.ghoti.

Now that's funny right thar. I now have a little coffee coming out of my nose, thank you very much. Scrutch, I wish I could claim that, but I can't. I'm not that clever. George Bernard Shaw coined the term.

I like your choice Red Earth. Some tradition and pride. Cool. Much better than mine. Everybody at the Bass Resource RoadTrips pronounces my screen name to rhyme with potty. I've given up and accept it. It's supposed to be pronounced this way; gh as in rough o as in women ti as in nation

I remember the Montana/Rice/Walsh era 49ers fondly, so I had a sentimental favorite during this playoff season. I was sort of looking forward to San Fran in the Superbowl. But, a Brady vs Eli game will be fun to watch. I'll pick the Pats; by two touchdowns.

As long as the jig has a light wire hook, you can easily get by with #12. I use #10 a lot for finesse jigs. Sharpness is critical when using lighter line, so pay attention to your hooks. A heavy wire hook takes a lot more force to penetrate. You need heavier line and a stouter rod for heavy wire hooks.

I do what Biteit does regularly. Experiment with different seasonings. Fresh squeezed lemon, fresh ground pepper and a little olive oil are nice. Here's an unusual recipe. Takes a little extra work, but is very good. Make a paste: mince a some fresh garlic and fresh ginger as fine as you can get it. Add a little course kosher salt, then using the edge of your knife mash and chop it into a fine paste. Thin it a brush-able consistency with water and a little bit of rice wine vinegar. Let this set for the flavors to develope. You can use a whole gutted and scaled fish for this. Season the inside of the fish with salt and pepper and add a few thin lemon slices and a couple of scallions. Place in a steamer basket, and steam until the fish just turns opaque. When the fish is nearly done heat a small amount of peanut oil to just below the catch on fire point. Place the fish on a serving platter with several layers of paper towel under it. Get it dry, then brush on the garlic/ginger mix. Either put the platter in the sink or take it outside. Get a small ladle or large spoon and drizzle the smoking hot oil over the seasoned fish. It's going to splatter some, so be careful. Allow the oil to drain and serve. This also works with fillets, just don't over steam them. It is easy to do. An alternative that works nearly as well when a steamer is not available is this. Get a pot of water boiling large enough to hold all the fillets, with enough water to cover them. Add salt, pepper, lemon and scallions and allow to cook while you're getting the fillets ready. Remove the pot from the heat and gently place the fillets in the water. Do not put the pot back on the fire. If the water boils after you add the fillets you will not have fillets, you will have fish soup. When they turn opaque resume the previous recipe from that point on. I know this sounds weird, but it is delicious.

I've tried several times to make a reservation and have been unable to do so. I'm not worried yet, but I will be soon.

This is exactly what I do. Find a deal on stuff I use, and buy a bunch of it. I also like clearance sales on last year's stuff. The fish don't seem to care when I'm using last year's tackle. I guess they don't read the same propaganda we do.

What that reel needs is a good cleaning followed by a proper lube job. Almost every reel comes out of the box with way too much grease everywhere. Every reel I buy gets used first for a short time to ensure that everything works. It then gets torn down completely, cleaned and re-lubed before going into the rotation.

Tour PT, I agree with you. There should be a guarantee against defects in materials and workmanship. I have no problem with that. Every manufacturer has a quality control department. It's their job to make sure none of the defective products make it out the door. But, nobody is perfect. If a poor quality rod makes it onto the sales floor, the company should stand behind it. What I do not like is the lifetime replacement policy. That is simply an insurance program that all of us pay for. And some of us are ethical enough that we refuse to abuse the system. I too live out in the sticks. West B.F.E. to be precise. I can't always get what I want without ordering online. I have received a couple of rods that were not acceptable. I simply returned them and asked for a better one. In both cases I received a well made product in return. In one case I was forced to pay the return shipping. I argued with the online retailer about it and lost. They also lost. I have not spent a dime with them since, nor will I in the future.

