FloridaFishinFool

I think that is the real deal case. It is a case of us not knowing and having to go find them because I am not so sure that the bass I am after are staying in one place or staying in place. A few of the big ones down deep may find one spot they like to hang out at, but for smaller bass I tend to think they move around a lot more than we may think they do. If you watch this old Glen Lau underwater film, he shows most bass are indeed moving around while some do find places to hang out like under docks. But even those will have to move out of there to go find food sources. So I tend to think all bass roam a lot of the time, and only hang out some of the time. The bass in following video are roaming back and forth in an area, and it seems like they are looking for food sources as they roam. The bass seen here seem to be in a competition for food mode which is evident from how they go for the lure as one tries to get to it first to prevent any others from getting it before they do. This is feeding competition, and the roaming is behind this behavior. I no longer use any fish finding electronics. No sonar. I just wing it now every time and honestly I enjoy it more this way. If I catch, then fine. If not, that is also fine. I don't have to catch every time. I think the mystery of the bass fishing journey is the hunt for them and then trying to catch them. I am always keeping an eye out for bass feeding activity and then make adjustments for them and cast to actively feeding fish when I see it. So Swamp Girl, you are not alone. I'd bet most of us don't really know where they are ahead of time, and we spend some of our time getting onto the water looking for them whether we have all the electronics or not. Lately I have been traveling to new waters, lakes I've never been on before and so it is even more of a challenge in learning new lakes and which areas of these new lakes are most productive. One lake I was on recently we did not find the best spot on the lake until right at sundown and then we had to leave. We may go back to that same lake today and this time we may start on that area we finished up on last time just trying to kind of reverse fish it hoping the fish will cooperate with us. We shall see. I plan on doing a little online research ahead of time and see if it can help us figure them out, and put a few more fish in the boat. I think one of the issues we may face today are two different fishermen wanting to try different techniques which pull us in different directions. For example, I tend to want to work heavy cover near shore, and my co-angler has been on this "fall" kick for using a 4 or 5 inch golden shiner colored jerkbait needing clear water to cast in. He has done well with it on specific days like one day he caught 8 on same jerkbait, but on other days he does not get a bite on it. I think we here in Florida are now experiencing bass lockjaw when a cold front moves through. Its a repeating cycle for us in Florida. I can never get my timing right for the feeding frenzy just ahead of the cold fronts, and then when they shut down I sure get that right. But we are on a warming trend now and they should be biting again- I hope. So point is, today I am right there with ya. All new water. Cold front passed by 2 days ago. So just gonna go wing it and hope the fish cooperate some. No idea where they will be, but will try and just pay attention to what I see and try and react to it is about the best we can do sometimes. For the guys with electronics, I'd bet they would be leaning heavily on it to help them find the fish. I'm gonna do it the old fashioned way. Hide and seek. Its the journey. Not the destination. Catching is just icing on the cake.

Curious if you put any grease on the drag star threads? That might help to smooth out its turning. I have also wondered about those belleville washers, but wondered if maybe the steel they use today to make them is not as good as the steel used to make them 40 years ago? Let us know how it turns out.

Exactly right! For bass fishing rods this is not such a big deal, but as stated on large game fish it can be a problem. Here in Florida I have seen some custom rods built that do not even include any transition guides. On those really heavy jigging rods, on some of them the line leaves the reel and shoots past the blank right straight into the 180's on underside. What they did was turn the first one or two of those 180's to the side of the incoming line and called it a day. Now they can take the heavy loads and have no guides to side load at all or break off the rod- which is why rules #2 & 3 were created to try and prevent. I'm working with a rod builder in the NW now who is making spiral wrapped rods for steelhead and large salmon and saltwater use as well. So this is an issue that comes up a lot. Another good reason to build rods based on a loaded state versus static. This harsh reality has forced change upon the rods and rod builders for sure.

