CrankFate

It’s not funny. The t-wing is the most underrated reel part of all time.

Email smoothdrag. They also have top quality bearings, grease and oil.

They are both cheap compared to live bait and quality cut baits. Which are basically required for most saltwater species I fish for. They only last a few hours at best. I always feel like I’m getting a deal with artificials.

No. I fish almost exclusively in mostly extremely well known public areas. Sometimes crowded places. It doesn’t matter what you do or what you catch, the people sitting there on a bucket waiting for a bite, they never catch on. They often tell me I don’t know what I’m doing because my rod (rated for 50lb braid) is too light and because the fish hate to eat things that move.

No idea. But one lie that is extremely very likely, would be a lie about the actual location where any record fish was really caught.

^ This

Jerkbait special. I’ll never be able to give you an honest review on it, because the first fish I got on it was like over 5lbs. It is stiff with a rubberyness to it that you get with Japanese rods made for moving baits, but has the backbone and quick recovery you need to puncture hard with small treble hooks.

I caught them to about a pound an a half, at that size, they practically rip the rod out of my hand when they dive down. Like porgies in saltwater, but way stronger. I’m going to try for those big ones again later this month. They are few and far between.

8-10lbs? A 2 or 3 pound bluegill would be insane to catch.

These https://www.berkley-fishing.com/collections/gulp-alive/products/gulp-alive-jigging-grub-1285406 Plus a Gami Octopus Circle a foot off bottom with a float and split shot. Bounce it around a little. The bigger ones love it. The circle hook keeps the small BGs off the hook and keeps the big ones on. It also lets you rig the grub, vertical or horizontal

@bulldog1935 I see what you’re saying about thickness. For reference it’s almost the same as PP thickness. But I judge the thickness by feel. The reason I go by feel is if you have a flat line, like the Seaguar Smackdown I just got, it claims it is about .15mm, but that .15mm has to be the wideness. It is so flat, like a piece of tape, that the thickness on the spool is a lot less than the .15mm. It’s 15mm wide and a much lower number tall. There’s just never an accurate number on thickness, because almost no line is equal in three dimensions. That is always my biggest complaint about different lines in general.

I did mine in the mid 2000’s. Just serviced my Aldebaran that wasn’t opened in 2 years. The fiber washer under the main gear was waxy and sticky and leaving a black blotchy stain on the metal. It looks like every drop of loose oil that went into the reel for 2 years soaked into it. Replaced with SD Carbontex. That never happens with the SD washers.

[quote]I'm making the switch to braid+leader...[/quote]

Fished it the other day. Saw a carp that thought looked like an arapaima and a pod of shiners that were close to the size of bass. Skunked.

Braid should be the least likely line to loop like this. There must be some other issue related to the reel and rod or the line itself. Aside from no stretch and high break strength, the number one reason to fish braid is that it never loops up like mono and fluoro. The only way I know this to happen is overruns where the spool continues to spin after the bait has stopped.

Not showing off stuff in this post, but recommending this as the thinnest, strongest line that there is. I ordered this to compare to Spiderwire Code Red. It is rated 25lb test. It’s about as thick as 15lb test and the break strength is higher than any other braid I’ve ever fished. Including 65 and 75lb braid. This was purchased as a joke. But it is no joke strong.

You should be able to use your thumb only to stop the spool when you hit water. If you match the rod, reel and weight properly, that’s all you should need your thumb for when casting open water. Under trees, into trees and around any obstacles, yes, you need to use your thumb.

Finally got my Curado BFS. Arrived just as I was finished servicing my Aldebaran and unshielding all the bearings. Not sure how, but most bearings were bone dry under the shields, even after getting oil right before my last outing, making me seriously question everything I thought. picture is deceiving the Curado is as small or smaller than the aldebaran, but stands taller. It is taller on the rod, too. My review of this reel is this is the best reel I’ve ever touched fresh out of the box. Perfect tolerances. Smoothest I’ve ever seen right out of the box. Casts perfectly. Bearings feel like boca ceramic. This reel needs absolutely no upgrades. Main complaint is the chunkyness because it sits high on the reel. Packed with 15lb Seaguar smackdown, it casts as far as you’ll ever need. I don’t believe the drag stats, I’d put max drag at 10lbs and 12+ upgraded. I watched this review and seriously thought he was just acting overly excited and enthusiastic about this reel. After fishing it, nope, he was understating everything. https://www.tacticalbassin.com/blog/gear-review-shimano-curado-bfs-megabass-p5-rods-creature-baits-swimbaits-and-finesse

Couple of good sized males that were protecting a cloud of tiny fry that was about 25 feet wide, 3 feet across and around 2 feet deep. Most I have ever seen. They were spaced out about 5 feet away from each other along the big cloud. There were smaller clouds around, too. Nice to catch fish breaking in the new setup. These jerkbaits work.

I use it all the time. Never fails. It is my goto knot bass fishing. We were pulling trees and bushes down with it yesterday on this freakish 25lb no name braid yesterday. I could not break the line. It was literally harder to break than 65lb braid.

Butterfly peacock hybrid.

If I’m using hardbaits or jigs I use the tiny spro style swivels. If anything, for ease of quickly switching my offering. There are no bass big enough to break a swivel around here. I fish the D-Blue swivels because you can order hundreds at a time at a way lower price than spro.

I have not found a connection between day to day air pressure affecting catches for any fish. I have been tracking this nonscientifically for a few years. I was sure that it was true, especially for deeper water ocean fish, but I have not found that connection by checking the air pressure all the time on my iPhone. Rain seems to kill the LMB bite here. Sometimes for days. I assume that is from auto brake and tire particles, fertilizers and other pollutants that may be in the rain from the air, since everyone everywhere else says the rain is good for the fishing.

I will be fishing. The crowds don’t stop me. I’ve been fishing crowded public places forever.

Tried a few hours tonight after spooling my son with heavier line to fish the brush. Managed one slippery dink, which I dropped and tried to grab,but he’s escaped back into the water before I could get a pic. As usual, the fish was closest to the loud music. My son dropped a few, but they were small and not the dinkasaurs (that should be less than a pound and a half but are all pushing about 2lbs). They must be spawning off all that extra weight right now.