GetFishorDieTryin

You would think so, but when you search "how to tie crazy alberto knot" on YT. If there is a closeup of the finished knot, take a hard look at it. There are a surprising number of channels that have goofed the knot up and or failed to seat the knot correctly. There shouldn't be any gaps, the weave should be even, there should only be the very top of the bend of FC showing and the color of the braid in the weave should darken when compared to the rest of the line. If you're knot has 1 of those problems it doesnt matter how well you trim the braid, its going to fail. Trimming it isnt hard, if you have the right tool for the job. Its much harder with dikes or scissors to cut it near flush.

As much of a fan I am of the Alberto, I think the FG is a better knot to have in the spool. Its really easy for that line coming off the spool to grab an Alberto, especially if the tag isnt cut flush to the knot. Once the line grabs it, it either stops the cast mid flight, or pulls the knot off the spool prematurely and creates what's called a blow by knot. The FG is longer, but its half the dia and the only tag is braid which wont catch line like the mono or FC tag in the Alberto. I would recommend keeping the knot outside of the spool and below the stripper guide (1st guide) when casting. With a 7' rod that should give you at least 8' of leader. If you're fishing gin clear water or need an extra long leader to aid in landing fish, there are some things you can do to the Alberto to minimize stoppages and blow bys. When you finish the Alberto, hitch the tag through the loop 2 more times. That secures the knot from slipping. Use a pair of good clippers so you can cut the tag to the knot without damaging it. The longer the tag the bigger the potential headache. Use a knot glue or UV cement to round the edges of the knot.

I thought Nasci or every reel above Nasci had a RB. Funny the topic comes up, I have a Stradic FK that is screaming for a new bearing.

Whether they work or not, the guy makes some clean looking baits. I'd be interested in trying one, but it would have to seriously impress me to invest @$14 per.

I like the TW Bass Mafia bags Money Bag. They have a zipper closure as well as a super strong zip lock closure. I use a lot of these bags too. They're a much tinner material and, smaller than the Money Bags and just have a zip lock closure. What I do like about them is they're really cheap.

The reason I remember it, was because I expected the DP and other double bend knots to dominate. After the second week of June to the end of October most of my fishing is done in the dark. A sub 5 second DP is impressive during the day, tying it blind in 4sec is world class. I can tie it in the dark, but it takes me 6 or 7 seconds to make sure the bend is the right length and start wrapping down.

Used to fish trick/finesse and the shakey/mag shakey head worm all the time. You can catch fish all year on those 4 baits.

You would think, but BassHQ (I think) did the most comprehensive knot and line test Ive ever seen. The uni essentially matched and even beat the Pitzen a couple times and the SDJ beat it every time.

You dont need much more than 2lbs of drag, 3 at the most. I rarely use more than 4lbs of drag inshore fishing with heavy wire. It doesnt take very much pressure to get a medium wire owner point through a fat or standard roboworm. 10lb PE and 8lb leader is fine for a ML. With the nature of a shakey head, make a habit of checking the line and knot for incidental abrasion from the bottom. I use a ML for jig worms and shakey heads, but generally its a thinner type of finesse worm on a 1/16-3/32 shakey head with a med or lighter wire hook. Bite Me Tackle makes a great a great finesse Shakey head hook, with a short shank Gami sproat hook. Its one of the only shakey heads that fits a 4 or 4.5" worm perfectly. For longer worms I like the Gami tricky head. Both of those heads can be fished on a ML or M. I do think a M XF is the way to go for a dedicated shakey head rod. When you go to thicker baits and heavier heads and wire hooks then youre Mag M and lighter MH rods are the way to go.

Its not really the water that hurts the reel immediately, its what's in the water. Sediment and debris can gum up the reel and a waterlogged AR clutch can fail and drag systems can be susceptible to water. IME sand inside the reel will cause damage quickly. If you do dunk the reel, and you don't feel any grinding, you can probably finish the day with it, but if you do feel or hear it, stop using the reel. Whether the reel is in the water for a second or a minute, most fw bass reels will have some kind of water intrusion. Once you get home, its a good practice to purge all the old grease and deep clean the reel.

