J Francho

You guys using a Palomar....really? On an umbrella rig? What a mess that must be top tie properly.

Do you release your bass into a cage kept at 20 FOW for 72 hours? You don't think that's a little unnatural? The study is bunk.

Print it up, and carry it with you.

Shimano 2500, Daiwa 2000, 20 or 30 series in other brands all work fine.

Try a series of acetone baths, with one final bath of 70% alcohol, and lube with your favorite oil. The Bantam oil that came with it is really good stuff. See if you really want the bearing upgrade after that.

Regular Rage craw, Texas Rigged on a n Owner Wide Gap Plus hook, and the least amount of weight required to get the bait down. 1/4 oz. is most common for me.

Someone probably complained. It probably is private property. You can find out at the tax assessor's office for sure. Up here, that info is available online.

My Xpress H18 is exactly 18' from the tip of the bow to the transom. It probably has more to do with marketing than anything.

NO. Get the hook out. Hooks do not dissolve or fall out, they simplay cause further unnecessary damage and harm to the fish. Use the method linked to above to remove.

Structure is the shape and depth of the pond. Without those two, there can be no pond. Many so called featureless ponds have an inlet and outlet. Also, no cover? No plants whatsoever? Strange place indeed! Does it have fish? Look hard, I bet you find both.

Anyone with ANY common sense knows that excessive heat will ruin your rods - I've got a couple graphite rods that developed kinks sitting in my car in the pass through from the trunk. Did I get a thermometer out to measure just how hot? It's too hot. I'm closing this thread. No one will be allowed to attack another member that's trying to help just because their opinion differs from yours. Those storage units get VERY hot inside. I wouldn't keep my gear there either.

Thanks - keep checking in!

Rod Sleeves, reel covers, and all bundled together with a tarp bungees:

Show me a study that shows me that catch and release fishing damages the fishery.

You probably could have saved the $$$ on the bearing upgrade. Flushing the OE bearings of grease and using a quality oil - even OE Bantam oil works great - owuld have resulted in the same usable performance gains.

Uni has always worked fine for me.

No, the diameters were different, and the stack was all different. In the case of the wiffle spool, I used slower (3.7:1?) gears from a lower line of reel. Everything was different. I think we might have gained a "clicking drag" where there was an audible click when drag was slipping, like a spinning reel. That's a cool Abu feature - wish others did it. Now, If I'm not mistaken, washers for a 7:1 Shimano gear set are different than the 6:1 and 5:1. That would require obtaining more than just the gears. It's easy to check, just look at the steel keyed and dog eared washer part numbers. No match, you better get those too. You might as well upgrade to Carbontex drags while you're at it.

Plus, they offer some great gas mileage savings. I'm looking to get one for my Sierra. I tow about 12-15K miles a year.

It's forum related....they help keep it running.

I can't remember with the Shimano, but swapping other gearsets - last one I did was an Abu whiffle spool Ambassedeur - sometimes required swapping drag washers, and shimming the AR bearing tube.

1-877-577-0600

Photobucket works, and is free. I use Smugmug, but it's a pay. I have a coupon code: https://secure.smugmug.com/signup.mg?Coupon=stxIahsNGCmyU

LMBO, too funny. LMGambler, post up an account of your tournament when it's all said and done. Lost of guys would like to see an account of a tournament from practice to finish. Here's a couple I did from last year: Win on Erie: http://www.bassresou...ie-points-73111 2nd place, 1st tournament as a boater: http://www.bassresou...-port-bay-2011/

There are spots where you can rip off a high speed run, but most of the time 40ish is about all you can get up to. Remember - no brakes in a boat! I can run a month's worth of tournaments staying in the 3/4 throttle range with one tank of gas. Open her up to WOT, and even my little 115 gets relatively thirsty, and the tank goes dry quick.

Mixing and matching handle/knob configurations is a great way to improve a stock reel. Cheap bling for cheap thrills! Here's my small swimbait Calcutta... Or how about a sweet WS "Wiffle Spool" Ambassadeur with slower gears and a Toro Winch handle: Post up some before and after shots of the Core when you get the parts!