I'll second this suggestion. I also use mineral spirits, but in a well ventilated location and use latex gloves just to keep it off my hands, but it does work very well on most reels. On occasion if there was some harder tougher grease to clean I might use regular gasoline to simply accelerate the dissolving process, but this is very rare. Also used in well ventilated area and use of gloves to protect skin. I never use acetone. Just don't like the stuff and bulldog's advice is well taken for what it can do. It can be a dangerous chemical and best just not to play around with that stuff if it can be avoided with other less harmful chemicals. (If there is such a thing)

To clarify that point about 'all agreed' on the rules... what I meant was that when these rules were being formulated, the group of custom rod builders, I think today they are referred to as "the guild" or back in the day I think called rodcrafters organization. It was that group of custom rod builders who organized some type of custom rod convention calling together a large group of top custom rod builders of the day together at like a 3 day convention somewhere up north as I recall. And it was during that convention that the custom rod builders who had gathered are behind the creation of this set of rules, and it was agreed on by all those present, and once passed unanimous agreement, this set of rules were moved forward into a published book that I gained access to when I worked for Terri Cheatham at her rod and reel shop in central Florida. I did not mean to infer that all custom rod builders in all corners of the earth were in unanimous agreement on this set of rules. Only those present at the convention is the point I'd like to clarify. I do agree some deviations from them may not be noticeable in real life performance, but for those of us who seriously pursue the greatest performance we can get from the materials at hand, for those of us deviations follow into use as nagging thoughts of what could I have done better? And quite often those rods are taken back into the shop and redone so those types of thoughts don't follow that rod around into use each time. But for the average Joe out there who does not build custom rods, those slight deviations may never even be noticed. So its a matter of perspective for sure. I read comments on various sites where some people say they love their simple spirals. Definitely a matter of perspective.

My worst experience of bad sites happened on Cumberland Island, Georgia back in the late 1970's when I was a teenage boy scout going on a camping trip with my troop. Back then the land was all private. Today it is a national forest. We went to this location because one of our troop's scout leaders was a Dr. Hilliard I think his name was who instituted the golfing merit badge into the boy scouts organization. He and his family had land and a house on Cumberland Island near the old Carnegie Dungeness burned down mansion on Southern end of the island. We set up camp as normal and had no issues until late in the night past midnight. It was raining and dark. We boy scouts were beginning to get miserable as we tried to sleep in the pouring rain. And somewhere in those darkest hours of the night we started hearing noises in the woods. Loud branches breaking all around us. It scared us. We did not know what it was and hoped maybe it was some of the wild horses roaming the island. But whatever it was came into our camp and all heck broke loose. Scouts and troop leaders were out of their tents almost in a panic. Well OK, some were panicking. It turned out to be a large family of wild pigs foraging around our campsite, and then moved into our campsite making all sorts of noises scaring the heck out of us boys and even our troop leaders. Some of those hogs were quite large and very dangerous. Troop leaders rounded us scouts up and marched us out of those woods then and there a short distance of maybe a mile to the house of Dr. Hilliard where we finished out the night "camping" inside the house. I tell ya it can be very unsettling to be deep in dense woods in dead of night when the woods come alive with the sounds of heavy animals breaking branches like twigs all around the campsite. Your worst fears come alive. Troop leaders got us out of there to hopefully prevent any scouts from being attacked by large wild hogs. Their tusks can cut you to pieces quickly. I wish I could see an over view video of what happened in that campsite on that night. I bet it looked hilarious even though it was a serious event. Scouts and leaders running around like chickens with their heads chopped off, and wild pigs scurrying around and in the campsite. It was a mad scene at first. Fear running rampant for sure. The rain definitely did not help. And the fact our campsite did not have any lighting of any kind so it was pitch black darkness as this all unfolded. I think all of us scouts were very pleased to wake up to sunshine inside a safe warm house on that morning. And I don't think our troop ever went there again.

