bulldog1935

My guide buddy out of Lamar fished his Penn's hard and put them away wet - he never even rinsed one. He bought a used Lew's and killed the frame in a year, but his Penn's just kept going. Shimano, Daiwa, I have a 2019 Shimano parts catalog that shows they don't support reels older than about 5 or 6 years. I kept my old Lew's baitcasters going because Roy's Bait & Tackle in Corpus bought up the spares inventory. I know I replaced a handle and 3 anti-reverse dogs.

Casting Rods | Favorite Fishing (favoriteusa.com) fwiw, the only item on their website stated as MUSA is their blankets, but that's expected in modern fishing tackle. The splash on their rod pages looks like they use similar Toray graphite blanks to 13Fishing - - however, 13Fishing are pretty good rods for the price, and excellent warranty.

After a summer of monsoon floods - actually the day they dropped dam release to search for a missing canoe'er. 5-wt glass rod and Hardy Bougle, swinging streamers to check for holdover rainbows, instead landed two stripers - it was manly sport. came back later into the fall, targeted and harvested 5 more stripers - with the correct gear

I'm awful glad this thread premise isn't reality. Well crap, it would be a fly rod - Vince Cummings Water Witch and Hardy JLH Ultralite. Hondo Creek sight-fished PB on the same rod - not really showing off, but going after my cat's whisker Upper Sabinal closer in line with the OP's purpose, would have to say my Valleyhill all-range BFS rod with Steez SV TW and a range of spools.

same with nylon rope on trailer winches

after half a day on the smoker, it's all good This happens to be venison flanks and backstrap, but I've eaten javelina from the smoker that will make your drool.

@soflabasser stocked non-native smallmouth - the genetic dilution that's wiping out Texas endemic bass. (same story as non-native rainbows stocked in the Rocky Mountains) Texas endemic spotted bass co-exist with native northern largemouth. - they occupy different niches in the river, fast and slow. However, on the San Gabriel, they are hybridized with stocked Kentucky spotted bass. native northern largemouth Guadalalupe tailwater smallie, originating from '70s Canyon Lake stocking (I was targeting and geared for stripers this day) here's a Guadalupe-smallie hybrid at Mueller falls above Canyon Lake - you can see the copper sheen. The endemic bass have a blue sheen.

Other than Miami bench-made Fin-Nor, Penn was the first US production spinning reel to take on offshore. By the time they got to greenies, they already had a dozen years of offshore trial-and-error under their belt. Even their plastic frames in 1990 were better than everyone else's. When I bought my Penn 4400SS, I threw away (or gave away) the first Lew's spinning reel, which was a plastic Zebco Cardinal that flopped in the breeze...

From Verde Creek west to the Nueces, every river and creek disappears into the aquifer just north of US-90, and re-emerges below in the coastal plain. This is the final blue hole where the Sabinal emerges from the aquifer a quarter-mile above its confluence with the Frio - there are 7 bass sitting on the shelf at the far bank. One day, with two friends, we hiked and fished the Frio Sendero - 4 miles of isolated cold pools that you bust the dry gravel river bed to get to. This is also 20 miles from any paved road, and all private access. Between us, we caught 400 bass, and each broke off two to three lifetime bass, 10-12 lbs.

Biological pollution remains a reality. In the Texas hill country, only two A-strains of endemic Guadalupe bass remain in the wild, isolated by aquifer recharge (the creek disappearing into the ground), and a waterfall. Smallmouth stocking by the state in the '70s has made the Blanco River strain extinct, and replaced them with hybrids in most of their Texas hill country range. These are the only bass species that can retreat into the aquifer to survive our droughts. The state's approach is to stock them heavily in their native headwaters. Otherwise, the State Fish is in reality an endangered species from biological pollution. And just 7 years ago, the state stocked white bass far above their native range, where they can get to one of the A-strains of endemic bass. I've seen white bass climbing waterfalls just like salmon during spawning runs. I caught this hen at a bat cave vent, where the aquifer takes water from the river - she got to this size eating the baby bats that fell in. The San Antonio River from its source in San Pedro springs down to the confluence with the Guadalupe and on to Aransas NWR is inundated with tilapia and plecostamus stocked in the San Antonio Zoo during the 1920s Egypt and King Tut craze. McKittrick Canyon in Guadalupe Mountains NP was the last refuge of native Rio Grande Cutthroat trout in Texas. Also in the '20s, a surplus load of rainbows was dumped there, and now all the wild trout are rainbows. Our rivers should not be anyone's biological playground. Not even Parks & Wildlife.

Greenies and Z's are bomb-proof - Mitchells were never in their league. I fished through a Mitchell 300 in four years of fall jetty Spanish macks in high school. My daughter and I fished through 4400SS and 4200SS by out-classing them - king mackerel on the 4400, redfish and sheepshead on the 4200. Here's the thread on old reels - if you have photos of an old Pflueger to add, please do so.

