A thread for "Small Questions not Worthy of Their Own Thread"

[bunnielab]

I hope this is ok, as someone who is new to both fishing and kayak fishing I allways seems to come up with a ton of small questions and a lot of the time google fails me. I hate to make threads for all this tiny stuff so I stole this idea from a gun forum I used to read. If anyone else finds it useful please post away, if I have overstepped please ignore or delete.

Now for some questions:

(1) Is there a good way to removed line from a reel in a manner that lets me easily spool it onto a second reel? I am going to enlist some aid and have a second person work the "take off" reel while I work the "take up" reel but I wonder if there is a better way.

(2) I recently bought a casting reel (Lew's Inshore BB1) and I want to make sure I am setting the various brakes correctly. So far I have done the following: Set all 4 internal pin breaks "on" by setting them all to be compressed. Then use the knob to get the lure to slowly lower to the ground when the reel is unlocked. Then, I use the numbered dial to adjust to wind and general fine tuning.

(3) Bass fishing question, when working over a piece of cover, is it better to start with a more subtle lure and move up to a loud one or work the other way?

(4) I am thinking of rigging an anchor off the bow of my yak with the line running back to a cleat near my hands. If the anchor is slightly dragging the water when in the "up" position, will it impact my speed, maneuverability, or make fish-scaring noise?

[Cowpokey]

1) If I'm taking line off a reel, it is going in the trash and new line is getting put on.

4) If I was putting an anchor on, I would use an anchor trolly so it could come off the bow or stern depending on the situation...wind or current.

[Mark]

Regarding transferring line, I tend to agree with Cowpokey. I probably would trash the old line. However there may be occasions where you want to transfer from one reel to another -- say from a high capacity reel to a lower capacity reel. If the line is not old, and since the back of the transferred line will become the business end of the line on the new reel, that might be OK. Years ago, folks used to reverse their double taper fly lines to employ the unused end of the line after the front portion wore out. So it's not an unheard of concept.

Maybe 20 years ago I broke a really nice perch rod when I inadvertently hooked it in a chain link fence, of all things. I salvaged the handle from that rod and built the following contraption:

A.jpg

I've used it for all these years since breaking the rod to hold my fly reels while I clean their lines. See here:

B.jpg

So that perch rod stopped catching fish but it has help me clean miles and miles of fly line.

You could build a similar device from an old rod to hold a "donor" reel as you transfer line from it. Or you could temporarily hold the donor reel in a vice. There a number of ways you can transfer line without the assistance of another person.

Regarding the bait caster, you'll get more casting distance if you release some of the brakes. I never fish mine with all the brake pins engaged. But there is a tradeoff. Your risk of a bird nest will increase until you are comfortable with the reel. Try it at home so you don't get a bird's nest on the water.

Can't really answer your bass question. I do not pound any single area when bass fishing. I hit it one, two or maybe three times and move on. However, regardless of the lure I use, if I am going to throw to a target more than once I work from the outside in, getting closer to the target on subsequent casts.

The anchor on a kayak would have more utility on a trolley. I used the system you described on my canoe. It certainly works. But on windy days you'll be able to keep the kayak in better casting positions with a trolley. You'll be able to leverage the wind to turn you in the right direction by moving the trolley along the hull, not the anchor.

[bunnielab]

Mark, that is a very clever rig you have there, I need to keep my eye out for a broken rod. I want to switch out the line from an small reel to a larger one. In a moment of madness I put too heavy a line on a smaller reel and I want to reclaim it.

I have spent a bunch of hours over the last two days working with the baitcaster. I am now pretty confident with my basic casting and am already impressed with the distance I can toss a heavy lure. I have been going to Carr's Wharf on the Rhode river as it offers a nice unobstructed area to cast in and having a miss-cast hit the water seems more forgiving then slamming it into my lawn. I still have all four pin brakes engaged but I am able to dial down the mag break a good bit.

I have an anchor trolley on my yak right now, but I have never gotten the knack for using it. I am not super comfortable anchoring up facing anyway but upcurrent so I want to simplify the rig a little.