bulldog1935

A big problem with registration is presenting a title or original purchase invoice for your kayak.

Workhorse reels also have different price ranges, so bang for the buck doesn't usually apply. Within price ranges, you can pick out workhorses. Dainty low-end spinning reels are usually anything but workhorses. If people put their money where their mouth is, they'd be fishing Tica spinning reels. Nor would reel weight ever matter - low weight is a bell and whistle that often sacrifices reliability, especially on the low-price end. Within Shimano, the workhorse spinning reel is Stradic, but the Tica above still has a better line roller than Stella.

Spider weights and double-hook "spec rigs". 2/0 hook will target both, though 1/0 is generally better for targeting pomps, and 4/0 better for hooking reds. The pompano normally eat sea lice, and just about everyone fishes small gulp pieces for them. Earlier in the fall, reds will take cut bait or live bait, especially live mullet. As I posted just above, when the pompano are running, the feeding competition instinct causes the reds to reject live mullet in preference for Gulp pieces, too.

regarding the Stella, stainless steel drive makes wear surfaces improve with use.

some of the redfish photos I left off my Rockport Rodeo report:

probably not your ML or BFS. The reel you can ask too much of, and it delivers without you worrying over it. editing my post, I'm not quite sure why buck is the the single most important qualifier for most everything on this forum (often dividing the forum too much like a discussion on abortion). We have two recurring definitions - cheap and versatile is one. But to me, workhorse implies work and reliability. If you back up to my answer on the other thread, Super Duty G always surprises me with its versatility when I need it to perform outside the niche I assign it - also to me, $143 for a reel I fish 5+ years in the salt is cheap. Buck is the one definition you'll never get people to agree on.

Lew's Super Duty G

Josh -Each of his reports includes photos and the narrative from his boat, meterology, solunar, NOAA tide prediction, lures used, fish caught, and a Google Earth plot of the paddling trail using his recorded GPS. here's that shrimp creole and me with a rat red oh, and dinner last night at my house - these fillets were never frozen, just floated in ice water

a show-and-tell photo I took to describe the salty BFS I was fishing last week. The rod is Yamaga Blanks BCIII-82B all-range - the action is equivalent to a 4-wt fly rod; the reel is Steez with Roro-X spool, charged with 16-lb, PE#0.8 X-braid. The lure is Duo Spearhead Ryuki S, 3 g, 45 mm, the tiny trout trebles replaced with #6 salty plug hooks.

@MN Fisher and smoking cigars - what else you gonna do with a gazebo and firepit, bro? Saturday, we crossed the ferry at Port Aransas to Mustang Is and Island Moorings Marina to fish East Flats. We had to be off the water at 2pm, because Nina coaches her daughter's volleyball team, and learned the evening before they made the playoffs. Lou and I got separated from the group - we were staged on the ramp, had to launch before a boat backed down, and our partners had to wait out two more boat launches before they could play. We paddled out first to East Flats. What we didn't know, our friends stayed in the boat channel to fish the cuts into East Flats and East Flats Lake. We had two fairly boring drifts diagonal across East Flats, Lou was happy with a keeper trout and rat red, but I was shut out. We spent the rest of the day looking for our friends on East Flats Lake, and paddled 8 miles - it was a beautiful day. But our friends caught 100 trout, mostly dinks, and Josh boated a keeper limit. I would have given anything to be there with my UL. Maybe I'll have to buy Josh a VHF - I don't do cell phones on the water. So my Saturday was about food - Whit's famous ceviche, spec fillet cooked by key lime juice, and mostly chopped by William. Josh's perfect and rightly famous shimp boil. A great time around the firepit, and serious libation. ______________________________________________________________________ Sunday was also a short day - we had to be off the water at 11 am, time to clean up and pack out. We picked Estes again for the easy logistics and light NE. At least we got a good start. A short visit to Little Cut without any action, and then rode the NE between the two duck blinds between Little Cut and Big Cut. Two drifts, a 19" and 18" redfish for me. And sorry, I think there's shrimp boil on my polarizer. After another drift and a half without fish, I made the long paddle back to Lunch Beach for a final drift down Trout Bayou and Talley shore. That was also mostly fruitless, though when I got to the mouth of the big Talley slough, I found a thousand rat reds that would try to impale your lure until your took it out of the water. Lou got his best red of the trip. Great times with great friends, and Josh and his sister Nina are amazing hosts and great fishers.

