The fishing thread ( not about fish fertilizer)

[Jjgrow420]

Well it's that time again. Another year older, and salmon season is upon us. Heading up to the north shore tmrw into wed. Hope to put some bends in my rod this time. Been a couple years since I had a good day salmon fishing on my bday. Heck been a couple years since I caught one on my bday. Weather been hot end of Aug keeping the fishes at bay. (literally). Usually hits around Sept 3 but this year it's been unusually cool with alot of rain and the fishes are there. Wish for a fish!

 

[OldMedUser]

Well it's that time again. Another year older, and salmon season is upon us. Heading up to the north shore tmrw into wed. Hope to put some bends in my rod this time. Been a couple years since I had a good day salmon fishing on my bday. Heck been a couple years since I caught one on my bday. Weather been hot end of Aug keeping the fishes at bay. (literally). Usually hits around Sept 3 but this year it's been unusually cool with alot of rain and the fishes are there. Wish for a fish!

I'm hoping to head out to BC and try to put a coho on my line on my b-day. Oct. 14 but not sure I'll get out there this year. Just getting back into fishing up here in Bumf**k, Alberta after slacking off the last 20 years. When you're spoiled by salmon and steelhead it's hard to love the pike but they're fun on the fly and there is a gov't stocked trout lake just 25 min away so having fun there now.

Happy b-day and fingers crossed you get tight lines!

 

[Jjgrow420]

I'm hoping to head out to BC and try to put a coho on my line on my b-day. Oct. 14 but not sure I'll get out there this year. Just getting back into fishing up here in Bumf**k, Alberta after slacking off the last 20 years. When you're spoiled by salmon and steelhead it's hard to love the pike but they're fun on the fly and there is a gov't stocked trout lake just 25 min away so having fun there now.

Happy b-day and fingers crossed you get tight lines!

Thanks for the well wishes for fishes!
Pike can be fun! Whatever it is the tug is the drug
If you're ever in Ontario....

 

[Wizzlebiz]

Well it's that time again. Another year older, and salmon season is upon us. Heading up to the north shore tmrw into wed. Hope to put some bends in my rod this time. Been a couple years since I had a good day salmon fishing on my bday. Heck been a couple years since I caught one on my bday. Weather been hot end of Aug keeping the fishes at bay. (literally). Usually hits around Sept 3 but this year it's been unusually cool with alot of rain and the fishes are there. Wish for a fish!

Good luck sir. Nothing quite feels like a bday fish.

Have a blast!

 

[Jjgrow420]

Good luck sir. Nothing quite feels like a bday fish.

Have a blast!

Thanks man!!!

 

[Jjgrow420]

 

[BarnBuster]

Well it's that time again. Another year older, and salmon season is upon us. Heading up to the north shore tmrw into wed. Hope to put some bends in my rod this time. Been a couple years since I had a good day salmon fishing on my bday. Heck been a couple years since I caught one on my bday. Weather been hot end of Aug keeping the fishes at bay. (literally). Usually hits around Sept 3 but this year it's been unusually cool with alot of rain and the fishes are there. Wish for a fish!

Happy belated, you just wait until next year!! @curious2garden

 

[OldMedUser]

View attachment 5320391

Nice chinook, (King), I believe tho it's been some time since I've seen one in the wild.

Very happy b-day indeed!

 

[Jjgrow420]

Nice chinook, (King), I believe tho it's been some time since I've seen one in the wild.

Very happy b-day indeed!

Thanks!!! More pics to follow...runs just starting.
It's nice cause my buddy got 1 last night too so we both got fish. Sweet

 

[Jjgrow420]

Call me a greedy little pig, but I'm heading out for the end of my bday to try and make it a multi species bday. Trying for walleye before the days done! Maybe I'll have a pic. I'll bring a salmon spoon and have a few casts too. Wish me luck! Been awake going on 40hrs now with no sleep. Minus the 40min power nap on the pier before I was woken by my buddies screaming reel. God I love fishing.

