bulldog1935

There's also the shock-absorber factor. Braid + leader gives you the best of both: 1) low stretch for hook-setting 2) enough stretch for shock-resistance. this protects both the braid and the rod.

Since I only have Gold in 30- and 40-lb, I haven't broken a knot. It's tougher to tie a knot with Gold than with Blue in the same diameter. Bending to get a good Allbright to braid was a chore, though the result is tough as nails. If you check my macro-photo two posts up, there's no damage in the leader at the knot. It ties good perfection loops. Where I choose Gold or YGK Hard is for the fish and the fishing. Abrasion resistance - redfish throat, spec teeth, snook gill plates. Repeated abuse pushing leader class. If I was choosing to tie knots direct to lures, I'd choose Blue because it knots easier. Even in Blue, I've had some Uni knots in big diameter (25-lb) slip loose. Specifically knot strength - this is Seaguar, not Rio fluoro leader. Poor knot strength has to do with the leader being notch-sensitive and being damaged by tying knots. I wouldn't expect any Seaguar fluoro to have poor knot strength. I've tied direct using Tatsu, Abrazx and miles of Red. I can't ever remember breaking a knot (except Rio). I did lose a monster lifetime snook on 12-lb Tatsu, but that was probably a gill-plate cut.

Tournament casters using Abu CT replace their centrifugal with one of these Of course most use a full-flange spool with nobby mag brake and adjust it in flight. They start high, ease it back after release, and turn it off completely on the fall - this is basically what Daiwa Magforce and SV Boost does for you on its own. For fishing braid in the surf, I set up my CT's with shallow Avail spools and matching internal mag brake - nothing is more fun to cast. Next closest is a BFS reel. I'm about to do the same to a 1500C

On the way from the airport to the shop where we were inspecting a repair, stopped at a restaurant in Gonzales because there were enough cars in their parking lot to make them look good. On the menu, the pecan meuniere chicken had a heart-healthy sticker - ah, only one stick of butter.

James, simple math, the pinion gear works 8.1-times as hard as the main gear. The only youtube repair video I found was a pinion gear replacement. His complaint was "rough and clicking" retrieve and the pinion gear solved it.

funny, after fishing braid + leader 2 years inshore I came to the same conclusion in reverse - no cons and plenty of pros. It was enough to make me go the same route on baitcasters. Hell, just getting rid of line memory. You do need to use good manual bail technique and eliminate backlash.

A/R clutch roller bearing? - there's one inside this sealed housing ah, got it, not roller bearing, but bearing inside line roller. Fully sealed reels, Van Staal, IRT, are stiff as all get-out. There's a really good line roller upgrade made by MTCW for each Shimano and Daiwa that eliminates the need for line roller seals. The line roller is titanium, and the dual bearings are not shielded. IOS Factory makes one similar with hard anodized line roller. This means something - putting a good bearing in a lousy line roller design that's designed to need replacing, anyway, isn't cost-effective.

what you usually buy are lighter-weight hybrid-ceramic bearings. But again, bearing lube and especially lube life in the application is what you're after in spinning reels. You'll have a hard time noticing the difference in a spinning reel, unless you fool yourself. Since my reels are in the salt, I replace bearings after 4 to 6 years - for me, that's a good time to upgrade.

The newer generation of magforce is called SV, and per Jun Sonada, the SV magnets are stronger than older magforce. SV also allows use of thinner, lighter brake rotors.

My approach is one good leader knot and finish the leader working end with perfection loop or surgeon's loop. from there, I can loop on rigs, micro swivel, 25-lb paper clip, or loop-to-loop a sacrificial leader piece for tying direct. This salt UL leader was tied with 1" surgeon's loop, big enough for looping on a cigar cork A loop joint, btw, is always stronger than a single-bend knot, because the knot has point contact for abrasion.

Spinning reel drives need shielded bearings with long-life lube - the purpose of shielding is to retain the lube. You hope quality factory bearings come this way. The one place you might want to upgrade spinning reel drive bearings to HCRB (Daiwa mag seal) is surf fishing, but still fish through your first set before you rebuild with upgrade. Where you want racy low-inertia bearings are in baitcaster spools.

Gold label is a stronger, harder formulation. In the same diameter, Blue Label is 25-lb test and Gold is 30-lb. In the same diameter, they don't bend the same. I hope this thing is on. US Market is already screwed up with pound-test, while the rest of the world sizes everything by diameter. Inches couldn't be a more imprecise line diameter measurement, and reporting braid in pound-test is just plain dumb. These are two YGK fluorocarbon leaders, same diameter (#3) They report Max breaking strength, and these leaders have two different formulations with two different qualities - good knotting and stretch, vs. max abrasion resistance. We buy Japanese reels all sized to this system, then try to figure out how much fluorocarbon they'll hold sold as pound-test. And if you find yourself trying to do that, use Pattaya Line Capacity Calculator @FishTank @Aaron_H - always throwing different odds and ends in my JDM order carts, picked up spools of JDM Grand Max Premier to try in my inshore and salt UL niches. Tied a few leaders, but won't be fishing them before fall. Summer doldrums here are a tough time to fish inshore, though summer low tides is a great time in the surf.

