Angry John

Do you have a good tester??? Do you have a ground??? 1V makes no sense. I would test at the battery, then disconnect the wires every junction and find where you loose the 24V. You either have a bad tester, a ground or a short. Did you have your old batteries load tested. Plug your tester into the wall and verify it reads 110 to 123v.

I don't see a price range anywhere except where you mentioned $200. Did I miss the budget????

A flip is not a cast! A flip is movement of the lure with extra line taken up by the off hand as shown. The reel is never used and it a close quarters technique which allows very fast fishing due to never having to reel and cast. It is done best with long rods to allow more distance. A common length of flipping sticks being 8' or so. A pitch is a cast where the reel is used and for longer ranges than the reach of a flip will allow. It is common to go back and forth between techniques while working down the bank. Punching is not so much a technique but how the lure and weight is set up. You can pitch or flip with a punch setup. The equipment is exactly the same and will vary with cover. The thicker the cover the heavier the gear, taking into account how large of fish is common or capable of being caught in the area.

if I had that budget I would be buying this reel, http://www.ebay.com/itm/Daiwa-Tierra-2500-Spinning-Reel-w-Spare-Spool-New-condition-Never-fished-/182437279176?hash=item2a7a1bf5c8:g:LIkAAOSw5cNYjP9a

I am kinda a tackle snob, not that I catch the big ones but I just enjoy fishing with the nicer gear. I own a few champions and a few dx rods but none of the lower grades. The savvy was the only other grade when I was buying. I have a wife that looks at numbers vise cost so I go big and have less numbers to keep her in the box. I look for rods that are special and people fall in love with. The dx 795 is one of those rods. The steez flexlight cranking rod is another. I know many people don't spend near as much as I do, but I have gone threw so many hobbies getting a "good enough" setup just to spend more later to upgrade. I have no idea what the OP's budget is but that would sure help. I stay away form the what can I get for 150 dollar threads.

the fury is a 765 and has a split handle. I hate split handles and you would have to move up the the sierra series in a 766 to get a full handle. They both have a 2oz upper limit. I cannot discuss either as I have not fished them.

I don't do any flipping but I do pitch and punch a lot and I like the dobyns dx 795. It is powerful and I give them the gusto and just rip them out of cover. I fish out of a yak so if there in the thick of it, I end up cranking the yak to the fish with them pinned under the mat. I love the length makes for easy pitches. I don't normally use over an ounce weight which means my total is around 1.5 with bait and hook.

There is one major factor to consider when choosing a spinning reel IMO. Are you going to fish a lot of strait fluorocarbon. The arbor size on the 2500/3000 sized reels makes dealing with fluorocarbon much easier. If your in the braid camp like most of us then weight of the reel and matching up your drag needs seem to be the most important. I like 2000 sized reels because they weigh less, still have a good drag, and I can find great deals on 2000's. I picked up a NIB 2000 certate for $210 and I would never even dream of finding that reel in a 2500 for that price. Going casting on super light baits can be done but it is way more expensive to accomplish the same goal. The alphas air, pixy, and any of the sol/alphas with the aftermarket zonda spool can cast very light weights, but the cost for entry is easily over 300 just for the reel. For practical fishing the spinning reel is the right choice less than 1/4oz. http://tackletrap.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=3438

Any place in the area you would recommend for a rod repair???

Well i would go the the shimano . Now that we have covered the one of two choices might you check out something like a certate 2004 or one of the JDM specialty reels. They have shallow spools and are designed just for things like dropshot. Here is one i am looking at right now... http://www.ebay.com/itm/381938308204?_trksid=p2060353.m1438.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT The high end shimano and daiwa's are going to last a long time.

I am going to go out on a limb here and say hire a guide. You have some of the best fishermen in the country right in your area. They will teach you where to fish the techniques that work and put you on some nice fish. Some guides will focus on areas that you want/need to improve on. I have always wanted to hire Mat Allen for a month to cruise around and nail a ten pounder. On another note the website tacticalbassen.com is great to learn on and they fish the lakes and delta in your area. I have no connection to them other than the hundreds of hours i spend watching his video's.

So i have been searching for a decent shop to have a guide repaired at and found a place called gator browns bait and tackle on Summer. I plan on stopping by soon to see the shop and feel it out. Anyone ever been here or have had a repair done there???

I use blue painters tape so i dont leave any glue or sticky on the spool. With all the money i have spent i just fill up the entire spool with braid and call it a day.

