FloridaFishinFool

I just checked in the Bantam bible and wouldn't you know it but when Phil photographed your particular reel he did not turn it in such a way as to show very clearly that hood. Its barely visible. Most of his photos were side shots and angled side shots trying to show most of the reel. Here is the page for your reel: And oddly enough do you see my page marker at the top of the page? I sold to Phil White one of my personal lefty reels. So on the following page after your reel is one of my old reels. Kind of weird photographing my reel out of some old book. But I do believe it is the same hood as yours and is more visible on my old reel page in the book: This should be the correct hood and same as your 2200 reel part:

Wow! That old NAVY base was right down the street. Lots of crashed jets in this area from that base! Cecil is gone now. Turned into residential neighborhoods because everyone got tired of all the jet engine noise flying overhead under 1000 feet. Your comment reflects my whole perspective on plastic reels. And plastic IN reels today. I completely agree with you 100%. Kind of funny reducing weight is same thing. I LIKE my heavy reels. Shimano, can you please make heavy reels again? We need 3D printers that can machine metal so we can duplicate plastic parts and install quality back into reels piece by piece if we have to. I've already done it once on a Bass Pro reel that had a plastic part that kept failing. I took it to a local machine shop and had a metal part made out of aluminum. Problem solved.

Cool! So he is still alive and posting. Good to hear! So maybe the book is still available? I'll edit that part of my comment to reflect this. I had always hoped for a part 2 to that book that would have moved into the Curados full line. He did touch on them though the very early models.

Now you're talkin' my language! Been missing since 1998-ish? Seriously? That IS a long time. So let's see if we can get you fixed up. Here is one on ebay that may fit, but not sure if the graphics are the same. https://www.ebay.com/itm/226944308543 I'll PM you if this is not the right graphics for your reel. I'll refer to the Bantam bible and see. But I need to see the other side of the reel for its model number so I can find the right part. I did get into showcase display reels only once in my lifetime when I was contacted by author Phil White through ebay when he was doing his research for his incredible book called "Shimano Bantams - The First 15 Years." Back then I was doing the same thing I do now. Fix reels. Phil needed display reels to photograph for his book. So I sold to Phil White somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 reels or more right off my workbench that he used for showcase display examples photographed within the book. It was an honor and a privilege that he would include my work into his historic publication! I am forever grateful to him. Just found out Phil White is still alive and posting online! So maybe this book IS still available? I don't know. Bulldog posted a link below where Phil can be found posting today.

I think I am being misunderstood. I was a repair tech for the vast majority of people in the world who do not take good care of their tackle and need service techs to keep them up and running. My description you quoted "I much prefer reels ground to a halt filled with dirt, sand, crabs, fish, seaweed, and rusted to a halt. I want a challenge." is NOT about my rods and reels. That description is for those brought into the shop by average Joe's out there who do not take good care of their tackle. I surely do not treat my tackle poorly. I have rods near 50 years old like new. I take care of my personal tackle but not to the same degree you might. My rod collection is valued somewhere between $10 to $15K. Rare rods in there. Some I don't even use because I have so many I don't want to abuse one of a kind rods that really should be in a museum somewhere like those I have hand made by Dick Kantner a now deceased CIA spy who flew the BlackBird plane for a career and started his own carbon fiber composites company that made airplane parts and fishing rods. He carried his secret to his grave so his rods are one of a kind and will never come again. Does anyone on this forum have any Dick Kantner rods? I doubt it. Extremely rare. I am not about to abuse my rods. Now reels do get a little bumped and banged up but so what? Its a tool. Its replaceable. Not going to worry about it. I am not one of those people who park on the far end of the parking lot to avoid my car being bumped by others. Don't think I abuse my tackle. I surely do not. But I also don't worry about bumps, bangs, scratches that happen. Rods and reels get dropped and accidents happen. But I do take care of my tackle. Just tools to me.

