BobP

When BPS sold Clunn signature 7' MH rods years ago - I made the mistake of ordering one. Broom stick and not sensitive either. It's the only rod I ever used once and got rid of. If Clunn continued to use this rod for all presentations, that's fine. JMHO, everyone has to figure out what equipment works best for them. Unless your name is Clunn, Van Dam, or whoever, it's pretty idiotic to base a buying choice on the individual choices of others - even pros. Even if you do, that assumes the manufacturer is actually selling the same product to the public that the God of Fishing is actually using! Pretty iffy proposition.

If you tied direct to the split ring on the Wart (or any other crankbait) and it does the same thing on 2 rods - it's definitely the bait! Like WIGuide said, the rod and reel are only taking up line. It's up to the crankbait to run straight. It's worth noting that on the early Storm Wiggle Warts, the same iffy build quality that made some of them hunters made just as many un-tunable worthless hunks of plastic. They were notoriously difficult to tune. Can't speak for the Strike Kings as I don't use them. But most crankbaits can be tuned to run straight unless there is a manufacturing defect. Sounds like you need to take needle nose pliers along next time out and tune those baits.

I use fluoro that's 5 yrs old with no problems whatsoever. Fluoro takes many times longer to degrade from environmental causes than nylon line. It also doesn't absorb water and is largely unaffected by UV exposure. I use it until it has been abused or it has gotten lower on the spool than I like. I know guys want to treat it the same way they are used to treating nylon line - warily - but it is something entirely different.

Yep, those little black posts should have plastic brake blocks stuck on them. I'd take it back to the store and tell them to give you a set of 6 brake blocks - or a new reel with all its parts installed.

It's natural that guys jump on whatever the " rod brand bandwagon du jour" happens to be. And whatever brands they own have a tendency to be wonderful in comparison to any other brand since most of us usually don't have a wide experience basis of comparison. That said, the brand I've enjoyed bass fishing with the most in the past 15 yrs is Rogue Rods. I bought blanks and "rolled my own" so can't comment on their factory rods, but the MB 664 and MB 704 blanks have been favorites of mine. Super light graphite blanks that are sensitive and actually flex! Now there's a novel idea! After the Rogues, I've enjoyed fishing with the Shimano Crucial dropshot rods the most.

Trolling motors use deep cycle batteries and the ones that last longest are usually the heaviest lead/acid model you can fit in your boat. The small battery you cite would probably run the TM for 30 mins. A size 27 deep cycle motor would weigh in at around 70-80 lbs and run it all day, depending on the size of your boat.

If your max recommended rpm is 5500 and you're now turning 5130, you can probably go down one inch in pitch with no problems. I wouldn't hesitate to get a stainless prop for the increased durability and it might get you a dab of speed due to the decreased flex, but small motors don't have the torque to flex their props much. On a 9.9 hp boat running 16 mph, we're not talking night and day differences here, so only you can decide if the added expense is worth the modest added performance. But if you need a new prop anyway...

The best scissors I've found are the 5" Gerber straight cut model that you can find at Walmart for around $5. I got some 7-8 yrs ago and it's still cutting braid as good as the first day I used them. I HATE Gerber knives 'cause they are basically immune to sharpening but put the same steel in some scissors and you've got something!

I use a St Croix saltwater 7'6" MM power rod for crankbaits up to 1/2 oz in open water situations. It cost right around $100 new 10 years ago. Throws long, has the right flex, and is fairly sensitive. Depending on the weight of the crankbaits you use, their Mojo series inshore rods are probably the modern equivalent at around $130.

The basics like wrapping a guide or assembling a handle are easy to learn and can be done with almost no "equipment" but it takes expertise to select a blank and to space guides so they work correctly on the finished rod. If you're working with minimal equipment, wrapping and epoxying the guides gets sorta tedious, at least it does to me. Bottom line, I also think it wouldn't pay to do it for just one or two. Building a rod yourself makes the most economic sense if you're talking about high end blanks and guides, where the mark-up on commercial rods gets really steep. You can buy components for a high end rod for about 60% of the cost of a factory rod. But If you're talking rods in the low to moderate price range, it's about as cheap to buy a finished rod as it is to buy the parts and build it yourself. And if you're talking about high priced components, do you really want to be a beginner when you build a rod from them? To me, it only makes sense if you're considering rod building as a long-term hobby.

