bulldog1935

I've worked a bit in Alaska, and they do all their sleeping in winter. In summer, it's nothing for a millwright to leave his desk at 3:30pm, drive (or fly) to fish Kenai all night, and be back at his desk at 7:30 am.

It's kinda like fishing. We should all be "morning" people here.

You may get more answers than you asked on this thread. Thumb is always the best brake, and has always been the most important part of baitcasting. Most antique baitcasters had spindle end tension, comparable to "cast control" on modern reels - tightening the end cap bearings against the spool spindle. The highest grade antique benchmade reels, Meek, Talbot, and Jack Welch Heddon, instead used oil whirl in the spindle bushings for backlash control, which behaves much like a centrifugal brake. A separate adjustable brake on antique reels was often a wool pad that you dialed into the spool flange. The first reactive brake was 1911, South Bend ABL, which used a bail over the line, allowing line tension to guide and modulate the wool pad. Though not a great distance caster, South Bend ABL could be adjusted to an absolute no-thumbs reel. The first centrifugal brake patent was 1915, Redifor, which consisted of two metal pawls on the spool flange that rubbed the frame - it worked too well at braking, and they're not very good casters. But if you check the thread I linked, they looked really good. The 1918 Douglas patent was far ahead of its time, offering freespool by disengaging the pinion gear from both the drive gear and the spool, anti-reverse in the same mechanism, and a functional level wind that was also separate from the spool. The subtle casting brake consisted of a cam-loaded fine-wire spring that acted on the spool drum. The first good freespool and the centrifugal brake that we all recognize was the Abu Ambassadeur, designed in the late '40s, and first produced in 1952. The mag brakes that you remember, appearing in the 1980s, didn't do a lot compared to modern versions. The antique Meek, Talbot, and Heddon reels that I first mentioned were modified and used almost exclusively for tournament distance casting right through the 1970s (and later), with (stripped down) Ambassadeurs gradually working their way into the competition. Abu's first purpose-built tournament casting reel (CT) had a short run in the 1970s, a second limited version in 1980. Later CT versions with ball bearings have continued production since 1991, and with good mag brakes beginning 1995.

He's a very nice guy in Ukraine, and I can vouch for the quality of both his bearings and reel tuning parts. This is my Tournament Pro with a pair of his EVA knobs swapped in place of the rubber paddles.

Santa flies nonstop from Shennan-Shi to Memphis, changes planes, then picks up a Fed-Ex truck at the airport. I think my Corkys lure could eat one of these...

It takes a real man to drive a pink Cadillac. But if you don't want to choose, you can pick one of the Japanese X-braids that changes color every 10 m

a New Year's Day on the Guadalupe tailwater He was sipping BWOs in tiny pocketwater that most people walk over to find deeper holes. I stopped him before he could get through the chute of a busted weir. (this is the pocket where I hooked him) The rod is a prewar Heddon Folsom, the reel a prewar Young pattern 16a. The same rainbow buck was photographed and posted by another FFR member three months later.

engineer is a life attitude - if you have it, you apply it to everything. If the information on backlash is useful to you, use it. You don't want to get me started on modulus and fly rod tapers.

I know this is an old thread, and not sure why it became a shimano discussion, but I do have a point to make about this reel and this Lew's casting brake. The KVD has the same casting brake that's on Custom Inshore, and is my least favorite of the four LFS and SLP Lew's that I fish. That brake has two metal plates on the spool, and is the heaviest spool (read highest inertia) of any Lew's makes. Over this, I'll take the mag brake on a Super Duty G (absolutely clean spool with no added hardware), or the lightweight centrifugal brake on Lew's Pro models (below) any day. (yes, I dusted this after I saw the macro) I'm an engineer, and have done the math. I also cast NLW Abu CT surf reels out to 100 yds, which have no end tension, separate centrifugal and mag brakes. Mag brakes are best for defending wind backlash and long casts. Centrifugal brakes are best for defending initial spool overshoot backlash. Low inertia spool defends all 3 types of backlash. (brake curves from Jun on Japan Tackle)

simple facts here's all the reels they were supporting in 2018. There's not a reel on the list older than 6 years - this is the norm for both Shimano and Daiwa. If you buy a reel near its closeout, they won't be providing parts for it in a few years. If you buy a reel they'll be deriving new models next year, you're good for parts for at least 6 and maybe 8 or 9 years. In the early 80s when my 5-y-o Daiwa Millionaire 6H wore through a chromed brass worm gear from surf sand, called Daiwa US and they told me they were no longer providing parts for it. People like Mike's Reel Repair buy up old parts inventories, but there was no way to google a Canadian reel repair shop in the early 80s...the best you could hope for was local yellow pages or magazine classifieds. That was when I bought my first Lew's, with 440 stainless worm gear and zirconia pawl.

