FloridaFishinFool

I have already been inside the reel, took it apart and lubed it my way including every bearing. It is a nice well built reel. And I am now on season two with it. All pflueger president reels are made in China too. And most of the parts for Shimano reels are made in china too as well as Singapore and Malaysia. This reel is well built and is awesome for the price. I was told a while back Cabelas sold them for $130.00. My shimano stradic reel now feels like a beast compared to this reel's ease of operation. The Chinese are stepping up their game and this is one of them.

You want a reel that will knock your socks off? Try a Tokushima I am buying them right now for less than $40.00 each. Blows a president away- and I have 4 presidents, and they along with some of my shimano stradics are being put into a box right now while I buy more Tokushima reels. President reels have like 10 ball bearings, and this reel has like 13 or 14 ball bearings and has a super free movement better than a president and is cheaper too! If you hold one of these in your hand and move the handle to the up position and turn it loose, it will swing back and forth like a swing much long than any stradic or president I have. Super smooth, well built, cheap, and looks great too!

While I am a fan of the pflueger president reel series, I have found that not all of the president series offer the same or similar feel or quality of movement. I have found the 6735 and 6740 to be my favorite of the series, and my 6935 and 6925 are OK, but they are not as fluid as the 6735 or my 6740 which are identical in the body, but have different spools. I have worked on reels for nearly 35 years, and all of the reels I have, have been worked on and tweaked to get the most out of them, and still there is a noticeable difference in feel and movement between sizes and newer and older reels. Recently I purchased a Tokushima HK-3000 and have been blown away by this reel. It has more ball bearings than the president reels, and its movement is actually more free and fluid than my president reels. And it has a unique oscillation gear that moves the spool in and out very slowly and Tokushima calls it parallel line lay. The spool is made for superlines and does not need backing line. You can spool slick superlines direct to the spool. It is one awesome spinning reel for the money. Beats the president any day of the week. In fact, I have been putting my president reels and shimano stradic reels in a box and ordering more of these Tokushima reels. Here is an image of my new favorite: My own Tokushima HK3000 And the HK3000 next to the reel it will soon be replacing- an old Shimano stradic

Hold on a second... I went back and re-read the OP post and he does not say what type of reel he will be putting it on. And I just read a fireline suggestion... I would not recommend fireline- a fused fireline- to be used on a spinning reel. Fused superlines do not do well twisting. Braided line can handle twisting better without fouling up as bad as a fused line can with less twisting. So I would only recommend Berkley fused Fireline and SpiderWire EZ braid to be used only on a baitcast reel and not on any spinning reels. Just sayin'... from personal experience I have had trouble using fused superlines on spinning reels. I'd go with power pro braid for spinning reels. I am not against fused superlines by any means. I love Berkley original fused fireline in smoke color around 10 to 12 pound test and no higher so as to not compromise casting distance with a stiffer line. It loosens up some, but nothing like braid loosens up.

My WalMart sells power pro too!

I have no idea who made my boat carpet, but I got it at the last PGA golf tradeshow in Orlando, Fl. The carpet in my boat was used on one of the booth's across the aisle from a large booth I was under contract with, and when the show ended they simply rolled up the carpet and tagged it as "trash" and needless to say it, but that trash is now in my boat and I have enough spare to do it a second time too. So the carpet is probably not one of the lesser expensive carpet types being that it was part of the exhibit across the aisle. It is more than likely some sort of outdoor carpet designed for high end golf purposes and maybe even professional putt putt facilities. I really have no idea what its intended application was. All I know is I like it, and if I had to pay for it I probably would not like the price. It feels like rough brillo pad and fibers are some type of thick plastic fiber and it is backed by a black foam rubber substrate. Even in the hottest of days under a blazing hot central Florida sun it stays very cool to the touch so and I never gave it any thought until now that you are saying yours gets too hot to touch. And this leads me to conclude that color is less important than the material it is made of. I'll post an image of it. It is some good stuff. Just wish I could identify it now and I may have to wait until the next PGA show and hope that same company is back in that same spot next time. Who knows, but golf related carpet may be an improvement over what some sell as boat carpet. When you step back it looks solid black, but up close you can see it has white fibers mixed in with black. Foam rubber backing;

Now that is interesting. I have solid black and I live in central Florida and mine does not get hot in the summer. I fish barefoot too. So this would indicate that certain materials are better suited for carpet than others???

