21farms

i've been wondering about bearings for awhile now. in an effort to understand this more, i just pulled out the parts diagram for my revo SX. the SX is supposed to have 10 ball bearings plus one roller bearing. however, i can only count 5 in the diagram. what am i missing?

shimano started shipping them about 2 weeks ago. some shops got an initial shipment but most of them are out of stock again. i've seen them at my local tackle shop (fisherman's warehouse). at cabelas.com, try adding one to your shopping cart...the next window will tell you that it is backordered and give you an approximate timeframe.

some of their reels share the same design features as pflueger reels (e.g. "ultimate braking system" and "inertial transfer braking"), a dead giveaway that they're made by the same company which i've heard is silstar. some of their other reels look like dead-ringers for brownings (which is owned by BPS now).

those old bagleys were awesome, awesome baits! i had some shallow running honey b's in the tennesee shad pattern and bass would crush 'em like nothin' else. the bagley foiled shad were the best medium cranks i've ever used. i really miss them.

i got a brand new revo SX on fleabay for $99.99 shipped...that is the best reel for under $100. otherwise, i'd have to say either the ABU garcia pro max ($80) or the shimano citica 100DSV (if you can find it) or the BPS prolite finesse (especially when it is on sale). the pro max is my farthest casting reel; it is truly phenomenal when it comes to distance...it kicks the tushie out of my revo S and SX in that department and i am at a loss to understand why. i bought it as a backup but, because it casts so long, i have it permanently mounted on my lamiglas crankbait rod to throw those light 1/4 oz. cranks. not nearly as smooth or as solid as the revos but not bad. i love my citica 100DSV. small, light, near effortless to cast and almost never backlashes on me. i had a citica 200D but it was just too big and heavy for my liking. the BPS prolite finesse is the one that shocks me. i bought it on sale for $70, mainly to throw small dartheads and light stuff (which it does extremely well) but, as it turns out, it is buttery smooth and the braking system works awesome. small and light as well with a strong, smooth drag.

I believe all the Revos have 24 lb drag. last night, i was thumbing through the bass pro shops 2008 summer angler catalog and it had a table for the revos showing that they all have 24 lbs. of max drag except the HS models which have 18 lbs. and the premier which "only" has 12 lbs.

i've been ordering from BPS since the early 80s but i've had a variety of issues with them this year. in 4 of my orders, at least one item that was not shown as "out of stock" when i placed the order but that was indeed unavailable. after the 3rd time it happened, i called to complain and was told that some items are not inventoried in real time : okay, i understand that but i continued to monitor their website afterward and those items continued to be shown as "in stock" for days and weeks later. that's just plain bad. almost as bad, i received one order that was half mispacked...got a bunch of stuff i didn't order and was missing a bunch of stuff i did order. and twice, i placed orders at both BPS and cabelas within minutes of each other and the cabelas order will arrive in about 3-4 days but it always takes 10+ to get my BPS order. but, in answer to your question, TW is great.

i started using vicious at the end of spring...i like it a lot. at first, i was put off at how white it looked above the water...i couldn't see that it'd be near invisible underwater. regardless, my catch ratio shot up dramatically over mono even when fishing gin clear waters. i read the tackletour tests on flourocarbon lines but, contrary to what they found, this particular is definitely stretches far less than mono. i was seeing and feeling strikes that i think i missed before. the primary reason i fish fluoro though is because it sinks, which helps the action of my plastics. vicious is strong too and far less expensive than the seaguar i had been using. the only drawback i've found so far is that it is pretty thick relative to other lines of a given test.

some shops started shipping them today.

i would recommend getting the "E" also...the only problem is they're still 6-9 weeks from being released (to protect the curado's initial sales, i'm sure). if you're really in a hurry, you should pick up a curado 100D on ebay.

i have the black max and the pro max, which sandwich the silver max in the 'max' lineup. i originally bought both as backups. i agree with j-zink's assessment. for whatever reason, they cast a country mile (at least 20% more distance than i can get with my revo S's, don't ask me why). but, they're only okay for smoothness and so-so feeling in terms of solidness. but, hey, great value for the price.

