Back to the pond

[gillchaser999]

I’d been missing fishing the Town pond and after the little trip yesterday, I decided to give it another try.
But with a different combo .
One better suited to float fishing .
I had a 5’ Avid UL break on me a few weeks ago . St Croix no longer makes that model , so I’m most likely going to have to pick out a replacement from what’s being offered now .
So, today I took my 6’ SC Avid Panfish to see how it would do as a float rod .
Unless I bump up , and pay the extra , to the Avid Elite Panfish , the shortest rod offered in any Avid is AEP at 5’6” , but $385 is a little too much of an investment even if I only have to pay half .
I’m thinking of a 2 piece 7’ Avid Panfish for a float rod .
If the 6’ worked ok , a 7 footer would be better .

I fished my tungsten jigs , mostly 3.8mm and 4.0mm with a size 10 Mustad hook , but switched to a black Eagle Claw lil’ nasty size 10 sickle hook jig for the last forty five minutes, which proved to do the best
Not only did the pattern catch fish , it hooked them up and held them . I didn’t have a single fish get off . Except for the last one I hooked that the line broke at the bobber .
The bobber probably damaged the 2# Floroclear and I didn’t check it and retie like I should have .
I should have used braid with a 4# leader , but wanted to give the 2# a chance , forgetting the high banks I needed to drag my catch up if they were any size .
In and hour and a half I caught one small largemouth, two bluegills , and my favorite, six shellcrackers.
The 6’ S C A P ULF paired with a Shimano 1000 Stradic performed great . I was concerned about the grip , because that is what I didn’t like for twitching plastics and jigs .
But twitching a bobber didn’t give me any issues.
Bobber fishing works pretty good on a small pond .
I haven’t had as good of luck fishing bigger lakes .