Braid is more sensitive (no stretch, mono is like a rubber band), much smaller in diameter (cranks run deeper, can fit more on a reel), takes much longer to degrade, and has very little memory. It's also less abrasion resistant, and requires different knots than mono.
It's so slick and tough that most knots will slip, or it will cut through itself. Palomar or double palomar works well.
I stink at tying knots, so I use a mono leader, since a trilene knot is one that I can remember.
I have little to no experience with those reels. Braid does cast a little further than mono, but not a whole lot more.
Nanofil is king for casting distance, and it has more memory than braid, which may make it better for a spincaster. Knots are a pain in the butt though. It's a lot cheaper on ebay if you want to buy some to try it out.
Put in at Masters tonight. Water is clear in the main lake. Some debris in coves. Water was more stained further down the lake.
I only caught two crappie. Both females, 20 feet of water. One full of eggs, one not. Not sure what to think of that.
I caught them around 10ft deep, close to the bank.
They may be even shallower, but fishing there is next to impossible with all of the bushes and trees.
I took the boat out tonight. Water was high, clear with lots of debris at Wheatland, chocolate milk if you went any further south.
The crappie are in full spawn, I caught jet black males in 10ft with torn up tails. Females moved in later at dusk. Water was 63 degrees, give or take. Fishing was difficult with all the bushes and vegetation on the bank.
Be careful out there, lots of debris and logs floating out in the main channel.
Just buy a new carb. $20 and 5 minutes will have it purring like new.
I don't even rebuild those small 2 stroke carbs. They're really tricky to get right, and it's not worth the time when a replacement is so cheap.
I refurbed a pair of Mantises (manti?) a couple years ago. All they needed was fuel lines and a new carb.
I've been hitting Wheatland every couple days lately. The crappie are still not moving in shallow up there as far as I can tell, although I've seen that they are further down the lake. I've been finding them on brush in 15-20 feet.
Went to Wheatland again tonight, they were finicky. Caught 3 crappie and a white. Crappie were still on brush, 18-20ft.
Water was 55 around the dam, and 60 closer to the ramp. Should be any day now.
I caught them on Wednesday on brush in 20 feet, and one 14" female on a tree in 12 feet. Caught one male that was just starting to turn black.
I don't think it will be much longer. The cold snap earlier this week really slowed things down.
I went looking for crappie last night.
Saw that the Tandem Fly guys were catching them on brush in 20ft of water, so I checked every brushpile I knew of that was close to that depth around Cedar Ridge. Did not see any fish on the graph, and did not catch anything.
The water has cooled off quite a bit, 51-54 degrees.
The wind was a booger for sure, I can take a beating, but draw the line at getting soaked in 50* water.
So a guy can put it an Aldrich and run upriver to the good spots? Anything to watch out for?
Might give it a try on Wednesday, since the main lake hasn't been giving up much of anything.
Went on Tuesday. Could not find them.
Had some success a couple days before but it was not hot and heavy by any means. I'd expect them to be moving into creek mouths any day now.
I'd like to make a trip down this summer, probably early to mid June, as soon as the trolling bite starts to heat up.
I'm just not sure where to go, hoping to get into some walleyes.
Most of the reports I see are from K-dock, so that is an option. Also thinking about going to Theodosia, as the humps south of the 160 bridge seem like a good place for walleyes.