bulldog1935

The San Antonio River is choked with plecos, especially Calaveras and Braunig lakes. The Zoo drains San Pedro springs, which are the headwaters of the river - they intentionally placed both plecos and tilapia into the drainage back in the 1920's, to decorate the canals in the zoo pathways. It was a curiosity then to schtupp with the ecosystem, plus they had Egypt fever over King Tut discovery (Nile perch). Nearby New Braunfels thought it was so cool they put tilapia into the Comal River springs, as well. Florida's excuse for exotics is aquarium industry breeding ponds, which get washed into the canals every hurricane.

Rod - this is my first BFS/small-game casting rod hemmed and hawed over it watching stock at my favorite Japan vendor, finally grabbed the last one for who knows how long Reel - and my first Daiwa since a Minicast - they made me mad when they wouldn't support parts for my 5-y-o Millionaire 6H in 1984. (The Minicast landed a 6-1/2-lb largemouth on jitterbug, and the millionaire umpteen bull reds in the surf) Hemmed and hawed over this, too, and decided to spring. Salt-rating was part of the choice, but from the go, wanted a large spool diameter. Also considered Abu LX992Z JDM Special BF model. BFS braid spool, which doesn't SV (fixed brake rotor), but at 6 g for the spool, and for throwing 2 g, pretty sure it won't matter loaded up the stock spool with 10-lb Tatsu for service on MM and MH. BTW, the Daiwa flagship spool with all its complications is quoted to weigh 15 g, but with bearing it's definitely over 20 g. My braid is due Thursday, same order, but separate shipping from the rod - planning to fish Duel Hardcore PE#0.8, 16-lb test. As skinny as the spool looks, I'm estimating it will hold most of 100 yds. and pretty trick, the Roro spool came with the hedgehog can for storing your spare spool ps - you know I can't stand those skinny little I-shaped paddle knobs... pss - 100 m Duel X-wire, with room to spare don't know what comes after pss, but my lawn-casting test result: After 4 mag steps down (9-6) and one back up, I laid out a dozen casts bracketed in 90 to 100' - that's casting a 2-g jighead.

You guys know the falling line guide on Daiwa TW is nothing new. The Beetzsel had it first in 1915. Of course you had to put the line in the line guide by hand to retrieve. Same with the Meisselbach Okeh The first model Pflueger Supreme, 1918 Douglas patent, that started this thread solved that one. When the line guide stands back up, it pushes the line to either side, where the yokes lift the line and drop it in the guide.

As @mrpao stated, the Stradic CI4+ from the last Shimano series is now the '20 Vanford. Longer spool stroke, stiffer spindle to go with it, larger fine-toothed gears, and especially the Stella over-designed roller-bearing clutch. If you google, you may still find OS out there.

One thing to keep in mind if you do want to tinker with it. Call Lew's and tell them you need a new handle - they'll probably send it gratis. Then find the aftermarket knob spindle and try it on only one of the handles.

Here's my '57 Raleigh Lenton (same age as me) - always wanted one, the classic English Club Racer, and when a bare frame came up, snagged it for $150. Though I built the bike with the top essentially original, the bottom is entirely engineered with much newer parts, better wheels, beginning with Phil custom hubs to fit the 3/8" axles and 114 mm rear axle spacing. Designed the gearset with half-steps + granny - the two larger chainrings exactly split the steps on the 5 rear cogs, giving it 15 closely spaced gears, but wide enough to climb the steepest grades in the Texas hill country. The original bike had a "suicide" front derailleur, which also offered a chain guard, so I used a Simplex chain guard to hide the more modern derailleur. Worked out hanging the chain guard from the FD clamp bolt by swapping the bolt for an M5 computer board stand off. The classic bike has a front fork lamp-mount boss. I worked out a modern bike lamp mount beginning with a speargun tip converter to grab the fork boss threads. Riding with young guys in most every-Sunday crack-of-dawn sprint (most of them USAF officers), I'm often asked if I have a motor in this thing. When my daughter was 14, she built her 19-lb road bike from an '84 Team Fuji frame.

