FloridaFishinFool

Ribeye but not in a pan! Down South here l prefer to use wood smoked grilling. And do some meat prep work the day before. Let it sit in fridge overnight. And grill it up the next day. I rarely if ever buy pork chops. I'm gonna tell you a steak story you probably won't believe. One day I purchased some ribeyes and wanted to marinate them with real ginger overnight and black pepper. So I ground up the ginger into a paste to smear it on the meat nice and thick and left in fridge over night. When I grilled the steaks do you know that ginger had done something to the meat where it was like goo now sliding down into and in between the metal grill and literally dripping onto the coals below. Geez I like a tender steak but never seen anything like that! Use ginger sparingly!

Wait, that's what you think that is? My electronics background tells me that is a solar panel to keep his batts charged up for all those "discharging" gidgets, gadgets and gizmos he has on there. Heck, I would of put 3 of them on that and added a subwoofer and surround sound too! Who knows, maybe he can stand on the solar panel!

That is actually pretty common. Quite often in production they have to add shims or remove them so each reel meets their standards. When I worked in a reel repair shop we saw a lot of this type of thing. Reels with parts not on schematics, or schematics showing parts not found in a reel but another does have it. Just how it goes. I doubt that would cause any roughness. At least I've never seen it do that. I'm beginning to wonder if there is anything wrong at all. Just maybe out of tolerance or something. This is possibly getting into what I was talking about in other threads about tolerances, but I won't go there.

Maybe a good idea is to try all 3 out in the water if they will let you do that or they take you out on the water. Stand up on the front deck and with your 300 pounds try and rock the boats side to side and see how they respond under similar circumstances. One may be more stable than another. ------------------------- Another thing I would be looking at are the holes in the hull. Today I loathe putting a hole into any hull. You would not believe how many guys don't think twice about grabbing a screw gun and start screwing screws into the hulls. Take a look at how the boats are built. Walk around and count all the holes in the hulls. The fewer the better!

I spent 50 years on the St. Johns river, and inlines work wonders out there. I use the old rooster tail. However, I have to special order the ones I use because not a single store carries them. Stores carry all the smaller weights. On St. Johns river where the bass are brawlers, and I got reds out there, and stripers and sunshines, and gar and warmouth and bowfin and other... I use the 3/8oz, 1/2oz, 3/4oz and sometimes a full 1oz on a 7'6" or 8 foot MH spinning rod and 20 pound line. I can cast these heavy inlines from Orlando all the way to Jacksonville! Maybe not that far, but close. Since that river has water like coffee I tend to go for the white and yellow and brighter colors. The more flash and noise I can make the better. I doubt if they can even see it when they hit it. And if the fish aren't biting who knows an old rooster tail can accidentally snag some gator tail for a pull on the line. (kidding) I don't target them, but I have hooked into them several times.

You're welcome. I would like to add one more thing... I brought up boat hull thickness because I had problems here in Florida with thin hulls. I got a used aluminum boat for free that had been used in saltwater. The aluminum looked like swiss cheese. I had hoped to be able to salvage the hull. I needed to have a 2 inch hole sealed up from previous owner who installed his own live well, and when he attached the outflow to the hull he did not install it straight. It had some serious side pressure and eventually a crack developed extended outwards from that hole. So I found this certified aluminum welder who used thin aluminum soda cans to show how well he could weld thin aluminum. He did a nice job. Problem is the aluminum was no good. Do you know when I picked that boat up from the welder it did not leak. By the time I drove it home, his weld had already split apart right along the edge of the weld right where untouched hull meets weld. It just unzipped. The hull was just too thin and too corroded to be useable. So I scrapped it as recycled aluminum and broke even on weld cost from money I got for all that aluminum. So this was a lesson to me. For 1 no more salty dogs. And for two, no more welding boat hulls unless the metal is thick enough to handle it. So with all 3 boats, one thing I would want to know would be the thickness and construction of each hull. It might be important down the road for you like it was for me.

I would have gone all the way to part #50 on the reel frame. Then side plate. Then other stuff.

