Last week we headed down to Pickwick Lake in Alabama for the Fishers of Men Legacy National Championship. We had such a great time at Guntersville last year that we decided to travel down again this year and experience another weekend on the Tennessee River. The Fishers of Men Legacy Trail is a Christian-based trail where one of the team members must be under the age of 19. I can’t think of a better trail to be involved with – one that promotes getting youth involved in our sport and also promotes the ministry of Jesus Christ. I’ve continued to think about using the gifts that God has given me and passing the legacy along to the next generation. It has continue to stir in my heart, this has been the most rewarding and fulfilling circuit I’ve ever fished in. Watching these kids smile with joy and excitement….it’s simply awesome!
My partner again this year was 14 year old Matt Herning from Greenfield. It’s been awesome to watch Matt progress his skills over the last year, from learning to use a baitcaster, to learning advanced offshore techniques like deep cranking and Carolina-riggin. Taking a young man from Indiana and to not let him throw a lure at the bank for 4 straight days….I figured that it would be mentally challenging for him. There’s a real sense of imagination that comes in to play when fishing out off the bank, something that I’ve had to learn how to do over the years. But Matt adapted to offshore fishing quickly and with a great attitude, and we had a great weekend at Pickwick with more fish than I can remember catching in a long time…more on that later.
We narrowed our practice down to a 10-mile stretch of the lower end of Pickwick and started our practice. As usual, I spent a lot of time researching and studying maps and my GPS. We had 40-50 locations to check on Day 1, and the first 2 places I dropped the trolling motor we found schools of fish. I knew immediately that we were going to have some fun at Pickwick. We went on over the next two days to find 10-15 good schools of fish, but we didn’t really fish those schools hard in practice – so I wasn’t exactly sure what we had found. I just knew we were going to catch a lot of fish. We were catching over 100 keepers/day! We were focusing on both main river ledges from 18-24 feet, and ledges in two creeks from 12-16 feet where fish were transitioning into their summer patterns. We were using Wolfpak football jigs, Carolina and Texas rigged worms with Eco Pro Tungsten weights, and Reaction Strike and Strike King crankbaits.
Pickwick certainly suited my style of fishing. Matt was really excited to get to work on these schools of fish and looking forward to Day 1. We settled in at our hotel in Florence, AL after the pre-tournament meeting, where B.A.S.S. Elite Series Pro Randy Howell delivered a powerful message and testimony. We were humbled and feeling blessed to be there. Ready for a good nights sleep in the air conditioning, we called it a night and were anxious to see what the tournament was going to throw at us.
Day 1 we blasted off at 6AM and started down the lake. We had about a 25 mile boat ride, and 8 miles down the lake, my “No Oil” light came on and shut my motor down to 1000 RPM’s. After a few minutes of trying to diagnose and fix the problem, I knew that the motor was stuck into safe mode and that we weren’t going to be able to run it….let alone get down the lake another 20 miles to all the fish we found. I have to admit, lots of negative thoughts start running through your head – especially when you’ve driven 9 hours to fish, spent two grueling practice days and hundreds of dollars in gas to find enough fish to have a great tournament, and you can’t even get to them. I felt absolutely horrible for Matt – but I know that sometimes mechanical failures happen in fishing.
Matt & I talked for quite a while that day, as we spent over 3 of our 7 tournament hours idling back toward McFarland Park. We talked about how God challenges us with obstacles all the time in our lives, and we have a choice on how to deal with them. We both agreed to make the most of our day, to enjoy His creation and the beautiful lake that we were able to witness that day with a slow boat ride. Sometimes I wonder if this was a sign that it’s time for me to slow down my competitive side and to soak in all that God surrounds us with.
We stopped on a main-river ledge on the way back that looked good, and within 10 minutes, we had two keepers already in the boat. I was nervous about getting back on time and having enough time to get my boat to the local Evinrude dealer. So we continued to idle for 30-45 minutes, and then stop and fish an area that looked good for a few minutes. At about 10AM, I pulled up to a row of main river cypress trees and flipped my Wolfpak jig and a Red Dirt spinnerbait around. The 3rd tree I casted to, a 4# fish shot out and took the bait. Matt landed the fish, and we already had about 8-9 pounds in the boat. This day was going about as good as you could expect with no big motor. We fished our way back to the take-off site with no more bites, and with 30 minutes to go, we pulled up to a bridge area with heavy current. Matt threw his Carolina rig around and found a small, key shellbed with the Eco Pro Tungsten weight, and within 5 minutes boated our 4th and 5th keepers. Amazingly, we weighed in a limit that went over 12#, landing us in 37th place out of over 160 boats after Day 1. What a blessed day.