Thanks DVT, you beat me to the punch. I would like to see more companies do this. Or, make it optional. I'd be perfectly willing to buy a good rod, say a St Croix, without a lifetime replacement guarantee, if I could buy it for a lot less. Why should I have to pay for somebody else insurance? I have never bought a rod with a manufacturing defect that caused it to break, and I've been fishing a long time. I have however, broken a lot of rods. Every one of them was my fault. I've stepped on them, slammed them in doors and tailgates, dropped one across a sharp edge, broke two when the braid was wrapped around the tip when I set the hook, etc. I did NOT send any of them in for a free replacement. All were my fault. Why should a rod manufacturer have to pay for my stupidity? Even worse, why should I have to pay for yours? Defects in workmanship are fairly easy to spot for the most part. You can spot them before purchasing. Some defects are not so easy to see. A poorly glued seat, or badly mixed epoxy are some problems that may take a while to show up. But they will show up quickly. A defective blank will break during the first few casts, and if not then, it will break on the first solid hookset. I have seen a lot of rods with defects. Crooked guides, messy or cracked epoxy, dorked up reel seats, bad cork, mis-aligned components, warped blanks, you name it. I've never bought one. If you bought one like that, it's your fault for not inspecting it in the first place. If a rod breaks after being used for a couple of years, then it is your fault. You did something wrong.

The potential exists to have a single fish hooked on an a-rig become tangled up and foul hooked with the other hooks on the rig. This could really be a problem. Had BASS stated this as a reason for banning the rig, I could easily agree. Their stated reason is nothing more than a steaming pile of what drops out of the south end of a north-bound bull.

I t-rig a lobster with a punch skirt. You have to peg the weight when doing this. You also have to trim the skirt a bit, and use the next heavier weight. The punch skirt really slows the fall. I haven't tried this with a rage craw or baby craw. I do use this with the lobster all the time, and sometimes with a space monkey and a rooster. I also almost always use a contrasting color skirt.

Sorry BB, but that's a side cover for a dingleschaeffer. The two holes are for access to the twin calibration potentiometers for the side-band encabulation circuitry. I thought everybody new that. Shees, what do you guys learn in school anyway?

I ordered a Picasso version from Tackle warehouse recently. I know it's not legal in Illinois, so I'll only use it when I go out of state. I plan to throw it on my muskie rig; a 7'6" XH Duckett Micro Magic rod, Zillion and 65lb braid. Yeah, braid. I hate the stuff, but big muskie lures are expensive and I need to be able to get them back when they get hung in the rocks. I fish for muskie at Shelbyville, below the dam, and it's all rock. Slonezp gave me the tip about where to buy the Illinois legal version, so I will have some of those soon. I don't think I will need the big muskie rig for that version. I'll try that smaller, lighter version on two rods; a Dobyns Champion 7'6" H-F and a Daiwa L&T 7' H-F. Both rods have Zillions spooled with 14lb XT. Should be stout enough. I'll find out.

skeet22, I have the rod you asked about, Veritas 6'9" ML-Mod spinning rod. I have a Supreme XT spooled with #6 mono, and it is a fine drop shot rod. You will be happy with it, I'm sure. It is good for other applications like very small cranks, light weight jighead/grubs, small flukes, etc. On the other hand I have a St Croix LTB 6'9" ML-XF casting rod which I use for drop-shotting. It also works nicely for this application. The LTB is more sensitive than the Veritas, no question about it. Is that because it's an XF versus a Mod? I have no idea. Or because it's a better blank? Probably. Or because it costs more than twice the price of the Veritas? We all have to justify the cost of some of our gear, even it it means we're BS'ing ourselves. LOL

For jig fishing the rod is a lot more important than the reel. Either reel will be fine. If you don't have the rod, go with the less expensive reel and spend more money on the rod. If you already have the rod, being a Daiwa man, I'd go with the Zillion. Like J said, it will be a bit faster, a bit smoother, but also a bit heavier.

My "jinx" bait is a rattle trap, or any other version. For me, those baits are dink magnets. I can't catch a decent sized fish on one to save my arse. I quit carrying them around. I gave "em all away, and won't be buying any more anytime soon.

