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Knotty
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Posted: Fri Jul 27, 2018 10:16 pm • # 1 |
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Joined: 08/27/15 Posts: 781 Location: New Jersey
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Was at a park practicing single handed micro Spey with a 7”6” Echo Solo 3 wt, OPST 150 grain Commando head, 5’ sink tip and a grass leader. The grass leader is a bunch of short sections of Maxima blood knotted together leaving stubby tags to grip the grass and help act as an anchor. https://www.deneki.com/2014/12/grass-leaders/Replacing the grass leader with a fishable one, I tied on a craft fur fly and decided to see if I could interest any of the bass in the park’s pond. Standing on the bank I just used a single back cast to launch the fly well into the lake as there really wasn’t a way to Spey cast in this situation. After about a dozen casts I detect a take, tighten my index finger on the Lazar running line and set the hook. Suddenly the unseen fish takes off and the fast moving line burns my finger. Reacting to the pain I quickly switch hands only to burn the ring finger on the other hand (visible in pic below). Time to tighten the drag and get things under control. With the fishing peeling drag I’m wondering if this might be a carp. It was just so much more powerful than any bass I’d expect from this pond. Thanks to 1X tippet I’m able to keep a lot of pressure on the fish. It makes a few runs but as it tires and I get it near the bank I see it’s a catfish. Brush at the pond’s edge prevents me from dragging it onto land as I didn’t have a net. Tried lifting it by the line but was worried it might snap. Luckily the car was just behind me and the fish was tired so I could grab a net before it swam away again. This was the heaviest fish I’ve ever caught by any means. Getting it on a 3 wt made it extra special. No scale but it was 24” and maybe 7 pounds. Anyone know what type of cat it is?
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linecaster
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 8:51 am • # 2 |
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Joined: 07/10/09 Posts: 1555 Location: Plano Texas
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Knotty, Well done on the Micro Spey. I can picture the line sailing out onto the pond. I tied up one of those leaders but lost it , guess I must tie another . The catfish looks like a channel catfish. A real lunker, thanks for the very interesting report. If all goes well I hope to fish with my Micro set up this evening.
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Knotty
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 7:21 pm • # 3 |
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Joined: 08/27/15 Posts: 781 Location: New Jersey
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Took the 3 wt with the same micro Spey setup as yesterday out in the kayak today and landed this nice largemouth before switching over to BFS which yielded another 8. Managing the thin running line in the kayak was quite a chore but worth it.
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linecaster
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Posted: Sat Jul 28, 2018 11:01 pm • # 4 |
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Joined: 07/10/09 Posts: 1555 Location: Plano Texas
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Nice bass Knotty, I used my 2 Weight TFO Professional tonight with shooting head to match and Slickshooter line. Had a blast will try upload some pictures. Love the shooting heads.@
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Cliff Hilbert
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 10:08 am • # 5 |
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Joined: 12/27/10 Posts: 2253 Location: Plano, TX
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Nice ones, especially on a 3-wt!
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JimRed
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 5:21 pm • # 6 |
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Joined: 08/31/15 Posts: 1042 Location: Coppell, TX
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Very nice fish Knotty and good exciting report.
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Canoeman1947
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:46 pm • # 7 |
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Joined: 01/26/09 Posts: 617 Location: Oklahoma
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Knotty, That bass is nice, but that catfish is a brute. That would have been a handful with a 6 weight, but on a 3 it had to be a hoot. Larry
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Knotty
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Posted: Sun Jul 29, 2018 8:55 pm • # 8 |
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Joined: 08/27/15 Posts: 781 Location: New Jersey
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Thanks guys.
One take away from the two catches was that the bass could easily have been handled on a click & pawl reel (and light tippet) but the catfish made good use of Lamson’s excellent drag system paired with 1X, though palming a more basic reel would also have worked.
I think the Lamson Liquid reels are a great value. Especially the 3 pack which comes with two extra spools and a case. I have 3 packs of the 1.5 and 2 for my UL and 5-7 weights respectively. The extra spools make it easy to switch between WF, sinking and OPST lines.
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Knotty
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 3:10 pm • # 9 |
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Hero Member |
Joined: 08/27/15 Posts: 781 Location: New Jersey
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Been casting some pretty big poppers on the Skagit setup that the bass have unfortunately been ignoring. Strangely, they’ve taken a good number of large sunfish which I haven’t bothered to photograph. At the local duck pond I used the setup to cast smaller foam poppers in an area where there was little back cast room. An area where misjudged back casts have cost many a fly. Caught the attention of some bass but the sunfish always got there first. Did get this nice crappie though. Recognize the fly Fishnmack? http://ultralightflyfishing.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=101&t=12132
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linecaster
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Posted: Tue Jul 31, 2018 8:49 pm • # 10 |
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Joined: 07/10/09 Posts: 1555 Location: Plano Texas
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Knotty good job, nice fish and report once again. As said in the classic's , practice makes perfect. Many benefits to Skagit and you have demostrated it. We'll done.
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FerdyRatTara
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2018 10:04 pm • # 11 |
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Joined: 08/21/18 Posts: 6
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Hobie1dog
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Posted: Mon Sep 17, 2018 4:16 pm • # 12 |
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Full Member |
Joined: 06/28/18 Posts: 121 Location: Cornelius, NC
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Thanks for sharing this with us. Pictures are great instead of the boring text.
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