bulldog1935

Every thread should have a photo, right? My Tournament Pro with SDS Eva knobs on the stock carbon handle. I'll give an edge to Super Duty G mag brake and clean spool for long casts with 3/8 oz and wind-resistant lures - in 3 years on the water, I've only had one backlash on Super Duty, and that's when I didn't notice my line was wrapped on the rod. But the Tournament Pro is notably lighter, an edge on spool size, and Lew's centrifugal brake is also light and great at preventing start-up backlash.

I've fished 1/8 oz reliably on Super Duty (improved spool bearings and 20-lb braid) with a long Lami ML rod, and the rig I put together just for that niche is a Team Pro SP with improved spool bearings, PE#1 X-braid on my 7'1" Omen ML rod. Agree with others that Scorpion and similar dedicated BFS reels are the way to go for 1/16 oz.

A rod that has my attention for BFS, but limited to 1/4 oz, is Yamaga Blanks Blue Current III 69/B. My 8'3" YB TZ Nano spinner will cast 1/32 to 3/8 oz, but that range is what you gain with longer rods. That rod in bait version and and the newer and more cost-effective 8'2" B covers this range also.

@TnRiver46 it's actually finer than human hair by 0.001"

white bass were a priority, as were speckled trout, redfish, and Spanish mackerel ("smacks") Of course I'm grown here, but this is a fly rod smack and my daughter growing up with specs

Mine is oyster shell

@Logan S I've taken quite a few white bass in trico hatches, both on the river and lake. When they're sipping tricos, can't buy a strike on anything else. Also witnessed a stonefly hatch in a creek-arm cove one day with a thousand bass sitting just below the surface, waiting. I couldn't imitate them, and also couldn't buy a strike. I'll add to this - we occasionally get rhinocerous butterfly migration scourge plugging our radiators. When this is going on, bass will their bellies distended will impale themselves on a red or orange popper.

If you go to that much trouble, I would replace the carbontex drag washers - they're cheap from many ebay suppliers. Make sure you film them completely, including inside and outside edges with Cal's grease - I think it's hprbearings on ebay (or his website) that can sell you both carbontex and a small Cal's tin. (yes, not spinning reel)

my longest-casting low profile baitcaster is Lew's Super Duty G because of its excellent mag brake. Centrifugal brakes are best for defending against initial spool overshoot backlash at the beginning of your cast. Mag brakes are best for defending against mid-cast wind backlash that occurs when your lure is going over the hump, gravity is slowing it down just before it speeds up again on the drop. My longest-cast baitcaster By Far is (custom) Abu CT - it easily more than doubles the cast distance of any of my level-wind baitcasters. First time I cast 1/4-oz lure on this reel, it ended up in my neighbor's back acre. Conveniently, this reel has both centrifugal and mag I also built it with Avail shallow braid spool, and the mag brake is the Avail mag that matches the spool.

I do arbor knot to the same test mono, then as short as possible, tie allbright knot to my braid Also agree with @jimmyjoe you probably don't want to use 4-lb braid on any baitcaster. Jun at Japan Tackle recommends PE#1 line - 0.17 mm - as the smallest to use on any baitcaster. In this X-braid, that's 22-lb test, but would be 10-lb test in Sufix 832. I personally would move that 4-lb to a spinning spool.

The best use of a fly rod is outside of the boat, and in moving water. Usually stalking, wading, and sight fishing. Fly fishing is more effective in moving water than any other tackle, at least partly because there it fishes with less effort than other tackle. Fly tackle can make a stealthier presentation when you're stalking and sight-fishing. Most blind casting with a fly rod is an obstinate way to fish, especially if you can do more with spinning or bait tackle with less effort. The blind casting exception is being on spots and conditions that concentrate bait and gamefish - e.g., tide passes with moving current (that's kind of like river fishing), spawning phenomena that move and stack large numbers of fish (e.g. salmon) - spots with a high strike probability that naturally concentrate fish. Any time you have visible fish sign - jumping bait - that counts as sight fishing. My first fly rod was for white bass as a teenager, because I discovered you catch more of them with smaller lures - a fly rod will get even smaller stuff out farther than most UL tackle. Sometimes, really big fish are eating really small bait there's just no other way to imitate. Allure, mysticism? - no, it's just fishing.

