.ghoti.

I have two Setyr rods, 7' medium, power fast action. Identical except for the guides. One has Batson Forecast guides, and one has Recoils. Both have Daiwa Fuego reels and #12 Trilene XL. I can't tell the difference between the two in use. No noise difference, no casting difference, no sensitivity difference, no fish fighting difference. My advice; buy Alconites and spend the money you saved on guides to upgrade to a better blank.

Thanks J. I knew they were different weight, but didn't know which was which. I have the red, lighter weights on the reel. it seems to work just fine with those. Cheers, GK

I've used mine now on a couple of trips, and like it. A lot. The question is; what are the different colored weights that came with the reel?

Well, I got home last night and checked three tubes. I could not find the fourth tube. One of the three smells a LOT worse than the others. Two tubes smell like they always did; not something I'd use for aftershave, but not really bad. The third tube is truly disgusting. It had to have been contaminated. Who knows when or where; I may have done it myself. In any event, it has been consigned to file13.

I have one tube, out of four, that really stinks. It's the new formula. The old formula tubes rode around in my car, and in the boat, all summer and never developed a bad smell. I need to check the rest of the tubes I have to see if they also stink.

After Bantam1 took care of me regarding a problem with a Cumara rod, I've been looking for a reel to pair it with. I tried every reel I had, Revo STX, Energy PT, super-tuned Millionaire, Pfleuger Summit, Johnny Morris, and only one, a TD Feugo, really matched up nicely with the Cumara. The problem is the Feugos match up perfectly with two Setyr rods, so that's where the are. Went into BPS Sunday, and bought a Curado E7. That reel, on a 6'8"MXF Cumara rod, is a perfect T-rig / light jig setup. I hope I didn't just start something.

Who could ask for more, indeed. We had a great trip. Not the best I've ever had at this unique place, but a great time. Four of us made the journey. Me, Long Mike, my brother Mike and my buddy Steve. I fished with Long Mike Tuesday and Wednesday. The first day we fished two different strip pits with not much to show for it. We caught about 25 fish between us. I lost the big fish of the trip when it jumped and spit my Space Monkey back in my face. While Long Mike and I were being puzzled, brother Mike and Steve, fishing two other pits put about 120 fish in the boat. On day two, we all went to a new lake. They have built a dam that has to be close to 200 yards long, backing up 5 smaller likes into one big one. When it's full I'm guesstimating it at around 800 acres. By fall this is going to be great fishery. It will be the most structurally diverse body of water on the place. Long Mike and I put better than 60 fish in the boat. Brother Mike and Steve got 100+, including the big fish of the trip; a 5.2 that fell for Steve's lizard. Day three, and Mike and Mike left after breakfast, forcing Steve and I to forge on without them. A tough task, but we were up to it. We fished until 1:00, and put 50+ fish in the boat, on yet another lake. Good company, good food, some fine wine and whiskey, and a whole bunch fish willing to come out and play. Who could ask for more.

My brother has the Frabill hard case you're looking at. It is great, if you want to spend that much. He picked his up at an auction for 10 bucks. I tried to talk him out of it, but he still has it. When I need to buy a new case, that will be the one. I have one of the Bazooka cases, and a Cabelas brand case, and one more. The Bazooka and the Cabelas are OK for the price. If you're going to use on of those, get some stick jackets. The rods rattle around in the hard plastic cases, and will drive you nuts on a long trip. I can't remember the name of the one I use all the time. I got it at a local tackle shop, and there is no name on it. I've had up to ten rods in it. I usually put 8 rods, with stick jackets, in this case. It's been on several flights, and the airline baggage handlers can't seem to hurt it. Unlike every other piece of luggage I've used.

Last final exams given and graded. All course work done and graded. Final grades submitted. Commencement ceremony completed. Another academic year is fini. I'm goin fishin. ;D ;D ;D

Just proves the worm should have stayed in bed.

John, you beat me to the punch. Add the red shad color, and I'm ready. hard to beat Power Worms.

Just spewed coffee and cookie everywhere, thinking about you with your nice, shiny, shaved head; stained PINK

They must have changed the recipe. I bought a few packs two years ago, and they were quite a bit lighter than a Senko. Thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten about these. Good baits. I caught fish on them regularly; unweighted, split-shot rigged, rigged on a small jighead and wacky-rigged. If you look at the website, and I haven't in quite a while, check out the Ballbreaker. One of the best wacky baits I've ever used.