I've fished through reels, though only the spinning reels were bad enough not to want to continue fishing - reverse-cone line lay from rotor bushing wear and spindle deflection. I put away a Daiwa Millionaire in 1984 with worn worm gear (surf), because Daiwa wouldn't support the part. (The 440 worm gear and zirconia pawl on Lew's would grind the sand) Casting reels are pretty basic and pretty tough. Pinion gears wear, especially from bad engagement, but they also turn and contact the teeth 5 to 8 times more often than the bull gear. Mostly, gear wear just causes drive sloppiness to retire them - unless you want to rebuild them. Definitely pinion gear wear between both main gear and spool pin contact can stop your reel from working. In the old days, spindle bushings was the biggest issue also because of contact stress - that was pretty much solved with ball bearings, beginning about 50 years ago. With spinning reels, long lever arms and bending loads are the big issue - the rotor diameter, the spindle length and oscillation - both affect alignment and magnify the load and contact stress at the other end. In the old days, spinning reel design was by trial and error. Beginning in the past decade, the issues are addressed in CAD design, and that's why we see spinning reel drag loads going up dramatically. Spinning drive and pinion gears also wear from contact stress, and that's another place gear-tooth design is improving reel life - the more teeth you have in contact sharing the load, the lower the stress and wear, and the longer the life.

if you're getting bad backlashes, you're not ready for braid - go back to mono or fluoro. The stiffness of mono helps you recover backlash, while the total limpness of braid can create deep backlash that you can't even find. I didn't switch to braid on baitcasters until it took 3 years to remember my last backlash, and that was not a technique issue, but line wrapped one turn on the rod tip. Thirty pound is substantial braid, and shouldn't dig if you're doing it right - I fish down to PE#0.8 on baitcasters, and some here fish even smaller. Spooling any line, I run it through a phone book with a weight on top so it goes onto the spool under tension. I set my rod up in a rod holder and can even walk away from it, and it holds the line tension.

it may be the native sunfish that can't compete. We find big bass and big cichlids side by side, and a dearth of small fish. Same pool as the cichlid above - yellow bellies in this pool were really shy.

@soflabasser His point is bound to be about cichlids out-breeding bass and thereby taking over the water body - the same complaint they have about stunted Rios in LA bayous. Another observation was goldfish and carp surviving in the worst pools through the heat of summer - they actually can breathe air - they suck air through a labyrinth that aerates water for them to then pass over their gills. @TnRiver46 Feral cats? My best progress was convincing the neighbor to stop feeding them. My Akita loved them, though, when they wandered into my back acre - she killed one/month.

in s. Texas, summer starts some years in Feb, normally lasts to Halloween, and we live here for the "winters" The subtropical sun of summer isn't directly bearable. We have to find a cypress tunnel, where it's always 15 degrees cooler in the shade. ps- fish live here

of course we want to see photos of both... here, random rod and reel porn

I'm sure Poco's catch was Dues All Paid Up.

Corpus Christi - Padre Island Nat'l Seashore has an annual SharkFest in the surf. It gets picketed by PITA (intentional "anacronism") But a couple of good reports, last two summers from shark guide w/ photos: Corpusfishing.com :: View topic - Covida Loca Mega Monstrous TX Surf/Sharking Report - Photos Corpusfishing.com :: View topic - PINS Summer Fun Mega Surf/Shark Report Corpusfishing.com :: View topic - Poco's Great Catch 14 foot Hammer on PINS

Open it up, rinse it thoroughly. I recommend wiping down every part you can get to with Boeshield T-9. Clean and replace all the lube - the boeshield carrier is mineral spirits, and will remove the old lube. My Lamson LP fly reel has been in the salt 35 years, and that's everything I do for it. people were complaining decades ago about the friction-washer clutches not holding up in the salt - I have a spare and have never needed it.

that was nylon - nylon gears suck big time. Nylon ratchet plates on Pflueger Medalist -DA sucked big time. The older zinc die-cast or newer graphite-filled plastic is a big plus. We now have acetyl (delrin) which is not far behind aluminum and steel in hardness - it's also machinable. HRE 90 (delrin hardness) is equivalent to HRB 50 - I've seen mild steel that soft and that's a good hardness for cast aluminum. My Valentine (planetary) multiplying fly reel has delrin gears - originally had anodized aluminum, and they came up with delrin as a gratis upgrade (Valentine Bros are first an aerospace fab shop). I've built some very tough kayak hardware from delrin bar. That skeg bracket is only held by those two lower well nut/bolts (the well nuts were there for tag-along roller wheel) - I calculated the bending moment could withstand dropping the boat onto it or accidentally stepping on it. Also solved my then 12-y-o daughter's windcock problem in 15+kt coast wind. @Alex Ball ok, you maintain it first, and if you want it to stay, need to keep maintaining it throughout. But do you honestly feel good about recommending it to others who may not share the skills or dedication.....(rhetorical) Percolated, this seems like a fishing reel designed for people who don't fish.

Este

the absolute best eats on the planet - the best grilled salmon steaks, by far. Sockeye and silvers just don't compare, though I've never had fresh Chum.

@hokiehunter373 My local range puts these up (and I bring some of my own) my best 3rd shot starting from scratch at 75 yds.

On Shimano Nasci, which gets praise around here, the main gear rides in plastic "bushings" that are simply part of the plastic side plates. It's discussed on TackleAdvisor's $100 reel comparison. (if you back up below, same with Penn Battle in 4000 size and smaller) and since I'm here - don't know anything specific - but here's a Sougayilang that fished through in a short time - 15 hours surf fishing stated... Why THIS Cheap Amazon Reel Failed | Sougayilang WQ Spinning Reel Long Term Review - YouTube painful to watch youtube (as with too many), but I scrolled through to find the A/R clutch lever rusted open - but it is a chance to see inside the reel (maybe scroll and turn the volume down) Of course he was using this reel where he should be using IRT, Van Staal or at least Tsunami or Tica. Still, a bad choice for the maker to use unshielded bearings for spinning reel drive - that will make it feel really smooth for a short while. Read that last point as, "the smoothness of this reel is a designed short-term ruse."