I personally would lump the money for the 2 new reels and buy one Stradic FL (or Vanford). You owe it to yourself to try the '18 Stella worm drive, long spool stroke (read longer cast), finer-toothed gearing, larger main gear, stronger gears and spindle, which have been duplicated in cheaper-to-manufacture materials in every subsequent new Shimano spinning reel model ('19 Vanquish, '19 Stradic, '20 Twin Power, and '20 Vanford). Shimano is also going to be supporting these new reel models longer, and most all of the parts interchange between models.

SW has been the best place to buy Lamiglas rods, carrying pretty much all of them with free and quick shipping on a rod purchase, and easy to find discount coupons. It will be a shame if that service suffers. For general outdoor gear to dress shoes and 400 thread-count sheets, I was a sierratradingpost junkie for decades, and got some incredible deals - $550 retail Marmot Goretex III light shell for $130 - good thing about that, it will last 30+ years. Since the original owner sold the company and they franchised, the good deals and good customer service went out the window.

I can give you one advantage - any time instant retrieve is an advantage, baitcaster is superior to spinning tackle. Here throwing (light) weighted lures in skinny grass to redfish. A second advantage to baitcaster is accurate casting. While manual bail habits make it easier to feather outgoing line from your spinning reel, there's nothing like thumb on a baitcaster for modulating cast distance. I'll put in a plug for my 7'1" Omen Green ML - I was able to fish 1/8-oz on Lew's Custom Inshore with 12-lb fluoro, but shallow spool reels do this job better with braid. Toray graphite rod, very light in hand, very fast with a softer tip. I'll also put in a plug for 13Fishing warranty support. The only rod I've ever broken (in 50 years). But it was a high-stick reaction set - I was lifting the lure out of the water when a red snagged it at the boat - the redfish exploded and so did the rod - still landed him. I considered it abuse and called expecting a discount replacement. They said it was warranty and sent me a new rod.

Avail lightweight clear knobs on a couple of cobbled L and UL reels. Libra SX 1500 with Daiwa double handle and IOS hex shaft adapter. Shimano low-geared C1000S UL - the handle has a Livre base, and inexpensive 72-mm Gomexus carbon handle that fits the base like it was made for it. Low-geared reels with short-pitch double handles are great both for speed retrieve and feeling the other end of your line. Originally bought the ebay Gomexus double with hex shaft for the reel on top, but Gomexus hex shaft didn't have tolerance to fit the Libra slot. The Livre base came from a single handle from closeout stock, but didn't like the handle weight without counterbalance. and if you're wondering about the paracord, part of a home-made rod leash for kayak fishing.

you can't go wrong trying different brands - just don't mix different brands of soft baits together in your tackle trays. The different plasticizers used in different formulations often cause the different brands of soft baits to melt together if they're touching.

A Japanese friend on FFR forum OP'd a thread about Nyu-kon, which we would call "breaking it in right" - even in the west, we leave room for karma and luck. The example of a shattered rod through klutz or even a fish explosion is blamed on never breaking it right. In Shinto tradition, breaking the object in right gives the object and owner success and long life together. Paraphrasing Takeru, the object doesn't know what it is until you use it for its glory. And after all that, you have a gorgeous display piece there. For a collector, you would devalue it just by lining it. I love the knobs, though, and they sure make me want to take it fishing.

check seller hprbearings on ebay. You don't have to buy Boca or VXB to get good bearings. He should have them buy size, also by reel model, stainless, shielded, hybrid ceramic,, etc. If you're looking for heavy duty drive bearings, you probably want stainless shielded, Abec 5 or 7. I've bought sets of 3 Abec 7 unshielded stainless from him for $25, and for spool bearings in Abu surf reel, a full zirconia ceramic pair for $35 (VXB wants $90 for one bearing). He specializes in reels, also sells carbontex drags, inexpensive upgrades like worm shaft bearings to replace bushings for $8. He sells full hybrid ceramic conversions by reel model. Just found his website - google HPR Bearings. Another good bearing supplier (by reel and size) is RC Bearings (google) A third source, used by many friends, Fast Eddy Bearings (google) answering out of turn, below, shielded bearings come lubed, and lube has a finite life - it's a good idea to swap out with cost-effective bearings if you're going to the trouble to rebuild a mileage reel.

the important question/answer should be, has anyone ever had a product Delivered from this company? But as far as rejected orders go, many legitimate suppliers are currently not taking orders from countries to which they have lost reliable shipping in 2020. Mako in Ukraine makes titanium bite traces with the most incredible tiny and stealthy hardware. I'm a junkie for them with toothy salt fish. They used to sell on ebay, but no more, and their website rejects US orders with a "cannot ship to USA" reply. back with a record to report. I placed an order with Hedgehog for Air Bearings and trim parts, late Sunday night, and it was just delivered - that's something like 36 hours. Fed-Ex is no longer stopping in Anchorage, but non-stop from Japan to Memphis.

