Tim Kelly

You might find that using a small football shaped jig, rather than the mushroom one gives you just a little bit more stability, which may or may not help.

If you're using casting gear you want to have 30lb+ braid to reduce the line digging into itself on the spool. If you have a backlash, get snagged or otherwise put extra pressure on the line it is likely to dig into itself to some extent, o you need to be aware of this and either be sure to pull out enough line to completely undo the dig in, or make a gentle cast next to get to the point where it's digging in, so you can release it. Going for hero casts can result in snap offs too. Too much force in a cast makes it less smooth and causes a backlash, which in turn causes a half mile unattached lure launch. There's a learning curve to braid in the same way there is for fluoro or mono. They each have their own demons and you have to learn how to use each.

The whole season will be about him, like with previous seasons, they follow an angler, or pair of anglers, through the ups and downs of their season. Great series of videos. Definitely makes you think how much you would have to give up to try to be a pro and how slight the difference between success and failure financially.

Looks expensive. Can't see how it could be anything but a cracked head to be doing that.

Not even a bass, but this yellow perch looked like it had been dipped in emerald coloured JJ's! The colour doesn't show as well in the picture, but you can see it in the gill plate and the whole perch was tinted in the same colour.

For me the handle is the least important part of any rod. I grip a spinning reel with two fingers either side of the reel stem and palm my baitcasters, so I only ever really touch the reel seat with my right hand. Left hand is for reel handles or occasionally the rod butt for two handed casts and it wouldn't matter much if there was no grip there as it's pretty much just a fulcrum. I tend to build my rods with American tackle Aero grips for spinning rods and standard fuji non-exposed trigger seats on casting rods. Both are comfortable and functional the way I hold the rods.

Why do you want a foregrip? Most people palm the reel or hold it further back, only muskie guys sometimes hold the grip in front of the seat.

The AR bearing is usually mounted in the side plate with a collar going through it that presses on the drag stack which in turn press onto the main gear cog. Hard to imaging how the AR bearing could be touching the gear. What reel is it?

Enjoy your new companion. If you're really lucky and the dog absolutely "gets it", you'll be going fishing even more frequently in the future, just to keep the dog happy. That's my excuse anyway.

Hooks tend to bend when something odd happens, like the fish being hooked across the face or under the chin. Any situation where there can be an increased torque load from an indirect angle. Will happen with all but the stoutest hooks sometimes, just something to keep an eye on. They also get bent when you unhook them if they're in a tough bit of flesh and you twist them out or the fish flips off the hook when you swing it in.

Okuma vs Daiwa? Pretty much guarantee you're going to be happier with a Daiwa 99% of the time.

Actually, I had a car that used to act similarly and it turned out to be the points closing up. Since the days of electronic ignition the points and condenser have been done away with, but if you have points in the distributor then check the gap and maybe replace them.

If it's a twin cylinder engine it sounds like one of the cylinders is only firing intermittently.

In PA I bet that happens a lot. The tin boat guys are killing the big smallies on the Susquehanna and the glass guys don't dare put their boats in the river so are stuck on some of the less than stellar ponds.

Really enjoyed the last two seasons. Like the first of the new season too. He seems like a really nice bloke. The next episodes can't come quickly enough!

Definitely a step down, but being unpainted they don't look like crap after all the paint falls off. Shame St Croix don't offer unpainted blanks as many people are put off their blanks by the colour and their built rods by the colours and the build.

Anyone got any reports on how the paint holds up on those blanks? I made a rod on a blue/green flip coloured St Croix SCV blank and the paint came off in lumps after a while of fishing. Spoke to them and they seemed unconcerned. Been buying MHX blanks since.

That's a great report. I've so rarely noticed colour making a difference that I rarely change colours these days. Maybe I should try swapping colour a bit more often if the action is a bit slow.

x2

While fluoro is a pain to use it definitely has advantages which are worth putting up with in my view for certain presentations. I like it for drop shot and any presentation where you are fishing semi slack. Without a doubt the density of the line makes it feel different in these situations. Mono works great in a lot of situations, though the stretchiness makes it less useful if you're fishing long casts as the hooksets are more difficult. Braid has advantages when fishing at range, in vegetation or with topwaters due to it's properties of floating, no stretch and the ability to cut through soft vegetation. It is hopeless in wood or around sharp rocks or mussels though as it has no resistance to the rocks or mussels and digs into wood. BTW, if you tie an FG knot to join the braid to the leader it is easily a 100% knot and the leader will break before the knot every time. There's no point being anti FC as it has it's place, just like the other line types do. Whether the benefits outweigh the disadvantages to you personally is something you can only decide by trying all the line types out.

Has it got a HUK lable?

Exactly the same, but it's fiddly. I used to do it, but it was a perverse torture. Then I bought my first "modern" reel. LOL

Modern reels have so much improved gearing that you don't get the start up inertia when you turn the handle. Mitchells stiff drivetrain seems so backwards nowadays. I remember being very jealous of my cousin who had a Mitchell 810, which was the super high speed retrieve version until I had a go with it and the handle was a struggle to turn -even for a die hard 300 owner! Lol

I saw a pair of those in bass pro. While I'm sure they are excellent tools, I thought they were too big and way too expensive. I think they've missed the market by a wide margin with this product. $30 they'd probably be worth a go, but it's still a bit bulky really for a simple tool.

You either have to pull the little lever out to release the bail or turn the handle. No choice with a 300. To be honest you'd be better off keeping it as a momento of times past and buying even a cheap modern spinning reel. They are so much better today than the old 300 reels that I spent a long time saving up for in my youth!