That's what I was thinking! Black too! I guess I'm not one for matching colors to seats and motors since they come and go while the boat can remain the same. I have changed seats several times and I just grab what I can find off craigslist and don't worry too much about matching the carpet and drapes or make the carpet match an outboard. Never heard of such a thing. My rear seat is white and front seat is grey and I never even think about it not matching- all I want it for is to work while fishing. I'm also not one of those guys- or gals- who likes to match my reel color to the rod color and then add flashy knobs (hubcaps) or hood ornaments. I am there to fish, not play interior decorator! Maybe that is why my socks never match?

Hello Roger, I am curious about two things, 1) how long were out on the water today and when did you catch your bass? I spent the last 3 hours of daylight on the Winter Park chain of lakes this afternoon and I saw absolutely zero bass activity. I saw specks and other fish feeding but not bass. I went for two hours out there throwing everything but the kitchen sink at them and just nothing until the last rays of sunlight I caught two roaming bass and had to head in. So I am curious how long you spent on the lake and did you experience hours of no activity and catch all your fish within a few minutes of each other, or were they spread out? And 2) you said you saw a mink? Not doubting it, but wondering if maybe it could have been an otter? Florida has a ton of otters and I was wondering if maybe it was an otter you saw as they can be difficult to tell one from the other- especially if driving. According to the FWC website there are mink in Florida but they are extremely rare and the FWC has an alert on their website asking for fishermen to report their sightings because biologists are tying to determine their range of habitat. Here is a link to the alert: http://myfwc.com/news/news-releases/2012/june/07/mink/ And here is where they ask for any sightings to be reported: https://public.myfwc.com/hsc/mink/getlatlong.aspx Glad you caught some fish! It was a tough day out there. Our Florida bass don't seem to like the cold water too much. Photos for comparing critters: (they are kind of hard to tell apart, though the otter can be nearly twice the size and weight of a mink.) Florida mink: Florida otter:

I agree with a lot of the comments who say never. Here in Florida we can use top water lures year round. Heck, I even often use a weightless rubber worm with a #4 hook only and work it around on the surface in heavy cover, over grass, etc. Even when it gets cold here, I can still use top water and instead of the bass hitting on it, the sunshine bass and stripers will.

Sorry to hear about the eyesight. I'd go with a grey or black since they can cover a lot of dirt spots, etc. And the outdoor carpet I use has a foam rubber backing that reduces noise and vibrations and really makes a difference, especially when standing on it feels like walking on gel insoles. I also install carpet in such a way it can be easily removed for cleaning the carpet and the boat. Cabela's and BassPro both have various selections to choose from, but also check with your local carpet dealers and see if you can get some for less from them. Good luck and post some photos when you are done!

Good ole' Florida sunshine bass. They are a hybrid cross between a striper and white bass produced by the state of Florida and dumped into lakes and rivers by the millions- about 2,000,000 per year here. They fight like crazy and are good eatin' too.

In Florida you really don't need to stock the pond. The way it works around here is natural stocking. Developers dig out retention ponds all the time for business and neighborhood development. When they dig out those brand new holes in the earth there is not one fish in them or anywhere around them. But within 1 to 3 years you can catch fish. Birds are the most likely culprit. They fly around to all sorts of lakes and rivers and wade in the shallows and often pick up fish eggs on their webbed feet and then fly to another pond and do the same thing wading in the shallows releasing the eggs into a new retention pond. It is amazing how fast this happens. Turtles crawl around from lake to ponds and rivers and can carry eggs with them too. Alligators also do it. So in a matter of months here in Florida a once barren hole freshly dug out will start to show signs of life. And the life that forms in those holes will only grow to the point of where the habitat will allow for growth. If you overstock a pond nature will correct this by killing off what can not get enough food to survive and the life in the pond will reach an equilibrium point and balance right there. So even if you stocked your local pond, there is no guarantee what you put in there will survive. That being said, I am not sure of the laws concerning buying wild game fish, but there is no law preventing you from catching bass and bream legally in other waters and carrying them to your pond if you want to. People do this all the time here in Florida and it is completely legal. I mean if you can catch it and take it home to eat it, what is there to stop you from not eating it and simply putting the legal catch into a pond? I have seen people catch bass and put them in their homes in an aquarium until they get too big and have to release the fish. Also be aware that an entire pond and lake can be populated with bass just from one pair of mating fish. So if you have bass and bream in the pond already and they are reproducing there is no real need or reason to increase the amount of fish in the pond beyond what it can naturally sustain. The state of Florida has a fish hatchery/stocking program you can contact them and possibly get some free fingerlings from them, but if it is just a small pond the state generally won't have any interest in stocking it for you. They concentrate on public waters where we can all benefit from the stocking program- of which I make great use of! I go to the FWC website and download all of the annual stocking reports and then three years from the date of that report you can begin fishing for them. I wait the three years to allow the fish time to grow to a decent size. You can try your luck in one year or two years after the stocking, but I have made my own time of 3 years for this. Here is the website for it: http://myfwc.com/fishing/freshwater/stocking/ Just remember if you overstock your small pond that is a death sentence for the fish who can not get enough to eat because of the limited space and lack of food. It will balance out quickly. Just let nature take care of it and fish it! And I would recommend that you contact the FWC and do some legal fact checking with them on what you can or can not do, but I do believe what I said above is correct according to the laws of this state.