" Well the only thing I can say would be to post the published rules of custom rod building as Don Morton and others all agreed on and then published: 1. The line should run as straight as possible from the reel to the tip of the rod. 2. The line should form as small of an angle as possible with each guide. 3. The line should touch only the top or bottom of the guides in any fishing position. 4. The line should pass through the guides with no line chatter or vibration. 5. The line should not touch or pass the rod in any fishing position, casting or retrieving. 6. The rod should be balanced. 7. The rod should be stable in all fishing positions. 8. The rod should track in all fishing positions without experiencing torque or twisting. I would say that the first 3 rules are quite clear. It might be overrated to some, but do ALL of us want to create custom rods built for optimal performance is the question? I followed these rules explicitly for the creation of my Cagey Hook Wrapping method. The photos show my results do align perfectly to the published rules on this subject. If people out there choose to ignore these rules is AOK, and their choice for sure. Thanks to Don Morton, Terri Cheatham, And Pat VinZant and numerous other well known custom rod builders for their work in creating these now published rules for all custom rod building. I'd also add the reels are ignored because we can't do anything about those. It is what it is, and we have to make the best of the materials we have to work with. The CHW method maximized this to reach the best case scenario with the available materials while trying to follow the published rules. It took some time, but the results were worth the wait! There is nothing quite like the hookup with a fish knowing as your rod loads up, the transition guides are moving into their most ideal alignment making reeling in the fish easier to do with less line flow friction than one would experience from rods with all guides on the top of the blank. Here is one comment from someone who wrote about their first experience with a custom rod in his hands following the rule book: "But the one thing I had become accustom too was the torque generated when setting the hook, and these were serious try to remove their jaw hook sets, no braid then. The absolute second I set the hook with Kent's spiraled rod, I was in shock. Where was the twist, where was the reposition the reel in my hand moment? Kent is not paying me enough to embellish on the moment of truth hook set, I'm just sharing my experience. I've since caught bass on crank baits and experienced the same very smooth transition from fish to landing. I've since stripped two rods and plan on more." It is a very smooth transition because the guide alignment is done to a loaded rod. Not a static rod. Huge difference in how it performs and the magic moment the spiral wrap comes alive is as soon as the hook is set in a fish. That is when the spiral wrap comes alive to deliver its best for us. Its a great feeling too. The hookset and reeling in the fish are what spiral wraps are all about! BTW, the rods he said he stripped down were recommended simple spirals that he did not like. I don't like them either. The simple spiral clearly does not follow the published rules because the simple spiral does have angular bends in the line going through transition guides. No way to really straighten it out on a simple spiral. Shame that idea was ever invented in the first place because to me custom rod building is all about improving performance. The rules were created over a number of years and then agreed on at a convention of custom rod building before they were published. I did not make them up. I just followed them. But each rod builder can choose what to do for themselves. But if a person has to hire someone to make a custom rod for them, make sure you find out if your rod builder is going to follow the published rules or, do their own thing outside of the rules. In custom rod building today we see two sides- 1)100% pure performance driven rod builders, and 2)rod artists. These two camps do not mix together very well as the art side has kind of taken over and the performance builders break away from the art side completely and abandon it. Guys who build performance rods don't much care about color matching, pretty shiny threads all over the blanks slathered in gobs of epoxy, and thread wraps extending beyond the guide foot, and snakeskin, and feathers on rods. That type of discussion is what performance rod builders run from. True performance rod builders are minimalists by Nature. Do only what it takes to make the tool to get the job done. Not one thread wrap more. No pretty art. A complete divide is where custom rod building is at today. The industry mixes us all together, but the performance rod builders separate themselves back out of it and have been for years. Science versus art. Not a good combo. I'm on the performance rod building side 100%. I got no use for rod art. But as stated, to each their own! A lot of rod builders like to think they are doing both at the same time in building an art piece rod they also consider as having improved performance. We are all free to go in any direction we so choose regardless of the results or outcome.

Clear cut evidence of bigfoot! Ha!

Are you asking about the ones holding the hooks onto the lure?

