Latest Blog

How to Fishing in inshore saltwater

Fishing in inshore saltwater is fun due to the challenges it poses and the varieties and sizes of fish available. However, it can quickly go awry without the right accessories. For example, using a freshwater rod and reel combo for saltwater is a recipe for disaster and failure.

Hence, in this guide, I'll be walking you through what makes the best inshore saltwater rod and reel combo and the features that distinguish it from others.

What is a Saltwater Rod and Reel Combo?

A saltwater rod and reel combo is a special device or equipment used for specified fishing operations in saltwater. Unlike the traditional spinning rod and reel devices that require you to assemble them, the rod and reel combo is designed ready and easy to use. You only need to string the line around the spool – even that’s been catered for by some manufacturers.

Features to consider in a saltwater rod and reel combo

Though lots of the features of a saltwater rod and reel combo usually depend on individual preference, there are still some basic ones that must be considered before committing to it. To ensure you choose the best inshore saltwater rod and reel combo, here are what to keep in mind.

Reel Type

There are different types of reels depending on the fishing activities they’re intended for. The majority of saltwater combo reels are either of the conventional type or spinning reels.

The conventional reel is strongly designed, flexible and a bit heavy, making it ideal for baitcasting and trolling. It is also suitable for bigger and heavier fish species thanks to its more traditional design and strength.

On the other hand, the spinning reel offers flexibility, strength and adaptability. Also, it’s more versatile and can be used to project light lures deemed too light to be cast by the conventional reels.

There are other reel types like the spin-cast reel, centrepin reel, and the fly reel, but, they’re seldom found in the saltwater combo.

Rod Length

This feature has been the topic of serious debate amongst seasoned anglers over time, with the point of the debate being the appropriate length that makes fishing easier. However, the popular opinion and the widely accepted is that the longer rod helps cover enough distance in water and as such has a better reach.

The shorter rods on the other hand are more lightweight and easier to maneuver. This gives anglers an edge when fishing bigger fishes or trying to get a struggling fish. You should know that your rod length choice largely depends on your fishing technique. For example, if you always go for fly fishing, the short rod will be your go-to option.

Corrosion Resistance

This feature is a no-brainer and should always be top of your list. With the acidity of the saltwater, the combo is more susceptible to damages caused by corrosion and rust.

You should go for a heavy-duty saltwater reel built with shielded stainless steel. Also, products made from anodized aluminum offer some degree of corrosion resistance. Besides, rods made with graphite composite or fiberglass is waterproof and corrosion-resistant.

Rod Power

The rod power is the feature determining the amount of pressure to be applied to the rod before it can bend. Rods are usually grouped into three, based on this feature: the heavy power, medium power and low power.

The first kind is heavy power which requires high pressure before it can bend. The medium needs a moderately high power to bend and as you would guess, the light power needs just the slightest of power to deflect.

Owing to this, if your targets are the big fishes, you should go for the heavy power rods that can withstand the high strain. And, if you’re contented with the small fishes the light power rods would serve you well.

Rod Guides Quality

The rod guide is an integral part of any saltwater combo as it detects any strike or action moving along the fishing line to the pole. Simply put, it allows you to detect a change in the weight of your saltwater combo which might be caused by the presence of prey. And it’s connected to the rod windings.

Most saltwater combo rod guides are usually made from ceramic, metal, or plastic. If you’re a beginner, you should go for a rod guide made of titanium or aluminum as they offer more friction and heat resistance.

You should check the guide arrangement on the rod as that’ll determine the sensitivity. Also, if your targets are the big and heavy prey, you should opt for a rod guide made from metals.

Reel Bearing

Real bearing determines the smoothness and the control of your fishing. Some anglers often complain about the unwanted noise and vibration from their reels when fishing. These disturbances are caused by poor reel bearing quality.

Quality metal reel bearings are the ideal types for the most intense and long term fishing action. Also, the higher the number of bearing (preferably 4 or 5), the more it will be able to absorb vibrations and pressure. However, the quantity of the bearing is irrelevant when the quality is poor.

Rod and Reel Weight

The rod and reel weight plays a role in your longevity when fishing as you don’t want to be weighed down by the weight of your combo. Also, a lightweight rod allows you to detect fish strikes faster than a heavy one.

However, you should avoid trading the rod and reel quality for lightweight.

Rod Action

The range and ease at which the pole of a saltwater rod and reel combo will bend at the tip when it is under pressure is majorly on the rod action. There are four major rod action types: the super-fast, fast, normal and slow.

For light baits and lures, the slow rod action should get the job done. The faster the rod action the more suited it is to heavy baits. One major disadvantage of the slow action rod is its reaction time. The reaction time is so low; making it difficult to put the hook in place immediately you feel a prey.

This makes it extremely difficult to use for beginners as they’re liable to miss out on a number of catches.

