tcbass

O. Ok. Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize ever made double seals on hubs.

I normally fish two lakes that have a lot of docks and are fairly shallow. From the foot to 3 foot range. Normally during the summer there is a thick mat of vegetation that covers the lake floor and is about 1-4 inches high on the bottom like a carpet. It's funny because these spots between docks with this vegetation are right out in the open with no shade or cover, so I'm assuming the carpet like vegetation somehow provides some shade or cover. Currently I am not seeing much of this vegetation. The bottom is sandy. I don't know if it's because it's early in the year and the vegetation hasn't grown yet or what. Usually even though it's only a foot deep or so in many places I have always caught good bass there ranging from small to 3.5lbs. Also the lily pads around here are extremely sparse now when they are usually nice and lush and have always have bass under them. Every pad and dock that normally has guaranteed fish in it has nothing. Except one dock where we caught 2 bass. I've never seen it like this before. This is central Minnesota. Is the lack of fish because it's earlier in the season and the vegetation and lily pads haven't had tlme to grow yet? Will the vegetation and pads grow as they traditionally do or do they not do that some years? Where are the fish?

Maybe Daiwa makes their Maybe Daiwa makes the rod for them. I heard on here Daiwa makes their reels.

What? Do you mean a single lip seal puller?

What?

I use screwlock hooks which work tremendously, I think they are Gamakatsu's. Not sure what size, I think 4/0 or 5/0. I usually only lose legs, so "Mend It' wouldn't work. Sometimes they last 10 fish, sometimes a fish nips a leg off on the first cast (irritatiting). However, that's the cost of doing business. I'm sure Ragetail is happy that they kill the fish but don't last forever otherwise they wouldn't sell anymore. I bought some Elastztech frogs for this very reason but haven't used them yet. I haven't had great success yet with the Ragetails this year since the weeds haven't had a chance to grow, so when I start catching fish consistingly on the Ragetail I'll try the Elatztech. Beware though, that from what I hear the Elastztech material has a chemical reaction with other baits and will melt to them, so you need to keep your Elatztech baits seperate from other baits. Probably their only downfall.

Does anyone know if the butt length is different on any of the Tournament ZX spining rods or if they are all the same length?

lol. Actually my bro did pretty good on a white Terminator 1/2 ounce spinnerbait today. I caught a few the other day on the same lure. Sadly my bro lost the lure on about a 2lbs bass at the boat. I've had that spinnerbait for like 5 years. I've used spinnerbaits all year long. Didn't realize you weren't supposed to use it the summer. lol.

I didn't believe in the banjo minnow until my friend let me use his. It's a lot like a Zoom Fluke. I tried everything fishing and didn't catch anything until my friend handed me his banjo minnow and said don't lose it, it's my only one. I caught 4 fish quickly on it and then immediately lost it in a tree. lol. I bought a pack afterward and have caught some nice bass on it. But I haven't used it since.

So I've got a chance to try out my new Cabelas Tournament ZX Baitcasting and Spinning rods. In baitcasting I got the Frog rod and Jerkbait/Topwater and in spinning I got two of the Dropshot rods. These are the regular Tournament ZX rods, not the Platinum ones. They go for $99. When I got them they were $69 on sale. These rods won Outdoor Lifes Editors Choice award this year. I've bought a lot of stuff off of Outdoor Life's recommendations and I haven't been disappointed yet. I currently have 2 St. Croix Mojo Bass rods, a St. Croix Rage spinning rod, and G. Loomis GLX spinning rod. I also had a St. Croix Rage baitcasting rod at one time. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Tournament-ZX-Bass-Casting-Rods/1619298.uts?Ntk=AllProducts&searchPath=%2Fcatalog%2Fsearch.cmd%3FrecordsPerPage%3D18%26No%3D0%26N%3D0%26nl%3Dtrue%26Ntk%3DAllProducts%26Ntt%3DZx%26search%3DSearch&No=0&Ntt=Zx All I can say about these rods is that they are awesome. They feel like they are one weight lighter then they are and as thin as the lower weight rod. A heavy feels like a medium heavy and a medium heavy feels like a medium. They are my favorite rods now. I paired the two baitcasting rods with my new Abu Garcia Revo Rockets which I love. I put an older Shimano Stradic on my spinning rod. I plan on getting a Shimano Ci+4 and a Stradic. What's funny is that I own a ton of Cabelas brand products, mostly hunting clothing such as their Berber, Wooltimate, Standhunter, and other stuff. I know a lot of their "brand" stuff is made by other well known companies such as Danner, Kershaw, and Daiwa but I never thought of buying a Cabelas brand rod until I read the Outdoor Life awards and saw the the Cabelas Tournament ZX rod won the Editors Choice award and not just a Great Buy award. I used my St. Croix Mojo Bass rod today, which I love and there's no comparison. The Cabelas baitcasting rods has a longer butt and I use that to get a double handed grip when casting. The much shorter butt on the Mojo Bass rod made it harder to cast farther. I've never noticed this until I had the chance to use a rod with a longer butt. However, this is the one sticking point I have with the Cabelas spinning rod. For me the butt is too long and gets in the way of casting and maneuvering the rod. It always hits my side and I have to extend my arm out to get a full range of motion. The butt is about 1" too long. This isn't the case with my St. Croix Rage spinning rod or any other spinning rod I've ever used. I will say that I am short and have short arms, I believe that any normal sized person over 5'7" will most likely not have a problem. So, this may only be a negative for me and not anyone else. The Winn grips on the rods is awesome. They are durable, tough, non-slippery, and won't come apart or get damaged like cork or foam handles. I think the Winn grip is the perfect handle material. I did exchange my Jerkbait/Topwater rod (medium heavy) for another frog rod (heavy) because I liked the extra 6" inches in length. I'd rather use a medium heavy rod over a heavy, but because the Cabelas rods feel one weight class lower the frog rod feels like a medium heavy, not the heavy that it is. (On that note, I'm selling a barely used St. Croix Mojo Bass Frog rod because it is a heavy). Especially for the price of $69 I give the Cabelas Tournament ZX baitcasting rod a 10 out of 10 and the spinning rod a 8 out of 10 because of the too long of butt. I also like the fact that Cabelas let me exchange for a different rod with no problems. I expect this rod will go on sale again. I'm sure they aren't in the same league as some of the custom rods such as Powells, Dobyns or other more custom rods, but at there price point, they aren't meant to compete with them. If you are looking for a great rod, then look no further than the Cabelas Tournament ZX rods. They are an awesome rod and an incredible value.

