JestersHK

Ham I was telling Tyler about your nano setup. The guys down with me this past weekend were both running airstream as well and you cannot beat them for the money. They are fantastic at that price point. We talked a lot about different gear and setups and just jigging methods in general. Differences between boat and wading, rod setups and lengths. Although I do love my Avids they are not perfect. They cork under reel where I want my thumb on the graphite, and I wished the reel seats were flip flopped the other way on top so I dont unscrew them loose. I'll be having Mike build me a 6'6 ultralight here soon. My Avid ultralight is 6 and I'd like a touch longer for the boat.

Hopefully he posts them up here soon. @MNtransplantto the white courtesy phone please lol.

Made it down yesterday with a couple of my crew. Net up with Tyler @MNtransplant to go fishing in the dark. We started around 7pm I think and I stuck a fatty bow on the jig rod while it was light out. Tyler stuck 2 Walter's while we were wadering up. A trend that would continue in the dark. I fished signature series rainbow X80 from the original batch and it was a catching machine. Had about 20 rainbows and a 20in walter. The boys caught some fish too. I'll let Tyler post his play by play, but let's just say his night was very toothy! We fished till 430 and then slept for 2 hours before getting ready for the tournament at Phil's. CAM is a a great ministry down here and such a worthy cause to come fish. Phil and crew took care of us too with ab great meal afterwards. As for fishing it was pretty tough today for me. Lots of boats and spread out fish. I will say the quality was fantastic. I caught 7 fish over 18in today including a brownie. I finished tournament with 12 fish for 182 inches. I lost to Gunny by 1 inch lol! We could never find a good school of dinks to pick on and I only did as well as I did due to solid fish and an awesome net Man. Tyler was a stud today needing fish. We quickly switched to 2lb 3/32oz white jigs and I didn't throw anything else. Fished low and slow and they were all subtle bites except the brown. Over all a great weekend so far. I think I broke the boys though they are calling it a night and I'm not complaining for once.

Terrible news Pete. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

Top ones almost purple. Thanks for sharing

Dang lucky! Very nice and glad weathers cooperating. Thanks for sharing, beautiful fish.

Nice job buddy catching all that bait!

Good luck! Should be great fishing. Save some walters till we get down there.

Haha I saw that, I guess they got my memo

Pete this ones just for fun, and not big at all. Usually The Doty clan is there and a few others. Never too many boats and it's all for a great cause and charity that Phil supports down there. I'm not a big tournament kind of guy, but do enjoy this one every year. @Seth if you cancel your bass trip we'll find a spot for ya. Rob and Kev can squeeze ya in their boat too if you dont want to drag the beast down in the rain. Looking forward to finding some donkeys in the rain with Tyler and Ryan. Should be able to cover a bunch of water with the gates still open. Didn't look like they plan on shutting gates any time soon, but maybe @Phil Lilley knows more?

Great article. That's a beast rainbow too!

Ugh... so sorry to be reading this. Was still hoping for the best yesterday. If there's anything we can do just let us know. Will keep you all in our prayers here with my clan.

I get excited catching 1 lbers on my fly rod. They bulldog hard, can't imagine one that size on a light long rod...

Very nice bows! Sounds like rain didn't wash them all away.

I'm def not sure of the proper way, Just what the older wiser guys shared with me lol. I will say I use a palomar knot for just about everything and it's easy to leave a long tag. Bill looks like your clients had a blast, and I too would love to hear how you setup the tandem if you don't mind sharing?

I've done it both was Travis, and I prefer the long tag method. Or if it's a bigger size I'll tie off again on the eye of i can get the tippett through. I've always done long tags for nymph rigs as that's how I was shown the "proper way" by an older gentleman in CO.

Love the colors on the salty fish brother! Even if they are bait lol. Congrats to you and the fam my friend. Safe travels on the way home!

I have both premiers and Avids. For me the extra sensitivity on the Avids is noticeable but then again I'm fishing mostly by rod tip, at night, in the darkness. Im glad you're happy with it buddy. St. Croix is a great company though. I've broken 3 so far and they've taken care of me every time. Last one that really hurt was I broke 4in off the tip of my Avid jerk bait rod. Sent them a picture and service request, they said $50 and they'll send me a replacement, and I got to keep my old one as well. Slapped a new eye on that sucker and it still fishes great, just a tad less sensitive.

@rps not sure where you're located, but I've heard Bullseye Bait and tackle does decent reel repair. Just what I've heard though, I've gone to just ordering parts and tearing them down myself...

Water water everywhere. Last trip down I did see 4 small walleyes up by the darn. Swimming together like a little Wolfpack. Been a while since I caught one up there. Crazy we're back to gates already even with that 4th unit now fixed...

Happy birthday Rick! Wishing you many more.

Beautiful Bow, wish you could of got that brownie in.

Hahaha, you know it was killing me to waste all that time sitting down eating lol. No really enjoyed the time with them though.

Hey buddy, you forget that you may have taught me a thing or two when we had our girls out fishing about those micros! Im in! Challenge accepted. I'm even down for hosting some boot camp training sessions where I drag you up and down Taney all night till ther sun comes up.

Despite being tired I drug Geno out tonight. We hit the water around 11:30 and started up from outlet #1. I tied on a Doty SS 606 rainbow, and Geno started out with a brown trout pattern xrap, but quickly switched over to throwing a Doty SS 606 in what Duane calls the green weenie. My first cast I got hit hard and had a chunky 15in on. 2nd cast had another decent one that popped off. 3rd cast was a solid 16in bow, 4th cast got hit like a fright train and had a nice 17in. I was starting to get excited. Geno hadn't had a bite despite standing right next to me. I threw him SS606 and bam first cast he caught a little smaller one. I missed a bite, and Geno popped another one, and then they went quiet for a bit. Was a pretty crazy first half hour of catching. I had 6 bows landed, Geno had 3 and the smallest was 15 or 16inches... We were sharing my net between us as Geno forgot his so that was slowing us down a bit too. We fished a mix of super slow cranking with just some twitches and pause to a fairly fast retrieve and really working the jerk. One things for certain they were crushing it. Just hammering both types of retrieves. We worked our way down past outlet 1 and after a few smaller fish I got hit way out shortly after my bait hit the water. I knew it was solid and it was peeling line and had drag cooking for a few runs. Finally landed her and was a nice 20in on the tape. Just a big heavy healthy bow. Geno followed with another just a hair smaller. Then it went quiet again for a bit. We picked up a few more then went down past outlet 2 just to give it a try but neither of us even got a bump. Decided to call it at 2 am and we threw in the towel. A pretty good night for sure, quality over quantity, but I didn't catch a fish under 15in.