jksnijders

Pretty much....

My main "How Do They Do It?" question is how do guys come up with an "accurate" measurement without actually landing the fish?

You staying dry down that way?

Islamorada area. Guide named Jeremy. Solid dude, good boat, had him 5 days. Put us on fish every day. Conditions varied but were good overall, lots of shots, lots of fish spotted. Saw some real slabs. They are definitely more selective than the ones I've encountered in Cuba, smaller flies (2/0 generally) and better presentations definitely required. Definitely keep your flies checked, I had a similar situation with a good cast and presentation, a strong initial follow, then saw my fly was fouled. Pretty tough to not get rattled when you have a wad of good fish heading right for you for sure...

Was in the Keys end of April, we had a couple 100lb range fish to the boat the first day (with 8-12ft 50lb fluoro leaders depending on vis) and the guide's first comment on every fish we hooked was "tighten your drag" for the initial run. As in buried tight.. Also hooked a few Xmas Island GT's a few years ago, and although I could barely strip line off by hand with the drag buried, a decent GT could get it to full thottle in milliseconds and keep it there for what I'm sure was minutes (and took about 20 to reel it all up when I finally got broke off) When you're rigged heavy anyway I wouldn't go any less.

Nautilus makes a great reel.... I have 6 and they're all bomb proof, never once an issue.

Well played sir.

Good for the guy as far as I'm concerned..

Nice.. When were you there? We had a week of great action, though only landed 4 for the trip out of a lot jumped. I still can't think straight after that, never seen anything like the first 10 seconds after sticking one of those bastards.

Interesting. http://www.ted.com/talks/sheila_patek_clocks_the_fastest_animals.html

They're pretty tooled up for sure. And pretty tasty.

For a bit over 11 grand, if i had it to blow on a trip, I'd be heading for the Seychelles...

Same here, in a Massey 1105 listening to AM radio and Paul Harvey's "The Rest of the Story".

They're in the lower Bow near the Grand Forks and above for sure.

Correct. 625 Citori

My present to myself....

Put a piece of small gauge coated wire right through the existing rope. Pull test it to make sure it's solid. Remove the old rope, pulling the wire through the conduit in the floor. Repeat the process in reverse to pull the new one through the conduit to install.

Rods, reels, spare spools, lines, leaders. Never had an issue with any. Depending where you're headed take the essentials to fish (as in clothes etc. obviously) in a carry-on also just in case, at least you can borrow flies and still fish til your bags show up if something happens. One of those Fishpond travel cases held 8 rods (just in socks) and all my reels last trip, no issues, and are size legal for carry-on.

Tougher to cast and pike aren't flyline or leader shy. Shorter is better usually.

Nail knot between mono and steel works fine also. Pull test, good to go.

Well said.

Strip strike.

No need to go flying by other guys floating by whatever means. I pull over and stop, big deal. No different with a jet on the lower section than floating near an unseen shore angler on the city section, usually no matter what you get looked at like you're an ***hole.

Used a ton of fish skulls, never had a streamer ride upside down. Can't tell by your pic but where the weight is centered in the skull is quite obvious when you look from the back. The first pic is shown sitting properly in relation to hook bend. Phone pics obviously lacking quality, hope this helps.