J Francho

Tastes Great! No, It's less filling! Alright guys.....

10+, maybe. 30 years? Hmmmm.... I've had some much higher end reels than that not last five years. Megabass Alphas Ito Ai comes to mind. After about 5 years, gearsets, pawls, and worm gears get replaced. The dog eared gear on on almost all Shimanos wears out after years of heavy use, especially if has a redundant anti-reverse pawl. On any of the Gen one Pure Fishing reels (Revos, Floogers), the clutch trip plate commonly wears out after a few years. I'm not going to mention the spool spacers that wear out after a couple years. To me they are line brake pads or tires on a car - wearable parts. These are easy fixes, though sometimes expensive, but considering that I've seen just as many much older reels without these issues tells me quality is not the same. If you're looking for a 30 year reel, then get a Calcutta B. you can even get a well used one. It'll serve you the duration.

Mount the TD to piece of wood, and c-clamp it to the transom. Put the graph and the 12v house alarm battery in a small "six pack" cooler from wally world. If you get the one with the plastic insert, you can even screw the base into it. I never bothered, worked perfect just sitting there.

Not side by side, but anything "north" of an IMX or Avid has proven to be more sensitive than I'd ever need. I have "soft" hands though, and may feel more than others.

Oh Boy! Post some pics of the real deal!

Here's a bonus fish from last week, also caught chasing smallies. Waiting by the ramp for my partner, just fan casting, hooked this 28" steelhead hen. She ran about 9 lbs.

Or, D. You have the means, and enjoy fishing with high end equipment. I have a friend with a centrepin setup for trout where the rod was $600 and the reel around $400 used. Some of the handmade reels sell for $1K or more, and might only have one bearing. He could out fish me 5:1, even if we switched gear. I doubt he'd go back to my low rent, $400 setup, though.

Trout do actually like cover, especially if there's current. At night, they actually nestle in tight to anything they can get under. This time of year, as the shallows cool, trout will follow bait-fish in shallow, and feed on them, and a pointer is an excellent bait for targeting them.

I have a Hawgtech handle. Paid retail for it, too - so you know I'm not shilling. As my budget allows, I will be adding more, along with replacing knobs where I don't want the bigger handle. It's that well made. A relative bargain in the world of reel upgrade parts.

Spend $200, and you're going to get used to it, you'll learn to like it. You resell it immediately, you'll easily get 2/3 back out of it. Try that with a cheap, dept. store combo that you'll probably never learn to love.

I used my buddy's LXC711HMF. It was tad tip heavy with a heavy Zillion on it. I liked it better with Citica E or TD-X103HSDL flipping reel. Perfectly suited to sling-shotting fish out of heavy cover with a "lift and separate" hook set. The length was a little overwhelming at first.

Yeah seriously. By my math, that's $280 to $830. Minus the handle, $200 is pretty easy to rack up on a decent rod and reel.

I love brown trout! Nice work.

Nice work putting your friend on good fish.

Shaky head or Carolina rig. They float, so these two are good rigs to take advantage of that.

1.) Insert free. Get good ones. 2.) Yes, anything that works with a lead bullet will work with tungsten. 3.) Fall rate will be increased just a bit, since a tungsten weight is smaller. 4.) I use 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8 most often. For punching, 1 oz and 1.5 oz. 5.) It's all about the size of the head. I think the sensitivity thing is a little over played.

The Revo STX is a shade lighter. Other than that, it's six-of-one or Half-dozen of the other. You just have to decide if you're a Revo guy or a Shimano guy. I personally like Daiwa reels, but I own three Chronarch e7s and I like them just fine.

Let me clean out my Inbox. Sorry about that.

I'm about five minutes to the Irondequoit Bay launch and there's also a TON of good fishing within an hour and a half near me: http://goo.gl/maps/jKYaq

Clayton nailed it.

Frog bite has really turned on at Oneida. Jig bite: always on.

I rather not leave something that is easily measurable to question. If you've never measured your drag resistance, I recommend you try it. You will be surprised at the numbers.

I've even seen big bass get attacked by even bigger bass after being hooked. I always thought it might be territorial behavior related.

Fluoro leader like TripleFish, CFX and Seaguar aren't super abrasion resistant, but they hold up very well if they get a nick, unlike some of the softer reel fill lines. I willl say, Toray, BPS XPS, and Berkley 100% have all proven pretty durable in reaction bait use. I even had a nice 5ish fish wrap on an zebe encrusted steel pylon, and while more than four feet of the line was munched about 8 yards up from the bait, I was able to get the fish in. If I was using nylon mono, thst fish would have been gone. Surprisingly, braid in heavier diameters has proven itself to me. I think the remaining fibers and carriers might give you a bit of insurance. Not my favorite, though.