PhishLI

Magseal is nothing more than a magnetic fluid/oil used in certain bearings in the reel. Do you fish the salt? If you don't, there's no reason not to replace it with standard oil or grease when the time comes to service the reel. I have and it works just fine.

Pretty much. Unless you're fishing ultra clear deep water for pressured smallmouth you shouldn't worry about it at all. In my opinion largemouth don't care and I have good evidence that they don't. My local waters are very shallow with depths no greater than 4 feet or so within a long cast and are pretty much topped out with weeds in every direction. Using these places as an example is pretty meaningless. However, I can give a very good example of why I don't think largemouth care much about line. I've been fishing one particular lake with my son in law for the past 8 years. It's the only place he goes to. We call it bass paradise. It has everything. Grassy shallows, ledges, points, steep drop offs into very deep water right off the bank in some places and off long flats in others and several large coves with Lily pads, reeds, eel grass, and occasional milfoil. It has a creek channel feeding out to the salt which allows for an Alewife/River Herring population. The water is very clear as no chemical pesticides are allowed by law and the surrounding town residents comply, so algae is nonexistent there. When I first started going with him, he considered himself a finesse fisherman and used nothing but clear 6lb mono. He caught fish, but so did I when using straight 30lb or 50lb braid. The difference was that I could fish zones he couldn't, and he'd break off with better fish a bit too much while I never did. 2 years in I pressured him to a MH baitcasting rig with straight braid and he was finally able to fish the zones I could. I also got him into fishing jigs. As a consequence, he caught way bigger fish regularly while rarely missing a hookset, and never breaks off unless a monstrous Pickeral gets on. Not much one can do about that. However, wood and brush piles aren't a factor here besides a scant few laydowns, and are the only places where I might tie on a heavy fluoro or mono leader but rarely do. Location followed by bait selection/profile is the biggest factor in bagging better largemouth, IMO. Not the line type. If you learn to fish a semi-slack line, the no-stretch feedback you get from straight braid or braid to a short leader is fantastic. I've never had a bass swallow a bait using braid mainline, just the rare and unfortunate tongue hooking, so hooksets are positive and typically on the roof of the mouth or lip.

But you can if you use these: I routinely fish them through this:

Just a suggestion. When the new one comes in, and even if the box looks fine, quickly go out and cast something several times at the rod's stated weight limit. The box might've still gotten flexed which could've damaged the blank. It took my brother 5 times once to get an undamaged rod. They kept shipping the replacements in those absurd boxes over and over again.

Just buy and use these religiously and they'll stay nice forever. The Rod Glove Casting Reel Glove | Tackle Warehouse

From where? Was it in a rod tube or one of those triangular boxes taped together?

You'd be right about that.

I haven't fished with or touched a ton of $100 spinning rods, but enough to have chosen the Tat XT over the ones that I have. That doesn't mean there isn't something better at the price point. There are so many choices, then throw in personal preference. Rods are so personal. That said, the MF XT spinning rods I have keep me happy not only because I like their feel in hand and their crisp action, but they've held up to real abuse over 6 years of use. I've dragged in some pretty impressive NY bass through some gnarly weeds with them without one glitch.

Absolutely.

I'm not a bass, but I can't smell anything once it dries which is pretty fast.

The OP is looking for a spinning rig, ABU.

Yes. I'm right handed and prefer jacking the hook or dragging them back through heavy veg with my right arm and would rather not switch hands either way. With jerk baits in clean water, it really doesn't make a difference to me. I actually prefer working jerks with my left arm.

If they're single foot guides, then yes. I've used clear poly and clear nail polish. Just dip the foot in or brush it on, then slip the guide back into the wrap. Clean the excess off the blank and let it dry for at least a day. I haven't had one come back out. This happened with one of my rods last year. It hasn't budged.

I've had the 6' 1/2" and 7' Mediums for the past 6 years. They're durable and feel great in my hand. Love the hook keeper. Good sensitivity too for $100.

Ya gotta dig a little bit deeper. He does have 4 TW Pro Circuit wins, plus 3 FLW AOYs, plus a Bassmaster AOY. Winnings over 3 million, so not really your average complainer.

Last night on IKE live he claimed there's a rumor that MLF will ban FFS for the invitationals and BFLs beginning next season. Conversation begins a 34:38

I suggest that you pull out the schematic and study it. Follow that up by watching some early Tackle Advisors low profile reel teardown vids on YT. The reel model doesn't matter. They're all built and operate the same way. If after that you still can't visualize how these things work, nothing I can say here will help as none of it will make sense to you especially if I'm calling out parts and using terms that you're unfamiliar with. In the meantime, what might help you loosely get why I recommended what I have is that all non-fixed components in the thumb-bar/clutch cam chain operate as a slip-fit. There are friction points in the circuit, both external and internal. Some are more critical than others where lubrication is concerned. Excluding a weak return spring, which is doubtful, lubing this circuit typically solves an intermittently returning thumb bar. The reason it's intermittent is because sometimes your first crank of the handle is done with more force than others which kicks the mechanism past the dry friction point allowing the cam return spring to do the rest. Good luck.

By yourself? If you look at opening up a reel in the same light as operating on an infant's heart, then don't mess with it. If you don't, then mention it and we'll go from there. If the thumb bar only gets stuck intermittently, then likely nothing's broken, like a return spring. In that case, I don't think of lubrication as something that qualifies as a repair. Otherwise, make contact and send it here. Delaware Valley Tackle - Home

Snuck in a quick boat sesh with my brother between on and off rains. We met a few dudes in yaks packing up at the launch who said it was a brutal bite. Half the place was covered in a thick green mat of snot algae, and there were at least 100 swans milling around. Rain-cooled water had Pickeral on the move again, and we got some bites out in the middle over nearly topped out weeds throwing a Berkely Grass Pig in Swamp gas. After enough of that, we switched over to fishing pads on the edges. Finally got a solid bite throwing the super versatile and effective yet absurd 3.6" Fish Arrow Heavy Poop right before dime-sized raindrops chased us out. Le Poop bass.

In case you don't know, the higher price of a reel doesn't automatically make it immune to glitches caused by lubrication issues. Even expensive reels can come out of the box on the dry side which can lead to symptoms like a sticking thumb bar. I know because I've worked on them. Geary-ness, or pronounced gear meshing that you can feel is often a bearing issue and not always a gear(s) issue. No need to overreact to minor matters. If you lack the confidence to dive in and learn to work on your gear, which I highly recommend, then just send it out to someone reputable. I have yet to come across a problem that couldn't be easily solved other than obsolete parts for older reels. The Tatula 150/200s are proven platforms that are dumb simple to work on.

Awesome!

Lookie here: Amazon.com : Daiwa AIRX662MFB Aird-X 8-17 lb Test Rod, Black, 6'6" : Sports & Outdoors I have the 7'0" MH 2 pc which has been dragging fish out of heavy veg using straight braid for over 5 years. Still like new.

Yup Thompkins disqualified from St. Lawrence Elite - Bassmaster

In fertile pad fields, bait fish are usually loaded up, so bass really don't need to feed up. Here, you'll need to penetrate the canopy of Lillies and you'll need heavier gear and line in order to get them out. In cases like the picture below where the pads are in-filled with coontail and milfoil, you'll need heavy gear even more. In some lakes frogs are simply a low percentage play. My favorite local spot is one of those places. Occasionally I'll get them to eat one, but the juice simply isn't worth the squeeze.