.ghoti.

Now that's funny right there.

Where did you hear that? It's hard to believe he'd be focusing on walleye. Got it right from the horse's mouth. BPS themselves.

Here's a few ideas for you. 1. Go to tackle tour and look up their article on supertuning a Daiwa Sol. Most of what is detailed in the article can be done to any reel, and costs nothing but some of your time. I've done these things to all of my Daiwa reels, and the the results are a positive improvement. 2. If you have reels with centrifugal braking systems, remove the brake race ( or drum ), and polish it. Use a Dremel, small felt wheel and super fine polishing compound. Take your time and polish it until it shines. Another no cost procedure that will give you a very positive result. 3. As far as bearing upgrades go, that will be up to you if they are worth the cost. I've tried Boca ceramic ABEC 7's, and did not like them. Way too noisy for me. And, way to much money for the small gain. I have recently bought some SS ABEC 7 bearings from biggreenfish that I do like. Nearly identical performance increases with lower cost/bearing, and no annoying bearing noise. 4. Replace any bushing with bearings. Obvious locations are outer pinion gear bushing, if your reel has one that is. At the base of the drive shaft and on the level wind worm gear. Also, the handle. Replacing a stock handle with an aftermarket 4 bearing handle is one improvement I really like, but can be costly. 5. Carbontex drag washers. Fairly cheap and easy to do. You will get a much smoother and more consistent drag with the simple upgrade. 6. If you don't mind spending some cash, an aftermarket spool upgrade is possible in some cases. I'm glad I only did this once. Spent a little over $100 to get a super light spool, shipped from Japan, to fit one of my Millionaires. It helped, but no where near $100+ worth. I sold the spool to a bud for almost what I paid for it, so it was a cheap lesson. 7. The best thing you can do is to learn how to service your own reels. Once you've done that, you can maintain your own reels in peak condition, and that may be the best performance upgrade you can get. Cheers, GK

The closest BPS to me, St Charles, Missouri will have Rick Clunn. He's talking about walleye. Go figure.

iwannabe.com

BPS in St Charles, Missouri. And, a Cabelas about ten minutes away; in an outlet mall. 90 minutes from home.

Dark; the darker the better. With a small glass of old bourbon on the side. A match made in heaven.

There was a post earlier in which several folks expressed their disappointment with the lineup of pro fishermen slated to speak during the BPS Spring Classic. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that one of the speakers at the St Charles store would be none other than Rick Clunn. So, I dig a little farther to get the date and times; because I intend to hear this guy. This dude is one of the all time greats, and I'm stoked. never heard him speak, except on the gdnb. Saturday, 1:00PM. Excellent time for me; I'm going. Then I see his topic. I wonder who determines this? Here we have the Zen Meister of the bass fishing world. The man voted the all time best bass angler. And he's talking about walleyes? DUDE; SERIOUSLY; WALLEYES?

Come on Brian, tell the right story. We know you didn't get run over in the parking lot. You were setting on the couch, tried to lick your jewels, fell of the couch and broke your neck. ;D ;D ;D

Now that is just WRONG. Funny as hell though.

Great idea airborne. Consider it stolen. ;D I will be using that this year. if all this freakin ice ever goes away, that is.

Thanks for the heads-up, socc. I exhibited my normal precision timing by ordering a selection of these about ten days ago. >

We've used them several times, with no problems. Mostly in the LOZ and Table Rock areas.

With 2 - 3" of tip missing, the action will be slower, not faster. The rod will be stiffer, and slower.

Power baits for 2 bucks a bag is a nice price. get some green pumpkin, watermelon and black/blue. At that price try a few other colors too.

Not familiar with that reel, but I'm fairly sure oil does not belong in the drag stack. Tear it down, clean it up, and re-lube it properly. grease on the gears, oil in the bearings and anything else that needs lube. Some drag washers are designed to be lubed using a vapor thin coating of grease. Some are designed to be used dry. Check with the manufacturer to see what you have. An easy fix, in any event.

Tom Kirkman, the founder of Rodmaker magazine and the Rodbuilding.org website, an acknowledged master of the craft, has stated that if PacBay made their Minima guides in all the sizes he needs, he would never buy any other guides. If Pac Bay guides are good enough for him, they're good enough for anybody. All propaganda to the contrary, Fuji is NOT the I Ching of components.

Barroncooper, the noise comes from the ACS system. It's a centrifugal system, not magnetic. You can easily quiet it down, smooth it out, and make less finicky to adjust. Simply remove the brake race from the reel and polish it using a dremel, small felt wheel and extra fine polishing compound. Work slowly around the circumference until it shines like a mirror. Takes about ten minutes. Good thing to doo while the bearings are soaking. Scrub it clean with some Dawn and dry it well. Put a drop of oil on a swab and wipe it down. When you get it back together it will be smooth, quiet and consistent. I did this to all 6 PT reels I had. Made them all a lot better. I've gradually replaced these with Daiwa reels, sold a couple, gave away a couple and traded one. Got one 770 left, and should probably sell it. I don't use it. Good reels for the price, and much better after this simple polish job.

