The Rooster

Please forgive the total newb questions I'm about to ask. ;D I want to customize some baits with paint, glitter, and/or any other ideas you all may have. I was wondering if I add paint or glitter to a crankbait, will it change the way it balances, floats, swims?? Also, I want to paint some spinnerbait blades and I'm looking for a clear finish I can put on to protect the paint, and maybe also put right on over the plain metal to protect the shine and keep them from tarnishing on blades I don't paint. Is there something that I can buy at the local home center that will do this?? Right now I picked up a can of Valspar clear enamel spray that says it's water resistant. Is this good enough??

It might not break but what about just functioning poorly?? I have a few Extremes that for the record are nearly the same as a PQ minus the centrifugal brakes. They do not begin to compare to my Citica or Curado for smoothness. I believe this has to do with tolerances when they build the reels, Shimanos are just simply tighter. Someone else here said that all reel companies use the same quality bearings. I used to think that too, until I tried a Citica and saw for myself that it will absolutely outcast the Extremes using the same lures, and will also cast lighter lures that the Extremes will not throw very well at all.

Shimano says this is a crankbait rod.

No.

Same here.

KVD for the win!!!!!!!!! :D :D

Yes

Swimbaits??

I doubt they're going anywhere. It's like Walmart, once you get that big.........people can get mad at the way you do things and it doesn't seem to matter. I still get their magazine, but out of the whole thing I find about 1/3 of it not interesting at all, and another 1/3 of it only about half interesting. I wish the magazine would go back to the way it was in the past. Just was a lot more enjoyable to read then. Oh, and get the $#%* Bassmaster Classic back in the fall and warm weather where it belongs. This crap of fishing the main tournament of the year in near freezing temperatures and at winter pool lake levels is ridiculous. Who thought of that??

Ah......didn't know that. I actually just read that they eliminated the WBT totally. Sad really. Women deserve a chance to fish professionally too. Why not just open up all competitions completely to women and men, or is it already that way on some level and I just don't know it??

Is there not a lady contender this year??

Thats the problem, you're working and we're fishing. Steezy, post up a pic with your updates if you have any! No way, the flames are still burning from the last gear post. :-X The current count after the latest purchase/sell/trade is: 8 Daiwa Steez casting rods 1 Daiwa Steez spinning rod 1 Loomis GLX rod 1 Otterods/NFC custom rod 10 Daiwa Steez Baitcaster reels 1 Daiwa Steez Spinning reel 1 Daiwa Pluton casting reel Next purchase will be a Loomis NRX casting rod and a Daiwa Steez megatop spinning rod and another Daiwa Steez spinning reel. Somebody please help me convince my wife I need a boat. 10 Steez reels and no boat?? Hmm......

Mine's about like yours. 3 years ago I was just starting to upgrade to better stuff. I'm a lot closer now than I was then but I'm still not there yet. It'll be a while getting there, mostly because of the price of the reels and rods I want. But I'll slowly chip away at it and eventually I'll get there. My only concern is that Shimano will change their designs again before I make it.

Oh man, did you ever hit the nail on MY head!!!! That's exactly my whole problem!!!! C'mon spring!!!.....I don't have near the trouble when I'm out on the water and not giving a thought to whether or not I'm using the right rod, reel, line, lure, or combination there of!!!

Does it cast any better though??

Hmm....I wonder now if this would work using a very fine grit sand paper. I used to have a rotary tool, 2 actually, but sold them both. Never had much use for them. I have a palm sander here and could put some uber fine sand paper on it, or just do it by hand. I'd like to stay away from drag grease since that coupled with gear grease, I'd probably end up with too much inside the reel and it would get into the spool casting bearings. Had that happen once, it's a pain to clean since the bearing is locked onto the spool shaft and I don't have a pair of the pliers used for pulling the pin out to remove it. Don't want to go that route again.

I cleaned a friend's Bass Pro Shops Extreme (similar to Pflueger reels, made by them actually) that did this and it had dirt actually on the inside of the levelwind pawl (little part that rides in the groove of the levelwind worm gear). I had to remove the cap holding it in, pull the pin out and clean all parts thoroughly. This is no easy task, the reel must be virtually completely disassembled to get to it since the nose piece has to come off to get to the cap and unscrew it and a lot of other parts are removed prior to getting to the screws holding it on. I had the entire reel apart anyway doing a cleaning on it so it was easier. It probably needs done anyway so sounds to me like it's time for a complete teardown and clean/relube.

I'm not sure how many I'd need. These reels have the 6 disc drags but I'd actually like to make them more like the Revos with just one large carbon disc and one large steel disc against the main gear, and then one more smaller carbon disc on the back side. I think all those extra parts on the Extreme's drag makes for no good to come from it. The Shimanos I have are similar to the Revos in design, just two dartanium discs and they are sooooo smooth, plus I can back them off to where the line will slip freely out of the reel. The Extremes' loosest point is still sticky to some degree. I always back them off after every trip and I have to leave the Shimanos cranked in just a little or they're too loose. Extremes could be even less but it's as far out as I can go. I think I'm just going to end up keeping these reels and use them for awhile. I have them, they're lined up and ready to fish, they do work...just not as well as I'd like, and I wouldn't have as many available rod/reel combos by selling them off now since I can't replace them with Shimanos all at once. I'd maybe end up with one Shimano reel after selling all the Extremes, and I think I'd probably have to put money with that, and that's considering the Citica E price, not the Curado that I'd like better (no knock on the Citica though). I'll just upgrade over time, and sell them after I've gotten one to replace them (one Christmas and birthday and anniversary at a time ;D), and in the mean time I have them to fish with.

