Flip and Pitch for Fall Walleyes
By Nathan Shore
from The Fishing Wire

All summer walleyes have been in deep water following baitfish around, but come September and the start of cooler weather many those baitfish head back to shallower water to spawn. Walleyes follow, and flipping and pitching a jig in shallow water becomes the No. 1 tactic for boating a big limit.

Walleyes readily attack a swimming jig over their heads when ciscoes are spawning in the shallows.

“Baitfish like ciscoes come back out of open water to spawn in fall,” said tournament pro Jon Thelen. “That’s why walleyes make that shallow movement when water temperatures start cooling off. I begin looking at the same spots I fished in spring, when other species were spawning. Prime locations are rockpiles and anywhere the bottom gets harder beyond a weed edge.”

Ciscoes (also called tulibees) spawn above gravel or rock, generally in depths of 10 to 15 feet. Actual spawning occurs as water temperatures dip to about 50°F, but ciscoes come in prior to that to stage. And, ciscoes aren’t the only baitfish busting shallow moves in fall.

“Other baitfish that come in during fall are spottail and emerald shiners,” Thelen said. “And you’re trying to match all the other shiner species that stay shallow all year, too.”

The arrival of ciscoes, spottails, and emeralds to shoreline areas can draw the majority of the walleye population out of deep water. Silvers are black-silver, goldens are black-gold, emeralds are green-pearl and ciscoes have blue or gray backs with pearl to gray bellies. Thelen matches those basic color patterns most of the time, but notes that at times the fish want bright colors or glow patterns, especially in dark water or during low-light periods.

For fall shallow jigging, Thelen goes to a Lindy Watsit or Fuzz-E Grub, but there’s no long-line trolling or long-distance casting in his bag of tricks for fall walleyes.

“When walleyes are on the chew this time of year, they don’t mind a jig passing by several feet over their head, so I often pitch and swim the jig back to the boat,” he said “You can get away with vertical jigging and moving the boat around when fish are staging out on deeper transitions between the basin and the structures these baitfish spawn on, but when you’re seeing ciscoes dimpling the surface over depths of 10 to 17 feet, I like to make little flips of about 30 feet. With a short cast, the retrieve stays close to vertical, but you add a little horizontal to the package as you bring it back.”

Tipping jigs with a 3-inch rainbow shiner or a 4-inch redtail chub is the way to go in fall.

“The boat is moving slowly and I’m flicking the jig out with soft casts to keep the bait secured on the hook,” Thelen said. “Sometimes I hop it aggressively, but I generally start slow.”

He may simply swim the jig slowly just off the bottom, making short flips and allowing the jig to sink. The short flips allow him to cover every depth more precisely than with a long cast. A short flip gives him better accuracy in knowing the depth a fish came from, allowing him to refine his pattern for the day, as well as more precisely re-target that depth.

During daytime hours, Thelen looks for spots on the deep side of rockpiles, reefs and gravel bars.

Big walleyes are easier to catch if you sweeten the jig with a live minnow.

“Ciscoes spawn around the end of September in most areas,” he said. “They begin to come in during the first full moon in September. By the full moon in October, action is phenomenal. Good fishing continues in shallow water right through November and you can begin sight fishing those same fish at first ice.”

Thelen prefers color combos of blue-white, black with gold flake, metallic gold, and green pumpkin, natural colors that represent the shiners and ciscoes walleyes expect to see in shallow water.

“Crayfish are always a backup option, so brown-orange works, too,” he said. “Fish can decipher colors really well in water less than 15-feet deep, however, a bright gold, bright orange or flashy metal-flake pattern can be natural, especially in the evening, under heavy cloud cover and on windy days.”

Thelen determines jig weight and size depending on the body of water he’s fishing, but most of the time he sticks to 1/8- to ¼-ounce jigs. A 3/16-ounce Watsit can be an important size this time of year, too.

“Drop speed is critical,” he said. “Aggressive walleyes will accept faster drop speeds, but wary, finicky fish won’t. Try to match the depth to jig weight so the jig swims just above a walleye’s head, right in his wheelhouse, You don’t want the jig to fall out of that zone very quickly.”

Thelen uses a medium-action, 6-foot, 6-inch spinning rod with 10-pound braid and a short, 2- to 3-foot leader of Silver Thread Fluorocarbon. He prefers a braid that’s easy to see and sensitive. Walleyes bite on the drop a lot during fall and it’s generally an aggressive ‘thunk,” and he sets the hook the moment he feels the second bite.