 

[OldMedUser]

Thanks!!! More pics to follow...runs just starting.
It's nice cause my buddy got 1 last night too so we both got fish. Sweet

At my old stomping grounds in the Fraser Valley the coho start running in the Chilliwack River right around my b-day in mid-Oct so I try to head out the beginning of Oct as we usually take a run up to the family cabin on our Thanksgiving to shut it down for the winter. Last time I went in 2021 I caught the family record breaking rainbow trout at 21.5". Over 50 years ago my oldest little sister caught an 18.5" spawner and crowed about it ever since. She passed from ovarian cancer in March 2020 so all I could do was hold it up and show it to the clouds.

Caught it on that little Vibrax spinner equipped with a single, barbless hook as I rig all my terminal tackle. Wish I'd caught it on my grandfather's old fly rod also in the pic.

 

[Jjgrow420]

I must have been a good boy this year because I decided to treat myself to another Calcutta d 301.

 

[OldMedUser]

I must have been a good boy this year because I decided to treat myself to another Calcutta d 301.
View attachment 5320818View attachment 5320819View attachment 5320821

I'm still using the Ambassadeur 5001C I got in '86 when I got my one and only bait-casting rod. First couple times I tried it I had bird nests with every cast and was ready to sell it for half I paid for it and stick with spinning reels. Some nice guy on the river saw me ripping my hair out and gave me a quick course on how to use it and I'm pretty damn good with it now. My anti-backlash drag was way too loose. Who knew.

 

[Jjgrow420]

I'm still using the Ambassadeur 5001C I got in '86 when I got my one and only bait-casting rod. First couple times I tried it I had bird nests with every cast and was ready to sell it for half I paid for it and stick with spinning reels. Some nice guy on the river saw me ripping my hair out and gave me a quick course on how to use it and I'm pretty damn good with it now. My anti-backlash drag was way too loose. Who knew.

Nice! I have an Abu ambassador but I blew it up on sturgeon . Hahaha. I put alot of abuse in my gear. I fish alot, and sometimes I'm climbing down some serious places to fish. I'll take a pic one day when I'm climbing down the ropes and chains to get down into some lesser traveled areas of the river. We hang garden hoses down the parts that are too steep to walk and traverse the hills holding onto the hoses.... Not for the weak at heart! Haha been a baitcast guy most of my career. They call me baitcaster JJ. Using one is literally second nature to me. Lol truth be told I can barley cast a spinning rod properly. Just don't use em. The ones I do have are baitrunners primary use cats and carp. Bought the wife a pflueger president so she can fish salmon with me too. Sometimes I use it for walleye. My flagship reel (Shimano Calcutta conquest te DC 201 circa 2003) is FN old and beat right up. I've worn deep grooves into the line guide and it wears my braid now. I bet if I took every cast I made with it and put them together they'd go around the world a couple times. Needs alot of work done. Prob is parts are hard to find now....but I still use it everyday.
I'm going to buy the newer version but I have to order it from Japan and it's gona cost me about a grand.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Worth every penny @raratt

 

[Jjgrow420]

This is the new BFS. (bait finesse system). It's wicked for light gear. I heard there's a new conquest DC but it's hard to find (brand new). Might opt for the 2019 version which is only $550ish
Mine was their first te dc model made before they called it conquest. 2003/04. I've caught thousands of fish with it since then....so I'm not too sad it's nearing its end.
I dont fuck around! I want the best. Your gear makes the world of a difference. I can outcast anyone with my conquest dc in any conditions. Hands down. Don't care who you are. That gives me an advantage targeting staging fish from shore.

 

[Jjgrow420]

Big weather system moving tnt. Try before work tmrw. Heading out round 4ish.

 

[Wizzlebiz]

This is the new BFS. (bait finesse system). It's wicked for light gear. I heard there's a new conquest DC but it's hard to find (brand new). Might opt for the 2019 version which is only $550ish
Mine was their first te dc model made before they called it conquest. 2003/04. I've caught thousands of fish with it since then....so I'm not too sad it's nearing its end.
I dont fuck around! I want the best. Your gear makes the world of a difference. I can outcast anyone with my conquest dc in any conditions. Hands down. Don't care who you are. That gives me an advantage targeting staging fish from shore.