They say it takes 50 frames to get a good photo. If you take quick, mindless, frame-and-crop-later snaps of fish, that means you have to catch 50 fish to get a good photo. Even more rare is getting a good shot with the sun in front of your camera lens. But every now and then, everything falls into place. Here's the author from a buddy's camera

I had one and only one cast like this - threw away a nice Hogy's epoxy jig in the dark. Though the last and only baitcaster backlash I can remember was for the same reason.

I like the shallower spools on spinning reels, especially for braid - it's how you get perfect flat line lay and perfect casts. Very few people will ever need more than a few pounds of drag - 2-1/2 lbs is all you need for 10-lb test. I would also consider the 3000 to be more of an inshore size. Speaking of inshore, shallow spools, handles and knobs, my 4000 on my kayak, I carry the original loaded spool for a back-up, along with a back-up baitcaster The Pelican case is actually both small and light

Of course that was a wee-hours-druke joke, but fully sealed, benchmade salt reels are especially for NE surf fishing, where you're constantly being washed in fine-sand slurry. The Shimano-at-any-low-cost crowd on this forum would never put up with one, because they are the polar opposite from finesse and smooth - all you feel through the drive are the stiff rubber seals. My buddy decided he needed fully sealed IRT spinning reels for inshore fishing, and they've given him fits - excess spool capacity and poor factory spool shimming combined on him one day to ball up his reel, shut him down, and send him to the barn. Even his baitcaster that day, the palm side plate came off mid cast and that reel balled up, too. The rest of us had a pretty good day, fishing the storm tide right after TS Beta.

We have a freshwater blenny, that's similar to a sculpin, but definitely blenny family. I tie this whistler fly to imitate them. bottom-bounced, it gets pretty good results

I was offering that reel for a smart buy, especially if you hunt some of the discount ebay sellers. But my point stands about lighter, lower-inertia spool bearing if desired, e.g., throwing 1/8 ounce to reliable distance. You can't go bad swapping the mass of a shielded stainless steel spool bearing for an equivalent-service lighter hybrid ceramic - you can further speed it with lower-viscosity bearing oil. The P2 pinion lets you leave the heavier shielded bearing in the drive position with factory lube - that bearing doesn't affect the spool. If he's going to keep and fish the older reels, bearings are the baseline improvement.

At the cost-effective end, the latest Lew's Speed Spool LFS, is a big design step in durability with the P2 pinion. That gives the spool a separate spool bearing from the drive bearing, and allows you to upgrade to a very light spool bearing without sacrificing drive strength. Other than end-cap bearings plus spool bearing, there aren't too many upgrades for either of your reels - no one that I know offers spools for them, and I agree if you found it, would cost more than the reel, making a new reel a better option. I upgraded the 3 bearings on my older Lew's LFS Super Duty G - unshielded hybrid ceramic HD bearings - and it fishes better for it. The 3 bearings cost $23 from HPRbearings, but I don't see them listed that way now. You don't have to buy Boca, check HPRbearings and SDScustom on ebay. HPRbearings is in Florida, and you might have an easier conversation with him than our friend in Ukraine. You have to oil your unshielded bearings, but that's part of what makes them racy.

this is my buddy's catch on a fly rod with Sneaky Pete

@Bankbeater The difference you found is all about rod taper. The traditional spinning rod back to Shakespeare and Harnell is para taper. The 6' UL is going to fit the mold. The entire rod length flexes to load for casting, but that gives the rod a skinny butt section, narrow lure weight range, and no help on big fish. The longer Japanese tradition XUL rods are based on progressive taper - actual fly rod tapers. With increasing weight, a band in the rod progressively loads down the rod length, until you get to a stout butt section that doesn't load. This gives you a wider range in lure weights, from nothing to 1/4 oz and more, and a stout, fish-turning rod butt.

While this is true to some extent, spinning reel mass is perfectly centered in your rod grip hand, with the weight underneath, so reel weight is less of a factor as long as you're in the correct reel size range. I fish 4 finesse spinning rods with reels from 5.0 to 7.4 ounces, Vanquish C2000S to Tica Libra SX1500 on the weight extremes, with Stradic C1000S in the middle. I don't notice a difference on the reel weight. The rods are 2.6 oz to 3.5 oz. While it seems natural to have the lightest Vanquish on the lightest Yamaga Blanks rod, the middle weight rods with the heaviest Tica, and the heaviest Black Hole rod with the mid-weight Stradic work just as well, and I have caught the most fish on the latter. What I think matters most for finesse spin fishing is having low gearing - IPS below 30", and especially, good balance over the handle rotation - I've gone to all counter-balanced or lightweight double handles. Of course, you have to go to JDM to get low gearing (except for the 4.6-geared Tica). This Stradic C1000S with cobbled double handle is my finesse champ.