I have used stradics almost exclusively for nearly 30 years and not a one of mine have ever bound up or stopped working from water. This is first I have heard this is supposed to be an issue with them. I can see it happening when the old black friction ring begins to turn to goo from chemical breakdown, but not because of water. The new blue friction rings are made of silicone rubber and work great and don't turn to goo if wrong lubricant is used on reel. Petroleum and solvents may behind the old black rubber friction rings turning to sticky goo. Some people just remove the friction rings all together and never even miss them. I have a few reels without them. I don't miss them either. I recently purchased another used stradic 4000FG from 1991-1992 era still with its original friction ring intact- and I left it in there. Still as smooth to use as when new. Great reels. I presently have around 20 of them. And a few symtere stradic wannabes- only certain models in the FH series. Great reels! I've never experienced this locking up situation at all.

That looks like my neighbor! I mean just like him too!

Same here Bazoo. News to me. So I asked AI "does doyo make reels in China?" And this is the AI response: "No, Doyo Engineering Co. Ltd. does not have manufacturing plants in China; it is a South Korean company that manufactures fishing reels for various brands, including those sold in China. While Doyo's facilities are in South Korea, it is possible that some reels sold by Doyo's partners, such as some models from Penn or Orvis, are made in China" So for me, if a Bass Pro reel says Korea on the bottom of it, then it is a doyo as far as I know. But if it does not say Korea on the bottom of the reel then I have always thought it was not a doyo and possibly made in China. This has been important to me because it is the dividing line between Bass Pro reels I will buy and those I won't.

Hard casting won't slow them down. That is when they excel. The true advantage of going full ceramic is that they weigh just under half of what steel bearings weigh, so you can get spool startup sooner and with less weight. So you can cast slightly lighter lures when going full ceramic. I've been using them for more than 10 years on all my spools and love them. I like the whine they make and I use it to help judge casting. I run them dry, and clean them once a season or as needed with denatured alcohol to not leave behind any residue. Let us know how you like them.

Very true. I now have over 50 of them and more in the making. Been making them for more than 30 years. Its not just the torque or twisting issue, but also reducing line flow resistance to reeling in a fish. Some guide designs are straighter than others. And one actually lines up the guides as the rod loads up further straightening line flow under load making reeling in a fish easier. With guides all on top, when rod is under load not only does the rod want to twist, but the line flows down along side the blank between the guides increasing line flow resistance in each location with the total line flow resistance increasing accumulatively because of this: A well done spiral wrap can eliminate rod twisting under load and decrease line flow resistance to reeling in a fish by having the guides in transition area line up as rod loads up. Line is ruler straight under 90 degree load. No angular bends in line through transition guides, and line must flow at top center or bottom center of the guides. No side loading should be seen.. This next rod is by the book. The standard approach is put guides on a blank in static position and don't take into account rod under load. A new approach is to adjust guides on blank for line flow in the loaded state. Let the unique bend of each rod show where and how the spiral wrapped guides should be placed. The way to check each spiral wrapped rod is to load it up and then look at line flow through all the guides -only when loaded. That is when one will see the differences between different build approaches. Most builders want to get around the blank as soon as line comes out of the reel. This is wrapping the thickest part of the blank where the spiral guide design description came from. If one let's the rod's bend show where to place the transition it changes on each rod due to bend differences. This next one was built by a Texas rod builder. Notice as rod loads up, look at the line flow through transition guides when under load. Angular bends in line flow are obvious. The following rod has now been "fixed" and using 1 or 2 fewer guides as well, and line flow straightened out. These 2 rods are examples of what happens when guides are placed on a blank in the static position. Notice as rod loads up, now the angular bends in line flow appear, and on this next rod found in a magazine loaded to only the 45 to 50 degree position, notice the line flow in stripper guide is now already riding up the side of the guide 90 degrees up the right side presenting side loading to that guide and next one out, and angular bend in the line flowing through it? Well done spiral wrapped rods avoid this: When guides are on blank according to its own unique bend, line flow through transition guides should be ruler straighter going into 180's on underside with no side loading and no angular bends and flow at top dead center of guide or bottom center of guide. This is best case scenario when it comes to reeling in a fish seeking reduced line flow resistance through all the guides as much as is physically possible. On an extremely fast MHX blank the transition takes place further out towards the tip of the rod rather than just in front of the reel. Let the rod under load show where guides should be placed. This rod below is a St Croix rod redone in spiral wrap. On each rod the guides are placed according to each blank's unique bend characteristics for optimal line management performance. Line flow under load is ruler straight through transition going into 180's. Best case scenario for this type of rod use. All spiral wrapped rods can be tested for line flow straightness using standard 90 degree loading and by observing line flow through each guide under this degree of loading. It would be interesting to see photos of other spiral wrapped rods and their line flow when under load only. This is where and when the two approaches to building spiral wrapped rods becomes readily visible. Due to advancing techniques, I have had to go back to rods I did years ago and bring them up to date. My newest rods have reached best case scenario, but my early rods show the old approach and have to be updated.

