FloridaFishinFool

Hmmm... I gotta disagree on some of this. I'm retired now, but I spent some years on the bench working on reels for a shop in central Florida and I have been working on reels for around 45 years now as a hobbiest. A fishing buddy of mine told me one time that he wished for all of his reels to not even have a drag mech in them. Just completely locked down permanently. Its how he fishes. With 50 and 60 pound braid who needs a drag? If a reel were designed to operate in locked down state, then why would it also include a drag mech? My dad's 1940's round reels were built that way. No drag mechs. Handle and spool geared together. One of the reels I recently overhauled for a friend of mine is an old Shimano Bantam Mag Plus 251 I think? Made in 1985. Its now 2025 so 40 years of fishing that reel has worked without servicing or maintenance in all those years. It was falling apart when he handed it to me a few weeks ago. And it had virtually no drag at all. Shimano earned the reputation on reels like this one for sure. Reels made today won't hold up as well. But, one of my jobs as warranty repair tech sitting on the bench working on reels was to adjust tolerances. The drag star is a balancing act. Backed all the way off you want to feel little to almost no drag, and then be able to tighten it down to near lockdown. So a drag stack has to be carefully adjusted. The old Bantam I just overhauled had been kept tightened down for many years and so it was naturally compressed to the point of almost not even having any drag left after trying to tighten it down. But let's take just this one reel. There are 3 places of compression in its drag stack. Well 4 if I count the plastic bushing used as a drive gear bearing where today the AR bearings sit. That plastic bushing can change shape under years of pressure. Not much granted since it is held in by the cover plate, but in the drag stack is one belleville curved washer that can weaken and change shape over time reducing the amount of tightening down that can be achieved. This reel also came with a dartanium 1 drag washer that showed signs of compression with a raised lip around the edge folding up and around the steel key washer compressing it. But under the gear is another washer usually a phenolic washer that can also compress some and donate its loss to the overall total in the drag stack. It is this phenolic washer that dictates where the drive gear and pinion gear align. Keeping drags constantly cranked down tight can over time change how the gear wears because its alignment can change over time due to slight compression. So is it better for the gears one way or another? I prefer to NOT keep compression pressure on that usually phenolic gear aligning "drag" washer. Depending on what this washer is made out of will dictate how much it can move over time if at all. Some may compress. Others might not. Change shape here and your gears alignment will change. So from my perspective there is more in the drag stack that can cause loss of drag over time. I'd like to make a controversial statement at this time concerning drag washers... and please keep in mind this opinion is coming from someone who has worked on reels for various brands at a shop under numerous warranty contracts. So I had to repair reels according to them. And over the years I learn a few things maybe some don't, like did you know that today the most popular material used for drag washers, the cross weave carbon fiber material used today, is NOT even a brake or braking material? How odd is that? That today the most popular braking material used in fishing reels for "drag" is not actually a braking material at all because carbon is a lubricant, and that it is used in a way that is also contrary to braking or adding more drag to the braking mechanism by way of grease. This means we are using a material that is itself a lubricant, and then we apply even more lubricant to it, and then crank down on it and demand that it do braking for us but better stay smooth or else! And, this material does compress, and can actually move around because it contains two elements- carbon fiber woven across each other and glued into place by epoxy. So the top of the curved fibers in the weave can move around freely and do compress. Fishing reel brands have had to cave into this popularized idea of in demand cross weave carbon fiber drag washers and install this same material into their reels in order to help sell them, when in the real world their engineers would never have used such a material in the reels they designed! Just pointing it out... The reason all of it can work is because its use or application is so low demand that its a no harm situation so why not roll with it? A lot of fishermen do not even know or realize that a large number of mass produced fishing reels currently sold and in use across USA today do not even contain real drag washers. Found inside untold numbers of reels is nothing more than commercial pipe gasket material. The blue and sometimes red cardboard drag washers manufacturers use because its so cheap and it can last for years. It also sticks to either the steel key washer or gear. Usually one side gets stuck to something. And if plain old pipe gasket cardboard works fine for years, then surely cross weave carbon fiber will work fine too! It does in bass fishing level reels. But on the great reel repair tech Alan Tani posted photos of what cross weave carbon fiber drag washers look like after trying to slow a huge marlin or 8 foot shark. I've seen cross weave drag washers shredded at the higher demand levels. This is why Shimano puts cross weave into their lower and midline reels, but still use their patented dartanium 2 drag washer material in some of their high end reels. For some reason its acquired a less than stellar reputation and yet it is a brake material specially designed for it. Truth is stranger than fiction and often reality is backwards to how it should be. This might be one of those situations. Its kind of funny and ironic that the cross weave carbon fiber drag washers are made from the same material fishing rods are made from. Look at the rolls of prepeg used to make fishing rods and all it is is an epoxy impregnated cross weave of carbon fibers too. Same thing really. Never knew a fishing rod could also be a drag washer! And for the record, I always back off my drags after every use. Not saying what is right or wrong, but keep that 40 year old reel mentioned above in mind as an example of what does and can happen over time. I added a second belleville or "C" spring washer as Shimano calls them (two new ones) opposed the single one the reel came with. This added back in the necessary drag stack to bring that drag star back into balance once a new drag washer was installed.

