J Francho

Still internet fishing!

I used be heavy into the hobby. Had a fish rearing/hatchery in the basement, and several display tanks around the house. I eventually got onto the industry, worked as a livestock manager for an importer/wholesaler. That was around a 120,000 sq. ft. facility. Later I ran a high end "boutique" style pet shop and built and installed custom aquariums and filtration systems. The freshwater closed system actually used a huge ozone reactor of my design. In my years working with fish, I've had over 100 species reproduce. Some of my favorite spawnings were some unidentified Ancistris sp. "Bushy Nose" pleco, Lemon Tetras, and some shell dwelling dwarf cichlids. One year, we collected pygmy sunfish from the Pine Barrens in NJ. Those were really cool natives. Look up "Elasomma" and check out some pics. I don't do anything with them anymore, but I've been thinking of setting a small 40 breeder tank for some drwarf cichlids.

As far as the tip heavy speculation, I have a 13' Avid spinning rod for centrepinning, and it's not tip heavy at all. In fact, with the centrepin mounted, it's tip light, which is ideal for this style of fishing.

What lake is it? Nice fish!

Get some!

A 10' punching rod would be sweet! They got the taper right too, with mod-fast.

I've never found rhyme or reason with it breaking down. If it's working for you, stick with it. I did a guy's 20 or so Revos, used the Abu silicote. Got them back for a cleaning the next year. Some were fine, but most had fouled. As more Abu reels came, that I had done previously, most were fouled. Too many variables in usage to say what the issue is, but the greases I mentioned above work, and don't break down. My own testing with Hot Sauce, and Reel Butter revealed the same. I've also seen in Daiwa grease, but not as much. @.ghoti. and I debated Reel Butter forever, him swearing he'd never had an issue. One day he messaged me with the inevitable "it happened." One thing is for sure, and Mike mentioned it above, you have to thoroughly degrease every single part. Adding new grease to old grease might make things seem fine, but it's just a bandaid. I like Perfect Solution for this. I also think that people who frequently clean their reels don't see these issues.

I doubt I'd go through a gallon. I usually grab a bottle at Bass Pro. One of my bottles still has the $5.99 sticker on it. Maybe it's gone up (edit: it has, holy cow $12!). I've been told that the BPS brand is the same product, for $8.50. Still pretty inexpensive when you consider the benefits and how little of the product you use. It's probably four squirts to pre-treat the spool the line comes on. And a squirt or two after every trip. Another thought...Batson had a wipe on product. You wiped it on and tossed the wipe. They sent me some to evaluate, and it was the best for keeping ice off guides. If any formed, I'd just thump the rod handle, and it come off. I've tried everything, from Pam, to WD-40, to KVD L&L. The L&L worked pretty well, but would wear off after a couple hours. The Batson wipes were the best, lasted for hours, and even prevented ice from forming by shedding the water. Icy guides is just part of the winter steelhead game up here, this benefit probably doesn't apply to many bass fisherman on here. I'm rambling, now.... carry on!

You might be right. I thought the 8 oz. bottles were $5.99? Maybe that's wrong, and they're 4 oz. bottles. Anyway, I have four or five bottle all over the place. The stuff goes pretty far. I think it's pretty funny that we'll spend on rods, reels, and baits, but when it comes to a $6 bottle of line conditioner, that's here we draw the line. Especially if the stuff works great.

I'm glad you spelled it right. Stuff is about as good for a reel as WD-40. You probably have the aerosol can with the warning. The video shows the pump bottle. Anyway, there's enough testimonies for good results with Reelsnot that I'll probably give it a try.

The point is that the package says NON-FLAMMABLE, lol. So, you have to spend $23 to save $1? Good to know, though.

For kayak fishing, I prefer to have more holders than rods. This gives me places to drop the rod when I'm landing a fish or retying.

He has Apple Care.

Hope you get phone back safely. When you get a replacement, you'll want two things: LifeProof Fre case and a RAM X-Grip Universal.

http://www.lineandlure.com/media/videos/play/4/Reel_Magic_Will_It_Burn

Arctic blast coming in tomorrow. It's dry air though, so not much snow.

Jackson's fishing kayaks never impressed me that much. I own a Coosa. Noisy, wet, poor tracking, Poorly designed, leaky hatches. I got it thinking it would be a decent creek boat, or a second boat for a guest. I do like the seat. Might be one of the most comfortable in the biz. I think that's what got to overlook all the other shortcomings.

I'm dubious of their claim that this is a "reel lubricant." Looks like a line conditioner to me. Never tried it. I've always used KVD L&L.

Buy in late summer/early fall if you want the best deal.

I've found greases like Reel Butter, Hot Sauce, and Silicote break down, eventually turning brown, and in the case of Hot Sauce, staining metal parts. Cal's Original, Cal's Light Purple, and Shimano Star greases are all I use now. I also use Shimano Permalub on Shimano spinning reels.

Nice!

It never really occurred to me that a TV show depicting a cluttered deck full of rods had anything to do with a tough bite, and me emptying my rod locker, searching for the magic bullet. If there are a lot of rods on the deck, it usually wasn't a day of smooth sailing. There's also some weird obsession with fisherman about what other fisherman are doing. It cracks me up, even though I've been guilty of it a time or twenty.

I try to keep it simple, and generally stick to an all purpose progressive shot pattern. I match float size to flow - more current, bigger float and more shot. I don't get too fancy with casting. Usually a modified Wallace cast flings the rig out 20 feet or so. You aren't looking to chuck it across the river. Incidentally, you can do float presentations with a spinning or baitcaster - you just have to open the bait/release the spool. I still float fish for salmon with an 11' casting rod and a Calcutta reel.

Yeah, the power outage was the bad. I was grateful it was only three days. The snow, meh. I thought the storm we had last year was worse.

The snow drift started at the roof, and continued over my truck and covering half my back door. No pics, wasn't that unusual. Half the snow looks to have melted today.