retiredbosn

You can't go wrong with either reel. If we can get the Abu possee fired up we can get the votes equalized for ya Both reels are quality products, right now I'm partial to Abu's. If you can handle both of the reels, pick the one that feels best to you.

I don't know what river you are talking about, but wading I am assuming a smaller river. As already suggested get some tubes and grubs, 1/8 to 1/4 ounce jig heads, for tubes I really like a pumpkin with a chartruse tip on the tentacles, something about a LITTLE bit of chartruse drives smallies wild, also don't forget jigs, hair jigs and regular skirted jigs, 1/4 to 3/8 ounce, early season black blue, later watermelon and browns. As far as tactics look for eddies pools along side fast water, the backside of a large rock in a ripple, anywhere a smallie can lay in wait and slam disoriented bait after being pulled through the current. A little eddie in a ripple can be a gold mine, it is hard to believe how many fish you can pull out of one. Also smallies love wood, they want the shade wood provides, overcast day forget about the wood, a hair jig worked around wood can produce amazing results. IMHO smallies will be near current, wood or a good gravel bank. Smallies main diet is small minnows and crayfish, they absolutely love crafish. Find a good gravel bank where the crayfish breed and you can wear yourself out catching smallies. Have fun. I forgot something important, inline spinners are deadly on smallies, try some. In fact if you go fishing and don't catch anything on the grubs, tubes, jigs, or spinners, there are no fish in the water. One of those four baits will catch fish.

I picked the only round reel on the list. I just like the look and feel of a round reel, something about fishing with a classic design that gives me added pleasure to my fishing. That is what it is all about any way the satisfaction that you bring home after the day on the water. If you added the Tour PT reel, you can pick up last years model and still have 150 bucks to put toward your rod.

No doubt, seriously you won't go wrong with either the Shimano or the Garcia.

Depending on what you want, right now you can get the BPS Extreme for 50 plus shipping, on Ebay you can get last years model of the Quantum Tour PT for 139 including shipping (that is a steal), you can get the Abu Garcia EXT Pro for 85 shipped to your door (also a steal, and my favorite), you can get 2 Quantum Accurist CX's delivered for 99. If you want to highest quality reel for the lowest price and like lps the Tour PT, if you like round the EXT Pro. Good Luck

Yes but the Revo is an Abu Garcia, which makes it better than Shemano! ;D

Like you I am always pinching pennies. I purchased an 84 HydraSport, 17.5 ft fish and ski with an 87 Johnson 110 last summer for 800 bucks. Everything works except the guages, the boat ran good (in the shop now power packs), the hull was in good shape and the deck had just been replaced. All I did was paint it and replace a couple of seats. If you scour around and look in the local trading papers you will find a great deal, and then you will have the money to tune up the engine etc. With the economy going farther south everyday there will be plenty of opportunities this summer to find truly great deals. BTW I know where there is a 93 Javelin 15footer with a 48 evinrude, in great shape for 1200 bucks, unfortunately for you it is in SE West Virginia about 4 hours from you. If I hadn't decided to get my boat fixed I would have bought it. It is a fishing boat max occupancy is 3, trolling motor works, new batteries etc, set up like a pan fish boat, so no flipping deck, but the pedestals are in good shape and it is ready to fish. BTW the guy is getting ready to go to work in MD, so you may even be able to get it delivered! Let me know if you want the contact info.

My local tackle store stocks them but at fifteen bucks a pop couldn't bring myself to pull the trigger. I did find two on Ebay that I got for 20 shipped to my door. You can find them on ebay at fairly good prices, be patient and you could probably get them cheaper than I did.

Congrats on the new boat

I just got mine in, they are very comparable to the Tour PT, they have 54million modulus, fuji ecs seats, and fuji hardloy eyes. These are the older series and not the new ones, but for 59 bucks you are getting the same rod that cost triple that a couple years ago. Great deal go ahead and pull the trigger.

When I posted this I was thinking in particular about this tracker boat, and the g3's Speed estimate for this boat is 10mph is less than the fiberglass with the same motors.

