Holliday's World Famous Fishing Thread - 2023 Version

[oldslowandugly]

Some things have changed. The Blues used to go no further North than Cape Cod. They are a warm water fish. They stayed in NY waters all Summer and they ate anything that did not eat them first. If we got an early snow, they left. But now with the warming water they go all the way up to Canada. So they sometimes pass us right by. We have seen whole Summers with no Blues. This year was strange. Really big ones showed up early, stayed a bit, then kept going. None all Summer. Then mid- August the smaller ones came back in from spawning offshore. They are still here and eating anything that moves. Too bad the hot weather is keeping the asshat navy around too long. I need it to get cold so they go away and let us fish in peace.

 

[oldslowandugly]

I went to check on the boat yesterday. I noticed some splashes so I went looking . I tossed a 2oz spoon for no hits. Switched to a floating popper and BINGO!!! They hit it like it was their mother-in-law. No net man along, I lost 5 at the boat, but boated 3. It continued until the tide quit at sunset. 2 fatties and a small one. One actually bit the treble hook right off the popper. See lure pic. Three Creek Chub Knuckleheads, one with the middle hook bitten off, a new one, and one with a chunk bitten of the head. Tailors don't play.

 

[oldslowandugly]

I went back for more yesterday. I spotted a friend and his Grandson fishing from the dock. His boat was under repair. I said come with me in my boat. We nailed 8 more BIG ones, and lost as many at the boat. The kid had a ball. He boated several that almost pulled him in. A grand time was had by all. I love fishing with kids, it takes me back to when I was that age.

 

[oldslowandugly]

I fixed the oil leak on my car. It took a week to track down an oddball fitting. I was able to get down to the water today. At first I thought it was going to be a bust, nothing happening. High tide. Windy, wet, chilly, snotty weather. I went all over looking. Then after the tide started going out I spotted some bird action away over where a small creek empties into the main channel. I scooted over there and saw fish splashing. They grabbed my popper like they were starving. Big ones, small ones, they were feeding in the shallow creek mouth and had no where to go but UP! I finished with nine, as I cleaned the small ones I remembered to snap a pic so all I shot was the four big ones. The Fall run is ON!

 

[oldslowandugly]

You may notice the Bluefish are a bit bigger than normal this season. When the Grandson caught that 30"er it bent the mainshaft on the PENN 250GR. That convinced me to upgrade my weaponry to my PENN 704Z reels and PowerGraph heavy action rods. My trusty old 704Z used to suffer from the bail closing at the worst time. My ancient 700 'greenie' did the same thing. That caused me to remove the bail and change to the manual bail kit. MUCH better- in the surf. When you are trying to toss it away far out there, the manual bail cannot close on you. In the surf it is easy to operate the manual bail, but on a small boat, not so easy. You are not casting as far, and have less room to operate. I decided to remove the manual bail and put the full bail back on.

I ordered some new bail springs just because. On the parts site the 704Z showed two springs, one on each side of the bail. When I removed the manual bail on my reel, there was only one spring. Hmmmm. Then I figured it out. The old 'greenie' 700 reels used only one spring and it was on the line roller side. The early 704 reels copied that and used the 700 bail. That is why the 700 and 704 bail kept closing when it should not. These early 704 reels used a black line spool. Later reels used a gold colored spool. They also added the second bail spring on the release side. That is the difference. So why can't I just add the second spring to my bail? Because they did not drill a hole in the 700/704 release where the second spring would attache. A new later model bail assembly would be needed to make the upgrade. Or would it?

I compared the early and late bails and saw that they were identical except for the spring hole. Why not just drill a new hole? Exactly. I found an 'N' drill bit fit the mounting holes perfectly. It miked up at .300". I clamped them both in a vise with the bit and aligned them. I miked the tag end of the spring and it miked up at .040". Then I found that a .046" drill bit fit the spring hole just right. I drilled through the new release using the hole as a guide and made a new hole in the old release. PERFECT!!!!
Then it was just a matter of adding the second spring on the release side just like the later models. As a result, the bail closes with much more authority. So far, it has not closed prematurely. Keeping fingers crossed.

.300" bit centering releases.

Releases and bit are clamped in vise and aligned.

.046" bit makes a hole in old release using new release as a guide.

Second bail spring inserted into release using newly drilled hole.

My old 704Z with new second spring installed. You can't even see it because it is hidden under the release screw. The bail closes with authority now. This is an easy upgrade that costs only the price of the springs.