MickD

What's the lighter for? I seem to have missed that.

I use a quite old Stradic every year in salt with braid and have had no troubles. But I have the reel well oiled to begin with, rinse thoroughly every day after fishing, and when I get home, drag the line through fresh water behind the boat. i think if the salt is left well inside the line stack it can get "sticky" and not peel off freely, so I try to get the salt off the whole line. Same for fly reels and rods. The color on some of my braid has changed, but does so in fresh too, so don't know if salt is worse for that.

Yes, one gets used to them. I actually prefer the feel of them as the knob gives me better grip on two hand casts than the full grip. And I use full grip and split grips interchangeably on the same day and have no problems. It's a personal thing, so I cannot be certain, but I expect if you try one soon you will be not even noticing it. Similarly, until this year, for about 70 years, I had used BC reels with right hand cranks. After a shoulder problem with some techniques I bought a left retrieve BC reel, and now it feels more natural than the right cranks.

My double uni's are tied well, and I've spent a fortune on FC trying to make it work. Maybe junk FC costs a fortune. To be a little clearer about the failures I've had in the FC side of the double uni, it is after the rig has been used quite a bit. If I retie every time I go fishing I know I will not get the failures with FC, because they don't occur right away. The FC is more fragile than mono under these conditions. Period :-)

I'll try Big Game mono-easier to find than hard mono leader material.

I don't think the "invisibiliity" of FC is enough better than that of mono to justify the fragility of FC. I've checked knots lately and often found that after a while the braid to FC knot fails easily, and it's always the FC right at the knot that fails. I'm going back to hard mono leader material for my leaders. I usually use 10-15 pound leaders.

What is the difference between a Stradic FK and a Stradic HGFK? Interesting that the 2500 is a little heavier than the 3000.

Gerry Gostenek on Lake St. Clair is as good as it gets. Search Great Lakes bass fishing guide service, you'll quickly find him.

Getting wet and dunking are two different things. When I fished in Canada I often left my outfits in the boat overnight and they got rained on. But since the reels were maintained properly, none malfunctioned. With all the advice you've been getting it appears you have two choices. Keep dunking them and not maintaining them and get the same results, or treat them better and give them a little oil and maintenance now and then and have them last forever. Your choice. "Shielded" and "water resistant" and "corrosion resistant" don't mean the same thing as "waterproof" and "corrosion proof."

Did it get dunked? Maybe a number or times? Stored outside in a shed or something like that? To get rust you have to have water, either in vapor or liquid form. Reels don't get water inside as a general occurrence, but this one obviously did. I think your expectations are too high. To get you a reel that never needs attention and could take all kinds of mistreatment would have to be made of "unobtainium" and would cost a fortune. It really doesn't take much to make a reel last a very long time. A few drops of oil, proper storage, don't dunk it, common sense stuff. I still have reels from the 50's that my dad gave me, and they still work as well as ever. Reels are pretty intricate devices. Which is why they are among the things I will never loan to anyone. I missed the "dropped in the water a few times" comment. Reels don't like to be dropped in the water. Like non-water resistant watches. And firearms. Outboard motors. Most machines. Especially inexpensive ones. If you get a new reel, and drop it in the water, take the cover off to expose the inside and let it dry in a dry environment until you use it again. And try not to drop it in the water again. Put a few drops of oil in the obvious places, like bearings, anything that moves or spins. Keep track of the screws; you need them. It was not a "bad one." It wasn't treated right and it wasn't maintained right.

Suggesting a beginner go with FC is in my opinion wrong. FC is expensive, most of it is very hard to handle on both spin and BCast. Braid of 10-15 pound test will cast very far, which is important for a shore fisherman. Some will argue it will get damaged by rocks, and maybe it will, but one can keep his rod tip very high to help keep it out of the rocks, and it gives the best chance of reaching the fish. If you cannot reach them nothing else matters. Many fishermen fish braid with success without adding a leader, so that complication is not absolutely necessary. Mottle the last couple feet of it with a sharpie pen. Learn the palomar knot - many terminal knots will not hold well with braid.

You may get better responses from some pro builders on the site, but here is my take. Obviously the finish is separating from the rod. It may or may not spread, but the best idea I have is to carefully remove only the finish that has separated, (a small, new, hobby tool blade will work, cut it off) then refinish the spot with just a little overlap of the unseparated finish. The right product for finishing rods is Lumiseal or U40 Permagloss, available from rod building sites. However, since we don't know what the finish on the rod is, it is risky to use these products as they are very "hot," and will mess up many other finishes. If that were to happen you'd have a much bigger problem on your hands. So I would use a rod wrap epoxy. It will not attack anything. The repair won't be invisible, but with a thin application of the wrap epoxy, it should be pretty unobtrusive. Better idea is to first send the pic to Daiwa and ask them what can be done. If it all started with damage to the finish, like a hook digging into it, it's not a quality problem. If it just formed on its own, it could have started with contamination on the rod when it was finished.