Yep. I wish I had a buck for every time I've had somebody tell me that color is no good.

I've read the same thing, in more than one place. I was a bit reluctant to try this, but then decided what the heck. I still have all the original washers. I can always put those back in if I have to. The real test will be when I use this reel again next year. I cleaned it all up and re-lubed the drag washers with Shimano grease. I hope they don't deteriorate over time, but I'll find out soon enough.

Amen to that. Camo Pearl has been the next best color for me by far.

BRILLIANT!

This is timely. Early this year I posted about TSI 321 lube, but had no conclusions at that time. After a year of use I do have some conclusions, or opinions if you will, to report. TSI sells two "oils". TSI 301 and TSI 321. Both are synthetic esters. The difference between the two is the solvent base. 301's solvent evaporates out very quickly, but is harmful to some plastics. Which plastics, you ask? I don't know, and they're not saying. I picked 321 for this reason. I have all Daiwa baitcasters; Zillions, Alphas and Fuegos, so they are not many plastic parts. But, there are some, so I decided to not risk it. NOTE: SKIP THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU'RE NOT A TECHO-GEEK LIKE ME. An ester is a compound formed by reacting an acid with an alcohol. There are many of each, and by picking the catalyst, and conditions, temperatures and pressures, one can form many different esters. There are thousands out there. Esters are the lubricant of choice for jet engines. They are the basis for many synthetic lubes, and can be blended with other lubes without having their properties compromised. What I found most interesting during my research is that ester molecules have polarity. This means they bind together, and are attracted to metals. This means they will displace water, and will maintain a high degree of lubricity under adverse conditions. It takes a lot of load the wipe them off, and extreme temperatures are very well tolerated. Remember the jet engine note? OK, ENOUGH OF THE GEEK-SPEAK. This year I experimented with my own reels. My "normal" lube choices are Shimano drag grease for drags washers and gears, 90wt gear oil for frame and handle bearings, and Daiwa needle oiler for the levelwind. I use Daiwa red oil for spool bearings, but I'm almost out of that so I've been using Ardent bearing oil, and will recommend that. It is a more than acceptable substitute for the Daiwa oil, and is readily available. I replaced Daiwa red oil with TSI-321 for spool bearings in about half of my reels. I used 321 on about half of the levelwinds. For frame bearings, one each of the Fuegos, Zillions and Alphas got 321 instead of gear oil. In one reel, a tuned up Fuego, I used 321 for everything, including the drag washers and gears. The last reel is the one I was most interested in. I did not service this reel mid-season. It went all year on the same lube. I tore it down last week and went over it with a loupe, looking for wear. I did not find any. I did notice that this reel had a bit more gear feel than the reels whose gears were lubed with Shimano drag grease. With that in mind I will not be using 321 for gears in the future. I did not see any wear on the gears, but I like the smoother feel the grease provides. The drag was very smooth, but had a bit less stopping power. I am very particular about drag performance. I use lighter line than most, so drag performance is crucial. I polish all metal drag washers, use carbontex fiber washers, and strive to get the drag so that startup torque is as close to running torque as I can get. With 321 on the washers, startup and running torque were almost the same. The lockdown drag was only 6.5 pounds though. Compared to almost 10lbs normally. This reel got an excellent test of the drag In October. I was below the dam at Lake Shelbyville, fishing for walleye. I had dinner in mind. I'd spooled this reel up with #6 YZ, and had two jigheads tied on; a 1/16oz with a small fluke on the end of the line and a 1/32oz with a 2" grub about a foot up. I tied into a muskie about 48" long. Didn't have a tape with me, that's a guesstimate. He ran me up and down the bank, pulling drag the whole time. The drag never flinched. Eventually I had the fish right at my feet, reaching for him when the line broke. Unless I manage to catch a world record smallmouth, I'll never have a bass put a drag to the test like that muskie did. The drag was very smoother, no stuttering, and started very smoothly. The lower max drag will be an issue for some applications. For levelwinds, 321 is the stuff. I apply it with a small artist's brush and let it dry. In use, nothing sticks to it. I does not pick up any grit that I can see. I inspected the levelwind worm gears and pawls with loupe and saw no signs of wear at all. For frame and handle bearings, I could detect only a very subtle difference in smoothness between 321 and 90wt gear oil. And that could have been differences between reels. But, it was still there. For spool bearings, this is the right stuff, with one caveat. More on that later. So, from now on, my lubes picks will be: Shimano drag grease for all drive gears. It's just smoother. Shimano drag grease for drag washers in my Zillions and Fuegos TSI321 for drag washers in my Alphas. I use lighter line on my Alphas. 90wt gear oil for frame bearings. TSI321 for handle bearings. I like the water displacement properties for this application. TSI321 for levelwind worm gear and pawl. Again, water displacement, and nothing seems to stick to it. Now, about the spool bearings. At first I did not prefer TSI321. The bearings seemed quite a bit more free, but also a bit noisier. I believe my reels should be seen and not heard, so I did not like this. But I discovered something halfway through the season. I remembered some of my earlier research, particularly the idea that 321 could be "blended" without loosing any of its properties, so another mid-season experiment was in order. I cleaned spool bearings from one each of the reels, Aplhas, Zillion and Fuego. With the shields removed I applied a small drop of 321 to each bearing, spun it until the lube was well distributed, spun them on a Dremel until all excess was thrown off, and left them to dry overnight. I then added a small drop of oil. Daiwa red oil in one, Ardent bearing oil in one and Ardent yellow oil in the third. This is the ticket! All three reels will now cast farther, with less effort, and are almost completely silent. It's almost too free for the Zillions, if you can say there's such a thing as too free when speaking of spool bearings. This is now my SOP for spool bearings. You can ask Roadwarrior about how free the spool is on one of these reels. I met him, Speedy Madewell and Neal Coleman in early November for a smallmouth trip on the Tennessee river. I played Big Bobby Bonehead, and got my line tangled up in the trolling motor. Not one of my finer moments this year. We pulled up in a tributary, out of the current, so we could take off the prop and get the line out. Kent grabbed one of those reels, a R-Edition Alphas a on a BCR852 GLX. My current favorite setup. I had a small tube tied on with a 2/0 Owner Rig-N hook and 1/16oz internal weight. Kent tried to cast it into the next county and got a "professional over-run" bad enough to require cutting out about 25 yards of line. He was muttering in the back of the boat, something like dad-blasted Daiwahz. That's as close as I can get on a family friendly forum. LOL.