My buddy Josh holds an annual 5-day kayak flats fishing, um, bacchanal. He's fished as many as a dozen kayaks with overflow spread across Rockport fishing shacks. This year, rain and a bad blow on the second scheduled day slowed us all down, so we traveled later and only fished 3 days. Josh put all 6 of us up at his family digs on Copano Bay - it's on historic property that has been a Spanish Fort, Texian fort, and where Empresario John Power built the house for his Texian bride. When we arrived Thursday evening, Josh cooked up a perfect shrimp creole. Friday was fishing our old friend Estes Flats and Trout Bayou on a NNE. The incoming tide should stack fish at the inside of the passes to Aransas Bay, and the wind is a perfect drift down the length of Trout Bayou. We were off like a herd of turtles for our 3-mile paddle, and the sun was already up. Lou, Josh, William and I each spent a little time wading the hardpack beach at Trout Bayou cut. Rat reds were stacked at the corner of Traylor Is., right where they ought to be, and I got my first redfish on my salty BFS. The real day, though was drifting Trout Bayou, and everyone found nice fish, especially big trout - Josh brought home a 21" My day was mostly 18-19" reds, of course several small rats, though I did get a 22" to fillet. Lou released a beautiful 26" sow trout to keep breeding little trout in Trout Bayou - his lifetime best. Lou and I were back to Palm Harbor first, and went to work filleting. The rest followed us in - - and took their stringers back to Copano to fillet - the pelicans lined up for fish carcasses Friday evening we had a culinary feast at 495 Chesapeake Eats in Rockport, and Lou picked up the tab - strategic thinking - he mostly wants to be invited back. Their calamari and crab dip were outstanding, their stuffed flounder special was better than any I've tried elsewhere, and Lou made a great call on an aged rye Old Fashioned, which I was smart enough to duplicate. This is all I can manage in one post, will be back with the last two days...

I'll post some of the 94 subjects on a fishing report later, but a taste of Rockport redfish rodeo We call this Lunch Beach - beautiful hardpack on Talley Is shore.

As far as broken baitcaster feet, there are much more significant manufacturing differences than just aluminum and magnesium. Base-line frames are going to be die-cast. The pot metal structure will be coarse and contain non-metallic inclusions (dirt) in as-cast shapes. These features combine to produce metal fatigue over time. Top-end reels have forged frames - the metal work produces fine texture in the metal structure, literally squeezes out most of the dirt, and what remains is small and round, not affecting metal fatigue. (The makers stick silly marketing names on the process, such as Hagane) Here's the forged frame on a top-line Abu Revo.

To me, buying JDM tackle is a no-brainer. They offer five-times as many options in JDM as they export to USM - both prices and inventory are better. Shipping JDM to US is quicker and more reliable than shipping within US. The choice for DC is going to depend on your thumb. If you tend to set brakes high and not use much thumb, especially at the end of your cast, you'll prefer DC. If you prefer light brakes, know how to set them, prefer lightweight free-spinning spools, and modulate distance and finish cast with your thumb, you'll probably prefer non-DC reel. Shimano's marketing for DC is kind of the opposite of the reality - you can get better distance from a light free-spinning spool than one that applies brakes 1000-times per second. I put my money earlier in the Steez/Zillion camp, and couldn't be more delighted with the result and spool options out there.

Daiwa rates the SV Boost spool down to 1/8 oz, and with 12-lb Tatsu, mine will cast 1/8 oz about 90 to 100'. The lightest spool Daiwa makes is the SLP Works RCSB 1012/16, but you're not going to see a big difference over the SV Boost. Ray's Studio made a 9-g 1016 spool rated to cast 1/8 to 3/4 oz. This spool has the moving SV brake rotor. There's only one left in stock, gold color. The absolute lightest spool made for Zillion is the Roro-X27 at 5.2 g. However, this spool has fixed brake rotor, and won't cast heavy weights. But if you stick to light weights, it will amaze. Rorolure doesn't have stock on this spool - the gold at JapanTackle is the only one out there. AMO Store on the "Express" site has stock of various spools for 34-mm Zillion/Steez. I believe they're actually a supplier for Daiwa. I put a Ray's Studio shallow honeycomb braid spool in mine, and with light braid will throw 1/16 oz well over 100' I'm fishing it in 1/8 oz ML - it bombs 1/8 oz loaded jighead to 50 yds, The Ray's Studio spool has moving SV rotor and will also cast heavy weights. No stock of these anywhere.

I carry my neck knife inside my shirt, reach between shirt buttons to grab the knife. Especially in the salt, I'm wearing so many straps to keep my sunglasses and hat in coast wind, camera lanyard, throw a pdf on top, and the fewer extra loose lines the better. I don't wear the neck knife when I'm driving, but hang it on my rear view mirror with all the other keepers. Too many friends were ER surgeons to let me wear the neck knife when driving.

at $200, now it's time to check Sierra and Madison River Fishing Company for good close-out breathable waders. Stocking foot waders and separate boots are also best for traction and ankle support. The longest-lived waders I've fished have been Simms and unfortunately discontinued Cloudveil guide weight - good news, my supreme-comfort Cloudveil are still in service. The most comfortable boots were Paragonia, also cozy waders, and I have a comfy set of Simms boots in service now, though I had to install my own studs. The felt-sole boots are only for home water - states that allow felt - I have some crappy back-up Grey's with studded rubber soles for travel to no-felt states. The nice thing about Korkers, they have swap soles to give you rubber, studs, or felt - they just don't meet my comfort level.

