Preytorien

Yep, BR is awesome. I can also attest that since visiting the forums and learning all the wisdom these folks on here hand out that my abilities have exponentially grown. That's not to say I don't have tough days, we all do, especially now in the heat of summer, but in an overall sense my proficiency has definitely increased since I started reading the forums. Now I read every day and still learn new things constantly. It's really the folks around here that make it awesome - and that includes the Mods. Thanks BR Team

I see many posts about fish handling and care mentioning being cautious about touching the fish as removing the slime coating to be harmful, and some sites to even go as far to saying it's commonly fatal. I don't believe this to be the case, or at least believe it to be so critically the case. I fish several local ponds that get a good bit of fishing traffic, and I frequently see other anglers, and myself included, handling fish with bare hands that haven't been wetted prior to doing so. Yet I never, ever see dead fish in these bodies of water. If rubbing off the fish's slime was so lethal, wouldn't I see more dead fish? I'm not saying I do it intentionally, but many times if I can't lip the bass due to it flopping around, I may grasp it under the belly as that many times will calm the fish while I'm unhooking it. What's your take? Am I wrong in my assumptions? or is it more a tale of caution to the fish rather than imminent death?

I love that video. Not long after I got my first pair of waders I saw this video, and needless to say it really kicked up my wading game, although mine's mostly for smallmouth

I've personally had two issues with the Curado, and luckily they were embarrassingly simple to fix. The vibration you have is similar to what I had up until last week. It felt almost like a buzzing, a slightly geary noise on retrieve and it drove me nuts. I completely disassembled, degreased, and re-lubed the entire reel. Still the issue persisted. Turns out, the little blurb in the user manual about lightly lubing where the brakes rub inside the cover did the trick. The guy in this video shows where to do it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OY2_Ukt5Y I know that this has fixed both reel noises I've had, and they've both been drastically different noises, so this might (hopefully) fix yours too. Let us know how it goes.

I use the red shad strike king shim-e-sticks....they seem to be my go-to color

Yea I race road bikes and I had only heard of it on rear dérailleurs. Anyways, I re-lubed the entire reel and used a paraffin wax on the lip of the spool and that seems to have fixed it. I'm not sure why that would result in a geary noise, but it did and now it's gone. I remember applying a thin bit of lube when I first bought the reel, per the user manual, but it wasn't geary sounding, it was more of a friction run sound. Anyways I fished all night with it, and it's quiet as a mouse. Go figure...

How do you index the gears? More importantly I guess, is.....what's indexing the gears mean? Haha

I posted a while back about a geary-sounding Curado I....practically new, freshley cleaned and re-lubed/greased. Would a loose star drag nut cause enough play in the drive shaft to cause a geary noise since the contact between the drive gear and the pinion gear has play in it? I'm not sure how tight to crank down the drag star nut, I don't see any torque rating anywhere about it.

If anything it seems to me like there are more fishermen now where I fish than ever before. Many times when I take my nieces/nephews out fishing, I see many other kids as well. It seems it's caught on with some of the kids at least. At work I'm around a lot of people close to my age, maybe a bit older, and when I tell them I fish as avidly as I do, they seem to think it's not true because I don't wear a big foam trucker hat or dress in flannel all the time. I think they associate a certain stereotype to fishing based on what they knew when they were younger. To them, fishing isn't "cool" therefore they don't take the time to realize it's excitement. Additionally, I agree with the comments of technology being too accessible. Kids these days are addicted to it. My niece comes over to our house with her parents, and I never see her face unless it's basked in the warm cool glow of a tablet. I agree smartphones are handy for photos, emergencies, and most often for weather. But if I don't want a million texts or emails I turn the ringer off. Kids need to learn what we've all learned and experience the great outdoors in whatever capacity excites them - whether that's fishing, hunting, hiking, etc. and all that starts with their parents. I know all too many parents that use an iPad as a babysitter far too often, my wife included. It's fine occasionally, but don't let impressionable kids learn that the only way to have fun starts within an electronic device. Take them for walks, let them help you "organize" your tackle, take them in the boat, go on scavenger hunts in the woods and along the banks. It's amazing how fun you'll both have. Point is.....get them away from the electronics and get them outdoors - they'll soon find a REAL strike is a lot more fun than Bass Pro Shops "The Strike" fishing game. Rant over....

I'm leaning more and more towards using Gliss as just a spinning reel line. Based on the mechanics that go into a baitcasting reel and the action of the line leaving the reel, spinning reels seem more suited to the advantages of this line. I've been using it for over a week now, 6 outings and still going strong. It's really impressive. I would say the only issue is that I notice a bit of fraying after several landed fish, probably occurring from their rough teeth.

I hear that for sure. They all got excited at Geist this early spring when a guy caught a 7lb-er. I doubt the record will fall. I'm thinking more along the lines of maybe a bluegill or crappie, anything really. I was more wondering really what would a person do, I understand the likelyhood is VERY slim here in our state....it's a tough place to fish I've heard.