I use small hooks because i think it helps keep the action of the bait more lively and helps slow the sink rate. On a standard 5" worm i use a 2/0 ewg gammy. The wire size goes up a lot from 2/0 to 3/0 in most manufactures lineups. i dont have a ton of hooks 2/0 and 4/0 ewg worm hooks 2/0 and 4/0 round bend strait shank and the same sizes in flipping hooks is about all the plastics other than drop shot which i use #2 and 1/0 alot. If your not punching than thats 6 packs that will do almost anything.

those above are great i use them but i also use a baby brush hawg a lot. It caught me more bass in Washington state than all others combined. The only other bait was a 4" dean Rojas cane thumper worm in watermelon red flake. Clear water was tough to learn but i found distance was my friend. The longer casts always worked better.

So to refresh you are not controlling the fish they are taking you for a ride. If you get a big one near a tree your going to have a fun time getting all rapped up and pulled into the tree. Open water fish are fine but close quarters in heavy vegetation sucks.

For me the most critical setting when learning from nothing was setting the spool tension to stop as soon as a bait touched the ground. This will hinder your casts a lot and your distance will suck but I spent days in my front yard practicing before I ever hit the water. This will prevent a lot of blow-ups in the beginning and make the learning curve a lot less painful. The second most important thing is to realize that the settings for pitching is almost wide open and will not be good if you cast when new with all the brakes and tension turned down.

The two current video's on tacticalbassen.com talk about their favorite rods and why they choose them, along with which reel they pair them up with. I am an enthusiast so I recommend gear that some would never dream of. I like those setups that cannot be beat, or are unique. I will give you my thoughts and you can go from there. Jig rod-St Croix legend Elite 7'MHF paired with a Daiwa steez bait caster. I use 15 lb p-line 100% fluorocarbon on this. Cranking rod, Dobyns champion 764 RM paired with a Daiwa zillion HLC on 10 or 12 lb YHB. Dropshot-Dobyns DX 702s with a 2000 Daiwa certate 15lb suffix performance braid with leader. jerkbait/squarebill rattle trap rod ST Croix avid casting 66mf daiwa alphas with 10lb YHB Frog/ swim jig/ punching/ Daiwa Steez xbd or MB xxx perfect pitch with daiwa zillion 7.9 jdream and 65lb suffix performance braid. I think with these 5 setups you can do almost anything you could ever want to do. Alternatives: You could switch the avid c66mf with the 7 foot medium but I don't know how well you would do with a 7' jerkbait stick. You may want a little more power on the spinning rod and want a st Croix legend elite 610 mxf or mlxf. You may want a cranking rod that will cast the Norman dd22 and the large magnum cranks in which case the rm 805 might work better for you. You may want a longer rod for punching or swim jigs so a Dobyns dx 795 might be a better choice.

You are now dealing with pure fishing the same people who own just about everything including ugly sticks. I have a Fenwick Elite tech bass that the reel seat threaded area came free from the blank. It is obviously a defect as I cannot do anything to the rod to make that happen. I chose to get some rod epoxy and glue it back on myself. The msrp on my rod was 150 and if I had to spend 40 dollars to ship it in, and another shipping cost the other way I could just buy a new rod for a few dollars more. Is this a principal thing or are you in love with that rod. Value of a deal can only be determined by you, but the cost to replace the rod is a major part of my decision point. I fixed my own and if you can do the repair it may be a good learning experience. I wish you all the best and hope your decision brings you satisfaction.

If your looking for a little bit nicer reel and money is not tight I would also recommend an original zillion. They are tough as they come and would also make an excellent frogging reel.

As always i recommend finding a daiwa advantage 153 htsa or htsl. This was the reel i learned on and had great reviews from TT. I still use mine for frogging its a battle ship. The cast control is easy and works well and the handles are ready for the bearing upgrade. The only minus is its a little heavy.

I use an older lamiglas excel 735 and like it. The dobyns champion 735 has a ton of followers. I am still looking at the steex xbd rod for a decent price. My final recommendation would be the MB perfect pitch.

i use 20 because I get it in bulk for my small casters like the alphas. I use a leader of 10 lb fluorocarbon and it works great for me.

The chances of breaking a rod in a yak biased on drag is very low. I dont think you could have a problem unless your anchored and even a slim chance on that. Where you will get into trouble is high sticking wile landing the fish, or if the fish runs under your yak and you dont keep the rod level. The other time would be lifting a fish into the boat but that is not normally a yak problem as we sit mostly. If you get into a decent size pike or musky be prepared to take a ride because even a 3lb bass will tow me around. Yaks are a great way to fish and they provide some inherent advantages, but controlling a large fish is not one of them. I think you would do well with 30 or 40 lb braid. The choice is going to vary as casting large one ounce spoons and get a backlash and the spoon will test your line and knots to the limits. I love 40 because it does not dig in as much but i also cast a lot further with 30. Are you going to run a steel leader or like 80lb flouro leader???

You do realize I linked the info from the daiwa site in my post. It's in the sw secton.