A Little Giving Back

You have all seen my posts over the past few weeks of my salt water adventures. Up2Specks has been a gracious host twice to both see that myself and his other guests were in the fish and that a good time was had by all. His mission was well accomplished. The Salt Fest was a big success as was my follow up trip 2 weeks later on New Years Day. The fishing points app on my phone was at 99/100 yesterday and 95 today. Seeing this and remembering that Doug wanted to see how I do the tiny baits thing, I called him after yesterdays trip and told him to come on.

At the house at 7, me already connected and cooler packed, we stopped by the local Dunkin for a quick coffee and headed out. On the water by 7:30 we really started fishing by about 8. His new rod and tiny line would take a little getting used to so we started in a more open area before getting into the closer quarters. One by one we started getting a fish or two to cooperate and as the water temps got better, so did his comfort level and accuracy. A couple of fish caught our interest, one being the colors on the Warmouth in the pics below. Don’t recall ever seeing the reds spots this one was sporting. Small crappie and gills were also added into the catch and take for the day, though no giants were slain. Finished up in my usual spot and headed to another to finish the day. It didn’t work out as planned but we did move into a better class of fish at the second place. Then a couple of pounds of whisker trout made things a little interesting. Along the way we snacked and BS’d a bit and generally visited, enjoying the bluebird day and each other’s company.

Near about 3 we wrapped u and headed back so he could get the drive home over before the game was over. Didn’t count the take but there was plenty enough of a mixed bag for a good dinner with a few crappie at 3/4 lb and a couple over that. I had a great day and learned a few things, and I think he did too. This was an average day for this kind of fishing and hope to have him back one day when the planets align just a bit better than they did today. Glad we got it done Doug, hope to see you over this way again one day soon. Hope everyone else that went today had a good day like we did, and until i see you on the water next time.........Skeet.


PS, more pics to come, cant access them yet for some reason.

Good day for sure. I think it was about this time a few years back I got into them stud warmouth like that. Fun for sure.

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Thin is definitely in...but as Tim said the learning curve using the "ultra-skinny" 2 lb nanofil mini-outfits won't appeal to all, but to me, that's just my cup-o-tea. Skeet referred to an experience he once had of his uni-knot to mono as feeling like a 2 by 4 going through his sensitive 6 footer. I had the same experience but jokingly said it felt like a pallet to me then I discovered the culprit = in an attempt to offset my tentativity with such a light mainline, I went with 6 lb Mr. Crappie leader. After trying Tim's outfit for feel it was like feeling butter that was left out in Florida's sun in the August 100 degree heat...SMOOOOTH!! I quickly duplicated his setup and it was Mr. Butterworth's turn, lolJumping Jacks Icon. Always in search of an alternative, especially when the tutor has an entrenched mindset that his time-proven lure(1/64 oz. itty-bitty) is not to be deviated from. I started to catch Tim looking sideways while using his adeptly hand-tied 1/64 oz. "grey ghost" chenille/mylar gem that started yielding rod arches. Although he didn't make it out of his modus operandi, we both showed that there is always more than one way to skin a cat. Too beautiful a Florida day as our black apparel easily proved as beads of perspiration turned into a waterfall of fun with friends. To say that chiding and chatter were limited would be untruthing except for the chorus of limpkins and other Florida birds that were announcing our trespass into their world. Hundreds of baby gar, 1 exercised by the tutor, were frolicking in the shallows most of the day exemplifying Florida's on the water array of beauty. Thanks Tim for the sweet ride in your Bumble Bee(the other woman) and your diligence to help diminish my learning curve time frame. We both experienced positive yields from the day to include a multi-fish sweet spot, new to Skeet, that we experienced several keeper specks to include his top-shelf 1 lbr. If you think that a 3/4 lbr. + is unworthy of mention...try it on the straight skinny!:yikes:help

Thanks again Tim
u2s
Hopefully Skeet will show off his big girl pic.

Tim's surprise whiskered friend yielded quite the tug-o-war on the mini ultralite weaponry.:fish

Finally got to them

Nice report and sounds like you all had great company, thanks for that.


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Spend some time and get to know the FG knot and you will never feel the knot going through the guides. A little cumbersome to tie on water in bad conditions but a fantastic knot and very small.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by huntinslabs

Spend some time and get to know the FG knot and you will never feel the knot going through the guides. A little cumbersome to tie on water in bad conditions but a fantastic knot and very small.

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I recently started tying this knot and can attest that it is a PITA, but is a terrific knot for long leaders.

I agree that the FG is the best there is, but not needed for the 2lb nano to stren 4lb leader. It goes through all my rods like Doug attested to. What he had going on was a 3lb nano to a 6lb leader, hence the noise and drag. Once he changed to some 4lb leader, problem solved, and all knots were uni to uni. When I was over to fish with him and used 25lb flouro leader, the FG was the only way that I could get a good cast. The double uni with the bigger leader felt so hard that I thought it might knock a liner in one of my guides loose. No question, sat down and tied an FG, which I’m getting used to.

I'm getting better at it too, definitely a pain in rough water.. I do a lot of fishing for mangrove snapper offshore with my spinner using a jighead and a chunk of dead bait, use an FG knot to tie 12-20# fluoro to my main braid, usually run 25-30 ft of leader and just cut it back as it gets frayed. So much smoother than any other knot I've used.

I cant seem to get a good bite on the 10lb braid, gotta rig up something in boat with some alligator clips or something. Dont know how many times I get about half way through tying it and braid pulls out my mouth and knot slips, start over.

Wow, good job guys. Great pics. See what I've been missing out on taking care of my ailing Abbey.

Hey Boss, you remember I put one of those little rods in your hands once, with one of my hand ties. You had a smile on your face. We can do it again soon if your schedule will let you.

Great post and pics Skeet! Is there a FG knot tutorial that is better in your opinion?

No, but there is a couple of different ways to get it done. I’m still biting the braid too.