BobP

Sure it does. Any tiny little thing you do to a crankbait changes it’s performance to some extent. Different size split rings will change the bait’s buoyancy and can help or hurt the likelihood of the trebles tangling.

Well, you just don’t like Iwata? What’s wrong with you? I’ve airbrushed for about 20 years now. After a long and winding road I’m using an Iwata Revolution BR for most stuff and a HP+ for detail. There are plenty of good airbrush brands but to me, Iwata is the pinnacle of quality, performance, and repairability. That last quality, availability of parts, is the difference between fixing an airbrush you break or having to throw it away and buy another.

I can’t think of a better way to clean a reel than to use a Water Pic to flush out debris from the spool and especially the level wind. Be sure to relube the level wind afterwards and avoid getting water into the gear case, which should not be affected by scum anyway. Water shouldn’t infiltrate the cast control knob on a well built reel. If it did, that allows water to infiltrate the gear case too, which can cause further serious corrosion.

I’ve “upgraded” stock reel bearings to ABEC 7’s, just because the 7’s were available at a good price. Couldn’t discern any difference whatsoever. I can see and feel a difference with ceramic bearings but was it really something that increased my fishing performance or enjoyment? No. We guys like to tinker around with stuff and hotrod mechanical things. No harm, no foul but in this case it’s mostly for emotional rather than practical reasons.

I like a medium power fast action tip rod for most of those presentations. A Shimano Crucial Med power 6’8” dropshot rod does it for me. It has a fast but very soft sensitive tip and enough backbone to play large bass.

Thread tensioner - throw the spool in a tea cup or small bowl, tension with a catalog or phone book. Keep a single edge razor blade handy to trim treads and a short piece of thin braid handy to pull the loose thread back under the existing wraps. There are several ways to fix guides to the blank before you wrap them. I like to use elastic thread because it lets me do “final alignments” before or after I wrap the guide.

You’re gonna have to shoot a new white color basecoat anyway, so the simplest way to go is wash it off.

I haven’t used it but it appears to be a typical slow cure epoxy, which are functionally waterproof. There are lots of these brands around in both glue type epoxies (Devcon Two Ton, etc) and table top/decoupage epoxies (Envirotex Lite). If the Alumite is what you want to try, check to see how long it takes to cure hard. If it’s less than 20-30 minutes, I’d steer clear.

I live south of ww2farmer and my experience is just the opposite regarding wide wobble round profile baits versus tight wobble flat sided cranks. I choose flat sides year round and generally (not Always but more often than not) they outproduce wide wobble baits. I theorize that it has to do mainly with water clarity rather than time of year. Southern lakes are usually more stained. Of course, anyone that says he knows exactly what bass will bite at any time, any place, in any water condition is usually talking through his hat. Best to have a variety on hand and experiment.

I simply built a couple of V blocks and glued a little felt in the V’s to cushion the rod. The v blocks hold the rod about 8” off the table. I like to be able to adjust the distance between the blocks while I wrap guides. The rod turner I use is another block with a slow rpm ac motor epoxied to a piece of capped 1 1/2” pvc pipe into which I threaded 3 thumb screws to hold the rod handle while I apply and cure the thread epoxy. Keep the height of the V blocks and the center of the turner chuck at the same height so you can chuck the rod into the turner and use one of the V blocks to support the rod tip. The whole thing took about an hour to build from a piece of 3/4” pine shelving. I’ve used it for the last 15 years to build 20 or so rods. A motorized professional rod wrapper would be faster but no more exact than turning a rod by hand as I wrap guides. And the total cost was about 10 bucks. Wrapping guides with whatever system you have is sort of tedious work but if you want a rod EXACTLY like you want it built, well...

To me, jerkbaits and flat sided crankbaits have very different actions and are retrieved very differently, so I can’t agree with your equivalence. Flat sides have a more rapid and more staccato wiggle on a straight retrieve and they also come through hard cover better, depending on the model. Not saying jerkbaits aren’t a great bait for cool fall water but flat sides they are not.

Just a note about glue. I use epoxy but many glues work just fine. What really keeps a wood crankbait together is the topcoat. As long as it is intact with no water penetration, everything is fine. Once water gets in, the bait expands, the finish fails, and your bait is toast. Lots of builders use superglue and no, water does not harm it.

My favorite lake had mostly largemouths with a few spotted bass mixed in about 10 yrs ago. Now it’s 90% spotted bass. I don't think it was because the spots out-competed the largemouths, but because the lake owners decided to remove all the vegetation in the lake, eliminating most of the largemouth habitat and tilting the environment in the spots’ favor. They prefer open water and more depth and move around much more than largemouths. When you can find them, they are sporty to catch. But they are not “stay at home” fish like largemouths. And they are about half the size, on average. If the largemouth habitat doesn’t change I doubt you have much to worry about. I bet there have always been spots in your lake anyway if it is adjacent to spot river habitat. As long as largemouth habitat and sufficient forage exist, I wouldn’t worry.

I’ve had Shimano spinning reels (nothing more expensive than a Symetre) sieze up regularly while river fishing in a canoe. Often enough that I stopped buying Shimanos. DVT, if you know the causes of this and how to avoid it, I’m sure we would all appreciate hearing details. I’m thinking it’s the IAR bearing?