Locals are tearing up the sunshine bass up and down the St. Johns river right now. Flashy lures is catching them. I heard one local tell me he was using a spinner spoon and having a blast. I use to live out there near the river, and my old fishing buddy out there is doing well around Lake Harney. Today I live closer to Orlando and Winter Park chain of lakes, but I have not been out lately. With sons ages 1 and 3 I have to spend my time with them for now and don't get out as much as I want to. Here is a video of Captain Tom Van Horn doing the same thing on Lake Harney earlier this year when he caught a 9 pound sunshine bass in Lake Harney on what appears to be live bait- though all you can see in this video is him holding onto what appears to me to be an empty circle hook that tells me he was free-lining some live bait out there. We usually net us some shad baitfish and tear them up. I love it when these sunshine bass get into a feeding frenzy right at sunrise. Some awesome fishing! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYNmC_aLqkY

I agree with most of the comments. You joined that team and are now a part of it. Rather than quit I think you should give it your best and stay with it to the end. And if you decide to never wrestle again once this season is over, that is fine, as there are plenty of other things to do out there, but don't start something and then not finish it. Now is a good time to take that bull by the horns and make the rest of the reason the best you can. Go for it!

Not only does size of bait matter, but size of fish too. I'd go with MH.

I was told by a shimano reel tech that they put the AR pawl back in because so many people were putting like 65 pound line on them and trying to yank stumps off the bottom of a lake with them damaging the AR bearing, so they added the AR pawl back in to help protect the AR bearing. If you don't abuse your reel, it should be just fine. All of my older curado reels do not have the AR pawl in them and I have no problems with them so you should be fine without it. When you say you tried to free spin the handle did you back off the drag all the way off so you can feel just the handle and worm gear only? Sometimes if the worm gear is not lubed it can make the handle feel stiff too. I doubt if the stiffness you are feeling is due to that small bearing under the handle. I would suggest any resistance you might feel on the handle would be due to other factors like the line guide worm gear, and reel through drag mech. When you have the reel apart simply slip the handle onto the drive shaft and spin only the drive shaft without it being connected to anything else in the reel to judge it on its own. You should be fine. It is nice when you finish a reel and can feel the difference your work efforts have on the reel.

So true. Everyone has a different opinion on these things. I live in Florida and we have a saltier environment, it is in the air around here and can rust items just sitting out. I use corrosion X because it is a very slick lubricant and because it stops rust dead in its tracks around here and that is very important. I have never had any problems with any of my AR bearings. Corrosion X is awesome for them and I use it on bearings in my spinning reels too, especially those I take to saltwater. I don't want rust issues and I have not found anything better than corrosion X for that purpose. Can you recommend something better? I would surely appreciate it. Concerning the drive shaft bearing, in my opinion there is absolutely zero need to remove any grease from a drive shaft bearing. No need for it what so ever. No cleaning needed. Shimano, or the bearing manufacturer puts grease in those bearings to stay in there for a reason. Oil runs out and spins out. Leave the grease in that bearing and do nothing to it and it can last just fine for ten years or more. Remove the grease and now you have created a situation where you will have to provide routine maintenance of putting lubricant back into it on a regular basis. My whole point is you don't have to do anything to that bearing and it will do just fine for many years to come. So I personally don't want the grease removed from that particular bearing in my reels, but that is just my opinion. And like you said, neither of us is right or wrong, just a different way to do the same thing. Just in my personal collection I have some 40 reels to maintain yearly for myself and my sons and I simply can not take the time to treat every bearing in every reel the same way I would the spool bearings on a baitcast reel and it is my opinion there is no need to. Only spool bearings get special treatment like that. Nice to meet you! I love discussing this stuff!

