bulldog1935

You can effectively slow down your 8-geared reels by using a longer handle. The longer handle moves farther to make one rotation, so you wind with less wrist and more forearm.

several years of wear - reverse it to fish the good, clean end for several more years.

I've tied it when looping a stinger-hook snell to jighead leader knot.

another reason to have a gang of Daiwas that all swap spools.

We were on a tide pass that drained a "lake" into Aranasas navigation channel - Marker 60 pass. Easy paddle with my daughter from the causeway park (just across the channel), and a hot place to fish on a falling tide. I've also caught them wading with a fly rod on skinny water next to the ICW - they Really want back into the navigation channel. This time, skinnier water and a rising tide.. The channels that tee on the left are ICW and Arroyo barge channel. Far to the right is Padre Is. I was wading the skinny grass between the two small islands (Green Is and spoil island). We had the boat staked, and my dad was bait-fishing the Green Is. flounder hole. Sheepshead will go anywhere to find shrimp. Where this map opens is where I'm fishing all next week, staying at the RV park. We may get blown out on Thursday, but Tues and Wed are perfect weather, and the best tides of the spring.

only time I've reversed braid was when I moved it to a different reel - all done.

taking off the bottom of the source spool on an axle accomplishes the same thing as lifting the line off the flat face of the source spool. The reason - the reel-spool radius never matches the source spool radius. It's more important to fish with a swivel so the working line gets the chance to straighten itself out. The other important thing, especially with braid, is always fish with proper manual bail technique so you're never trying to wind slack coils of line. Selah.

first you need a good ball-bearing line roller. Always fish spinning gear with a micro-swivel Most important, always use manual bail technique

Here's my daughter fighting sheepshead on a Penn 4200SS - that's small frame - she caught 3 sheepshead this day sheepshead on the flats become a whole nother animal - they want to get back to deep water

For my fishing, Cal's wouldn't have the viscosity for drive gears. Cal's tan is perfect on drag washers for most all fishing, and you don't need or even want much, but you want a continuous film that fully wets drag washers, including inside and outside edges.

@A-Jay Don't feel alone - I've been victim to Evil snaps, also, that cost me a couple of Ryuki-S finesse plugs. Top to bottom on the titanium-wire leaders : Halco leader - excellent snap, heavy enough for offshore Mako bite trace - very good snap Dragon bite trace - EVIL Knot2kinky - best snap I've used. Ulucus and Cultiva micro-swivel snaps are both good. Tactical Anglers paper clips (25- and 50-lb) are the only paper clips that proof-tested at their load rating when tested by TackleAdvisors.

@Drew03cmc You can loop-to-loop braid to leader if the size is not too different This especially works well in a pinch, when you need to replace leader on the water. Here, the braid gets a double surgeon's loop. For permanent leaders, I prefer sitting under my Ott lamp and magnifier and rolling my Allbright knot, then wet the knot with pink-label Zap CA.

I'll simply add I don't know anything about the product, but @T2DM is on the exact track - picking viscosity to match gear loads.

I know people on the east coast, along with the Japanese, like heavier tackle for inshore, "Inshore" "Coastal" reels tend to be dual-brake/ Mag-Z made for casting 2 oz, and 150-size spools for 20-lb mono capacity. but on the Gulf coast, we use lighter tackle for inshore than most use for bass. The main reason is we're generaly throwing lighter lures. CT reels and 12-lb fluoro or light braid are the norm. Alphas Air got major youtube press for Gulf-coast inshore. That said, I personally fish 100-size across the board, and all my reels are BFS-mod. There's also nothing about "inshore/coastal" packages that makes them more salt resistant than your CTs. Keep them rinsed is pretty much all you need. In addition, inspect the brake magnets and spool bearings regularly. Anything that looks like rust, get it out of the reel and replace. Salt rust is more corrosive than the saltwater itself to all metals inside the reel. . finesse redfish and here's why we're throwing 1/8-oz lures - there's 15,000 sq-mi just like it on the TX coast.

while it's contrary to logic, polymers get longer and relax in the cold. It's the heat that makes them short and tight.

hmm, won't fit my boat

If urethane is used for covering labels and markings toward the rod butt, it's still a 2-part crosslinking resin (ala Emron). This is sanded, polished epoxy If I dug for it, could show you several rods where the scrim fiber makes a pattern on the surface, where the scrim wrap was sanded-through. Fisher used to sell un-sanded blanks as Fisher "Natural" Part of what made Harnell rods famous, John Harrington added carbon black to his epoxy which also added modulus to the resin itself, increasing bulk modulus over the glass prepreg.