I fish 832 20-lb on my baitcasters as go-to, and down to 6-lb on spinning tackle. Not even close to the thinnest, but it's really well-behaved braid. IMO, Japanese X-braids are the only braids that beat it, and that mostly because of their extreme breaking strength in small diameters.

My buddy Josh, who worked through college rigging kayaks at Jerry B's in Corpus, and now owns and runs Texas Kayak Fisherman forum, put this spreadsheet together on kayaks, paddles and pdf's: Kayaks, PFDs, & Paddles - Google Sheets Note he has filters for price, recommended use, pedal drive, etc.

Gulf coast has Invest99L, 80% predicted to become a tropical cyclone w/in 5 days and make landfall from Matagorda to NOLA by mid week next.

this is from Duel YoZuri global website, and is the same specs they use in US market.

That was right at the tailout above the chute, and even more fun, I caught this little bluegill first. The bass followed the bluegill to my boat, and I was able to lead the bass as it was heading back to the bank and watch him flare on my cats whisker.

It looks like a nice boat to me. I fished that little Redfish 10 in the river a couple of weeks ago, and compared to my long coast boat (T160), it sure handled great in small water - also glided extremely well for my large size, - 6'3", 215 lbs. At 30", it was just the widest width I could straddle comfortably for sit-up fishing. At 45 lbs, it was very easy to portage where we had to get over a 3' chute - to this deep pool: ___________________________________ ps - the T160 is the best big wind boat I've ever seen. On a coast trip, NWS hourly forecast missed the reinforcing effect of two fronts (welcome to Texas). They predicted a wind shift to light E - 10 kt - within 2 hours, but the 16-kt NNE we launched in built to 28-kt gusts when we had to retreat. What was predicted for an easy ride home, we had to cross the flat on beam reach, and my buddy turtled his Revo 16 twice when he wasn't able to steer in the wind (the flat was only 3' deep). The Tarpon would always let me steer upwind to address waves that were trying to swamp us. Other buddy Lou, in another good wind boat, ancient Emotion Fisherman, even managed to score a slot red in that wind. Here taking a wind-shelter breather before the last 2 miles back home.

@Jake51823 Any boat that sits your torso away from the center of the keel length is going to have wind control problems. In the common case of shorter-length boats, you sit behind the keel center, so your torso acts like a mainsail and is always steering the bow into the wind. Rudder or skeg helps to overcome that by resisting spin and effectively lengthening the keel.

What you're actually fishing in the surf is the structure beyond the waves - the guts - parallel channels off the beach formed by currents, where the gamefish travel. The longer rods are to reach them. Especially in summer and winter low tides, you can actually cast too far.

My 10-wt fly rod is Hurricane Redbone, and I've enjoyed it. Tsunami is regarded as bang for the buck in surf rods. On bait specific long rods, you almost don't care about the weight, because you set them and stake them out. Lure-casting is different, because you're working constantly. It's too easy to spend $300 to $500 on a surf rod, and most shortcuts add a lot of weight. On West Coast, Lamiglas is king, and the surf is their roots. Surf fishermen don't have a lot a lot invested - a 4WD p/u, camping gear, and 3 to 6 good rods and reels. Angle-cut PVC pipe to stake rods.

Okuma and Tsunami both offer very good and light-in-hand surf-spin rods in a wide range of lengths, lure weights and price/hardware. I have an 11' Tsunami AirWave Elite 1102H staggered-ferrule for spin and 1-4 oz. This 3-pc Tsunami is neat, because it's versatile for both lures and bait. One rod to cover both, and easy to transport. Price looks right. For throwing lures, you generally want as light as possible, and 1-pc 8' rods are excellent. This RH Composites custom surf-lure rod is 1/4 to 1 oz. For throwing bait, you want longer, 2- or 3-pc for transport, and the ability to throw 2- to 4-oz spider weights.

For fishing-shack long-weekend trips, for hauling kitchen, couldn't pry my Icemule from my cold fingers, etc. Some people use Icemules for fish bags, and several makers offer really nice gel-ice fish bags that mold to kayak bows. I have a soft gel-ice lunchbox that travels in my truck on long drives, and may pack a small watermelon to the back-bay slough (notice I know how to thump). There's a current thread on soft coolers on TKF forum, and most of the recommendations were WalMart examples like @CountryboyinDC posted above. My Engel, though, is a permanent fixture in my boat - it comes out for washing the boat, and will go right back in. btw, Engel also offers a bait livewell, and I know a few who have retrofitted their Engel coolers for bait livewell.

@Bankc is exactly correct about how to use the two brake systems.

The Engel 19-qt is offered with rod holders already installed. Drilling through your good cooler is a tenuous choice. In my case for the kayalite eyebolt, using nylon didn't sacrifice heat transfer (engineer here, I even compared it to spendy fiberglass eyebolt), and everything is sealed with pressure seal washers and 3M Marine sealant throughout. It also doesn't need much structure, because the 360 light springs up and down on bungee like a whip antenna.