Yum Houdini Shad, unweighted, 4/0 EWG hook, #10 line. This rig can be fished through weeds or wood cover, twitched on top, walked slowly just under the surface, and, best of all, on the drop. Let it drop on the outside weededge. It has a wiggle on the fall just like a senko. None of the other "fluke" type baits has the wiggle. If you use heavier line you'll have to experiment with heavier hooks to get the horizontal fall and wiggle.

revoman, don't know what reels you're talking about. Look inside the drum. If there are small screws there, the drum may be removable. If not, then you'll have to ploish it in place. It's been a while, but I seem to remember that the drums in the Curados did not come out, the drums in the Patriarchs did, the drums in the PT's came out for sure. The Revos I had were the original STX models, and had no drums; they were magnetics. If there aren't any screws don't try to force it out. Some are pressed in, some with some type of adhesive, and you'll likely damage the sideplate and/or the drum trying to remove one of these. For those reels with non-removable drums I used a very thin, larger diameter felt wheel. Then scrubbed with a stiff toothbrush, multiple times to get all the compound out.

If you mean filling your spool half way with whatever el cheapo, clearance line, by all means do it. You will save a lot of money, particularly if you use some the pricier flouro lines. I put about 60 yards of "good" line on top of some cheap backing. I found a bulk spool of #10 line a few years ago, and have all of my spools started with this stuff. I like to change line frequently, so I save quite a bit every year.