Meanwhile, I ran the boat over to the Evinrude dealer to find out that the oil injection system failed and they couldn’t get me back on the water. My father was kind enough to let me borrow his boat for day 2, and my brother selflessly drove the boat 2 hours to meet me. This has happened one too many times. I’m going to deal directly with Evinrude after this tournament. I’ve broken down more times than you can imagine the last 5 years with this motor, and it needs to be made right by the manufacturer. More on that another time….
I got back to the hotel at midnight to find a newly arrived family reunion party at the hotel, with nowhere to park or plug the battery chargers in. The challenges kept coming. We ended up parking it in a gas station parking lot across the street, and settled in a for a short night’s sleep. But I was really looking forward to getting Matt down the lake to the schools of fish we found so he could have a blast.
Day 2 saw us with a smooth boat ride all the way down the lake. With 10-15 schools of fish located, I was confident we’d be able to get on a couple of places. I narrowed it down to what I thought were our best 3 schools of fish that were within a 4 mile radius. The first place I pulled up on had a school of 3# fish we’d found in practice, but it had 2 boats from our tournament, so it was off to the next spot a couple of miles away which surprisingly was unoccupied. I was excited, as out of all the places we found I thought this one had some potential for a big bite and for smallmouth. I was without my electronics this day, so I hunted around until Matt found the key shellbed with his Carolina Rig. That Eco Pro Tungsten weight really helped us find a few of our key ledges – there always seems to be a small stretch where the fish actually feed and it’s absolutely vital that you find that key spot-within-the-spot, and that new weight made it pretty easy to distinguish the bottom composition.
Three casts into the day, Matt hooks up with a good fish and lands a 4.60# Pickwick beauty and our day is off to the right start. We went on to the milk the area for the next 45 minutes and cull our way up to 13 pounds or so, after catching 20-30 fish. I decided it was time to head on down to hit another school that was absolutely loaded with fish. I wanted Matt to enjoy himself, but I wasn’t sure if we’d catch any that would help us. We pulled up and the spot was empty, so we went right in and starting catching fish cast after cast. We stayed for about an hour and one of us was landing a fish the entire time. I’m confident that we could have continued to catch fish there the rest of the day, but I didn’t feel like there were any fish there that would help our weight. So we left them biting and agreed to go work for some bigger fish and try to cull up to the Top 20 which was our goal going in.
We moved around the rest of the day, getting on the places where we could. The boat traffic picked up substantially and the lake got pretty busy. We milked our fish for all they were worth, catching over 80 keepers and finishing with over 14# and a great day on the lake. We landed square in 20th place, which was an absolute miracle considering all we’d been through with engine failures. It’s a trip that brought to mind that we’re not in control in life, that we have to deal with challenges and obstacles every day. It reminded me to make the most out of every situation, and to be thankful for every opportunity we’re given. Fishing is one of the most humbling sports I’ve ever played, and I think that’s why I like it. Just when I think I have everything figured out, I’m humbled and brought back to my knees. And I thank God for that. Fishing keeps me close to my faith and close to my knees, and it always reminds me that I still have a lot of learning and growing to do in this life.
All in all, Pickwick was a great fishery - I can’t wait to go back. Matt and I had a blast, and I couldn’t have asked for a much better week (less the motor issues). Here was the equipment we used this week:
- Carolina/Texas Rig Gear – 7” MH rod, 7:1 reel, 15# Fluorocarbon, ½ and ¾ oz Tungsten weights, 3/0 hooks, 10” Zoom Ole Monster Worms and Brush Hogs in Watermelon, Green Pumpkin
- Cranking Gear – 7’6” MH rod, 5.2:1 reel, 10# mono, Reaction Strike XSD 80 in Ayu, Ghost Minnow and Strike King Series 5 and 6XD in sexy shad
- Swimbait Gear – 7”6” H rod, 6:1 reel, 15# fluorocarbon, Castaic Swimbaits Catch 22 6” threadfin shad, 5” Jerky J Swim Series in Ayu
- Jig Gear – 7” MH rod, 7:1 reel, 15# Fluorocarbon, ¾ oz Wolfpak Tackle Dozer Football Head in Waveland Wildkat and Kenlake Claw
- Spinnerbait Gear – 6’6” MH rod, 7:1 reel, 20” fluorocarbon,1/2 Red Dirts Tandem Series Spinnerbait Golden Retriever.
You can find these baits on the shelves of The Outdoorsman Sport Shop in Greenwood, IN or online at www.wolfpaktackle.com, www.reactionstrike.com, www.castaicswimbait.com, www.reddirtbaits.com, and www.ecoprotungsten.com. This lineup of sponsors has really paid off for me this year with quality products, most of which are all made and/or distributed from here locally. Please help support these companies as they’ve all been a great help to me.