“Minnows are bigger in fall, and bulked-up jigs with plastic bodies like the Fuzz-E Grub and Watsit match those sizes better and slow the drop of the jig, but can interfere with hooksets unless you make sure the fish have a firm grip on the whole package.”

All the rain the past few weeks has made fishing interesting in my ponds. Both ponds got pretty muddy and that made the bream bite better. Since I fish out there most days and let most of the bream go that I catch, I have taught the danger of a hook. I often see a bream, especially the bigger ones, swim up to a piece of food on the #6 hook and stop. It is like they are thinking “I know there is a catch to this, I have seen something like this before.”

Muddy water makes it harder for them to see the hook as does other low light conditions. Late in the afternoon and early in the morning the bream bite better. Some wind rippling the surface of the water also breaks up the light and makes it harder for them to see the hook.

Bass fishermen should take note. If bream can learn to avoid hooks, I am sure bass can, too. And bass get fished hard on our big lakes. One nice weekends you often have to take a number and get in line to fish a good point on many of our lakes.

There is an old joke that the bass at Jackson Lake know the Bass Pro Shops catalog number of each plug they see. That is one reason a new bait can be hot for a time when it first comes out then the fish seem to stop hitting it. They learn what it looks like and how it moves in the water.

Fishing for bass under low light conditions works. Early morning and late afternoon, as well as after dark, is more comfortable and the bass bite better. Wind blowing onto a point is a classic type situation to catch bass and the disturbed surface and water makes it harder for the bass to see the bait and more likely they are going to hit.

There is no bad time to go fishing but some times are better than others for catching. Go any time you can but take advantage of anything that makes it harder for fish to see your bait. Under those conditions fishing is more likely to also be catching.

Best Areas For Bank Crappie Fishing

by Ray Rudolph
from The Fishing Wire

You don’t need a boat to catch early fall crappies, just a good plan of action. It can be as relaxing or adventurous as you want it to be. Here are the three best areas to focus on to catch a stringer of crappies from the bank.

Way Up The Creek

The odd-looking “Watsit” soft plastic on a jighead makes an ideal late summer and early fall offering for crappies.

“I grew up walking creeks,” says crappie guide Barry Morrow. “I’m talking about the uppermost areas of creeks. Most have access within a short walking distance. Access will often be from a backroad or where a bridge crosses the creek. Some have parks or picnic areas that provide easy access. Public lands are best because you must have permission if you walk private land.”

He moves along in search of laydowns, old stumps or other cover where fish might hide. His weapon of choice is an 11-foot pole, 12-pound test Silver Thread line and a 1/4-ounce jighead with a Lindy Fat Watsit body. He agrees that most fishermen are more comfortable with a lighter-weight jighead, but that extra weight allows better sensitivity to feel the bottom, brush and bites.

“Start at the outside edges of brush or laydowns and work toward the inside,” says Morrow. “The best bite is usually in the heart of the cover, but you can pick off aggressive fish from the edges without disturbing those deep in the thick stuff. Every piece of cover has a sweet spot and you’ll soon learn a pattern where most of these are located.”

Guide Barry Morrow says whopper crappies like these can be dredged from brush in creeks with a long crappie pole.

His technique requires both hands. Hold the pole in one hand and the line in the other. Pull the jig up to the tip, push the bait where you want it and then drop the jig by slowly moving your free hand toward the pole. Keep dropping it until you feel bottom or reach the strike zone. Controlling the line with your free hand is very important to this style of fishing. Because the rod is often confined within the branches of a laydown tree or bush, use that free hand to set the hook, pull the crappie almost to the tip then back it out.

Spillways for Crappie and More

Spillways damming man-made reservoirs are crappie guide Todd Huckabee’s favorite spots for summertime shore fishing.

“Late summer is the perfect time,” he said. “The lake becomes a little stagnate in late summer with the thermocline, low oxygen levels and water temperature all being stressful on the fish. But in the spillway the water will be cooler and dissolved oxygen levels are great. The fish feel better and are more active.”

He says with fairly uniform oxygen levels throughout the water column of a spillway, crappie can be at any depth. Every spillway is different so there are no ‘cookie cutter’ spots that work everywhere. However, he says two important features, current and eddies, are present at all spillways.

Guide Todd Hucakbee likes a Yum F2 Wooly Beavertail jig in dam spillways in summer.

“Many fishermen use a cast and retrieve tactic, but their baits don’t stay in the strike zone long enough. I use a float like the Wobble Bobber to stay above the rocks and to find the eddies. Once a float gets in an eddy it will circle around, which is perfect because the eddy is where baitfish and predator fish are holding. The bite usually happens quickly.”

Equipment includes his signature series 10-foot spinning rod, a float and a YUM F2 Wooly Beavertail jig. He prefers using one jig but says a tandem jig rig is fine if you prefer.

“My best tip: Don’t overlook shallow water,” he said. “Since oxygen levels are the same everywhere, spillway crappie may be very shallow where it is easier for them to ambush food.

“Another great thing about a spillway is you might catch a pound crappie, and on the next cast a white bass, then a 3-pound walleye, a northern or one of the many other species there. Spillway fishing is a lot of fun.”

Surprising Docks

A float and a jig can be a good combo around docks, especially those with brush close by.

Boat docks are well known crappie magnets, but most boating crappie anglers hit the fronts and maybe halfway down the sides. During summer, especially early and late in the day, the bank-side of docks can be more productive.

“Fish can be at many different locations on a dock but the backside can have the right depths and cover for this time of year,” said Morrow. “Fishing from the bank will put you in the action.”

Morrow casts and pitches using 7- or 10-foot poles spooled with 6- or 8-pound test Silver Thread line. The shorter pole is good for casting and flipping while the 10-foot Huckabee spinning rod is good for vertical dipping, pitching and casting.

Rigs can vary based upon your favorite baits. Morrow says his choice easy.

“I use a Lindy Crappie Cork because I can fish any depth by adjusting it up or down and I can cast it for distance and accuracy. Under the float I like a 1/16-ounce Fuzzy Grub or 1/8-ounce Watsit jig in a natural color. Green pumpkin has always worked well for me in late summer. If the water is super-clear or the fish run on the small side, use a smaller jig.

“I target brushpiles and cover near the backsides of the docks. Sometimes you can see them but most of the time you’ll have to find them by retrieving your bait between the dock and bank. Keep raising the slip float to put the bait deeper until you find cover.”

I hate flying! Unfortunately, airplanes are by far the best way to get to Alaska. This small-town Georgia boy grew up reading outdoor magazines about the fantastic fishing and hunting in Alaska but could never really imagine experiencing it first-hand.

My wife Linda has a second career as a travel writer and I have been many places I could only imagine growing up. I have kneeled on the ice in Antarctica with penguins waddling by a few feet away, fished for piranha 700 miles up the Amazon River, snorkeled in Tahiti and spent the night in a five-star hotel in Marrakesh, Morocco. All those were beyond my wildest dreams as a kid in Dearing, Georgia!

Linda and I left July 26 three years ago and flew to Anchorage, Alaska. We spent a week driving up to Denali National Park, over to Valdez then back to Alaska. The vastness of Alaska is amazing. I drove 1150 miles during that week. At dinner back in Anchorage the placemat had a map of the state about the size of my palm. The area we covered in a week was about the size of my thumb tip placed on the very corner of my palm! The same distance here would have taken us all the way around the state – with some overlap!

On that drive we passed many beautiful mountain ranges and terrain varying from damp forest to tundra. Rivers that were hard to get to looked inviting but I didn’t get to fish until we got to Valdez. There we stood on the shore of the bay and hooked salmon after salmon, landing about ten each but losing twice that many each.

We flew to Juneau and got on a small cruise ship, the Mist Cove, and spent a week with 14 other passengers and 12 crew cruising the Inner Passage, anchoring each night in secluded bays. Each day we had the option of taking out kayaks, going on hikes on shore, or taking the skiffs to fish for halibut or to streams to catch salmon.

The limit on halibut is one per day and two in possession. We brought back 46 pounds of filets from the four we kept. The salmon we caught were already in the creeks and not good to eat, but were a ball to catch on light tackle.

On my 60th birthday I was standing in a stream in Alaska catching salmon. I landed my first salmon ever on a fly rod that day, hooking and landing four after landing nine on a spinning rod and losing about 15. The screaming runs across riffles and the way they jumped were just like in my dreams!

Wildlife was amazing. Eagles were everywhere. We watched one young eagle eat a salmon on a gravel bar about 100 feet from us. One day two couples were fishing the mouth of a stream and another couple had hiked up the stream to fly-fish. Each group had a guide. Ours had a 12 gauge shotgun loaded with slugs on his back and the other guide had a 30-06 on his.

The three that went up stream came walking back pretty fast and we heard the radio crackle. Their guide was calling for a skiff to pick us up immediately. About that time, less than 100 yards behind them, a brown bear stood up. The grass was about chest high on me in the area. It came up to her waist. Beside her a cub poked his head above the grass, too.

The grizzly had followed them back down the creek after they walked up on her. She disappeared then popped up a little closer to us. About that time the skiff picked us up and we left her to fish with her cubs all by themselves!

On the trip we saw moose, caribou, mountain goats and many other critters. It was exciting.

That Sunday we loaded on an Air Alaska 737 in Sitka to come home. The plane was packed, not an empty seat. And we were amazed at the number of boxes of fish loaded on it. The luggage belt would have five or six boxes of fish, then a suitcase. The cargo hold was full.

We started down the runway and just as I felt the plane get light, mostly from me holding it up by the arm rests, there was a loud “BANG,” the left side of the plane dropped a little and the whole thing shuddered and shook. The pilot got us stopped about 100 yards from the end of the runway where it dropped into the bay.

He came on the PA an said we had hit an eagle. It tore up the engine I was sitting over and just in front of. The co-pilot and flight attendants were looking out the windows at the engine, looking for smoke and flames, I guess. They said we had been running down the runway at 110 MPH, 10 MPH under lift off speed, when we sucked in the eagle. That is 160 feet per second, if my calculations are right. If the pilot had hesitated even for two seconds before slamming on brakes and reverse thrusters I don’t think we would have stopped in time.

Six hours later they got another plane to Sitka to take us to Seattle and we caught the red-eye to Atlanta, the only flight left that night. We landed in Atlanta as the sun came up. I am still shaking from the experience.

Did I mention I HATE TO FLY?

Linda has details of our trip on her web site at http://cruises.about.com

Web cam catches sockeye salmon returning to Tongass spawning grounds

EDITOR’S NOTE: The following was provided to The Outdoor Wire by the U.S. Forest Service

Through the end of August, you will get the chance to be entertained as sockeye salmon swim along Alaska’s Steep Creek as the adults spawn before swimming to their deaths.

The Forest Service has placed the salmon cam in the creek on the Tongass National Forest so viewers world-wide have the opportunity to view fish in their natural setting. The ability to watch salmon in the wild is a treat for many people, but the underwater camera gives you a more intimate, unique look.

“The overall escapement, or numbers of fish that reach the spawning grounds, for Steep Creek sockeye varies from year to year,” said Pete Schneider, a fisheries biologist on the Tongass. “An average run would be considered 1,000 fish. We have seen it as low as 350 and as high as 4,000. So many factors can contribute to run size. It’s difficult to predict. So keep watching.”

Early in the spring sockeye fry emerge from the gravels and move into Mendenhall Lake and Mendenhall River sloughs and ponds, where they feed for 1-3 years before migrating to the ocean. After spending several years at sea, the adult sockeye return to Steep Creek to spawn, their last act before they die.

But all is not lost. The dead sockeye are still good meals for a variety of forest critters, including their own fry and as their nitrogen-rich carcasses decompose they provide valuable nutrients into the ecosystem.

If you see the view clouded, it could be because a female salmon is building her redd (gravel nest) by agitating the bottom of the creek bed with her fins and tail. She then bends her body back and forth to make a depression where she deposits her eggs. A male then moves in and deposits his milt, or sperm, over the eggs after an often lengthy courtship. The female uses her tail fin to cover the redd then moves upstream to do it again. Female salmon will often build multiple redds in the same general vicinity and then guard them as long as they can before eventually dying.

Sockeye salmon are held in high regard in Alaska. They are known for the high quality of their meat, bold spawning colors, unique habitat requirements and the fact that they can be tough to catch because they rarely bite on sport gear in salt water. Add all these factors together and sockeye rival king, or Chinook, salmon for the most attention.

“I typically leave the camera in place until the end of September. Often the water quality becomes too poor by October due to the amount of rainfall,” Schneider said. “The sockeye run will dwindle by the end of August. After a short lull for a week or two the coho salmon will arrive.”

Schneider said the coho run will not be as large as the sockeye. However, more Dolly Varden char enter the stream, too. Many Dollies arrive “early” to feed on loose eggs during sockeye spawning, but many more arrive in early fall to spawn. They spawn about the same time as the coho in different locations along the creek so they do not overlap with the coho, a process refined over years of evolution.

As the fish are making their way along the creek, Schneider and other Forest Service employees make daily counts. The third week of July they counted about 30 sockeye milling about in the beaver pond downstream from the camera.

“They are in full spawning colors, but are likely waiting until a rain event occurs. This lowers water temps and raises water levels, which often will trigger the movement of fish upstream to the actual spawning grounds and into camera view,” he said. “Unfortunately, I can’t move the camera downstream any further than I have to see them.”

Surprise guests for the fish and viewers could be a black bear or two. Bears that feed on salmon are larger because they eat. A lot. And salmon provide the high calorie diets they need to gear up for the winter hibernation.

“Bears will often target the female salmon for their eggs. Their keen sense of smell can detect the eggs, and I have seen them actually release a male and return to fishing for females,” Schneider said. “When salmon are plentiful, it is normal to see a carcass along the bank with only the belly eaten. The brains are also a high-calorie hotspot, even though they are smaller than a walnut.

“Make no mistake, however, as absolutely none of the salmon go to waste. There is a plethora of mammals, birds, insects, fungi, and plants waiting to make full use of the remaining nutrients.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iAYSF1h05HM

Yamaha Pro Kelly Jordon Offers Summer Bassing Tips

There’s a good reason tournament angler Kelly Jordon describes the hot months of summer as one of his favorite bass fishing seasons. The Yamaha Pro follows fish from shallow water to deep during the day, a technique he learned during years of guiding at Lake Fork in Texas.

Jordan advises starting around brushy cover at daybreak in depths as shallow as two feet–but says fish move deeper as the sun rises.

“The key to following bass in summer is fishing an area that has some type of route like an old roadbed, a tree line, or a creek channel leading from the shallows to deep water nearby,” Jordon emphasizes. “The bass move back and forth between shallow water and deep, so finding a shallow flat, a long point, or a cove that gradually falls into deeper depths is always worth trying.

“This movement may not be more than a hundred yards, or it may be 300 to 400 yards. It depends on what the deeper water offers the bass. At the same time, if there is abundant shallow cover, particularly hydrilla or some other thick vegetation, the bass will usually stay shallow longer, too.”

Jordon strongly recommends starting a July or August day of bass fishing 30 to 45 minutes before daylight because that is when fish are most likely to be in very shallow water. He believes these bass may be the same fish that moved shallow to feed during the night, and they’re extremely susceptible to topwater lures like buzz baits and frogs.

Jordan throws a buzzbait at dawn, but often switches to a crankbait as the morning draws on.

“This shallow bite does not last long after the sun rises,” the Yamaha Pro continues, “so I really like a buzz bait because I can make long casts and cover a lot of water. I try to key on cover like logs and laydowns, lily pads, and rocks, and generally in just two feet of water or less. I work the cover thoroughly, too, usually making two or three casts to the same object with a slow, steady retrieve to give a fish plenty of time to hit it.”

When this early, shallow water action ends, the Yamaha Pro changes to a shallow running crankbait, often a square bill model, and begins fishing slightly deeper water down to five or six feet. He may also try flipping soft plastics if the cover is thick enough, but his primary choice is the crankbait.

“What I’m trying to do is take advantage of all my options in relatively shallow water before the fish move,” Jordon continues. “Frequently, I’ll fish the same cover with the crankbait that I fished with the buzz bait, simply because it has such a different action. Buzz baits bring reaction strikes, while the crankbait may entice more of a feeding strike.”

When this bite does end, Jordon moves further out to 12- to 20-foot depths, studying his electronics to locate both steeper depth changes as well as possible schools of baitfish. If he has found a creek channel or even a ditch leading from the shallow water toward deeper water, this is where he concentrates his search. If he’s been fishing a point, he just keeps following it further and further out in the deeper water.

The Yamaha pro says fish may move up to 400 yards seeking deeper water as the sun rises, but smart anglers can learn to follow them and continue the action.

“I’ll really cover this water thoroughly with a deep diving crankbait, grinding it along the bottom across any breaklines from shallow water to deep,” he explains. “Places I really look for are bends in a channel, and cover like rocks, stumps, and flooded timber. I just keep working further out into the deeper water because I know eventually I will find the fish again.

Jordon emphasizes the importance of looking for baitfish, especially shad, as he moves into this deeper zone. Baitfish make this same movement, and the bass follow them. They show up on electronics because they’ll gather in large schools, and the bass will hover just below them.

“Summer bass fishing doesn’t need to be a long, hot exercise in deep water crankbaiting or dragging plastic worms along the bottom,” concludes the Yamaha Pro. “As long as a fisherman is willing to start fishing early, he will nearly always find some bass in shallow water, and this can be a truly magical time to be on the water.

“Then all you need to do is change your lures and gradually work out into deeper water. You really can follow the bass as they make this movement.”

Guide To Regular Guides vs Micro Guides

By Frank Sargeant, Editor
from: The Fishing Wire

So, do you “need” a new micro-guide rod? Or not?

If you’re like me, you find yourself “needing” practically everything that’s new related to fishing, whether you need it or not.

Micro-guide rods have been around for several years now, and have been a popular seller in many well-known lines. Here’s the basic pitch that has made them take off:

Micro-guides are much smaller and lighter than conventional guides and are usually “single foot”, thus do not impede the natural action of a quality rod blank.

Micro-guides keep the line closer to the rod blank than conventional guides, which results in better performance on casts as well as when fighting fish.

Micro-guides fit into rod tubes aboard a boat more readily than standard guides, thus are less subject to damage.

And here’s the biggy: Micro-guides look cool. You have to look closely to see them at all. They give the rod a sleek, modern appearance-and that’s probably the primary reason they have taken off so well.

But could it be that there’s a real performance difference?

The Falcon BuCoo Micro is a good-looking mid-range rod with the fit and finish of high-dollar sticks.
We asked Chris Beckwith at Falcon Rods to help us out on this one. Falcon makes an amazing array of rods for every purpose, and in fact in their mid-priced BuCoo Line they have a pair of baitcasters that are identical in length, action and power-except the BMC-7MH has micro-guides, the BMC-5-17 has conventional.

Both are 7 foot rods rated for 12- to 20-pound test line and lures of ¼ to ¾ ounce, in medium heavy action with medium-fast tips-like most top quality rod makers, Falcon distinguishes between the “action” or power of the rod and the tip stiffness.

Both BuCoo’s are constructed on Falcon’s FXB American-made graphite blanks with all Fuji guides. Both have exposed-blank reel seats for sensitivity, and EVA grips, with 14 ½ inch handle length which makes power casting and big hook sets easy. Weight is a near match at around 4 ounces. Both feature Falcon’s five-year warranty.

The Falcon BMC-7MH is built on an identical blank to the standard BMC-5-17, but the micro version has three more guides, a total of 10 plus the tip.
The micro model has three more guides, a total of 10 plus the tip, and that adds $20 to the price: it’s about $129.99 at on-line retailers, versus $109.99 for the standard version. (An editor’s note here-these rods fish like rods priced much higher and fit and finish is excellent-they appear to be a great value for the money. I like the clever naming, too-“Bucoo” being Cajun for beaucoup, or a bunch of value.)

In my tests with Shimano Chronarch 200-E7 reels, the casting range was the same for both micro and standard versions throwing a 3/4 ounce weight on 12-pound mono, about 150 feet. The feel in the hand was also the same. Either is an easy stick for all-day casting.

I fished them interchangeably on several trips to Lake Guntersville in North Alabama, and had to look to tell which was which-I could feel no difference in their handling while throwing everything from topwaters to lipless crankbaits to big swimbaits and football-head jigs. Ditto on hook-setting, very similar.

I’d say the micro makes better use of the power in the rod in handling heavy fish, perhaps because of the additional guides which keep the line more closely following the spline of the graphite.

The lower height of the guides also makes them somewhat less likely to grab a loop of loose line and create a tangle, though I had no problems with this on either version of the BuCoo rods.

It is significantly harder to string up a micro-guide rod, but of course that’s a chore you don’t have to do often and shouldn’t be much of a factor in your buying decision.

However, if you are among those anglers who frequently make use of a leader, which requires a knot that slides through the first several guides, micro-guide rods may not be for you. Anglers who throw topwaters on braid, for example, frequently add 12 to 18 inches of monofilament because the slightly stiffer mono is less prone to loop back on itself and tangle the hooks as you walk the dog. And some feel a foot or two of fluorocarbon, much less visible than braid, increases the number of bites in some situations. But getting a line-to-leader knot to fit through a microguide can be a challenge, to say the least.

Other than that, there’s not much to distinguish one from the other.

Bottom line is, if you “need” a micro-guide rod, go ahead and buy one. They do look cool, and the slight bump up in price is worth it when you go strolling down the dock in front of your envious buddies. But it probably won’t make a great deal of difference on your casting or fish-fighting ability.

For more details on the whole Falcon line, visit www.falconrods.com.