It's really good but I'm partial to my aldebaran. Can cast a 10th of a oz with ease.


I have been using it for micro crank baits and more recently micro glide baits.

I mean micro lol




BFS is tons of fun.

For those who are wondering what BFS is. Bait Finesse System. Essentially rod and reel in baitcaster form that can handle lures you would normally need a spinning setup for.

Il take that cast challenge! I feel the same you do with my aldebaran

 

[OldMedUser]

Nice! I have an Abu ambassador but I blew it up on sturgeon . Hahaha. I put alot of abuse in my gear. I fish alot, and sometimes I'm climbing down some serious places to fish. I'll take a pic one day when I'm climbing down the ropes and chains to get down into some lesser traveled areas of the river. We hang garden hoses down the parts that are too steep to walk and traverse the hills holding onto the hoses.... Not for the weak at heart! Haha been a baitcast guy most of my career. They call me baitcaster JJ. Using one is literally second nature to me. Lol truth be told I can barley cast a spinning rod properly. Just don't use em. The ones I do have are baitrunners primary use cats and carp. Bought the wife a pflueger president so she can fish salmon with me too. Sometimes I use it for walleye. My flagship reel (Shimano Calcutta conquest te DC 201 circa 2003) is FN old and beat right up. I've worn deep grooves into the line guide and it wears my braid now. I bet if I took every cast I made with it and put them together they'd go around the world a couple times. Needs alot of work done. Prob is parts are hard to find now....but I still use it everyday.
I'm going to buy the newer version but I have to order it from Japan and it's gona cost me about a grand.

I've fished a lot of hard places too chasing salmon in the upper Chilliwack River and Coquihalla Canyon just outside Hope, BC. Lot of close calls just to get to pools to catch a damn fish. Really developed reflexes to toss the rods before grasping at whatever there was to grasp and the old Abu sure shows it. But like an old Chevy you just replace parts and keep it well oiled and they'll run forever even if they do look ready for the scrap yard. I bent the plate inside mine when casting a heavy slinky weight hard then the release popped and locked the line mid-cast. That was $65 for the part. I've also added all the upgrades like ceramic pawl and bearing gears instead of the bushing type. I bought the new graphite drag disks but the original is still smooth so keeping them for backup. I have a couple of new line guides in the kit but still using the last replacement one. Mono doesn't seem to hurt them any but I recently got some braid. I put 10# on my spinning reel to replace the 6# mono I've used forever for fishing coho and trout tho it's landed fish up to 35# more than a few times but using in flat water out in my belly boat when targeting coho and a big old chum takes the spinner.

The 10# brain is 1thou thinner than the 6# mono and on my new 9'6" spin rod casts a 5/8oz croc like a bullet.

I'm thinking of replacing the 10# mono on the ABU with 15 or 20# braid but the mono is near new so don't want to waste it. How do you like the braid in comparison on a bait-caster?

The ABU with the fly rod grip I'm making for the new rod.



Rigged up a lathe to turn the grip now that the glued corks are set. I have them on a 1/4" ready rod with thumbscrews to clamp them together. I've just run it with a couple different files to get the corks all nice and even and can now work on shaping it. I have the drill trigger locked down and am using my variac to control the speed. Seems to work like a hot damn! This is before smoothing but they are smoothed in the upper pic.



Think I'm going to go with the half-wells grip like the one in front. The new one will be 1/2" longer than that older one but looks shorter in the pic. That rod is the one I'm replacing as it got broke tho with a new tiptop casts a 6wt line just fine.

Got a lot of cork to remove to get there yet.

 

[OldMedUser]

Big weather system moving tnt. Try before work tmrw. Heading out round 4ish.

I meant to ask if you've ever fished a bait rod that has spiral/acid wrapped guides on it so the top section has the guides on the bottom instead of the top of the blank and if so how'd you like it?

I'm going to wrap one or two guides on my bait rod to see how it feels for next time I head out for pike. I'll leave the original two on the but section for now. The concept has been around for a long time and some rod companies are making them like that now but I only heard about it recently. Sound like a good idea to me.