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Took the Patriarchs out today for the first time. Wow! After a little set up the reels are superb. I have zero regrets trading the SX and STX reels in on these. I still have a couple S reels I'm keeping so I'm not completely Garcia free.

What a difference a coach makes.

I dumped my SX and STX reels and went with Pflueger Patriarchs and Johnny Morris reels. I did keep a pair of Revo S's. There's just no comparison between either the Patriarch or the JM reels and the SX or STX. In fact, there's no comparing the castability and ease of set up with the S vs the SX or STX. Technically, the SX and STX have the wrong kind of brakes on them. Mag braking is really more of a beginners brake. Anyone with decent thumb control can essentially turn the mag brakes off and not really have any difficulty in feathering towards the end of the cast. It's at the beginning of the cast where the problem comes in. Centrifugal brakes stop that instant overspin that occurs on the moment you snap your wrist and initiate the cast starting the spool spinning. That's where the problems are with the SX and STX. The spools slightly overspins and then you get loops on the spool. If they wanted to do one thing to those 2 models it should be getting rid of that worthless mag brake system and put a centrifugal on. Otherwise those are great reels. Just way to touchy to set up.

Imagine trying to reel a 3/8 oz spinnerbait in on an ultra lite rod. And with 30lb braid on top of it!! Then setting the hook on a 10lb bass and actually generating enough power to sink the hook. Some things just make you go hmmm......

Take the crank side plate off of a Revo STX, a Pflueger Patriarch and a Johnny Morris JMX 10HC and compare them. Talk about things that make you go hmmmm......

I work in the repair business. 1. Never, ever hold a mechanic/technician to an over the phone guesstimate of what's wrong with your broken down whatever. No sooner than you bring it in for the repair it will turn out to be the 1 in 100 that has a different failure than the normal frequent failures that usually occur. Then you wind up thinking the mechanic/technician doesn't know what he's doing and you wind up being inconvienced.

In no particular order. 1. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. 2. Pink Floyd 3. Atlanta Rhythm Section 4. Elton John (Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and earlier) 5. Santana 6. Joe Walsh 7. Dan Fogelberg 8. Dwight Yoakum 9. Brownsville Station 10. Chicago (Pre-Chicago 9) others: Montrose Michael Stanley Band Journey (First 3 albums) Supertramp The Police AC/DC Bee Gees Eddie Money Pavlovs Dog Robin Trower ZZ Top Another Bee Gees fun fact. The band had already written the music that was to become the soundtrack for the Saturday Night Fever movie before even being approached to do the music for the movie. The Bee Gees were already ahead of the movie and the disco lifestyle and can actually be attributed to the new wave of dance style (disco) music. Of the 99.5% of really bad disco music during the disco era, the Bee Gees were one of the few .5% making decent music.

Daiwa Pixy $330 + Upgrades $475 = $805 total. Amazing what people can find to wizz away their money on.

Especially the Extremes as I found out. For some reason the main/pinion gears are lacking in sufficient lubricant from the factory.

Southern Illinois to Fairfax Virginia = 800 miles approx. one way. Round trip = 1600 miles. 1600/17 miles to the gallon = 94 gallons of gas used 94 gallons X $3 a gallon average = $270 $270 + parts and labor not to mention the cost of food and lodging.

You don't need to spend $100 to get a pretty darn good crankbait rod. The BPS Crankin sticks, when on sale are a tremendous cranking rod at a great price point. American Rodsmiths's David Fritts series rods are also nice. Again, usually they sell for $20-30 shy of the $100 mark. All Star Classic GT2's. You can still get them on Ebay. Around $50. Another really good cranking rod for the money.

Of the reels you've shown interest in, I would go to Ebay and purchase them. For the money BPS wants for that Black Max, you can purchase the Gold Max for the same $$. In fact, the Silver Max can be had there NIB for $45 on a regular basis. I just sold a pair of the Megaforce reels. They seemed like good reels at that price point. I didn't use them though. I had 2 of the Garcia Silver Max reels I used for about 6 months just to test drive them. The cast a country mile. They have a Revo feel about them on the rod. Unfortunately when you're actually in the process of reeling in line or a fish, you definitely know you're not using an aluminum frame reel. They just don't feel solid and I wonder about the longevity of the reels mechanics.