If I had both reels on bench, I could install those washers right on one reel, and flip them over the wrong way on the other reel and you would not, or should not, be able to even tell the difference because they work either way. Just so long as both washers are not aligned together. They must be opposed to each other and either way will work. The clicker should never touch these. I am also wondering if the drag star with clicker can rub the edge of side plate when cranked down tight? All of us reel techs want that reel on our bench pronto! Nothing we love more than playing around inside of reels.

All of the hulls are welded hulls so basically all the same thing. And all of them are relatively close in price. The added toys aren't what I would decide with. I'd be taking a look at the companies. Are any of them in financial trouble and could go bankrupt in a year or two or 5? I say this because service after the sale is what I would be looking at. I'd want a boat company to be there for me after the sale. Who is closest to you? Who has best service side? Who's gonna work on the motor? That's a big deal right there. Which brand of motor is going to be most serviceable close to you? All of those boats are gonna get you on the water the same. So for me, the important stuff is when it breaks and its gotta be fixed. Which one will be around longest and be there for you when you need them. One thing to check just FYI is hull thickness. Some companies put thicker aluminum below water and thinner aluminum above the water. Some is same thickness all over. Good to know. My next boat is going to be an all weld as well. No more rivets! I might just order up a custom hull from one of the boat builders here in Florida. The airboat guys do it all the time. Maybe I should get one of those and throw a trolling motor on it! For your 3 boats, I recognize Crestliner as a well known old boat company. The others I never heard of. Must be kind of new. But for the money grab the biggest one! That 21 foot pro if you can fit in the garage!

I say that all the time. Never works. I'm waiting on a reel to be delivered now and its sooooooo slow its killing me. FedEx?.... more like FedSnailMail. I've been watching the tracking on it and since it is fedex ground it moved 3 states in 6 days. Its sitting in Atlanta right now. Supposed to be here by end of today. Not happening. Find something else to work on. I don't why it is but I simply do not want to work on rods any more. Reels. Can't wait to get into them and play with them. Rods needing work just collect dust in the corner for now.

What the....... Is that thing for real? Or are you pulling our leg?

This story is just now surfacing. I know the guys who do this podcast because we share a love of the music of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, and I help them out from time to time, so this one popped up on my subscriptions list last night. I did a search online for this story and only this video pops up. If true, its a rock n' roll story I have never heard before now. Mark who made this video is recovering from a recent bad stroke. You can see it is still affecting him and his recovery has been slow, but he is recovering somewhat which is a good thing.

