redmeansdistortion

You'll be fine. I've caught a lot of fish on 8lb Big Game, from large thrashing pike to 15lb+ steelhead trying to lose me in the logjams. The line is super tough and should work well for you.

I can offer a little advice as I do surf fish the Great Lakes, usually around March and April when the salmon and steelhead are in shallow water. My reel of choice is an Ambassadeur 6500CS Pro Rocket matched up with a Lamiglas X11 9'6" 1oz-6oz casting rod. Most of my rigs use a 1.5oz to 3oz pyramid sinker off of a 3-way swivel and about 3ft of leader and a size 2 octopus hook baited with a live/dead alewife, shiner, or smelt. I also use shrimp from the frozen section at the grocery store as they work pretty good too. Adjust your rig accordingly. I use smaller hooks because the fish I'm after aren't as big as those in the ocean. While distance is key, it's not all of the equation. Get on Google Maps and study the area you want to fish. You want to look for the sandbars and try and get your bait between them. The current is slow in between sandbars, usually attracting a lot of forage fish and the intended quarry makes rounds through there feeding. You may find yourself casting in excess of 100yd, but that's not very common where I fish, but more so in the ocean. You will want a long rod at least 8'6" and a reel that will hold enough line to reach your intended distance as well as let the fish peel drag.

Indeed. I typically use 8, 10, and 12lb Big Game for leader material and sometimes run them as my main line when it's winter steelhead season, like right now for instance.

The 8lb Big Game works well enough on spinning reels, but you can make a wicker basket from the 10lb and up sizes.

That was my thought as well. Initially I was going to run the rear only but read elsewhere that it can mess up the action. I should still try anyway at least to see for myself.

https://detectorbuy.com/lubricants/ This is where I get mine from. Shipping can be a little much though, but if you're buying in quantity, this is the place to go. I also buy TSI 301 and use it on worm gears, level wind pawls, and the very ends of spool shafts where they contact the spool tension knob and side plate.

Sounds like you and I are cut from the same loaf of bread lol

My dream career was to be an architect. I've always been enamored with architecture and always sketched building plans as a kid and teen. For the better part of 20 years, I've been working in credit unions which I find enjoyable. I also run a quickly growing reel repair business on the side which I may dedicate myself to full time in the future. Apparently there aren't many reel repair outfits in my area and many customers have commented that they prefer to deal with a local instead of having to send their reels out. As of now, most of my business is from the various charter services that dot the coasts of my state, but I also get a lot of recreational fishermen. I'm already pretty backed up, not bad at all for not doing any advertising. All of my business comes from word of mouth.

That's my favorite thing with the slower action, keeping the fish pinned. It helps immensely on the rivers because you have a much better chance of steering the fish away from logjams and such.

Wow. If that was me I'd have needed to change my britches once or twice.

Hooks came in yesterday. I got a pack of #6, #8, and #10 hooks. I also grabbed some siwash hooks for my hardware. These are all 1/8oz baits with #6 hooks. Tired of paying tribute to the river gods.

I'll admit, when it comes to bass, I can be pretty unconventional when it comes to what gear I use. I do tend towards rods in the 6' to 7'6" range, but something must be said of using a longer rod for smallmouth. My favorite rod to use for pre-spawn smallies is an 8'6" Lamiglas 1/4oz-3/4oz steelhead rod. I wade along the shores of Lake Huron, and that longer rod with the slower action will really put your bait out there, even a smaller 1/4oz tube jig. I can cover much more water in that situation than my friends that usually fish with 6' to 7' rods. Plus it makes for a more fun fight. Once the smallies are post spawn and in deeper water, I target largemouth with my shorter rods. I caught my PB smallie on Muscamoot Bay (back when you could wade it) with a 9' light power Guide Series spinning rod with 6lb mono.

Really nice. I use it for trout. The drag is really nice, those HT100 washers are nice and smooth. I'd really like to get a bigger size for another rod I have lying around. I have one of the older 9' Guide Series light powered rods from Gander Mountain. Back then, Fenwick made that rod for them, the action is great and it's perfect for throwing light baits. It's a moderate fast action steelhead rod, but I use it wading the Thumb on Huron smallmouth fishing. It'll cast a 1/4oz tube jig a mile, that comes in handy fishing the shallows of Huron for spring smallies.

Which grease did you use? Thinner greases, like PTFE for instance, do lubricate well but there will always be some noise from the gears. If you use something thicker, like Yamaha Marine Grease, you can quiet them down some but you'll never completely eliminate the noise.

10'6" Okuma SST 8-17lb Ambassadeur 5500 8'6" Lamiglas X11 8-12lb Fuego CT 8'6" Lamiglas X11 12-25lb Ambassadeur 4500 7' Lamiglas X11 2-8lb Fuego CT w/ Ray's DIY spool 7'6" Okuma SST 4-10lb Black Max 1600 5'6" Okuma SST 2-6lb Penn Fierce III 1000 5' Okuma Celilo 2-6lb Okuma Ceymar C-10 4'10" BPS Micro Lite Glass 2-6lb Fuego CT w/ Ray's DIY spool

The Okuma SST 8'6" 1-6oz would work, but the rear grip is long, ~13.5" which may make it a little tedious for bass fishing. That said, with the more moderate action and added length, you could really throw it out there if need be.

Once I learned how to fish a plastic worm it was pretty much all I used for a few years. It worked that good for me. I was a kid and was invited to fish with my dad and his friend who was a big tournament fisherman at the time (late 80s). We spent a weekend hitting the canals on Lake St Clair and put a good hurting on the bass with Mann's Jelly Worms. Roy was a disabled fisherman, he was in a bad accident and lost much of the use of his legs and spent most of his time in a wheelchair if he wasn't on the boat. What a great time I had and it's just as fresh in my mind now as it was 30+ years back.

Ned rigs and tube jigs always produce for me in those lakes. The smallies will be in shallower water until around early June, so fish the reeds and edges of weed beds.

New production C3 and C4 reels are made in Sweden as well. That said, I'd buy one used. Their design hasn't changed much the last 15 years aside from minor differences and one can save quite a bit buying used. For a swimbait setup, I'd opt for the C3 with its 5.3:1 ratio over the C4 and the 6.3:1.

It's strange, even on the Lamiglas website, it says it's 1/16-1/4. https://www.lamiglas.com/collections/x-11-freshwater-trout-panfish

Lamiglas is strange with their rod ratings. I also have the spinning variant of this rod, rated for 1/16-1/4 and the action between both is the same as far as I can tell.

Yep. I'm only running one hook on these Rapalas, the front hook will be removed and not replaced, just the rear hook will be replaced with a single inline. These are used for stream smallies and trout such as browns, bows, and brookies.

Lamiglas X11 7' ultralight casting rod came Friday. Here it is with my 8.1:1 Fuego CT, just waiting on the Ray's Studio spool to show up. That should be here sometime between 11am tomorrow and Easter. My new stream trout and panfish setup.

I do have plenty of siwash hooks in various sizes as I swap all of my spoons and spinners to singles. I'll try the finesse fishing site that was mentioned here. I thought about running siwash hooks but they're a little too long for Rapalas IMO.

I'm looking for #6 and #8 single inline hooks to swap my F3 and F5 Rapalas over from trebles. I understand my hookup rate may go down, but these are more for stream fishing where I encounter, and unfortunately donate a lot of baits to the logjams and other gremlins. There have been days where I've got zero fish but lost $20+ worth of baits and I feel singles will help out in that department. I've looked at VMC and Owner and they only appear to go as small as #6. Is there anything available from other reputable manufacturers?