Stunning beauty Bulldog! You maintain at the highest level I've ever seen. Don't think anyone can keep up with you on this! Not a speck of dirt anywhere and not even a scratch! I bet its a great joy using tackle like that. For me, what I enjoy is taking a lifeless dead old reel that should be in the trash and giving it a whole new life and many more years of fishing enjoyment. Nothing better in my hands than some beat up old reel reeling them in once again! One day you should post one photo of your entire collection so we can all get a better idea of the extent of what you do!

You will never see me in the "unreelistic" show and tell thread. To me rods and reels are nothing more than tools same as a hammer or screwdriver. Tools I use and beat up. I like it that way. As a reel tech in a rod and reel repair shop we never saw show and tell reels because the people who have them do their own work. No, what I and the shop always saw was the reels coming from the vast majority of people who love to fish, but do not work on their own tackle. I was paid to fix and repair everyone else's problems on a daily basis. NOT turn any of them into display showcase reels. That's not me. That's not what I do. A thread like this one (for my part) is designed to be informative towards that vast majority side of people out there in the reel world who may want to try their hand at working on their own reels. A thread like this one and the maintenance thread found elsewhere can provide a lot of good information for those people. I come from the working class and I feed back into that working class. While I really enjoy seeing the beautiful reels and work everyone does, it is just not for me. And more than likely not for the vast majority of people out there in the "reel" world. Those of you who are into display showcase quality reels, don't get me wrong, what you do is fantastic. Its beautiful to behold like that red and black millionaire above is just stunning. But I am not here for that. I could really care less about display reels. I much prefer reels ground to a halt filled with dirt, sand, crabs, fish, seaweed, and rusted to a halt that some say I should just throw away- their opinion, not mine. I want a challenge. Not just being a parts swapper on mostly already like new reels that don't need repairs. whoopie. I want to bring old dead reels back to life and hand it to some kid who can't afford a decent reel. Here kid. Go catch fish with this. Let's see a smile on that face! That's what its all about. When I worked at the rod and reel shop all of us who worked there donated our time and money and efforts to kid charity events to give them rods and reels for free. We spend our time and money repairing them just so we can see a smile on some kids face. And that is where my focus is. In the last 10 minutes I have just purchased yet another reel dirt cheap for less than $20 that will be given to a child to hopefully get some fishing enjoyment out of it. I am service oriented. Not driven to showcase display level. I simply cannot go there. So in this thread what you will see from me is repairs. Overhauls. Bringing the dead back to life. I could care less about it being pretty or shaved 3 ounces off its weight. That is not what it is all about to me and never will be. But for those who are into that its great! Keep it up. We all love to see showcase display quality reels and all that it takes to create them and maintain them, but you gotta realize that is NOT for the vast majority of us out here. Just good reel entertainment is all it is reely. 😁 I am trying to put out there average Joe repair information. Nothing more. Nothing less. Sharing of information so others can maybe learn a thing or two that might actually help THEM! That is my intent here.

Grumpy, I was influenced by Denny Brauer back in the 1980's and went with his design of flippin and pitchin stick which is a 7'6" heavy with fast tip, but still has a little bit of tip bend. I really don't think you need a broomstick like an EXTRA heavy rod for this. I think it all boils down to what is most comfortable to you. And what fits your fishing style. My boat I use today is too low to the water to use a 7'6" so I had to downsize for that reason as well. Don't listen to us! Listen to your body and fishing environment. Let that be your guide to the right size rod.