Texas should be 5 states, because it's five different geographic regions. This used to be the capital of West Texas - Vinegarone (vinega-roohn - rhymes with Lorna Doone) - it's the only town in Texas that has a green road sign that reads "Population 0" Everything in the west Texas scrub bites, stings, or spits poison at you - plants and animals, both. An anxious two-mile hike from this mesa finds a striking bluff with springs the size of volkswagens, and the Devils River Fish live here, but they're awful spooky from the bank or wading and the water so clear, the next step may be over your head the best way to catch them is float These photos were taken 15 years ago, when the state leased access and campsites on this ranch at Vinegarone. It was a mecca - you could drive 5 hours and run across friends you hadn't fished with in 5 years. Now, the only way to get here is to float in on a 2-day safari with registered float guides - but triple-digit bass numbers are the norm on that float.

here in the Texas hill country, it's because of where they live. We call our endemic creek bass, Texas brook trout. They occupy the same niche trout do in coldwater, and are the only bass species that can escape into aquifer caves to survive our droughts. I caught 7 in the frame of this photo, and if you look back at the first photo, on a fall bite, caught 70 in the frame of that photo. Also going to add casting a fly rod is way over-rated. Stealth is the single most important skill - spare your casts so you won't put down fish - if you're doing this right, reading the water, sparing your casts, you should catch a fish every 3rd cast.

The gear doesn't have any torque that you don't put into it. Gears have ratio = speed. They also have contact loads that result from what you put into them. The lower the speed, the more torque you can deliver through the gears. but you can accomplish the same thing with more leverage on the handle. If you hit a wall on what you're able to put through the gear, the added leverage of longer handle pitch lets you put more into the gear, increase gear contact loads, and get more out of the gear - it has the exact same result as slowing down the gear (swapping gears) without changing the handle pitch. With a longer-pitch handle, you're moving your hand farther to complete a revolution. That distance is also pi-times-diameter. When you change the handle pitch, you change the rotation itself. The other thing you increase with a longer handle is the contact stress on the gear teeth, and the gears need to be strong enough to take that.

but the gears don't move themselves - you move them with the handle. I hope this thing is on.

for the same motion of your hand, you're not moving the crank as far with a longer-pitch handle. Likewise, you can speed up a reel with a shorter double handle - it doesn't change the output of the gears, but what you put into them.

Rusty, it changes the amount of torque you put into the gear. the trick is having gears that can take the increased contact stress, but when you look at newer Shimano gear design with larger main gears and increased gear contact area, that's not too much concern. (believe me, I've brinnelled my share of gears and rotor bushings on offshore fish) My thought was exactly the same as yours, and I have two low-geared JDM reels, Stradic and Vanquish, plus the higher-geared Stradic that matches FL1000 (JDM C2000SHG). I've adjusted handle pitch on all 3 (I like counter-balanced or double handles especially on UL spinners) - the high-geared reel came out the stoutest, and mostly because of the handle pitch. It's the reel I chose to go from 6-lb braid to 14-

Glenn Madden who kayak fishes off the TX coast says, "Yip-Pah." When he took out a couple of Aussies for kings on topwater, they picked it up, too.

I started my girls on the put-and-take trout ponds when they were each about 4. Of course there wasn't always a lot of fishing, but that's the key with kids is going somewhere they don't have to fish. Turtles and crawdads found their way home to an aquarium/terrarium. Don't forget towels, blankets and change of clothes. The night before, they would sit in my lap to tie fake corn kernel flies with yellow chenille. Chum up the trout with corn, and let the girls catch trout on fly rod. Don't let the fly rod mystics fool you, most fly fishing is just fancy cane pole. I bet even Theodore Gordon dunked worms.

Mine was 7' Berkley Tri-Sport and Mitchell 300 from bass fishing to inshore and the jetties. Then Millionaire 6H on Fenglas Lunkerstik, Orvis Fullflex A, 7-1/2' Browning HiPower for inshore and surf (my first graphite)...

https://japantackle.com/tuning-parts/handles-casting-reels/daiwa-abu.html all newer Shimano should be 7x4mm slot, while older Bantam matches Abu/Daiwa 8x5mm Also, if you go to the trouble for a $26 DHL Express charge, might check Jun's inventory on other items, lines, lures, etc. Keep in mind older Lew's BB-1, Abu and Daiwa should swap in - you also want to make sure you match the nut and keeper to the handle.

actually Rusty, the cranking power is simple leverage. The leverage of the longer handle gives you more cranking power even with faster gears. Noted with my 2000 spinning salt UL reels catching doubles last month, the lower-geared Vanquish with shorter handle ran into a cranking wall a couple of times, while the higher-geared Stradic pushed right through with its longer handle.

It's not only hard to pick one rod and reel, it's impossible. That's why I picked the most versatile fly rod I know. I think we should all have at least one of each, instead of just one. And think a lot of us are already well on our way.

I talk to the fish. If I'm keeping count, will say, "you're number xx"

If you find you don't like the higher speed gears, you can slow it down with tuning parts. A longer-pitch handle has the same effect as slower gears, both for slowing down retrieve, and increasing your cranking power through the faster gears. This is an 8.3-geared reel that I slowed down by increasing the handle pitch from 48 mm on the stock handle to 60 mm. It gives me both the retrieve I like, and the power to crank against slot redfish. It's a simple ratio - this makes it behave like 6.5 gearing.