Seth

I need to start bringing my fly rod and putting in some time with it down there. It's just hard for me to put the jig rod down. The last time I used the fly rod was a few years ago in the summer. The water was off and fish were midging everywhere just below the narrows. I hammered them on an olive micro about 2' under an indicator.

If anybody ever questions what I do in a tournament, wait a week and I'll have a video of it up on YouTube. 😁

Good job! It was a tough day for us weight wise. Numbers were great. Not sure how many we boated, but it was a bunch. We'd caught quite a few 1-2.5# pound fish between Fall Creek and Cooper Creek the previous two days so I was feeling pretty confident. Boy was I wrong! Everything we weighed was 13-15oz. I was surprised nobody brought in a brown as our boat and several others I spoke too caught several short of the 20" mark.

I ended up going with a Shimano Stradic FL 1000. It's quite the step up over the Pflueger President. Hopefully it ain't cursed because I never did catch a decent fish on it during the tournament. One of the worst days of quality I've had on Taneycomo in a long time. It would have been a good day for a CAM style tournament for sure.

I doubt there is much cheating going on in these tournaments either, but it never hurts to remind anglers that you’re not bluffing.

Only if they are from the factory jet line up and they have the pump rated horsepower on the cowling. If it says the powerhead rating on the cowling, it came from the factory with a prop lower.

I always do better on quality when the water is high and fast.

Darn it! I was hoping it would stay at 15k cfs for the tournament.

I think the confusion is with the factory jets versus replacing a prop lower with a jer. Factory jets come labeled as 40, 60 and 105hp. The powerheads are actually 60, 90 and 150 though. The HO motors are sold from the factory as props and then the dealer has to swap the lower to a jet.

Having power tilt/trim will spoil you. I run a jet and trim it all the way down so I get up on plane the quickest. When I'm on plane, I will trim the motor back a bit and gain several more MPH. That's just outboards in general and not specific to those with jet lowers.

Horsepower and displacement are all that really matters when it comes to jets. The gear case stuff doesn't pertain as I think that is only for the prop lowers. Is that right @fishinwrench?

https://www.evinrude.com/en-US/e-tec/e-tec-full-specs.html#tab=7

The 60 is a 52.7cu block and the 60ho is 79.1. I imagine the 60ho will have more noticeable torque since due to the higher displacement and extra cylinder. The 60ho also weighs 80lbs more than the non-ho 60. I'd go with the 60ho or bump up to the 90 since they weigh the same (same block as Brett already mentioned).

I bought a spool 3lbs P-line Floroclear to try this weekend. A few weeks ago I was trying out a Riffle custom rod and he had a Shimano Nasci spooled up with 3# Gamma Touch fluorocarbon. That 3lbs setup was awesome! It felt like I was casting 2#, but you could tell it was stronger as I never broke off any fish on the hook set like I tend to eventually do with 2# if I don't retire after a bunch of fish. I'll be curious to see if the Floroclear is as good as the Gamma Touch. It's definitely a lot cheaper!

Thanks Bill! I've been using Pline, Trilene XL and the SOS line in 2-4# test for several years and am not really partial to any of it. It all seems to work the same to me. I finally gave in and bought a spool of 2# Maxima, but haven't really got a chance to use it much since Taney has been running so much water this winter. It's pretty well been a 4# line and 1/8oz jig for me all winter.

@Bill Babler so do you think it's even worth spending the extra $100-120 for a Shimano Stradic or Daiwa Ballstic over the Fuego? Another member said they really like the Daiwa BG model as well. The biggest difference that I'm seeing comes down to weight. The BG is quite a bit heavier, but the Fuego isn't too far off in weight from the Stradic CI4 and Ballstic models and it's only like $20 more than the BG. The Daiwa reels seem to hold quite a bit of line with their deep spool design. Are you putting backing on the reels before hand or just filling it up from the start with whatever main line you are using for trout?

If you ever start getting in to the micro jig and float deal, I like tying gold head olive, orange head brown, gold head ginger and chrome head pink in 1/80-1/100oz.

These are the colors I carry these days. Sculpin/ginger is what I find myself using the most followed by white. White Black/olive Black/Yellow Green head/sculpin/ginger Orange head/sculpin/peach green or brown head/sculpin/burnt orange

I fried up a few breasts today for lunch. Boy were they good! Cut them up in to bite sized pieces, dredged in flour, egg wash and Italian bread crumbs and then deep fried for two minutes at 350 degrees. Not sure if it's because I cut them in smaller pieces or what, but they seemed extra juicy and much better than the fried wild turkey that I've made the past few times. I'm going to fry the rest up next weekend for us when we are down at Taneycomo for Lilleys' Elfrink trout tournament.

I went on a pheasant shoot today and brought back 12 pheasants worth of breast meat. Anybody got anything super tasty besides the typical season, batter and fry?

If it was all about the graphs, then everybody at Eufala should have been able to do what Wheeler did, but that was far from the case. Graphs did help him find those fish, but he had to know when it was right to go back and try to make them bite. He said he couldn't catch them prior to that point.

Check out this video about the setup Wheeler is using on the bow. He runs Humminbird, Lowrance and Garmin as they all seem to excel at certain things. I'm sure he could get any one of those guys to sponsor him, but he feels it's worth more to buy the units out of pocket so he isn't limited to one brand. He makes a pretty good case after the show he put on at Eufala.

After reading up on the BG series, I may save the money and go with one of those. A lot of people compare to them to reels around the $200 price point, albeit just a bit heavier.

I love their bait casting reels, but haven't tried any spinning gear. What model would be equivalent to the Shimano Stradic and Pflueger Patriarch? I'm pretty sure Mr Zig Jig had a higher end Daiwa reel on a Crossfire rod at Jig Fest this year that I was playing around with and it felt amazing! I'm not sure what model it was though.

I'm having a Riffle MHX trout rod built for me and am looking at pairing it up with one of these reels. I've always used the Pfleuger Presidents in the past, but want to put something higher end on this rod. The biggest difference that I have seen is that the Shimano does have a faster gear ratio. The Pflueger has a few more bearings, but I doubt that really makes a noticeable difference. Does anybody have any input on either of these reels?