I've posted this one before... sometimes shedding weight is not always the best idea. It may work fine for people who can take good care of their reels and maintain them at the highest level, but in the REEL world of reel-ality 99.99% of people simply do not, and MOST cannot maintain their reels to this level, and so a gear like this pretty blue one is not realistic for the majority of people using this type of reel- in my opinion. This next image shows the "reel" world... and what shops all across the country "reely" see on an almost daily basis. And because of this real world problem, less plastic with this kind of torque involved would shred that pretty blue plastic gear just as fast- unless it were made of a much stronger plastic. And so the company who makes this type of reel had to go back to the drawing table and have their engineers come up with a quick fix solution to this shedding of weight problem going into too much plastic that just does not hold up. And this is what their engineers came up with as a replacement part. They had no choice but to put metal back into the reels- adding weight back in. Sometimes less is not always better. It might be for those who can maintain their reels to a high degree daily and even keep the cork on their rod handles looking like new with zero dirt which amazes me to see, but this is in no way representative of the vast majority of people who use these reels. Sometimes reels require metal in order to remain durable over the long term. And this is one of those cases. (In my opinion of course) As the lubrication wears out, and line guides gets jammed with dirt and debris and increases the amount of torque needed to move it is when those teeth on the smaller gear begin to feel the strain until they strip out and reel is toast. If it were my reel I would not reduce the structural integrity of a reel seeking less weight in all areas. This is one of those cases where I would be putting into my reel the "improved" replacement part. Just pointing this out. Less is not always better!

Mike Iaconellie would hold that fish up and run back and forth in his boat from bow to stern hollering "Its a GIANT! Its a GIANT!" He'd put that one in his live well for weigh in!

Swamp Girl, I think all those fish have been caught by you more than once! I think in your more than 1000 fish so far this year you have counted 1/3 of them 2 or 3 times because you caught them more than once! (kidding of course) They are wise to you now! Those fish KNOW you. They see you coming and they run in fear for their lives! Just don't fish for those that KNOW you! 😁 You gotta go out and meet new fish! I'm curious about if you change positioning from trip to trip, or do you follow a kind of set pattern in how and where you fish from the kayak? I was thinking maybe the fish have moved and some adjustment in location and positioning might find them?

I use corrosion X. I use the more liquid version in red can for things like bearings, AR bearings and coating parts with thin layer and in the boat on things like spraying my entire outboard motors, and boat electronics circuit boards and connectors. Water can't touch what this product is on. And I use their blue can which is basically the same thing but thicker more like a runny grease for more industrial applications and sometimes in reels as well. Its not cheap. A 16oz red spray can these days is close to $30. But it works well. They even make a product called reelX but I have never used it. It is more liquid than the red can, but I am happy with the red spray can. These are full synthetic high quality lubricants as well as military spec'd corrosion inhibitors. From their website: "CorrosionX is the only product readily available to the public that meets the U.S. Navy's tough new corrosion prevention and control performance requirement MIL-PRF-81309H."

I'll look up full report. On those Langley reels, you said they are used in casting competition so I am curious about the level wind line guide. Does it move along with the spool locked into it like the Abu round reels are? Or, is the level wind line guide stationary and free spooling during a cast? I'm curious about this because on the Abu's the extra drag from the line guide can really be a cast killer.

This is what Florida does to them: I dropped these on concrete thinking I was going to knock off some rust. Little did I know on one side of trailer 2 out of 4 leaf springs completely rusted to dust. I dropped these from about waste high. They shattered like glass. So I had 3 out of 8 leaf springs completely gone.

Why are they all not aligned with same polarity? I'm trying to wrap my head around this. That is some unbelievable modification work. Lots of work no doubt about it. Great tool skills too and machine work! For a minute there I thought you were going to whip out a bamboo pole to go with it! 😁

