aavery2

I have not used the Skinny Dipper, but I have used the Cane Thumper which is close to the same bait. I use these as a trailer on swimjigs, and fish them weightless like a fluke. Caught some nice bass in the spring this year with these techniques. Good Luck. Almost forgot to mention that they work very well on a Scrounger Jighead as well.

6'10" Falcon Cara MH/F Abu Garcia Premier 6.4:1 and P-line Voltage 12#

Interesting, one would think that braided line would have a difficult time cutting its way through a titanium carbide insert.

Great post, well thought out and presented. One area that you did fail to mention when comparing Ike to other professional athletes is that in other sports when one acts or behaves in an unprofessional manner there are consequences. Fines, suspensions and penalties, fishing should do the same when an angler brings discredit to the sport.

I'm going to go a whole different route and say the Jagermeister dispenser.

While you may not enjoy the full potential of your reel without the polishing of the friction points. I can see no reason why upgrading bearings would cause any damage to your reel.

Nice stuff all the way around. I really like that Pflueger 1993, I have been trying to find one for my collection, love the detail they put into those.

You may have forgot to mention that this price is only good if you purchase either a Loomis NRX or GLX rod. Still a great deal, but something everyone should be aware of.

I have several old reels, some were owned by my Grandfather, others I have purchased at auctions and such, here is a pic of a few old South Bend reels, most are from the 30's and 40's but one is a 1131A and is from the turn of the century, has a patent date of 1905.

Fixed it

I hear what you are sayin, but do you honestly think that if there was an emergency he could not have found another phone to use? He also could have used email, skype, lots of other means of communication. I understand your disapointment with Alabama losing an important game.

If you hold the little red button down for a few seconds, the phone will shut off, just sayin.......

I have two of the Premier cranking rods, I bought them during a store closeout for 45 each. These rods have actually suprised me a little in how well they fish, I like the cork handles and the build quality of the rod is as good or better than many others in its price range. If you can get one at a good price, I say go for it.

If your Citica is an E model then it is a 6.3:1 gear ratio, as this was the only option for this model outside of changing gears yourself. If shallow cranks are making your wrists hurt, don't take this the wrong way, I think I would see a doctor.

I respect your thoughts on the subject, but here is something for you to consider. You say you are a Shimano guy, so why would Shimano bother to produce and Curado E5 if there were no advantage to a lower gear ratio reel. Both the E7 and E5 are built identical with HEG, SF and the whole nine yards. A 5.1:1 gear ratio will always offer a mechanical advantage over the higher 7.1:1 gear ratio reel so long as the spool dia. is the same size. It's just a simple matter of physics.

What you lose with a high speed reel is torque. I can see where if you were throwing shallow to med. diving cranks that do not offer much resistance when cranked this theory would work. However when you are throwing baits like the Norman DD22, and the SK 6XD they can really dig hard. That is where I believe a low geared reel really shows its mechanical advantage.

Use a moderate action rod and a low gear ratio reel. A reel with a longer handle will help also. Don't think it gets any better than that. Those deep diving baits can still give you a good workout after several hours.

Not to add confusion but Gear Ratio is only one part of an equation that determines true reel speed. The other half of this equation is spool diameter. These two factors together determine Inch Per Turn or I.P.T. and it is a more accurate number to determine true reel speed. Depending on your particular reel, you may find that even though it has a higher gear ratio, it actually retrieves the same or maybe even less line than some reels in the 6.4:1 gear ratio.

I use my high speed reels for topwater baits and pitchin plasitics. In allot of circles the high speed and low speed reels are considered to be more technique specific, with the 6.4:1 type reels more of an all around. Remember there are no rules when it comes to these type of things in fishing, I am sure you can make a high speed reel work for most applications.

I like the LC Pointer SP 100, very good bait for the money, if you are looking to pay less than what a LC costs, take a look at the H2O series of baits by Academy Sports, they have a great finish and good hooks, most cost in the 5-6 dollar range. They also suspend well.

These look like they will make a great trailer on my swimjigs.

Let your concious be your guide, if it feels wrong it probably is.

Things just don't add up when you think about this logically, most baitcast reels on the market today with stock drag setups are capable of producing drag in the range of 8-12 lbs, tthere are some exceptions as the Revo series has reels with multi-stage CF disks that produce in excess of 20lbs. Even with the drag cranked down these reels are much more likely to suffer damage to the fine teeth of the pinion and main gear long before they produce enough stress to bend the shaft on a spool. Keep in mind these are my opinions, I have worked on reels for a number of years, I have seen both damaged teeth and damaged spools, teeth can be damaged by excessive drag and hard hooksets with braid, I have never seen a damaged spool as the result of braid being tied to the spool, most are the result of mis-handleing.

Might want to loosen that drag a touch.......

Interesting statement, do you have a source for this information, or is this just based off of your personal experience?