So I pulled my pedestal and chair out of my boat and it ripped out the plastic inner lining of the base. I took that piece off and and put the pedestal into one of the other bases. Well, it got stuck to the other base too. There's obviously some problem. I figured WD40 wouldn't work for the long term since it's not really for that. I was wondering what type of grease or lubricant can be used to make sure this doesn't happen and so that I can take the posts out?

Cool, thanks. I'll check it out.

I noticed that my one of my boat trailer's hubs had opened up and spewed grease all over. I closed it up and it hasn't leaked since. I looked inside there though before I did that and noticed that there is grease all over the inside of both hubs. I have bearing buddies on my little duck boat trailer and only added grease to the zerk every year. I'm not knowledgeable in hubs. I was thinking about adding bearing buddies to this trailer if necessary. So, is this normal? And should I add bearing buddies to this trailer?

I put them back in the original packaging and I keep all open packages in a big Berkley Powerbait sealed box. I'll use them as long as I can. I have all of my unopened baits in a different tacklebox.

Since I don't have a lot of rods I use the same few but change out lures quite often. I've caught fish on everything I've ever used almost but I wonder if I a losing fish by using a swivel snap. I do a lot of topwater frog fishing especially with Ragetail Toads and now my KVD Sexy Dawg, I use spinnerbaits (which I have tied to a leader with a loop since a swivel snap won't go on it), jig, senko, and now fluke. How many fish do you think I'm missing because I'm using the small swivel snap?

These have always been a problem but this year they seem to be the worse in decades (like the ticks and mosquitoes) in Minnesota. I don't know if they are dogwood, willow, or something else but they are really annoying. They get caught up in your guides, line, and reel and cause your line to snag and not cast nearly as far. The best way I've found to get rid of them is to squeeze them tight and pull them apart. I was wondering if certain line like mono might prevent them from sticking vs. braid and if maybe using 2 pliars might help taking them apart. Does anyone else know how to prevent or stop these or a better way to remove them?

There is anti-fogging spray you can spend on your glasses.

So I took the front hook off and it rode funny. So I put it back and took off the middle hook. Still got tangled. So I put it back too. lol. So what hooks are you using to replace the originals?

Update: Fished normally in the shallows and caught about 4 on my KVD Sexy Dawg. Missed 2. Then I caught some on flukes and with a spinner bait. Not a bad day.

Wow. Good job!

Why?

How much less I wonder.

Update: Well, I filled up the battery with distilled water, charged it and used it today. Worked great. ....for the first 2 hours. And then wouldn't work past 8 speed again. So I think I've found the problem. And it's the batteries. I just hope these batteries last another year. Money is tight now. Thanks for all your help.

So after hearing everyone on here talk about how good Zoom Flukes are I went and bought some. Well, I used them today and they caught a few fish and had a ton of bites. There was a lot of small nibblers. I was impressed. After my first fish which was also my first cast the Zoom got tore off from the nose and ruined. So perhaps not the most durable. It was only about a 3/4lbs fish also and a quick reel in. Not an extended fight where he had time to beat up the fluke. So I switched to a Twistlock hook and caught about 3 more and had about 13 more bites from smaller fish that would move the tail up the hook, but the Twistlock hook stayed good in the nose. However, it seemed to me like the action might have suffered a bit. But I'm not sure. Does anyone else on here use Twistlock hooks with their flukes? Do you think using a Twistlock negatively effects the flukes action?

Thanks guys. Problem solved. It was the spool tension knob.