.ghoti.

I just found one of these on the swap board, and mailed off a money order. It's last year's Legend Tournament series, the one with the full grip, not the split grip. St Croix calls this their drop shot rod. I drop shot just about as often these days as I watch the grass grow. And enjoy both about the same. Nothing wrong with the drop shot, mind you. I've caught lots of 8's, 9's and 10's with it. That's 8", 9" and 10" fish. It's a dink magnet where I fish, so I've "dropped" it from my bag o' tricks. Anybody have any experience with this rod? What do you use it for? I'm thinking split shot rigs, jigworms, lightly weighted tubes, and maybe a backup small crankbait rod. Any suggestions? Cheers, GK

Congrats, my friend. May you have many more.

No, those jeans don't make your butt look big, your butt makes those jeans look small. And then the fight started.

Anything by DaVinci's Notebook. Not really a horrible band, but truly stupid songs.

So, you're saying he had the SEC version of a 'Nam flashback?

I use a ML rod all the time. A BPS Pro Finesse, 6'9" ML. Sells for $100 normally, but goes on sale regularly for $80. http://www.basspro.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Product_10151_-1_10001_73559_100002006_100000000_100002000_100-2-6 It's the cheapest rod in my collection, and always goes with me.

PM sent

Hey Natural, if you look at the post right before yours, you'll see why retailers are putting returns under more scrutiny. BPS will bend over backwards to take care of their customers. They have every right to ensure that they are indeed "their" customers. Nobody likes being screwed.

Great baits for the price. And, if you get one that will not tune to run true, take it back. They will replace it, no questions asked.

Interesting. What do you call it? The "Lite-Loafer Shad"?

Bass-Brat, I can see now that I mis-read your answer. You must have meant what you said; opposite the reel. I read it it as opposite the reel handle. DUH. my mistake. The ones that give me problems are 90 degrees from the reel, opposite the handle. Cheers, GK

Lackluster? Watch 'u talkin bout? Meet up with some old buds, make a new one, catch some fish. Sounds like a good time to me. I suppose you're going to try to tell me that the food sucked and the wine didn't flow? Sheesh, some guys'll complain if you hang "em with a new rope. Wish I'd been there.

Four of my six Setyr rods have that arrangement, and it doesn't work for me. I still tend to cast with the reel handles up. The hook keeper on the opposite side catches the line when I swicth hands and rotate the reel back upright to start the retrieve. It's a pain in the membrane, and has cost me a couple if fish when I set the hook with the line wrapped around the keeper. I'd cut "em off if the rods didn't have lifetime warranties. On my Avid rods, the same style hook keeper is on the handle side, and causes no problems. But the worst of all is the keeper on my Airrus spinning rod. It's the open rail type, mounted on top of the rod. No problems during the cast. But, on an erratic retrieve, the line is always getting caught in the keeper. There is quite a bit of space between the reel face and the first guide, and the keeper is just about dead center between them. Precisely in the wrong place. I'm am going to remove that one, lifetime warranty be dipped. I have several rods that did not come with hook keepers, and I've put Fuji EZKeepers on those. I like these the best. I can put them where I want them. They are over-priced for a piece of plastic and two O-rings, but they do get the job done. The O-rings seem to be good for about two years. Replacements O-rings are cheap and readily available. The Fuji's also keep the hook point well away from the rod. I've been using these for a while, and have noticed no damage the the finish underneath them. Cheers, GK

Great deal, man. Those things in the picture; I don't remember what they are called, but I bought about two dozen bags of them a couple of years ago for a quarter a bag. I've caught a lot of fish on them.

Hey Rooster, no condescension taken. We can agree to disagree. If we all thought alike, we'd probably still be living in caves and fishing with spears. I had a look at one of mine, and the threaded part of the handle is steel, set in the aluminum handle. I haven't looked at the otheres yet, but I will. You've made me curious. If the one you had showed shavings, and was very hard to twist off, I'd be willing to bet it was cross threaded during production, and the assembler twisted it back out then back on, and you were absolutely right to take it back. That is a failure that had found a place to happen. The bad threads would have eventually done just as you suggetsed; damaged the IAR or cracked the housing. I've found on my reels with that type handle that it doesn't have to be really tight, just snug. I tighten the drag down to about it's normal tension, put my thumb on the spool, and tighten the handle until the drag slips. That is tight enough, and will not damage anything. Also, I don't think you can hurt the drag springs. Before I "knew better", I used to leave mine tightened all year. I've never had a pair flatten out. I'm sure it's happened to somebody, or we wouldn't be hearing about it. I'd hazard a guess that it happened to one of those guys who tighten their drags with pliers, and leave them like that for years. Let the great handle debate continue. Cheers, GK

Poor design? In what way? I have several reels with this type handle, and after the initial confusion, ( just how am I supposed to get the dad-blamed handle off? ), I think this is an improvement. No cap and screw to get lost. Much less chance of cross threading than the old arrangement. And, what looks to me to be a stronger handle to gear shaft connection. I don't see how you could strip the threads when removing the handle. You may be able to over-tighten the handle and strip the threads, but I doubt it. You would have to lock down the spool somehow, and put a "cheater" on the handle to apply enough force to strip the threads. And, chances are you'd damaged the gears and/or the spool before you did any damage to the handle's threads. If nothing else, the drag slipping would prevent such a thing. Even to prove a point, I'm not going to try it. On a different note, I've never seen the point of a maintenance port on a reel. What are you going to do with it? Add new lube to all the old lube and dirt? Why would you want to? A lube port may make sense on a salt water reel. I wouldn't know about that. Ain't much salt water fishin done here in the middle of Illinois.

A drunk was proudly showing off his new apartment to a couple of his friends very late one night. He led the way to his bedroom where there was a big brass gong and a mallet. 'What's with the big brass gong?' one of the friends asked. 'It's not a gong. It's a talking clock,' the drunk slurred in response. 'A talking clock? Seriously?' asked his astonished friend. 'How's it work?' 'Watch,' the drunk replied. He stumbled across the room, picked up the mallet, gave the gong an ear-shattering pound, and stepped back. The three stood in silence, looking at one another for a moment. Suddenly, someone on the other side of the wall screamed, 'You idiot..it's three-fifteen in the morning!!'

Just remember Dom, no matter what they try to tell ya: Pie's aren't square. Pies are round.

Running over the snake will not hurt it at all, you can probably do it a thousand times, repeatedly, with no issues. Seriously, I've done it. It's when you hit it with the tires.....that's different ;D A guy sporting "do" like yours should absolutely NOT be splitting hairs.

Check these out. http://www.setyrrods.com/product_tact_spinner.htm I have two 6'6" ,a medium and a med-heavy. Both spinnerbait models, with shorter handles than normal for 6'6" rods. I use the medium for spinnerbaits up to 3/8oz, small jerkbaits and smaller topwaters. The med-heavy model gets used for larger versions of the same baits. Excellent rods, light weight, sensitive, split grip, no foregrip design. And they are American made; they make their own blanks. I also have a 7' spinnerbait model, but the handle is quite a bit longer. It's not so good for the type of casting your doing.

Bounce worthy.

http://heritage.stsci.edu/gallery/gallery.html All from Hubble Enjoy, GK

Ditto. Welcome aboard.

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/astropix.html watch the video clip too.