Howdy Neighbor, south Texas and the hill country is well represented on the forum. I'm from Bulverde, another here from Schertz - several from Austin, but they always break themselves out as Central Texas. Grew up fishing the deep clear waters of LBJ, Canyon, and Travis, though now I most often wade the hill country limestone creeks with a fly rod, or kayak the coast flats.

The Stradic FK is the '15 model with shorter stroke spool. Vanford is simply the new name for the former Stradic CI4+ in the series. However, the reel series introduced since '18 Stella is different inside, with larger, fine-toothed gears, and the '18 Stella roller-bearing clutch. Something I left out above, the spindle was made stiffer for the longer stroke, and the new gears are better able to handle higher contact loads by increasing the total contact area in the gear teeth.

gotta wonder how many attys were involved in some of these photos

you won't get this Fujichrome until you zoom it up to see the texture this one's easier to get

with a fly rod it's called a roll cast

the parts interchange The JDM Vanquish is the one I can tell the difference, because it's so low inertia. But unless you have the Vanquish and Stradic side-by-side, you won't notice that difference. The Stella, Vanquish and Twin Power are all bench-finished in Japan, with parts matching for extra smoothness - the other reels in the series come from the Malaysia line. all reels in the series are based on the Stella over-designed roller-bearing clutch, large, fine-toothed gearing, and long-stroke worm drive. The Stella is magnesium body and rotor, with stainless steel drive and many titanium parts. The Vanquish is magnesium body, CI4+ rotor, alloy drive, many titanium parts. The Twin Power is aluminum body and rotor with alloy drive. The Vanford is CI4+ body and rotor. The Stradic is aluminum body and CI4+ rotor. When it was introduced, Tackle Advisors dubbed the Stradic FL, "The Best $400 Reel You Can Buy" - and it's a $200 reel. Between Stradic and Vanford, it's a choice between aluminum body and lighter composite plastic body, silver finish and black finish. Shimano spinning reels not in this series have fans - I'm not among them. For less money and tough durability, I would go for Tica or Daiwa, though Shimano out-smooths all others into the price basement.

yeah, if you're going to give yourself room for $250, Shimano Stradic FL is the way to go - - it's the '18 Stella rebuilt with cost-effective materials, and the workhorse of this reel series excepting the much pricier Twin Power.

do you have to keep those in the freezer?

I'll add some detail about the rods and lures. Bought my first XUL and UL rockfish rods a dozen years ago. Here's the XUL, 7'6", very soft short solid tip, long fast mid, and butt section reinforced with a graphite weave layer. It's rated 0.3 to 5 g, 2-4-lb test The UL tubular-tip rod is 7'9", 0.6 to 6 g, 2.5-6-lb test. I landed one slot (25") snook on this combo w/ 4-lb test, several under 20", and of course broke off a couple of bigger bruiser snook on both rods below. Been fishing those 12 years, and have since added these two longer spinning rods, this inexpensive, but very good 8' Korean Dark Horse UL Rockfish, that I'm brave enough to take out on the kayak to do glass minnows in winter tide pases - note it will fish 10-lb braid. And this spendy Yamaga Blanks flagship model, 8'3", that out-casts everything by 20-30%, and definitely won't take out on the kayak. I match these rods with Shimano C1000 to C2000 for inshore. Because of the heavier butt section, as these progressive-taper rods get longer, the max lure weight rating goes way up. Waiting on Fed-Ex to deliver my first bait version, the newer mid-range Yamaga Blanks Blue Current III 82/B, 8'2", I'm aiming for 2 g on the low end with a raced out Daiwa SV. Here are some of the lures. 2" swim shad +a titanium-wire stinger-hook variant - if you tie this pair as a tandem, have to put the stinger in back 38- to 50-mm sinking plugs and a glow spoon - a 75-mm 3/16-oz sinking Pins minnow on the bottom for size.