bulldog1935

don't go putting light oil around your Shimano roller-bearing clutch. Since the dawn of time, roller-bearing clutches and light oil don't get along. Some friction is required to make a roller bearing one-way. Shimano's roller-bearing clutch on Vanford, Stradic, shared with Stella, kicks butt

Japan makes a whole range of small trout plugs, both sinking and floating. On these, I swapped the small trebles for salt singles to imitate glass minnows in winter tide passes (which is stream fishing in tide current). These also work for river bass.

I grew up with my dad targeting jumps on Lake LBJ structure. They were pretty regular every first light somewhere between the dam and the first cove - the structure was granite nobs. We'd get out in the dark, troll the same water, watch for jumps across the glassy lake. When we saw one, we'd aim the boat, kill the motor, and glide in casting. We had a few mornings with white bass limits that way. The lures we had at hand were Shyster spinners and Pico Perch. Funny, I've never caught a fish on beetle spin, but was fishing with a guy one day when he caught a striper in a cove jump on beetle spin. I used to catch them on fly rod from the time I was 16. In fact, fishing jumps was the reason I wanted my first fly rod. Grown with my wife, we used to picnic Sunday afternoons by the dam on Lake Travis. Hike the rocks to a grotto, picnic in the shade, and bob on air mattresses in the sun. I kept a rigged fly rod on the bank. There was a regular afternoon jump on that structure. Swim in, grab the fly rod, catch a striper, white, or schooling largemouth, maybe 2 - fresh fillets for the two of us.

The thing is, most of the BFS reels sold ready to go are also small diameter spools that go best with those trout rods. For my inshore small game - and double this reel on all-range BFS bass rod - 34-mm diameter aftermarket BFS spools on 1000 series reels cast and fish much better.

The quarry - endemic bass in hill country limestone creeks - we call these Texas brook trout, and compared to largemouth, they occupy the same fast-water niche trout do in cold water. The new toy, great ebay deal on Tailwalk Troutia 5'6" UL - before I bought this on ebay, I watched restock at both Asian Portal and Digitaka disappear in one day - both had higher prices. The rod is optimized for 3 to 5 g, and the 7-g max rating is useful. The insert is rosewood, and the metal parts trimmed with copper. The real reason and choice new toy. Don made the LW extreme racy using Avail parts that removed 1/3 oz from the LW. Free-spinning the spool, the LW will make 2 complete back-and-forth traverses across the worm gear. I made it 2-g capable swapping the shielded spool bearings for Roro 1-10-g micros. I plan to fish the same trout plugs I set up for winter glass minnows, and of course this combo will never see the salt.

Something else to keep in mind. The reason you tune reels in niches to get 120' casts. It's not to fish at 120', though I can think of two places (not counting surf) where I do fish that distance. The reason for the tuning effort is to fish 30 to 70' with low fishing effort and complete reliability. Effort and reliability go hand-in-hand. Big casting effort loses control.

From swapping notes with Jun Sonada at Japan Tackle, he implied the SV magnets keep getting stronger. This allows the newer Daiwa SV spools to give equivalent brake with less metal (less weight) in the brake rotor. That reduces spool inertia, which also gets you back to less brake needed - (a vicious circle in reverse). Jun specifically stated a newer Boost spool would have insufficient brake on TD-Z magnets.

the real question is how many strikes did you miss while picking out backlash

From my former trout wizard buddy turned famous speaker coast guide, Billy Trimble: He always uses nylon leaders with fluorocarbon tippet in skinny grass. The nylon floats and the fluorocarbon drops the fly into the grass.

@TnRiver46 it's worse than that - there's 15,000 sq miles less than 2' deep to filter the tides against the structure - and the wind. I often repeat what I know. My young friend Josh is the real champ - getting the two of us together is always a banner trip. He jokes about being 36 with all his fishing friends in their 60s and 70s - we're the only people who can keep up with him.

you're fishing most days, my trips are planned (though Alaska work trips were planned short-notice) - and most often planned for my friends to be successful. I ran out of things to prove decades ago. Don't pull the colloquial crap on me...

