.ghoti.

I'd stick with Reel Butter oil, and leave the hot sauce alone. Nothing really wrong with hot sauce oil. It simply stains everything. If you want to try something a little faster, try Ardent's bearing oil. It's a little thinner and a little faster than their Reel Butter oil. That also means you will have to apply it a little more often. For a slick, fast, top-shelf lube that will last all season try some TSI 321.

You've discovered one of the real truths of bass fishing. Happy bass live in grass. An outside weed edge with nearby deep water is a prime location.

I took the center two pages out of a Bassin mag several years ago, and taped them up on my office wall. One page feature an add, covering about a third of the page, touting red line because it disappears in the water and fish can't see it. On the facing page was an add, occupying about the same amount of space, touting red hooks because bass think that whatever the hooks are attached to is injured, thus they will eat it. I took it down when it stopped giving me a chuckle. I have a bunch of red EWG hooks. Bought "em because they were on sale for half the price of normal hooks. Never noticed that I got any more bites on the red hooks. Or, any less.

I'm afraid I don't see the logic behind this statement. Don't use acetone because it's flammable. Use lighter fluid instead? Compared to acetone, lighter fluid has a lower flash point, a lower auto-ignition temperature and a lower LEL.

Lobster trap for a kraken?

So, you think you can foil my plans, do you? BWAAAAHAAAAHAAAA!!!

Last year I had a small group of my students design a solar system for a new building to built on campus. The building is completed and the solar system is up and running. I will have data to report, but not for a while. To have meaning, I need more than a few weeks. I'm capturing entire building usage and utility usage. The difference will be the solar contribution to the building. Be aware that your utility will pay a lot less for power than they charge. Basing any part of your decision on the idea that you will make money is a serious mistake. As Sam stated the goal is to reduce your usage of utility generated power. You are not going to eliminate your dependence on the utility and you are not going to make a profit off them. Russ, you stated in another thread that you didn't want to service your own reels. Well if you're afraid to service a reel, you going to have pay somebody to service your solar system. It will need a regular check-up, and will also likely need repairs and/or replacements parts. DONT FORGET TO FACTOR THIS INTO YOUR CALCULATIONS. And last but not least, do not let them talk you into a battery backup system. You have boats and know all you need to know about batteries. Ill pass on preaching to the choir, but will simply say that you can buy a new backup generator every year for what a battery backup system will cost. Not to mention maintenance and replacement costs for the batteries. Unlike wind energy, solar is going to be a part of our future. The progress this industry has shown in the last few years is impressive. Photo-voltaic panels are a magnitude better than they were ten years ago. Grid synchronization, something which previously required costly and maintenance intensive equipment, is now just a small piece of the package price. True sine-wave inverters have gotten so much better and cheaper that putting in a PWM type is just plain silly. Solar power is starting to make a lot of sense for many small applications.

As some of you may have noted, SPEEDBEAD recently posted a video feature his new little bundle of joy. He calls her babyzilla. What a terrible moniker to hang on a new human. I think she needs a proper forum "handle". Knowing that little people like this one tend to dribble, leak, ooze or spew from every available orifice, I disrespectfully submit: SPEEDLEAK. Ill let SPEEDBEAD pick the winner, and I'll send the winner a package of something. Maybe Wayne can chip in a pack of gently used diapers.

Hey Mike. When will we be able to download the registration forms? It's gonna take me a while to top last year's version. LOL

I've used Southwestern before, and was completely satisfied. Never used Dad's Ole Tackle. Thanks aavery2 for the number. When the "original Mike" was running mikesreerepair, service was excellent. He sold out a while back. After two attempts to source parts from the new owner, whomever that may be, I deleted them from my list. Most reel manufactureres don't like to stock spare parts for reels that old. But, the b series curado was one of the most popular reels of all time. Maybe THE most popular reel of all time. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Shimano has what you need.

Im guessing you want to clean the bearing in place. It's not hard to remove the spool pin, and have the bearing free to soak properly. But, if you want to do it that way, and I've done it often enough, carb cleaner or brake cleaner will do nicely. One down side is you may get some solvent on the line. If you do, you will need to respool. Another method is to fill a cap from a plastic bottle with acetone or lighter fluid and stand the spool in it to soak. Use a cap from a small bottle so only the bearing is soaking. The reel down side is it is very difficult to remove the side shields from the bearing while it is still attached to the spool. And, if you get one off, it's even harder to get it back on.

You might live long enough to break even. If you're lucky.

Your GM now looks like mine always has. More casual clothing than everything else taken together.

Goose, that rod is fast becoming my favorite stick. I've had it for two months, and have had it in my hands on each of the few outings I've taken this season. About half the time I've used only that rod. Get one. And if you don't like it, I'll buy it from you.

Oh man, I gotta get me some o' dem.

I'd have to consider my most productive presentations. Here they are, in no particular order: Houdini shad / 4/0 EWG hook Fat Ika / 4/0 EWG hook 6.5" GYCB Kut-tail worm / T-rigged 3X worm / 1/8oz Ike jighead Rage Tail Lobster / "rage" rigged or T-rigged Space Monkey / Evo Shake2 jighead Poor Boys tube / 3/0 Rig-N hook internal weight T-Mac worm / 1/8oz skipgap jighead 1/4oz jig / Rage craw trailer Spinnerbait I could fish all these effectively on my LTB 7' MH-XF, JDM Zillion and either #12 or #14 XL. I would hate having to re-tie all the time, but I could do it.

A Setyr 6'6" MH-F, short handled rod, 6.3:1 Zillion with #14 XL is my dedicated spinnerbait rig.

My wife knows what I have. I don't even try to sneak one past her. We have a deal. I say nothing about clothes and shoes; and she says nothing about fishing gear. Works out nicely. I do have more combos than I need. Some of them have not hit the water in quite some time. i really need to liquidate some of that stash.

I seldom use more than three on any given day. I carry six to eight with me. I have several more. How many is considered proprietary information.

Retiredbosn brought up a key point. Not all crankbaits are created equal. If you're really lucky four of ten will be good ones. In my experience it's more like one out of eight. When I find one of those special cranks, it will get the factory ring removed and an oval ring or a duo-lok snap installed. Makes it easy to pick out the "good" baits. One of goals for this summer was to fish cranks a lot more, and sortout all or most of the good baits. Then I could could just carry around a few proven baits. I fished so little this season that I got absolutely nowhere with that little project.

Doesn't make a bit of difference. Rig it one way, and when it gets torn up, bite off a piece of the head, flip it over and rig it again.

Thanks for the kind words gents. The bonus tommy points go to A-Jay. Obviously a well read man. I've started a series of follow-up articles giving more details on each separate section. Hey Steve, Mrs Ghoti will get a good chuckle out of your question. She types worse than me. LOL

Kent, I would venture a guess that most are not fishing to win. They are simply fishing to keep going. Experience has taught them that a five fish limit is the best way to give them a shot at cashing a check. Going for broke and fishing for big fish might just be the best way to "go broke".

Muskie baits are not something you want to toss with a normal bass rod. Tie a 5oz bait on a normal MH bass rod, and you just might snap the rod trying to cast that big bait. If you're wanting to throw big baits, you need a big bait rod, and a reel that will hold a lot of heavy line.

Not on purpose. I have caught a couple of bass while muskie fishing. In my area not many bass will attack a real muskie bait.