The bearing is fine just how it comes with the reel- grease and all. For a drive shaft bearing I leave the grease in there. No need to remove it. Add a little oil and be done with it. I disagree with you about mixing lubricants. If you look at commercial lubricants you will find that often they are a mixture of lubricants too. Like motor oil with PTFE added. They say it works better. Or a grease mixed with a dry lubricant. Many off the shelf lubricants are already mixtures, so I would disagree about causing any problems. I have reels that were made back in the mid 1980's and still work fine today. So it must work and I have not run into any problems with lubricants. If you have a fairly new reel, the drive shaft bearing would not need cleaning. I know you don't know me or my background, but I can tell you I have been working on reels for nearly 35 years. I have a pretty good idea of what works and what don't and what is necessary and when something isn't is all I can say. We just have a difference of opinion is all and I will leave it here. As for an AR bearing, I use corrosion X on them. No grease. Works like a charm, never rusts, no problems, and I have never had to replace one though I have 15 new ones sitting on the shelf for my reels just in case.

Its a drive shaft bearing. I don't need to inspect it visually especially if it has shields there is nothing to see. All I care about is does it spin freely? Do I hear or feel any crunchiness to it when spinning? Meaning rust inside the bearing. If I feel crunchiness or hear it or feel it in any way I replace it. If it spins freely and is smooth I just add a drop of oil and re-install. No real inspection needed for a drive shaft bearing. It has absolutely no effect what so ever on casting, so it does not need special attention. It does not need grease removed in my opinion. Leave it as is, oil it, and move on. Some of my spinning reels have ten ball bearings inside. All I do is take out the bearing and check it for smoothness when spun, and make sure it has a drop of oil and put it back in. Only spool bearings on a baitcast reel require special attention for free spin casting. All other bearings do not require the same level of attention or work.

I hear ya! But the amount of air time those sponsors are demanding are taking away from my quality of enjoyment of watching bass fishing. I want to see fishing, not listen to people describe it for me while brand names are flashing around like neon lights in Las Vegas. Those sponsors are ruining pro fishing in my opinion. Just ruining it. Bass fishing was suppose to be a fun sport to enjoy and not have to think about what all they want to shove down our throats just to gain access to the sport we love. Why have we allowed those sponsors to literally take over our favorite sport? Why? Do we need another one? How about ten new companies to buy up even more air time? If this keeps up, we won't see any bass fishing. It will be one long commercial called the Classic. Want to see them fish? Buy a ticket. Wouldn't it be great if we had bass tournaments where brand names were hidden and against the rules? I miss the old days! Put duct tape across every brand name and let's get back to fishing! I know, I know, not going to happen. And that is why a lot of smaller bass clubs are taking off these days- because many of us just want to fish without all the sponsor noise pollution and eye pollution they throw at us. Get lost sponsors! You are ruining fishing! (this is just my opinion a wishful dream)

I am curious as to why? I can understand wanting the grease out of a spool bearing for free spin, but what would removing it from a drive shaft bearing do to improve anything? I never bother with treating a drive shaft bearing like a spool bearing. To me, just adding a drop of oil is more than enough to suffice and I just don't see the need for treating a drive shaft bearing same as I would a spool bearing, but that is just my opinion. It certainly would not do any harm to treat every bearing in a reel like a spool bearing, but I just don't see what is to be gained from doing so.

That drive shaft already looks clean. Remove it and oil the bearing and put it back, but if it were me I would pull out those other parts too down to the frame only. For that drive shaft bearing you can use any machine oil. The main thing is to keep it oiled and lubricated so it spins easily and won't rust. Since it has nothing to do with casting, any regular machine oil will do. You do not have soak in alcohol or other solvents for a bearing not associated with the free spin of a spool. While you have the drive shaft out I would pull those other parts out and put them back in with a little grease on them. I generally use a marine grade grease for the plastic parts. Just a light thin film anywhere the plastic touches the frame. And I would pull that clutch plate out and lightly lubricate it too. For metal on metal I use a marine grade grease mixed in with some dry lube, and leave the dry lube out for any part with plastic since the dry lube can be gritty and actually wear the part more- just thinking it is gritty makes me leave it off the plastic parts and only go with a marine grease. But you can get away with just a plain old marine grease. Once installed back in the reel, sometimes I will add a super small amount of light oil along the edge of the part and work it back and forth a few times wiping away any excess and move on to the next part. Just look and see where it touches and rubs something else and put a light coat of grease in between. As for spool bearings, I don't use isopropyl alcohol- if I used alcohol at all I would choose denatured which does not leave a film behind when it dries. There are a number of solvents that can be used on bearings and I like to use bestine to dissolve out any grease and then just blow them out with compressed air and check spin on them and use an extremely thin lightweight oil on them, but any of the common reel bearing lubricants will work. You just don't want to use too much oil, or to thick of an oil that would slow the free spin of the bearing down any. After oiling I'd use compressed air on them again to blow out any excess oil and check for free spin again and install. Oh, one place I don't lube are those yoke posts. I leave those dry. No need to lubricate those. But fit the yoke down onto the clutch cam and you can see small ramps for lack of a better word where when the clutch cam turns the yoke is lifted up taking the pinion gear with it. Lubricate those ramps to prevent wear, but just a light coat of grease only on the ramps where those two plastic parts touch each other. This will prevent wear more so than not lubricated there.