I'd like to see it broken up more. I basically only fish in Florida. If I traveled, I would fish where I travel, but as a retiree I just have no need to travel outside of Florida any longer. And this controls my fishing thinking to a large degree. I never catch smallmouth bass in Florida. They don't exist here that I know of, and yet in "bass" tournaments up north they are included, yet when tournaments happen here in Florida I don't see our sunshine bass being included- granted they are a laboratory created bass- but catchable just the same and can be weighed in, so why not? Getting to my point or breaking it up some, as a Florida guy I really wish smallmouth were not a part of it, or if they are to be included, then regionally available bass in other areas should also be allowed in like Florida's sunshine bass. On to another issue... getting back to regions... The western guys want to see western waters included. The northern guys want to see more northern waters included. The Southern guys want to see more Southern waters included. The foreign guys want to see more foreign waters included. Japan and Mexico anyone? Others? And for some of us Florida guys, well, honestly all I really want to see is Florida waters. Its a good thing and challenging to be all inclusive. Drag a Florida guy to west coast and he's unfamiliar with it out there but the guys from there have home field advantage, and same for up north... does not make great sense for me to run up north and fish a tournament for a fish I don't even have in my home state but now I gotta go compete with guys who grew up catching them. This is a good thing don't get me wrong. But what I want to see is only Florida. The northern guys are wanting to see more of theirs. The western guys want to see more of theirs. And I want to see more of Florida- but not mixed in with everyone else. Not even the SE. I want Florida to be a stand alone place. I do a lot of fishing video downloading. 95% of what I download and keep is all from just my Florida regions of reach. I have no reason to watch or download fishing videos on how to catch smallmouth, or how western guys use 8" swimbaits matching the truck loads of 8" trout they dump into their man made reservoirs to feed those hybrid lab bass to huge sizes with almost no natural predators. Yeah, I don't want to fish that way. No reason to. Florida is not like that. I want to stay regional. Like everyone else. Heck I won't even download Florida panhandle videos because that's out of my range. I don't get a whole lot out of ice fishing, ya know? Or fishing for California's laboratory created hybrid bass. As I drive through central Florida I pass a small town called Crescent City who has a large sign at edge of town as you enter that says "Bass Capitol of the world!" And they mean it. We have a few other places around Florida sporting the same sign. This is why I said above: "Its not bass fishing without Florida in there." If they are fine with cutting Florida out all together, I am fine with Florida going it alone and creating our own statewide tournament organizations. And let the northern guys do the same, and the western guys as well. We need fishing tournament organizations that serves all of us at all times. Do we need restructuring? New organizations all together? How can we develop a fishing infrastructure that serves all equally across the board at all times? Rather this selective exclusive situation we see now. Florida has spent millions, maybe billions on our bass fishing and in creating sunshine bass. Its hard for me to accept a place like Florida can be cut out like this and it still be called bass fishing. I may be a tiny bit biased. I forgot to mention that like the comment I am replying to above, I would like to see some variation in timing for when the Elite series comes into Florida. Quite often it is always around the same time and same locations. Florida has so much more to offer and they simply are not taking advantage of it.