Sounds like you have minimal experience as a reel tech. You should never take one apart without a reel schematic on hand and you need to lay out the parts in order as you take them off. Best advice is to send the reel to DVT, who is a site sponsor for service/repair. It doesn’t cost that much and you get back a reel that will work as well as it can.

This is a hit or miss deal and depends on your expectations of how well you want the lure to perform and your expectation of quality. Almost all “knockoffs” are external copies of popular commercial baits and they are molded in Asia. A few work just like the original. Some fish differently but are fish catchers in their own right. Some are just junk that you can make pretty but will never run right or catch a fish. So you have to ask around and you have to experiment with different models to find ones that meet your expectations, whatever those may be. I’ve tried various models through the years. About 30% met my expectations. One I do like is the Wiggle Wart sold by Predator Baits. Squarebills by several sellers are also often good baits. Jerkbaits is a category in which it is harder to find good baits because commercial originals depend on a lot of internal structure and weighting schemes that knockoffs do not or cannot copy.

I get an email warning me that a new device has been used to access the site every time I log on. Since I’ve used the same IPad to log onto the site for the last 4 years, it’s rather tiring to get them. Does anyone really care that a different device was used to log onto bassresource.com? Not me. Who the hell would want to steal my logon credentials for this site anyway? And if they did, would I really care? Nope.

I like Kick’n Bass fish oil based liquid scent. In addition to any advantage it may impart to the bait’s smell (some, I hope) it lubricates the plastic so that it doesn’t get torn up by the fish after they hit it. And yes, I believe it works as an attractant to some extent. Aren’t we are all willing to go to ridiculous lengths to get little green fish to bite anyway? So why not, just on the possibility that it might give you an edge, however small or large, in the quest?

If it works ok otherwise, sure, it’s worth repairing. Probably just one small clip or something broke or came off the shaft. Of course, taking the reel apart and getting it back together right may be beyond your experience, so you might want to send it to a reel tech to have it done right.

McMaster-Carr also sells polycarbonate and G-10 circuit board sheets for a decent price. I use their 1/16” thick polycarbonate and the 1/32” G:10 for bass baits. balsa: yes, it can be pricey especially if you specify medium or high density balsa from a provider (which are the densities favored for balsa baits). If you get it from a hobby store, you “get what you get” as far as density goes. That’s not a big deal if you are just building a few baits and don’t plan to make it a hobby or build baits for sale. But if you are, it is important to use a consistent density of whatever wood you choose because using various densities of wood introduces complications in how you build, reinforce, and ballast your baits. And consistency in materials is one thing that allows you to build future baits that perform, well, consistently. You’ll find building GOOD baits is a challenge. They must be carved to a good L/R symmetry, have the right ballast amount in the right place, have the right size and angle of lip installed straight, and the line tie in the right place. It really isn’t very easy to do unless you take your time and measure and mark everything you can to eliminate asymmetry. It requires more exactitude than you might think but building a bait that swims well and catches fish makes it all worthwhile.

I’ve bought quite a few used reels on EBay but only from sellers with at least a 98% satisfaction rating and a good description and photo of the reel. The very first thing I do is disassemble the reel, clean and lube it and order any required parts. Some sellers are guys who buy reels new, use them without any maintenance until they no longer work well, then sell them. That’s ok if you know how to service a reel and are willing to take the time to do it, or send it immediately to a reel tech like DVT for service. Otherwise it’s a crap shoot. “Refurbished” can mean many different things unless done by a factory service center or a pro reel tech that you trust. That said, all of the reels I’ve bought only required a thorough cleaning and lube, and an occasional spool bearing to bring them back to like new operation.

I started building about 15 yrs ago with 2 homemade V blocks and a rod turner built with a $10 motor to rotate the rod while epoxy cures. I’ve built 20 or so rods by hand since then and never felt the need to buy a professional wrapper/turner. I’m sure it’s somewhat slower wrapping by hand but the result is exactly the same. Jmho, you only really save money on higher cost blanks and guides. For me, if a rod costs less than $125, I’m ahead buying it retail than buying the components and building it myself. Of course, there are some inexpensive blanks, such as Seeker S glass, for specialized applications that can’t be bought in a retail rod. V blocks with felt pads lure turner with low 3-6 rpm motor, 1 1/2” pvc pipe threaded with thumb screws to hold rod handle a tea cup or small bowl to hold thread a phone book to tension thread elastic thread to position guides cork reamer or round file 1/4” flat paint brush to apply epoxy rod guide epoxy and epoxy paste for handles, 5 min epoxy for tip top guide thread

I can’t speak to Lew’s cause I never owned one. As far as Shimano and Daiwa, I think they’re both high quality reels. But you can find Daiwas at a discount on Amazon and Ebay while Shimano tightly controls the pricing of their reels. Advantage Daiwa. Jmho

I think you almost have to born into a retail family to understand what it's about, what the life is like, and the pitfalls you run into. Suffice it to say that when my successful retail business owner Dad decided to retire, none of us four kids raised a hand to take over the business. We had all worked in it since our early teens and learned first hand how tough it is to make a small business successful. Unless you can say “I’m a true hard headed realist”, you are cruising for a bruising.

Ned vs dropshot. I think it depends on what forage the bass are favoring. On my last trip to Canada we fished a clear water reservoir filled with rock and weeds. They were reluctant to bite a Shad type DS but the Zman Ned in a craw color rocked all week, all species, all sizes. And it is more efficient to fish than a DS when the fish are biting both. So I’d take both.