Been wearing waders for 40 years, from Alaska to S. Texas - some general thoughts. Breathables are the smartest, because you come out of them dry on a cold day - your sweat evaporates through the waders. However, they're not warm, and you need to layer up inside them - base layer + insulation layer. Neoprenes are always the most cost-effective, can be tough to get on and off, and you come out soaked, because your clothes will be saturated with sweat from exertion. threw this in - hiked to Russian River falls, donned waders and fished back down

also supports my point about the CRKT M-16 Compact: a single-hand-opening folder (like an easily accessible neck knife) is really useful when your hands are full fishing. Here's my nipper that I carry freshwater fly fishing. I used to wear this Kiku Matsuda kiridashi in the salt - the nickel+VG-10 hand-folded damascus is the most salt-impervious blade next to titanium - also holds a razor edge... until I realized if I dropped it in the bay, I could never replace it.

I'll give an answer to the original question, one of each. My favorite reel is ZPI Alcance. This reel has the fastest spool and greatest cast distance of any off-shelf reel I've purchased (ok, the shelf is JDM). Right now, it rides my back-up box, with 2 spare spools, 12-lb Tatsu, shallow spool with X-braid, and ready to go in my MM niche with 20-lb 832 - it's ready to plug into 3 niches, BFS to MM. The Korea factory reel has magnesium spool with titanium spindle, and tuned mag-brake cam. I'm planning to match this reel full-time with a Waterloo Carbon Mag rod, but next year when I can swing the pennies. I suspect this will become my favorite rod, too. In the meantime, my favorite rod, ML light-in-hand Toray graphite, matched with my braid-raced Zillion, is 13Fishing Omen Green. a few thousand answers? It certainly seems the OP was fishing for diversity. On topic replies are, well, on topic.

@Smalls - he may be asking about spindle pin tool for removing the spool bearing. All the spool does is spin and pin in the pinion gear. There's no L/R to spools. There are L/R to helical gears and handle nuts. https://japantackle.com/daiwa-zillion-jdream.html You'll probably have an easier time finding an aftermarket spool for that reel than OS part. If you go to either of these links, send an e-mail to Jun Sonada and ask him what Daiwa RCS spools will fit your reel. Jun knows enough about the brake changes over the years, even if the size swaps, he can recommend which spool works best with the brake on your reel. https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/spools-casting-reels/daiwa.html While you're there, pick a nice handle, and get the correct handle nut. Some other good aftermarket vendors are SDS Custom on ebay and AMO Store on "Express" site. But you'll find Jun has much better English and all-encompassing knowledge compared to Ukraine or China.

That's the maker - I don't remember which blade, but we talked about it, and he modified one of the blades for the wrap I wanted. I really love this knife. @J Francho If you like mine specifically, feel free to borrow my photo to show him. It's a V grind - carburized makes the edge a metal matrix composite with embedded carbonitride shark teeth. It's pretty much self-sharpening, and will take an edge - it won't cut you, but nips braid like a champ. I'm a metallurgist and licensed PE - this knife makes me all warm and fuzzy.

On the salt, it's a titanium carburized-edge neck knife - nips braid, also good for lunch, and you can rinse it in the bay. for extricating flies from cypress branches, CRKT M16 Compact, at 2.2 oz, is the very best single-hand shirt-pocket knife.

based on a review of Plat, they had preorder for a new run of CT, and on their parts schematics they include the 70, but only the '21 Limited shows a different schematic link. However, even if the new CT is the '19 Steez with a facelift - it's not something to complain about - you're still getting a Japan bench-tuned reel. Here's my SV-TW with Roro-X spool on shore light-game rod. Next week we have a 5-day kayak flats-fishing rodeo, and two of those days should be fishing this rod - my first chance to land redfish with it Have to fish this rod where I can get out of the boat - it's the equivalent of a 4-wt fly rod - can't risk a big red getting under the boat.

I use my cordless Rapala only to get through redfish ribs and thereby avoid the the foul language I use my self-sharpening Titan titanium MMC for the rest of the spine (and smaller ribs), and KOA Coho only for skinning - especially thin-skinned specs normally don't fillet these big female specs, but Lou had her badly gut-hooked (that's a 15" OL knife) - and a stingy fillet I prefer redfish grilled on the half-shell, which is an easy fillet with the ribs left in and skin left on Dad gave me a Shrade for my 20th birthday I learned to fillet 25 white bass at a time in the dark, and this knife is still great and will never see the salt. I've been through all the folding fillet knives - the only good one for function was Benchmade, unfortunately, blood exposure made the blade steel pit even with immediate soap washing.