I have found that donating to local charities or non-profits can bring me more in tax write off's than I could ever get by direct sales.

Its not bass fishing without Florida in there. Hard to believe. Makes one wonder why. 2026 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series Schedule February 5-8, Scottsboro, Ala., Lake Guntersville February 12-15, Alexander City, Ala., Lake Martin March 13-15, Bassmaster Classic, Knoxville, Tenn., Tennessee River March 26-29, Columbus, Miss., Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway April 16-19, Muskogee, Okla., Arkansas River May 7-10, Columbia, S.C., Lake Murray May 14-17, Clarendon County, S.C., Santee Cooper Lakes June 11-14, Elizabeth City, N.C., Pasquotank River/Albemarle Sound August 13-16, Plattsburgh, N.Y., Lake Champlain August 27-30, Clayton, N.Y., St. Lawrence River

RUN! While you can... Too many monkeys on our backs! The bait monkey. The rod monkey. The reel monkey. About getting monkey'd out.

In thinking about this, you may be right that the rollers can get out of alignment.

To me round reels are a leftover novelty item. Kind of like trying to keep the buggy whip alive or keep making vinyl records long past their time period. Oddly enough, you can still buy buggy whips, vinyl records and round reels. I think some of us, myself included, kind of have a sentimental nostalgia for the past. I still own several of my fathers 1940's round reels. And I have a couple of my own round reels. They certainly are not a necessity. More like a learned taste. My primary use for round reels in 2025 is for live shiner fishing. A for dad kind of thing. Fish like he did. Maybe even use his reels too. Bottom fishing rubber worms is another one I might use a round reel on just because I can. Surely not because I have to. I have one of those smaller round reels I have sometimes enjoyed using for a rat'l trap or spinners. It cast really well because the line guide was not slowing down the casts like the Abu reels did. I think this is another issue a lot of fishermen wanted to move away from- the line guide dragging down the casting distance. I still like round reels. Don't know why... probably more so for dear old dad and grandad.

Small rat'l trap?

