MN Fisher

Before the F-9, I had a 14' Sun Dolphin Scout SS that I did intensive modifications to. Replaced the original plastic seats with 2"x2" aluminum angle with 2"x12" painted wood, mounted a standard boat seat to the rear, with 'flagpole holders' and outriggers made of PVC pipe and crab-trap floats. 30# MinnKota TM and a 75ah battery under the front seat. Lowrance Hook 2-4 to start, upgraded to a Striker 7CV with the transducer mounted on a Scotty mount. Custom built rod holders and mounted them behind the rear seat. Also an anchor trolley with a 2# fluke anchor...it held position fairly well. Worked quite well, but sold it and used the proceeds to finance the F-9 rebuild.

Bed around 11 - up around 6am...except fishing days, then I'm up around 5am

Brand, model - doesn't matter. Kind of like a 5-speed on a Chevy truck vs a 5-speed on a Dodge Challenger...no real difference. I owned a 1998 Chevy WT-1500 with a 5-speed - I'd occasionally start in 2nd gear, but never in 5th...in high-school I had a 1973 Plymouth Cuda with a 3-speed, trying to start moving in 3rd would be a good way to burn out the clutch.

I wouldn't say none - but less than an 8.3 (my flip/pitch reel) or an 8.1 (my frogging reel) It's kind of like a manual transmission on a car - 1st gear has lots of torque (5-speed reel) so you can lay rubber - 5th gear gives you higher speed (10-speed reel) but try to start moving from a dead stop.

I see no need for something that fast - my CA-80 is an 8.3:1 and retrieves at 35" per turn of the handle when full or near so (more line that's out, the more the retrieve speed slows)...that's plenty. Bad part of faster reels - less torque to haul a fish out out of the slop...if it wraps the line around lily-pad stems or a clump of milfoil, you want torque to get it out.

8 for flip/pitch and frogs 6 for cranks 7 for everything else

Oil-felt will compress and hold if left under pressure too long...reason I replace my oil-felt drag washers with carbon-fiber.

The Mach 1 has Rulon drag - it's plastic and will deform if kept under pressure. https://www.lews.com/en/shop/reels/mh1ac

https://www.amazon.com/surgical-tubing/s?k=surgical+tubing

Drill and two spools actually. Pull off onto one spool - reverse it to the second spool - then put it back on the reel.

I was looking for one specific thing - it's on sale And out of stock with no date for re-stock... Figures.

Since they're pretty much the same reel, with the 70 being smaller - this is an answer I saw...somewhere. "Fitting everything into the smaller reel frame is more difficult to construct from an engineering aspect," The one bearing difference? I'd have to know where it is. Example is the Fuego CT and the Tatula CT...basically the same reel (frame, spool, main gears) but the Tat has two more bearings....in the crank handles - so no real difference in performance other than T-Wing vs Aperture.

I cringe - but saying something usually ends up in an argument, whether it's online or in person. Can't tell you how many times I've picked up massive balls of tangled line, empty plastics bags and other junk right on the bank of one of my shore spots...and there's a trash can not more than 10' away.

I've got the same one - handles Ochos just fine.

Ya - it can take years for it to show up. The worst is the mercury - known to affect children's brains much more than adult's. If they're feeding their kids that....

I wouldn't blast them with a hose at full power...a light rinse in the kitchen sink should be more than enough. Though I would clean/lube them more often.

Nailed it. My college major was Aquatic Biology - brackish water is water with salt in it. The runoff things you're talking about is 'cloudy' or 'stained' water...the turbidity of which is determined by the total suspended solids (TSS)

"Brackish water occurs when the freshwater from a river or lake meets the salty seawater of an ocean body." https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/06/30/brackish-water-environments/

But chupacabra drink blood....like a vampire. Far as eating fish, I do keep some for eating, but just about every lake in MN has levels of Mercury, PCBs, PFAs and Dioxins - though the levels are lower than most of the country, the MN Dept of Health recommends limiting your intake. Smaller (younger) fish have lower levels just because they've had less time to accumulate.

Can I steal your daughter-in-law?

Sorry, Kent - only time I've been in TN was driving through Memphis going between Offutt AFB in Omaha, NE and Keesler AFB in Biloxi, MS when I had 3 weeks of advanced training...then again going back to Offutt.

Only time I've had someone 'cut me off' it was a recreational kayaker who asked me for the time. I had no problem with it as she was quite curvaceous, very good looking and in a micro-bikini to boot.

I've found that that 6" diameter oil-stone passed down from my grandfather, to my father to me has always given a sharper edge than any ceramic honing stone.

Digitaka has them for $230 if you don't want to deal with Amazon...worth the extra IMO. https://www.digitaka.com/items/4/4/2/ZILLION+SV+TW