Thanks so much Way2slow, I called them today and had a productive conversation. They had one power pak that they tried out, and that side fired, so we are assuming the other one is bad as well. Long story short I have a very reasonable estimate and they are going to do the impeller, not to shabby for less than 500 bucks.

I guess the confusion comes into play when I'm at the marine store and see deep cycle cranking batteries and deep cycle tm batteries, I have just thought deep cycle is deep cycle. My current crankin battery is a deep cycle RV battery that actually came in the boat, but I need a new tm battery and couldn't decide if I should get a deep cycle tm battery or a deep cycle crank battery and use the older battery on the tm. BTW is is appropriate to run your depth finders on the tm battery or the crank battery?

I was thinking of trying the craws as a jig trailer/shakey head bait. How many come in a pint? Any experience using these?

The boat is in the shop, they called today and informed me that they THINK the power packs are bad. My question is if the boat overheated could that cause the packs to short or ground out? I would hate to pay the money to replace the packs and have them tell me it is something else. Any opinions? FWIW the compression test was good so no cracked head.

While my boat is in the shop I have been looking at new boats on line. I have noticed the same thing more than once and that is that aluminum boats although lighter are slower than glass. I even looked at boats with similar hull designs, like the Tracker Tournament aluminum and the Nitro X5, same length, same motor, the aluminum boat is lighter and 10mph slower. I am assuming that this is due to drag, but aluminum being non-porus, not to mention painted, I wouldn't think that drag would be that much of a factor. Can anyone explain this phenomena?

I know this may be a very basic question, but I need to know the difference between cranking and trolling batteries. Typically I use an old cranking battery for the trolling motor, sometimes even a car battery! So what are the benefits of a trolling battery v/s a cranking battery?

On starting out I would recommend setting the spool tension knob to the point that the lures moves about 10 inches and stops when the rod is given a tiny little shake when the rod is held straight out in front of you. The casts will be shorter but the control over the line is greater. FWIW I used this setting when getting used to a new reel recently and was still able to get casts well in excess of 150 feet using an one ounce weight.

I have a question now, I'm a little confused. On older boats that had a wood transom wrapped in glass, I have always been told that the bouncing caused the stress cracks. Where the confusion arises is that where I live most lakes are electric only, the few lakes that are unlimited horsepower a large lake (for here) would comprise less than 1000 acres, hardly any room for the water to get rough, most are a couple hundred acres. What causes these cracks? BTW I'm not being a smart elec, I'm honestly confsued. I am guessing that the wood wrapped transoms are weaker by nature than a solid glass transom.

If you would force feed a rabbit as many carrots as they do lead to "prove" cancer, it would get cancer!!!

213 yards of line weighs a lot and will hamper your casting ability. For baits that weigh in excess of an ounce or better the reel would be fine, but for lighter weight sb the 5600 will be a better suit. BTW Micro and a couple others are the Abu round reel gurus. The advice they have given me has been spot on.

Got a picture of that lure? Never mind, here is one.

The 6500 series reel is a larger capacity spool reel than the 5600. Sometimes but not all always the gears are bigger and the reel is all around beefier, other times the gears, etc interchange. What Abu series are you talking about, EXT, Record, C3, C4, D5, etc. That will help give you a more informed answer. Someone will be along shortly to tell you that you need a heavier pole, but I am not versed enough to give an opinion.

PM me your address and I'll mail mine to you. Wish I never bought it Here is a post about dumb purchases read it and see how many times the dancin eel is mentioned!! http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1233195366

The problem is that a bouncing motor on your transom is like going full speed ahead and throwing it in full reverse. A hole shot pushes against the transom, a pot hole in the rod pulls away from the transom. The fiberglass resins and fibers are strongest when being pushed not pulled. Hitting a big pothole at 70mph puts a lot of strain on the transom, with or without a saver. I personally like the ones that attach to the trailer, so you don't change the force of impact from the top of the transom to the point where the saver attaches. How many used boats do you see with cracked transoms? Most of the ones I've looked at have a crack along the top where the engine mounts are, the few that didn't the owners all used a saver.