Cover is a definite. Definitely give some time in the cover and along the edges of river channel, not in the lakes so much. In Lake George you have a submarine spring in the SW corner, and a spring run along the western shore. All Florida springs pump out 72 degree water year round. So when its hot and water is 84 degrees and climbing, fish look for air conditioning and the springs are their only relief from the heat. If you can locate that submarine spring in middle of Lake George, the fish circle around it. And Silver Glen spring dumps into the lake the cooler water, so all around that spring run should be cooler water than rest of the lake. It might be more productive in cooler waters. The area you are going to is further north than where I prefer which is below Lake Monroe. This is significant because Lake Monroe is the dividing line between a dredged river bottom and a natural river bottom. The St. Johns river is dredged to U.S. Coast Guard commercial navigation standards from Jacksonville all the way down the river to the docks at Sanford in middle of Lake Monroe. 150 miles of dredged river bottom. The river heading South out of Lake Monroe is all natural. Absolutely no dredging heading South. And that my friend is where you will find me. Way down there in central and South central Florida where the river is completely different. But, what I wanted to say is that one technique that has worked well in that dark water further South on the river is bouncing things off the bottom along the side walls of natural river bottom or in the dredged out channel area where you will be fishing. The river is mostly sandy bottom at least in my favorite area and current strong enough to keep it pretty clean so not a lot of bottom hangups. We bounce a variety of lures off the river bottom. Its more shallow where I fish it, but anything from rubber worms, flukes, spinners, rat'l traps, spoons, jigs, etc. And on that river you will catch more than just largemouth. You might get into some sunshine bass as well. Sunshine bass are created in a laboratory and the state releases millions of them competing with our largemouth for space and food. Whatever you catch largemouth on you can catch sunshine bass on as well. This is one thing the state of Florida has done to "improve" fishing diversity across Florida as the government of the state of Florida seeks to turn Florida into a multi-billion dollar fishing destination. This is what our state biologists are working on like Stick Marsh, Farm 13, Headwaters, Tenoroc, and many more. So if it were me, I'd be in the lily pads, in the channels off the bottom and keeping an eye out for schoolies and have a rod or 2 dedicated to quick schoolie action. The lower St. Johns in summertime is some red hot bass fishing. I've posted this video before but its a great example of what that river can give ya. Scott Martin said recently the St. Johns river is the state of Florida's best fishery today. This young man stumbled onto these schoolie bass. Notice how in the early morning they are not very active, but as the sun comes up, the schooling activity turns on and they wear this young man out. He throws everything at them. They break a solid steel spinner. Almost a bass on every cast. Don't believe that river can't produce in the summer! I lived out here for 12 years and got this almost on a daily basis year after year. This type of activity happens mainly June, July, August and first couple weeks of September and then starts to taper off. I always thought it was heat driven. I never knew there was summer bass slumps. Really? Huh. Did not know that. News to me. Adding a little more... I suggest trying the river channel and side channels where they narrow for long stretches. Looking for bass corralled together. In lakes they can spread out and don't have immediate competition. But when they are trapped between narrow banks like monkeys in a barrel is when it is more in your favor. Further South on the river what I have noticed is the fish that move up and down the river have to congregate at the inflow and outflow of lakes the river flows through. Baitfish and bass all have to move through these bottlenecks and tend to be good places for schooling activity. Quite often the birds can show me where the schooling bass are and give me a sense of their direction of movement so I can possibly catch up or head them off.

Restaurants won't offer it. You gotta ask for the good stuff. They will have bottles of the good stuff on display for you to ask for it. But if you order sake off the menu they will serve you the rot gut bottom of the barrel cheapest sake made for restaurants. Guaranteed it will be clear sake. The higher grades of sake are made in Japan and look like milk. Unfiltered. The clear is highly filtered and may not even be real sake. If you watch documentaries on history of sake and how its made you will be able to find the really good stuff. Made from Omachi polished rice fermented using very specific spring water to develop historic flavors not known in modern world of mass produced sake drinks. Made by hand in Japan in small breweries is what to look for. The mom and pop producers in backwoods of Japan. When you visit the Asian stores, generally the more expensive the sake, the closer to original traditional made sake it will be. Also try the unfiltered. Its the best! Look on bottles for made in Japan. Another important factor to the enjoyment of sake is for you to develop your temperature preference. Some like their sake cold. Some like it hot. Depends on the sake. Depends on the person. So experiment. Restaurants are prepared to serve it both ways. In the following documentary, the traditional brewer of sake in Japan says about us foreign sake drinkers that we are "the light of hope" for traditional sake brewers because demand in Japan dropped so low they could not remain open and producing sake. So it is the foreign demand like here in USA that is keeping traditional sake brewers in business back in Japan. I'm happy to help keep them going!