Next up – Everstart Central at the Detroit River in mid-July. This should be a fun event. I’m sitting in 24th in the points, and the Top 40 qualify for the Championship at Kentucky Lake. I’ll be looking to have a solid tournament to hold my position in the points and hopefully to move up a bit. The Great Lakes are new to me, so I’ve got work to do. Thanks for following and for all the encouragement that I’ve received this year.
NanoFil Line Review
Keeping in mind I've only had the line to test for less than 2 weeks, I've tried to run it through a variety of situations to get an idea of just what it's pluses and minuses are. The spool that was supplied to me was of 4# test, so that somewhat limited me to what presentations I could try. It's also not the best time of year for finesse work on the local lakes. That said, I have been able to get out and toss drop shot and split shot rigs for bass with it, along with a little bit of sissy jig work (caught about 17-20 bass in total). I also got in several hours worth of crappie fishing using jigs ("OTC" methodology) that accounted for another 100+ fish. So here goes:
The lab: I first took the line into the lab and popped it under a high powered microscope. While I didn't have the capability to do a cross sectional analysis, I can tell you that this line does have a fairly round shape as claimed, much more so than Fireline. Their picture on the package gives the appearance of a solid bundle of fibers that comprise a single round filament, but my impression was that it is more like bamboo (if that makes any sense). Bamboo while round, is actually hollow on the inside and has that 'segmenty' look to it. NanoFil appears similarly under the microscope. Two things give me this impression. The first is its shape when looking at knots tied in the line while under the scope, and the second being that I was able to completely flatten out a segment that was creased with a small lab tool. Still, it does a pretty good job of holding that roundness under a variety of situations, which is a positive in my book.
Line Strength: On a straight line pull with just a length of line between your hands, it has really good strength. I found someone else who mentioned they tested it's breaking strength at about 2x labeled strength, and I would agree with that assessment. This is very similar to both Fireline and PowerPro, Fireline also being a Dyneema-based line.
Coating: If you look at both Fireline and PowerPro under a microscope, you'll notice that both appear to have some type of coating on the line, probably as some type of protectant. This also makes those lines somewhat stiff, at least originally until broken in a bit. I didn't really notice anything similar with the NanoFil. That said, after using it for the past couple weeks, it almost seems like it's covered in Teflon (half joking). This stuff is incredibly slick and very hard to get a good grasp on. Regular knots won't hold with this line. I tried both a clinch as well as an improved clinch and both slipped easily under pressure. It did seem like a Palomar would hold, and their recommended 'NanoFil knot', which is actually a double Palomar might be good reassurance (more on knots later).
Diameter: As claimed, this line is incredibly thin. As per my intial post about 10 days ago, my 4# sample of NanoFil had a diameter that was .001" less than 2.5# fluorocarbon. Doesn't sound like much but it makes a difference. I found several eyelets on jigs that didn't seem to have an open gap where the eye was formed, but the NanoFil would slide right out. It's something you'll want to be aware of when using this line. It might take an extra crimp with your pliers to get some of your eyes on certain baits to close down enough to not let this happen.
Knot strength: Here's the first weakness I think I've found with this line. It takes much less pressure to break the line once a knot has been tied in it versus the strength of the line itself. While you have to work a little to get the 4# straight segment to snap in your hands, it is pretty easy to pop the line once it's tied to a bait and get it to break. I'm guessing that if tested it would probably rate right around its stated breaking strength. It's something you'll want to keep in mind.
Ironically, this actually turned out to be a good thing when crappie fishing. When you hang a crappie jig in some deep wood and have to break it off, it's not uncommon when using other lines, especially mono and fluoro, for the line to "break high". In other words, due to good knot strength, sometimes the weakest point in the line might be a crease or nick 10' or 20' up the line. As such, when you break off, you leave a lot of line in the water attached to your bait, and lose a lot of line off your spool. I broke a lot of jigs off in hung timber when crappie testing, and can never once remember where the line didn't break right at the knot, saving nearly the entire length of my line. So it's not all bad in this regard.
Casting Distance: Another major claim of this line is that it casts farther than your normal lines - I agree. You can wing this line a long way. Simple little flips will get you out more than you need in many situations, and good heaves will throw a small bait a good distance. One evening a bunch of little fish started rising and breaking the surface all around me. Couldn't tell what they were, but I guessed either little crappie or white bass. This was an evening I was split shot rigging, so all I had was a 4.5" worm, a tiny split shot hook and the lead. I removed the lead, bit the tail of the worm off to less than an inch, and threaded it on the split shot hook. Amazingly, I was able to cast that little 1 inch weightless worm tail 30'-40', and managed to confirm my suspicions. Believe it when they say this line casts well.