In my more than 50 years of fishing in Florida I have seen some strange things. And decades ago when I was in college I had a roommate who's parents lived on a private spring fed lake in central Florida. Probably one of the cleanest lakes you will ever see. Water so clear and clean I used to drink from it. Great bass fishing to. I could go there in afternoon or evening and catch 20 to 30 bass by sundown. The only way onto that lake is through the residents who live on it. They have to allow you to pass their house and access the lake. If you don't know anyone on it, you ain't getting in. But one man did legally and the residents could not stand it. An outsider on their lake and taking fish home for food. Say it isn't so! Those residents protect that lake religiously to this day. If I could afford it, that one lake would be the place for me to finish out my life if only... But you gotta have a million dollars to even get a slice of that lake. But in college, my roommate introduced me to his parents and we all were friends for years so I had free open access to that lake anytime I wanted to fish it. But, I had to follow their rules. I could not bring my own boat. No ramps. I had to use their boat. And I could not keep any fish. I was expected to release it back alive no matter what the size. I was told hanging on the wall in just about every house on that lake were large mounted bass and the dad of my roommate told me the lake record was 17 pounds. (And folks, this is the same lake I had my biggest bass experience on when it dried up into just the deep holes.) Well one day I am over there fishing in their canoe out behind their house and this man shows up and slides his weird boat into the water from a sliver of road access down into the peninsula I access the lake from. That northern side of the peninsula was smaller than main lake and more shallow and mostly covered in lily pads. Clear open water accounted for maybe 30% in that area. Heavy dense vegetation. So as this man gets into his round boat. It looked like a kitchen bowl. No motor. No keel. Never seen anything like it before or since. A round metal boat about 6 or 7 feet in diameter. He paddled his way into the middle of the lily pads. He was about 150 feet away from me doing his thing. I'm not having much luck that day, not like him anyways. His way of fishing was unlike anything I had ever seen. Where do people learn to fish that way I wondered. But it was working. So I began watching this man fish. He was catching them. Had a stringer full of good size bass- sure to tick off the residents. What this man was doing was bizarre to me at the time. He had one of those large wooden topwater like 1940's or 50's red and white minnow looking thing, and he would cast that lure into an open hole in the lily pads. He never retrieved it. He would let it sit there motionless. After a few minutes, he would barely twitch it. Let it rest again. A few minutes later he'd come back and twitch it again. I saw him pull out this yellow and blue spray can to spray something onto that lure and then toss it back out there. As I am watching him twitch it in one spot, I saw the wake of a bass swimming just under the lily pads making a beeline straight for his lure. Like the pied piper this guy was calling the fish to him. Maybe the fish had never seen anything like it either because it was sure working a whole lot better than what I was doing. And I went over and talked to him for a few minutes, but he would not tell me what his spray was. So after a bit I beached the canoe and walked up into the house because I knew the old man had a large telescope on tripod at the living room's large window overlooking the lake. So I went inside and asked if I could use the telescope. So while listening to the anger of the resident spewing about the fish being taken and some stranger in their lake I was watching him through the telescope bound and determined to see what he was using on that lure. Turns out it looked to be WD40. Say what? What can I say. That man had just taught me something about bass fishing that has stuck with me all these years. Now I never fish that way because its no fun to me. I like swinging away. But that guy still bugs me to this day. I try and imagine bass pro's fishing that way. I've never seen anyone fish like the pied piper calling the fish to him from long distances away. I watched one fish swim fast under the lily pads for more than 40 or 50 feet or so. Calling the fish to him like whistling for a dog or something. I learned something and never repeated it myself. I wonder how do people learn to fish that way? They surely did not get it from the pro's. They swing away too. Who casts and leaves the lure alone to go take a break or something and come back and barely twitch it and then go take another extended break before repeating it until the fish come? Its like he's not even fishing when the lure is just sitting there motionless for minutes at a time. He was expending the least amount of effort and cleaning my clock on the catching and his were bigger fish too. Learn something everyday.

Ain't that the truth! You fish in some beautiful remote places Swamp Girl! I never really gave any thought to teeth behind me. They are always in front of me coming at me just like in the videos. Teeth in front. Teeth in back. It does add to the "enjoyment" for sure. I've never seen a wild beaver. Seen plenty of bears but not around me fishing, and I never think about them either. Until now. Wolves? Glad we don't have those. And to GreenTrout, that is big gator. A guy I know in central Florida who is a gator hunter and his recent catch on a spinning reel was 920 pounds! Your gator was 14 feet and 800 pounds. This one out of central Florida was over 13 feet long and 920 pounds. Clearly Florida gators are more well fed! All that fat slows them down quite a bit. Well at least the big ones. I should thank Kevin for taking this one out of my fishing waters. Swamp Girl I got a place in central Florida kind of like what you described. Its a saltwater lake on an island along coast. I have to access it by intracoastal waterway and to get back in there is only like 12 inches of water and once there you gotta leave boat grounded and walk through woods to get to lake. It is completely landlocked and filled with snook, tarpon, reds and all kinds of fish in the 36 inch range give or take. Great fishing in there sometimes. This place is near Haulover canal where we put in at. ***A word of caution for anyone wanting to visit Florida and get out on the water is that for some reason gators are becoming more aggressive and attacks happening more frequently they say...

