islandbass

Just thought this might be interesting. For me it is (sad to say) only 3. The grounds are that. Consecutive catches (hook up and landing the fish) with no losses in between.

They perform superbly. Pardon the expression, but once you set it, just forget it. Either 3 brakes on and 3 off or 2 brakes on and 4 off. Most beginners to these brakes will love the former but will most likely gravitate to the latter shortly afterward. It seems to be a natural progression. IMHO, the VBS systemn is very forgiving. Matter of fact, every bird's nest is 100% angler induced. ;D These two configurations will cover most scenarios you will face. I guarantee it.

That is exactly what I was thinking. Also, one of the Bassmasster Mags showed how to turn one into a lamp.

That seems a bit strange. I have personally ever had trouble as you described with 6# fc line on a spinning reel. I wonder if it is the size of the spool perhaps? What size is the reel? To give you some perspective, I have used size 2000 and 2500 reels without a problem and this is without any kind of line conditioner. I hope others can chime in.

Definitely do this because it meets your criteria! With their 15% off that makes the curado $152.15 with free shipping. Not only that, they're very reputable. I hope they have it in stock for you.

Since they're even in your eyes, perhaps you can bring it down to which one is going to be easier to service or repair when you run into problems.

I agree!!! Got that right! This is my favorite, especially with a popper or doggie bait.

98% my knot just about slips into that slot too so you're not alone, no matter how careful I am. I wonder, I mean wander if oval spilt rings would reduce the chances of this occurrence.

General rule of thumb for me. If the lure comes with the split ring, I will use it. If it doesn't, I will not add one. The ones that come with a split ring, I imagine that the company put it there for a reason and that is why I keep them on if they come with one. BTW, where are you wandering too? ;D

First, Sea Guar rocks. It is an excellent choice. I use it and it at that same test. You should make it a point to check your line frequently regardless of the line you're using. If not, it should never surprise you when it breaks or worse yet, breaks when you have your fish of a lifetime on. Drag setting, you can do it with a scale. I go by feel because I don't have a scale. I put at least enough resistance so that when I retrieve line and it hits a minor obstruction, the handle won't spin and not retrieve line. I want the fish to be able to pull line to tire them more quickly. I would make the exception to make it tighter if I faced heavier cover, but I don't normally face that scenario.

How heavy is the cover? Elite is a fine line, but I think it will fare better where there is less cover. It might be just me, but its blue cousin sufix siege seems to me to be more abrasion resistant. When fishing with such light line, it would behoove you to check the knot and the line above the knot more frequently than you do. I check my line after every 4-8 casts, especially when I am using 6# test, be it mono or fluro. As for your drag, 25-33% of 6 is somewhere between 1.5 and 2 lbs. I wouldn't use more than 3 lbs of pressure. If you can't pull line off, you've set it too tight for 6# test. I am willing to guess that there could have been some wear and tear on your line as the cause for the break or a bad batch.

RW, I just called North Fork Composites in WA and the answering machine came on and said " Hi this is Gary Loomis........". He's back!! I couldn't find the number. If you can PM it to me, and it isn't too far, I'd be more than happy to "scope" it out and get the scoop. The only benefit of living in WA state. ;D

Prayers and thoughts for his family and him. I always enjoy watching his show.

Just a tbought, but does anyone know if this high viz braid would fade as the other colored braided lines do? I think that would defeat the purpose of wanting a hi viz line if we know it will eventually fade out as typical braids to.

Welcome? Look at the Shimano line of rods from the Compre down. What's your reasoning on the Viento? Just curious, beside it being a cool looking reel. 8-) Compre: Rod Model#:CPC66M2B (means, Compre Casting, 66 = 6'6", M = Medium Power, 2 = 2-piece) Power/Action:Medium/Fast Line: 8-17# Lure Weight Range: 1/4 - 3/4 oz. Price: $99 Clarus: Rod Model#:CSC66M2A Power/Action:Medium/Fast Line: 8-17# Lure Weight Range: 1/4 - 5/8 oz. Price: $69 Convergence: Rod Model#:CVC66M2 Power/Action:Medium/Fast Line: 8-17# Lure Weight Range: 1/4 - 5/8 oz. Price: $49 For more info, go to Shimano's site and download their catalog.

Thanks. But understand this is how the Daiwa illness begins. You buy one becasue you've heard good things about them. Next thing you know, your addicted. Zillions are the crack of the fishing world. In just a couple of months I went from zero Daiwas to this... http://bzty5q.bay.livefilestore.com/y1pYAxw8qRwSfamXTU3pgLJWR8ZhCotadAJXPJB2A4XjizKnDRuOOqNFicPiSW3OKtrtd7XkmoT61AUv3dt1KTgOw/004.jpg OMG!!!!!! You are single handily keeping them in business through this recession man, LOL! ;D Dude! Holy Smokes! You need to change your screen name to Macro! ;D Beeeeaauuuutifullllllll.

