1/16th Jigger
 

Well today's the day I picked up my Steve F rod. Lou and I ran out to Steve's and saw his "man cave" where he does his magic. The rod is beautiful, and it has my initials on it.
I figure since I run 15 trolling rods, this jigging rod makes me 1/16th of a jigger.
Clyde's Bait and Tackle in Lansdown is having their Spring sale and all reels are on sale. I picked up a nice okuma EF 30 with 10 ball bearings and a 5.0:1 gear ratio for $62 (includes spolled with 30 lb yellow power pro, and tax).
The balance is perfect for the rod, and I can't wait to use it. I told Steve it will be used for everything. I'll catch perch, spot, stripers, blues, hardhead, and anything else swimming in the bay (rays-oh no).
I'm 57 years old, and never had an outfit like this before. When it came to hunting, I always had premium overunders. For trap shooting, I have a beautiful Browning. When I owned and trained gundogs, I would travel to N.Y. to pick out a puppy from Bob Wehle's Elhew line. But, when it comes to fishing, most of my tackle was either an ugly stick, or combo picked up from walmart, bass pro, or some fishing expo.
This is the first rod and reel that is sitting next to the fireplace:).
When I step on Pete's boat next time, Pete will not recognize my tackle. Don (Hunter), Mark (Baldzilla), and Pete have planted a seed for jigging.
I still like trolling, eating a sandwich, bs'ing with friends, and dragging fish through the water:eek:.
Thanks Steve for not only a new piece of tackle, but a piece of art as well.
5th (Marty)

Marty, funny you posted about this...when I first started jigging I went and got a BPS Bionic blade w/ a shimano spirex...man I thought that was the best LTJing combo ever made..
You don't want to know how much money I have tied up into what I use now...actually I don't want to know either...
I really like Shimano products, they seem to really hold up well..they can take the "heat" if you will..I am sure these Shimano saros' 2500 that I use now aren't made for handling 40# fish..but they can..:confused:
I have fished beside guys that aren't catching, and they can't figure out why...most of the time it's the rod they are using, they just cant feel the "tick" or bite..or the fishing line, I like 10# power pro..all year.
BTW You can still eat a sandwich...BS w/ friends LTJing too...

Congrats on the combo..Steve makes a nice rod, hope to see ya out there..
P.S. Don't let Don hold any fish in the pics, he's too big and makes the fish look small..:D

i'm more or less 100% whatever it is i'm doing. i can remember putting everything i had into trying to find a bass from behind a 1/2 sunk refrigerator or car tires at a screwed up little pond i saw from the highway, or crawling along rabbit trails just to access 'unfished' crystal clear water at loch raven, or,...

but most of my fishing is entirely normal. casting from community pier for the white perch, drfiting/jigging on the bay mostly unsuccessful, putting worms on hooks for kids, etc.. but among my more normal and mainstream goals this year, i want to go out on cold gray, rainy, windy day by myself and troll up a big fish. and be 100% into it while i'm doing it.

and on another day, be spooled up with the 10# power pro of course. 100%

10# braid:eek: How would I ever get those abandoned crab pots to the boat with 10#:D.

As I said before, I used 80# because that's all I had for trolling and I wound some on my reel for Pete's trips, when I felt the 30# braid at Clyde's, I thought I was going to break it trying a knot:rolleyes:.

I'm headed to some water in a few minutes to see how far I can cast this outfit and try to pick up some perch (C/R).

5th (Marty)

Put the fairy wand down ASAP. :D

Put your " Jaws " video in and watch it while holding a 4/0 reel.

Come back to the dark side - resist the pull of LTJ :D

Congrats on a fine custom rod.

Marty, I have 2 of Steve's rods. They are good for jigging, live lining, chumming and catching bait. I have a Stradic 3000 on one and a 4000 on the other. Wayne Morgan said he caught a 50 pound drum on his. Enjoy it............Gary

Marty..the 10# braid makes a huge difference...your line will get down faster to the strike zone and it has way better feel...when you are drifting on a pod of fish and you mark them..it will get you down fast...It can handle any fish in the bay...including a 50# drum...which is like pulling in an anchor..
I have caught 50# Rock on the 10#..
Once you've caught a few quality fish on it, you will laugh at trolling...:rolleyes:

i guess my mentality has always been to use the lightest test that will do the job. and still believe that.

and then i see freshwater bass fishermen using 65# power pro to catch 2-8# bass:eek:. blows me away! the explanation isn't the fish in their case, it's pulling them out of heavy cover. the heavy line lets them cast places i would consider suicidal for 10-12# test and just plain hoss in the fish, sticks, lily pads, grass and anything else the fish wraps around.

10 lb braid is way easier(and safer) to work with ! there was a guy last year at one of the winter warm water spots using 65lb braid and cutting it off AT THE REEL every time he got snagged :eek:...I wanted to puke !