Its even worse in Florida. But kind of funny and we natives use it to our advantage same as the Seminole Indians did when the U.S. Army chased them into the Everglades. The Indians used the geography of the land to hide themselves and they went into places where the U.S. Army could not follow them. Florida is one of the first places on the planet where federal government used special forces guerilla warfare learned from Indians and adopted the the same tactics as the Indians and even brought in canoes to follow them into those inaccessible places. The first use of boats in special forces right there. The Dragoons had arrived! Heck half of Florida is named after those old army officers and presidents like Lake Monroe named after a president. Lake Harney named after the army officer who was an Indian killer. Lake Jesup named after another army officer. Its like they renamed everything as they rolled across Florida chasing Indians. So us natives do the exact same thing. A good example is St. Johns river. It is dredged from Jax to Sanford roughly 150 miles. But from Sanford heading South on the river its all natural for the last 150 miles of river. So when I take my boat to the river north of Lake Monroe those "metalflake rockets" are running all over us like Daytona 500 on the river. Boat etiquette is gone. I was taught to slow down passing another boat sitting still. Don't wake them! But those days are gone. Now a lot of guys are flying up and down the river full speed and could care less about other boaters as they fly by at 60mph 30 feet away. They don't get a wave that's for sure. Might get something else! So a lot of us natives avoid "metalflake rockets" race tracks and head deeper into the jungle and to places those guys can never get to and won't because it might scratch something or dent something. We see the same mentality on rods and reels that look like new 10, 20 years later. I'm with lottabass above. If it isn't scratched or dented it ain't having fun! Boats, trucks, rods, and reels. We buy boats made for super shallow waters down to mere inches deep. Air boat guys don't even need water. My old aluminum boat would draft 3 inches without a motor. With motor I am at 6 or 7 inches draft at stern with motor raised. So we use the land itself to shield ourselves from those metalflake rockets because those guys who love those types of boats can only go so shallow. So they have to stay in deeper waters and we like that! Even the Elite series does it. Its like there are two Florida's. The one we see on TV with pro fishermen, the Florida the world can access. And then there is our Florida. Those places only the hardy can reach and do so to leave that other crazy Florida behind because its so crazy sometimes like north of Lake Monroe or on a chain of lakes on the weekend or during a tournament. I can't tell you how many times I have put my boat into the river and headed South and come up on another one of those metalflake rockets stuck up on a sandbar going nowhere as I slowly slide on by. See ya! Want me to call ya some help? I got the boat rescue guys number on speed dial. We have tried to get out in middle of river surrounded by gators and try and help push them off the sandbar but do you know not in all the years I've seen this I don't think we humans were able to push not one boat off the sandbars. Not a one. They really climb up on top with full weight of boat and no way we can push it off. Oh, well I'm going fishing where YOU can't! Ha! The worst part of it is that a lot of the boaters who try and access our Florida do not know what they are getting into out there. When traveling north on the river heading towards lake Harney, you can not just fly up the river and maintain that speed entering the lake. The river current has dropped thousands of years of sand right there when river loses current widening into a lake. So sand drops right there. There is a huge sandbar going right across the channel and islands all around. Sometimes you can see birds standing on top of the invisible sandbar in middle of river. If a bird can stand there surely there is a reason? Boats are suppose to take a 90 degree turn just before entering the lake. 90 degree right turn to slowly go around that sandbar. A buddy and I were sitting in our boat just off to the side one day fishing when one of those newbies came flying up the river in one of those deep hull luxury pleasure type of boats. Dad and entire family and dog on board. 7 people and a dog! We watched that boat going really fast heading right up the channel directly towards the sandbar. We natives have installed our own navigation markers out there on both ends of that lake to help boaters see the path. This newbie had no clue. My buddy and I threw down our rods and stood up and both of us are waving like madmen to them trying to get their attention to slow down. All they did was wave back at us not slowing one bit. Seconds later they hit that sandbar and boat popped up and every human and dog in that boat instantly flew straight up into the air and boat came to a stop on sandbar and all of them flew forward across the sandbar and into the lake. Fortunately no one was seriously hurt. Bruised, shaken but alive and no broken bones. It was like watching a slow motion movie scene as those people instantly popped straight up into the air and flew forward. We asked the dad why he did not slow down when we waved at him and he said he thought were just being nice. Dude! We don't stand up and jump up and down in a boat waving like madmen to be nice and friendly. When we wave like that pay attention please! Well that boat was going nowhere for awhile. Yes there are two Florida's and sand divides them! But... when you find places like Swamp Girl did up north down here in Florida, be prepared for some unwanted attention. This guy allowed his fish to splash. Big mistake. Come on down and try out the other Florida Swamp Girl! Its more fun with teeth! Gators chase fishermen every day in this state. Its a give and take balancing act for sure.

Let me know if you need anything on that one. My former boss and I are still fishing buddies, and he is the central Florida Minn Kota rep and decades long repair tech. He and I will be fishing together in a few days down in central Florida where the shop is located. If you have any trouble Greg is a phone call away.

