.ghoti.

I have rods with split grips and rods with full grips. Rods with foregrips and rods without. Cork and EVA. None of those factors really make any difference. What does make a difference is the diameter of the grip. I need a bigger grip than many rods have. I bought a Steez Flex Lite rod earlier this year. Turned around and sold it because the grip was way too small. Great rod. Lousy grip. Ditto, a Cumara casting rod. I still have it, but don't use it much. Great rod. Lousy grip for my hands. I also have two St Croix Avid spinning rods. I gave both to my wife. I can't use either one without getting hand cramps, the grips are so tiny. Again, great rods, lousy grips for my hands. Actually, the rod I have that is the most comfortable has no grip at all. No foam and no cork; except for a tiny composite cork butt cap. An Airuss Tradition spinning rod. It has a plate type reel seat wrapped directly onto the blank. It is very comfortable to hold all day, and is extremely sensitive. My hand is wrapped right around the blank.

A couple of years ago I had Daiwas, Shimanos, Quantums, Pfleugers, BPS and Revos. Been slowly moving towards all Daiwas. The current Daiwa line-up is 4 Fuegos, 3 Alphas, 3 Millionaires, 2 153 HSTAs, a Zillion, a TD-X and 2 Capricorn spinners. I still have 2 Revo STXs, 2 Quantum Energy PT spinners, and a Pfleuger Supreme spinner in the non-Daiwa line-up.

http://nottotallyrad.blogspot.com/2009/11/waking-up-is-hard-to-do.html

Glad you could make Otey. We had a good trip. A little bit warmer, and a bit less wind than two weeks ago. Otey is great young guy to share a boat with. He was out-fishing me until he ran out off those big green worms. This trip was my stepson Justin's birthday present. He and Steve had an awesome day Saturday fishing a pit they call The Islands. This one is about 600 acres, with so much structure it's hard to decide where to start. They both came back to the cabin a bit before 7, with sore wrists and bloody thumbs. That's what I'd call a good day. Otey and I fished pits called Lower Duck and Upper Duck; then moved to Long Lake, and finally to The Canal. We caught quite a few in the two "Ducks", did poorly in Long Lake, and finished up at the Canal. The fish in the picture was either 2 1/2 or 2 3/4, caught from Upper Duck on a PB&J shakey head worm. My biggest of the trip was 3 1/2, on a spinnerbait from the The Canal. Had something happen while at The Canal that I've never experienced. I had Super Fluke, rigged weightless. Had five fish come up on top, inhale the bait, and spit it right back out. After the first I added some MegaStrike. After the second I put on a new Fluke. After the third I tied on a new hook. They spit it out every time. never had that problem with a Fluke. Switched to a spinner bait and hammered "em. I caught 20+ nice bass between 4:30 and 6:00 on the spinner. Hey Mike; Otey is not a big guy, but, the back end of the boat was never more than 18" out of the water. You must be a real lightweight. ;D ;D ;D Leo, if I have to be known for something, that will do nicely.

Talking to yourself is one thing. You've gone over the edge when you start answering yourself... What's wrong with talking to yourself? I do it all the time. I figure I'm talking to the smartest guy around.

An update. Just got a bottle of TSI 321. I tore down a pair of Daiwa HSTA's. Both had been serviced recently, so all I did was clean and relube, using 321, the spool bearings, worm gear, and mag-force rotor assembly. Had to try them out this morning before work. I could detect no difference in smoothness. Casting improved. I had to crank up the braking one notch, and backed off on the effort. A nice improvement, so far. Both reels are noticeably quieter. Casting noise is almost gone, and cranking noise virtually non existent. So far, I'm impressed. How long it lasts is yet to be determined. It's too late this year to get in enough fishing time to make a valid evaluation.

I've been on a mission for a few years to minimize the amount of tackle I carry around. Everyone who's fished with me will tell you that I have failed miserably.