Nice work BullDog! Is that new reel or old reel? I don't think I have ever seen one of those before. First up from my workbench is an overhaul/repair of an original 1990's Shimano BaitRunner 6500. Schematic says 1991-1992 era. I purchased it at a pawn shop in a bundle deal and paid around $40 plus a rod. Its an old salty dog that actually still works as a reel, but the baitrunner portion was non-functioning due to the failure of one part damaged by saltwater intrusion inside the reel. And the baitrunner lever was also corroded needing replaced. This goes straight into a Shimano recommendation to NEVER Rinse off your reels after use, especially in saltwater. Shimano recommends using a dry cloth with some sort of polish like lemon pledge is always mentioned. When I worked in a reel repair shop I heard this same recommendation daily explained to customers who without fail rinsed their reels off. They always came in the front door saying "but I rinsed it off after each use!" We are sure you did. And that is in part why you are here now. The reason for this is because the water pressure from a hose can push water and salts deeper into reels leading to even more corrosion and faster premature failure of the reels. Even though parts are no longer made for this reel, there are still plenty of parts out there for these reels. I had no trouble sourcing what I needed. The first issues I ran across was some minor damage to the spool from saltwater corrosion under the line. This is actually quite common in Florida and easily avoidable. This spool is salvageable. Digging deeper into the spool and it appears the former owner never backed off his drag after use. Taking a look at the drag washers shows severe compression. The edges of this drag washer shows how it squeezed up and around the key washer it was cranked down so tight and left that way. This can lead to reduced drag ability in a reel. So the suggestion I would make is to ALWAYS back off your drag after each use. I do it religiously because of this right here. It kind of looks like a frisbee around the edges when it should be flat all the way across, and not so severely compressed. The center drag washer had this compressed raised edge going in both directions. I will try and reuse these for now and see how it pans out. I may replace them. Here is a minor issue of no real consequence, but is just one of the things I was taught along the way over the years. The key washers in a drag stack are not perfectly cut out. They are actually punched out, and this causes them to have a unique shape on the edges. If you use one side of the key washer you get X amount of surface area to contact the drag washer, but if you use the punch side, it actually has a slight bit more metal to make contact with drag washers leading to a miniscule X+ amount of drag friction increase. Honestly not enough to bother with for most people, but this is just one of those things I always do just because. Turned on its edge so you can see the size difference between the two sides of this top key washer. The left side has slightly more metal to make contact than the right side. I always look at them and just put the largest side to the drag washer and call it a day. This reel I have is the first earliest version of a baitrunner ever made. So it was made before the use of an anti-reverse bearing. This uses a ratchet system and it is supposed to be aligned straight across and centered when together, but I found this reel had been shimmed out with 3 shim washers that changed the AR alignment nearly 50% off center! I can't leave it that way so I removed the 3 shims to see where it moved to: And it centered right back up where it is supposed to be. Now that I know what the issue is, since I can't remove those shims or even move them to a different location on the pinion gear, when I get a couple new parts in the mail and go back into this reel I will adjust the other part to meet the shimmed out part. Another option here on this out of alignment AR would be to change the size of the rotor bearing which measured out to a 9x20x6mm bearing. So that's a IDxODxT measurement I could change to preferred 9x20x5.5mm if they made it. I would probably have to dial back to a 9x20x5mm and then just shim upwards with washers to get the alignment corrected. This reel also provides me with a 3rd option to adjust this AR alignment. I could machine down a part making it thinner, but I won't go there until a last resort. When putting a reel back together pay attention to wear patterns on parts. I found some wear on a cover plate on the rotor. I see where the black paint has been worn off in 4 places, and so upon reassembly, a little bit of grease on those spots would help reduce friction with the parts causing this wear. Another issue I brought up in the reel maintenance thread has to do with the bail itself. The first issue is that over time corrosion can lead to the bail wire becoming solidified to the bail holder. This prevents the necessary movement for the bail to self align. So when the bail is taken apart I use a penetrating oil to soak into the bail holder and I slowly begin to twist the bail wire back and forth gently breaking the bond and making it so the bail wire can now move freely and twist in the bail holder so as the reel is used this part can move freely leading to more efficient operation of the bail itself. Also do the same on the other end of bail wire and make sure the line guide roller holder also rotates freely on the bail wire. They should not be all one solid piece! It all works better when these three parts can freely move around within each other and self align during use. Quite often the bails get bent out of shape. When this happens it can bind up the bail arm and bail holder where they attach on the rotor acting as hinges. These two parts should be perfectly straight and with ZERO side pressure. But when a bail gets bent, it does put side pressure on the bail hinges that makes it more difficult to open and close properly. So as the reel goes back together pay close attention to this detail and don't just move it back into place and put the screw into it. Take the time to carefully bend the bail wire back so that it is properly aligned straight to each other before screwing it back in. Take a look how far off this Shimano baitrunner's bail was. It is almost an inch out of alignment. So I began carefully bending the bail... getting closer And now back to where it should be before screwing it all back together. Now the bail arm and holder will have NO side pressure causing any binding when opening and closing the bail. Swings in both directions cleanly and nicely now. And she's back in operation, but still not completed. I am now at a place where I can judge this reel and take notes of what to do next. Things like a new rotor bearing, shimming the AR properly so it is aligned perfectly straight again, and maybe some new drag washers, and I plan on beefing up the rear baitrunner drag mechanism as well. It is not as strong now as it should be. I will deal with all that down the road when the couple of new parts I ordered arrive. But now my 12 year old son will have a classic Shimano baitrunner to toss out some shrimp on. And this reel is now fully prepped with military grade corrosion inhibitor on all metal parts and will soon be ready for some big reds and snook. He might get another 35 years out of it!

