BC

I’d go straight to Kentucky Lake. Launch out of Paris Landing, and you’ll have all kinds of opportunities. Been several years since I’ve been there, but I miss it greatly. Don’t need a jet there, but be sure to have maps or a graph.

I grew up fishing the Susquehanna river for smallies, and here's what we used to do (I admit, I don't fish tubes often now). Take a texas rig weight/worm weight, insert into the tube, pushing up to the head. Take a small piece of old rubber worm, insert that into the tube behind the weight. Now tex rig with an offset or other hook of choice, making sure the point goes into (or through if you're texposing) the tube just behind or through the piece of old worm. Works great, and incredibly snag-proof.

I had a great time when I was there, wading the Little Pigeon for smallmouth. It was closer to June, but there was good action, and fun fishing. Also fished Douglas Lake and found bass and white bass on points and bars. Plum finesse worms and senkos did pretty well. I'm not from East TN, so didn't have much intel going in.

Great info, and thanks again! My only concern with pulling the pin out all together is that it may "imbalance" the spool. Sounds like it should work for close in and moderate work, but that reel is my big bomber for deep cranks, so hoping to max out my casting distance at times. I might just experiment to see how it works.

Sorry LMGambler...just noticed the reel is a righty. I'm a lefty! Thanks anyway.

LMGambler - PM sent. Could be an option.

Here's a question. Seems like I read that spool BNT1507 is interchangeable with BNT 1531, except that 1531 has a bushing instead of bearing. I would have thought that the bearing would perform better regarding casting, but I'm not a ***, so not sure about that. Anyway, kind of surprised at the cost of those spools! Then again, I've seen fly reel spools that cost > $100!

Thanks for the ideas so far. How much for the reel LMGambler?

I tried Shimano, and they're the ones that told me they didn't carry the discontinued parts. They referred me to Nutters in Georgia, but they're phones seem to be down. Thanks for the idea though! I was surprised myself that they couldn't help.

OK, so recently, my old greenie, Curado 201b5 started making that awful buzzing/grinding noise when cast big cranks. Opened the side plate checked my brake pins to make sure they were secure (not the brakes, but the pins). Low and behold, the housing holding one pins in is cracked, and the pin was coming out. Caused scoring on the brake case, and Shimano has discontinued the spool assembly. Is anyone willing to sell me a spool assembly for a 201b that's in good shape? Thanks! BC

Recently bought a used Curado 201b5. It says 201b5 on the sideplate, but not on the front of the reel. I thought they were all marked on the front of the reel. Am I wrong on this? Thx!

I fish Beech lake too. The one in Lexington, not the one in Montana ;-) I've just been learning the lake the last couple of years, and trying to get up to KY Lake more often. Launch out of Harmons usually, but looking to learn some new areas. Only problem is the drive, as I'm in Jackson and it eats up a bunch of time! The other thing is my young kids are starting to get into it, so I need to work on finding some closer places to fish other than Lake Graham, which frustrates me to no end.

Yup - it's crazy! Surely you need to put some gas in the boat or car?

Really sweet boat! Sounds like you guys are really into them down there. How are you fishing your dippers? Like swimbaits, weightless or t-rigged?

Another site with a wealth of info: http://www.kayakfishingstuff.com/community/

Best value I've found in covers is Safeguard boat covers. I've bought several, had one fail, and customer service was good. They can be found online or on ebay.

I like my Clarus, especially for the $.

Thanks folks. I agree with the last post, that the cause on this particular bait is too small a hole, combined with paint chipping on the eye of the jig. I guess I can remedy it, just don't like when a brand new bait has issues. Maybe just an excuse to buy some more stuff...bait monkey is strong, and some of those vibrashock colors are cool.

How does this reel compare to a citica? I'm not really talking specs, but ergonomically and fishability. Never owned any Abus other than the round style casting reels (5501's and 6501's) that I've used mostly in the salt. Could stand to add another reel to the mix, and was looking at citicas and Bass Pro PQs. BC

Been noticing that the blades on my chatterbaits have been getting stuck (sort of turned down on the eye of the jighead). Not sure if it's due to the paint chipping in that area or just not enough of a bore in the blade itself. Has anyone seen this? How about the booyah version or the SK version. I may just put an order in for a few of those Karu vibrashocks, as it looks like the design would eliminate that problem.

So I wanted to pick up some skinny dippers from TW, but they didn't have the color I wanted. So I opted for the Keitech Swing Impact instead (not the fat one). Gave them the pool test today, and whoa, do they look sick in the water! Can't wait to see how they do this year. Only downside I can see so far is that they are super soft, so they are probably not going to be very durable. Anybody else try them?

I'm no expert, but I think it's called the bendix. Normally, you either get the starter rebuilt, or you buy a new/reconditioned one. I replaced mine last year, and found it was more economical to buy a new one from a reputable starter shop. I wound up buying from dbelectrical, and they offered good customer service. I believe you can find them online and on ebay. They're located in TN.

I wound up ordering it from Cabelas.

That wouldn't be any fun. But since you asked, I'd have to say green pumpkin senko.

This is gonna be the first year I really focus on fishing soft swimbaits (live magic shad, panic minnows, etc.). I'm already planning on fishing them on swimbait hooks and sled heads, and sometimes as trailers on chatters and bladebaits, and I'm wondering if they'll replace a lot of my cranking this year. Anybody else find they do less cranking and more "swim baiting"? I'm a sucker for fishing slow and using soft plastics like senkos and shakey worms, but I need to improve my power fishing and searching game.