VISIONS OF MANA IS HERE!!

 It actually arrived yesterday via the Day Zero edition on Steam, and so I had put a solid three hours into it before exhaustion from work finally claimed me.

The game is absolutely beautiful, retaining that charming fairy tale look and feel that the series has had ever since it made its jump to the SNES with Secret of Mana. The music is again, mindblowing and is something I cannot wait to get the soundtrack for. Hiroki Kikuta being back at the helm just feels so right.

There's so much to do and see, and with a world that has as much history and lore built up in it as the Mana series does, and my being just an absolutely giant fan of it all, I can't help but want to run through every thicket of trees or peak around every corner.

The fact that I'm sitting here now at my PC writing this and the last chapter of season 2 of Last Tail is out of shear necessity as I want it done before September begins. But trust me, after I finish writing this, I'll be right back at Mana along with Dante's Peak playing on my TV.

100%ing Final Fantasy IV

In trying to kill some time while waiting for Visions of Mana(next week!!), I picked Final Fantasy IV Pixel Remaster back up the other day to finally finish it, and assuming there wasn't going to be a whole lot of let work, potentially earning the Completionist achievement. 

Only took about 11 hours beginning to end. May tackle 3 next. 

Covid, again

Been a good few years since my last known infection, but here it is once again ravaging my immune system and making a puppy out of me!

Okay so that last part is a huge exaggeration. I feel a little crummy and my legs hurt, but it's nowhere remotely close to the awful state the first infection had put me in. Couldn't taste, couldn't smell, I got out of breath easily. It was pretty bad overall, though I have felt worse in the past with different sorts of viruses.

The really sucky part is that I once again have the brain fog and can't concentrate, and the chapter of Last Tail I started writing last night is really important, but I cannot get myself to focus on it in the slightest. 

So, I am just going to lay in bad all day today, put a pot of homemade chicken noodle soup on the stove and just watch a bunch of contagion themed films. 

Starting with none other than The Thing! 

An Angler's Tale - #5: It Was Nice While it Lasted

 

Despite the entry title, there won't be any sort of bewildering complaints or self-loathing here. This is more of a self-reflection and a reminder of why I spend the money I spend on my fishing gear.

As per my previous post about having happened across a really nice Daiwa reel at, what I felt was a steal. I quickly bought it and put it to use along with some nice fluorocarbon. Okay, nothing too bad there. I got out onto the river and made a few casts to get a feel for the thing and thought it had some nice action and a fast retrieve.

But upon the NEXT trip out. Yesterday, after work. the crap really hit the fan when I snagged and tried snapping the string with a good pull. Fortunately, the Daiwa rod itself held up amazingly well(which I'm relieved 6-foot casting poles with cork handles aren't easy to come by), but the line had somehow cut a line straight through the pool, creating a crevice that now anything the thing is reeled, the line basically tangles itself around the spool, making it unusable.

Now, had I been in the same mindset that I was just a week and a half ago, I'd probably have given up on fishing altogether after that. Down both $40 on the reel and the $13 for the line thanks to the place I bought it from's terrible return policy. 

All was not lost, however, as I still had Zebco to fall back on. In particular, my Omega Pro, which I bought for myself a few years ago as a birthday gift. The reel has held up amazingly well, and while it does make some noises during retrieval, they're just noises and don't relate to any actual issues from within the device itself.

The reel itself is a beast when it comes to build quality. The only knock I can make against it is its retrieval speed, but it has held up over the years and has once again returned to being my main reel and will continue to claim that title until I either upgrade to the 2023 model or it ultimately falls apart somehow.

Reel: Zebco Omega Pro30 (2012 model)
Pole: Daiwa Crossfire 6'
Line: Berkley Trilene XL Smooth Casting 10lb Mono

An Angler's Tale ~ Episode 4: DaiWHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

 Going to forego the banner for this entry since it's a quick little one.

So today, during work, I got to thinking about my fishing adventures and what sort of new gear I'd like to start it with. I'd already tried a spinning reel and wasn't too fond of how technical that made things, even if it felt great to use. Too much could go wrong, same with a baitcaster which I ultimately ruled out just by affiliation.

