Tim Kelly

A rod breaks after three years use, suck it up. A friend of mine had a rod that was probably 10 years old and one day the carbon cloth started unwrapping. He spoke to the manufacturer and they replaced it with an apology. That is what a manufacturer warranty is for. The company who made the rod didn't have a lifetime warranty program of any sort, but being reasonable people they could see it was obviously a manufacturing fault.

That would probably account for the wobble if the braid is slipping on the spool. A mistake everyone has made at some point.

I think the dog's trying to eat it. P.S. The dog is a Rottweiler, just for a sense of perspective. ?

So the river season opened here on the 16th June. I was away in Spain that first week, so it wasn't until last weekend that I finally managed to get the boat out on the river. The fishing last weekend was tough, though I did sneak out a two and a half pound perch somehow. It was the only bite from the perch or zander I was fishing for, of note. Other than a few small perch and tiny pike, it was a tough day, then I hooked something heavy. I've been fishing the Thames for over 20 years and a good chunk of that was spent fishing for pike. In all that time I never managed a twenty pounder, but all of a sudden I'm hooked into one on a medium spinning rod with a 12lb fluoro leader. Amazingly it stayed attached and I eventually scooped it into the net. As I scooped I suddenly heard applause, looked round and I had attracted an audience. Anyway, very pleased with the fish at twenty pounds and a few ounces. Fast forward to this weekend, and Sunday I'm on the river again by 5am, hoping that the slow fishing was just a bad day. By 6am I'm soaking wet and freezing. The weather men certainly said nothing about rain, and especially not two hours of it. Of course I have no coat. Upside I didn't need to work the rod as I was shivering so much it was doing all the work for me. By 9am the sun popped out for a bit and warmed my bones. Again, the fishing was tough. Small perch were coming, but they were taking some convincing that they were supposed to be easy to catch. I was skipping a tube under some overhanging trees, a spot I'd had some decent perch from in the past. Tick on the line and then a familiar unmovable force. This one was a little bigger at just shy of 23lb. Weirdness. Never had a twenty pounder from the river in all the time I've fished it, then two in a fortnight.

Hmmm. You sure it wasn't that you screamed so loud that he kicked you out after the first dot of ink? ?

Every time I've used a boat with a powerdrive or XI5 electric steer motor I've really struggled. I can't see how people manage to bass fish with them, unless they exclusively fish offshore. They're so unintuitive and you have to be constantly checking which way the motor's pointed. Cable steer is superior in every way, other than the lack of spot lock for most bass anglers. Walleye and striper anglers have very different needs and the electric steer suits them very well.

Yup. I think they've missed a trick. A cable steer with spot lock is all most bass anglers would want, all the other features and functions are pretty unnecessary. Make it $2k or under and they'd race out of the door.

Anything on the version with Spot Lock Glenn?

That's not significantly less expensive than an Ultrex is it? Was hoping they'd manage to drop the price a bit better than that, they'd steal a big share of the market if they did I would think.

That sounds perfect, if the price is more affordable and they don't fall to bits.

If it's anything like here John then the supply pipe comes under different regulations than the consumer side (after the gas meter). You may well have to use threaded steel after the meter to the appliance, but the supply companies have a different set of circumstances. Much higher pressure and volumes, plus it's all underground.

I've found a san diego jam knot to be a better bet with fluoro. If I want a really strong connection I tie it with a doubled line and only 3 turns, that seems virtually indestructible. Most of the time I just used the single line version with 5 turns and that's plenty strong and quicker to tie.

They work well on a weighted wacky jig, but weightless they don't work for long as the salt dissolves out and then they float like corks.

I was driving one of them in Spain the other week, nice fishing boat! The BP guy has given you pretty decent advice. I would stop after the first couple of hours and check to see if the hubs were getting hot. If not after the first 2 hours, then you're probably good. I expect the tyres are only rated for 65mph as he suggested, so be aware of that. Definitely make sure you've got a spare tyre and jack and lug nut spanner. The cover will more than likely get worn, or rub against something on the boat, so probably better to haul it naked (the boat, not you). A secondary strap at the bow won't do any harm. Walk round the boat when you stop for gas and check everything is tight and not hot. You should be fine.

That looks like the one that's been available in Japan for some time now. Based on the original Tatula body shape with the cast control dial in the sideplate like the Steez. Thy are over $400 on the JDM market. Be interested to see what Daiwa USA is going to sell them for.

Try bumping the trim on your outboard up a bit, see if that helps. Depending on where your transducer is placed the outboard motor sometimes interferes with the view of the transducer.

A friend of mine has an RT188 with a 90 opti, pretty certain he runs a tweaked 23 or 24p Laser 2. I think the 90 opti had a lower geared lower unit, much like the current CT motors.

Dogs had a day out after my Spanish trip. First outing of the new season for them. I think they were engaged.

You're right. No idea what their gear is actually like as I kick against the whole image over everything deal they work on. That said, the fluke (I could actually see that one) looks like it could be great on a swim jig or chatterbait. The general theme seems to be to "Rage Menace" every category of baits. ?

Doesn't look like they could afford a light bulb either. Style over substance with that film, you can barely see what the baits are doing as they chose dark baits against a black background with very little illumination. I know it was about mood, but really?

https://store.do-itmolds.com/Snag-Weight-Molds_c_182.html Do-it molds Mike Long edition. New for Icast.

Last week I had my first bass fishing trip since last October. I went to Spain with two friends and we spent the week chasing little green fish and supplementing them with a bit of zander (walleye) fishing as a little light relief. The bass fishing was tough. We had one day when we caught a 17lb limit, with about 4 other keepers, but otherwise it was 2-3 fish days or blanks. Not sure what was going on as previous trips have been much more successful. I think the fish were clearly post spawn, as the better fish were very thin and baggy and beaten up, we had a couple of fry guarders too. This is late for this lake to still be post spawn. I've been in May before and they've been further along. The offshore bite was very difficult to find and the fish catches felt random most days and nothing we could pattern or repeat. The 17lb day was great though. We found them shallow, there was a little line of weed round some otherwise barren main lake creeks and senkos chucked along the edges or brush hogs pitched into the light mats got bit regularly. Unfortunately they were dropping the lake the whole time we were there and even by later in the day, the weed had lost enough water under it to appear to be devoid of bass. The day after the weed fish I started getting bites on a jerkbait, which had been roundly ignored for the rest of the week before. No idea what that was all about, but I was grateful for the 3-10 that grabbed it and the other dinks that showed their appreciation. Stats for the week were best bass 4-11 and 4-00, best zander were around 8-00. The zander were a fairly predictable bite, so after we'd had our brains bashed in by the bass we retreated to a bit of zandering to remind ourselves what a bite felt like, and it was good. ? We had a spectacularly fun week. The sun was hot, the beer was cold, the company were hilarious, oh and Iberia Airlines suck. They managed to lose 2 out of 3 rod tubes on the way out and never got them to us all week. We collected them from the airport on the way back and they managed to forget to put 2 out of 3 rod tubes on the return flight too. Astonishing. We split the remaining rods and borrowed some for the week and got by, but it was irritating after all the planning and scheming you put into preparing for your rare bass fishing trips. I'd do it all again tomorrow.

I think there must be something amiss with your reel. If you get a replacement from Daiwa I don't think you will be at all disappointed with the reel.

Those ankles look highly frangible...... ?

It's really not a huge task to strip the handle completely and re-build it as you like it. I've done it to many rods, most recently my medium and medium light St Croix Legends. Buying a built rod and stripping the handle worked out cheaper for me than buying the blank and components.