Warranty

It goes without saying your saltwater water combos will wear and tear with time. However, it shouldn’t come soon after the purchase. Similarly, nobody wants to deal with any product with manufacturing faults.

Therefore, you should select a product with a design warranty; applicable for a good period of time.

Price

This is the most important of all features. The price of a saltwater rod and reel combo – just like other things – mainly depends on the quality.

You should purchase a high-quality saltwater combo even if you have to shell a bit more money, as this will give you the satisfaction and reliability you want from your combo. However, if there are products of the same quality at varying prices, you should go for the obvious choice.

Continue Reading

How To Sharpen Fishing Hooks Better Than New! | Bass Fishing

Glenn May here with BassResource.com and I'm getting ready to go on a fishing trip, and I just thought of a tip that I think is going to help you out. It's going to save you some time on the water and some money too. What I'm talking about is sharpening hooks.

Now, it's kind of a surprise to me that

I found out through the forums and on our Facebook page, and going on road trips, that a lot of people want a hook that comes dull. They just throw it out, dig out a new one, retie, and they go back to fishing. Well, I've been sharpening hooks for over 30 years, and I can tell you it's a lot quicker, faster, to sharpen your hook, and I can get the hooks sharper in many instances than they were when they're brand new out of the package.

 

I know you're calling B.S. on me, but honestly I can. And I've even had people tell me, no, no, no, that hooks got a special shape to it, you can't sharpen that, or it's been chemically sharpened, or it's got some certain kind of hook point that comes from the manufacturer, you can't sharpen it. Listen folks, once the hook becomes dull, how is it working for you? Yeah, it's not.

So, you can't hurt it at that point. You can't damage it, but you can get it back to how it was, and a matter of fact, you can get it even sharper sometimes. As a matter of fact, I check hooks right out of the package, and every once in a while you'll find one that's a little bit duller than the rest, and I'll touch that right up even before I've even used it and I'll get it sharp again.

So how do you do that? Well, first off, you get a file, a hook file. You can get one of these at your tackle store.

They don't cost very much. I've been using these for years, and years, and years, but a new thing that I've been using lately . . . I was turned onto this by one of the guys on the forum, thank you Gary, is to use a knife sharpener. This is cool, comes with a little sheath. It's got a fine and a coarse side to it and the cool thing about it is it's got a little channel. Can you see that right there?

That little channel right there is for hooks. Pretty slick. You don't have to use that channel. You can just use like a regular file, but it's kind of neat and because it's got a fine and a coarse side to it, you can sharpen hooks really, really fast. Now, I'm not sponsored by these guys at all.

This one happens to be a Smith's, cost me 15, 20 bucks for one of these things, It was really cool, but you can sharpen hooks really fast. Now the way to do it, now remember, hook points are like needles. They're shaped like that. They're not like this, they're not like a roof of your house, they're shaped like that.

So remember that when you're putting the hook to the file. You got to keep a low angle to it, about a ten degree angle. So, what we're going to do is we're going to take this hook, got a little jig head right here that we're going to sharpen, and you're going to put it real low. Again, there's that low angle, you see that? Real low angle.

I'm almost flat to it. And then you just apply pressure and you go towards the hook point, not away from it, towards the hook point and you just sharpen it just like this, you know, maybe you can even hear it on the microphone. You can hear it pick it up. So, you just go across that and then as you're doing that, you work your . . . you turn it slowly, slowly, slowly, all the way around. That's all you're doing.

You're just turning that hook point and all I'm doing is I'm applying pressure as I move it forward. I'm not applying any pressure as I pull it backwards. Now after you do that, check the sides. Bring the hook point through your fingers, not through your fingers. Pull it backwards through your fingers so you can feel the sides and see if there's any edges to it, any sharp points sticking out to the side.

If there are, run it back through the file until they're gone. Once you've done that, take the hook, apply a little pressure on your thumb and drag it across your thumbnail. Now, if it just scratches the surface, congratulations, you've done a good job, you're on your way, you're not there yet. What you want to do is you want to feel it dig into your thumbnail. You really want to feel it try to . . . you want to feel that resistance.

Push down on it and see if it really digs into your fingernail. That's what you want. If you want to grab a brand new hook and see if it'll do that, and you'll get an idea what it feels like.

But that's essentially it. Now, again, some hook points are shaped a little differently. Some of them like the Trokars are at an angle like that. That's the only time we'll do it a little bit differently.

Rather than slowly turning that hook point all the way around as I'm sharpening it, I'll find that flat side. I'll roll it on that file until I feel that flat point and that correct angle, and I'll just sharpen right, just that surface, and then I'll flip it over to that other angle and I'll sharpen just that surface too. And trust me, you can get it mighty darn sharp doing that. All right. That's the only change I'll do.

Otherwise, I've sharpened all hooks just like that. So there you go. And when you're done, you can sharpen that hook a lot faster than it's going to take you to retie, rerig, trust me, your buddy is going to be doing that and you're going to get 10, 20 casts on him before he's ready to go again.