Hey guys, he said he's got a reel already! Advantages: You seldom need to worry about line twist. When you get familiar with it, a baitcaster can cast with pin point accuracy, especially if pitching lures into shoreline cover. You can use heavier line with less drama and cast heavier lures like jigs and C-rigs better. It has more direct cranking power. The biggest fault I see with new users who have been using spinning reels is that they whip their casts when they want to get distance, a recipe for instant backlash. Baitcasters demand a smooth consistent casting stroke. The second biggest fault: after a couple of backlashes, they crank up the cast control and brakes so far that the reel won't work anymore. Then they revert to whipping the cast again, causing even more backlashes. Check You Tube for how to set up a baitcaster, then practice with heavier mono line, at least 14# test, and a heavy compact lure like a 1/2 oz jig that won't sail in the wind for awhile until you get the hang of it. It won't take long. Side arm casts are easier to control than overhand casts when conditions allow. You can add more centrifugal brakes until it will cast with no thumb control on most modern baitcasters, but learning a little judicious thumb control will help to get much longer casts with less mechanical control. In the long run, there's no substitute for hours on the water.

Eyeball estimates of casting distance are pretty subjective, especially over water. But just for the record, I have a book titled "Precision Casting" that researches how deep commercial lures actually dive. The authors wanted to know what real world "average" and "long" casts were so they could design a course to measure how deep crankbaits dived. So they tested multiple casts by a group of experienced fishermen over a measured course. An "average" cast turned out to be 70 feet and a "long" cast turned out to be 100 feet. That's FEET, not YARDS. Just FYI. Do I think there are pro tournament bass fishermen that cast 100+ YARDS with the max 8ft rods allowed on their boats? No.

Not all reels have a bearing on the spool axle trapped behind a pin beside the spool. When they do, I don't remove it; I strip the line and soak the bearings in situ. Just too easy to damage the pin or the spool axle while trying to remove it unless you have a dedicated tool for the job. I use a very small screwdriver to remove the clips in front of the 2 outer spool bearings while holding a finger tip over them to prevent them from shooting off into infinity. A piece of stainless wire with a 90 degree bend in the last 1/4" can be used to pull the bearings out of their recesses. Then soak them in a cleaner or solvent to remove the old lubricant. I use ether-based aerosol starting fluid in a shot glass. Swirl them around in the solvent for awhile then take them out and spin them by hand on a pencil point to see if they run smoothly. If not, repeat until they do. They spin smoothly for a long time when they're clean. Lay them on a paper towel to dry out and lube them with a drop of fine bearing oil. Put an added drop of fine bearing oil in the spool bearings every 10-12 hrs of actual use and clean/relube them yearly. On a new reel, cleaning the spool bearings might (or might not) give you marginally better casting distance. It depends on how they were lubed at the factory. There are other bearings in reels. Some of them require lots of disassembly to get to them and some, like a pinion bearing or the anti reverse bearing, might be pressed into the reel at the factory and not intended for removal during normal maintenance. The spool bearings spin at high rpm and determine how easily and smoothly the spool turns during a cast. The other bearings work at slower rpm and can be serviced less often with a heavier viscosity oil. Service interval depends on how often and how hard you use your reel. Manufacturers usually recommend a complete cleaning/relube yearly. I don't mess with a new Shimano except to add oil to spool bearings, until it's ready for a complete takedown & relube after a year of weekend use. To me, the marginal gain is not worth the trouble but you may feel differently.

I also think it's mostly about spool size and weight. It's not a matter of can or can't do, but about performance emphasis. The 50 size excels at throwing smaller baits and does just fine with T rigs and stuff up to 1/2 oz. Above that, a reel with more line capacity and a heavier spool begins to shine. That's not to say a 50 can't do the larger stuff, it's just that it doesn't do it as well as a larger reel. You can fill a 50 with 20# braid and it will do a lot of things that a larger reel will do. But a bigger reel with a heavy spool will "diesel" a cast farther than a 50 if you are throwing a 3/4 or 1 oz C-rig or a 1+ oz swimbait. I really like the 50 size Shimanos for T-rigs and smaller crankbaits.

