J Francho

Those are Smoothies, I was talking about the Carbontex. [edit]Nevermind, I read the wrong line. They 6 bucks from both places.[/edit]

Take melatonin. Natural and works great.

Smooth Drags makes a $9 set of Carbontex washers that would make the drag better than anything new.

Its getting to be that time of year here too.

I have that rod too, and it is heavy. Once balanced, its a beaut. Fishes more like a heavy power rod. Its definitely the exception in the Avid line. My other three are very light.

Nope. I'm the guy that was there the day before, and I have a scale and a camera! ;D

The rest are either to tighten up poor tolerances in the frame or for a smooth retireve (or both). Look at the Shimano Stradic (yes, I realize its a spinning reel), it has 5 WELL PLACED bearings, and remains one of the smoothest reels out there. Many ten year old + Stradics come in for maintenance, and still run smooth. Fish one of those 14 bearing $49.99 reels you see on the end cap sale display at Dick's for ten years, and tell me how it feels.

On most baitcasters, just two or three. There is a shaft support bearing on the palm side, another shaft support close to the spool and before the pinion, and on some reels the bearing under the cast control knob comes into play.As far as the second question goes, it depends on a lot of things like cover, substrate, length of cast, etc. I will say this, the STX max drag rating is highly exaggerated. It may be there when new, but it isn't there after some use. The Revo carbon matrix washers are nothing like the aftermarket Carbontex sold by Smooth Drags.

I fish for bass from ice out to ice in. When the lakes get hard, up here we switch species....

The only reason in my book to go with an EWG is if you are going to swap out the worm for a bulkier bait, like a beaver or creature. Otherwise, its just extra hardware that gets caught in the weeds. The gap on a plain old 5/0 worm hook is plenty to get a good hookset every time.

Wherever the fishies are at.

Generally, pro staffers get pre release baits. They will sometimes pass them on to friends that they trust will fish them and give an honest review. So, in a sense, its a little of both. To be on a pro staff, you need to be able to sell, and make impressions.

You move the jig with the rod. When you get bit, you move the fish with the rod. The reel just takes up line. I have no idea why a slower reel would offer ANY advantage here. Yes, I remember when my Daiwa 5:1 was a "burner." 6.3:1 was an adjustment. Having stepped into the 7+:1 world, faster is better with jigs. I've used the Crazy Cranker, and honesty, its even too slow for cranking for my preference. Its gonna SUCK for jigs. Seriously. When you miss that jig bite, and have to reel in to make another pitch back, you will regret the decision to go with a slow reel.

Brendan posted this on the other site, but it applies here: http://www.mass.gov/dfwele/dfw/calendar/hearings/lead_sinker_hearing.htm. I'd say you Mass guys have an opportunity to get organized and fight this.

Nice, you're changing the original criteria of the question to fit your desire. Get something new, that's what you want to hear, right? As for the split rings, they're easy to replace, and for the "logo," well perhaps that is what the fish were attracted to. ;D

Owner Offset Shank in 5/0 is what I use. Literally many hundreds of bass caught with this over the years.

The Zebco will still look cool next to your high dollar reels for years to come:

Buy more of what you know works. Add a couple of new ones to try, if you must.

Zoom: GYCB: I take it "generic" means "not sponsored by."

Crest, do you have any online info about this? I only know of the ban on Quabbin and Wachusetts. At any rate, this is serious. Its pretty easy to find lead free big jigs, and I in fact use Outkast jigs. All the smaller jigs are going to be trouble to replace, as are the specialty items like Road Runners, spinnerbaits and blades.

The Zebco is lighter than the CU300/301E

The answer is pretty clear: Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Tell that to my Ito Alphas Ai.

There definitely were some late comers....cool cool nights, warm days. I found smallies on beds at Black Lake at our club T at the end of June. I had some LMB on beds a few weeks ago in the "lunchtime pond," and they were all but done way back in May.

Just a quick note, bass fishing is open to catch and immediate release on the St. Larry from 12/1 through the 1st Friday preceding the 3rd Saturday of the month. If you came this year around that time, you'd have missed peak spawn already, though plenty of fish are still shallow by then.