JustJames

That lake look familiar to me. I’m working on Neko rig for rip rap uphill. So far I have a lot of bites but missed them all. Oh well gotta learn how to use spinning all over again.

Congrats

Welcome you to the green carp site. Btw I’m kind of opposite from you, I start from bass and now learn to fish those panfish. You are coming from panfish which normally fish a little faster than bottoms contact plastic lure for bass. At first I would stick to some moving lures that you are custom to, like spinnerbait, 1/4oz in-line spinner, lipless crank and underspin with either grub or paddle tail. For bass you will have to vary you retrieve sometime fast sometime slow enough just to tick the bottom, until you find them then move to bottom contact lures. For bottoms contact which required a lot slower retrieve, weightless senko is still a bullet proof. Cast it out let it drop all the way to bottom watch the line maintain semi slack line, lift to about 45 degree and let the lure drop on semi slack line, watch the line count to 10, rinse and repeat. You, panfish anglers, have advantages of over bass anglers on watching line, you only need to distinguish between a tab from fish or tab from rock. Just be mindful that bass bite action is a lot less than panfish action, but every tab you feel will get your adrenaline rush. P.S. Don’t leave your UL at home, last evening I went out, lost my only bass lure (wacky rig), switch to UL 1/32oz jig head with Magnet Trout Slayer and manage 2 bass and 3 bluegills in the last hour before sun down.

My casting skill, let say 5, fixing backlash 9.5. I never practice casting or pitching at home, just learn when actually fishing. Good thing is I do a lot of casting but not a lot of catching so that help improve my skill a little.

If I’m a seller and you are not my friend, I wouldn’t let you open up my reel. But if Im selling the reel and buyer wanna see inside, I’ll open up in safe place and let him see it. To me, I’ve never ask anyone to open up the reel, that is direct insulting. But I do keep my reel clean inside so I don’t mind open it myself. It is not difficult, just 4 screws, handle nut, drag pressure nut, spring, 3 or 4 washers, bearing, AR sleeve and bam you see the inside, missing one of those and you are screwed. Another suggestion if you may, buy a cheap spool of line, and fill the spool there with owner permission (don’t forget casting plug). If it is too much trouble, “as seller I would sell it to someone else”, “as buyer I would buy it new with warranty”.

Why one nice reel and cheap out on the rod? or why one nice reel and limited yourself to just one combo. The thing I hate the most is to re-tie new lures especially on kayak or float tube. Let compare Chronarch at 250, you might be able to get two 200K, 200K and 70. Are 200K and 70 a lot less inferior compare to Chronarch? May be just the stamped of “made in Japan” .All these comment applie, if you don’t have specific need for light weight of chronarch and MGL spoool. My usual kayak setup, 3 Curado 70s on Daiwa Tatula (original) 6’10 MH. If I’m gonna go with top water, then SLX, if I’m gonna do frog/heavy jig, Zodias 6’10 H. Sorry Bantam MGL and Conquest50 stay at home, no place for those reels on my kayak.

You won’t be able to tell if DC reel still in good shape just by the look. One thing though, nice clean used reel show that owner taking care of their reel. When I bought used reel, I check the smoothness of the reel by spin handle fast, free spool to see any wobble, then apply pressure (thumb press on spool) and spin handle, look/feel for any grinding sound. With DC reel, it is gonna be harder since digital brake mechanism involved. You might be able to test by casting and looking for those distinguish sound of DC brake. Good thing though I think that reeltest guy already prove off water resistant on Curado DC by drunken the brake side plate in water for 10-30 seconds and still work. Buying used reel is pretty tough choice, yes of course, you get a good deal but sometime you get a dud. I’ve bought quite a lot of used reel but so far I’m pretty lucky. I would check the seller if reliable or trustworthy. If you know how to maintenance the reel in side out, that would be a plus. One reel that I bought look okay from outside but inside was pretty nasty, all grease become black, but just a little bit of TLC the reel work with no problem.

Thanks @WRBI might end up order new shims from shimano. Just wait and see what else I need for all my reels. I did order some parts for this reel from ereplacementparts and email them after I found out I need shim too. I have not heard anything back from this guy.

Winter time and not a lot of action, I braved myself to open up my old shimano stradic ci4 2500. I have not use this reel for at least a few years. After cleaning and put back together (thank god everything still works) I found that the line spool unevenly (leave gap on the bottom). I put all the shim back and don’t remember it was uneven this bad. I checked play on spool compare to my other spinning reel (Sahara, legalis LT, president) and seem like this stradic got a lot of play at least 2mm in and out(mind you this stradic run on worm gear, might be different than other). Anyone that have stradic ci4, could you check if this is normal? Also I need more shim for this reel if anyone have some laying around unused wanna sell it to me. I tried shim from other reels but they don’t fit. Thanks in advance.

