smallie.mike

What baits are you guys tossing for winter river smallmouth? I'm talking water temps 34-40 degrees. My go to the last few years has been an Erie Darter jr rigged on a weedless flick it jig, but rigged like you would with a normal jig head. Some others are hair jigs, a 3" senko on a 1/16oz jig head, and a baby craw papi on a 1/16oz jig head. I've also been experimenting with a float n fly. The last 2 winters here were ridiculously cold so I didn't do much winter fishing but this year there has been open water in our river so far for the most part.

I have the 2500 fk a ci4+4000 and numerous stradic fj's. I haven't used the new fk all that much but so far I still favor the fj's and the ci4, but thats just my opinion. They are all good reels and I'm not even a shimano fan. I'd say buy ci4+ if you want the lighter reel otherwise I'd look for a good deal on a new fj or fk.

All joking aside I feel for ya, something like that that keeps you awake at night and and screws up your day to day life SUCKS! If you have a smart phone there are a lot of sleep sound apps that work really well with headphones to block noise while you're sleeping. I have some worthless neighbors that moved in last year and they let their dogs bark all night. That sleep sound app has really helped me. I know this isn't the answer you're looking for but I'm just throwing it out there.

Broken pencils are pointless

You need one of these.

Is it too early to start recommending this reel even though I've never even seen a picture of it yet?

They are a nuisance around here too but that would really p*** me off if they were waking me up at night.

I agree it's mostly hype and buzzwords....But how can one judge a reel on functional qualities when the manufacturer isn't specific or falsely advertises what materials the reel is made of? To me an aluminum or composite frame is a functional quality. If you go to shimano's website and look at the specs for the stradic fk it says it has a metal body. If you look a schematic the part listed as the "body" that houses all the gears and bearings is composite. In my opinion that's false advertisement.

Yes you can use a spinning reel for crankbaits and other bass lures. Seems like everyone missed the other bass lures part. Pflueger president is a good reel to start with, 30 or 35 size. Shimano reels or daiwa reels in the 2500 size. A 6'6"-7' medium power fast action rod is a good all around rod to start with. And yes a fast action rod will work fine with crankbaits if your only going to have one setup for all your bass fishing.

Nope the curado was the chronarch e. I've never used the ci4+ chronarch but I've heard good things.

They were the finest until shimano painted a curado white and called it a chronarch. My d series chronarchs are probably my favorite reels.

This is the reason why I never cared for the ci4 spinning reels. Light is not always a good thing in a spinning reel.

I noticed TT made some changes to their original review. Quote from the new modified review... "The Hagane body means that the body is constructed primarily out of metal, which is not only tough but also provides more exacting tolerances in which to hold all the moving parts, the guts of the reel. It is easy to understand why these features make sense on a larger more powerful reels like the TwinPower or bigger Stella models for example, but Shimano believes that these features translate equally well for reels like the smaller Stradic FK models, and this is the first Shimano spinning reel designed primarily for freshwater to debut with the Hagane concept. On the Stradic FK the main frame of the reel is made out of aluminum, the part that connects to the arm, while the other side is durable compsite. This isn't all that different than some previous generation Shimano reels, it is just branded as Hagane now. Regardless of all the marketing nomenclature we were eager to see how the reel would perform in the field."

The micro guide version is junk in my opinion. The guides are garbage. The regular version is absolutely worth it!

I've been wanting to try a ballistic ex, I love my certates and luvias. I was thinking about selling my new stradic fk to buy some more fj's while I can still find them. Maybe I'll buy a ballistic ex instead.

That's not the point. Shimano advertises this reel as having an all metal body which it doesn't. People should be worried about misleading false advertising. I have no issues with the materials, the fj is made the same with a half composite half aluminum body and it's a great reel. But if it carries the stradic name like you said, nothing else matters to some I guess. Same thing with the curado I, it's gotta be worth the extra money over the citica just because it's got the name curado on it.

Here is a video of the stradic being taken apart. Fast forward to 3:15 when the aluminum stem side is removed. The part that's left "the body" that holds all the gears is composite. If you pause and look closely you can tell it's composite. I'll take mine apart again when I get a chance and post close up pictures.

Yeah if I would have realized that I wouldn't have bought one. That's one of reasons why I'll probably be selling it soon. Shimano said it eliminates an extra point of failure. I say it's just another way for them to lower the cost of production. The TT review says "higher end angler won't care" lol. I like the stradic fj, jdm certates and luvias, president's are good for the price. The old fuegos are awesome but hard to find.

I use yellow braid for most of my river smallmouth fishing, much easier to line watch. I've never used a leader, river smallmouth don't care what color your braid is.

Yep the body is composite, just like the fj was.

The stem is aluminum, The sideplate part or whatever you want to call that holds the gears is composite. It's just like the fj half aluminum and half composite. And yes I'm 100% sure. I'll post pictures when I get a chance.

You need to look up the definition of example.

Nope didn't miss it... you said "Carbon fiber is a good example of something feeling cheap yet strong and more efficient in many ways to other material." So what materials are the new fk made from that make it feel cheap but yet are stronger and more efficient than other materials? For me it's similar to the symetre. Look at a symetre fj next to the new symetre fl and tell me which looks cheaper.

Don't worry about all those facts... all you need to know is that it has hagane technology.

Side by side on the same rod the fk does feel lighter, but I've never been concerned with weight. They both balance well on a 7' avid.