So that left me with the spin cast type once again. Tried and accurate, and while not the fastest gear ratio out there unless you're looking at the Zebco Bullet(which I was), there weren't a whole lot of options for those wanting to dance some of the more technique-based lures around.

Having spent most of Sunday browsing Amazon for something, I decided I'd just shop locally or stick with the Zebco Omega Pro that I've been using for the last few years. It's yet to let me down and get the job done, even if the retrieval speed is a bit on the low side.

But I wasn't quite done with my search just yet. I decided to give Dunham's a go on my way home from work just to see what options they had in my preferred reel type.

And low and behold, to my shock and surprise, tucked away behind a few spinner reels on the bottom-most peg was a Daiwa brand spincast reel that I had not once come across during my internet searches:

The Daiwa Silvercast 100B! 

To say that I got more than a little giddy would be an understatement! I'd wanted to convert to a full Daiwa setup anyways, but without importing one straight from Japan, options online weren't the greatest, and if something were to go wrong with the purchase, then, well, I was screwed.

But a lone Daiwa reel! Just sitting there amidst a sea of spinners and bait casters. If I had believed in fate, this would have been one of those "This is fate!" moments. I snatched that bad boy up and cradled it like it was a boxed copy of Mega Man X2 for $5 at a yard sale.

But I wasn't going to stop there, oh no. I had planned on buying some fluorocarbon anyhow, so I thought I'd just shop for it there at Dunham's while I was there.

To accompany my new Japanese-brand reel(and rod, come Wednesday), I picked up the Vicious brand Fishing Fluoro, which claims to be "100% Japanese Fluorocarbon". Why this is a thing that specifically needs to be stated on the box and how Japanese or any other country fluoro differs from each other is beyond me, but it was enough to get me to bite.

An Angler's Tale ~ Episode 3: Back to Nature

 

art by AWD

After a week of dealing with a major depressive episode, I forced myself out this morning as a mission: If I was going to continue my fishing adventures, I needed to land something today, regardless of size or species. 

I say this because I've been struggling to keep an interest in fishing as of late, which honestly probably had more to do with the mental state I had been in than my actual interest in the sport itself. That, and the extended heat wave we were dealt this summer has made not only getting out difficult, but catching stuff nigh on impossible as the fish were running deep. Any place that was accessible were typically crowded by others just trying to get a hook in, so that did an unfortunate number on my psyche when it, had I been feeling better, otherwise wouldn't have thought anything of it.

Introducing Level 1: Kerr Scott Dam Spillway!

FINISHED READING: The Spirit by Thomas Page

 

Finished reading The Spirit by Thomas Page yesterday, and while I'm stewing in the quiet period between books, I thought I'd type up some of my thoughts on the book. 

Open Spoiler Discussion

An Angler's Tale - Episode 2: Well That Didn't Go Well

So, between today and yesterday, I had managed to get myself back out to the water to finally spend some time with the Daiwa. The drive there was nice as always, and actually getting out was refreshing, fish or no fish.

I went to my usual spot on the other side of the spillway for some simple creek fishing and practice. Being new to the spinner reel, I wasn't about to go somewhere where people could see and watch me fumble with it. 

Things were going smoothly. I was getting familiarized with the casting motions, all the extra little things one had to do with a spinner in order for it to function properly. And while I had no bites, the rush of energy I felt as a thunderstorm crept up on me while I fished was great! It was almost totally dark when I and the couple that had perched themselves on the dock finally decided to leave.

That was last night. Today was where things went wrong. 

I tried a different spot, a good ways away from the previous and one that sees far fewer anglers than the spillway. It's one that I personally love for its secluded nature and abundance of wildlife. 

So my very first cast with my spinning reel reveals that somehow, during my trip yesterday, a large amount of string had somehow wrapped itself around inner parts of the spool, forcing me to take several minutes out of the trip to dismantle the gear and untangle it. 

Once that was done, I proceeded to fish and catch absolutely nothing. It happens, the water was dirty and that makes things difficult. 