Bent elbows? Me? Kent? Long Mike? Are you kidding? My brother and I had a little breakdown in communication. He was supposed to bring the wine for both dinners. He didn't bring any at all. We had to make do with beer. Long Mike of course had his infamous box-o-wine. I mixed up a few Old-fashioned's Saturday night.

I don't know how may pairs my wife has. Don't want to know, and don't care. She buys shoes and clothes and bags and ........ etc. I buy fishing tackle. We're both happy.

anything with Pee Wee Herman in it is down right spooky to me.

26? I only saw 15 or 16, on this trip. ;D I got to try out his super-tuned Calcutta 100, bought from a forum member. What a great casting reel. Kent has it on a jig rod, and the first cast I made I had to jam my thumb on the spool to keep from tossing the jig 20 yards up into the woods. If I had that reel it would be mounted on my custom deep crank stick. 'twould be awesome. On a different note, the Sheriff of the Shimano Posse was once again heard making very nice comments about a Daiwa reel. Sheesh, a couple more trips with me, and I'll make a Daiwa man out of him. ;D ;D ;D

We did have a blast. And, I did not take a single picture. Didn't see anybody else with camera in hand either. my mistake. I intended to at least get a group shot, but just didn't get around to it. Next time, I guess. We didn't catch any really camera worthy fish. Lots of fish, but no big ones. I got the biggest of the trip on the first cast of the last day. Kent and long Mike left Sunday morning, while my brother and I fished until 1:00. The first cast, with a 5/16oz Evo jig, black/black skirt, with blue Rage Craw trailer, got me a fat 3 pounder. By the way Kent, I took the jig rod home with me without paying you for it. I know I have your home address, but can't seem to find it. PM it to me and I'll get a check in the mail ASAP.

If you're going to quote specifications, at least get the numbers correct. 1000 millibars is a little less than one standard atmosphere; approx 14.5 psi. I left out a bunch of numbers on the right side of the decimal place. one foot of water column equals 0.433 psi. I had to look up some readings for Illinois. Highest reading ever recorded = 30.99"Hg Lowest reading recorded = 28.71"Hg A difference of 2.28"Hg = 77.21mb = 31" water column A more typical change to see as a front passes is in the range of 10 - 30 millibars, 4 - 12" of water. John, if you think in terms of absolute pressure, the pressure at any given depth is the sum of the weight of the water above that point, plus, the weight of the air above that. All of which does nothing to answer the original question. My own observation is that, more often than not, fishing gets better as the barometer is dropping. And gets worse during a rise. Stable pressure means to look to other factors. Does this mean bass are responding to an increase in activity in the food chain? Sounds reasonable. Does it mean they are reacting to a change in light levels? Sounds reasonable. Wind, current, etc? Sounds reasonable. All the above? Sounds reasonable. A different question is, do the bass "feel" the barometric pressure change? Who knows. The lateral line is a pressure sensitive instrument. Is it sensitive enough to detect these small changes? Who knows. It could very well be. If that's the case, it could be argued that bass have "learned" that falling pressure means more food will be available for a short period of time, and move to take advantage of it. If we define instinct as learning that occurs over hundreds of thousands of generations, that is.

If you're going to quote specifications, at least get the numbers correct. 1000 millibars is a little less than one standard atmosphere; approx 14.5 psi. I left out a bunch of numbers on the right side of the decimal place. one foot of water column equals 0.433 psi. I had to look up some readings for Illinois. Highest reading ever recorded = 30.99"Hg Lowest reading recorded = 28.71"Hg A difference of 2.28"Hg = 77.21mb = 31" water column A more typical change to see as a front passes is in the range of 10 - 30 millibars, 4 - 12" of water. John, if you think in terms of absolute pressure, the pressure at any given depth is the sum of the weight of the water above that point, plus, the weight of the air above that. All of which does nothing to answer the original question. My own observation is that, more often than not, fishing gets better as the barometer is dropping. And gets worse during a rise. Stable pressure means to look to other factors. Does this mean bass are responding to an increase in activity in the food chain? Sounds reasonable. Does it mean they are reacting to a change in light levels? Sounds reasonable. Wind, current, etc? Sounds reasonable. All the above? Sounds reasonable. A different question is, do the bass "feel" the barometric pressure change? Who knows. The lateral line is a pressure sensitive instrument. Is it sensitive enough to detect these small changes? Who knows. It could very well be. If that's the case, it could be argued that bass have "learned" that falling pressure means more food will be available for a short period of time, and move to take advantage of it. If we define instinct as learning that occurs over hundreds of thousands of generations, that is.