As a general rule, if it rubs lubricate it. But do so sparingly. That reel looks almost identical to my old shimano curado reels. If you remove the clutch cam retainer as seen in your photo above be very careful to not bend it! They bend very easily and once bent I just replace them. On my reels it is BNT1520 and you can find them on ebay for like $1.50 so I stock up on those parts and the yoke BNT1519 which wears out the fastest of all those plastic parts, and I also keep in stock the plastic clutch cam BNT1521. And I replace those stainless steel spool bearings with some ceramic hybrids. I have used curado reels for about 12 years now. And when new some of those moving parts are installed dry with no lube. I remove them and lightly lube them to reduce friction and wear so the parts last longer and operate easier. So I take the reel all the way down to frame only and put it back together and lubricate each part in a different way and with different lubricants. As for reel lubricants, everyone has a different opinion, but I use up to 6 or 7 different lubricants on a reel overhaul and even mix some of them. 3 oils of various viscosity, and 3 different types of grease. But that is just how I do it. Some people use only one lubricant. Hey, any is better than none! Good luck! Let us know how it goes! Oh, your reel is already clean looking. I don't see why you would need to use green solution. A simple dry wipe would suffice with as clean as that reel looks inside. I have rebuilt hundreds of reels in 30 plus years of doing my own reels and even paid to do it for others too and polish and improve the reel as well. I have never used green solution. I just use regular old dawn dish soap and warm water and a toothbrush works just fine for me.

Power Pro has issued a warning about imitation braid line on their website being sold as Power Pro: http://www.powerpro.com/publish/content/global_fish/en/us/power_pro_v2/info/counterfeit_warning.html That being said, I would not exactly say that all braid line that is made to imitate is pure junk. For any foreign company to copy power pro logo and label design is wrong and illegal in this country and I would not buy the pirated power pro, there are plenty out there who are not using the power pro label and logo design illegally that have worked just fine for me for years. I decided a couple of years ago to experiment with some of the less expensive braid lines made in Asian countries, and I have not had any problems with it. I have ordered 6, 10, 12, 14, 20, 50 pound test from various Asian countries of origin and have been quite pleased with it and the price. I am not a fan of lubricated braid line. Teflon is a poison and I think it should be banned from use on all fishing lines because as the line is used, the poison lubricant teflon falls off and goes right into our lakes and rivers and never goes away- and you can see it rub off on your fingers too while fishing. Teflon poison will stay there unchanged for decades and longer as it does not break down into inert elements as I understand it- and I could be wrong, but I think our environment deserves better from us than continuous poisoning every time we go fishing. I gotta think about the world I will be handing down to my children and to their children and if all of us keep doing these same things over and over, then the environment in which we live will only get more and more polluted. So I am of the opinion that turning this situation around has to start with me. I do my part, and if others did their part we can hand future posterity a cleaner world with fewer poisons. I surely do not want teflon in my water here in Florida. And teflon is just one of the various lubricants braid line companies use to make their line slick as though it were some sort of an improvement- which I don't like. So this is another reason why I ordered braid line from overseas, and I will not buy nor use Power Pro any more. Their prices are artificially inflated and are way too high as is evident by the other available lines from overseas made of gel-spun PolyEthylene fibers. I want my braid line to be dry, non-lubricated, plain old PE fibers and nothing more and that is precisely what I get from overseas while a number of U.S. and other countries seem to want to coat their lines with slick lubricants that really don't do much for me but raise the price of the product and pollute, and more importantly wears off back to just plain old PE fibers anyways. So I just skip the lubricants and buy only dry PE lines. In 3 years, I have not lost a fish due to snapping the line. So from my experience I can not say if it is not power pro then it must be junk. It casts the same. Works the same. What more can I ask? And I absolutely love Berkley Fireline. I have used it for many years and love it! I use it only on baitcast reels and never on spinning reels because I don't want to twist the fused line. Fireline is PE fibers fused together rather than braided. I use it mostly for rubber worms and swimbaits, etc.