.ghoti.

Heck, I would too.

Well, I am not talking about how much I spent over the last two years getting my rod building shop set up. Thats where all my extra toy money has been going.

Here is all of the fishing tackle I purchased in calendar 2016. Thats all folks.

Servicing reels, building rods, trying to bring order out of chaos in my tackle bags and boxes,,,,,,

Ive built four rods on Immortal blanks, and will be building more, for myself if not for anybody else. They are very nice blanks. At the new price, I have to call them excellent.

Been watching Counting Cars. Its a custom shop in Vegas, with an interesting crew of lunatics doing some outstanding work.

Stk44, you hit on the correct way to lube that bearing. One drop of light oil on a qtip. You have just discovered how a tiny bit of excess lube can screwup the works. The rollers have to be able to move, in and out, in the retainer, for the bearing to function as designed. Just a little too much oil, or any grease, will prevent that movement.

Some online security systems automatically reject a sale when the billing address and shipping addres are not the same.

Wax the guides wont help much with frezzing, but makes it easy to knock the ice out.

When taking a youngster fishing for the first few times, relax aint on the agenda. Fun, yes. Rewarding, yes. Making memories, yep. Relaxing, uh, not gonna happen.

Seeing that gave me serious case of the heebee jeebees.

The current Villain 2.0 looks to have a Fuji ACS reel seat. Im guessing you want the previous version. The closest you will get is likely a Pac Bay Minima split seat.

Great advice from MickD!! Surface prep is important, particularly with minimal, split seats, with so much less contact area.

John, if you want to try it, this is likely the spring: http://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/tu001003.html There is also another procedure you may like to try. Before removing the inductor assembly, make note of where, on the inner surface of the spool, where the nylon blocks ride on the spool. These blocks are what forces the inductor to move against the force of the spring. Polish the inside face of the spool in that area. You will also be polishing the spool shaft at the same time, if you use the right size felt wheel, or brush to do the polishing. i tried this after observing how the inductor moves when accelerated. I chucked up a spool in my Foredom tool, and accelerated it up to the point where it started to move, and decelerated to see when it would retract. I was just curious to see at what speeds these movements would occur. I found the movement to be very inconsistent. Not at all a smooth exrension and retraction. Rather jerky, in fact. I said to myself, self, you can improve on that. Thus the polishing experiment. After several disassemble, polish, reassemble and test cycles, I was able to get rid of the jerkiness. Also the speeds at which extension and retraction occured were much more repeatable. Dont know what the actual speeds were, but were well below the max speed on the Foredom, which is, if memory serves, 18000rpm. I have done this to three of my reels, one Zillion, one Fuego and one Alphas. I slight improvement was noticable, most in the Alphas. Not, I believe, due to any inherent differences in the reels, but rather, a difference in application. I use the Alphas reels on my lightest power rods, with lightest line, for the lightest baits. I havent followed this up with more reels. Reel tuning has definitely taken a back seat to rod building at this guy's shop. And, this is really a marginal improvement. But, this may be of interest to the truly afflicted.

Nicely done, jefe. The only thing I would add is a cautionary note about using an anchor in current. Particularly on a system when rapid changes in flow; such as below a power generation dam.

Four

Brake inductor tuning? Do tell.

Before spending money trying to make a new reel better, do a complete tear down, clean and lube. You will be surprised by the improvement. At that point you can decide what to upgrade. Or not.

Do NOT buy that first high end rod and reel.

I was about to say it depends how you define the terms. But, it doesn't matter. If, by power fishing you mean runnin and gunnin, trolling motor always on, always moving, then, no, I'm not a power fisherman. I do not like that, at all. If you mean heavy power rods, heavy braided line, locked down drags, and skiing the fish back to boat, then I am not a power fisherman. Don't like that either.

Been fishing for 60+ years. I think I got my first bass around twelve years of age; so 50+ years of bass fishing. With a decade+ off while I was on the road. So 40 years, or so. I should be better at it than I am. LOL I have to pass on an early, indelible memory of fishing with my grandad. He was a carp fisherman, catch and release only. One place he liked to go had an interesting old gent, who came on Sundays. He was at least a foot taller than grandad, who was about 5'4". The old gent was tall, slim, walked and sat ramrod straight, wearing a tailcoat, cumberbund, spats, tophat and gloves. And shoes you could see your reflection in. Looked like he was going to a wedding. This was Illinois, in the summer. He had a lawn chair with a pipe welded to it for a big umbrella. What was more interesting was he always had a bottle of whisky, and a big box of chocolates. He kept those in a wood box, with a block of ice in the bottom. He would stay until the whisky and chocolates were gone. Even more interesting was he would talk to me like an adult. I was six or seven years old, and this was the first time an adult spoke to me like I was an equal. He was very polite, soft spoken, and I realized a long time later, spoke like English professor. He talked about books, and mostly about Shalespeare, quoting large sections. At that age, I had very little idea what he talking about, but I loved to hear him. I saw him, and sat and listened to him, every now then for a couple of years, and then never saw him again. His name was Tuck.

It will only take one thing to make 2017 better than 2016. More fishing time. This year has been my worst year, in terms of fishing time, in decades.

I'm rebuilding a Snoopy pole, just for him, for that Alphas.

Roadwarrior bought a Daiwa!!!

Mike and Mick just gave you some excellent advice. Dont spend much right off the bat. Wait until you see if this something that warrants spending more. You will know quickly if this thing suits you, or not. I'm not into this to make money. Its a hobby that almost pays for itself. if you're looking to make money, you would be better served learn to play guitar. And I had a blast turning my cabin into one. It aint finished, and may never be.