Carp Skeet, cool. Sign me up. :D What do ya think? #4 shot? ;D ;D

Not to get too far off topic, but.... John, I've been using Reel Butter oil and grease for a couple of years with no problems. Certainly nothing like what you've experienced. What you've described has to be a contamination issue. Please do not take offence. I am not questioning your competence. If I didn't service my own reels , I'd trust you to do "em for me. But, if your lube turned into black goo, it got contaminated. Back on topic: It's been my policy to take a new reel out for a spin. Do a couple of days on the water to make sure everything is OK. If not take it back for a swap or refund. If it checks out OK, I'll tear it down completely, clean, re-lube and pronounce it good to go. I used to tear a new reel down before ever using it. After a refused warranty claim, I was forced to alter my process. A lot of reels come with way too much grease. I've heard it said that many of the parts are coated with grease to hold them in place during the assembly process. Makes some sense to me. I bought a new E7 last spring, and it was excellent right out of the box. Even better after a complete clean and lube. I would not hesitate to buy another, and probably will when I next decide that I need another reel.

I can't help but remember some of the past things that were going to destroy fishing as we know it. Remember when milfoil first showed up? It was going to devastate every fishery in the southern US. "Facts" were quoted to support this view. Research was funded, and eradication programs initiated. And, what happened? Milfoil has flourished, and the bass found it to be quite nice for cover, refuge and feeding. How about zebra mussels? they were also going to destroy fishing in the great lakes. What happened? the water cleared up, allowing weedlines to extend into deeper water, and the fish adjusted nicely. So did the fishermen. Gobies? These were supposed to be the absolute end-all of great lakes fishing. They were going to eat all the eggs of all the fish in the waters they inhabited. What happened? The smallmouth and walleye discovered them. A great, new, easy to catch food source that has promoted vigorous growth in both species. How about snakeheads? That topic has been beat to death here, so I won't go there. Nature has the knack of finding a balance. When the asian carp get into the big lakes, they will spread. This is inevitable. Screwing around, again, with the Chicago River will do nothing to stop this. A new balance will be quickly established. Who knows, the juvenile carp may very provide a new, tasty food source for our game fish. Muskie, in particular favor carp and suckers over all other prey. A new heyday for great lakes muskie fishing may be just over the horizon. These biospheres will take care of themselves. The very last thing we need is for the federal and/or state governments to initiate some knee-jerk reaction plan. Whatever they might try, it is bound to be short-sighted, big on sound bites, short on science, and probably just plain stupid. Leave it alone; nature will take care of itself. The law of unintended consequences is always in play when messing around with the real world.

Mike. You know I'll be there. Mary too. Just not for the entire trip. We'll be leaving either Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon.

Here's a guy with a lot of time on his hands. And, some serious talent. http://www.flickr.com/photos/24796741@N05/sets/72157604247242338/show/with/2346008881/

After reading all the replies so far, I'll have to say I organize mine poorly.

Revo, you've just stumbled onto one the great places to fish for bass. I've been going there since 2002. I make at least four trips every year. Did six one year. Best times are when it is too hot to fish anywhere else. When hot weather has shut down the fishing in your area, make a trip to Trophy Country. My best days have always been when it's miserable. 50-60 fish days, per angler, are the norm, except those miserable hot, humid days, when 100 fish days are likely. I've had several of those days. We go May through September. October can be good if the temps stay up. April and November are dicey. These are very deep, clear, cool strip pits. It takes them a bit longer to warm up and get active, and the cool off quickly in the fall. Plan your trips during the warmest part of the year. What I like best is that you will never be crowded. there are 100+ pits on the property. Some are so far back in the woods that they've never been fished. About a dozen are easily accessible. Another dozen or so will make you work a bit to get to them. Don't take a little compact car and expect to get to some of the more remote lakes. It takes a 4WD for some of these pits. The larger pits will have two boats, the smaller pits only one boat. Clint will give you boat seats, plug, paddle, a spare trolling motor and two batteries. Go to the pit you want to fish, load up and go. At the most there will be one other boat on the lake. It is never crowded. Don't even think about taking your own boat. There is no safe place to put it in. In the middle of the season, on the weekends, you will have to get up early to get the lake you want. We like to go in the middle of the week. We've made several mid-week three day trips, and had the whole place to ourselves. A warning. Make one trip, particularly during a hot spell when the fishing is awesome, and you'll be hooked.