Time for an open thread on all things reels! Anything goes! Post any repairs, upgrades, modifications, maintenance, & restorations you may have to share with everyone. Also feel free to post any comments, advice, suggestions, or questions that any and all can answer and reply to.

Motoboss I would not call this one a hijacking because the OP laid out a stand alone suggestion. He said if you have this, try that. End of story. Now if he asked a question and we went sideways that is another story. They could have locked this thread down after the OP posted his suggestion and not allow any comments and it still stands on its own. But if he asked a question and it was not answered fully and we went off in other directions, then I would agree that's a hijacking. Conversations are supposed to roll with the flow! Besides- he said " Just thought I'd throw this out there." And he did. And the rest of us were off and running. Can't hijack it when he tosses the ball out there for us to kick around! He wasn't looking for anything. So I think we are all good on this one! My .02 cents.

Good advice! This is why I changed the wiring to regular old household extension cords. Not only is the wire a larger gauge, but it also has thicker insulation on each wire, and has that external insulation covering over the internal wires, so more than double the insulation. Using this type of 3 conductor wire I can eliminate the ground connection at front of trailer where they usually just use a screw to attach the ground wire, and at rear of trailer each light is also grounded to trailer by a screw to each light. Those screw connections can corrode and fail over time. So using a standard 3 wire extension cord- a 50' cord- cut in half is 25 feet down each side of the trailer. Now I can connect up the ground wire from tow vehicle directly to the lights bypassing using the trailer for the ground connection to each light. Direct wiring. Works like a charm and I believe is more durable over the long run and does not turn the trailer into a ground potential for any positive wires to short out to. Nothing like finding out your lights don't work when those blue lights flip on behind you! Been there. Done that. How much does a 50' household extension cord cost? $15 to $20? Sure beats the price of a ticket! Good help is hard to find these days. I bet the bossman at trailer company told the blow torch guy to clean up that hole and maybe he just ignored it and set you up for this one! They don't make them like they used to! Help that is. Glad you got it fixed! Back to fishin'!

