Goose52

No hard water here this winter so I've fished every day this year (less 3 days I was out of town) - nothing special about the weekend!

Catt - is your math off? Aren't you going to get that 3.5" with just 1/8 turn of the handle? Anyway - I'm with Catt. There is a slight mathematical advantage of the higher IPT reels. But a practical advantage...I'm not so sure. For instance - using the IPTs quoted by Catt - on a 100ft cast, you would need to crank 38.7 times to retrieve the bait with the 7.1:1, and 42.8 cranks on the 6.4:1. FOUR cranks difference - so you get your bait back about 1 to 1.5 seconds sooner with the faster reel. Important for a recreational angler - no. Important for a tournament angler...........maybe - it gives you a few more casts per hour I guess. Right now, I have 24 BC reels - 3 are 7.1, 3 are 5.2 or lower, the rest are all in the 6.3/6.4 range. BUT use what floats your boat. The reason many of us have so much tackle is because of minor, sometimes only theoretical differences in equipment that make them more suited for one presentation or the other. I'm not sure that it all results in added fishing success, but it's fun to analyze those minor differences and develop excuses to buy more tackle...

Nice 'Cuda indeed! Bet it was fun...

"Old" to me means gear from the 1960s or earlier. I've got a late-1950s vintage Ambassadeur 5000 that gets fished occasionally - it's on a mid-80s Shakespeare rod right now. I also have a Mitchell 408 and Mitchell Conolon rod that I bought around 1966 that also gets fished from time to time. My first spinning reel was a Sears Ted Williams 400 from around 1960 that still gets fished about once a year - it's on a mid-60s solid glass rod. I caught my first 4-pound class bass on a spincast reel (a "Lido 400") that I got for one book of trading stamps around 1965 or so and put it on a broken rod (that I repaired for a couple bucks) I found laying on the bank on Tamiami Trail in SoFla. The Lido today is on a modern BPS rod but hasn't reeled in a fish since the 60s. I still have my Shakespeare Wonderod Flyrod from the 1960s with a Sears knockoff of a Pflueger Medalist flyreel - I'm gonna fish this rig for the first time since the 60s sometime next month. None of this stuff is in front-line service...

I've put more time on the water with the JCL that has the rough spot once per turn...and I don't really notice it while fishing. I have to decide on a better rod to match with the reel and I think I'll be in good shape...

Just a follow-up. I caught a 37 pound carp yesterday (see Other Species forum) and weighed it on my Rapala digital scale. Today, as I often do after a big fish, I did a pull test on the scale - along with a new Rapala unit that I have as a spare (I actually use it to weigh eBay stuff for postage). Calculated test weight was 38.83 pounds. The in-service Ralala weighed at 39.06 pounds; the new scale weighed the same load at 39.02 pounds. Note how close the two units are to each other. The calculated weight was based on 3,000 pistol bullets in sealed 1K boxes (2K 155gr .40 cal and 1K 100gr .355). 20 bullets from the same lots were weighed on a laboratory quality electronic scale to get the average weight - then the average was multipled by the quantity to get the overall bullet weight. The cardboard bullet boxes were weighed as was the bucket the held everything - total = 38.83 pounds. NOW, the handloaders out there know that most bullet companies put a few extra bullets in a 1k box. If each 1k box actually had 1002 bullets, the 6 extra bullets would add .18 pounds - making the actual test weight 39.01 pounds. Scary accurate scales...

Thanks guys - these are great fun. This is the 4th ~35-40-pound class fish that I've managed to land in the past 2 years. I hit them with the lipless crank from time to time but don't get a solid hook-up. After a couple of seconds, and some drag peeled, the hook usually pulls free and the fish is gone. I occasionally get a big honkin scale back on the lipless crank for a souvenir but no fish... I hit another carp this morning - bump, feel the bait drag a foot or so on the fish, momentary hook-up on a scale, fin, or whatever, some drag peeled, then...gone - all in about 2-3 seconds... Thanks Dwight - I trimmed off about 5 feet of line, retied, and kept fishing. I probably should respool - I've got lots of YZ...

I highly recommend it!