Very sorry to hear of the terminal diagnosis. God bless you MN Fisher!

I posted some sad emoji's above because I wish all of you could fish year round. It is sad to me that some of you have to take about 6 months off from fishing and possibly experience cabin fever. I wish it were otherwise for each of you. I can see now why Swamp Girl, MN Fisher, Joe and others have to do a lot more fishing in the 6 months you do have to fish. It makes more sense to do it while you can. I guess a lot of you may use the 5 or 6 months of winter to prepare for the next fishing season? For me here in Florida my down time is primarily when the long duration rains come like slow moving tropical storms and sometimes hurricanes, and our normal summertime afternoon rains- because we can fish through winter. Quite often some of our best fishing days in saltwater are our coldest days usually in mid to upper 30's and 40's. We don't see too many days of freezing temps. So its not the cold that stops us from fishing. Primarily rain, wind and lightning keeps us off the water. The nice thing about colder weather fishing in Florida is that the alligators leave us alone. We only have to worry about them in warm weather. The cold makes them lethargic and they don't want to move much. Its called brumation for them. Kind of like hibernation as their body metabolism slows down to survive the cold. In places like North Carolina where the water can freeze over the gator has to keep his body under the water to keep his body temperature up high enough to stay alive, and as the ice forms over the water they have to stick only their nose out far enough to breathe, and they can stay this way for weeks or months until it warms up. It makes them vulnerable to other animals though. This guy won't be fishing until April too! If he survives the cold. So what do you do when you can't fish for 5 or 6 months?

For live golden shiner fishing, and sometimes the smaller round reels for rat'l traps and spinners. More or less a novelty item more so than any type of necessity. Some just like the nostalgic effect of them. I guess I am one of them.

I have been using a Fenwick HMG Inshore HMGIN70ML-FS and I love it. Great light rod. Very crisp and clean response from it. No complaints so far. Nothing but praise really. I paired it up with a Florida Fishing Products Osprey 2500 reel and its a smooth, great setup I use for bass fishing. I have not tried the other Fenwick lines of rods, only the HMG Inshore line so far, and I would recommend it from their current rods.

Peeking inside is not the issue! People can take them apart just fine. Its the putting them back together again that's the fun part! I am sure I can speak for some others on here in that we will all enjoy your threads on when you get started on some reels! They do come part pretty easy... but... sometimes its the putting them back together where things can get sticky! Post photos! I gotta toyota 4runner. Learned from experience to only let toyota work on it. Heck, even changing the oil these days is a nightmare. My old 4runner all I had to do was pop the hood and the filter was right there. Easy access. My new one is under the motor and behind a steel plate. I think they did that on purpose. Still one of the best vehicles I've ever owned. More miles with less maintenance and repairs than any other. On my 3rd one and looking for #4.

Yeah Joe, we all appreciate you and all your posts! We should be thanking you!