Check out Tatula and Tatula Elite in the 7'1 and 7'2 MH.

The designer they started with is still there and I dont think they have changed the way they build rods. My favorite is the last gen of the Muse Black, wish I bought a few more. I got to pick a few models of the Oath line. They feel pretty good for $100. I dont like the Oath grips on the spinning rods and not crazy about most of the new rods not having an exposed blank in the handle, but Im not really sure how much that actually matters.

Ran into a buddy of mine last blue fishing last night. He was using one of those reels. One thing I can say for sure is that reel is a caster. He was tossing a Catch 2k close to 60 yards with a 10kt cross wind. I thought it was a Bates GOAT at first, he likes those reels. After asking him about it, he said it was totally stock. According to him, out of the box it might be the best casting low pro he has, and there aren't many reels he's doesn't have or hasn't have had and sold.

Shimano contracted other companies. I think Daiwa actually built one of their first reels. I wouldn't necessarily say Shimano blatantly copied the BB1. Childre convinced Shimano to get into the market as he knew Shimanos expertise and quality would translate very well to the fishing industry. Childre contracted Shimano to build the BB1. The reels were an instant success and sold very well. Lew wanted to build a smaller version of the BB1 and kind of dropping hints in the industry that a BB0 was in the works. In 77', Lew died unexpectedly in a plane crash. Lew must have still had some ambition to work with Shimano, because Shimano at the very least knew about Lew's desire to build the smaller BB0 and was likely working on aspects of the reel at the time of Lews death. For whatever reason, Lew Childre and Sons had a falling out with Shimano. Instead of the contract going to Shimano, it went to another Japanese company, I want to say Ryobi picked it up, but I could be wrong. It was at this point that Shimano decided to invest fully into the fishing industry and create a reel. In 78' the Bantam was debuted at a large fishing show. Although the reel was available for order it took some time to fulfil deliveries, which weren't until the following year. The Batam wasn't just a BB1 made by Shimano. It was actually improved, being smaller and lighter than BB1. I want to they added a feature as well, but I can't recall what it was.

The buzz that the DC reels make is the sound of the braking system functioning. For short, easy casts it may hardly function at all. It's the longer bomb casts that bring that sound out. The first question I have to ask is that are you sure its the SLX DC and not an SLX A or XT? What line are you using? What braking profile? How tight is the spool tension? Normally I run my spool tension really loose, but the SLX/Curado DC works best with a little more tension than I like. Tighten the tension until the spool stops moving and then back it off just a tiny bit.

Depends on tip position, line, speed and which size youre using. The 5s struggle to get to 4' IME and dont stay there long since they are so light the casts are fairly short. You can run the 5s pretty shallow. You can run the 7s at a god clip in 2' of water.

As far as value goes, Tatula was at the top of the $150 mark IMO. Not crazy about the O guides, other than that the new ones should be good. I can't see Daiwa fumbling their bestselling line of FW rods. 13 Oath is a good feeling rod for $100. Im not crazy about the reel seats on the spinning models, but the casting models are good. 13 is a brand that goes on sale somewhat often. If you can get a Muse for 160 or 170$ I would recommend giving it a shot. The older Muse is one of my favorite rods ever. You might get a good deal on the memorial day sale Arks Tharp rods are good for the money. The Wes Logan line is supposed to be nice too, the 7'5 MH F is pretty light, like 4.oz which is light especially for a painted blank. The Invokers are good rods too. Phenix Feather would be a good buy too

I would start with getting him somewhat proficient with spinning gear before moving onto casting gear. You can get serviceable spinning reels for cheap, and they will hold up to a surprising amount of abuse. Try to get him to manually flip the bail. That will lengthen the life of the reel and keep help to minimize wind knots. If that fails, then you may have to go with the spongebob outfit for the time being.

