cadman

I have not come across that video. I will look at it today. My buddy said it is one of the best spinning reels he has had. Thanks for the link.

I am cleaning a reel for a friend. According to the schematic, it says that I need a clutch tool to remove the clutch cap to remove the ARB. With that said has anyone done this and if so is there any other way to remove the clutch cap without the tool? Thanks in advance

As long as the reel doesn't fail, I don't care.

That's interesting. Haven't seen anything like that before. If I were to do bulk order. I would make a silicone mold to hold the jig, hook and mono. Then pour in epoxy and let dry, or maybe something faster like hot glue. I don't know of an easy efficient way to make these.

Oh ok. So I have poured jigs with weedguards in the past and the weedguards fused into the lead. On this note, I have also used Sevenstrand and Surflon stranded coated wire and it fused as well when pouring. So my thoughts are this, why not put a piece of Surflon ( or heavy mono) under the hook shank in a mold and pour the jig head. You can put a bend on one end which will go into the mold (to hold it in place) and leave the tag end long to be cut and bent later. The only problem might be, is powder painting the jig. I do know that the Surflon or Sevenstrand should hold up. I am not sure about mono, however if it is 90 lb then it might. If you want the keeper stiffer, you can glue it or epoxy it to the hook shank. I would opt for epoxy. This would eliminate wrapping with wire or thread. This is worth a try if you pour jigs. Just a thought or I might just be totally wrong. I will try this later tonight when I get home and see if I can post a pic of my concoction.

I am late to the party. What is the point of having a flexible mono keeper? I am curious and would like to know. I have several ideas, but until I find out what the logic is, I don't want to post something stupid. Can anyone enlighten me please? Thanks in advance.

I personally would use 90 lb Surflon or Sevenstrand. When you bend it it will stay in that shape unlike monoor fluoro. What it is, is stainless steel stranded wire, coated. Below are two charts to show you what the thicknesses are of different surflon, mono and fluoro.

I'm not that extreme, however I try to keep my gear meticulous. If I have to lay my rod and reel down I will lay it down carefully and not drop it on the ground or in my boat. All my rods and reels have covers on when not used. By doing this over the years, all my rods and reels have worked flawlessly and I have never had any problems with them. Also resale value stays high if you take care of your rod and reel.

You can also lift the handle on the stem, and use an air gun and blow air through it one way then go through the other end. I'm sure you will blow out all the sand. Do it until it feels smooth. This has worked for me in the past.

I pre-make all my jigs before I go on the water, hand tied, done. I use basically blk/blu. brn, brn/orange, green pumpkin and black. I make all these colors in 15 of each of the sizes, 1/8, 3/16 and 1/4 oz. That's it. I put all of them by size in my Plano 3700 box. I do not have time to tie jigs on the water or switch skirts. To me it is time wasted instead of trying to find fish. Nothing wrong with doing this if this works for you. I have never found a color I needed that I didn't have in my tackle box. All the colors I have work at some point. I'm not saying creating your own color on the water doesn't get more bites. I just don't see that as a solution to fishing that particular day. JMO

I have a dedicated reel for every rod as well.

From the boat

Yes it does work. I use it on all my Big Game, Yo-Zuri Hybrid and any mono type line. I use so much of it, I buy it by the gallon. Good Stuff

It was called Naked Bait Co., Skirt expander, I remember the gimmicky plastic tool that almost everyone had. The company went out of business. Then the business and patent I believe was sold to someone else (don't remember the name) and that person never really produced any to the market. They do come up for sale on e-bay sometimes. I have a tool called the skirt Master Tool. It has three prongs where you put the rubber collar on the prongs squeeze the handles and it opened up the collar to insert your skirt. I used to know the owner, I believe he passed away. His family I believe still makes them. If I find the link I will PM you. I believe they were around $30.00. You can check these out also on Amazon. Type in: Fishing Skirt Band Tool...in the search bar. They have a few that would work.

As far as wire, I use copper wire. 24 Ga (.020) thick. It works really well. Just remember don't over tighten it, because it will break. You can buy it at Hobby Lobby, Michaels or Jo-Ann Fabrics. Any craft store. Also you may have some laying around from an old motor armature or a heavier extension cord that is broken. As far as a wire tying tutorial, PM me your e-mail and I will send you a tutorial on how I wire tie my skirts.

