Delaware Valley Tackle

It's not mandatory at all that the sheilds come off. Repeated soaking, rinsing and changing the solvent will clean them just fine. In a shop that does a lot of them an ultra sonic cleaner speeds up the process but that's overkill for a person doing a few of his own imo.

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That pin is one directional on ABU reels. The chances of damaging the pin, spool shaft or spool itself are high if you are not careful. My suggestion is to strip the line and blast the bearing with brake cleaner.

I would expect the variation to be less within a single brand but unfortunately the ratings used are subjective and lend themselves to some variation from case to case.

If the bearings are in need of replacing it is well worth considering upgrading them. Other than that, the upgrade falls into an "Enthusiast" category, better than stock but needed. The easier casting is much more of an improvement in accuracy than distance which is over rated imo. I do not recommend Super Tuning on any rels other that one piece spool shaft reels which I believe covers the PQs but there may be versions with the other design. A tighter tolerance bearing should not need any extra maintenance. In fact, I believe the looser tolerance bearing will wear faster due to those looser tolerances.

http://www.mudhole.com/Shop-Our-Catalog/Concept-SiC-Concept-Alconite-Tops/Fuji-Alconite-Concept-Micro-Tops-Black The second number in the size of tops is the tube size which is in 64ths of an inch

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The Super Lube grease is a fine product but can not be used on drag washers. A drag grease like Cals or Shimanos on gear saves having to keep another container around and works just as well.

When I started reading I was thinking to myself " uh-oh here comes another Bag-O-Parts" lol. Congratulations, but add a disclaimer "Do not try this at home" lest folks think schematics are over rated! Happy New Year!

"Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery" (stole that one too) lol Happy New Year and a toast to dishpan hands!

In the 80's there were auto manufacturers trying to force the use of a certain brand of motor oil to avoid warranty claims. I can vouch thay it is almost impossible to pin a mechanical failure on a brand of lube. A misapplication is another story. It boils down to how much you want to fight about it. A $200 reel is a different story than a $20,000 car. A legitimate warranty claim issue should be apparent before the first service on a new reel in most cases. Fish it like you stole it right out of the box and once you're satisfied all is well, have it cleaned and lubed for max performance.

Anglers Resource IS Fuji in the US. From their site: http://www.anglersresource.net/MicroGuides.aspx We may have to agree to disagree on this one.

Easier casting helps with accuracy with the heavier baits too due to the less effort needed. The spool mass plays a role in how light a bait the reel thows well too. A deep cleaning and proper lube may be all you need and possibly a Super Tune on anything with a one piece spool shaft. We could do one and see what you think and do the others later. Just dropping bearings into an otherwise untouched reel will limit the results.

Flush and dry the bearing again and spin test each one on a pencil, dowel... A flick with your finger should have the bearing spin for several seconds with only the slightest sound. Noise or rough spots would indicate a bad bearing. Inspect the spool edge for any nicks or dents and clean the spool edge and where it rides in the frame with a swap and alcohol. If you decide the spool bearigs are bad, the ABEC 7 OSC bearings are a definite upgrade. I sell them for 10% off retail to members here.

I lay out a spiral like this: attach the tip top tape on the running guides (usually micros in a size 4)and a stripper at 0* mount the reel and run line through the stripper, runners and tip attach some weight to the line. note where the line runs naturally around to the bottom of the blank. Flex the blank looking for changes in line path. Add 1-2 double foot, high frame guides along the natural path of the line. 6s seem to work for most low profile reels. Static test for final placement. This process ends with a line path of least resistance and most efficiency. A size 4 guide should pass a good Albright knot joining 50# braid and a 17# fluoro leader with no problem.

As a rod builder, this is one of the few production rods that I like. The color is rich without being gawdy and I like the grip/reelseat combo design. Is the fit and finish good? The 6'9" makes a great stream smallie and/or dock skipping rod.

I like St Croix blanks a lot too. As an alternative though, check out the popping rod MHX blanks fron Mudhole. The MHX are outstanding blanks for the money.

I also favor the St Croix line, but what ever brand you go with, Farmer's advice on power and action is good.

The 300 size has more line capacity, maybe a little overkill but definetely not a make or break. You won't be hurting yourself if you keep it. Especially if you fish for salmon, steelhead, catfish, musky etc. The 201E7s probably a few bucks cheaper and probably the more traditional all around bass reel.

Stay away from ANY spinning rod with a stripper guide of the wrong size. The running guides have little to nothing to do with castability. As long as the line diameter and connections pass, the smallest lightest guide is the best choice.

Read my post again, micro guides do not limit castability. Reducing the size of the stripper is unrelated to runninging guides of any size. Match the reel to a rod with an appropriate size stripper no matter what rod you get and micros (or other running guides) will work as intended. They are even more beneficial on a spinning rod if it is being use for finnese baits.

A drop shot terminal rig can be tied with all sorts of varying tackle. Do want to "Bubba Shot" flipping a 1oz weight and 6" worm to weeds or verical fish a 3" finesse bait with a 3/8oz weight? The latter is the more traditional use for rods marketed as Drop Shot rods. A St Croix AVS69 MLXF is very good here.

All a "micro" guide is, is a guide <size 6. Fuji most definetly makes several of them and I use them regularly. On a spinning rod, only the running guides would be "micro" sized. The stripper (1st) and transition (2nd-3rd) guides tame the coils and the line should shoot from there. If a spinning rod does not cast well, It would have more to do with the size and placement of the first three or so guides than the running guides. You have the right idea talking about the coils coming off the reel. The stripper guide should be 1/2 the size of the spool diameter for max efficiency. Moving up the rod, the smaller guides on the tip reduce weight allowing the blank to load and recover quicker as well as balance better. There is no magic to just slapping micro guides onto a blank. The whole system must work together. I like you suggestions of other rod choices, especially St Croix.

I guess one could elaborate on Farmers post. Those are all good sugestions. I'd skip a fluke under docks or over hangs and work it back in a jerk/twitch pause retrieve experimenting with cadence. That's also a good rod for tossing small jigs or weightless plastice to stream smallies.

I picked this up somewhere along the way. My choice in the shop is Yellow Rocket Fuel. The suggestions above are options if you don't want or have specialty lubes. Lube.............................Viscosity@78F (cP) Mobil-1 0W-30 (syn)..................400 Superlube w/PTFE..................... 245 Zebco Needle Oiler.................... 206 Quicksilver Storage Seal............ 203 Abu Silicoat Reel Oil..................176 Browning Midas Gun Oil (syn)... 140 Quicksilver PS and Trim Oil........136 BSB Speed Bearing...................114 Red RF (hc)...............................93 PMI Paintball Gun Lube...............90 Power Steering Fluid................. .90 Diawa Std Needle Oiler............ ...84 Reel-X.......................................74 ATF Dextron III...........................62 Shimano Std. (hc).......................60 Yellow RF (hc)............................59 3-In-1 Oil...................................40 - Reel Butter..................................28 Quantum Hot Sauce......................25 X+1R..........................................21 Diawa TDZ lube (syn)...................18 Diawa/Liberto Pixy Lube (syn)........18 Whale Spit (hc)............................14 Abu Black Max .............................14 WD 40........................................6 Tournament RF (hc)......................4 Friction Zero Lub (hc/syn )............4 Rem Oil (hc)................................3 Reference: DI water.....................1 ------------------------------------------- Lube....Viscosity (cP) @ .....38F...........@78F.........@ 98F (cP) Yellow RF ........................285..............59....... .......35 3-In-1 Oil.........................161....... ......40...............20 Quantum Hot Sauce...........100..............25............... 16