I like a very good casting 150 (or 100) with a 95 or 100mm handle with decent sized grips, in 6 speed. You need good distance to cover water. I like using FC so I prefer a 150, that way even at the end of a long cast I still have decent, but more importantly consistent when compared to smaller spool size. Early in the year I start fishing bladed jigs low and very slow, as the water warm I get more aggressive to where Im constantly reel twitching and chopping, which is why I favor a longer handle, the bigger grips just feel more comfortable to me. I like a 6 speed with a 150 on 15 FC because Im very aware of where I am in the cast and depth wise without touching the bottom or electronics. I like a reel that doesn't feel like its struggling with the load, yet can pick up line after feeling a hit through the slack to get a quick hookset. I've noticed a lot of guys that struggle with bladed jigs fish them too fast and too consistently, without varying the speed of retrieve or direction. With slower action composite rods, I prefer a faster reel since the rod needs to load a bit before I set the hook. It almost feels like Im setting the hook with the reel at times. I know guys swear you need to use a glass or composite rod for landing good numbers, but I do as well or better with a graphite rod.

The rigidity of a 1 pc body is superior to that of a reel with a sideplate. That means you can lighten a 1 pc frame by at least 20% and still have a significant advantage in terms rigidity over a conventional 2pc design. The only con to the current core solid design would probably be the height of the frame and the close proximity of the line guide to the spool, which Shimano had already addressed. ! thing I did notice is that Shimano followed Daiwa approach to new tech with the CS frames. Shimano generally does their homework with their newest tech, so they are very confident debuting that tech into their flagship models. Daiwa on the other hand does it differently. For better or worse Daiwa generally wont debut a new tech into a flagship like Steez or Saltiga/Exist, until that tech is proven on a different platform.

I'm sure they have something worked out. Daiwa and Shimano work together on certain aspects of reels. There is no way you can convince me that they both Independently decided to go 2pc I an T knobs at the same time or use very similar color schemes. Theres no way that the engineers and designers from Shimano wouldn't want to experiment with a 1-piece eggbeater or Daiwa with a 1-piece low pro. 1-piece spinning frames have been around for decades. It wasn't until somewhat recently Daiwa decided to really expand its MQ lineup into lower PP reels than Saltiga. It was likley 2015 or slightly earlier when the two companies got together and made some deals. Daiwa already had a significant advantage in the MQ spinning reel, and Shimano as likely working on the first Core Solid Bantam. I could see Daiwa and Shimano signing some kind of deal where 1 would control the early Japanese design MQ spinning reel and the other would control the early CS designs on low pros. I would bet after a certain period of time that Shimano would be able to put out their own 1 peice body spinning reel and Daiwa could put out their 1 piece low profile

Its a softer more supple line and 11 bends may be too much. If the knot is cinching correctly the color will be much darker. Try 7 and 7 with a double hitch at the end, and don't use a glove. I've seen a few different braids fray from cotton rags and gloves.

All the companies are like that. When you get into the heavier wire hooks, the sizes can really vary.

Off the start there is a good number of vendors who had real low prices that won't even ship to the US anymore. With less competition the prices will be higher. You cant go by what the seller says, as they always say the item is half off even when its well over market value. Some vendor has 24 Tatula 100 for 300$ and it still says its 50% off. The prices took a solid jump, 15-20% in most cases and some more. The Tat 80 was like $85 not to long ago and now its 120$, almost a 50% increase. What used to be free shipping became 14.70 and some gougers go higher. The tat 100 is still cheaper to buy from AE($133) than Amazon.($160) When you buy a reel outside of the USDM you lose any warranty that you would normally get. If you're getting the reel at close to, or half price it worth it IMO. IMO the warranty may be worth the extra 20% in some cases.

I use the G finesse heavy cover hooks in a 2/0 for most worms over 5", you could get away with a 1/0. The G finesse heavy covers run big. The 2/0 is about the same length as most 4 or 5/0 round bends, with a bigger gap. The wire is little lighter than most heavy cover hooks, but its a super strong hook.