ced

St Croix SCIII blanks, so Avid or the new Mojo Bass.

d**n, looks like they stealth upgraded the Mojo, and I just bought one. http://stcroixrods.com/products/freshwater/mojo-bass

I just picked up a Citica I. Seemed like the best reel for around $150. I got a couple ceramic spool bearings just to enhance it a bit so total of about $160. I'll use it tomorrow but tossing it around in the yard it's excellent and a huge improvement over my Calcutta 200 for a bass reel. Calcutta can just stick to salt now.

30lb flouro leader material is more than enough for chain pickerel.

Sounds like semi clear water. I would go to a 20-30lb flouro leader way before putting wire on, we're not talking about muskies here.

I'd buy a couple 3/8

Never fished one, but they look awesome. Like someone mentioned that green pumpkin blue fleck is perfect.

Yeah sorry it was for the OP who is in Cochise county, should have been a PM.

Off topic, but I used to do a lot of consulting at Huachuca, I wish I knew there was fishing to be done near there. Spent a lot of weekends in the hotel.

Free spin is just fun to show off. I guess if a person is capable of casting with no spool control or brakes it might add to your distance. I can throw with just thumb control, but it honestly doesn't end up being a longer cast than with the spool cap and brakes.

Oil your AR bearing, don't grease the inside of it. Oil won't cause it to slip, grease can interfere with it though. I use corrosion block grease and corrosion x oils on my reels that are heavily used in salt, but most tests I've seen show they really don't prevent rust corrosion. They are designed to prevent corrosion on electronics for the most part. I think the idea is to put a barrier between the metal and the salt water, vaseline would probably work just as well as a "corrosion prevention" grease. I'm a big fan of the corrosion x oils though, I make sure my bearings are filled with it on spinners, and I fill then blow out the spool bearing on my calcuttas for casting performance.

Does this involve taking off the twist lock and using it in a jig mold? They are excellent hooks by the way.

Seriously folks, the oval sinker/bobber stops are excellent and if you can find them locally for $2-3 there is not a better option. They don't interfere with the sinker (I hated the rubber t stops as they push the weight off center) and like others mentioned you can just leave them on the line and slide them down to your jig etc when not using a weight.

Looks like my boxes, more stuff than I could ever use Replace all that lead with tungsten and your in business.

This is one of those things like scent usage that no one has really done a good experiment on (that I'm aware of), it's all useless anecdotal information. In some of our minds, especially those of us who fish clear water or sight fish, the less visible the line to our eyes the better. Of course this might not matter one bit, as most fish depend on their detection of vibrations and displacement of water over their sense of sight. I think it's safe to say what we see is not what a fish can see, they have those additional senses to accompany sight and there is no telling how their brain interprets that data. With that said; I'm always going to use the smallest diameter FC leader I can, while I have no evidence to support it helping get more bites, in my mind it is the best option available. I spend 80% of my fishing time doing so by sight for redfish. While this is not the best data that could be available to us, fishing the same lure or fly with 20lb FC leader and 12lb FC leader doesn't seem to make a difference. There are countless days where the fish were spooky and changing from 20 to 12 didn't make a bit of difference. 20 is typically my standard for reds, and my buddy uses 15, and we don't have disproportionate bite numbers. I've never tested with braid straight to the lure or fly, but I will honestly never even try that, the advantages to FC as a leader outweigh braid (abrasion resistance, sink rate etc). Most of my bassing is in gin clear water so the same thing applies when I'm fishing them. Now those are two completely different fish species, the bass being more of an ambush predator and the red being more of a hunter, but they both rely heavily on their sense of vibration and water displacement. I always feel like if those fish are down to eat the line isn't going to stop them, but when they are being difficult I want the best option in my mind, even if it's only for a bit of confidence.