I'll try and interpret it as stated in OP. This is something I also do from time to time. One rod. One lure. Go fish. I do it because as I grow older, I just don't want to mess with a bunch of stuff I'm not gonna touch or use anyway. Bring only what is necessary. Here in Florida a lot of the lakes and rivers I fish are very shallow. Often the lakes- and where I fish in the lakes is less than 8 feet deep- often only 3 or 4 feet deep. Wide flat eel grass flats and lily pad expanses. Environment requires long casts and weedless as I retrieve through lily pads. The rivers are less than 6 feet deep, often less than 24". So if I had to take one rod and one lure into my favorite bass fishing places, it would be a 7'6" MHF spinning rod, 4000 reel, 20lb braid, and a match the hatch lure closest to golden shiner and other small baitfish bass feed on, so probably a paddletail fluke or that new mooch minnow and a #4 or 5 slightly weighted hook. With the 7'6" and using smallest line possible I can get the most distance. Fish don't even know I am there. Nothing like the explosive top water hits going through the eel grass. On St. Johns river it would be same rod setup, maybe lighter line since not much cover and mostly open water to fight fish in means I can drop down to as low as 10lb braid and a rat'l trap type of lure and cast that sucker a country mile for all those schoolie bass out there.

I gave up jack and coke in high school when I got sick on it. Same for rum. I can't even smell bacardi today! And how about some Boone's Farm? Sangria? Mogen David wine? It only took once for me on some of these way back when. Have not touched them since. Above someone posted hazicus maximus. Never heard of it, but I'd like to try some. There are some good choices above! Today I am becoming a sake snob. You get the regular restaurant grade sake at all the restaurants, and then when in the Asian stores you see all kinds of other sake varying from clear to like milk. There are some really good high end sake out there made in Japan the right way. So I drink a little sake with my preventative medicine food and that's about it. The raw fish sushi keeps my arteries unclogged. I'm now 61 years old with no heart disease, no clogging, still don't take any regular meds, cholesterol is fine. My father grew up on fried foods. By 55 he had open heart surgery, clogging, artificial heart valve, on blood thinners and more. So I said you know what, I do not want to end up like dad! I'm going in a different direction. Like the eskimos. A fish diet along with raw nuts, raw fruits, raw veggies and top it all off with some good sake! My sushi intake is my preventative heart medicine. Working so far. Any sake drinkers out there?

For those concerned about weight, full ceramics work well. I've been using them for years. Love them! I run them dry and love the whine on the cast. I now use the whine to help judge my casts.

One thing to keep in mind when considering lubricants is that petroleum oils and grease should be avoided. Not only can these dry out and harden up inside a reel, but some petroleum lubricants can affect some parts inside chemically. Like a solvent. Full synthetic oil and grease are what is primarily used today.