Sensitivity: Being a superline, you would expect great sensitivity under tension, and this is what you get. No problem feeling everything my little split shot banged into when drug across the bottom. Same goes for bites. What surprised me a bit was the apparent sensitivity when crappie fishing under a semi taut line. Fluorocarbon usually excels here, and mono is so-so. Most superlines don't do well because of their density. They're light and "flighty" in air. NanoFil acted much more like a mono or fluoro in this category, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
Density: I saw someone ask online if NanoFil floated. The answer is yes. Being comprised of Dyneema, it has a density that is lighter than that of water. I put a segment of NanoFil and a segment of Fireline in a tub of water and repeatedly pressed both under the surface. In both cases the line segments would repeatedly rise back to the surface. I noticed the same thing when crappie fishing while letting my jig sink, the line laying on the surface only to be pulled under the water toward the end of the line as the jig sank deeper.
Knots: I mentioned about what seems to be poor knot strength, and what knot Berkley recommends (NanoFil). I did play around with a few others and if given the time, I would personally recommend a double line 5 turn uni knot. You can Google search this site or the Internet for instructions on how to tie it. Not the fastest knot in the world to tie if you're in a hurry, but I believe it is a bit stronger knot to use with this line. It's what I now tie with this line if I'm in a position where I have the time to do it right.
Lilne Color: This line has an obvious bright white color to it on the spool. While I've never owned any Fireline Crystal, I think that is probably the closest thing in terms of line color to compare to. Interestingly, the white shows up pretty good in terms of line watching, much better than red, green or smoke superlines. The hardest situation to see the line under is an overcast but ripply day with glints of sunlight reflecting off every wave. The line blends right in in that case. But on bright sunny days or flat calm waters, the line shows up pretty well and is easy to follow.
Current thoughts - bass: Just like I think 4# Fireline is a little too light for bass fishing (think sissy jigs), I think that 4# NanoFil would be a bit risky also. I'd like to get my hands on some 6#-8# test and give that a try. For drop shotting I simply added a leader of 6# fluoro to the NanoFil and then tied my Palomar as usual. This is also an option if you're concerned about knot strenth or line visibility. I'd need to test leader connecting knots a bit more to see what worked best, but you might get the best of both worlds going this way.
Another option is to use this light of line with a more moderate action rod, something that will provide a bit of cushion and impact absorption. This will work for some tactics, but not with others. I definitely plan on picking up at least one spool in these higher tests to play with when the sissy jig bite comes around again.
Current thoughts - crappie: I need a bit more time with the line to be certain, but as of right now this might become my "go to" line when crappie fishing. Sensitivity is great, casting is unreal, and the line handles better than most any other superline I've used. It's thin diameter cuts through both the water and the wind, and the line doesn't seem to be as "flighty" as most superlines. It really does seem to act more like a mono/fluoro than a braid in that respect.
One of the biggest issues for me with crappie fishing is there is no perfect line. A lot of bites are detected by line watching, which is easy with a fluorescent blue mono or yellow superline, but terrible with a fluorocarbon no matter how they try and tint it. I think I can live with the white NanoFil color in most situations though. Fluorocarbon gives the best slack line sensitivity of the bunch. Back on the negative side though, monos and fluoros both stretch a lot, so hook setting with a lot of line out or in really deep water can be an issue.
Then there are the handling issues. Mono twists a lot and can jump off a spool if wound on wrong. Fluoro is fine in lighter tests on a spinning outfit, but suffers the same twisting and jumping ability. Superlines handle twist great and tend to relax nicely, but their coatings can sometimes make the line not as user friendly as it could be. There are lots of other little things I could get into, but if Berkley ever figures out how to make NanoFil in 'flame green', I might have to give up bass fishing :)
So final thoughts - Berkley might really have a good thing going here with this NanoFil. I want to pick up a couple heavier versions of the line to play with things like sissy jigs and floating worms, as well as drop shots, etc. for bass fishing. On the crappie side, more testing is needed, but the difference between the two outfits I had with me today (one Fireline, one NanoFil), for the way I like to fish, was night and day. I can't wait to get out and try it again, head to head against my crappie mentor to see if it's as good as I think. Berkley - please make this line in flame green next!!!
NOTE: See the following updated site review after 6 months of on-the-water use: 6 month NanoFil update
Permalink | Comments (2)
Reblog (0) | |