I am not quite following you. Is it the drag slippage that is not smooth? Or, are you saying when you crank it down tight the reel itself does not feel smooth- as in gears maybe? When the reel is not cranked down tight on the drag, is this reel as smooth as the other one? I should stop here. Until we all know exactly what part of the reel is not smooth it is impossible to even guess. I pulled the schematic off their website for their latest model. Not sure if the same or close. Give us a little more info and maybe we can help narrow it down. Is this reel under warranty?

Here's another one from the history books- for the history books. Dick Kantner RIP https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/legacyremembers/richard-kantner-obituary?id=16759779 Richard DeWolfe Kantner Sr. 1926 - 2015 Richard Kantner Obituary Published by San Diego Union-Tribune on Jul. 12, 2015. Richard DeWolfe Kantner Sr. November 24, 1926 - June 26, 2015 SAN DIEGO -- An Aviation Pioneer Offspring Dick was born in Miami, Florida to Mildred and Harold D. Kantner. His father, nicknamed "Birdman Kantner"*, was a pioneer in Aviation, holding USA Pilot's License #65. They moved to Meadville, Pennsylvania and then landed in San Diego in 1943 when Dick was 16. After his school days at San Diego High School, mid-40s and San Diego State, in the '50s, Dick started his career at NARMCO where he worked on classified projects such as the SR 71, "Blackbird". Dick was a pioneer in the use of carbon fiber in sports equipment such as graphite golf shafts and fishing rods. His company, Composite Development Corporation, established a fishing rod manufacturing company called Graphite-USA. Avid in model aircraft building, Dick was a volunteer at the San Diego Air and Space Museum. He is survived by his sons and daughter, Richard DeWolfe (Kit) Kantner II (Julie), Briggs Kantner (Hayley), Taiche Rudee (David); seven grandchildren, Mariana Potts (Trevor), Kelly Kantner, Katherine Kantner, Hunter Kantner, Ryder Kantner, Kyle Rudee, Sean Rudee; and four great-grandchildren, Mabel Potts, Walker Potts, Willoughby Potts and Duke Kantner. Dick will be laid to rest with his dear wife Taiche Willoughby at a private service at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery on July 15, 2015 at 2:30 p.m. Friends are invited to join the family at a celebration of life from 5-8 p.m. at The San Diego Air and Space Museum, Balboa Park. I bet a lot of fishermen did not realize some of the men behind making U.S. fishing rods were directly connected to Dept of Defense. Carbon composite manufacturing is not just for fishing rods. Those guys made all kinds of products to sell. Dick Kantner here made fishing rods and other items in his company like plane parts. Beside fishing rods, Gary Loomis also made golf clubs and military vehicle antennas among other things. Yep. Our fishing rods make great antennas too! Just think... in Iraq some soldier in uniform can take the antenna off his humvee and go fishing! Same thing. "I got myself a GLoomis antenna!" The composites companies started by them making fishing rods were also used to serve the DOD! "His company, Composite Development Corporation, established a fishing rod manufacturing company called Graphite-USA." Composite Development Corporation would be the one he used for other products while assigning his fishing rod manufacturing side of his business to Graphite-USA. Anyone ever hear of these rods? Anyone use these rods today? When Dick Kantner died he took with him to his grave his secret methods and process of making his double helix rod blanks. No one alive today can make them. A one time historic deal right here. Will never come again. His rods will have to be dissected by science to try and uncover how he made his blanks. I wonder if it is DOD secrets he transferred into his rods? I was very fortunate to luck into 2 of Dick Kantner's Graphite-USA double helix rods at an estate sale. Mint condition too. Unused. Like new. I think I paid probably less than $20 for both of them. For years I said I would not take a $1000 for one of them. And prices going up, maybe I should up it to $2000 or $3000? These individually handmade rods are extremely rare today. I'm curious if there are any members here who have these rods and still use them? Fishing rods made by a CIA spy! Pretty cool!

