bulldog1935

Mike's reel repair offer's a drilled alloy BB idler gear. The idler gear has to be light - the LW is driven off the spool during the cast. While the original was nylon, newer aftermarket idler gears are also offered in delrin. The idler gear is never driving the spool, only the LW - really not much chance of the gear stripping even in nylon. They offer aftermarket parts to really work wonders on reducing LW inertia - as well as spool inertia - my racy 1500C will cast 2g to 80', and the inertial is so low, I removed the centrifugal brake, because it's not needed and is just wasted mass. The LW parts offered alone can remove 1/3 oz from the LW mechanism and add ball bearings to the worm gear and idler gear. My next project may be a 4600C using Momo parts from AMO store.

We could call it Stoli water.

My surf reels are raced-out Abu CTs, and one of my 3 BFS reels is a raced out 1500C

adding to recent reality ^^^ the main reason to choose fluoro is for abrasion resistance. Even on reels/spools where I cast light fluoro, I use a heavier fluoro leader for shock and abrasion. Adding further to the reality, sight-fishing trout, redfish, big bass in gin-clear water, no fish is line shy until you Touch them with the line. All three of these fish can be particular about the size, shape and behavior of what they're eating.

Out of my favorite reels, only Lew's Super Duty hits your cost window, but Daiwa SV and bench-raced-Abu ZPI Alcance are in my favs - I don't own a Shimano baitcaster, but Metanium is a great choice.

had to hunt for the monkey - it's all the way to page 2 - ok, fixed that Recent parts hunting for my 1500C led me to Haneda Craft to purchase this alloy handle through my broker Masamichi at noppin.com While I was there, I threw these two lures into my cart. The handmade and airbrushed swimming surface plug is Smith Hatley's Special Mercury The frog is Haneda Craft Muscle Frog #26, 1/2 oz.

on-topic answer I fish 10- and 12-lb Tatsu on a couple of reels/spools. What you find with all low-memory mono lines is they're stiff and springy - they like to fly off the spool. This is true of Tatsu, and also Maxima Ultragreen. In lighter lines, the best fluoro I've found is JDM Toray Exthread.

Here's my 1500C in its final form. It has Avail alloy frame that lowers the reel 7.5 mm on the reel seat, and a full ounce lighter than the chromed brass frame. Brass mainshaft is also replaced with Avail alloy. Haneda Craft alloy handle and Avail round alloy drag knob Final touches are black Avail alloy trim pieces. The biggest improvement was 7-g Avail 1520 spool and matching mag brake, replacing the centrifugal. It will cast 3 g to 80' on the 5-1/2' UL rod with nothing close to backlash. Capacity is 50 yds of 0.20 mm, either 5-lb Ultragreen mono, or 10-lb Sufix 832.

In the west, pumpkinseeds are replaced by long-ears. Every drainage has its own strain markings, east to west in the TX hill country: San Gabriel Guadalupe Sabinal Frio

Thanks friend. btw, I got to fish my raced-out Zillion 1/8 oz ML+ 22-lb X-braid this trip - it was flawless and could cast the full width of Little Cut at Aransas Bay side. I had to thumb my casts to keep them out of Lou and Tony. Same Omen Green rod I've used for ML for a few years, and it was doubled over by every red, and even tourist trout were fun. BTW, that tiny Aransas trout I showed above, he rocketed 6' straight up into the air on his first wind.

long-ear and red-breast. How's this for shoulders on your 1/8-oz ML?

Of course my kind of fun. Here's the link to fishing the day after the freeze ended.

