the reel ess

I feel certain I've had the spool out of this reel for cleaning and lubing, but I can't seem to get it out now. I have the left side palming plate off.The spool will slide out a little and I got a couple loops of line between the spool and the reel body that I can't get clear. Now I really need to get the spool all the way out. Is there some trick? Help! Update: I got all the line off. It was cheap Big Game mono anyways.But I'd still like to get that spool out to lube the backside spindle. I used it in salt water.

BOOYAH!!! They last a good while. I've worn one out, but it caught a lot of fish. I bought an H2O frog from Academy and not impressed with the ability to walk it or the material it's made of. It seems like the old Spro frog made of harder rubber and a flat body.

Me too. Catch your own dang bass. I'll keep some sometimes, but if I want to throw my fish back, I'll do it.

A couple things here: Bass from a clean, spring-fed body of water taste good. The limits most places are set based on DNR electro-shock surveys. If the place isn't fished out, they're not hurting the numbers. Nature has a way of fixing itself. Take a lot and more will survive after hatching the next few years. In the meantime there will be more large ones while the quantity is down. I don't like to see people take big fish to eat because I like to catch big fish and I know their mentality is "I caught this, it's my trophy, I'm taking it home!" I used to have the same mentality. I know a lot of big fish get wasted because people can't seem to let go of a trophy. I was told by a DNR hatchery manager that you can't fish out a body of water. Some just won't bite. He said most of the time, when a place has no fish it's because of some other factor. Oxygen, disease, water quality... This is why I seek and fish private places.

Welcome from a fellow South Carolinian. You might not have been born here but you got here as quickly as you could.

Nice job on the canoe, BTW.

BPS has a 30 lb thrust tiller trolling motor for $99.99. I can't imagine needing more than 30 lb for a canoe unless it's so windy you wouldn't want to be in the canoe. To go cheap on the battery to begin with you can pull the one from your vehicle to use while fishing. I know that sounds pretty stupid, but I did it often when I was young and broke-a small trolling motor won't drain it quickly. Go where others can get to so they can jump you off! http://www.basspro.com/Bass-Pro-Shops-Prowler-T30/30-Trolling-Motor/product/1211200228/ If it were mine, I'd just paddle the thing. There are better platforms for electric motors. And if you fish in the shallows as much as I do in the kayak, a trolling motor will be hitting bottom a lot. PFD, 2 paddles, anchor and rope will get you started.

I went in Feb with a couple guys. one had a little too much to drink and fell out. We had to call it a day and get him in the truck with the heat on. It was a big boat with high gunwales but he still managed. I fell out of my SOT kayak once in the spring, which takes some effort. It was brisk. I set the hook on a bass that wasn't there and just went on over with my iPhone in my pocket. When I went over, the kayak stayed upright so i didn't lose any rods or tackle. I was wearing my PFD, but I got braid wrapped around my foot about 10 times. I had to swim to shore with my arms. It scared my daughter, but it was no biggie. Lesson learned. I got a new iPhone 6 out of it because I was due the upgrade. My dad and a friend were putting out brushpiles at night so as not to tip off the locals to their location. They had a big tree across the bow of our pontoon and tied several cinder blocks to it to sink it. They tossed the whole thing over and a loop of rope took the other guy overboard by the leg. He was very fortunate not to drown.

It should be a MH in the 6'-6" to 7' range to get the most uses out of it. It should probably have a Mod-fast action to give some tip for casting and letting fish take trebles, while still being stout enough for single hook hooksets. Go with a good high graphite content if you plan to do everything with it. By that, I mean, shy away from the composite rods, and definitely, no fiberglass. You'll need sensitivity. I don't think you gave a price point, but you can do what you need under $100. If you're thinking more like under $50, look to the store brands from BPS, Cabela's and Academy. I got into bass fishing when a good rod could be had for $30 and we did alright. My first bass rod was a 5'6" Skaespeare Liberty 96% graphite from probably 1983. I just yard-sold it last fall. Now I have rods from $130 all the way down to an Eagle Claw I bought under $10 in the 80's. They all catch bass. That article link is good. Good luck.

Mossy green braid fades and turns to light over time. If you fish in dark waters like I do then the Sharpie makes it less visible. I guess you could use a dark green Sharpie if you like. I do this trick to the end 3 feet or so of line even if it doesn't matter one bit to the bass. You can also reel the line onto another reel and you'll have a new, dark end.

Do you know any places where people have sunk brushpiles for crappie? Once the crappie move out, forget about them, but there'll be catfish on the brush almost year round. Of course they mostly eat shad and other fish. Channel cats can be caught on a variety of homemade baits. One we always had good luck with was hotdogs cut into about 3/4" lengths. You can rig them on a Carolina style rig or just put a couple split shot on. Don't go too heavy with the weight because the hotdog is tender and will come off easily. Or you could go buy some frozen shad, minnows shiners etc. or seine up some bait. Cats will also eat nightcrawlers and crawfish. You can fish a little away from the brush to minimize your hangups in the brush. Cats will come to the smell. My dad has a house on a local lake where we sunk Christmas trees for maybe 20 years for crappie. We caught a lot more catfish than crappie, and good size too. We had a few we didn't manage to get turned around because we were using light tackle for the panfish. Another good bait is anything you have on the lake that's invasive, like white perch. You can have fun catching them, there's no limit and you can have free bait. They'll catch blues as well.

That's the real reason people use 65 or 50# braid. It won't dig in as much. Try not to yank on it because that's when it digs in. When you do have to yank it, take a good cast away from your target, reel it up and get back to pitching. I love braid, but that's a shortcoming.