Curious what a first gen Triumph rod looks like or, when you are saying they were made? I ask this because I have at least one very early Triumph rod made in USA long before they moved to China. I would not have it in my collection if it did not say on the blank "made in USA." That's the whole point of why I spend my money on U.S. made rods. A quick search online says they have been making the Triumph for 20 or 25 years. I'd bet my Triumph rod was from the first couple of years. Its been a good rod. Not great. But not bad either. I don't give it a lot of heavy lifting tho. Easy fishing for that rod. Open water. No cover. And the Triumph is a fine rod. Because of the grip I can't see the blank construction from the butt end, but I would suspect my Triumph rod at least is what is called a thin-wall rod. Kind of like how Falcon made theirs decades ago. Maybe because Don Mook built their factory too. Over the years rod manufacturers have moved away from the thin wall rods because they crush and break easier than thick wall rods. So the brands have had more warranty claims for thin wall rods and is why the entire industry has moved towards thicker wall rods to simply make them stronger, more durable and less likely to break lowering warranty claims. I guess my point would be that my much older rod should be more in line with first gen? And any newer rods, especially those made in China, could they also be considered as first gen? -----------------------ADDED The first time I came across a pencil rod, or thick wall rod, is the All Star Emerald Edition made by Morgan McCain after hiring Gary Loomis business partner Don Mook who built more rod blank factories in USA than any other person. At the time Gary Loomis and Don Mook were business partners in Loomis Composites, Inc. or, LCI rods. You can still find them online sometimes for sale. Gary and Don made thin wall rods with LCI. And Morgan McCain hired Don Mook to come to Houston, Texas to construct for him an All Star rod blank factory so Morgan could begin making his own rods, and stop buying the LCI blanks he had been using until he called in Don Mook. You can also still find old U.S. made All Star rods that are really LCI blanks under the All Star brand. When Don Mook fired up that new Houston rod blank factory, Don Mook and Morgan McCain made fishing tackle history! They made the first true pencil rod with thick walls. You can step on the rod blank and jump up and down on it and it will not crush. Can't do that with an LCI rod. So if you can find them, the green Emerald Edition rods are absolutely historical! Do you know how many other brands have followed them ever since? All of them. Even Gary Loomis. There are more secrets to Emerald Edition that needs scientific exploration. Seriously! And the reason is the binder they used to make these rods. I believe the binder has only gotten harder over the years improving the rod's characteristics over the decades. It is the hardest binder I have ever come across. That rod rings with a high tone like a crystal glass sounds twice as high as any other rod. Its an amazing blank and in 30 years of searching I have only acquired 2 Emerald Edition rods. When a bass hits a lure like a rat'l trap, it feels like a lightning strike in your hand. Its amazing really. Love that rod and it was only $20 when sold new. Today it is still higher quality made than a lot of rods today. I used to not talk about this one rod, but after 30 years of searching I gave up, and who needs 101 rods? I'm happy with what I got. Morgan McCain and Don Mook deserve their credit for what they did. They changed fishing rods forever. And for the better too. Morgan McCain is also credited with creating and inventing the technique specific rod which today is the standard. Two unsung historic heroes of rod blanks right there! If I were a bass fishing guide on the St. Johns river, I would have to charge customers extra to let them use the crystal rod! $10 per fish! Ha!

Jungle? Waaaaaay up north? That's just a little thicket in Florida! And without teeth! We have some really dense subtropical jungle around here and with teeth! Swamp Girl, glad your surgery went well and eyes recovering, but put it on your bucket list to come on down to Florida one day and try some of our jungle teeth! If the fish aren't biting you can always accidentally hook some gator tail and hang on! Put up a good fight! Hang on long enough it might even pull you back to the boat ramp or close. The following video is seconds long, but do try and keep count of the handful of gators present. Just 1 or 2. And you know what they say about bass? Gators don't hang out where there is no food. So what does this tell you is in the water around here? Try and keep count! This video was shot in central Florida due west of Cape Canaveral. And if you are lucky you might get some of our water protector pets to play nice and jump through some hoops if ya catch a nice fish! https://i.imgur.com/MmivmTc.mp4 Jungles without teeth are no where near as fun as jungles with teeth!

You are truly a blessed man rich beyond man's greatest desires! He will cherish these memories for a lifetime!