I agree common sense is a wonderful tool. And what it tells me is that any chemicals I smear all over my skin will not stay in place. I am going to sweat and rub my arm or something and the fish scaring chemicals are still there, and sweating down to my hands right where I don't want it to be. All through the fishing trip. I won't be able to keep it off my hands or off my lures all the time. You may be right about it washing off a crankbait, but what if a rubber lure absorbed it and it stayed with the lure for awhile, and one was wondering why the fish aren't biting today? What if the cork and foam on my rods absorb it and hurt my fishing now and down the road? I would just rather avoid it all together, and hope that qualifies as some common sense too. I'm not sure that 7 hours ahead of time is going to be an effective use of any chemicals. I just rather avoid them all together if I plan on fishing. And speaking of common sense, you mentioned how chemicals can kill ya and above cancer is mentioned. Is it common sense to be aware of and KNOW that certain chemicals can cause cancer and then for us fishermen to basically say we don't care & we are still going to use it anyways even if it kills us? Is that common sense? I see it right here on this forum in other chemical threads some real stubbornness about it. To me common sense tells me to avoid all chemicals at all times & if I can do so consciously, I will. I consider myself fortunate to have learned from my father who is deceased now. At age 55 he had open heart surgery, artificial heart valve installed, clogged arteries, on all kinds of medications. He died from self induced diabetes and congestive heart failure because of his bad choices in life. He taught me to go in another direction towards what I believed was common sense living he did not do. At 61 I have no clogged arteries. No heart disease. Cholesterol is fine. And I take zero medications on a prescribed regular basis and I can still do most of the things I could do at 21 because I thought I WAS using common sense- which to me includes avoiding all that stuff that can kill ya- letting go of that stubbornness -even my lure attractant is 100% all natural. I guess its all a matter of perspective. Common sense is NOT the same for all of us is about all I can say about that. I try. Its all I can do.

This comment brings up a good point. Chemicals. My son said he wanted to use bug spray like Off or something similar while fishing and I told him "not on my boat!" To this day I will not use chemicals. No suntan lotion. No bug spray. No sun protectant either. I tend to believe that these chemicals can chase away the fish and make them less likely to bite. Smear some of that stuff on your skin and with it still on your hands pick up your lures and see if the fish like how it tastes or smells. I tend to believe they don't like it too much. So I am sticking with just the right clothing and be done with it. Anyone else avoid the chemicals while fishing?

A thousand dollars in fishing shirts? Say what? That's a LOT of shirts! Unless they are $100 each. Not sure about where you guys live, but here in Florida high quality fishing shirts are dirt cheap in thrift stores. And I mean every single thrift store too. It may be because Florida has so many fishermen who's old clothes wind up in thrift stores, but that is where I get all of my fishing shirts these days. No need for high end retail or online purchasing. And the used shirts I find are like brand new. I just bought a nice one for my 12 year old son for $3. 100% polyester- no cotton! And long sleeve with hoody and he loves the silky feel of the material. Cost $3.21 out the door all day long. And if I hit the thrift store on a sale day I can buy them for half that. I must be a real cheapskate! OK, I am. The problem is I wind up buying TOO many of them because they are so cheap. I just gave my lawyer about 20 of them I never wear that were hanging in a closet untouched for years. (The button up kind in all those pastel colors I never wear) A buddy went fishing with me recently and he shows up in a short sleeved cotton t-shirt and I asked him if he would like to wear a fishing shirt for sun protection. He did. At the end of the fishing trip I told him to keep it. I don't even miss it & I still have too many. All because of thrift stores! They are wallet savers. Heck the 5 man tent I just bought my kids was $10! A like new $350 tent for $10. Thrift stores are the place! A cool detail about Florida, fishing shirts and thrift stores... you never know what you will find in there. One of a kind fishing shirts and some really crazy looking ones too. Some are custom made for various organizations and you will not find them anywhere else but thrift stores. I'll post some photos. Maybe we need a new thread around here for just the crazy looking fishing shirts. Its getting as bad as golf shirts here in Florida. But I do agree if you have some nice old shirts needing a good cleaning and you can get them back to looking like new is great idea. But if you have to replace one or more, check local thrift stores first. Tell them a cheapskate sent ya! Found one! My latest thrift store purchase for like $3. I usually try and find them without graphics all over them. Just plain pull overs with hoodies and gotta be quick dry plastic materials too. I didn't think this one was too tacky