MarkH024

I plan on emailing the photos to Shimano as well. I will follow up to the thread with their response. I'm hoping they replace it like Kicker said because of the frame material but i'm skeptical. I can't find any proof of purchase and don't recall if I registered it on Shimano when I bought it or not. I did buy it brand new so it's not like it was preowned. Iabass- I was thinking of some JB weld or something but like you said, it might work for an outing or two if lucky before I think it'd snap right off again. Thanks for the responses so far. I'll update you guys.

I was doing some routine maintenance with my Ci4+ and just by handling it, the top foot that inserts to the reel seat cracked right off. Now i'm frantically trying to figure out where I purchased this, and if I'll get it taken care of or not. I'm skeptical because I've had the reel since 2014 at least. The reel is was in almost mint condition. I've never dropped it, stepped on it, or anything like that. Typically when I'm done fishing I remove my reels from rods, do my maintenance and have them in my shop drawer until I go fishing again. I've had this reel paired mainly on a Dobyns 705cb. I can't understand for the life of me how this happened. Has anyone else experienced this? Anyone propose a potential fix if I can't get it replaced? Any info is appreciated. As much as I love(ed) this Ci4+ this may put an end for me buying another or any other reel using the same material. This was my first heartbreak from Shimano...

Lot of shorts huh Paul? Is that typical there? Any of you guys fish IL river down by Morris. Is it a waste to go for bass?

Good fish Paul.

Nice solid fish Branden. Nicely done!

Soldiers Field brownie. Drop shotting off the side of the boat waiting for dinner. My kids were on cloud 9. I also nabbed my PB perch with this whopper. It was 15" long. Biggest I've caught before that was a 9-10. Both fish on SK Dream shot.

I'll tell you, it really is nice getting the itch out when you can't always get out on the boat. Having a nice pond with thriving fish helps too. Always fun to bend a rod even if the fish aren't giants.

Had some fun in the rain today after an early work release. I threw around a 90 size whopper plopper in perch. Caught 4 bass lost about 3 due to lazy hooksets on my behalf, all in about an hour and a half. Here's one of the better ones.

I have a DX745 as a jig rod, it would handle some smaller swimbaits but I do not use it for that. The Champ 735c is the staple frog rod for Dobyns. It will handle smaller swimbaits so consider that for your purchase. I guess it depends on what pike lures you actually want to fish, that would help clarify. And to my knowledge, there is no 706c rod, only a 706cb (crankbait). There is a 736c rod for frogs/flip/pitching.

BPS XPS net. Rubber Coated Nylon. It was only $25-30 during one of their sales. It has been a great investment so far and really glad I got it. Fishing from my glass boat though I would like it to extend another 2-3 feet but I manage.

Yep. Out my front door. I was up north last weekend (5/13-5/15) and it was frigid cold, rainy, snowy, windy.

Nice lookin' gills Paul. Here's a pair of 2.5lbers I got last night throwing a wake bait. Water was getting really active right at sundown.

You just described most of the Wisconsin fishermen demographic...

Steve can fish. Why he isn't further along in his career is mind boggling. That Legend boat he won is a sweet ride too. Sorry to hear the bite wasn't good for you guys. I fished up north and we actually got snowed on periodically in between rain and gale force winds. My boat caught about 18 largemouth but nothing of considerable size. 3-13 was the biggest. Friday overnight was down to 30, Saturday had a 12 degree drop in temps and the bit was extremely tough. I ended up with 5 bass all on a LC Pointer 78 everyone else was skunked except a few snakey northern. Had to rip it from weeds and kill it for them to commit. Rough first weekend up there..

Slonezp, You headed up this weekend or the next? I'm tentative for next weekend, weather permitting mostly.

It varies by water temp, not necessarily by dates. Once water gets in the 57-62 degrees they'll start laying on beds for spawn. Females lay eggs then retreat to deeper water. Males guard the nests from pesky bluegill. Right now is prespawn and your best chance for catching big females and a potential PB. I personally do not target bedding bass.

Ice breaker fish today 3lb 9 oz on a flat side crankbait.

Last weekend i went out, started seeing bass moving up in the shallows. They're very skiddish. I couldn't get any of them to commit but i was throwing some larger swimbaits at them. I did see some neighborhood youngins pull one bass up. Think they got it on a senko or something. A few more sunny days and the bite should start to turn on. The wind is terrible though, that's never fun to deal with.

Thats a smallmouth in the first two pictures. Nice fish. Way to get on them!

Hows the chicken wing? Ready for Double Cow girls with #10s yet?

Very abnormal. My little pond out my door is about 9" low. Usually after ice out it, it's typical for the water level to be up or above average. I would say that the lack of snow and a heavy ice form is the result. The two attempts I've made on my pond have resulted in nothing so I'm just going to wait until it warms up some. I'm not exactly our type of guy that sits with a t-rig and spends 10 minutes on one cast.... 60's coming again next week. Lets hope it stays closer to that afterwards to heat things up a bit.

Nothing is for sure until mid April. Lol

Great to hear Dwight. Keep kickin @$$!

I struck out this afternoon. Water is still frigid. Not a bump,swirl, or anything. We need a good week of 55-60 to liven things up. Any of you in the Sugar Grove/Aurora/Yorkville area ever wade Blackberry creek and catch anything?

I have 3 of the KDS popmax replicas. They do not perform as good as a real one and hardly get thrown. They're not horrible lures but for whatever reason they dont pop and chug as good as the real deal. The molds are slightly different if you compare side by side