justtracytrolling

Back to the topic...Even though my son used this knot all season im leary of change, especially with knots. Last night I tied up three setups with 6 to 8 foot leaders to test the FG knot. We drove through a whiteout to Otisco and when we walked out on the causeway at 530 it was howling. Lake is only down inches now and the waves were going over the concrete. 3 of us fished a couple hours to no avail. I was fishing with gloves and had an inadvertent bail flip trying to really cast into the wind and I'm thrilled that with the extra long leader there is enough cushion. We didn't cast a single lure off. Normally with bigger sticks if you throw them hard on braid with a short leader and anything goes wrong it's snap! The long leader isn't necessary to catch fish, but when fighting fish some line stretch always helps so I'm optimistic about this setup for next season. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

I don't target muskies and if I did I would agree with a good bit of your post. This is a bass forum, it's not a joke, and I am a guide. I'll pass on the musky conversation, but as far as tigers are concerned I've caught as big a tiger as I've heard of and haven't had a problem with bite offs once I switched to seaguar blue label leader. I realize it isn't bite proof...I'm multi species fishing 90 per cent of the time and when I'm not multi I'm walleye. I had exactly 2 customers last season that were exclusively tiger musky. I take kids and families fishing so putting fish in the boat is a big deal and light, shy tackle gets more bites period and that's fact. If you use high end reels like mine with excellent drags and the best small diameter lines on the market you can handle big fish consistently. I'm not going to get into specifics but my strategy with jerkbaits uses sinking, suspending, and floating baits. One thing they all need to do to be really effective on the pause, especially the long pause, is stay level. Have you ever seen a fish dead or alive pause with its tail straight up? Even flouro and barrel swivels can affect this, and I shorten my 30lb leaders just for this reason. Tie able steel isn't good for this. I also think lures are designed to be fished on a specific sized line. Everyone is free to fish for what they want and that's that! Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

I never use heavier than 30# and the only way I would is if I was targeting pures with real musky sized stuff. The smaller bass and walleye lures aren't nearly as effective on heavy leaders. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

The barrel swivel is bulletproof and I prefer them but if you aren't disciplined and reel them into the eyes on the rod then cast you break the eyes. Then the next cast the braid is cut on the broken eye. Therefore, the barrel setup I love is useless for guiding. On my way to test this knot on some walleye...I'll post some pics if we get into anything noteworthy. I'll need to use this knot a bit before I trust it for tigers... Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

Cuse, I use 30lb seaguar blue label and have never had a break/cut off. I use it anytime I'm specifically targeting tigers and never use wire. When I'm targeting other species I use 20lb if I'm worried about tigers and also have never had a break/cut. I like 20lb for pointers, but I use the 30lb for customers. The 30 works fine with big glide baits and eels etc. Last season I ran 8lb dia off my riggers all season and didn't get bit off running small spoons. We landed 3 over 40 on it. Small spoons and sticks are very effective at times off downriggers on walleye but they don't work at all on heavy flouro...action is wrong I guess. When I started several years ago I was using 15 pound invizx for leader and I had cut offs. If you are just interested in tigers on heavy tackle 50-80 pound flouro. Most of my trips are light spin tackle as very few customers are comfortable with a baitcaster. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

So I tied an excessively long leader on to test casting the FG knot and it casts great even on a baitcaster. I haven't tried to tie heavy braid to heavy flouro yet to use on tigers, but that's next. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

This knot definitely will cast and you don't need to keep tying leaders because you can use a longer leader. Try this for drop shotting, and any other finesse spinning applications like casting sticks for walleye. The invisaswivel is neat but I can't see it going thru the eyes especially today's micro guides. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

There are many solutions for this and I have been using a barrel for this because the knots I've tried for this are difficult to tie in the wind at night and they don't work better than a barrel. Well after replacing a ton of broken eyes on my rods and the lost tackle that went with those broken eyes ive decided to go back to tying leaders on. My son has been trying to get me to switch to the FG knot for this and I finally caved in and let him show it to me. I have to say in addition to winning knot wars it's fairly easy to tie and it's the thinnest possible connection. This knot is 100% castable and allows you to use longer leaders. I mentioned on here before how many pros are using long leaders on spinning tackle, well this is how they are doing it. If you use braid on spin tackle this is THE knot! Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

Call it in for sure Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

Was this reported? If not please do so...Or put all the details up. Its early in ice season let's get this stopped before it can get going. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

We have clover, alfalfa, corn, and oats till midsummer and the newest seeded clover (that was seeded under the oats) pulls the deer in best till we get snow and then it's corn and clover. Definitely need a soil sample no matter what you pick. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

My business is to share and help anglers, but im not giving anything to a company for free so they can sell it. Sharing implies a two way flow of something...We give our data and they sell it.... Boat position is everything in fishing...Anything that helps with this will put fish in the boat. Number one question I get on casting trips is how did you find these exact spots and how do I do that...Minor subtleties in a relatively featureless lake are a big deal. I had spots I never knew WHY they were so good until I had an accurate map. Had I had the map 5 years ago it wouldn't have taken hundreds of hours to find those spots. Then once you find a key spot AND have an accurate map you look for other identical features and bingo... Its not often I buy anything for fishing and I say wow that's a game changer and autochart regardless of which company you get it from is just that IMO. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

Have you made your own map and compared it to the navionics yet? You will be shocked at what the bottom really looks like...I fished literally thousands of hours on Otisco without a custom map and found things I never knew existed this year with the auto chart. Just because navionics is the best on the market doesn't mean their maps are accurate...My son is sponsored by navionics and believe me I know their products and unless they have recently mapped the lake you fish their maps are educated guesses and even if they have mapped your water they haven't mapped it nearly as well as you can. Another cool feature for anyone fishing a body of water where the water level changes several feet throughout the year is the ability to enter a water level offset so if you troll tight structure you can follow it even if the lake is down several feet. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

I should note the helix system is a live chart created right before your eyes, BUT that only records 8hrs of data. After that you have to lose the first 8 hrs to continue. You can add auto chart pro and then you can record a seemingly endless amount, BUT now you have to use your PC to update your map with new data after each trip. I went with this as I don't have to share with anyone. Once you make your own map you see that the navionics is junk really IMO. Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750

Great video...And great lures too! Justin Okrepki NYSDEC licensed guide #7324 http://www.otiscolakeguideservice.com/ (607)-349-1750