Broke my personal best by 10 inches last night with my hand reel! Not a bad fish for washington state either!
Been using a hand reel (second photo), which has been challenging but I am getting it figured out.
Thought I would share the rig and setup. I use a weighted wacky rig on a 1/8 oz slip float with a 1/0 circle hook. Small split shot at the eye of the hook 12 inches to a swivel, 1/8 oz sliding sinker, to the slip float. Set the depth to ride just above the bottom. Caught this guy at 9 foot depth. Cast it out and reel it back in bursts to gets you the wacky action all the way back. Circle hook is the key for this setup as you can’t set the hook normally. 10 lb mainline mono with 8lb mono leader.
The setup works well with the hand reel where your reeling is slower, angle is shallow, and your hook setting is extremely limited. Circle hook and relatively light mini are the keys here. Circle hook sets itself and the light mono allows for some stretch which is helpful because you don’t have a flexible rod to absorb shock.
Posted by Sprout_1_
1 Comment
super cool. i have some plastics in that junebug color. i’d love to catch one on it.
my dad would always talk about a kid who would fish the Sacramento River with a typical rod and a coke can spooled with line. said he could bring line in faster than anyone with a reel.