fin

I was thinking Allen needs to find some OCD kid to organize his mess, and pay the kid by giving them a rod, reel and bunch of lures and some fishing lessons. I don't know how you go about finding an OCD kid, but they would do a heck of a job. Maybe call the local school. I had an OCD guy do some work for me, and his work was perfect.

Wow, this makes me feel better about my mess. If I could offer a suggestion, I would suggest you go buy a bunch of big transparent storage containers - usually on sale after xmas. Just rake everything off the top of that desk into a container. Don't worry about sorting stuff or labeling it yet, just get it in containers. You'll feel so much better when you can move around in there.

I think they may be "Mustad Ultra Point Big Mouth Tube Bait Hooks". I went looking for a hook with a bend like that, and that's the only one I found. There may be more though. It may have come from somewhere like Walmart packaged as something else. I've never tried the grip pins. Looks like they might tear up a worm if you tried to change worms to a different color. I have that trouble with VMC EWG hooks. I'll use a worm several times before throwing it away if I can.

There's no "level wind" logo next to the bar code. Some have it and some don't. I don't know if there's a different UPC.

I found a lure today that I lost on the other side of the lake a few months ago.

What brand are those two in the middle? They've got an unusual neck on them, or are you saying the neck is getting bent like that? It takes a huge amount of force to bend a hook when it's hooked to something that is not stationary like a fish, unless the line is wrapped around something giving the fish leverage. Shallow water helps, but not that much. A gator, or an otter, a turtle, something that can hold onto the bottom could do it. A 1.5# bass can't do it unless those hooks are made out of aluminum. You could probably pull a riding lawn mower around by a hook without bending it. Now if you yank on it hard and fast enough, you could bend it, but you're talking enough force to maybe break a rod.

You get bent hooks every trip? A 1.5# bass bent your 3/0 hook? You're using 3 different brands of hooks and they're all getting bent? All that together is pretty hard to believe. The only possibility I can think of is that you're getting wrapped around stumps. I get that problem like you had with the Senko in the Fall. I think it's just the way they're biting at that time of year. They take it in their lips instead of wolfing it down, and the hook is just at the wrong angle. They've got a good hold on it, but no matter how you try to set the hook, all you do is pull it from their lips.

I love it. Finding lures in the winter time is almost as fun as catching fish. Well, not really, but it is fun to find something really nice when they aren’t biting. I’ve found several that sell in the $18-20 range that are brand new. I’ve also cleaned up a lot like you’ve got. In fact, I’ve found a lot of the same exact lures you have in your picture. The great thing about found lures is you cast them into areas you might normally be scared to. Easy come, easy go. If the lips are frosted, I usually don’t keep them, myself. How do you go about polishing bills/lips?

Kokoda? Looks like they don't make lures anymore, or they don't have an online presence. Well, I guess I've never seen that logo after all. Looked familiar. Thanks for reporting back - it was bugging me.

I think when you get up around the $100 mark, there are no really bad reels. Is there a brand that hasn't been mentioned in this thread?

I can't believe you're going to stump this crowd. 200 views and nobody has named it. It looks real familiar to me, but I can't put my finger on it. It looks kind of like an X and a C, so I thought maybe they are old XCalibur lures, but I don't know.

I don't know about this particular brand, but on some brands the smaller reels have lower drag ratings and less washers. The drag max should be listed in the specs, and/or you could download the parts diagram to check the washers. Other than that, I would go with the smaller reel - no need to waste line.

Okay, so it looks like I had it backwards. The holes allow for a slower retrieve while still maintaining chatter. Just like a smaller blade does.

What's up with the two holes? For a faster retrieve?

The title of the post is making people think that ALL H2O lures have been discontinued. That is a misunderstanding. Can we agree on that much? I'm not trying to blame anyone.

Zoom and H2O Academy brand lures are the best values usually and cover most of what I need, but there are lots of things that only other companies make that are indispensable. There's no one company that has everything I need.

The author of this thread states in this thread that the lures have not been discontinued. It was just a misunderstanding. This post needs a "fake news" tag or something. I about had a heart attack when I first saw it.

That would be a concern, because you don't have a receipt for an SV103. I've never sent a reel in for repairs, so I don't know how strict they are and whether they would actually look real close at your receipt. On the other hand, the odds of it malfunctioning within the 1 year warranty period are pretty low. I don't know about these reels, but I get the impression they are discontinued? How old are they?

What they can see and what they can understand are two totally different things. If they can see your blue tinted clear mono, then they can certainly see those big black treble hooks hanging off your crank bait. It doesn’t stop them from biting that crank bait. That being said, if someone came up with clear hooks, I would buy some in a heartbeat. Who knows what goes on in a fish head, but I think fish can be spooked more by the vibrations coming off the fishing line than from the sight of it.

Somebody might have pulled a fast one on Academy, returning an SV103 in a Zillion box. Customer service would never catch it.

I love shopping at Academy for that reason. Sometimes they take clearance seriously. I've never gotten that lucky though. Lots of times things are marked way down but the price tag doesn't show it. The only way to find out is to scan it.

After tuning it's diving down now. It was only running 1-2 feet before. It's weird because the line tie looks crooked now and it was straight before. It still sits funny, like it's heavy in the tail and the lip is pointing almost upwards. I've already got a smaller hook on the tail and a heavier one in front trying to get the nose down so it would dive. I'm going to have to monkey with it some more.

I haven't tried that. I'll give it a shot, but I thought the little john is supposed to "hunt" or "walk" or whatever.

I don't get what everyone sees in the little john. Someone gave me a used one recently and I can't get any depth out of it. Holding the rod tip down and cranking makes it run sideways. Everyone says that's a feature, not a bug. I don't get it. I've tried putting heavier hooks on it but it didn't help. Is there some trick to it?

I tried adding another layer to that today and it worked better than expected. I got some cheap thin cloth gloves that were like a dollar at the grocery store and wore one on my right (exposed) hand underneath the fingerless glove mittens so my fingers were never exposed. By themselves, the cloth gloves provide no warmth, but with the glomitts, they make a huge difference. They're thin enough that I can feel the line on my spinning reel good enough to cast. I didn't wear a cloth glove on my left hand. I kept the mitten closed on it until I caught a fish, then opened the mitten and grabbed the wet fish with my left hand so the gloves never got wet. They have to come off when I retie, but that's all. It worked great.