If you're going to quote specifications, at least get the numbers correct. 1000 millibars is a little less than one standard atmosphere; approx 14.5 psi. I left out a bunch of numbers on the right side of the decimal place. one foot of water column equals 0.433 psi. I had to look up some readings for Illinois. Highest reading ever recorded = 30.99"Hg Lowest reading recorded = 28.71"Hg A difference of 2.28"Hg = 77.21mb = 31" water column A more typical change to see as a front passes is in the range of 10 - 30 millibars, 4 - 12" of water. John, if you think in terms of absolute pressure, the pressure at any given depth is the sum of the weight of the water above that point, plus, the weight of the air above that. All of which does nothing to answer the original question. My own observation is that, more often than not, fishing gets better as the barometer is dropping. And gets worse during a rise. Stable pressure means to look to other factors. Does this mean bass are responding to an increase in activity in the food chain? Sounds reasonable. Does it mean they are reacting to a change in light levels? Sounds reasonable. Wind, current, etc? Sounds reasonable. All the above? Sounds reasonable. A different question is, do the bass "feel" the barometric pressure change? Who knows. The lateral line is a pressure sensitive instrument. Is it sensitive enough to detect these small changes? Who knows. It could very well be. If that's the case, it could be argued that bass have "learned" that falling pressure means more food will be available for a short period of time, and move to take advantage of it. If we define instinct as learning that occurs over hundreds of thousands of generations, that is.

Thanks Russ. That's in the same ballpark as the Pfleuger XT handle. I'm going to try once more to get the XT. It's straight, and I won't have to change out or modify the drag star. I's also much lighter, and has EVA knobs. I tried the whole reel, and like those knobs, so it's my first choice. But, if that gets back-ordered again, I'll go with the HSTA handles. On that note, I really don't see any advantage to the swept handle design. I used an HSTA handle on one Fuego for a couple of weeks, and have an Alphas R type with a carbon fiber swept handle. Don't hate it, don't love it, don't really care, one way or the other. Rather like the ABEC 7 bearings. If you've spent a bunch of money upgrading to these, and the swept handles, you can probably convince yourself that the benefits are worth the cost.

The first thing I want in a spinnerbait rod is a short handle. Spinnerbaiting is, for me, a short range, target game. I prefer to make short 'roll" casts, keeping the bait in a flat trajectory, low to the water, then stop it right before it enters the water, to make as silent any entry as possible. I like to hit lots of targets when spinnerbait fishing. A long handle gets in the way, catching on sleeves vest pockets, etc. It's getting harder to find a rod with a short handle. I have two Setyr rods I use for spinnerbaits. Both 6'6", one M-F, one MH-F. Both have a handle about 8" from the front of the reel seat to the end.

Kent, you owe me. I just had coffee come out my nose, all over a brand new shirt. Just in case you want to make good on this, I'll take a Columbia Bonehead shirt, 2XT size, in yellow. Russbert, what did you pay for the HSTA handles?

