime.

Mark

On Saturday, February 6, 2016 at 11:10:28 AM UTC-5, TurbineBlade wrote:

... I'm done with graphite...

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[namfos]

Thanks. I'll stop there en route home from my visit to see my mom in NC. Been in there once and I think they are an improvement over Gander Mountain.

Mark

[namfos]

I guess I'm Gene's accelerant in this slow rod discussion, Carl. 

Speaking of slow, over the years I've come into 3 cane rods which I don't use often enough. At January's NCC-TU meeting I heard about some bamboo rod gathering in MD that I might go to just for the hell of it and to see what bamboo aficionados say about the rods I've acquired.

Mark

On Sunday, February 7, 2016 at 1:26:32 PM UTC-5, Carl wrote:

[TurbineBlade]

There's a lot to be said about moderate action fly rods -- they have great feel, they provide more of a sense of loading and unloading without turning your head to look, they are less fatiguing (to me) since the rod does more of the work with less input, and they are excellent for fighting fish.  I've hear it said that the additional "flex" effectively shortens the lever when a fish is on, and thus is less tiring for the angler to fight and land.  It sure seems true, but I don't know enough to prove it. 

The only situations that seems to offer a clear advantage to fast graphite (to me) are mostly in SW fishing, and I don't fish SW much at all.  Also, for situations where you really want more length you are probably better off with graphite due to swing weight. 

Gene