I find it amazing that fishermen are pulling this deceptive fraud and then come here to post about it, almost bragging. > Then they don't understand why other forum members chatise them. :

Ahh.. Hermann during Octoberfest. That used to be a great day long visit for the wife and I during our courting days and there after. Spent the first night of our honeymoon in a bed and breakfast there. Then the college kids discovered what fun it can be to rent a tour bus, come down to Hermann during october and get drunk on wine. They ruined it for everyone.

Muddy has pretty much shown you the difference visually. The "Trigger stick" name came from back in the day when the primary rods being used were shorter, pistol grip rods. The name came to mean a rod, usually longer than 6' in length with a straight cork grip and the trigger on the bottom. You often held the trigger stick rod with your forefinger around the trigger vs. a pistol grip which you may or may not. The name has kinda stuck over the years even though there are very few pistol grip type rods being sold these days.

Given the vintage of boats you're looking at for the money you have to spend, your primary concern is the wood used in construction and how it's lasted and the motor condition. Whether you're looking at a mid to late 80's Ranger or a late 80's boat called a Dixie, the concerns you have are the same. A 20 year old Ranger, if poorly treated during it's lifespan, is just as likely to be a bad buy as a Dixie boat that was well treated during the same period of time. Unless you buy from the original owner, you have no idea how any boat was taken care of over the years. I would suggest you arm yourself with knowledge on spotting transom and stringer rot along with anticipating spending the money to have the outboard inspected by a knowledgable mechanic. That's the best bet when looking at older bassboats.

;D

I have 2 spinnerbait rods, the first is an old All Star IM10X 806 model, 6'8" MHvy. That has a longer handle, longer than the newer TAS model that replaced it and roll casting isn't really that rods strong point. The second is a TAS model, 6'4". Med, fst. Shorter handle, much easier to roll cast this one. If worse comes to worse, I have an old BPS Bionic Blade IM6 Med fst pistol grip rod that I can toss spinnerbaits on to get the true roll casting experience going. The action on that rod is actually much stiffer than the TAS 6'4" rod above. All star also makes a model TAS766C which is a 6'4" but in a medium heavy action. Same handle as the SB model I have above. Here's one, new/unused for $80 shipped. another site

As noted, they're most known for their SW spinning reels and the famous Senator line of off-shore trolling and bottom fishing casting reels. I had 3 Penn Power Graph spinning reels and they were great. I have a feeling they may outsource their freshwater baitcasting line. It's just a hunch though.

One other thing that's not mentioned in the BFR article on carpeting or just about anywhere else. Most carpeting has a grain to it. In other words, there will be definitive lines in the carpet depending on how the carpet was spun and how the roll was cut off the main roll. This is important if you're concerned about appearance of the carpet. After determining which way the grain of the carpet is on the roll you have make sure you lay out your floor areas and compartment tops on the carpet with that in mind. While the temptation is to cram everything into the cutting layout so you have the least amount of loss, the grain direction will become apparent if you cut several pieces with it going one way and other pieces the other. It won't be till you lay it that the grain direction will really be apparent and the boat will tend to take a checkerboard appearance. By doing this you will wind up using a little more carpet and you will probably have more leftover but the final appearance will be so much nicer.

The Lets Go Fishing boat show is at the Collinsville Ill convention center Jan 2-3-4 2009. http://www.letsgoshows.com/

This is usually about the time you start catching them by accident while bass fishing.

All the inline buzzers like the Bluefox or the BPS Uncle Bucks Buzzer come with a dual wire weedguard. It works very well. About the only problems you have are slop getting wrapped up in the front of the blade.

Yes and yes. Keep the rod tip high on retrieve and you can bring those things through some of the thickest surface junk. The blades will even keep spinning.

I looked over the list of lakes in my state. Glavel lake, Pacific MO. Never heard of it. A google search shows the only place that lake shows up is in TWC fishing reports. :