Sunday, June 26, 2016

Review of STTS Grip

I've often asked about my user's review of the STTS grip, as I posted some pictures of my fishing tackle. I like building and refinishing rods by myself and have done many. I find some tips to use the grip for your rods, and let me show you here.

(1) Reviews
Physically beautiful. Super light. Very easy to cast and to palm. You may suggest the surface material may be slippery, but it is grippy. I have relatively big hands, so I sometimes feel that a little bigger handle may be better, which doesn't bother me so much. If you thoroughly loosen the screw for the reel seat, the screw can drop out so easily that you should be careful.

(2) Reel setting
As this grip is too light, I'm feeling light-weight reels fit better. Of course I like the combo with my ABU 5000 reels, but I feel more comfortable when I set lighter reels. I'd like to try 4500 reels soon later.
 

(3) Blank setting
This grip is originally designed to be non-detachable, and you should glue or bond one of your blank in the front hole of the grip. However, I'd like to enjoy trying some of my blanks by rotation. I set a blank using sealing tapes for water pipes, and can exchange to another. I can firmly fix the blank this way, and I've had no troubles so far.


(4) Others
I like old fishing reels, but shape of each reel differs one by one. Some reels have a high-arched foot, and they may often be groggy on a reel seat of any grip. I make it a rule to attach a 1mm rubber sheet on almost all of the reel seat of my grips. This way, you can tightly set your reel on the seat.  


I like my vintage Phillipson's grips very much, and have used them for long. I'm sure that I'll use them forever, but recently I feel them too heavily to use whole a day. This STTS grip is a good help to remove my exhaustion, and I like it very much, too.   

Saturday, June 25, 2016

After heavy rain

It rained heavily in the midnight, but it had already stopped early in the morning. Maybe due the rain, today's fishing was extremely slow. I expected big fishing, but all I caught were baby bass.



Today's tackle: (1) ABU 5500C (BLK), Phillipson 3M B7L1 custom, Stren Clear Blue 14lb, (2) ABU Ultra Mag II, Mr Don 'Dog Fighter' MW59N w/ STTS grip, Daiwa Sight Surf #5, Musky Jitterbug, Original Zara Spook, Lucky 13, Chugger Spook, Wounded Spook, Sweet 16, etc.
BF=16/24/42

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Sweetest spot

It's Saturday, and of course I went fishing early in the morning. After I left home, I noticed I made a small fool of myself, as I left my waders in the drying area of my house. I headed back and left home again.

The sun already rose when I started fishing. Floating weeds are growing in the pond I visited, and it was very difficult to cast with keeping them out. I had a hard time to cast accurately.

Incidentally, if you get to this sweetest spot in a pond, what kind of lure and to which point do you cast?



With no doubt, the hottest point is just the small area between the fallen tree and bank. I was thinking to change lures to a weedless frog (Harrison Frog or Snag Proof SK Frog), but I changed my mind, as I thought trembling action of lively hard plastic bait would work better in such a small spot. I cast a Lucky 13 from the right side, paused it for several minutes until the water surface got calm, and gave a few subtle dancing actions to it. Huge explosion! A nice bass, which was quietly hiding just beneath the floating vegetation, jumped to my bait. I hurriedly set a hook and reeled my line. I first thought it would be a snakehead (or a large frog), but it was a fat bass in about 3-1/2lb. I could get only this fish today, and it was the sole reaction from fish, but I could enjoy a lot.



Today's tackle: ABU Ultra Mag II, Fenwick GFC-555 w/ STTS grip, Stren Clear Blue 12lb, Original Zara Spook, Lucky 13, Chugger Spook, Harrison Frog, Snag Proof SK frog, etc.

BF=15/23/38

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Before going to work

Now, it's almost the summer solstice and the sun rises around 04:00 here. I went for one-hour fishing before going to work today.

I mis-cast my Hedd Plug and, it hanged down from a branch above the water surface. Then, I let some line go, and when the bait got to the water, this bass rushed at it. Immediately I also rushed off to the fish and could manage to catch it. It's not a lot of fun to fish this way, as you cannot have time to directly fight with fish, but this method often works fine. We call it 'lantern fishing' in Japan, as a hanging lure looks like a lantern.    


Today's tackle: ABU 5500C (BLK), Phillipson 3M B7L1 custom, Stren Clear Blue 14lb, Heddon Original Zara Spook, Lucky 13, Chugger Spook, Hedd Plug, etc.
BF=14/22/37

Sunday, June 12, 2016

Where have all the big fish gone?

Where have all the big ones gone? All I caught these days are baby bass, though it's much better than getting skunked.




Friday, June 10, 2016

The first kayak fishing

Today, I enjoyed kayak fishing for the first time. I was thinking to try my kayak for Japanese whiting fishing on the beach. I fished in two areas in the Seto Inland Sea, and the sea condition was calm in both of them. Paddling speed on the kayak is much faster than that of my Canadian canoe, and I could easily get to fishing points I wanted to go. Of course, you can fish Japanese whiting from shore fishing, but you can catch bigger ones in offshore fishing. I caught some nice ones, and enjoyed a lot.


Sunday, June 5, 2016

Fishing in the afternoon, again

I had to work yesterday, and couldn't go fishing.
Today we planned to be involved with cleanup activities around our community from early in the morning. However, it rained so hard, much harder than we expected, that the activities were canceled. The rain was too hard to go fishing, too, so I reluctantly stay indoors in the morning.

Then, the rain stopped at noon, so decided to go to check a small nearby pond after I finished lunch. It started to get shinny, and I tried to cast lures into shades. At first, I chose a Heddon Hedd Plug, as its buoyancy is a little smaller than that of Lucky 13, and retrieved it, mixing long pauses and short dives on the water surface. A good blow-up suddenly occurred and a small bass hit it.


After a while, I noticed some dragonflies fly low. I tied a Burke Bassassin, which I tuned to imitate a bug. I got some bites with it, but couldn't hook them up at all. Then, I changed lures to a built-in spring lure, Powerpak Shad, to imitate a bug fell on the water surface. Again, I got some smashing bites, and caught one of them. I know well that it is difficult to catch a big bass under high light intensity condition, and I felt happy just to be on the water on Sunday afternoon.  





Today's tackle: ABU 5000 CDL (86, high-speed), Mr Don 'Dog Fighter' MW59N w/ STTS grip, Daiwa Sight Surf #5, Heddon Hedd Plug, Burke Bassassin, Powerpak Shad, etc.
BF=11/19/30