If you go by Jun at Japan Tackle, he says PE 1 line, 0.17 mm (=0.006") is the lightest you should try casting on a baitcaster. Keep in mind, going this low, you want shallow spool reels to keep the spool inertia down. PE 1 braid diameter is 10-lb in Sufix 832, and 20-lb in YGK. This Lew's SP fishes 1/8 oz great, with centrifugal brake set about 6-7 for the light lures I'm fishing 20-lb Sufix 832 (0.23 mm) on Super Duty and Tournament Pro. I use Air bearings on the braid reels, and have these deeper spools backed each with a 25-yd spool of 25-lb Seaguar red (0.47 mm). They fish great for me. Will fish 1/8 oz, but especially well with 1/4 and 3/8 oz. They far out-cast fluoro, essentially giving me the same fishing with less effort, which can also widen your backlash fudge room.

When shipping first got tough after April, I was searching the web for a Century Stealth surf rod - OOS everywhere, as most tackle became, most places. Found two websites, one Malaysia, one China, with prices that looked way too good, though the shipping costs they listed sounded realistic for rods. Both sites had perfect English, testimonials, site maps, and photos of brick, mortar, and inventory. Looking at both websites and especially prices, easy to convince yourself both were from the same source. I e-mailed both to ask how they were shipping. When neither replied, I went elsewhere and had Rich Hedenberg build me a custom - RH Composites. back with a record to report. I placed an order with Hedgehog for Air Bearings and trim parts, late Sunday night, and it was just delivered - that's something like 36 hours. Fed-Ex is no longer stopping in Anchorage, but non-stop from Japan to Memphis.

I've been loading up on hard-core YGK and Duel braids from Japan, and studying their stream trout plugs. Our winters on the coast consist of two things - imitating 6" mullet for a few big trout with Corky's 7/8-oz neutral-density soft "balloon" twitchbait, and reds and many pan size trout imitating glass minnows - go-to lure is YoZuri Pins minnow S. My last order included a gang of 35 mm crankbaits to throw on the salty UL rockfish rod this winter, same 1/16 oz weight as 50 mm Pins S, but smaller overall, and I like the reported slow retrieve action, because reds and trout sip tiny glass minnows. If needed, will swap the hooks with #6 Owner single plug hooks.

I may be the longest-winded Seaguar fan extant - knot strength - but many have passed them up in braid. I have Smackdown on two offshore rigs, and don't plan to replace it until needed. The best-behaved braids I've fished (inshore and a little FW) are Sufix 832 and Florida Fishing Products Distance (pretty much OOS all year). What has my attention is YGK X-braid and Duel "Wire" from Japan. These are fine-filament braids with a hard core, hard silicone coating, and reported to have some elasticity before they break. What really got my attention, for the same diameter, they're over twice the breaking strength of 832. First spool, 22-lb PE1, I loaded on Team Pro SP, and love the way it casts light lures. Two spools of PE1.5 let me go from 15-lb 832 on my shallow spool surf reels to 30-lb. and this UL, replaced 6-lb Sufix 832 (PE0.6) with the same diameter X-braid and a whopping 14-lb test.

I agree with everyone who says you need a baitcaster - work the learning curve and educate your thumb. My favorite $100 spinning reel is the Tica Libra SX, but in the 1500 size. The reel is all metal and in this size, the weight difference is insiginficant. The Libra SX 1500 is a choice size for 8-lb. Note the Libra SX 3000 size matches Shimano 4000 - a big step up. Tica doesn't have quite the smooth gears as Shimano (who does), but very well balanced and built to last. It also has selective anti-reverse. Where it shines, Libra has the same spool stroke as the newer Shimanos based on '18 Stella (read as long cast), and you see here how well their IOS locomotive drive manages line lay - there's 200 yds stacked braid on this spool. This is a low-geared reel, which I prefer, and for speed I pimped it with Daiwa double handle. I also like their line roller better than any Shimano (all the same up to Stella) - I replaced all my Shimano line rollers with MTCW titanium - of course I fish the salt, and would eventually have to replace Shimano chromed brass line rollers, anyway. Tica is based in the PNW, and sells direct on Amazon. Libra SX is derived from their offshore Cybernetic, and a powerful little reel. Last month, loaned the Libra to a buddy on our trip, and he got a limit of speckled trout on it - the reel has also never cast a wind knot. Here's the Libra SX1500 out of the box + 8-lb copolymer. Tica America C/S was also good about getting me a spare spool.