fishwizzard

I start them belly down, then as the get ripped up I switch them to belly up to get a little more life out of them. Also, if you use twistloc hooks, Zoom Supers last a long time, a tiny pickerel turned this one inside out and I was able to catch on it after.

I find that they snag a whole lot less and bass still get really well hooked. The only downside is that smaller panfish can now hook themselves instead at just knocking at the lure.

I am just glad the guy is still alive. InFisherman did a little profile on the company and it seems like it has been scaled back to a one man operation. Also, if you got some 1/16oz heads with #2 or 4 hooks, I will buy them from you if you don't want them

Well sure, if you want to be logical about it and miss a chance to play with glue.

Yea, I am pretty displeased. My only thought is an adhesive that is removable enough so I can clean the bearings every so often, or trying to get someone to make me a slightly oversized pin.

Thanks, I looked over the gears but didn't give them a super close check. I have more spare pins on the way, but it took losing two to realize how loose they were. I sold some unused reels and bought a sv103, it will beat the spool pins here so I can check the Zillion Sv with it's spool. If the spool pin is the cause of the noise, how can I fix it? Would using a needle to apply a tiny bit of purple locktite be an awful idea?

Thanks! It looks like they have a M/F one at 5'6". That might make a good "allways in the car" rod.

What rod is that? I like a short handle but they are hard to find.

I mean, I assume I want more power, sign me up! Does anyone make one that looks like a little 8-Ball?

How often are you guys cleaning your bearings? I am just getting comfortable with taking my reels apart and the amount of gunk in some of them was surprising. I have a mix of factory bearings and HH aftermarket ones and the difference is really pronounced on some reels, so I want to keep the performance up, but not "scrub the rifling out" as they say.

Mine is have an issue as well, a soft sound like a bike spoke on a baseball card, but only occasionally and only when retrieving under a load. I have had it apart over and over but can't find any foreign matter in there. My spool pin is far too loose and will fall out on it's own, but I believe that it is retained by the drive gear and "that collar thing that goes over it" when the spool is in the reel. Please let us know what you find out.

Really, I have a pack of the 4.5" Sluggos and I can't get any action out of them at all, they seem like a stiffer senko. What hooks should I be using? I wanna say I had them on a 2/0 or 3/0 Owner twistlock. I also have a pack of the SS Sluggos and while I have never caught a fish with them, they are so fun to fish that I keep trying.

I hope not, at just over 1/2oz I can throw the 90 on a ton more combos than I could a heavier one. Honestly just keeping the rod tip up and the line tight fixes any running issues I have had.

I am sorta feeling the same thing. I fish the C&O canal as often as I can and there are some monster carp in there. I would love to catch one, but not enough to sit there with corn for a day. A tenkara rig would fit in the water bottle slot in my pack with room to spare.

I target cover in the shade, then cover in the sun, then shade lines. If that doesn't work I work a reaction bait of some sort as I walk back to the car to drive somewhere else.

But why just one knob? Weight reduction, or does it just look cool? I mean, it absolutely looks cool.

I stretch the TRDs a ton before I glue them on, but the zlinkers are soft enough as is and they loose their salt really really fast in any case. I went wading yesterday and fished a the Ned almost the entire time. Caught some nice smallies, some very nice redbreasts, a few fallfish and a surprise stocker rainbow. The numbers were not what I was hoping for, but I am confident that the Ned will catch most anything that swims in small rivers.

What is the thought behind the single fat knob handle?

Yea, I am kinda regretting going so heavy on the 7" Culprits. I randomly got a pack of the 6" Fat Maxs and think I prefer them as a small ribbon tail. But now I am thinking that lizards fill almost the same niche as a small ribbon tail worm. Maybe just a pack of the Black/reds and one of like pumpkinseed/chart tail?

I do think now that they were shad, but I am amazed at their size at that location, they had to get through some super skinny water to get to that pool. I only had Ned Rig stuff with me, I gotta start carrying some tiny panfish lures when I go wading. I also saw like three snakeheads in the same pool, coming up to breathe. They had no interest in the Ned at all and I was trying some absurd tackle combos to try to get one to hit. The silliest being a Z-man tube, totally filled with Megastrike, nose hooked on a random like #1 baitholder hook I found snagged in a bush. I was trying to pop it across the surface to get their attention, but nothing. Thinking back, I had some worm weights on me, should have gone for a hillbilly drop shot rig. I guess I also have to start making sure I have at least one spinner bait on me as well. I hit Allen Pond today and surprisingly caught a few. I am trying to pare down and simplify my tackle collection and today's trip was to work with some 7" Culprits ribbon tails that i am trying to make a go of. Well, the bass were having none of it. Then I found a bag of Zoom black/redflake lizards sitting on the bank with two left in it. I put one on and caught a small bass almost instantly. I worked the dock a little and managed these two. I will go like a dozen trips there before I catch anything, three in one day is crazy for me. Now I guess I gotta buy some lizards to go with the trick worms and ribbon tails.

Got my first smallies of the year today in the Little Pax. This guy was the best one; He jumped right away, shook the lure, then immediately grabbed it again. Jumped a few more times before I could get him in. I also saw something kinda odd. At a pool at the base of a small section of falls, I saw dozens of dozens of fish that I couldn't ID. They were quite large, ranging from 9 to like 20". Silver/gray in color, with a tallish body, almost like a white perch, but more round overall. They had noticeable pectoral fins, but I didn't notice any barbels. They had a sharp looking V shaped tail fin. I was fishing a Ned rig and they would run from it if I ran it through the school and would ignore it. They ignored it if I dead sticked on the bottom and retrieved it with slow drags. I tried to get some pictures but the glare was too bright. I thought they were fall fish, but they will often hit a Ned and I fished this pool for like a hour. They seems to be trying to get up the falls, as they we most thickly congregated by the largest flow over. Could they have been shad? It is driving me crazy trying to figure out what they are, almost enough to go back with a net.

I use them when I have to, but I hate them. Most days I make do with a sunshirt with a very deep hood, stretched over the brim of my hat. That plus a pretty full beard seem to work when I am on the bank. I managed to get the tops of my hands a little sunburned a few weeks ago, that was a new for me.

How else are you going to pick lottery numbers? If I am truly lost, I prefer a spinnerbait, the size/color/blades dictated by the specific water. I take more risky casts with them than say with a crank. However I am starting to give lipless cranks a go, I am finding that a 1/2oz Red Eyed Shad casts well on all but my lightest rods and carrying a pair of them adds little in the way of bulk or weight to my gear.

Interesting. I don't think I ever fished one without trimming it down. I think a have a few left, I will have to give them a try.

I have an 500 sized Okuma Avenger on one of my perch rods and I have been really happy with it. It has tangled with some large fish and has seen about three years of use in brackish water and it is still going strong.