The Rooster

A set of these works great for helping to work on reels. I use the straight one to hold spool bearings while I spin them to test them. I use the offset bent one to help remove E clips and bearing retaining wires from the side plates. Very handy to get into tight places. They also are helpful to pull up the spacers behind the spool bearings in the side plate, and beneath the tension knob. In spinning reels they're helpful to stretch and reinstall the spring that goes on the anti-reverse switch. http://t.harborfreight.com/hand-tools/precision-hand-tools/4-piece-pick-and-hook-set-66836.html#.UxLAkZK9KSM Another tip. I read once to use a sharpie pen cap to help soak the trapped bearing on the spool shaft of reels that use a spool shaft pin to keep it on. Fill the cap with your solvent, I use brake parts cleaner, and then dip the shaft into it until the bearing is in the cleaner and leave it to soak.

Is there even the slightest possibility they're legit? 60 calls and having them answer every time, if they're scammers just sitting around trying to pull a fast one it is hard to believe they'd keep taking the calls. Of course I know they'd be waiting on the next fool to call. Still, I can't see them saying "maybe this time, no, maybe this time, no not then either, oh well. Maybe this time, still no. Ok how about now? Wow, he got me again. Ok, maybe this time?" Sooner or later they'd have to say, "Hmm, something isn't right". Keep in mind, a lot of companies are outsourcing their tech support and customer service to places like India and other middle eastern countries. When I worked for AT$T, they were doing this and it made my job miserable when I had someone with an accent so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Careful. A tear running down a hockey mask is just out of place. Ten-hut! Suck it up!

They're capable of some type of learning. I know a guy who has a pond where he feeds the fish and they hardly ever hit a bait but they'll show up along the same shoreline each evening as he walks the edge and just follow him while he flings dog food and other things in the water. They eat it immediately. I watched him throw a bunch of bluegills in once and they devoured those as soon as they were in the water. Same at the BPS tank when the guy throws shad in. They know. That indicates clear learning abilities.

Pallets are an awesome idea but I'd still add some ply or OSB to the top of the one you'll stand on. As for a dock, no better suggestion anywhere. They're likely to be free. Prop them up on some old paint cans, bricks, blocks, firewood logs, anything about a foot or more high to make the dock for skipping below. Even just buy a 2x4 for $4 and cut it up and screw it to the pallet to make legs any height you'd want up to about 2 feet (so you get 4 legs from one board).

It's not a dink anymore as soon as it swims out of sight and I began to tell the amazing catch story to someone else of how it blew up all over my topwater bait. Just ask anybody I've ever told a fish story to, they'll tell you I've never caught a dink in my whole life.

How does the ignore technique not work? I find it very effective. But if you want them to stop talking immediately, just tell them you're not even remotely interested, couldn't be less interested, and keep walking with your hand up in the "talk to the hand" gesture.

When it comes to telemarketers, the cutoff button is your friend. On my cell phone I can see what state the call is coming in from and most times I answer just long enough to hear a voice and then hang up on whoever it is. That way I don't get a voice mail left.

Last time I shopped at BPS I wore a brand new Cabela's hat. Not for spite, just cause I liked it. I had the BPS manager offer to trade me one of theirs for it, just to get me to take it off. I declined, and kept it on.I don't understand everyone getting pestered by sales pitches and being bothered by it. Just blow them off. That's what I'd do. Wouldn't think a thing of it, being rude or otherwise. Heck I'd probably laugh afterwards, or maybe even while doing it. As for the reel counter experience, I'd have had him set three of them out so I could open all the boxes and check each to see which was the smoothest. If you want a good experience at any place you shop, it's always best when it just happens naturally but if the only way to get it is to take charge then that's what you do. Never let them run over you or take control. I'm always in control. It's what I want, when and how I want, or it's the highway, if it's the highway, then while I'm driving down that highway I'm also on the phone to some higher ups and somebody's getting a write up later that day. Take charge!

I own a lot of Booyah spinnerbaits and a few buzzbaits. Never a problem with any of them. I've caught a decent number of fish on them also. The only thing I've ever had happen was the skirt collar rot off after a while but that's with any brand. I fix it by using zip ties. I like the skirts on a Booyah bait best of any I've ever had or used.

Your neighbors are going to think you're crazy. For a deck I'd just use 7/16 OSB since it's cheap, and form a frame from 2x6 as joists. Make it 4' square. Easier to cut, just crosscut the sheet in half. Three 2x6x8's would be enough to form the band and add two joists in the middle on 12" centers to prevent sagging. You can add legs in the corners if you need it higher. 2x4 would work. You can use the remaining half of the OSB to make your skip dock. My question is how will you learn to skip by skipping in the dirt? That's different from water.

Ahh, you might expect that but it's not true. They do the same as others, just hire people to fill positions, and sometimes they use the person's experience to place them, sometimes not. Even if they do, they don't know everything about everything. I've fished for 17 years but until last night I'd never heard of the bait ball, and yet I still think I'd know enough that BPS would hire me. However, they SHOULD HAVE offered to find out for you. I always did when I worked at Walmart.

