J Francho

Gate valves have so much better control than ball valves. In fact, ball valves should NOT be use to adjust flow. They are for binary, on/off only. Unions are really your friend. I can't tell you how many customer installs (not mine, mind you) where I've had to cut a line to fix a problem. That always resulted in a union instead of a coupler, along with a higher cost. If I had to cut it once, I'll have to cut it again!

This is one application where a shorter rod really comes in handy - especially if you're using a spinning rod. Good point!

Any heavy-fast or mod-fast rod around 7 to 7.5' will do fine.

That's a great deal for someone that can't drop a ton of money on a few new rods. But for someone that already has higher end gear, I'm not sure wouldn't be a waste of money. Spend it on baits, accessories, line, etc., or save it. I guess I just don't get the "backup" plan.

I throw them on a LTB Teaser, 7' MF rod.

Sounds like this is a spinning rod. My vote is for skipping unweighted plastics or tomato stake. The former, especially if you're fishing from the shore.

I'll add a muffin pan to hold the parts in "sub assemblies" to make it easier to reassemble.

@crankbait2009 NIce plumbing work - gate valves, true unions...pricey, but the right stuff.

There are some cities that have a huge population of anglers. NYC comes to mind.

Go to your rooms, children!

Hey all, this is totally legit. Kevin personally asked Glenn to let us all know he's doing this and to take a look.

This thread has better life than the phone's batteries!

Yep, totally. "4 pounder. No, 2. Maybe 2 and a half." Lol. I can appreciate the excitement though.

I don't know what's worse, "GIANT" or "Big 'un"

Typically you can be in possession of the sixth fish, if you are determining which fish to cull. That's how it is in NY, anyway.

Now he's limited.... @Senko lover You think all his fish are postspawn? Looked like a one was pretty fat!

My bad - thought he had three already.

Just caught a limit.

You need to fix the rivets, or it will leak again.

Some fish just jump - Betta fall into that category. Others jump due to stress or something triggering a fight or flight response. Sometimes it's a water quality issue, which might be the case here, since your sunfish got sick, and they're extremely resistant to disease. At any rate, there's an easy solution for keeping them from jumping out. Water quality can be tricky, though usually cutting back on food, and some partial water changes resolve the issue. Sorry, turned this into a pet care thread, lol.

I have no idea. The place I ran was similar, and around the same square footage. Most everything was based on the best husbandry. I recall our local zoo consulting us on how to set up their panther chameleons. We were breed them, and around 20 other spp. of reptiles or snakes right in the store. Pets Plus was doing even more breeding. Those guys really were in the reptile game way before the boom in the 90s.

Pets Plus. The Kick brothers' store. Dudes were crazy, but a lot of fun, and cool stuff in the store. Fred once flipped me out. I was delivering a shipment of fish and ferrets, and he wants to show me this albino king cobra. OPens up the cage, and you guessed, thing sinks it's fangs into Fred's hand. He starts freaking out, his brother is freaking out. I'm in complete shock. Then turns to me laughing and says, "It's venom glands are full silicone. No poison." My reply, "Here's your invoice. Cash or check?" I'm not sure if they're still around.

I wouldn't have any problem hitting a partner on the deck of my Bullet, either. A 21XDC is almost 22' long.

I'm curious about any comment that starts with, "You don't need..." I mean, has "need" ever dictated what we buy when shopping for tackle?

No, but I had calvus and compressiceps. The calvus came from the Brichard family's collection camp on Tanganyika. Compressiceps are a pretty large fish as an adult. I had a L. brevis, L.multifasciatus, and what I thought was L. meeli, but was probably something else. I had real Lanistes shells, but most of my fish seemed to prefer the empty apple snail shells! I never got the calvus to spawn. Actually, your pic looks more like a calvus "Black" but they're pretty similar. Really a stunning, if not a little shy, display fish.