J Francho

Fourscore and 12 years ago... Saint Croix does reel seat repair. They rebuilt my Avid rod when the down-locking ring stripped out.

Water temps have to be around 62 for spawning activity to start. 64-68 is optimal.

I highly doubt they are on beds right now. Probably just up shallow eating. Water temps in NY haven't broken out of the 40s.

Locals refer to it as the pickle jar. We have a couple lakes where physical contact with the water is prohibited. These are water supply lakes, and the water is pristine, little or no runoff, no cottages or dwellings on shore.

Nice. Be careful with curveballs. I never let my pitchers (12 yo) try them. Got boardslides down, both backside and frontside, as well as 180 ollie blunt stalls. Still can't do any nose tricks. Proof is in the scratches. Mine is the Politic Deadly Neighbor, my son's a Palace Pal-Ice. "Stay Lame - Low Card"

It was a white out Saturday morning, but nothing stuck because it 40°. It was below freezing this morning and sunny. Weather is just messing with us all.

I’ll give it try on a smooth finesse spool that isn’t ported. Should be a good acid test.

The 5 lb Jif is like 5.99. This stuff is ridiculous and it’s just a store brand.

Wow! Amazing catch, and I love the story.

We're showing snow possible for Sunday. Ugh.

$20 organic PB anyone?

Starting to look like a car.

47, still skateboarding. I'm still paying my dues, lol.

Its a fluoro coated coploymer nylon line. It's VERY strong, up there with P-Line CXX. I can be a little gnarly to control, like all tough lines. Definitely want to pretreat the line with KVD L&L. If do a search here, you'll find it's VERY popular with members.

Have you considered going to a length based scoring? It works for kayak tournaments, using TourneyX app. There has been a couple instances of cheating, but it's few and far between. My only resistance is that I'm always thinking in mass, not length. Both might be wrong, and we need a livewell that determines displacement in order to measure the fish, lol.

It all comes down to the weight of the bait. Less than 1/4 oz., like a tiny popper, and it's spinning. Anything more, I prefer the control of a casting reel.

There's a bunch of salmon and steelhead anglers up here that refer to bass fishing as "fishing for green trout." I always chuckle when I see your screen name. That group is a little nuts.

Both your guys' stories are miracles. Glad you're back at it!

Agreed. It's a pain, but we're here to help that person.

Those are pretty big reels, not appropriate for an ultra light. My point is that the Ultegra is the least expensive option for a 30"+ per turn, small form factor reel. Put a 1000 size beside a 30 or 3000 size and you'll see. BTW, most Shimano 3000 size reels are 34-35 IPT, so they win there too. It's exactly why I choose them for deep drop smallmouth rigs. The speed helps to keep up with a rocketing smallmouth.

So, five years worth of bad reports, and suddenly in January, it's all okay? Nope. Wouldn't touch it. There are far more trustworthy sources for tackle.

If you are looking for the fastest spinning reel, a Shimano Ultegra 1000 picks up 31' per turn.

I use a 6'2" MXF for that. Out of what you already have, the 6'6" MF would be a good choice.

My family had a cottage with a dock for over 40 years. It was a VERY rare to find a hook snagged in the wood, and I never heard about tearing seats or whatever. If something somehow happened, they just go up and get the lure.

Popmax.....bruh!