Remember the movie "Day After Tomorrow"? Global warming can actually cause cold weather.

Well we're about to have another round, and it looks to be one of the worst yet.

I was just like this before, but it got to where I was frustrated, trying to take them all at once (I didn't have as many as you, if I had I'd have known I couldn't take them all). When I would bank fish I'd have 7 or 8 rods in the truck bed, and take 3 or 4 at once out, use them, then maybe return two of them and grab two more. When on the boat I'd just take them all, and they were a tangled mess, and over half of them laid there unused. So I began selling off some of my stuff. I've sold 5 reels now, and one rod, and gave one rod away. I have several empty rods here still waiting to get sold. It's harder to sell those since it must be locally. I don't want to hassle with rod shipping. I still have 5 useable combos left.

The program he downloaded, could it have spyware and other bad stuff in it? Might want to take a look through the files to see if there are any strange programs there. Other than that, the rest is hilarious. I'm laughing out loud. What's the number?

Ooh, good one! Add that to my list also.

I've thought about this plenty of times. Mine is, I want to know to the penny how much money I've ever wasted in my life. It wouldn't surprise me to learn it was enough to buy a very nice new car.

I'm not sure how much pain a fish can feel and in what way. I am sure they don't feel much, if any, in their mouths. Anyone having ever caught a few and observed how they act can tell this. I've also seen fish hit lures more than once. I've caught and released the same bass twice within minutes, and also witnessed other people do the same thing as well. If a fish was feeling soreness from hooks, one hookup and they'd be wary of it a second time, especially within a few minutes of the first time. Not only this but look how they spawn. Fanning rocky, sandy bottoms until their fins bleed. Anyone ever caught one with its tail fin tore up from this? I have, and I know you all have too. So my two cents is......well, basically, fish are stupid. They don't know much, and don't feel much. People worrying about hurting a fish with a hook are wasting theirs and my time by telling me about it. I've blinded more than a few with a hook. Tore up some lips and let them go swimming away bleeding. The same fish will keep right in eating, blind or not. That's obvious too. If it can't, and it dies, it will become food for something else. That's how nature works. It doesn't need help from PETA (should be PITA).

All I do is soak them in automotive spray brake parts cleaner while I'm cleaning the rest of the reel parts. Only the all metal stainless steel bearings, NOT the roller bearing cage itself since it has plastic in it. I just squirt a little in the inverted lid of the can (using it as a bowl), enough to cover the bearings, and drop them in. Then when I need them I dry them on a paper towel, blow them out, and spin them on a artist paint brush handle a few times to see that they free spin nicely. I use the brush to clean and grease the gear teeth. If they spin freely then I reinstall them in the reel and put one single drop of a light weight machine oil on them. No more. If they don't, I will dip them again in the brake parts cleaner, maybe swish them around, and blow them out again.

I can see how it can help but most people for normal fishing needs will be fine using stock bearings. Here's a link to a thread where I posted about cleaning my reel which has only stock bearings, and I posted a short video showing the free spool I got from it. I think it speaks well of the bearing abilities. This reel was only $80 at full retail and I only paid $60 on sale. http://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/131350-my-old-reel-cleaned-and-lubed/#entry1453727

I have to say I'm impressed because I have a perception of what is within human boundaries, and whenever I see people doing things that shatter those boundaries I'm impressed by mankind's knowledge, skills, and power. It just shows me what's possible. I live life thinking what I see daily is what's possible but videos like these just remind me what I see daily is just what's normal, nowhere near what's possible. For example, I'm overwhelmed by the video posted a while back showing people wearing flying suits and reaching speeds of near sonic proportions, outside and free of any type of aircraft, literally flying unassisted as if they were Superman.

Of course I also do wonder about certain happenings and discoveries here on earth also. What made them? What the heck are crop circles? A hoax, or are they real? The movie "Signs" at least played on this as a theme for its plot. Makes me wonder though...

Hmm....you know what? In one sense, I can also say I'm a firm believer that contact with extra terrestrial life has been made, but it HAS been made public. We've known about it for 2000 years now. LOL. I never thought about it just like that before. Thanks for leading me in that direction. That was interesting. At one time, I did at least wonder if anything else out there existed for us to find, and tended to believe it did. Then the more religious I got, the more I learned, I began to realize that if it did/does exist, it would have the same creator that I have, and would at least be humanoid in shape, even if they're 8' tall, have 6 fingers and toes, and are covered with green skin. I also believe that Jesus would have had to go to each of their worlds and do the same for them as he did here for us. It tends to be easier for me to not believe that there are other worlds because of this alone. Not that he couldn't have done so, just that it seems unlikely, that's all.

I'm curious to know where it has been made at? I have not heard or read anything I'd deem credible to make me believe it yet. Much of what I read about their sciences and techniques and math formulas to arrive at different theories and hypothesis I tend to think is pure hog wash. If they were to discover some kind of life that I could actually recognize, I'd have to rethink some things I believe, but the primary thing I believe would still be dominant and this new life would have to fit in with that or I'd say it was fabricated for the sake of a story.