But it was the issues I started to run into with the reel from that point on that just mucked everything up for me. 

It seemed like no matter how much or how little force I was putting into the throws, the worms were flying off in pieces, leaving small chunks behind the barbs on the hook. Adding in the fact that I couldn't aim anywhere near as good with the spinner as I do my casting combo was doubly frustrating as well. 

The final nail in my time with the spinning reel's casket was my first snag. As I did the usual motions to get it out, the line on the reel itself gradually began to unwind itself from the spool, which by time I noticed it I had already started to wind the reel, further wrapping the string around the interior and forcing me to lose a good lure. 

... 

Now that I have given this type of reel a good honest go, I can say with all sincerity that they just aren't for me. I like the act of fishing to be simple and straightforward, while the technical stuff lies with the gear, and the tackle and whatnot.

For me personally, there is just too much involved in keeping a spinning reel functioning on a cast to cast basis, and that takes all the fun and chill out of the sport. 

More power to those of you who can use these effortlessly, but for me, I'm going back to my casting reel, which now is going to see a new upgrade thanks to this whole debacle. 

Catch you next time! 

The Bed Upgrade

For years I have slept on a dinky twin-sized bed, and until recently I was content with that. But then something snapped and I wanted something bigger, something better.

So I paid a visit to the carpenter (Amazon) and bought myself a full size bed, the first I've had since I was a kid in the 90s.

An Angler's Tale ~ Chapter 1: A New Journey (An Angler's Tale 2)

 In the foothills town of Wilkesboro, there is a little urban legend that makes its rounds every so often. It revolves around the Kerr Scott Dam and its spillway. It is said that a group of divers tasked with doing routine maintenance on said spillway had once come across a catfish so large that the divers refused to ever return...

After getting the new job, then getting promptly promoted to management barely a year later, I found myself beginning to lose interest in fishing, despite the greater amount of money coming in allowing for more, varied gear and whatnot. Yet I still felt it slipping away, and I didn't know what or how to get it back.

But one day last week, I just happened to see a new upload from NW Fishing Secrets on Youtube and was almost instantly reminded of why I initially loved the sport/hobby so much to begin with: The adventure aspect! 

But I didn't just want to get my gear and head back out to the same tired old spots with same tired old gear. I needed to do something to reinvigorate the whole thing for myself.

And that is where the latest purchases come in:

The biggest for me is probably being a spinner reel. I've never had it in me to pick one up and actually learn on one. So after some extensive research and pricing, I finally rested on the Daiwa Regal 2500 spinning reel at $49.99 on Amazon. 

Admittedly yes there are extra steps involved in using these and it did kind of grate on me at first, but as the demo trip went on this evening, I found myself becoming more and more in tune with it, and the extra little motions becoming less and less of a bother and more just the natural flow of things.

That said, the rod I had paired it up with wasn't cutting it. It was a brand new 6'6" Ugly Stik GX2. It was horribly off balance and just felt wrong to use, so I returned it to the Wal-Mart I bought it at on the way home and promptly ordered the Ugly Stik Elite

It was also on sale for $49.99 and initially was the model I wanted for myself, but neither the local Wal-Mart or Dunham's Sports had it, so I settled on the 6'6" GX2 as mentioned above. And while I do have to wait for this lovely new cork-handled (something I've always wanted) to arrive on Saturday, I have some other things to look forward to tomorrow, which I'll talk about in another entry.

But the rod isn't the only purchase I have coming from Amazon, for in their big Prime Day sale, I was also able to get the KastKing boonie had that I've had my eye on at a greatly discounted price!

Sun Protection +9!! 

And because I want this new spinning reel combo to be entirely brand new, I also ordered some 8lb fluorocarbon to go on it once it got here, which I am excited to finally get to use.

So what is An Angler's Tale about? Well, with this new gear setup and a reinvigorated interest in the sport, I've tasked myself with the quest to Catch 'Em All! One of every fish species that can be caught here in my state, and then eventually elsewhere! 

0/234 Fish Species Caught!