Michigander

I want to test my whole system when setting the drag. I have two two pound weights and a one pound weight. Just some abandoned fitness equipment I got at the thrift store. I looped heavy braid through them a connect them with a carabiner clip to get the total weight I want and then dead lift it with the rod. I keep increasing the drag until I can just barely lift the weight(s) without the drag slipping. Works great for me and I haven't had any drag related fish losses since I started doing this. Most of my rods are set at 1, 2, or 3lbs of drag.

Yep and for the TL;DR crowd: "Action refers to rod flex and Power refers the rod's resistance to flexing."

I fish mine in light-medium vegetation with a MH spinning rod. No problems with hook penetration as long as the hooks are sharp.

BOGO rod sale for February at Six Gill: https://sixgillfishing.com/deals/rod-bogo/

I'm going to give that a 5/10. The singer doesn't use any melody which is a turn off for me but I know some people dig that style.

I either do late afternoons or right when the sun comes up. I don't seem to get much predawn or around noon. I think my fish like the long shadows. That being said, I'm usually jonesing so hard just to be fishing at that point, catching is kind of irrelevant.

The Phantom hooks have a pretty deep belly if that makes sense. I tend to use bulkier tubes so having that extra clearance is important to me but may not be to you. The nice thing about getting a pack is that you can see the hook and it comes with all the hardware you need to rebuild it. Basically just break the cheap crimp on the weight stack and replace the wire with some heavier braided line. Like I said, I am putting a small aluminum washer closest to the eye of the hook to keep the tube from getting ripped out.

Wouldn't be the prettiest thing, but I doubt the fish would care if you took the hook you want and made a head out of JB Weld or some other two part metal epoxy. Heck, you could probably just use Milliput and work some BB's into the mix as well.

I cycle through retrieves until I find some that works or abandon the lure. Often I find if they won't hit topwater, they will hit a fluke fished a inch or so below the surface.

You and my tournament partner are the same. Though he has caught a few but no matter what lake we're on, the bass that bite Live Target lures are always diseased, like covered in sores and gross looking. I also did not get any fish on the Sprinker. However, I was killing it all summer with a Toadrunner, which is basically an upgraded Sprinker.

I am modifying the Phantoms. Out of the box they are super fragile and break easy. But they are phenomenal until they break. The reason I am modifying instead of just building like in the video is because the Phantom hook is unique and unavailable otherwise. Owner doesn't sell them unassembled. Also, that video doesn't fix the main design flaw in my opinion. I'm putting a washer ahead of the weight stack so the internals don't get ripped out of the hole that passing the hook through the tube head creates. I'm also adding a rattle!

If you aren't fishing near salt, the Nasci doesn't do much for you over the Sahara (which is a great reel, btw). You might like the new Shimano Spheros Inshore SW. Its basically a Stradic.

Yes, it's a smallmouth. The fight continued on land.

Darn.

Did it happen?

This fish made me feel like I was in a movie. The aerial acrobatics it did during the fight were awesome. This is my favorite fish that I have ever caught.

Ok, so I just got done tearing down the reel and taking a look. I did indeed find metal shavings! Thankfully, it was just around the nut in the star drag adjuster so that was easy to clean off. No metal shavings in the interior of the reel which made me happy. There was grease in there but I regreased it because the lube job wasn't awesome. A lot of grease gunks weren't actually on moving parts but what was in there would have been fine if I had left it alone. What was interesting was that the bearings weren't oiled very much. Most of them looked kinda dry so I fixed that too. Overall, the design and construction of the reel looks fine and it is much smoother now that I worked on it. I doubled the free spool time but it still kind of sucks. If I get bored later this winter I might tear it down again and supertune it. Also, it has carbon drag washers which was nice to see.

What will really sink him is if he didn't get his price per jar right. If he's not making enough per unit to make it worth his time, it'll collapse under it's own weight.

I'll take your place if this is still happening, provided there's enough time left..

Amusingly, Sufix 832 is my least favorite braid because it performs rather poorly for me. I would say start with black Fireline; it is far from a "perfect" line but it is very user friendly. Also, you have to find the balance for your line diameter. Heavier line is less likely to dig in and do weird stuff but it also decreases casting distance. Finding that sweet spot is what it is all about. As far as leader line, I would just keep using the FC you currently are if it was working.

I just got the Alijos 300 in the mail today. Seems ok for a $95 size 300 low profile baitcaster. It's about as smooth as the Abu Garcia Max Toro I played with at the store. Obviously neither of those were under load so who knows. This Alijos has a fun little knob thing on the spool to keep your line from slipping which I think is superior to having holes in the spool. I'm going to open this thing up and take a look inside, hopefully I find adequate grease and not metal shavings... lol....

I was going to post something asking if anyone knew of anyone making these nowadays. Looks like I don't have to! I just ordered a couple jars to check them out. Most of the traditional colors are backordered and I don't know what ths turnaround is on that but they still had some colors that will work fine for me. Can't wait to try them. Thanks for posting this!

Both. The leader specific stuff is a more pure fluorocarbon than the regular stuff, with the most pure going to fly tippetts. However, I also keep normal FC spools for making leaders to save money because of how many I go through in a year. Really, I make my decision based on what properties of the leader line I want.

I'm going to be using a 7'2" M for finesse jigs for this year. Provided that the rod can cast the weight of the lure, the power of the rod is dependent upon how heavy of a wire your hooks are. I'm using light wire so a medium is perfect.

And that's in line with what I was saying, you grew up with right handed baitcaster reels so that is your reality now which is fine. But if you look at it without the historical part, what sense does it make compared to a left handed retrieve?