The brilliant budget hook clamp for sharpening hooks ideal for carp fishing.

For more tips and tricks like this, visit BassResource.com.

Continue Reading

Colby Davis of Boston at the Newport International Boat Show

Welcome to Newport Living and Lifestyles. I'm Christon and we're here at the 2019 Newport International Boat Show with Lia Davis Lombara from Colby Davis of Boston. It is a fantastic jewelry line. Please tell us more about it.

My jewelry line is sterling silver with glass enamel. It is all made in Massachusetts and the chains are all made in Providence. Every single piece as a lovely beautiful glass enameled cover.

On the back, you will see a message that corresponds to the design. For instance if you take a peek at our little new anchor design right here, on the back it is says, Love Anchors the Soul. This is the front, this is the back. They come in three sizes, small, medium and large.

You can mix and match, you can layer them and you can design your own specific style. Well you are going to see a lot of this product here at this show, almost everybody seems to be wearing it and believe me by the end of today I will definitely be walking away with a piece that I Iove. How do you make these, where do you make these?

We make them in Attleboro Massachusetts. We design them, myself and my two daughters. We have them all stamped and made in Attleboro so all made in Massachusetts.

All made in the USA. That's great! How did you come up with the name of your company? My two daughters middle names, Colby and Davis. Taylor and Lexi's middle names.

How long have you been in business? 5 years. How have they influenced you in your designs? In so many ways, I have my design style and they have theirs. We just collaborate together and we just try to make it work.

We are different generations so you can be a 90 year old down to a 9 year old and still wear our product. Men wear it as well. What are some of the men's lines? The will men wear the compass rose, some will wear the St Christopher's, some wear the anchors, so men will definitely wear our product.

That is really cool. I have a son, my daughters are triplets, my son will wear them as well. Both men and women. How many boat shows do you attend a year?

We participate in about, I would say about three Do you do any other conventions? We do the Greenwich Wine and Food Festival, the Nantucket Wine and Food Festival, so we do wine and food festivals plus we do boat shows. Plus we sell online, and we sell in stores.

We sell in about 100 stores in the east coast, between Massachusetts and Florida and west to about Illinois Do you get a lot of international sales on your website? Some, some international What is your website? Where can people go to find your product? [email protected] No, that's my email. No, no, I take that back!

She is like , don't email me! ColbyDavisofBoston.com Unless you want to buy product! Right, unless you want to buy product. What are your daughters favorite pieces?

My daughter Taylor loves the guardian angel and my daughter Lexi, she wears the sand dollar a lot and sometimes she wears the compass rose. I would say those are their tops and mine is the mother daughter knot. I love the mother daughter knot , which is this one. Oh I didn't know that is what that was. Yep, it says, Mother Daughter Ever Lasting Love.

I Iove that one, which we will all three will wear. They are great gifts. They are, they are wonderful gifts, they are good holiday gifts, great graduation gifts. Any single holiday or occasion that you can come up with. Do you have a fun history story about any one particular piece, something sentimental that somebody has shared with you?

I would probably say the guardian angel. There are so many people that either it's a really happy guardian angel story, where there is a new baby or something fabulous or sometimes it is a sad one, but it is still a great memento for them. It is touching. Yes, very touching.

Any interesting testimonials you would like to share with us. Where somebody has called you and said, Oh my gosh, this is.... I would say the sister one.

On the back it says God Made Us Sisters, but Our Hearts Made Us Friends, is always a huge one, we get lots of calls saying my sister loved this or I bought this and we have 3 or 4 sisters. Quite honestly the dog pendant, is a very good one. People loose their dogs or they buy a new dog, that is a huge pendant for us as well. What is your hottest selling item? By far, it would be the compass rose first, all the Celtic knots, the tree of life, the forever friends, the mother daughter are definitely amongst the most favorites.

The bee. I have seen a lot of people with the bee's on and in gold! What is the bee? On the back is says, Bee Kind, Bee Good, Bee Happy.

That is a popular one as well. I love the Bee, love love love. I saw someone wearing them as earrings. Yes, we have them as earrings, we have them as pendants, we have them as sometimes, you can wear them on a bracelet as well Do you have anything in store that you can share with us that might be up and coming for next years show?

We do, we have some great new , I don't want to say too much, just a little. Secret , Secret. There are some great inspiring, inspirational, meaningful, a whole new series of fabulous designs that is going to be , It won't actually be released until January.

They will be great! Stay tuned! What is your favorite boat show ever? This one! The Newport International Boat Show. #1 ! The best one!

It is really fun! It is really Fun! Thank you so much for joining us today, it was a lot of fun getting to know you, your history and your jewelry and I love this display , it is a boat It is a boat! Well thank you so much and we look forward to seeing you on Newport Living and Lifestyles

Continue Reading