J Francho

Done. Good luck!

I use a sharpener, a small hand held deal. I'm not tossing out a spinnerbait just because the hook point is a little dull. For removable hooks, just replace them.

Yeah, hilarious. http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0330091newsham1.html

I don't have that issue with a Sammy when fishing fast. Are you sure it isn't the line pulling it under? Anyway, at rest, the Sammy sits tail down, just like a floater shad.

I'm catching a lot of fish right now in water temps <50°F. The one that has really shined is a Duo Slaver Crank SR55, as shown in my avatar:

And vice versa ;D

Better watch out with what you sayin uh, it 's a Shimano and it 's the Sheriff who askin ' ......... you can get in deep trubble in Dodge City. I'm just jealous....five more minutes, and I might have scooped it up, LOL.

I've just started screwing around with DS and some other "sissy-line" applications with my AVC62MXF. Its just "ho-hum" so far. if you can find the same casting rod, maybe six or eight inches longer, you'd be money with that reel. BTW, I've used that reel (not THAT one) and it is a very, very nice reel for light stuff, despite its Shimano namesake. ;D

Sam, I think SudoomFisher was talking about trebles impaling the gill plate. For that, gently remove them. The link I posted cited a study where 20% of the hooked fish died from Cadmium poisoning, not starvation - Cadmium was from the hooks!

I just wish he'd shut up about the Swarming Hor....Whoops! Did I say that out loud?

read the article I linked to above for reference. Take the hook out!

It would depend on the water, and the time of year. All my fish this year have been on two baits: crankbait and suspending jerkbait. It won't be like that in a month.

Not true, in the case of a large gauge bass hook. I've caught quite a few emaciated fish with hooks deeply embedded in their gut. This tells me they are hungry, willing to feed aggressively, but cannot swallow the food. I removed the hook, as detailed in the link above, and sent them on their way. I can only assume that they were better off without the hook.

Sorry man, I'm not seeing the analogy. By that logic, you'd drop your 2003 C-class for an oil change, and come back to take delivery of a 2009 C-class. It makes no sense to me. The message I'm reading is that Pure Fishing products (Abu, Flooger, et. al.) cannot be serviced or repaired - that it is less expensive for them to replace the reel than it is to actually clean it. Repair by replacement (RBR) is a process used for loss leaders - products the manufacturer/retailer sell at a loss in the hopes that you will purchase other products with a much higher profit margin. Look at the small desktop printer business. You basically get the printer and the "starter" drum or ink tanks for barely the cost of materials. They make their money on refill drums and ink tanks. Again, if the new reel is an upgrade - that's awesome for you! Way cool! It just makes me think about what they are selling you in the first place.

Ummm. Both reels you mentioned in your original post are Pure Fishing products. I'm not throwing stones at the deal, or the product. I think its great the way they treated you, but I am concerned when the solution to general cleaning, as you call it, is to replace the reel. It send a poor message about their products.

As usual, good points Paul. Yes, Paul, I was referring to that correlation. It appears to be an assumption on the authors' part. A huge one, at that. I would say be careful with that figure. It was that high in one tournament recently, but that is far from the norm. Or is it? I'm not sure we really know. I do know that I can only recall two dead fish (small smallies) in a tournament I participated, and these two came from the same livewell, on the same day. I'm going to assume something went wrong here, mechanically or handling wise. I seem to recall 10% being a maximum mortality target.

Fences make great neighbors. Fences with huge spears with shrunken heads skewered on them. I'm only kidding. It does sound sketchy to me. Like I said before, more so when you're away from home. Sounds like you'll handle the right way. Neighbors can get really weird. I somehow got caught in the crossfire between two neighbors (like four houses down from me) down the street about feeding the squirrels. I basically said, yeah whatever, and sympathized with both parties, but told them I didn't care - pulling the "Switzerland" stance. Next thing you know one neighbor is in my yard screaming at me, calling me a backstabber, and insulting me in front of my kids, and telling me that I had been voted "out." Out of what, LOL? It didn't end well. He crosses the street in front of my house. Whenever I see a squirrel, I laugh out loud. I think perfectly normal people go freaking goofy about little things when they see it day in and day out, and some just do weird things. I had another neighbor that would throw stale bread out in the yard to feed the birds. Problem was, she was feeding the rats, recently displaced by clearing of a field for a new firehouse, LOL. I told her stop, but she didn't. I covered the bread with rat poison. Problem solved.

This is the piece that most miss when they apply the fly anglers' philosophy to bass angling. If you really take note of a good fly angler, its not JUST about tying on the right Mayfly pattern, but also about the "perfect presentation." Sound familiar?

I think you're making way too many assumptions about what happened, and probably a little worked up by being so far away - which I don't blame you for at all. I know I'd be feeling as you do as well, in similar circumstances. It might have been kids that moved it, or someone that originally picked it up, but found it was broken and left it "about" where they found it. Question: how much will cost to have it recycled? It may be worth it to just pay for the recycling, and then when you are home, let that particular neighbor know that you took care of his garbage, in a friendly, polite manner. Be sure he understands that you won't be as charitable the next time his garbage lands in his yard.

Unless angling affects nest success. Then angling would affect success of those males most vulnerable to angling. I think that is a HUGE stretch. By that logic you can flip this around to be a negative, the fish that are most vulnerable to angling would not be protecting their nests very well, and therefore the young would never make it. I think you're oversimplifying the correlation between biting a bait/protecting the nest and the behavior of adult progeny from those nests.

Repair by replacement. Sounds like their reels are "loss leaders." I wonder how long this business model will work. How many Pure Fishing reels do you own, and how many have been replaced?

I've never liked the "match the hatch" analogy for bass. Put an edible looking item in the right place at the right time fits my philosophy much better. That said, understanding the primary forage, and any other forage in any given lake is so important, and can influence my bait selection.

The whole genetic manipulation through fishing would only work if ALL bass caught were harvested. Otherwise, its like saying that if I lost my arm, then all my children will be missing an arm as well.

I'm not that dense, it is totally overkill, though. Just ditch the console, put a swivel seat in there, and extend the casting platform. How fast can the thing go? Its not like you'll need that windscreen blazing down the lake at 5 mph, LOL. I think they took the easy way out, and didn't think the whole idea through, from the ground up. An electric only could be so much more than this. Just look at what some of our members have done themselves. This boat looks like an electric motor retrofitted bass boat, not an "all new design" as described in the marketing literature.

Bull whip.