This. A Florida biologist told me years ago that with strong steady winds it can push baitfish and other food sources to the windward shore as noted. Some bass follow and take the opportunity to use what the wind is doing to help them feed. Wind can sometimes help fishing because it breaks up the surface and hides our presence there somewhat making us more difficult to see and hear. I have noticed at times in canals especially when a boat motors through it tends to stir things up and for some reason fishing in behind a boat moving through a canal can sometimes trigger fish into feeding activity behind the boat. I often wonder if wind can kind of do the same thing. Stir things up and trigger fish into more aggressive feeding I can only hope. Not sure if wind makes them go shallow, but if it makes seeing and hearing predators harder, then maybe the fish will have more "guts" to move in more shallow. Just an idea. I have caught 3 and 4 pound bass just hanging out behind the lily pads within a foot of dry land in less than 12 inches of clear water. I did not even know the fish was there even in clear water. It blends in too well from that distance. I cast to shore, bump it in right at shoreline in water mere inches deep and bam. A nice hit. No wind. So it was not the wind that put that fish there that I can tell. I think more like laying up maybe warming up just under the surface in the sunshine and waiting quietly for food to swim by. Might not be true, but it sounds good!

-UV Light To me not an issue or big deal. I can't do anything about UV and neither can the fish. So why bother thinking about this one and including it in fishing is how I see it. No value to bringing that one into fishing that I know of. I could be wrong. Won't be the first time, but UV is not something that can give me useful information towards fishing as I see it. Who knows maybe one day some scientist will tell us fish can see UV and run from it. I know they run from bright overhead sun sometimes in clear water. Is it the light or UV chasing them away? I always thought it was the light because bass don't have eyelids. So run into cover instead or down deep away from the light. -(humidity, etc.) Not an issue for the fish, but might be for me and my comfort level, but I live in one of the most humid states in the union. Don't bother me none. Doubt the fish care either! -Barometric Pressure (vs or in addition to just viability - after factoring in is it sunny or cloudy This is a big one. From my experience here in Florida bass go deep when barometric pressure is on the rise. It seems to push them deep and won't bite well. But when the pressure reverses and we are moving towards a low pressure, now the bass can sense it and begin to rise up out of the depths and move into shallow water and feed more. I include this one all the time. One of the top choices to look at for fishing. -Lunar Calendars This is big one too. I swear by the lunar calendar and have a special app on my phone that shows me what I need to know on a minute by minute basis. As the number swings to a 96 day I am more likely to go fishing. If the calendar is on the downside and heading towards a 14 day, then I am less likely to bother with going fishing in the boat. I might try some bank fishing. Or, take the boat out anyways, and just crank up the music knowing the fish aren't gonna bite anyway and so I might as well just enjoy going through all the motions even if the fish won't bite. Oh well. That's why its called fishing and not catching. Just because it shows its a 14 day does not mean the fish won't bite. Sometimes I try anyways. But the lunar calendar in my opinion is reliable and important and the first thing I look at when thinking about going fishing. PH (Water Hardness) This one may be an issue, but not to me. I could not care less about PH. I've been fishing in Florida for more than 50 years and not once have I or anyone else I ever knew check PH on any body of water ever. There is nothing we can do about PH. And I am not spending any time or effort into checking PH anywhere at any time. Not going to happen. To me no matter where the PH is, is out of my control. And if there are fish in there and they feed and I might be able to catch one or two of them, then I am going fishing. PH be darned! I guess for me the list goes like this: 1)Weather 2)wind 3)lunar calendar 4)barometric pressure swing 5)Light And when I go fishing its 6)Water quality (cleanliness, purity, and lack of pollution, and whether clear or not.) 7)water level 8)is it crowded? If windy I generally use the shoreline the wind is coming in from so I can use the trees and buildings to block the winds or find a canal as wind tends to die down towards sundown it gets quiet and the magical witching hour happens. So wind direction tends to guide my location choices to some degree. I also avoid bright sunlight and head towards shady areas more often than not like canals and choose to fish either in early mornings or afternoons. Never between 11am and 4pm in Florida. And I keep an eye out for places to seek cover when a Florida storm blows up on me and I mean they can develop right on top of me too. So I use bridges and boat houses for cover so I keep an eye out moving around a lake for places to seek cover quickly if need be. You do not want to be caught out on a lake when a bad Florida storm hits. The winds can flow across the lake at 70mph straight winds. And the lightning? Need I say more? That's kind of how it goes for me..... will be looking forward to other comments on this one.