It's rained so much here in the middle of Illinois, that I had decided to skip planting tomatoes, cukes, peppers, etc, and just plant rice in my garden. I finally got it planted last weekend, and if the rain doesn't stop soon, I'm going to have to re-plant when it dries up. I've been out fishing twice since the RoadTrip, and both times I went out in the rain. it seems that over the last four or five years, cold temps extended later into the year, April and May are both cooler and much wetter. And when the temps start going back down in the fall, they do so very quickly. The fall fishing season is at least two weeks shorter. Funny how this bloody global warming thing works, eh?

I've seen stainless, brass and some king of plastic used for shims, and yes, I've replaced plastic shims with stainless. The plastic shims get dimpled rather quickly. What you have to do is match the thickness precisely, particularly on the brake side. Plastic shims tend to be thicker than stainless shims. I've been lucky on a couple of reels when two stainless shims stacked were the same thickness as one plastic. Use a dial caliper to measure. Or a micrometer, if you have one. I've ground down plastic shims using a coarse diamond hone. Measure the plastic shim first, then measure the stainless shim. Hone down the plastic until you're removed the thickness of the stainless shim from the plastic. Then install both, stacked, with the stainless on top. If you don't have a good diamond hone, and don't want to fork over 50 bucks to get one, you can use a diamond fingernail file. That will work, but is harder to keep straight and true. grind, measure, grind, measure, making sure to keep it level. It's not that hard to do, on rainy Sunday afternoon. Cheers, GK

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it.

Good one

The symphony orchestra was performing Beethoven's Ninth. In the piece, there's a long passage, about 20 minutes, during which the bass violinists have nothing to do. Rather than sit around that whole time looking stupid, some bassists decided to sneak offstage and go to the tavern next door for a quick one. After slamming several beers in quick succession, one of them looked at his watch and said, "Hey! We need to get back!" "No need to panic," said a fellow bassist. "I thought we might need some extra time, so I tied the last few pages of the conductor's score together with string. It will take him a few minutes to get it untangled." A few moments later they staggered back to the concert hall and took their places in the orchestra. About this time, a member of the audience noticed the conductor seemed a bit edgy and said as much to her companion. "Well, of course," said her companion. "Don't you see? It's the bottom of the Ninth, the score is tied, and the bassists are loaded."

Nice report Jimzee. Now take some smelling salts to AJ. He is positively delusional.

Build an Ark? Piece o' cake. 1. buy wood 2. assemble Ark 3. load creatures 4. launch Ark 5. eat creatures. 6. reload

The Godfather ( the first and second only) Tombstone Lord of the Rings trilogy

I can't do it, but I have a buddy who can. He uses a heavy spinning rod; rated in the 14-25 pound line range, a large spinning reel, 50 pound braid, and a 20 pound flouro leader. No problems for him getting a bass out of heavy cover. And, he can put a jig into a teacup from about 50 feet. I've tried, and can't get the hang of it. I'll stick to my baitcasters.

I'm not trying to make light of the problem for certain people. As Muddy has pointed out, the very young and very old are at risk. Those with chronic illnesses, compromised immune systems, etc, are at risk. But, the point is, the same people are at risk every season, from whatever flu strain is circulating. This year is no different than any other year for these folks. The director of the WHO has raised the threat to level 5. She is treating this as a pandemic. One of her underlings was on NPR yesterday morning. He said "raising the level this high, in this short time frame, with this little data, is unprecedented". Read between those lines, if you will. This is as close as a person in his position will ever come to saying, in the public media, that THE BOSS SCREWED UP. In today's bleak economic climate what she has done is screamed fire in a crowded theatre; on a global scale. In my opinion this chuckle-headed person, who's name escapes me, (and whom I don't care enough about to bother looking up ), has passed the threshold from the irresponsible to the criminal.

I use 3/16, 1/4 and 5/16oz sizes most. I also have a few 3/8 and 1/2 oz sizes, but don't use them nearly as much Having a variety of weights is much more important than having a variety of colors.

The best jigheads I've found for those worms are the Tru Tungsten Ike's Spike and Weed Whacker jigs. They seem to hold the 3X plastics very nicely. One of my go-to combinations all of last year, and great so far this year. Cheers, GK