i like a short, 6-footer with medium-heavy action for exposed treble hook lures and a mimimum 7 feet medium-heavy to heavy for single hook lures like ragetail shads. as for cutting a rod down, i have found that it is harder to walk-the-dog if the tip is too stiff. if you do want a retipped rod, there are tons of them on ebay cheap...you could get a much nicer rod (but retipped) for the same or just a little more money.

for whatever crazy reason :, ardent doesn't have the F500 on their website yet but hop over to tackletour and click on their icast show coverage and they have a nice little preview on it. i read another preview somewhere (can't remember where) and they said they could pitch a mile with this thing.

ardent is coming out this month with their F500 flip-n-pitch reel, made exclusively for flippin' and pitchin'. has a number of unique features including elimination of a line guide, a super narrow spool and drag permanently locked down at 22 lbs. plus, if it matters to you, 100% american-made. as for the revos, i believe they all feature 24 lbs. max drag except for the premiere.

30 minutes should be no problem if it is cool and you have plenty of water in your container. fwiw, i had a pet bass and it was FUN! right after i caught him and put him in the aquarium, he kind of sulked on the bottom for about a week and wouldn't eat or move around much. but, by about a month, he'd light up everytime he saw me...kinda like a pet dog! feed him live crickets, feeder goldfish, minnows and nightcrawlers. i'd recommend a minimum 29 gallon tank for a 8-10" bass. the only maintenance is to change one quarter of the water every two weeks and to vacuum the gravel.

i now flip the bail manually and i *think* it has a made a difference in reducing line twist but i have yet to hear or read a plausible explanation of why that would work. anyone?

yep, a great deal for 8,000 yards of line! i bought this a couple of months back and really like the line a lot. i originally got it for my spinning reels but it is so strong, i've been spooling my baitcasters with it. no line problems with breakage at all. the ONLY nit i have is that yo-zuri should have labeled this as 8 lb. test instead of 6 lb. test...after all, the 0.010" diameter is everyone else's 8 lb. test (this is only a problem if you were expecting a thinner line).

fish these with your rod tip up (around the 10 o'clock position) and that will help you keep it on the surface with less speed. also, heavy braid (50-65lb.) helps with this as well.

when i was fishing a pro/am a couple of months back, right before we blasted off, the pro looks over at my gear and says, "you have all brand new stuff!" i think to myself, "oh, great...he must think i'm a noob!" but, in reality, i had just cleaned and lubed all my reels and scrubbed down my cork handles two days earlier. but, yeah, i like my gear to look good and i take really good care of everything but, if i get a scratch, it's no biggie. i much more care about everything being clean than scratches.

i fish a spinning rod/reel when: 1) casting really light lures 2) when i want the lure to fall straight down without me stripping out a bunch of line by hand (e.g., dartheading or dropshotting) i don't fish a spinning reel whenever i can do the same or better with a baitcasting reel because i like the feel and control better of a baitcaster and i don't have to worry about line twist.

good info, thanks. hmmmm, now i wonder why baitcasting reels don't have a clicker when the drag pays line out...i kinda like that.

i use a baitcaster 98% of the time so please excuse this question about spinning reels if it is too basic...but, what is the 'clicker' on a spinning reel? i was reading at the shimano website about how all their new spinning reels have repairable clickers. tackletour says the clicker is the first thing to blow out on cheaper reels. huh?

actually, i took those pics over a month ago because this exact same question came up before at another forum. i am totally jazzed about the new curado/citica 200E's...smaller than a 100DSV but with the line capacity of the 200D!

just to complicate matters, you should know that shimano is releasing the new symetres and spirexes later this month (AFAIK, the sahara was not updated). see the new features at the shimano website. personally, i really like the quickfire trigger (which i had on my old solstice)...and it made casting much easier for my wife and kids. my current spinning reels (daiwas) don't have a similar feature and my wife grumbles about it

when i lived in arizona, i nightfished 90 percent of the time because of the daytime heat. here's what i'd recommend. there's basically two ways to go: try to get a reaction bite or go natural and try to imitate their favorite nighttime forage, crayfish. your single best bet is to imitate a crawdad. for the reaction bite, instead of a tandem willow leaf spinnerbait, try slow-rolling a black, single-bladed colorado blade. single blades put out more vibration in the water. to imitate a crawdad, slowly drag and hop a jig or plastic worm along the bottom. nighttime fishing is awesome...that's when the really big girls come out to play and you don't have to be constantly battling the water skiiers and jet boats.