I did some asking around about Daiwa and doyo reels. I was told the primary reason for the legal blocks on certain products in USA was because of patent issues. As an example, a company like daiwa might hire a company like doyo to make reels for them using daiwa's patents. Once doyo learns it, they *possibly*allegedly* might begin to incorporate it into their own products for sale. Due to patent infringements, some products are considered illegal inside USA. Did ya ever wonder about reels? Decades ago we had all kinds of different reels and reel ideas. Today across the board we find most reels are now all basically built the same way. So the market has flowed with what works while cutting out what did not work and patents simply get in the way and are being ignored outside the USA and prosecuting and suing for it involve international disputes is extremely expensive and so most avoid the fight until lines are crossed and infringement products make their way into USA. Patents are keeping some of them out I was told. So an interesting subject to study would be the history of reels for last 100 years and more specifically the court cases domestic and foreign where big brands have fought over patent ideas that have brought us to the point where it does not matter which brand you purchase, they are all basically now constructed very similarly. So areas for noted changes to reels would come from the patent fights and how the dust has settled. Companies like Shimano hold patents to ideas they will never use and never make a penny off of. But those other patents that are still being used to this day are where the battle is. It seems like some companies are filing patents for BS ideas that won't even work in reality. One of those patents I dug up was issued to Zebco/Quantum. I did some research on drag washers and the materials used to make them. I dug up Shimano's dartanium patents. Very interesting! No other brands can use or touch dartanium (until the reel comes across my bench. I like using dartanium 2 because I learned how to use it. And it is a really good drag washer. If it wasn't would shimano engineers install it into many of their high end reels to this day? It may have a bad rep, but a bad rep among people who may not be using it correctly and have a bad experience and blame the dartanium. I love it and use it in a number of my higher use reels like flipping and pitching reels are sure to get it. No cross weave carbon drag washers in my flipping and pitching reels or bottom reels. Not enough braking power. Drag washers like cross weave which are smooth to use because of slippage are better for reels used for cranking where I want that give since I use straight braid and fast rods.) But it was the patent for a full ceramic drag washer issued to Quantum is one that might never be used until new ceramic compositions can be invented. Quantum actually patented an idea that does not work well in reality. They figured ceramic was a good material for a drag washer so they patented it and then found out that their ceramic drag washers cracked up and failed. So today you won't find any ceramic drag washers inside of Quantum reels. But if any of you know where to find one that is not broken I would sure like to get my hands on some of these ceramic drag washers. Quantum actually tried to make it work so I know there are some out there somewhere. But what if Shimano invents a new ceramic composite material. Would it now conflict with the bogus patent Quantum has? Honestly the most interesting history on reels is found inside of courthouses. The patents are interesting in that they provide the source and background for the fights, but it is inside those courts where the real juicy details are at. I wish I could get at some of those court records but in lawsuits quite often dealing with large companies with proprietary products involved their lawyers will invariably seal up the records of the fight just so we can't get to the truth. So apparently what I was told is that in other parts of the world exists reels that are patents infringing and not allowed inside USA and territories, but are being sold elsewhere without a fight over it because of the expense of the cost not worth the results. But if the infringers tried to cross that line into USA all heck could break loose over it. Think about how big China is and how much money we are talking about here. They are perfectly willing to steal ideas and technologies from others and use it for themselves in violation of patents and laws. Its happening with rods and reels and lures and line and all of it. Do any of us think or believe China will ever do what is right and follow the laws and patent protected ideas of other countries? This subject is interesting to follow.... If I could I would acquire all reel patents in USA and other countries. And I would like to have all the reel patent court cases in every country of the world for the last 50 years. These documents would blow it wide open for us all. Take the mystery out of why the rod and reel industry is the way it is today. Now I am curious if any JDM products infringe on U.S. patents? What is interesting to note is companies like Shimano files for patents in the countries they sell to as well as place of origin in Japan. So we might find duplicate patents slightly different in different countries. I have to wonder if this might be behind why Shimano as a company will not or cannot ship any JDM reels or reel parts to USA customers? Zero support inside USA for JDM. Looks like it may be tracked right back to the patents? I can't prove it, but it is interesting to consider. Anyone know anything else on this?

I believe it was rods only.