Bluebasser86

I'm just guessing that at least a little bit of that grease would be getting onto the spool shaft and just a little bit would be slowing the spool down a lot. I'm a long ways from a reel mechanic though.

Fat Cat has some funny videos man. Look up fat cat 12 pound bass on youtube.

Just says it doesn't rotate freely, not that it doesn't turn. I'm assuming that means that it wasn't casting very far or wasn't free spooling like it should be, which is to be expected with that amount of grease in the reel sticking to everything.

About how most Shimanos look new, just caked in grease.

Kind of like needing to test a senko to see if they work isn't it? How many fish over 10 pounds should a bait have to catch to prove it works? I'm falling deeper and deeper into the swimbait world, unfortunate considering my geographical location. Still, I enjoy the challenge and so few people throw them around here that it's one of the only style of baits that the fish really haven't seen. I wasn't very confident at first, but then I had a really tremendous day fishing a Decoy Hydratail where I caught dozens of fish and seeing how a 12" fish could just choke a 5" swimbait helped my confidence in the baits a lot. I started watching videos trying to learn about them and ended up with the Southern Trout Eaters video. From watching that video I ended up with a 7" Slammer, a couple 6" Hudds, a 6" weedless hudd, half a dozen 68 hudds, and an 8" hudd. The Slammer has since become a confidence bait for me, the drawing power is incredible and it's such a visual bait to fish that it's really a blast. I've added several Savage Gear 3D line throughs in the 6" and 8" along with a glide swimmer, a couple Bull Shads, a Lunker Punker, a 9" Slammer, 168 S waver that has been a great bait for me in the cooler water, I have a Lucky Craft Real Gill that should be here any day now and I just took the plunge into the deeper end of the pool and ordered a Deps 175 Slide Swimmer. It isn't for everyone, but it is really addictive if you give it a real chance to work for you. It isn't something you can pick up and make a couple cast and expect to get bit every cast, but when a fish does blast a Slammer or swallow a Hudd it's a heck of a rush. I'm still pretty new at it and obviously the chance at a truly big fish just isn't there for me, but I fish the right water that if the state record were to be lurking around, I just might be the one to catch her.

I have the 7' 6" MH/F. Seriously considering the 7' H/F for pitching docks and for whenever I'm fishing in thick standing timber.

My immediate thought was 4.5.

I have both and let the situations dictate which I go with.

I sure hope they don't, I only have about 50 bags of them hanging in my garage. I'd hate to run out of them.

I'll be spending it with 64 of my closest friends

Be looking for the best deal I can find.

This is a quest that I should dive into further, but first I need a boat to get onto the smallmouth waters. I've caught several on swimbaits up to 7", but none have been very big other than one that was 4 pounds (a dink for you Dwight, I know, but with a state record of just 6.88, that's a big smallie here).

I thought I'd seen that picture, you posted on one of the swimbait pages on FB yesterday didn't you?

Heck of a nice fish!

If you're planning on fishing the 8" Hudd that's the one you'll want. I fished with a 7' 10" H/F BPS Extreme as my swimbait rod for a couple years. I did fish an 8" Hudd on it a bit despite only being rated to 3ozs and it did the job pretty well. That might be another rod for you to look at while you're making your decision.

I've really enjoyed the Perfecta DHC5 I've been fishing with. Really a nice combination of sensitivity and power in the one I have. That said, I haven't even picked up either of the other two so I can't give a real opinion on those.

Swinging football head was probably my only real new addition to my lineup, but it was a big addition.

Even if I had the money I wouldn't want one.

Saw the same, and I'm going to be checking!

BPS carries a couple rods that would be good options for the swimbaits you mentioned. St.Croix has a swimbait rod in the Mojo lineup. There's a Veritas that would do the job as long as you aren't throwing the 8" a ton. If you're mainly planning on fishing the 6" you have a bunch of options.

You can get an Okuma Guide Series swimbait rod in your price range that will be much better suited for swimbaits, or are you mainly planning on muskie fishing and occasionally throwing a swimbait?

I've been living at work and the money for the slide swimmer was from selling a reel and my baby hardgill, boat money is still there, especially since my wife has gone from making less than 20k a year, to making just shy of 40k a year in the last 2 months

I'm in deep now, just bought a Deps Slide Swimmer 175 this morning Been looking for awhile, finally found the right price and the right color and pulled the trigger. Got a Lucky Craft Real Bluegill swimbait that should be here today too. Can't wait to get a chance to cast them off

Not at all. Give it time and it will happen to you regardless of what you try to do to prevent it. I lost a fish due to a straightened hook just a couple weeks ago on a jerkbait, even after I'd swapped the hooks out to round bend Gamakatsu trebles. Fishing a 6' 8" M/F Ethos micro guide casting rod (which is a very soft rod if you've never fished one) with a jerkbait on 10lb Big Game (very stretchy=more shock absorbency). It was also still quite a ways out when it happened which cuts down the amount of pressure even more and on top of it all, I was babying it because it was a heavy feeling fish and I had it on a jerkbait. In the end it didn't matter as the only hook I must have had it with straightened out and the fish was gone. I've seen the Strike King 1.5 hooks and the Luck E Strike hooks straightened a bunch of times, very few of them were user error. I've broke plenty of hooks (admittedly I do set the hook hard with jigs and plastics), all the way up to VMC straight shank HD flipping hooks. Fish long enough and it will happen, trust me.

Building one that, getting back to being a boat owner so I can take my son fishing for the first time