Nice looking jigs

The only thing I would change on your jigs is to wire tie your skirts. Don't use "O" rings. They will fall off or stretch out and you will always have problems with them, and when you're fishing it will be a pain. Good luck

I use Stradics as well. Have for 30 years can't beat them for quality.

Boondocks, everyone over the years has found their sweet spot on how to make and paint their jigs. There isn't a right or wrong way to paint and pour jigs. You have to find what works for you. The way I do them may or may not work for you. However, the way I do them, probably isn't your dimpling problem. I think that, that is a whole different issue. Now to answer your question. This is the way I do it, remember this is not gospel, this is just what works for me: Once all my jigs are poured, I file all the sprues and any bad spots. Now they are ready for powder painting. If I have 20 or 30 jigs I do not set up the fluid bed. It is faster for me to heat, swish, rack . Now I use a multi heat heat gun. You don't need a fancy heat gun. The hotter ones take less time to heat a jig, the cooler ones take more time. So, let's say I am doing 1/2 oz arky jig. with teflon pin in hole, I take the jig and count out 1,2,3 etc till about 20 (seconds). I immediately swish the jig through the powder paint and see if it glosses over. This is my test piece. If it glosses over, then I rack it if it looks powdery then I add a few more second in the heat. So at some point you will find a rhythm that let's say it will take 30 seconds of heat, swish and it glosses over. This will be your number for all the 1/2 oz arkies for that day. If you are doing 1/4 oz, then you know that 30 seconds is too much so, try 20 seconds and see if that works. However, every day you pour and paint, may not be 30 seconds for 1/2 oz and 20 seconds for a 1/4 oz. This is just a starting point. The numbers I gave you may be too hot or too cold for your heat gun. Once they are all painted and racked, they go to the toaster oven. Just a thought but check your toaster oven to see if it is accurate. They are notorious for not matching the heat on an actual thermometer. This is what I do and works for me.

The only time I seen that happen is if the pour has slight divots in the jig or if the lead is contaminated, maybe have some oil or other contaminates on it. Looking at it closer, I see it also happened by the collar. Did you get the pock marking out of the fluid bed or after you baked it? I'm thinking that the heat is too high, just a guess. Also try to use a jar instead of the fluid bed, see if the helps. Not all paints are equal. Your green pumpkin doesn't like something. I'm still thinking heat. Do you count out how long you heat each jig before you put it in the fluid bed? All your 1/2 oz should be one number and 1/4 oz would be less. Just giving you something to try. Also try to heat your jig like normal, dip it in your fluid bed, and then does it gloss over. If not put it back over your heat gun, but heat it and then see if you get pot marking after the heat gun re-heats it. just don't burn the paint, because if you do, the paint will bubble. Let us know how it goes.

I had to get a small hex key for my Shimano Stradic CI4+ spinning reel. It was a 0.9 mm set screw that goes on the main shaft. I have the set from Wiha and like bulldog stated, they come smaller than that. Just don't overtighten it or you will strip it out.

I have installed several for friends that wanted them. I personally don't use them on my reels

Jigman, if you have any Devcon 2 Ton epoxy, use that. Not the 5 minute but the 30 minute stuff. Once you put it on it will harden and will give you that much more chrome flash. Once the epoxy is compromised from dragging on the bottom, then the paint will peel off. But I use this on my powder painted spinnerbaits and it makes the paint last longer. Let us know how you do.

I am not familiar with not baking powder paint. Over the years for myself and commercially I(we) always baked the powder paint after it was applied to harden it. Maybe there is a new powder paint out there now, I don't know. I pretty much heat the jig with a heat gun, then swish it through the powder paint and it glosses over. Then I rack it by the hook for the oven. If you do it my way, you have to be careful not to keep the jig too long in the powder paint. Otherwise like Jigman said, you will get too much powder on the jig and the paint will start to drip once you bake. I guess if you find out that there is a different powder paint without baking, try it out and let us know. If you want to know how hard the paint is take your painted jig and throw it on concrete and see if the paint chips. The paint should dent not chip off.

I have the same concerns you have, regarding longevity and replacement parts for this reel and other Bates reel products. I'm on year two with my reels. With that said, I know that they have some repair centers, as I spoke to one of their techs. As far as parts go, they are building an inventory as well and according to the tech they have many parts in stock. There are a lot of maybes here and I myself don't want a $300 paper weight. I'll just have to see as time goes on. Hopefully, I won't regret switching over to all Bates reels, but it is a sweet reel.