cityevader

The mailman just delivered to me a Batallion 1/2-2oz that I hope to try this weekend to report on it.

Hehe, last time out, i kept getting real hard nibbles on the Gulp. A pair of fly fishermen had been making their way down the beach and were about to yield a respectable distance around my position. They had a funny look on their faces when i asked them to try the spot I had been working. BAM! The biggest Perch I had ever seen! My lunch got caught and released. Sigh. But tonight. TONIGHT! Thursdays are now "my day" to do as i please so it is officially fishing-practice day. And on this unusually hot/humid day in Santa Cruz the beach could not happen soon enough! Thankfully the large numbers of bikini babes have reduced with the school year starting, so the focus was better, plus fewer humans to dodge at water's edge. I strode up to the first spot after entering, and liked how the water was swirling in from right and left, funneling out in the center. It was tough standing, where those opposing currents met and tried to wash me out to sea. The sand flowing out looked like a flat mushroom cloud extending about 30 yards out. The first cast just past the mushroom cloud had a hard nibble. The second cast landed a near keeper of 9"+...and within minutes a second one of equal size was caught and also released; in front of everyone watching, the just-showed-up-guy is catching fish. Oh yeaahhh... I'm cool... But then the typical human species' behavior interrupted. City dwellers unaccustomed to any dangers around them, enter the water where my hook is exiting. An hour after surrendering the spot, i regretted releasing those first two Perch. Small as they were, my boy and I could have made a meal of it....hardly a nibble was had the entire length of beach before heading back. Two hours later, yielding a respectable distance around those humans that were still in "my spot" and while squinting into the low western sun, the un-tried opposite end of the beach now seemed promising. Some saw-tooth-shoreline with "shorebreak" waves were evidencing deeper pockets. Casting just beyond the large breaking waves gave some nibbles. And after that set of large rollers calmed, and the whole area was flooded, i cast to where i believed the deep end of the kiddie pool started, and holy moly, that 7' Ugly Stik bent right over! My personal best Perch of 13" and it was THICK! Working quickly to knife the brain/gills/tail to quickly kill/bleed/scale it and minutes later I'm working at it again...nothing...kept moving to the next spot which was nearly identical and i got my 2nd best at 12.5"! (picture taken almost 4hrs post-mordem) After that, "one more cast before going home" became "one more tangled leader before going home" ; which turned into "one more tangled leader that is too dark to fix" had me leaving an hour after sunset. Happy, but in the back of my head still pondering... just how much influence really, does the fisherman have on catching versus the fishing influencing the catcher?

The jacksmelt are not good at all when pan fried, but oak wood smoked at 200° makes them very tasty!

Well, it sure wouldn't be of any use for chunking! Is there an issue with Battalions in general? Or just this particular "light-lure" rod that folks don't like? I guess it doesn't matter much, as it's on it's way and i'll use it regardless. I just wanted a rod for smaller Kastmasters, 4" minnows, etc, in an attempt to get larger Perch...I need more practice with lures apparently, as i've had little luck. Mostly I just Carolina rig a 1-2oz setup with Gulp and get lots of little Perch....and then I also wanted a rod for SP Minnows, casting a bit farther than for the Perch for possibly bigger fish....so now i'll have two rods in case I break another one. I need practice regardless of the gear on hand.

A 1/2oz-2oz rod won't be good for tossing lures? I've got so much to learn.

I never seem to get my questions readily understood. 1st question was asking for a comparison of (even subtle) differences in general, of advantage/disadvantage of 9' vs 10' rod. 2nd question was if a lightweight lure that is affected by wind resistance could actually be thrown farther by a longer rod. NOT chunking heavy weights! Just light lures. A short rod can be whipped quite fast. Dammit... Ima gonna have to compare my 7' rated 3/8-1oz against the new 10' rated 3/4—3oz out on the football field with an SP Minnow minus hooks, huh? ... I DID say i'm learning the hard way, by myself... so this test will tell me what i need to know, without needing to ask "the internet" first.

I only saltwater fish. My aiming point is usually just beyond the breakers. Sometimes that's well over a hundred feet. Sometimes i'm lucky to get fifty feet from a one ounce lure helicoptering through the air. Sometimes our beaches are dead flat, with the entire shoreline breaking at once with endless wash. Sometimes they're sawtoothed with some breakers right at your feet and i'm catching them six feet out. I don't believe i'm overthinking it, putting in the time and effort to see if there is a pattern between productive and non-productive days. Nor in asking if a 9 or 10' rod will throw an SP Minnow a similar distance, or if either length is overall more advantageous. I'm also not the type to ask questions, wanting a "gimme" shortcut to you folks' vast years of knowledge earned the hard way. I am learning the hard way, by myself, and just need a tidbit here and there on the mechanics/techniques of some things.