Well I took the rod out for a test spin:). I was really happy with the way it cast. The 30# braid flew through the eyes.
Steve said the blank he uses makes feeling the slightest tick from a bite noticeable. I don't know how it would respond to 10# braid, but I think I detected a fish that farted close to my bait today:D.

I'll be trolling Thursday and Friday this week. I don't want to lose my touch with the broomsticks:rolleyes:.
5th (Marty)

Good luck on the troling, I am sure you will do well...lots of fish out there right now...

Marty,
Glad that you did find a reel to match up with your new rod and as I said you will feel the fish breath on your line. Now about the 30# line, you might want to put 10 or 12 on that reel remember your not trolling with that rod. :D Glad you liked the rod and thanks for coming up and seeing my “Man Cave” and it did come out nice but I did not know your initials were WTF…

Steve, the rod is sweet:). The 30 lb braid sails off the reel. I just couldn't make the leap from 80 lb braid to 10 lb:eek:. 30 lb was as low as I could make myself go. Any lower, and I would need a new set of glasses to see and tie knots:D.
I'll leave the 30 lb on until after the rays leave in October:rolleyes:. I'll try 10 lb on the fall schoolies and be ready for the power plant next winter.
Thanks again, I have received several compliments already on the rod. Even the wife thinks it was well worth the money. I have it "displayed" in the living room when not on the boat.
Marty (5th)

Well I guess only being 1/16 jigging for now I'll let the 30# go for now. :D I know that after you get use to LTJ you'll get that 10 or 12 on that reel. Glad you got the approval from the wife and I bet that rod looks nice displayed in the living room. Hope to see some reports that you got into some nice fish and that the rod did what is was built to do.

Marty, I havent taken the time to figure out what part jigger I am but will say that dragging knuckles is still a lot of fun!

I will say that I use 15lb power pro on my light tackle stuff. 30lb mono on trolling stuff

Greg;
But my 30 lb came in a pretty yellow color:D.

Here's another question for you. When you troll 6 rods, how do you select which 6 to troll? I look at all 15 rods and hear them wispering "pick me, pick me". It's so stressful. They have all spent the winter loveingly placed butt to tip in the basement rafters. Spiders have been crawling over them for months. All of them want to be taken down and wiped off with corrossion x again and have their terminal tackle replaced or at least retied for the season. If any are missing their little red bead just prior to the snap swivel, they want a new shiny one.
It's hard not to be prejudice toward a rod that caught a lot of fish last year, but then I think, maybe it was just the placement in the spread that made that rod catch. Maybe I should let the rod that only held a single chute last year come on the boat with me during preseason.
See; jiggers think trolling is easy. What do they do, pick up the same three rods all year long? They just don't understand the intricate details associated with trolling.
I won't even get into our selecting which lures to use preseason. All the sparkley mylar chutes have a smug look on their face knowing they are better than the rest. But I dissapoint quite a few and select their older cousins in order to grind off the barb and remove the stinger. I wish there was some sort of anaesthetic I could use with them, the screams associated with grinding down their little barbs is enough to make a grown man cry.

Anyway; the season has started, the skunk is off the boat, and six of my rods are now happy.
Marty (5th)

Marty funny you should say that..last year when one of family members wanted some fillets in late april I figured the "easiest" (insert smile here) was to grab a few of those spider web covered trolling rods so..
walked over and looked behind the old spare tires and stuff and there they were...grabbbed the first four along w/ 2 green umbrellas and 2 white umbrellas...and had our 3 man limit in 50 minutes....:D

But it was stressful.......:mad:
How do you guys ride in circles and around and around...and eat...Jeeez

Now as far as my light tackle rods go...they are lined up on the wall in order...very neat clean and organized..I have a hard time picking which one to use each trip...see it's all the same.....:D

BTW that greg is such a nice guy, last time I saw him at the "not so secret spot-burner spot" he was tieing leaders for everyone on the boat....had to because every time I looked up he was re-tieing.. unless he kept breaking off..:D

Thanks for keeping an eye on me Jamie and caring so much. :) If you want me to help tie your leaders, I certainly would help. I dont remember breaking off a lot, though I am sure i did snag up once. I do remember retying several times (and having to take a few business calls) as I believe I started with a 1oz spro bucktail with bkd, then went to a 1.5 oz and then a 2oz to try to feel bottom better. Since you were there first and wanting to show some courtesy to the the first boat there, we fished the water a little more differently than i had on the previous trips and was trying figure out the feel when casting across the outflow. Besides, the guys that were with me were better light tackle guys than I am and I was trying to follow their lead more to learn other ways to fish the area. We were glad to see you guys land a nice-sized fish just as we got there as it was the only fish over 30" we saw caught all day. Unfortuantely our largest was a little short of 30" by dave. Though it wasnt my best trip to the "secret spot" , we caught fish and had good time.

Unfotunately I lost more tackle last thursday while we were dragging our knuckles trolling (which is still a lot of fun to me ;) ) when we snagged something in 70' of water. I think I lost close to $50 in lures between a nice AllTackle tandem rig and an umbrella. :mad: