todd taylor
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I don’t have a dog in this race but, this is a great thread. Kinda like setting in on private meeting between a couple of big shots at American Angler.
Craig, look around on Ebay for a good used 6 weight Sage Rplxi. I have the the Sage Bass rod and the Xi2. I think the Xi2 is fast for a 8 weight line and almost everybody overlines it by at least one if not two line sizes with a floater. It’s a cannon with a 300 or 350 gr sink line but, it’s just a little heavy for a smallie rod. The Sage Bass rod is the stuff if you are sling’n hamsters or small house cats for the big’uns. I have fished the 6 weight Rplxi for a few years now and I think it’s a great all around smallie rod. It will handle a 6 or 7 weight floater just fine and also a sinking line with ease. I have a 6, 7, 8 and 10 weights in the Rplxi and the 6 and 7 are the best. I have seen theses rods on Ebay for cheap. They may not be cutting edge tech but, they will get the job done! I would call them medium fast by today standards.
I had my Beretta Onyx fitted at DUNNS in Grand Junction Tenn. They took a bunch of measurements and then bent the stock in a big vat of cottonseed oil. Best move I ever made (for bird hunting) and after the fitting I was albe to hit many more birds on the “rise”. The Beretta Silver Pigeon just fit me like a glove from the moment I picked it up in the shop. Fitting is a big deal and it will make more of a difference than all of the fancy barrels and porting jobs. I have heard some very good thing about the 390 auto as well. Heck, all of this shotgun talk might get me to dust off the clay gear and give it a go….. 😉
Abe, I really like that tele and tweed in your pic.
Kevin, I used to shoot a lot of clays back in the day when I did not have KIDS and I would tend to agree with the advise that others have given you. Abe hit it on the head with the O/U suggestion and I really like my Beretta Onyx in 20ga. It’s the perfect bird gun but, a little under powered for the long crossing shots that you find on the clays range. I have a silver Pigeon Beretta in 12ga that is great for clays. I would like to also add that having the gun fitted to you is big help. Oh…..I you like clays don’t ever start shooting Service Rifle ;D
Glad to see you are investing in all of the most up to date gear for your clients sake. Nothing like fishing with a well stocked guide…. 😀
Try craft fur for the smaller ones and you can get it from Bob and Ed Story (great guys) @ Feathercraft.
Thanks for the info guys. John, are you saying that there is not that much difference in the 40D vs the Xti? Or that with my skills that I won’t notice it? LOL! If there is not much difference in the Xti and the 40D at what model does it show up? 5D or higher? Thanks again…..
Hey guys, thanks for the info. Should I be shooting in raw or jpeg? I have a new Imac and was kinda thinking about Apt 2.0. Heck come to think of it since I found this web site I have a new IMac, camera and a couple of new fly rods. Hell no wonder I am broke. Â ;D Do you guys know if Iphoto will open and edit RAW pics?
labrati, can’t use a flash. It’s not pro level hockey but, it is travel level and the powers to be don’t like flash.
Zack, I hear you on the Sage BASS rod. I think I will try one and see how it cast. After fishing with Mike Anderson a few times I am starting to really like the 10 weight and a heavy sinking line. I use a 300 gr on the Xi2 but, like you said a 10 weight works real good with a 450-500 line. Sometimes a foot or two (deeper) is the ticket!
Neal, I went back and looked over your response on the Xi2 just before making this post the other day. I think I will have to give the Triangle Taper a try. I have several Rplxi’s that I tend to think make better bass rods because of the softer tip. Maybe it’s my casting style but, it feels like the Xi2 is driving the bug to hard and over powering the cast. Then again I don’t think SAGE designed this rod for bass fishing. Great rod for salt and fishing everything but, a big bass bug. After I get 45 or 50 feet of line out of the rod tip the Xi2 is a cannon. I just can not get the rod to load for up close shots even with the 9 1/2 line weight and a big bug. All is well when streamers and smaller (size 2 and less) bugs are used.
I was night fishing for smallmouth bass with a good friend of mine one night several years ago in August. We fished from about 9:00 PM up until about 3:30 or 4:00 in the AM. As I pulled up to the boat dock to let my friend Buck off at the dock to back the boat trailer in I heard some kind of crazy loud screaming and a bunch of shouting. I looked around but, could not see anything and the sounds were coming from behind me at a old block house, across the creek. The boat ramp is built out on the point of a creek mouth and the other side is about 200 yards away. As Buck was backing the truck down I heard the sound of gun shots! Then I saw water blowing up in front of my boat! After diving in the floor of my boat and then reaching for the old trusty 1911 car lights came on at the top of parking lot and a car came speeding down toward the ramp. As luck would have it a TVA police officer was parked back in the shadows of the parking lot looking for thugs stealing car radios. The blue lights came on and the shooting stopped as fast as it started. The officer go out and ran behind the car, drew his weapon and started barking commands over the cars loud speaker. My friend Buck had the radio turned up and was in another world. He did not even hear the shot being fired, all he saw was the TVA police officer with a weapon. Buck put his hands up and sat in the truck with the police car lights shining in his face! The shooting had stopped after about 10 seconds (seemed like 30 minutes). A few minutes later the lot was full of police officers and Buck and I filled out a lot of forms. The police went across the creek and arrested some old guy that was drunk out of his mind. He told some story about his best friend stealing this wife by means of boat. He picked her up in a bass boat and they went off down river together to live happy ever after! LOL! We went back about a month later and the old guy had got drunk and burnt his house down! I think he did his self in on that deal. Go figure!
Zack, maybe you could throw out a few questions about line weight and taper for fact action rods? It seems that most of the best selling rods are fast or very fast action rods and that people tend to overline them or use one brand/taper of line to make them work. I tend to buy a fast of “stiff” rod a then overline it one size to get it to load the way I like. I have found the Clouser line that Rio makes does the job of casting a big fly a long way. It’s 1/2 size heavy and the taper is just right for turning over a larger fly with ease. Then there are the Sage tapers that are made for the BASS rods. The more I fly cast the more I think instead of new buying rods I think we as fly fisherman should be buying or a least test casting a bunch of lines. In a perfect world I think the fly line companies should send out to fly shops one line in every taper and weight so that we could go in with our rods or a new off the shelf rod and try out all of the lines that we want and see how they work on the rod that you have. There is some thing to be said for grain weighting rods. When I purchased my new 8 weight Xi2 I talked with Bob Story at Feathercraft about lines for a long time and he had a lot of info about what line tends to work with this rod or that rod. I tend to think that somebody who cast a lot of line and rod combos would be good to talk to as well. As we all know matching to line to the rods is a big step in make your outfit cast well.