I've been using it (24lb) this weekend in some very weed-grown ponds. I've hooked a few north of 3lbs with what seems like 60lbs of weeds along with it. Pulled it in no problem. I've not had any breakoffs whatsoever yet. *fingers crossed*

I was reading another thread this morning about where the next world record bass might come from. Interesting stuff. I live in Indiana, so I doubt it'll be here. But the entire conversation got me thinking about something...and I'd like your thoughts. I'm mostly restricted to the bank. I have an inflatable Sea Eagle boat, but due to the normal work/life constraints I don't get out in it nearly as much as I'd like. I'm 90% of the time a bank-walker. I fish a lot of small remote ponds, not a big fan of large (and lately VERY busy) lakes and that may or may not hurt my chances of at least catching a state level record. Our state LMB came from a small lake, not one of our larger ones. Since I'm not in a boat with a livewell, what would be the way I get the potential fish certified as a state record? I would prefer NOT to kill the fish by transporting it to a local certified scale while out of the water, and I almost never carry a bucket since I'm not a food fisherman. What are your suggestions? Or am I just unsuited for the task of certifying a record with the equipment I have/don't have?

They're awesome. I took it out with me this morning, for this year's FIRST (yes you heard me right, don't ask - RAIN) outing on the local river for smallmouth. As expected, they loved it. They weren't HUGE smallmouth, they never are, but it was consistent. Just find out the "right retrieve for you" - I know that sounds so cliche, but in this case it's really a matter of personal preference and what the fish are wanting the presentation to look like. However, as I posted above, you might want to beef up the lure by gluing some of it together if you're not planning on taking it apart, it does tend to loosen up.

I took the entire reel apart, degreased and reapplied lube to the bearings, and grease to the gears. Still no better. It's geary sounding on retrieve. I put a drop of oil on the brake drum when I first got the reel, and it solved the noise then, but that's a different noise. This is a very geary sound, like the gear alignments are off. Is there any certain way the gears have to be aligned when re-installing? This happened before I ever took the reel apart, I can't imagine the factory assembled it incorrectly. Any ideas? My next move is to call Shimano directly and request a replacement.

They work great for me, but I will also be glad when a weedless version comes out. I've lost several to cover, and many times they come up with grass on em' Rumor is they're making a weedless variant....who knows....

That sure is convincing, those markings are identical I've wondered how often I might catch the same fish within the same area, might be more often than I think

I gave it a decent test last night for abrasion resistance. I held the line taut and rubbed it against a few different materials. I ran it both horizontally WITH the grain of the line, and perpendicular to the line....in order to simulate as many real-life scenarios we might encounter. Wood - unless you REALLY ran it over the wood, over and over again, in a rough spot, it did very well. It took about 5 minutes of really rubbing against the grain to get enough of a fray to break the line. Used a tree branch for this. Sandpaper (simulate bass teeth) - it didn't take as long as the wood, but did well here. I could see that after maybe 10 fish or so you might want to re-tie, but you should be checking anyways after every couple fish "Average" piece of limestone - surprisingly it took a decent amount of abrading to break the line, I would estimate about the same time as it took for the sandpaper. If you're fishing rock beds, rip rap, or river, you'd probably be checking your line anyways. This was your normal large-ish size of decorative landscape piece of limestone/granite. Coarse rock - the line broke almost immediately, but only after considerable pressure. If the line wasn't taut, it just kind of moved around, but tighten the line, and BAM, it broke quickly, every time I tried it. I could see this being a problem if you're fishing submerged pilings or sharp edged items under the surface. I used the corner edge of a cinder block to simulate coarse rock. So it seems that it's not quite as abrasion resistant as a 8-carrier high quality braid, but it's not that far off. I fish almost exclusively grass lakes, so these items are rarely a concern. I'll keep it on. Look for my upcoming weight-bearing observations where I'll check out true line strength and comparable knot strength.

I normally use the SDJ too, but I'm testing out a new line (A-Jay and I have commented on it over in the Gliss line review thread) and it's VERY thin and VERY slick. Even a 9-turn SDJ slipped on me twice and I lost lures. Switched to a Palomar, didn't budge.

So you've found out eh? You're not kidding, those babies will catch fish when nothing else does. I don't know why, I don't care. They catch. Period. Consider yourself now a NedHead

Great job, congratulations!

I've been using Yo-Zuri Ultra Soft and that stuff ain't expensive. Give it a try, it's right up there with Mean Green (McCoy)

Fishing deep, or a C-rig, which kind of goes along with deep. I'm just not tuned into it well enough to be effective at it

I'm using a new line, and for the diameter I'm using, the best knot I've found to use for no slippage is a Palomar, or Double Palomar knot. I've almost always used a San Diego Jam knot. It seems to reduce the amount of line that's left on the tag end. When I tie the Palomar, especially if I'm using a larger form factor lure, there is quite a bit left at the tag end, sometimes almost 6-inches. Is this the norm for this knot or is there something I'm missing that will help reduce the amount of tag length?

Yea, I've given up on anything but a frog for now. On a good note, we had a really hard rain Sunday night, which raised the water level a few inches above the grass tops. Broke out the weightless fluke and buzzbaits last night while testing out the new Gliss line (see another post in Rods, Reels, Line) and had a nice time whackin' em. I love that kind of fishing. Can't beat a nice squeaky Cavitron!