And choose lubricants wisely! I just rebuilt a Shimano Symetre 4000FI last night that had a synthetic blend grease used in it that dried up some and turned to honey like glue making the reel stiff and hard to operate. I also would not recommend using acetone. It is quite strong and can damage plastics and reel finish. I don't know what others use, but I have done well with plain old mineral spirits for cleaning parts and bearings. Rarely have I needed harsher solvents. Rebuilding your own reels successfully is a rewarding feeling after each fish you catch!

Glad you had a great year Joe! Florida would like to see you back down this way again one day! One day I will have to tell you my Iowa story. You'd get a laugh out of it. Thanks for posting this as I need to lean on jigs more heavily. I have been slacking on them preferring another type of fishing that seems to take up most of my time and efforts. I recall fishing with a buddy earlier this year as we approached a dock I tossed under it first and got a hit but missed the fish and I moved on past it to the shoreline because I knew my backseat co-angler loved docks so I let him have it. he came in right behind me on that dock with a jig and he pulled 3 of them out there almost back to back. So its a lesson I need to take heed on! Jigs work! And I need to slow it down some and work docks more. But I will say this... even though he was catching them under the dock, on that day he lost at least 2 pricey jigs. Docks can eat up lures. Good to hear you caught yourself a new PB!

Yes, but no where near as fun or rewarding!

The fire chief who rescued the pilot has been publicly named as Carlos Aviles. He is also the city of St. Augustine's emergency response manager as well as a fire chief battalion. On the morning of the plane crash he was driving nearby and witnessed the plane going down. He along with a sheriff who also witnessed the plane going down arrived on the scene before other first responders could arrive on the scene. Two men alone on the scene without backup. The pilot was trying to exit the plane as it was quickly sinking. Fire Chief Carlos Aviles did not wait for backup help to arrive. The injured pilot was in danger of drowning. The entire plane sunk out of sight leaving only a wing tip above water. Time was critical. Without wasting any time and risking his own life he took it upon himself to act immediately and commandeered a kayak in unknown condition from a next door dock and used it to paddle out to rescue the injured pilot. He was able to help her exit the sinking plane and climb onto the kayak and safely bring her to shore. This man is a certified hero who risked his life without hesitation to save another life. https://www.citystaug.com/directory.aspx?EID=29

An interesting tidbit of information about using these beads is to be found in the comments under the video I posted above: "As a gas turbine mechanic, part of my job was spin balancing rotating equipment. One of the things they taught us was that there is a “high spot”, and a “low spot”. The high spot is the part that is thrown furthest out from the center of rotation at low speed. When it reaches critical speed, the high and low spots reverse. The governors on our turbines were set to more rapidly accelerate across this speed because it is the resonant speed of the rotor." This is interesting because it tells me that as I increase my speed, for these beads to properly flow out and achieve the desired balancing effect, that they use computer programming to accelerate the rotational speed ACROSS the resonant speed. They do not want the turbine rotors to remain in that resonant speed for very long, in fact, for as short of time period as is possible. So this translates to us drivers on the roads to also do the same. Achieving highway speeds as quickly as possible is best case scenario. Slowly accelerating across the resonant speed is less desirable. No problem for me as I am a lead foot anyways! 😁 Here is the rest of his comment under video: "The usual method of balancing was to plot the orbit of the rotor shaft up past critical speed. Then we would put in a test weight to plot the difference. Using that data we could plot a vector to tell us where and how much weight to put in to balance the rotor. One tech got his vector 180 degrees out (easy to do), and launched the rotor about 20 yards. A couple of years later we were issued vibration analysis computers that stopped this kind of error by doing all the math for you. I doubt many techs today could still do the math. My brother, who was an astronomer saw some of my plots and asked when I learned orbital mechanics. Apparently they are the same thing." Who would have thought astronomy can solve tire balancing! This bead idea is an interesting one and I will surely give it a try since I experience some trailer vibrations, and my tires may also be too small to balance the normal way. I appreciate threads like this one very much! So thanks!