CrankFate

I can attest to St. Croix Rods for light freshwater spinning. But I can say the same for Daiwa and Shimano, except they get expensive fast if you want lighter stronger rods. Ugly stick is the original light do everything rod. They’re just heavy by today’s standards.

Yes, the pinion bearing was packed. And even more annoyingly to me, the gearshift bearing, which has a clear plastic shield, was completely packed with grease and sitting inside of a blob of grease. This was extremely difficult to degrease. The spool bearings weren’t as bad. I sprayed and soaked them in a flat bottom shot glass, several times and alternated spraying them out with a keyboard dusting can of compressed gas refrigerant and air and brake cleaner. Finally, it is spinning to my liking. Meanwhile, the annoying sound at higher speeds that was bothering me, was the centrifugal brakes riding in the brake ring. But it’s all good now.

I’m leave the shields on. That’s where I draw the line. I’m good with small parts, but any time I try to get metal shields off something goes wrong. I sat here for the last hour and a half soaking in brake cleaner, then spraying with a keyboard cleaner (compressed gas). It took a lot of time, but they’re clear now. All I’m going to say is Shimano grease is bulletproof. This makes anything else ive ever seen look like water. If a spark goes off in here, it’ll explode.

I am going for BFS. I took a compressed air can to clean keyboards from work and got a bottle of brake cleaner. This grease is completely impervious to everything! I soaked the bearings for about 20 minutes in lighter fluid. Nothing happened.

I’m trying to flush bearings that Shimano packed completely with a thick grease similar to petroleum jelly. I cannot get it out of the bearings with acetone, grain alcohol or lighter fluid. I do not want to attempt unshielding these, since they are quality bearings. What can I use to get this thick grease out of these bearings?

Cals grease. ReelX. But I am now trying CorrosionX gun oil. It’s cheaper and I use a lot of oil.

Both. But I still prefer less sensitive rods. I swing way too hard and fast for a stiff sensitive rod for nearly all the fishing I do. Sensitivity is overrated in a lot of ways, but is probably more important to guys fishing mono CP or FC only rigs. Braid is too sensitive, especially under 20’ deep. Since I only fish braid, the less sensitive rods are still bordering on too sensitive. For example, fishing a C-Rig I bumped a beer can 1/3 filled with soil. It rolled a little and bumped back on my hook, so I slammed the hook and reeled up a perfect two hole hookset in the can. I have done this many times, before learning the feel of submerged cans. Anything more sensitive and I’m swinging at the bubbles from turtles when they hit the line.

Ok, it’s true. I do fish this way sometimes, but not often. It does help find feeding areas. You also learn that fresh baitis king. When guys show up in the summer and catch a few fish in their first 45 minutes, it’s because the bait went bad for everyone else. Because you’ll see wave after wave of a few fish right when they set up. so I use a cooler with ice when I fish bait for this reason. Something I learned from observation dead stickin’

This style of fishing will do nothing to help you become a better angler. Period.

That would be great, if you do please post the video!

I do not notice a difference with bass. But I do notice that in shallow clear water stren purple is just as clear as fluorocarbon but adds better bounce to an all braid setup. I have seen bigger bass roll upside down to shake the hook, literally belly up upside down. A short fluoro leader makes them successful when they do that sometimes, but not with a short (2-4’) leader of stretchy stren.

I don’t throw 3/4. I am at 1/2oz and under. The heaviest weight I use is 10 grams. And that is “heavy” for me. For things like cranks they are somewhere around 15 grams maybe?

Get that fish some chapstick!

If you don’t want em I’ll use em.

If you turn it upside down and everything spins worse I think it’s from using it a lot or using it with heavy rigs or catching big fish. Everything gets pulled downward all the time. If you give the handle or spool a spin and everything is way faster right side up, I think that’s how baitcasters break in and can actually get better over time. It doesn’t happen the same way with most round reels. But I find that the ones I’ve used the most break in and get better.

Fishing is like gambling. If you throw all of your time and money in it, every so often you’ll win and get a big one. My biggest bass were 100% luck. I know because when I work extremely hard to catch a monster size fish of any kind, I might catch tons of them and a lot of very good size fish, but never monsters.

Just put a 10lb fluoro leader on about 2’ long.

I hate spoons. I never throw spoons. The only thing spoons do is catch the wrong fish. If I throw a spoon for largemouths. Bam! Carp. If I throw a spoon to smallmouths. Bam! Catfish. It never fails. And if I throw one at some far away place with big bass. Bam! Green Perch.

Aside from needing a new tip you’re probably 10 or 15 million years away from its half life.

Why is it that sometimes a T-rig or C-rig, done with 3 splitshots outfishes a real T-rig or C-rig of the same weight some days???

I have 30+ year old gear, but most of my gear is from the last 15 or so years, since I also started to have the money to buy stuff I don’t need after getting out of school about 19 years ago. That plus the internet, which made more expensive gear hit the mainstream, right at the time I started having money to buy things.

Safety aside, if they see actual human beings they spook. They are programmed with instinct to know we eat them. I don’t like to be seen by them, because it makes them startle. Especially when they have big eyes like these that only curve upwards. Just look at the eye. That eye is huge, well developed and designed for spotting people.

Good points.

Which is why you will sometimes see a big fish begin to follow a hot pink rubber stick with a curly tail, while wagging its tail happily following it before it takes a bite to see what it tastes like.

If natural selection actually occurs, we should all practice catch and release, so all the stupid fish that eat plastic and rubber with metal on it multiply. If we kill all the dumb ones, then we’ll be left with fish that are smarter, have better eyesight, sense of vibration and everything else that makes them harder to catch.