I was out fishing but just got back! Some folks use high IPT reels to burn spinnerbaits. Me, I use 6.4:1 reels (~26 IPT) for most spinnerbaits up to 1/2 ounce, and use a 5.2:1 (~21 IPT) for spinnerbaits above 1/2 ounce. I can move the lighter baits fast enough with a 6.4, and with the really heavy spinnerbaits with big blades, the mechanical advantage of the 5.2 reel is appreciated by my tired old wrists...(I'm retired too!)

A photo of Dwight's 9lb 2oz LMB was in the American Legacy Fishing's periodic email - WTG Dwight !

Variety is the spice of life! You get to catch a lot of great fish down there!

Between 12:03 and 12:14pm today I was busy interacting with this baby. 43 inches and 37 pounds. A bit skinny after a lean winter - I bet this thing will be at 45 pounds or more by mid-summer. It is the only grass carp that I've caught that hit the lure and wasn't foul hooked. The treble hook penetrated the roof of the mouth from the inside out through the upper lip. Grass carp are usually vegetarians - since this fish hit on the drop of a yo-yo retrieve, perhaps it thought the bait was some plant matter falling down through the water column. It usually takes me longer than 11 minutes to land these things (my longest fight was 35 minutes) but since this one was hooked in the mouth, and you have the opportunity to turn it's head, it seemed easier to handle than the foul hooked fish. Still, lots of runs, especially when the fish was near the bank. At about the 9 minute mark, I had my hand behind one gill plate and was getting ready to pull it up on the bank when it got a second wind and shook off and fought for another couple minutes. Tackle was a 7' medium power rod, PQ reel with 10lb Yo-Zuri copoly line, and a lipless crank. Note the second photo of the lipless crank with the bent hook point - wouldn't have been much longer before this would have been a lost fish... GREAT fun!

I caught a 37 pound grass carp today - the first one I've caught that hit the lure - it was hooked in the upper lip with the barb penetrating the roof of the mouth from the inside out. Anyway, like Marty said, I usually foul-hook these things with lipless cranks - they just don't seem threatened by the approach of the lure. I usually get 1 or 2 carp hook-ups a month but most of the time the hook will fail to penetrate the hard scales and slip off after a few seconds so I don't often land these things. Grass carp eat in the same places that I target with lipless cranks so collisions between bait and fish happen...

Just a comment about travel rods in general. I've owned a 5-piece, 5'4" spinning rod since around 1967/68. It breaks down to 14" and is easy to stick in a suitcase, a seabag, even a larger computer case. It's been fished in many states across the country and even in another country. It's not optimum for any particular presention, BUT, I've found that the rod that you have with you is MUCH better than the rod that you left at home...

I think that perhaps in the past few years, the cost of quality, repeatable, and accurate load cells and associated digital circuitry has come down enough to make it into these lower-end digital scales. I can't say what the digital fishing scales were like a number of years ago, but the Rapala digital scales I've been using the past couple years are very accurate. I periodically perform load tests on them and they are usually accurate to an ounce or less at the lower weight ranges. Are they repeatable? Mostly - I can weigh the same fish 3 times and could get 3 different readings - but the readings will be something like: 3.18, 3.21, 3.16 pounds. The scale will usually eventually settle on one weight - could be a matter of getting the strain gages in the load cell warmed up a bit or something. Anyway, close enough for my purposes. OTOH, they do have batteries that require replacement, are subject to damage from impact, etc., and are generally not as "bulletproof" as a spring scale. You pays your money and you takes your choice...

When this thread started 21 months ago - I said full-grip. Just a few months ago, I finally bought a split-grip rod (Phenix Recon) but don't have enough time on the rod yet to develop an opinion on the grip configuration. However, like has been said, many popular rod lines are now only available with split-grips so I expect I'll have to go over to the "dark side" eventually...

It was about 1959 - the brand is unknown - maybe a South Bend. It was on a solid glass pistol grip rod about 5' long - an old rig my Dad had laying around. No braking system and I never learned to cast it properly. I was 7 years old and just developed a sorta hybrid casting/flipping technique. I would pull a bunch of line off the reel and have it at my feet - then hold the line and make a cast and let the line go. The bait would fly out until the line pulled tight. I got a spinning rig soon after that....

Copoly (YZ) for me. Not necessarily because it's optimum for all treble hook presentations...but because it's the best balance of performance vs. cost for me. In a cost-no-object world, it would be mono for topwater and high in the water column...and flouro for diving.