Well that was an interesting tune. Not my cup of tea, but tasteful rock music. According to the OP in this ongoing thread I am supposed to rate that song on scale of 1 to 10 and then post one of my own. I will give it an overall 7. I had a hard time with the vocalist's voice. Loved the drummer's mask! The guitar player was very tasteful indeed. I watched him play and noticed how he did his best to fit in and play around rather than like a lot of egotistical guitarist, they tend to try and play over top of others. No so here. I appreciated that and increased the rating because of it. This next song I would like to post comes with a long, long story. But I won't write it all. Only say that I had something to do with the band members this song came from. And decades later those same surviving band members agreed to record this next song with a new band called Six Gun. Their guitarist has been drawing attention. I got pulled into this recording project because in order to replicate the original sounds, they chose to use some of the same equipment to record it with. So I spent some time rebuilding some 1970's Peavey Pacer guitar amplifiers. One of them was used to record the guitar parts of this next track which is a modern day cover of a song the Rossington-Collins Band wrote and recorded over 40 years ago. More like 45 years now. I had a hard time listening to the vocalist in the original RCB band, but this new female vocalist Sada Davidson absolutely nails it with her incredible voice. Before she walked into the studio to record this song she doubted herself and said she could not live up to do justice to the original version. We told her Sada, just be yourself. DO NOT try and sing it like she did. Sing it your way. Make it your own. After a good pep talk and winding her up, she went in there, turned out the lights, and just unleashed her magic with that swaying back and forth like she does as it just flows out of her! Six Gun is backed up here by legendary guitarist Barry Harwood and drummer Derek Hess, both of the original Rossington Collins band made up mostly of plane crash survivors of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band. My only contribution here was to tear down and rebuild 50 year old guitar amplifiers and make them sound like new again clean and clear with no hum. Bring back that original 1975 and 1977 Peavey guitar amp sound. This is what can happen when young kids record with legendary professionals! I get the chills hearing this one. This is when the dead get to live again! I hope some of you will enjoy this remake cover: This is legendary guitarist Barry Harwood during rehearsals using the 1977 Peavey Pacer series 2 I rebuilt for this project. Back in 1970's Barry Harwood was actually asked to replace Ed King on guitar in Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1975, but Barry Harwood here had to turn that offer down because he was under contract and on tour with Melanie. Barry Harwood shown here did play mandolin on original Lynyrd Skynyrd albums from the 1970's, so we have all heard his efforts on guitar and mandolin and just did not know it. After the Lynyrd Skynyrd tragic plane crash in 1977, Barry Harwood was called on to be third guitar in the plane crash survivors band Rossington Collins band in 1979. Here's the band... young kids really. Kids and white haired old timers. This is how Southerners pass down a musical legacy right here! Sorry photo is hidden. It is an unpublished photo from my collection of Barry Harwood on stage with Rossington Collins band back in 1980. This photo is from the Great Southern Music Hall in Orlando, Florida where the RCB band played their first show outside of the band's hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. Barry sure liked his knee high socks! This next image shows Allen Collins and Steve Gaines, the guitarists for the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, warming up before a show in their dressing room. Sitting on the counter is a Peavey Pacer original 1975 amplifier. The real Skynyrd used them too! One additional detail. In the Skynyrd pacer seen below, a JBL speaker was installed. When I rebuilt the pacer for the above recording project, an original Allen Collins owned JBL speaker was installed so the pacer used on this recording project as closely matched Lynyrd Skynyrd as we possibly could. I think it sounds great if I do say so myself!

I'm gonna stay out of mentioning brand names, but yes I got the red one! But I will say that I often purchase tools used at pawn shops, thrift stores, garage sales, and estate sales. All great places to score some nice deals for this type of thing. I really like how cheap the pawn shops can be and their clearance items, but what I especially like are their insurance warranties I can purchase along with the tool for like $5 and get from a 1 month to 6 month warranty on tool I just purchased- no questions asked if I need to return it. They usually don't give cash back, but will give store credit which in large chain pawn shops can be used at any of their stores- which I do quite often. I also buy a lot of rods and reels from pawn shops cheap and other items like my last purchase was a Sears Craftsman heavy duty large socket set ratchet I got for $5. That was a score. I passed up a nice torque wrench like new for $10. So some decent prices to be had in pawn shops and they haggle. So if you have some pawn shops close by, you can spend hundreds for a new tool, or maybe buy a used one cheap sometimes. Just a suggestion.

Agree. This year just did not have the pizzazz factor. Really laid back and low key for sure. There really was not much new under the sun at this show. I will say though it was nice to see the new crop of electric propulsion motors at the show- and my first jet propelled kayak. Pretty cool! I think I'll hold off until kayaks have wings and can fly me into those backwater spots. And one day have remote controlled drone lures that will simply go get my next PB! Ha!