@TnRiver46 I fish braid from 46-lb down to 6-lb, surf to limestone creeks - also granite, which is really hard on leaders - and still fish that 6-lb inshore. You should know from fly rods how important leader is. I've also broken off 30+" Alaska rainbows at surgeon's knots with the Wrong leader - Rio. (yeah, this is a Dolly, and a big one) I got PO'd breaking off three PB Alaska rainbows and still limiting my PB to a Texas tailwater.

The best spooled fluoro I've tried, especially in UL sizes, is JDM Toray Exthread. Toray states they formulate each diameter separately. I like it better than Tatsu for less than 10-lb (for 10-lb, Tatsu is very good, though very springy coming off the spool). If you want abrasion-resistant leader, JDM YGK Hard shines, with Seaguar Gold a close second. For limp leader, it's still Seaguar Blue Label or JDM Grand Max.

when they're rutting, bucks loose the rest of their little IQ and are driven by the instinct to rut. That time of year, and in my semi-rural neighborhood, I'm always tenuous hauling the garbage to the street.

so does Don Iovino.

It's raining like Texas there

I fished most of my life sworn-off swivels - my now 90-y-o dad always put a 60-lb barrel swivel on everything. I've gone back to them only in the past decade. Started first with titanium-wire UL pike leaders for my inshore UL and XUL (now BFS). MakoFishing (Ukraine) sold on ebay up to the '20 postal crunch, then I found Dragon brand in Poland. Sharing these with friends, they went from sworn-off-swivels to micro-trace junkies, too. These are light enough to use on fly-streamer leader. Japan shopping, I'm always looking for terminal tackle that excels - plus you can find things like salty size 1 split rings and size 7 Gami SpMH trebles there. These micro swivels are 15-lb in size 00 - just don't ask me to pronounce it. Also, Vanfook stinger hooks Sugihara Ro-tsuke

well, I bought a pair of these just over a dozen years ago. I've always assumed the name doesn't transliterate. but you can't argue with the results.

I think the OP's logic is reversed. It's the single bend at the end of a double-uni where the smaller line will cut through the thicker. I've been rolling Albright knots for 40 years, and easy to continue that with braid, plus it's 1/3 the cross section of a double-uni.

think I'd give them the benefit of the doubt and move on. After awhile, you figure out all the fish are gravy. What matters in the long run are the people and the places. This happens to be a church fly fishing life group, and we always began with a prayer, which always ended with "and put us on fish" - after all, fishing is an act of faith. Anthropormophizing fish (pets, objects) and rejecting people isn't healthy.

We should all be good ambassadors. It's right up there with being good stewards of the resource. It will also pay back down the line.

When you can't remember the last backlash, you're ready for this. But even lawn-casting for set-up, need a plastic toothpick to recover minor backlash.

Check SDS Custom on ebay, AMO store on Ali Express. I'm sure others will pony-up US suppliers. Japan, you pay for them, but they are amazing good, titanium spindles, etc. This is my favorite Avail handle, happens to be on Daiwa but made 7x4 for Shimano, also.

A buddy and I were busting tall Johnson grass off the beaten trail to get to a gravel bar on the Guadalupe. I'm out of the grass first, and see my buddy running fast to take a swim with his fly rod. Right behind him was a doe running on her hind legs and kicking with her front. Just too close to a bedded fawn.

Sweden 1995 - crying Uncle - the spool pin can stop halfway before it finds the groove. Imagine all the pinions from the 60s, 70s and 80s in this shape. Also pretty sure it's spec'd as phosphor-bronze. Revo is made in Korea. Ambassadeur and especially Ambassadeur parts are also made in Japan. I was chatting with Don Iovino today - he buys all his parts from Japan.