I put some more time on the water with one of my JCLs today - it is indeed a good caster. I've got it on a "beater" All Star rod right now but I think I'll really like this reel once I match it up with a nice, light rod.

It depends on whether you REALLY want a 5 ounce class reel. If you do, this reel at $130 is hundreds less than other reels in the 5 ounce club. But, it's new and no one has put enough time on the reel to know whether it will last. I'm a BPS BC reel fan but I've still got reservations about this reel (although I did buy two of them). At only $130, it's probably worth giving a try if money isn't tight. However, search this forum for the other threads on this reel - especially the post by "Hooligan" who gave a report on the reel after spending some time on the water with it. Some people are reporting roughness in the reel - some are reporting that it's noisy if that bothers you. OTOH, there are now lots of 6 ounce class reels with proven dependability to choose from so it comes down to how important is that last 1/2 to 1 ounce of weight reduction...

Didn't get around to "popping the hood" on one of my JCLs until yesterday. The clutch return pawl IS dodgy. The rachet applies the force to the pawl at the top of the extension as shown by the red arrow in the photo. How long will that extension hold up without bending or breaking? This part is different from the equivalent part on the PQ and "gold" CL. The PQ and CL have the same part shape, but the PQ part was some sort of plated metal, they changed it to aluminum on the CL to save weight. Now, the JCL tried to take the weight saving a bit farther and minimized the part shape. Hopefully, this new part will hold up...but I'll probably be ordering a couple spares...and maybe sometime stripping down both a gold CL and this new JCL to see if the older PQ/CL part will fit and function in the JCL... Other observations: Yep - sideplate screws into plastic, AND, the screws are tiny. I need to invest in better quality phillips drivers in these small sizes. Nice drag stack - three carbon washers - smooth. The spool on the JCL IS lighter than the CL...but to put things in perspective, you pay a penalty in spool weight to have the dual braking system. Not a big deal for me as I have other reels/rods to throw very light baits. Spool assembly weights (includes captive bearing) for CL, JCL, and a Curado 50E: CL - 18.30g JCL - 15.56g 50E - 11.27g The centrifugal brake shoes on the JCL are very thin - there might be a long-term wear issue here. I'm having a brake wear issue right now on my "5-Year Challenge" PQ reel that I will be reporting on soon and the PQ shoes are a bit thicker than the JCL shoes. The reel in the photo has a rough spot once per handle revolution. I only took the cover off to see if I could find a cause for that - I didn't completely strip the reel. I didn't see anything obvious - no burrs on the drive gear or anything like that. The drive gear was practically dry so I cleaned it along with the pinion gear and re-greased. After assembly, the rough spot is still there but the more I crank the reel, the roughness seems to be smoothing out. I fished it yesterday for about 15 minutes or so and it doesn't bother me. Perhaps it will just smooth out with use. All-in-all, you can see the design efforts to get the reel under 6 ounces. The real question of course is will you still have durability to go along with the light weight. I've got so many dang reels now that it might take me a long time to find out...

Wow Dwight - WTG! Just a beautiful fish - love that belly !

Sounds like a great rod. I like 6'8" mxf spinning rods - very versatile. Great article BTW...

No set period - it depends upon how much use any one particular reel has had. I'm not one to believe that nylon mono, copolymer, or flouro "goes bad" just being on the reel. Braid never "goes bad" either - it just gets worn out or used up. I trim back 6" to a foot of line at every retie (sometimes more if I feel abrasion on the line), and may retie multiple times a day. On the reels that I use the most (I fish every day), I might have trimmed-back 20 to 30 yards of line after a month or so and will have to add new line often. Otherwise, I'll only change line if I've had a backlash or other problems that makes the line suspect. I use backing on all reels so I'm only changing the top 70-80 yards of line. Now, if line has been on a reel for a couple years or more (I keep a written record of when the line was installed), I might change the line just for grins, or perhaps to avoid manageability problems related to coiling, but not because I think it's suddenly "gone bad."

$1111.14. Two phone orders: first for 2 JM Carbonlite baitcasters witih price matching for the in-store sale price; second order for a Humminbird 798ci SI. Still need a new TM battery and maybe another rod and then hopefully I can keep the bait monkey away 'till next winter...