I dislike the idea of soaking bait, and planting a pole in the ground doesn't align with walking around trying to figure out where the Perch are biting, where/how the water is moving, and attempting to learn the slow, difficult way of how to read the water and the structure beneath it. For now, I'm not necessarily targeting large fish, but still want the ability to toss lures to some reasonable distance...I'm merely trying to learn "how" to fish, and "when" to fish, and trying to keep up with a journal of times/tides, conditions, and outcome of each trip. Maybe I can learn more with actual numbers to review. (too bad there doesn't seem to be any Perch forums; only Striper forums...I feel kinda out of place here.)

Well, I went with two rods. If I broke one once, it might happen again...gotta have a better backup than my boy's 7-footer! Went with the Battalion 9' rated 1/2-2oz rod for the smaller lures, and the 10' rated 3/4-3oz rod for everything else.

My two recent ventures out after work and well into dark, were amazing experiences. 70° Santa Cruz weather, shorts and T-shirt well into the night. The first time had a myriad of shooting stars; some streaking across most of the skyline! And some time after dark, the sand fleas (mole crabs) became an absolute carpet! Everywhere i walked was two inches thick of tickling crabs. It took some meditation to continue casting and ignore the ankle deep tickles. The second trip had an odd orange glow to the east east, over the harbor and inshore from the lighthouse. At first glimpse, i thought fireworks. Second glimpse...sailboat? Third glimpse...illuminated hot air balloon? It went from mushroom to full round, as i then watched the red, full moon rise above the harbor, an hour after the reverse was viewed to the west. And each trip, there is that cyclical, magical moment every other minute when it is dead-quite. The Beach Boardwalk roller coaster screams are vividly clear, as is the blip/raspy sound from behind of a lighter toking up, whist the mile marker buoy goes woooo... Then the ground shakes as a blast of misty wind flutters your sodden day-hat, still adorned, with those several waves finally departing with effervescent fizzing, into the silence of distant screams and woooo... Anywhere else would have felt...sterile and lifeless.

Please forgive the noob questions... I broke my (first "real" rod) 9' Penn Prevail while loading up my vehicle for a fishing trip (at least there was the boy's 7' Ugly Stik, so I headed out regardless.) Now I'm looking at the Penn Battalion which has the same lure rating of 3/4-3oz...but in either 9 or 10'. Will a longer rod throw a LURE farther? To refrash the question, do lures- let's say an SP Minnow and NOT some monster CCC lure- have a terminal velocity? Would the rod length even matter, as long as the appropriate tip speed is reached? I imagine a longer rod will throw a lead weight farther, but a lure? A longer rod can hold line up higher over cresting waves, but is harder to pull seaweed from the tip guide (the last three trips were PLAGUED with seaweed each and every cast over 2 miles worth of three separate beaches.) Does a longer rod take more effort to throw the same lure? Any other advantages/disadvantages to consider?

I noted the same with my 4500 brand new. Under any load it feels like high friction. But just spinning it and letting go of the handle it went round and round just fine. Took it apart and nothing amiss. Now back to normal.

I was surf fishing and traversed under a wharf, and laughed at how folks'-up-top-casts, would just parabolically peter out, going straight down about 30' out from 30' up. That got me thinking...just what IS the setup for fishing off a structure. I assume a strong rod is needed to crank in a fish vertically. A short rod to not hook a pedestrian while casting? A long rod to get as much distance out as possible? Or is everybody just vertically jigging nearest the pilings? Or are these the times for drinking whilst claiming to be fishing? What makes wharf fishing beneficial...and how is the rod/reel setup different from surf casting?

I'll save the Mitchell/wooden rod for freshwater, if I ever try that again as it's been decades since last time...I'm hooked on surf fishing now. That Luxor weighs 26.5oz!!!! I'm thinking about getting a longer rod (I currently have a 9') for it for bait and wait use...although i really, really hate the idea of planting myself in one spot with two rods...i like to walk around...or maybe i'll just load some line onto it and fish it at least once to check it out. Any thoughts on a rod that will feel balanced with this tank?

Pierce, that's a good idea. I recently wondered the same as the OP, as sometimes i look down at my reel and wonder how seaweed got buried deep under there...and how best to, well........Prevention is better than curing, i guess.