I love a spinning reel and light line. I hate line twist with a passion. They go together though. I love my baitcast reels so much that if I could just use them only and NEVER use spinning gear again, I would. However there are times when spinning gear is required, such as when you want a lure to drop vertically. I can't peel line off of a spool fast enough for that, it will always end up pendulum swinging back towards me as it drops. Light line for crappie fishing would be tough too on a bait caster. I'm sure some can do it, but what's the price of a reel that handles lures in the 1/16 oz. range?? So there is always a place for spinning gear, no matter how minimum.

This belongs in the flea market forum. Nice rods though.

OK, final post here. Last night I put some new Berkley XL, 8# mono on the Symetre reel using the method shown in the Youtube video link, having the line come off the spool and onto the reel in the same direction. Then I respooled the Pflueger Trion reel with what was left on the roll. Within about 30 cranks on each reel I had line twist so bad it was wrapped up on itself hanging out in front of the reel, and then around the reel too when I had to let go of it to attempt to fix the loose wraps. So, that method doesn't work any better than any other I've tried. I ended up just holding it tightly, winding it on, not caring if it twisted or not, and then liberally soaking the spool with KVD line treatment. As far as I know, there's no fix for this, it's just going to happen. **EDIT** I said that was the last post but that wouldn't be very fair to Mr. KVD to try his product and not give any kind of report of how it affected this. After I made the above statements I tried the rod out in the back yard just practice casting. Today is a very windy day here where I live. Probably about 15 to 20 MPH winds. I had a 1/4 oz lure with the hooks removed tied on and tried some practice casting. The line does seem to have relaxed some since last night. There's none of the jumping off the spool that I've seen in the past. I know line can conform to the spool as it sits but it's only been about 15 hours since I put it on and it seams very relaxed more than what I would have thought it would be after only that short a time. It does try to coil on itself some but it's very weak and falls out easily when I straighten it up as far as I can see. I did have one fairly bad wind knot but I contributed to that by TRYING to make it coil so I could see how badly it would do so. I wound a loop up into the spool by not holding the line tight, then casted it out. The cast didn't make it all the way down to the loop so I pulled line off until the loop fell off the spool. Then tried to make it coil around itself with all that slack line. It did, but not bad, so I started winding it up and since I had so much out I ended up with a tangle that pulled tight before I could fix it and had to cut it off. I had wound just a little extra line onto the spool last night so I could make practice casts with it so now that it's cut out I'm down to a full spool now. So far I'm pleased with the KVD stuff, though I have not used it beyond just about 20 minutes of practice in the back yard. That doesn't tell me anything much other than that I can spool fresh line and treat it with this stuff and expect it to behave a lot better than before, but that's the whole point to me so I'm happy with it. Being so windy I feel like I did get to see how it will work a little better than if I had just been out there on a calm day. I was hitting 60 to 70 feet casts by giving it all I could into the wind. The lure would land and the slack line would be in the wind and still didn't go crazy trying to twist. The KVD stuff does leave a little film on the line though. Feels almost like soap residue. But that's OK, if it helps it cast and doesn't tangle like crazy I can live with that just fine. Maybe I put too much of it on the line?? I don't know. All I can say is I saturated the spool with it and let it soak in. I had tried to wind it on through a soaked cloth at first but it was not working at all and line was coiling all over the place and tangling so I gave that up and treated it after I was done loading the spool.

I looked at the Saros but went with the Symetre. It was just as smooth feeling though I like the bearing handle on the Saros better, plus 2 spools instead of only one. But the Symetre was more affordable at the moment and I had only budgeted $70 for a reel to start with. I was stretching to reach out there and get it for $100. I also considered ebay to save a bit, but anymore I don't trust ordering, afraid of getting something I won't like and it's hard to return or costs to send it back. Also I like patronizing my local shops, trying to help keep them in business so they're there when I want something, and build a relationship with the owners so they take care of me too. It's too far to a BPS or Cabela's, nearly 3 hours one way.

I'm thinking about getting some drag washers for a couple of them. They are usable reels and not bad, but just don't feel like a Shimano. Drag upgrades wouldn't cost a lot though and otherwise they are "ok" reels. I'll see how I feel as the season opens up. They're definitely getting sold and replaced at some point. I'd just like that to be sooner rather than later. I don't think I'd have enough even if I sold them all to get another Curado and that's what I'd want so I might have to wait until I can get some money to go with it and then sell them. They'll sell later for what they'd sell for now I'm sure. By then they might have upgraded drags too. I shouldn't complain too much, one of them did catch me that fish in my avatar. No problems on that at all.

WOW, this definitely isn't the way I saw this ending. After all those votes for the Pflueger?? Hmmm...... I'm taking it that ebay didn't have the 8025 either??

You probably need to remove the other sideplate first, the one without the crank. Then you can slide the spool out and you may then see another screw that was hidden by the spool that has to be removed from the inside of the frame.