I did not see this comment until after leaving the show. Daiwa was way over on the side up against the wall on the far side of the hall away from most of the booths I was attending to. So I can't help you with the hat. Sorry. As for the rods, I was not as impressed as Glenn was. To me when someone says we used less carbon fibers and less epoxy but its still just as strong... is the same as saying we are giving you less of a rod but its the same as... You know when you go to the store to buy some Cap'n Crunch in 32 ounce box and find out there is now only 24oz of Cap'n Crunch now in an even larger family sized box? Less sold as more? Less being sold as more is how it comes across to me. A rod is a rod is a rod is a rod. Some better than others. These new St. Croix rods are priced at $615.00 each. I am wondering exactly what it is that costs so much? I am not a fan of plastic and carbon fiber reel seats. They crack and break. And that is what is on these over $600 rods. St. Croix's own brand of carbon fiber reel seat. I played around with it. Did not like it really. I was not too thrilled with the shape of the grip being almost a triangle shape with rounded corners that seems to fit in the hand one way. Side to side rotation variations not really available here. With round grips on a rod you can rotate it one way or the other as needed. With triangular shaped grips it makes rotating a little more difficult since this grip fits only one way in the hand comfortably. When I build custom rods and use power hump type of grip I align it for how I use it which is not straight up and down. It is rotated slightly at an angle to fit me. Can't do that with off the shelf rods with triangular grips. I had to ask if it was real cork too because it looked to me like cork laminate. They said it was real cork. I saw some evidence of filler in holes. And they topped off their cork parts with a new rubber composite material and glued it all together. I am wondering how durable this will be for years to come? I have rods now built similarly that the cork and composite materials separate over time. As for the blanks. I can't complain. They were nice rods. But as I looked through the offerings at the booth what hit me was this less is more idea makes me think this line is more like a finesse line of baitcast rods. I did not see heavies and large stiff rods. What I saw was thin small rods I would put more in the medium range with a couple crossing over towards MH. But to me, and heavy cover Florida fishing, it seemed like only half a fishing rod line missing all the heavy rods I need in this state. As I held the rods I was imagining what I would use the rod for and what came to mind was things like rat'l trap, swimbaits, cranks, etc. maybe some spinners. But I was not seeing rods for Flipping and pitching or frogs, etc. So I wondered about this. I would definitely use some of these new rods. But to me they would not give me a complete rod arsenal, and would become only a portion of my overall rod choices because that heavy end was missing from what I saw. So maybe the rods are great. Who knows. All I know is to me they were not $615.00 great. Especially with that carbon fiber reel seat. If I had one of these rods and if it bothered me enough I would strip off their reel seat and grip and build it how I want it rather than how they want it. Might even turn it into a spiral wrapped rod. But I am just not sure what the extra hundreds of dollars are for? I know the rods are made in USA. So that's a bonus. But where are they coming up with $615.00? St Croix rep just told me 'we are selling you less rod but just as strong'... OK, but why is less costing even more I can only wonder? Lots more. If I was ever going to spend that much money on a rod, I could build several full custom rods for that much money. I did ask one last question that was not sufficiently answered. I asked if these blanks would be available for custom rod builders. I was told it might be possible down the road is where it was left.