No problem. An MH powered rod is as close to a panacea as you can get to an "all around" rod. I was in your shoes about 5 seasons ago and not knowing anything, my first rod was a Medium Light action Walmart special. It was not suited for single hook lures for sure. Now with your increased budget however, the door is definitely open! With that budget, at least a Saros or Stradic mated to the 6'6" to 7' rod in the Crucial line up in a MH power. The rest is up to you. I might even be tempted to look at the Zillion or Cumara line ups.

First, welcome! Fortunately, you can get a lot of spinning reel for the same amount of $$$ as you normally could with a baitcast reel. For example, the old Shimano Symetre used to be at $79.00 and that is a whole lot of spinning reel. Given the chance, I wouldn't waste my $$ buying a low profile casting reel at that price. I second the recommendation of the Symetre, in the 2500 size or the Saros or Stradic, depending on how much you're willing to spend. Spend $70-90 on the rod and you'll have about $100 for your tackle. An "all around" rod if there ever is one will usually have a Medium to Medium Heavy Power and a Fast to Extra-Fast Action. I would lean toward a Medium Heavy powered rod with a length of at least 6'6" to 7' in length. The Medium Heavy powered rod ought to help in setting the hook with single hook lures and if you take it easy, your treble hook lures. After you gain experience, you will eventuallty start to draw conclusions as to what you want for future rods. I would also highly recommend getting a backpack or bag, whatever, as long as it is a "soft" bag. Do not go with a hard plastic, traditional fishing box because they are bulky. When you fish from the shore, you are going to want to maximize mobility and minimize encumbrance. I am a shorebound angler myself, so let my experience in this department save you some cash. You can also buy Plano storage cases to hold your lures and other itmes and storing your items by type will enable you to take only the boxes you need for that day and put them into your bag. This is the advantage of the soft bag. You can always take out the plano boxes you don't need and put in the ones you need. So to retrace, roughly $80-130 ($100) for your spinning reel (This is quite sufficient for a spinning reel) $70-120 ($100) for your rod - There are a great deal of decent values at this price point. I would pay attention to the guides. When possible I like alconite. In descending order in terms of price and hardness of the guides, Alconite, Hardloy, Aluminum Oxide. If the rod doesn't have any of these, I ain't buying. All of these three are braid worthy too. If you had to ask for a company, I'd have to say Shimano's Clarus, Compre, or Crucial. I've never held a BPS rod so I can't comment on them, but every time I compare components to price, in general they are on paper to be decent deals. The rest for your other stuff. The backpack I use is from Flambeau and I got it for about $14.00 at Walmart. It was mispriced but the manager overrode the $29.00 price because it was mislabeled and gave it to me for $14.00.

Holy #%&@.....What happened to the YZ US?? Guys, I tried Berkley 100% (6lb) on one of my spinning reels last year and had some problems with it. I'm going to try it this year again on a reel with a larger spool but....is it always going to jump off the spool of a spinning reel like this?? I had to take a LOT off for it to work reasonably decent. Do you guys mainly use it on castng reels or whats the secret ??? Yep, FC has been known to do this. Let us know if the larger spool helps. That would be good to know. If you have a shimano reel, you will have the ability to change the line lay of the spool to compensate. I use invizx and I think its limpness helps reduce the line jumping. Perhaps putting on just a little less line could help too.

You can certainly put on 6# yozuri. It just means that your 4000 reel is going to hold a heck of a lot of it. I would recommend putting some mono backing, maybe 50% of the spool filled with the mono of your choice, say 10# since it is probably close to the breaking strength of the yozuri, or any other line for your backing. You could fill the whole thing with Yozuri, but that bottom 50% is probably never going to see any use, a waste IMHO of a fine line.

Thanks! BTW, your work looks better and far cooler than the original. 8-) The removed foregrip really stands out and makes it more appealing fo sho.

It is going to depend on the manufacturer. Some warranties, depending on the company might only apply to the first owner. I mean you can lie and say that you are the first owner and lost your receipt, but that is up to you.

That is great work! How are you removing the epoxy?

You probably already know what techniques and colors work for you in your area. Focus in on those and either leave the rest at home or give them to some kids. My entire arsenal of hard lures can fit into into 5 planos, one large, one medium and the other 3 small, and my soft plastics can fit into my little BASS bag. When I came to that realization, I gave away my lures to kids and that made them happy campers and got them excited about fishing. I will agree your baitmonkey might have had something to do with that.

Reels are rated for lines, so much so as the markings you see on them. Rather, they are guidelines of approximately how much line that reel will hold given the test as mono. If a reel holds 140 yds of 14# line, it doesn't mean it can't "handle" lighter or heavier line. What it means is that it will hold about 140 yds of 14# test. If you choose to put 17# test, this will mean that it will hold less and if you put 10# test, it will hold more of the same line type. That is all. The ratings you see are basic guidelines of the reel's line capacity.