I like a black buzzbait in the fog or a drizzling rain. I try hard not to fish in a thunderstorm.

I have so many. But one of the earliest was me finally big enough to go out with my dad and his buddy in his friend's boat. We didn't have a fishing boat a that time so it was a big deal. They were crappie fishing over brushpiles with minnows. You know how young kids are. They need to be casting and reeling to stay engaged. My dad gave me a white Mr Twister grub on probably an 1/8 oz. jighead and I proceeded to outfish them the entire day at every stop. They only had poles, no rods. We stopped at a store on the way home and the men bought the store out of small grubs. I had fished for panfish with a cane pole and worms before them,but I was hooked on gamefish thereafter. Another time, my dad and I with his same buddy, happened upon a guy as we were trolling down the bank who told us to leave his spot alone because he was fishing a bass tourney the next day and needed that spot. We cleaned it out. My dad and I got into white bass, stripers and white perch many times. One time the action got so fast and furious, we rigged multiple rods so we could catch one and drop it in the boat, pick up another and cast. My dad got so excited he fell in the boat trying to put some in the livewell. We caught 60, which was a limit at that time of the whites and several stripers to boot. We just started throwing them back after we thought we had a limit. We could have kept fishing, but we ran out of daylight. I caught 5 nice keeper bass on five casts with a Spook one morning in front of a guy who told us he was fishing a tourney and would love to have those bass, insinuating he wanted to use our fish. I kept them. BTW, the 6th bass broke me off and took the only Spook we had because I didn't retie. I had other topwaters, but didn't get another bite after that.

I usually move them with jerks until I find an opening. Then I'll let it sit still in the opening. If no bite, I'll walk it a few times and let it sit a little longer before moving across the mat again. If I'm retrieving away from the bank, I'll pause at the edge of the pads and give them a really good look and walk it slowly away from there. If you can walk the frog, you can give it a lot of twitches without moving it far. The edge of the pads is where I get most of my bites. I don't fish anywhere on a regular basis that is just one thick mat of vegetation. It's usually pads and/or logs. If a fast retrieve is what you want, I'd try a toad.

I caught this in the creek behind Pawleys Island, SC. I was told by a local woman that my description sounds like a toadfish. But I don't see that as a SC saltwater species. I caught it on the first cast. As I was clearing a backlash, it was already on. It was about 10" long and the head was larger than the body. It had a row of stubby teeth top and bottom. Sorry for the pic quality. It was taken with a phone though a waterproof enclosure.

I caught a toadfish (on the first cast as I was picking out a backlash) and a small flounder, both on Gulp Mulet. I was hoping for better luck, but after speaking to the locals, it looks like I had better luck that day.

Thanks guys. I have fished the creeks behind the island before and caught a couple flounder. I guess I'm looking for some more action. But I'll give the creek another try. Saltwater is not my specialty. I'll read up a little before I go.

I'd like to add to this that if you tie a loop knot to the frog you'll get it to walk easier. I usually don't though because I can walk the frog and that knot is hard for me to tie without leaving a big loop.

This is all good advice. Yeah, the two times during daylight you can reasonable expect a topwater bite are morning and evening. I'm no expert, but I do fish topwaters a lot. Of course, there are times that will make a liar out of me. I find the best places to get bites on frogs are shallower, smaller bodies of water and places with a lot of cover. Some have said they get bites in open water on them and I'm sure they do, but I don't. I get bites in ponds with dark water, lilies and flooded timber where the water is probably no more than 8 ft deep except at the dam. If I come to a place with a lot of large lilies, I'm sure to put a frog on. When I get a bite, I don't yank. I reel down to it quickly, feel the fish and set it HARD. They will usually hol it a couple seconds and I don't take that long. I have a rod specifically for frogs in junk. I use 50# braid on it. Sometimes the fish don't bite the bait but rather slap at it. If you can see it, it wasn't a bite. Let it rest a few seconds and resume the retrieve slowly. If you get a bite that misses, you can toss a Senko type bait over and often catch that fish. I guess the fish thinks it stunned its prey. I almost always have a Trick Worm tied on in shallower ponds. I see others have mentioned bending out the hooks, which I do before I even tie frogs on. Also, hold the frog nose down so the skirts hang to each side and trim those skirts about even with the frog eyes. Some trim them even more. I usually trim to the eyes and stop there. This makes a smaller target for the fish to bite.

Freshwater or salt? And good locations I can put the kayak in? I'll be staying at Pawleys, but I can drive wherever I need to. Thanks.

And as is well documented, I LOVE topwater fishing! Thanks for the tip.

Headed to Pawleys Island, SC for a week. I haven't decided if I'll take the kayak and fish the inlets or hire a guide with kayaks and gear. That would be easier because I wouldn't feel the need to drive my truck down as well as my wife taking her car, but I'm a cheap skate and I've already managed a few flounder before on my own. I'll take pics though and report back.

The only time I usually don't use a weight is when I'm using a Zoom Trick Worm or some "floating worm". They're heavier and designed to be T rigged weightless. You can cast them without weight. Or when I'm using a wacky rig. But I usually use the same worm for that. I'm saying you should never use Trick Worms with a weight. They're extremely versatile. I have experimented with using a magnum size worm weightless, but didn't catch anything on it. That's just not in my wheelhouse yet.

Thanks. The 2 bags I got by mistake are Okeechobee Craw color. The fish really like black/blue color combos where I fish and thought this will be a good one to try.