I've put the Dremel to work on all of my reels. Polished all the moving parts / contact points in the spool engage/disengage mechanism. Polished the ends of the pinion gear. NOT the gear teeth. Polished the spool ends. And, (the best thing you can do for any reel ) polished the metal drag washers. Polishing the metal drag washers is a better improvement than switching to Carbontex drag washers. Doing both is better yet. I installed ABEC7 stainless bearings in two Fuegos, and just between you and me, there's not a heck of a lot of difference. Stock spools in all. I just can't justify what a different spool costs. I've ordered carbon fiber handles from Pfleuger three times now, only to have them back-ordered each time. I wanted the handles from the Patriarch XT. I'm more interested in a four bearing handle than in carbon fiber. But that particular handle looked like a bargain. I tried a handle off a 153 HSTA, and liked it. Those are four bearing handles, and are very smooth. I may end up ordering some of those instead of the XT handles. I have TD-Z handles on all of my Millionaires, and really like those. But they're very hard to find these days.

Pegged, almost all the time. I've been experimenting with rate of fall, using four sizes of steel weights, with glass beads, steel beads and brass beads for fine tuning. It's difficult, if not impossible, to determine differences if the weights are sliding along the line. I have to agree with Catt about the silent approach thing. I use rubber bobber stoppers for pegs, and leave about 1/8" gap between the peg and the weight. This allows the weight and bead to move and make some noise when contact is made. It also allows a bit more of an erratic movement with some baits. Increasing the gap to 1/4" allows more noise and sometimes more variation in the drop. If I think the silent approach is required, I'll jam the peg right down on the weight. The rubber bobber stops will also slide up the line when a fish is hooked. In almost every case when I land the fish, the stopper and weights are at least 10" up the line. Sometimes further. This removes most of the leverage the fish needs to throw the hook.

My first thought, after reading the title of this thread, was; "they have turtles in the Dead Sea"?

Fat Tire, enough said.

Nine Miler, those two Fuegos are spooled with #10 Trilene XL. #12 on the other two. You raise a critical point. To be able to cast lighter weights effectively, you need a "balanced" setup. Reel, rod and line need to be matched to the bait. If you put a Fuego on a MH or heavy power rod and spool it up with 17lb line, it's going to be a poor choice for throwing light baits.

At $100, it's a steal. Buy it. And if you don't like it, PM me. I'll give you the $100, plus the shipping costs, plus shipping insurance. I'll put my money where my mouth is on this one. I wish I knew where the dumb-arse idea came from that the Fuego is not good for light weight baits. I have four of them. I put new line on them this weekend, in prep for a trip. Had them out on the water yesterday, making sure I was good to go. Had one rigged up with a 3" tube, 1/0 light-wire EWG hook, and a 1/16oz internal clip weight. The whole bait weighs in at about 1/8oz. No problems casting this. I can put it where I want it. Ditto for another rigged with a 1/32oz Gammy Wacky jighead, and 4" 3X french fry. I doubt this bait rig weighs much more than 1/16oz. Again, no casting problems.

1. catch flies. they say you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. 2. glue flies to float 3. drop float in the liquid medium of your choice. Viola! float'n flies To really attempt to answer your question; A couple of firms market float-n-fly kits. They tell you that only the type float they sell will work. BS, any float will work, as long as it's not too big. The key to the float is the size of the jig. Start with a 1/8oz hair jig. Move down in weight if that doesn't do the trick. Then go up in weight. Hair jigs are the standard. Marabou jigs will work, as well as bunny jigs. You want baitfish colors. Experiment more with jig size than color. You want a float that will just stay up with the jig you've selected. I like slip floats. Easier to cast when fishing 15' or more deep. A round or teardrop shape is perfect if there's a light chop on the water. Don't do anything. Let the chop gently move the jig up and down. If it's flat calm, you'll have to twitch it. In heavy chop, a wagler style float, weighted to get the body below the surface, with just the tip out of water, will be much more effective. The movement you'll want out of the jig is just enough to make the hair, marabou or bunny strip move slightly, pulse a bit, or just waggle a little. Less is more with this technique. Another bait that works sometimes with the float is a wacky rigged finesse worm, or french fry. Don't forget the Megastrike. There are few times when a scent is more important than cold, cold water.