yesterday on Estes Flats

When Ida tinkering sent me to the AP tide predictor, found several days of big harmonics and my favorite timing to fish the cuts at Estes. The biggest tide swing was Friday, with a 5 am high tide, which gives a good tide current for stacking bait in the passes at first light. I began checking with friends to see who could play - no trouble getting Lou and Tony to volunteer. We went down Thursday evening (ate at Moon Dog's), and launched at dark-thirty Friday morning. After our 3-mi paddle, first-light at Little Cut was everything promised - the bait were running into each other, the tide flow was so strong it created eddies. Redfish were rolling on the surface like tarpon. Tony was catching ladyfish on his fly rod, and right off, Lou caught three 14-inch snook. Friday was an amazing day in many ways, and a strange day for me - I just couldn't bring a fish to hand. Whatever the reds were rolling on, I couldn't match the hatch. YoZuri wake bait made the exact pattern of the bait in the cut, no takers. The smallest thing I brought was 3" Z-man on 1/8-oz Texas eye jighead. Every cast, the little snook attacked it, and my couple of hook-ups shook me off. As always on our favorite drill, when the pass quieted about 9 am, we moved back onto Estes to drift fish. Wind was SSW, the cloud cover and threat of rain made an extremely pleasant morning. For most of the morning, rained all around us and never on us. I hooked a solid red that hauled me too close to an anchored boat and a good whining out - and the fish came unhooked right at the boat - my story for all of Friday. Lou described a 24" flounder he brought to the boat, and it finally came unhooked. About 11 am it looked like the rain was finally going to catch us, Tony and I retreated to Sandy Point for food and beer. Sure enough, we got sheets of heavy rain with a 30-kt gale, and watched Lou disappear up Trout Bayou. Strangest thing, our pleasant morning disappeared with that squall. As soon as the cloud passed, the flat turned to dead calm and brutal sun. We made one last foray to the duck blinds, where I brought two more redfish to the boat, but no farther, and this little fella was my only fish to handle on Friday. Friday was Lou's day, with a slot red and a keeper trout. Dinner Friday night was Mexican seafood at Los Comales. Saturday, Labor Day weekend, not a great day to cross the ferry, so we ran our Estes drill the second day. There was plenty of bait but no gamefish in Little Cut. With light SE wind, paddled onto Aransas Bay and instantly found trout. It started off bad, I had a big trout almost to the boat and one of her head shakes tore the hook - this drift has always been big trout water for me. Hoping not to have a repeat of Friday, and this was my first fish to hand. Lou was done with Little Cut, paddled into my drift right after I lost the big girl, said he was heading to Estes, and we followed. Surprisingly, there were fewer boats on Estes Saturday than we found there on Friday. The SSW wind was perfect for drifting between the two duck blinds between Big Cut and Little Cut. On every drift, we hit a pod of aggressive redfish - most were 17-18", and I managed one 20 for half-shell fillets. One Two Three Two of those reds took off as soon as the lure hit the water. The third one made me retrieve 10' first. No clouds for us on Saturday, we headed in at 11:30. Tony caught an undersized flounder. Last one off the flat, Tony caught a 17" red on his last cast. BTW, the mangroves on Talley Is. were sprouting green shoots - they're going to come back from the freeze damage. Grabbed a Steer Burger on our way out of town. Great times, great friends. We had a really awesome two days.

I'd be hard pressed to take instruction from anyone on smoking a deer flank, but seared meats drip less on the smoker, so I think it's easy to argue they retain as much if not more smoke - at least if you're patient and smoke slow. On a sidebox smoker, it's certainly not difficult to get bastante smoke in your meat. My four-hour wedding sausages (of course beginning uncooked) are always smoked through-thickness and don't show a ring. I have a friend who wraps everything after an hour because he doesn't want more smoke. Here, a friend showed up late with his sausage

I sear my rubbed meats in hot olive oil in a paella pan before I put them on the smoker (except sausages, glazed chicken, etc). @jimmyjoe I can't get enough Texas wildflower honey, but like sauces, that sounds anathema in Texas. The one thing people do here is wrap their brisket for the last hour and pour in a can of beer or Dr. Pepper.

Camping, we've served up some serious fresh redfish fillets and even chile rellenos on Cobb grill. Only takes 5 or 6 briquettes to cook on this little sizzler.

No, this was a turkey and a sidebox smoker, yard oak and wild oregano (green branches on the fire - wild oregano lines the fence in my back acre). I used the hanging rack that you use for deep frying a turkey to be able to rotate and position the big bird differently each hour in the comparatively small smoker drum w/ the racks removed.

Back in the '80s, I had two coast guides specifically tell me what was wrong with my spiral cast for free shrimping - this was an old Ambassadeur, a bare 2/0 hook, and a live 3" shrimp. They were each throwing spinning tackle, and I demonstrated to each I could double their cast distance. @jimmyjoe is absolutely correct. Find your cast. The more different ways you find to load the rod and get the result, the better you will fish in different situations.

Actually, it takes a week at 185 to dry and cure a ring of Alsatian sausage (this is venison and pork). my lunch after I released this buck - I also turned him before he shot down the busted weir. I caught him in this pocketwater that most people bust over to get to the deep holes below or the next weir above. he took my swimming BWO

@Crow Horse yes, all bearings are standard sizes: You might find different names for them, some beginning with MR Ball bearings, Pin remover - Tuning Parts (japantackle.com) List By Size - HEDGEHOG STUDIO (hedgehog-studio.co.jp)

It's a bonus with our winter nite-lite dock fishing. Speckled trout follow, test, and reject quickly. Have seen them in pairs on the surface pushing the live bait closed-mouth to test it. With a stinger hook, they may get hooked even closed-mouth.

Offshore, there's a fine line between jig and spoon. Tady's Surface Spoons are a big aluminum cone sliced in half. Similar slow flutter for casting into surface pelagics is Hogy's epoxy jig This is a Major Craft Slow Jig made for casting to tomorrow and fishing the whole column down to 40'

Hi bro, Vanfook stingers and jig hooks come ready to go. The spoon hooks are Twin Dancer

I have Falcon rods from the 90s, and my dad has a few he didn't step on - yet.