I use the remote for almost everything exc adjusting the direction with my foot, for small adjustments. Now and then I adjust the speed with my foot.

I don't think IM 7 or IM 8 mean nearly as much to rod performance as the blank design. Since I don't know much about the rods you asked about, my mention above is just a comment to communicate that some of the best rods are not the highest modulus graphite. There is a lot more to it.

One other thing that's changing that may affect the fish is shorter daylight hours. Boy, I wouldn't miss September for almost anything around here; our fish, especially bigger fish (SMB) are really active in Sept. Might still be hard to find, but if you find them, it's a great time. As mentioned above, go now. I have, in the past, waited too long to start.

I believe the point the Dick's guy was trying to make is that you can get good casting qualities with higher pound test braid than you can with mono or FC. For example, I have trouble getting good casting qualities out of any mono or FC line over about 8 pound test, but can go as high as 30 pound braid before noticing a substantial reduction in casting quality. I usually use 15 pound braid, about twice what I can get away with with mono.

With your liking good hook sets I would steer clear of a ML power. I think you will be disappointed. I know it sounds like "vanilla," but Med power fast action will probably be a better choice. You who don't like XF action for jerks, will you please elaborate on your opinions? Is it because in order for it to be XF the tip has to be too soft?

If you let your boat float away, DON'T forget to turn the Ulterra switch on. I love the remote deploy and spot lock features. They work very well. The tracking with the GPS trying to hold a course, like 270 degrees, doesn't work as reliably. I don't use all the track memory and the other GPS stuff. I used to when I fished the same small lake regularly, and they worked fine, but sort of hard to remember all the directions to use them. I have an 80 pound thrust, a 60 inch shaft on a 165 Lund Rebel SC, and It's about right. I would not go shorter on the shaft.

I don't think there are many reels that will allow good long casts with no thumbing. When I have mine adjusted so that I don't think I am losing distance they will require thumbing through most of the cast. The thumbing at the end of the cast prevents over-run but also tends to straighten the line and flip the lure out so it doesn't tend to tangle as much as if you just let it fall. It depends on the lures (their wind resistance-how fast they lose speed), the wind, the rod action to some degree , and the line. Mono is easiest, then braid, then FC, which I won't even use on a baitcaster. I've never been able to make it work without requiring a lot of concentration, then one backlash and I'll probably break the line getting it out. I'm sure you are going to get a lot of very interesting and varied replies to this one.

For all around, as stated in the initial post, I agree with posters who recommend Med. Especially when you mention Lake St Clair which to me implies mostly smallmouth fishing. But early, even the largemouths are hitting small squarebills. Most of your fishing probably is with lighter rather than heavier lures, and the Med will load better with the lighter lures making casting easier and less tear out of small trebles on the squarebills. I use braid less than 15 with an FC leader all the time there. Good hook sets, good casting, good feel, usually with a med power spin, 7 foot. Don't worry about the length. The only thing I do that is done better with a MH is skirted jig fishing where the MH loads fine on the cast (usually 1/2 oz) and provides a little better hook set and snapping through weeds.

Regarding releasing fish, I read recently about releasing bonefish that if the fish is not dripping water, it's been out of the water too long. I've been keeping fish out too long, but will change my behavior after reading that. I'm not implying anything, but thought this perspective was worth passing on.

Take pics, release the fish, and find a replica taxidermist.

Most of the SMB I put into the live well come out with beautiful mottling in color. Regarding active feeding, this spring I encountered a few SMB that were actively feeding on the surfacel, chasing something that was white, small, and very fast right at the surface (any idea on what they were chasing?) in about 8 feet of water in Saginaw bay, and they looked absolutely black to the eye looking down on them. We only caught one, but it was very black. Not all that big.

There is a trip odo function hidden there in all the monstrous capability, not obvious, but it's there. Humminbird got back with me quickly with clear instructions on how access and use it. I have not tried it yet, but nice work Humminbird support!

As asked above, are you sure the wires are cut? I would remove the insulation to be sure, and if not, tape any damaged wire insulation, then tape the bundle tightly with electrical tape, then embed the whole area in high quality silicone caulk.