The traditional lay-up that gives you enough epoxy resin to have a sanded finish more than doubles the weight compared to the latest rods using carbon cloth, helical fiber layers and nano-resins - even the scrim wrap is structural carbon tape. Epoxy only adds weight to the structure. Even the new rods will have extra sanded epoxy in the grip areas so you grab smooth. That extra epoxy weight is a balance bonus, also making the bulk rod tip feel lighter.

I've fished JDM Seaguar PEX8 in PE#0.8 - it matches the breaking strength for diameter specified by JAFTMA, Basically, it counts as "4th generation" X-braid I was talking about this on FFR forum, and covered the difference with 3rd generation FEP-coated braid, which is 832 and Power Pro V2 - both sold by "pound test" matching this table. 1st gen is basic x4-weave spectra/dyneema (flat) - 2nd gen is x8 to make it round; 3rd gen is the same x4 or x8 weave with fused FEP (thermoplastic teflon) coating (Sufix 832). 4th gen X-braid - when introduced in 2018, it was $1/yd - made in Japan by Izanas for the different JDM brands. It uses a UHMWPE drawn center strand 60% stronger than dyneema, finer fibers, tighter weave, outer abrasion weave fused with blended FEP + silicone for improved coating toughness. Harder, rounder, finer, more consistent diameter for breaking strength. Each of the JDM brands/grades are spec'd from Izanas menu - fiber grade, weave, coating formulation. The Seaguar PEX8 is closing out in Japan. Hedgehog is selling 150-m spools for $13. My experience, the FEP coating formulation is not as tough, especially, as my favorite coatings on Varivas Si-X and YGK WXP1. Where I notice this is rolling my leader Allbright knots - the knots glide with my favorite coatings, even after multiple years of use. I tried two brands that even new peel the coating when making my leader knot. Brands that the coating has fished up to 3 years for me include Varivas, YGK, and Duel X-wire. So I use the closeout Seaguar in bigger sizes for backing when stacking spools with my favorite Varivas Si-X or YGK WXP1.

@DaveT63 It will work fine, I swap RCS Mag-Z spools between Steez, new ZillionHD and old Millionaire 103. You can dial the mag setting way down.

I fish braid 100%, tie a perfection loop to the end of my leader, and loop on micro-swivel snap, paper clip, or micro-swivel wire bite-trace. The linear contact of loop-to-loop is stronger than any single-bend knot.

as long as we're posting youtubes, TackleAdvisors first turned my head to Shimano, with his Stradic FL review - note his thesis, which was also the truth then.

All worm-drive Shimano, Stradic through Stella, have "X-protect", which are labyrinth seals. I have the same type seals in spendy bicycle cartridge bottom brackets. (hose down and ride for 50,000 mi) If you submerge them, they will eventually leak-through, but as long as they're operating, they continuously sling water away to the outside. I've fished Stradic and Vanquish in the salt (hard) for 5 years, and they're still good as new. That includes liberal hose-down after every trip If you buy Stradic from JDM, you're close to your target - $160. https://www.digitaka.com/items/5/4/1/STRADIC Might also hunt around for sales in USM stock. (Stradic FL, Stradic FM) I looked it up - Shimano Ultegra also gets you X-Protect and you should easily find this at your price point. A buddy fished Ultegra side-by-side with my Stradic for the same 5 years. https://fish.shimano.com/en-GB/product/reels/spinning/frontdrag/a075f000035yx29qaa.html Miravel and especially Nasci specifically do not have X-Protect.

6'6" OL with the 2-hand grip. A year ago from Arroyo dock, it was casting 3-g microjig to 150' for me. Stunning performance compares with my 8' shore baitfinesse. The blade is an easy fit across car back seat. Both the blade and grip come in socks, you can lace both together, and it's well-protected in a Plano tube with 1-pc rods.

@Delaware Valley Tackle - thanks, friend. Finishing a synchro reel on your bench and having it perform toe-to-toe with the best JDM package-BFS reel is kind of a feeling of power. Here's a different JDM offset-grip - also a different butt-ferrule design, Smith Super Strike SS66SPX. (Smith ferrule is 12-mm and doesn't swap with Fuji 9-mm) This one will fish your reservoir baitfinesse niche, and I like it best as a 2-hand shore caster. The offset grips place the CG low, so you don't feel torsion on your rod hand. Also most of the balance is in the grip, and the rod tip feels weightless.