Well ICAST 2025 is over. I thought this show was light on rod companies. Disappointed some brands stayed away this year. This was first year I saw a bunch of pro fishermen and did not recognize any of them. It seemed really quiet at this show. Laid back. And it was't crowded. No long lines. The casting tanks were virtually empty. I was ducking as I walked by the fly fishing tank as the line and lures whizzed by our heads out in the aisle and I was wondering about possible hooks but nah... They wouldn't do that would they? Still ducking just the same. A really bizarre event happened at one rod company booth. Some media crew shooting a video showed up at the booth. One of them examining rods grabbed a rod and proceeded to bend it tip to butt kind of aggressively and snapped the rod in half. The rod builder on site at the booth kind of went off on them and deservedly so. Man was he upset. Later on when back at his booth he told us that red rod was a one of a kind prototype he brought through different countries to bring it to use to show where this company was going with their rods. He brought it to Orlando to show specific people who also came to see it. And it was wildly broken right on show floor before its mission here was accomplished. Almost targeted corporate sabotage. He showed us the guides on the broken rod. Silver frames with red insert. I recalled the old Fuji ruby guides which today can cost more than $2000 for a set. He said his guides are diamond. Or I assume diamond hardness? I never got this explained so I'll dig into it more. He mentioned his guides were $1500. So that prototype rod someone broke had approximate value of $2000. I tried talking with him about his spiral wrapped rods but there was no room for change in there right now. He believes all stripper guides must be straight up and down aligned with reel. Then his spiral starts on the rod. But he's open to new info and new ways so we'll stay in touch. I read on here some wondered about Shimano curado and what is new. I asked around the booth and found they changed the 300 size saltwater version. And the bass fishing size reel the 151 got a new lighter spool. And that's about it. All in all another enjoyable show. I really enjoyed seeing all the new electric motors for boats. I even saw what looked like jet propulsion on a kayak. And outboard motors now electric. I learned of a new boat hull material I want to look into more. A Florida company to. One thing I did not like seeing are the cheaper components used on high end rods. But the best time I had at ICAST 2025 was spending time talking to state of Florida fisheries biologists. I made some new friends. 99.99% of everyone attending ICAST don't realize how important these biologists are to their fishing successes. A lot of the trophy catch bass entries 8 pounds or bigger are being caught in man made waters like Stick Marsh, Farm 13, or Headwaters. These bodies of water are created by biologists. The phosphate mines being reclaimed. All biologists. The reputation of lake Toho was invented by biologists and work done there. All across Florida and country where you see fishing improvements we have biologists to thank. So talking to them and finding out what they are doing is in my benefit big time. I've been in touch with fishery biologists for decades. They are the best source of fishing information. The Orange County Convention Center was filled with pro bass fishermen today and my best fishing conversation is with biologists. Never thought it would be this way.

Because of this post I walked 5 aisles over to check out this St. Croix rod line. Standing here now examining the legend x2. Not going back to Daiwa. I'll send you pm later.

Search this forum for 'angler's creed in the spirit of Larry Nixon'. In there is one word that sets the followers of science apart from the intuitive fishermen. It is the word listen. It is one thing to know the sciences of fish, rods and reels, and lures, and environmental effects. That is merely preparation. On the water truly great fishermen and fisherwomen listen. Nature speaks to us. Some listen. Some don't. In 1986 Denny Brauer did one of the most influential bass fishing videos I ever watched. His flipping and pitching video on a still unknown secret lake in Florida. In that video I saw for first time someone who could read the water like no other. He has a 6th sense that is next level. He will find or know where fish are I would not target normally. Denny sets hook in this video on large bass because he saw a plant twitch. That is dialed in. Next next level. I can watch other bass fishermen who does not seem to have that connected to Nature 6th sense like Brauer and Clunn have. I would add the word listen to that which makes better fishermen and fisherwomen. As Larry Nixon said... Listen to Nature. Listen to the wind. The weather. The fish. The water. The birds. The light. The dark. All of it is brought together in "better" maybe great fisher people. https://youtu.be/BJhbnvjIHSU?feature=shared

Glenn, How can members find you at ICAST? Will you be there through Friday?

Anyone going to ICAST this year? If so why do you go? What do you do at ICAST? Looking for new products? Networking? Filling the swag bag? Business? I know for some they bring family and play golf and hit the theme parks as well. Some fish. Today was supposed to be a fishing tournament but it may be in jeopardy due to weather. Yesterday was golf and wed. Thurs. And Friday will be main show. I was hoping Gary Loomis would make it another year but I'm afraid this legend may be getting too old. Hope to hear from others here why you attend ICAST.

There are a couple of free ones that seem to work well. AVG and Avast. Avast free version along with malwarebytes free protection has worked well. Avast bootscan goes line item by line item on hard drives looking for anything that does not belong.

I can't say about the new stuff. My comment was based off the particular SLX 151HG I have as compared to my Curado HG's. Not the same brakes at all. Newer SLX reels may be improved. I'm not sure. Been out of that game for a few years now. I picked up a used SLX on a rod I wanted in a deal. Keeping the rod, but not the SLX. If it had the same brakes as my curado's I'd probably keep it.