redmeansdistortion

The reel OP got is some years old, he essentially got a new old stock unit. Most greases tend to thicken over time, especially if the reel hasn't seen any action. A full service will almost always bring it back to life.

I run straight braid when fishing bass, they don't seem to be line shy. Even in the crystal clear waters of Lake St Clair. I typically only use leaders when fishing salmon, steelhead, and toothy critters because the rigs I run dictate their use. There really isn't much rigging involved in bass fishing unless you're running a variant of the C-rig. Most of it is tying on a bait and casting. It's not like I'm tying on a circle hook and a 3oz pyramid to catch bass. Great burbot rig though.

I fish from the banks or wade the majority of the time, so I typically only have one rod in tow with me. I usually fish with soft plastics either weightless or T-rigged and throw the occasional topwater or jerkbait. My reel is almost always an Abu 4500 of some sort mounted on either a Shimano Clarus 6'10" MH or a Daiwa AirD-X 6'6" M.

I'm usually fishing small streams and casting inside of 30yd or so with my setup. I've never tried to muscle it but I'm sure it can become a little hard to handle under such circumstances.

Like was said above, you need a rod that can load properly. I can throw 1/8oz Kastmasters with my Black Max 1600. It's mounted on a 7'6" 4lb-8lb Kokanee rod of moderate action. This is my brook trout setup that has served me well for years.

There may be delrin washers at the bottom of the spool shaft. You can add or remove them to reposition the spool and help with line lay if need be.

Nothing wrong with that. Back when I was big into ice fishing, there used to be an older fellow I'd see frequently on Lake St Clair. He was probably in his 80s, and there he would be on a bucket, sitting 6ft from his hole in the ice, jigging with an old round baitcaster. He seemed to do pretty well.

I'd stick with a spinner for ice fishing. Like was said above, it's better for vertical presentations. You won't be using a baitcaster to its potential when jigging for perch, walleye, and panfish. The only benefit I can see using a baitcaster for ice fishing is if you're jigging for big lake trout on the Great Lakes.

I have a President XT, nice reel for the money. At the $55 asking price seen on Amazon, it would be worth it to flush and oil the spool bearings then upgrade the drag to Carbontex. That would still keep you under the usual $79.99 price and make it an overall better reel.

Nothing to worry about on your end. If the wind is howling you may get some ice buildup though.

I run 50lb and 65lb on my baitcasters, it's thick stuff. The 50lb is about the same diameter as 12lb mono and the 65lb like 15lb mono.

It's all in what you make of it. Some of the most proficient fishermen I know use nothing but Ugly Stiks and blister pack reels from the big box stores. They want something cheap and durable and that's what they get in an Ugly Stik and Pflueger Trion.

How cold are you fishing and for how long? I do a lot of winter fishing up here in the tundra and braid always ices up on me. I typically run mono when temps are near or below freezing. Braid won't get damaged by the cold, but it'll be a pain to handle if it ices up.

The Okuma Celilo trout and panfish rods are probably some of the best cheap rods you can get. Very light and sensitive. I have a few and they're great for $25. You can get them at Dick's. Higher up the food chain, look at a Fenwick HMG 6' light power, that's another gem and you can find them often for ~$75. For a reel, I really like the Penn spinners in the 1000 and 2000 sizes since they're very easy to service and equally as easy to obtain replacement parts should the need arise. I run a Fierce III 1000 with my Okuma Celilo 6' and a Fierce III 2000 on my 7'6" HMG. Penns typically aren't as smooth as other offerings at the same price, but they make up for it with their durability. Additonally, a 1000 sized Penn holds about 30 to 40yd more line than a standard 10 or 20 size UL reel, which will come in handy when you lose some to snags and such.

I use high vis on all of my rigs now. I like to have an idea of where my bait is and it's great for that.

Since Abu doesn't make the 4500 reels anymore aside from limited runs, I decided to build my own since it's a favorite of mine. I prefer a push button clutch on these reels so it was a must have feature for me. Other touches are the old style bullet line guide, chrome frame, bigger handle grips, and the new style 4600 C3 spool. I built it mostly from spare parts. I love how it looks, but no clue how it fishes yet. I may take it out the next free weekend I get and find out.

Baits that work well for bass and big trout; Hot n Tots, Wiggle Warts, Husky Jerks, #3 to #5 Mepps, Little Cleos in 1/3 and 2/5oz, and my personal favorite, the Rebel Wee Craw.

For bass I like to use a 6' to 7'6". For the chrome bullets I run an 8'6" to 11' depending on technique.

Bingo. My thumb technique involves keeping light contact with the spool. I use enough thumb to where I can barely feel the line tickle the tip of my thumb. You get used to it after a few trips on the water.

A lot of old timers I know don't use brakes at all. They either remove the brake blocks or disengage them, then go fishing. I see this often with guys that learned on knuckle busters.

It's all in the thumb. I pretty much exclusively use Ambassadeurs though so take my reply with a grain of salt since they are far simpler than most any low profile on the market. A short pitch is pretty easy to control, it's when muscling it out there from a pier is when I up the spool tension a bit.

This is how I do it. I keep mine loose to the point there's a wee bit of side play, especially for pitching and flipping. When I'm going for distance I go a little tighter so the spool don't run away on me.

Distance - 10 I can really rip it. Some of my reels are set up specifically for distance as I fish the surfs and piers of the Great Lakes. Skipping - 0 Never attempted since I don't fish docks often Flipping - 7 Pitching - 8 I fish a lot of rivers with heavy cover and accuracy is paramount in such a scenario as it can be the difference between hooking up or donating an expensive bait to the logjam gods. When I first started pitching, I'd lose a lot of lures.

Here's my super tuned two bearing Abu 4500. Stock bearings, polished brake drum, polished worm gear, polished idler gear post, polished spool shaft end, lightweight brake blocks, and my favorite lubes in all the right places. This thing screams even better than my 7 bearing 4500CS some pages back in this thread. Even got it's first steelhead the day before the snow storm we had a week ago. Bearings? Where we're going, we don't need any bearings.

I tear mine down twice per year. Once for summer fishing and the other for winter. For winter fishing I use lower viscosity lubes so the reel is as smooth in the cold as it is in the warm. I dunno how I'll get around to my own as I have a couple of musky charters from Lake St Clair sending me their reels and another out of Grindstone City here in MI sending me some too. Not a bad way to kick off my newly opened reel repair business. I have nearly two dozen Penn, Daiwa, and Shimano trolling reels in the shop right now plus another 5 Abu 7000 C3 reels. I didn't think I would get so busy this fast.