A lot of guys learned baitcasting on round reels back in the day. Plus some of the best ones like the Calcutta, Morrum, or the old round Promax were built with components that just refuse to die. They tend to be mechanically simpler but heavier and less handy to palm than the latest low profile baitcasters but if you are used to throwing them, or if you need a reel with more line capacity, they are bullet-proof work horses. I prefer the handiness and balance of a light low profile reel but still use some round reels for heavy duty lures like C-rigs, heavy jigs, and umbrella rigs.

Didn't know about the date, thanks. Yep, the Promax had gray paint from the factory which chipped and scratched easily, so they usually look beat up even though they may be perfect internally. I don't mind the poor esthetics considering their performance but I wish they had put the very durable black finish on them like they did on the Black Max reels. On the other hand, they probably wouldn't sell for the very reasonable prices you can get them for on Ebay if they were pretty looking

I have several small round Ambassadeur ProMax 1600's they stopped making in 1972. The OEM price was $189, which big money 42 yrs ago. I upgraded them with carbontex drags and 6:1 gears versus the 5.4 OEM gears. You couldn't ask for a better reel for crankbaits and they're smooth as butter with 6 internal ball bearings, 2 bearings on the handle. Turn the cast control all the way off, put 2 of the lightest black blocks on the brake stems and can cast them all day long with never a backlash and farther than any of my modern Shimano reels. This is from a guy who has backlashed plenty of reels, too! The free spool is so good that they are also first rate for pitching jigs and plastics. I don't why these reels were so good, it was just serendipity of the right design details with the highest quality parts - but at $50-75 on Ebay, they are massive bang for the buck.

Your reel will work just fine as it comes from the factory. You gotta understand that many guys posting on fishing forums are compulsive tinkerers who can't stand to own a fishing reel without taking it apart and starting to mess with it to maybe gain an extra 5% of performance. Most reels work fine with the factory lube in them for at least a year of hard fishing. Then you can either learn how to service it yourself, or send it off to a pro reel tech ( it's not expensive). That doesn't except you from adding lubrication to the reel during the year as directed in your owners manual. And if you want to tweak the reel's performance a bit, there are simple things you can do such as flushing and re-lubing the spool bearings and cleaning the centrifugal brake drum which don't require much dis-assembly.

Got a sale flyer from Gander Mountain announcing Curado G on sale for $89.99, via a Gander Mountain mail-in rebate program. Limit 2

I stick a piece of blue masking tape on the bottom side of my baitcasters or the spools of my spinners with the brand, # test, and date with a Sharpie pen.

70 ft is only an average cast. A long cast is around 100 ft, according to field tests with a variety of lures and fishermen. It should get better as you gain more experience with your new rig and you can turn down the brakes and cast control to medium levels.

Not only does it have to be hard, it has to be tough and waterproof. If the enamel does all that, you're golden.

Zoom 6" are my mainstay, watermelon pepper clear water, green pumpkin stained water. Chartreuse dye on the tail if the mood hits you. I throw them mostly on a C-rig, 3/4 oz weight, 7' MH worm rod, 20 lb superline, 3' fluoro leader, 5/0 offset Gamakatsu worm hook. Pull, pause to take up slack, pull again.

If it's yellowing, it can be either a topcoat on the lip or the plastic itself. If it's a topcoat, you can sand it off and re-clearcoat it by dipping it in a durable urethane. If it's the plastic, you're out of luck. If it's just scratches, they disappear when the lip gets wet. Frankly, it's easier to screw it up than it is to fix it, so I just keep fishing them "as-is".

Nice! On baits that are predominately white, I don't like to use epoxy because it will eventually yellow, at least slightly. But it makes a very nice looking topcoat - if you have a lure turner for it to cure on. The easiest topcoat I know is Solarez UV cured polyester resin. Brush it on or dip the lure, rotate it for a few minutes while it levels out, then zap it with a UV nail salon light for 3 minutes - voila, ready to fish. You can also let the sun do the cure - set it outside for half an hour. Solarez cost is pretty reasonable - about $30/quart - compared to most other durable topcoats.