A smarter would shop around and might find even better deal to be had from flemarket, eBay etc without waiting with uncertain. Edit: my friend is selling his new Curado DC XG for 200 and I can guarantee his equipments, he always put the cover back on his reels every time he changes his setup.

Last time my niece count all my rods in front of my wife, scare the hell out of me lol. But actually she knows since she can count all the rod tube from shipping that I safe in the garage.

Yes be a man, BUY FIRST, ASK LATER. dont you ever hide anything from the WIFE. They have eyes like hawk, been there done that. Here example of what I got a couple days ago.

Let me be devil advocates here, First you watch 100 of hours of you tube. You might try to copy it too much, believe me catching bass is not as easy as in show on you tube. Sometime it take 5-10 mins per cast to work whatever lures and about 100 casts to catch just one bass. Secondly let look at your first 11 session June-Aug ( the 2nd session is harder to tell since most place would be in fall transition and bass started moving), most bass in summer would stay close to cover and more active in early morning or late evening until night time. I can tell you if I go out everyday at noon for those 3 month, I might not catch a single soul. Bottom line timing is also important base on season. Third, as other mentioned slow and work thru out the water is the key. You might fall into those newbie mistake of casting for the distance, 30-50yds btw you work your lure back to most strike zone5-15 feet from shore, you get tired and started looking for next cast. As hot as it is and as shallow, you will be surprised bass hang/roaming close to shore looking for bait fish. Most of the fish I caught were close to shoreline some even less than 5’. If I were you I would work parallel to shoreline more than casting out in front of you. Don’t give up if you don’t get bass in a few cast, you are looking for roaming bass not a group of suspended bass unless you cast into cover (tree/shade) Lastly, I should be the one who call out “ I GIVE UP” and yes I did that from time to time even now ?. I started bass fishing since 2001 up until 4-5 years ago, I only caught maybe a handful of showable size bass. Being in the city with not many park lakes but a tons of ppl is not fun. Sometime I ventured out 50-70 miles drive in heavy SoCal traffic and yield nothing. I’m the only one in family that love fishing so most of the trip I went alone. I still remembered my usual spot on weekend, I’ll pack my lunch headed to jetti (seal beach) and sit there 6-8 hours most every weekend. Good luck to you, let wait until spring time and start you plan again, it is gonna get tougher to catch bass during cold month, save your energy for the big one when spawning time begin.

Not bad for SLX MGL, at least it got those of Japanese bearing where you can only find in JDM reel.

I got cut with braid so many times. Most of the time when try to free the lures from snag, even with this J-braid or 832 (arrow method). I think I only got cut once when set hook with my index finger touching the line. Bring some 1” dowel with you anytime fishing with braid.

Nope no way, the line would frayed out super easy. I have daiwa j-braid on my frog rod, so I don’t get bother by the sound of PP running thru guides.

On another word, shimano is good even in stock form no need to do anything else ?. Come to think about it, I added hedgehog BFS air bearing to Alphas Air and carbon drag washer plus micro bearing to pixy, but don’t need anything to all shimanos.

The guy posted he likes to stay with Shimano so please stop converting ppl into Daiwa lol. By tuning SLX, if I remembered correctly he only replaced main-shaft bushing with bearing or may be carbon drag washer, and so do I, except washer. I don’t really see any difference before and after. Btw the SLX XT already come with mainshaft bearing.

No idea, since I never fish vertical spoon for bass @WRBmight be the one you could get help with, he mentioned a lot about structure spoon.

Daiwa j braid x8, I’m not sure about Berkley x9 or if you considered Gliss Line as braid. The gliss line is even smoother than J-braid.

What type of spoon? From shore or boat? I’m not sure is you considered Kastmaster as a spoon. The 1/8 oz would be good for all kind of fish.

@Paul RobertsI like Gliss #18 on my Ultra light rig (casting) but definitely need leader to make the line last longer and once a while I would cutoff a few yards due to line fraying from my finger or rubbing against the guides. Even as much as I like it I don’t think I’m gonna buy anymore. The next favorite right now would be #8 Sufix 832. I’m not sure but to me, the sensitivity is crisper than original PP and PP super slick also less bowl in water (#8 PP is thinner than 832). The next thing I wanna try is sinking braid YGK G-soul and nano braid, if I can afford it.

^^^^ Added, MGL spool is lighter than regular spool with, in theory, should be able to cast light lure better. Smaller capacity 70 size spool hold less line, thus make total spool weight even lighter when filled. Normally ppl will use this type reel for finesse technique, to be able to cast lighter lure, like Ned rig, weightless worm, 1/4oz lures or such. I use mine 50- 70 size (total of 6 reels) for everything from 1/8oz lures all the way to 1oz topwater lure. The disadvantage of smaller spool is you cannot use too big diameter of a line unless you go with braid. I only get about 80-90yds of .013” diameter line (14lb FC line)

Look above, I cannot comment more since I won’t have the reel until this Thursday.

@Delaware Valley Tackle