J Francho

I beg to differ. In fact, side by side, my SC AVC70MHM with a similarly spec'd top line Quantum KVD cranking rod, the graphite has more of that flex, deeper in the blank, yet when loaded has all the power needed to land heavy fish, in a much lighter, and more comfortable package. I've caught plenty of bass, and trout closing in on 20 lbs. using treble hooked baits. This simply leads me to believe the common recommendation to use glass over graphite for crankbaits boils down simply to preference. I see no performance advantage of either in practice.

Red headed step child?

That's a great post by Raul! My only thing to add sort of echos BOSN's post - look at Copolymer lines. Cheap, strong, and retain some of postives of mono. I like P-Line CXX and Silverthread.

Spinnerbaits, Ragetail or other t-rig craw, 4-6" straight tail worms, 7" ribbon tail worms, senkos (yes, senkos, lol), tubes, grubs or paddle tail swimbaits.

A million bucks to play darts, lol.

There's a latch under the levelwind. Pull that back, and the side plate should rotate off.

Awesome, lol.

Boxing.

Free spool is all the way clockwise, looking at the palm side. For simple cleaning, you can use this care sheet, even though it's not from Quantum - the concepts are the same. Stick to page 1, and you'll be fine. If you want to spend a few dollars, a professional clean, tune and lube really brings these old reels to life. Contact DVT Mike for details.

I like to have a jig, a spinnerbait, a medium diving crank, a deeper diving crank, a drop shot, and a senko or wacky jig on the deck for most "figuring it out" fishing. You pick your favorite rods for this, though a couple M/F rods, a MH/F, a cranking stick, and a M/XF spinning rig will cover the bases.

I liked the logo when I 1st saw it, but it seemed a little bland, but on a hanger card, it's very distinctive. The only other card that's as distinctive when you look at a wall of jigs on pegboard might be Buckeye jigs, and theirs is a little dark. Yours really pop.

I've gone back to toothpicks - cheap, easy, and fast.

At less than 5'8", in person I doubt I resemble him in person, though I do also play drums and guitar, lol.

I simply cannot stand a floppy glass rod for cranks. Give me a moderate action graphite stick any day, and I'm happy to feel what my crank bait is doing.

The BEST stuff I've found for removing gunk of any kind is Perfect Solution. You can get is at Lowe's. So far, safe on every surface I've tried it on. http://induscoltd.com/

A note about grinding your own...you can add frozen, sweetened butter, cubed, to your meat to increase the fat content. Flat steak is fairly lean. For you guys that want to try it, but don't have a grinder, you can use that food processor that's still in the box from your wedding, lol. Just cut the meat into 1" cubes, and freeze on a cookie tray fro about 20-30 minutes. You'll have to do small batches, about two burgers at a time, but it works great.

Tim S., the silver pawl cap is a nice, understated touch!

That's a great story, Chris.

Microfilm (rolls) and fiche (sheets) are still used in the banking industry. Much of the existing media has been digitally converted.

Did you get those through a retail store? The logo looks great on the peg cards.

Might be doing some perch jerking if the lake is too rough. Perch are yummy!

I make troutsicles all winter long.

Squeal like a pig, Bobby!

An aftermarket Carbontex drag washer from Smooth Drags is an upgrade to the typical stock drag, which are made from various materials such as cork, Teflon, Dartanium, felt, or some other proprietary material. They are smoother, more powerful, more durable, and require less maintenance than stock. They feature a very consistent "slipping point" with almost no stickiness. It is the #1 upgrade I recommend over bearings, handles, and other so called upgrades. Every single reel I own have Carbntex drags in them. You can run Carbontex drags dry, or with a light coating of drag grease. Cal's or Shimano drag grease are the only two I recommend using. Most reels can be upgraded for around $10, if you do the work yourself. Alternatively, you can have them replaced when you get your reels serviced by a reel tech, like DVT.

One day a few years ago, I was pitching a jig from my kayak. I was standing, letting a soft breeze quietly push my slowly over a weed flat. With all the weeds, and little wind, the water was very clear. I pitched a jig into a pocket, and a huge bass violently grabbed my jig, and headed back into the wed canopy. The startling part was, I felt NOTHING. Had I not witness what happened, I may not have set the hook until it was too late. I was kinda slow on the hookset anyway, being startled. What I did remember was the tiny, almost imperceptible "hop" the line made. I try to watch line closely ever since. Here's that fish - you can see it was barely hooked.