bulldog1935

Of course all of these are solvents rather than solutions. Mineral spirits is the most effective solvent for dissolving waxes that result from oxidizing grease. This was put together for dealing with 70-y-o decomposed grease. Note, however, you don't want vinegar solution around magnesium frames. https://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1385

micro-guides and braid = bread and butter

@Turtle Angler Comes up in English for me There's a language toggle right beside the sign-in. Noppin is a broker for buying from Japan vendors that don't ship direct to the US. 20 years ago, there was no such thing - Japan vendors couldn't take payment from the US, so there was no reason for them to ship here. I've been using them since they were crecent-shop.com. They went down for awhile in '20 and came back with a new website. I liked the old one better, but this one works. Go through the usage guide. You can message Masamichi through the Contact Board. You can also use the Contact Board to submit a shopping request with a link to what you want to buy. They charge broker fee, you can store up many small orders from different shops, Yahoo auctions, Rakeuten, up to 60 days free and send a Packing Request for DHL. You transfer money (paypal) to your Wallet and pay invoices from your wallet - they'll refund whatever funds you have in your wallet to your paypal account at any time. Add to Wallet is also set up to transfer the exact amount you need to pay their invoice. But again, you don't need them for the websites marketing and shipping direct to US - - here the shops I use them for frequently, along with Yahoo and Rakuten - they search Yahoo and Rakuten for you in English and allow you to bid and buy direct. For shops other than Yahoo and Rakuten, you have to submit a Shopping List. https://www.squid-mania.com/ Squid Mania will make up and sell any Livre handle/knob combination at a discounted price. http://www.karil.co.jp/index.html Karil Bait & Tackle sells IXA salt-resistant finesse spool bearings. https://www.hanecra.com/product/54 Haneda is the place for Ambassadeur stuff and wood plugs. 20 years ago, Japan was the only source for new glass rods, and amazing bench-made fly reels for a fraction of US bench-made ones. Masamichi ordered a custom-rolled-on-order inshore S-glass fly rod for me. Also, my first finesse Rockfish rods over a dozen years ago were ordered on Rakuten through noppin (this is a 3-wt pack rod with benchmade fly reel)

The Language Barrier. When you send an e-mail to Asian Portal, Hedgehog Studio, it's forwarded to a contract interpreter, communication back and forth with the vendor, then the interpreter's final response forwarded to you. Jun Sonada has great English, Masamichi has great English. Jun has made the effort to essay his experience and put it in technical articles on his website. The manufacturers concentrate on design and production, competing with each other, and marketing to JDM - and we want them to continue with just that.

Jun Sonada is the smartest baitcast guy in the world. @Turtle Angler C is for compact - a larger diameter spool on a smaller frame. I buy from Asian Portal, Digitaka, Japan Tackle, FishingShop.kiwi ($40 to ship, but major discounts on most things), TackleJapan. Also note, different shops may be better at one thing - another shop may be better at another. For websites that don't market direct to US, e.g., Haneda Craft, Squidmania, KTF, I use my broker noppin.com. Also for Yahoo auctions and Rakuten. I've been using Masamichi at noppin 20 years - back then, you could only buy from Japan using a broker because of Japan banking laws and, especially, the language barrier. Masamichi is very good about getting answers to questions for you.

You're giving $70 to the US importer by not buying JDM through Digitaka. https://www.digitaka.com/items/5/4/1/STRADIC - $145, delivered gratis in 4 days. looks like current JDM stock is limited on Vanford. https://www.digitaka.com/items/5/4/1/VANFORD Same same Here's the spec sheet on Shimano JDM sizes USM Shimano Stradic 1000HG-FL in the same JDM reel is '19 Stradic C2000SHG. The table in this link will convert PE# to diameter and equivalent pound-test mono https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/japanese-line-size/

@DanielG Internally, Vanford and Stradic are identical. The main difference is forged aluminum body for Stradic, and CI4+ body for Vanford. Vanford also shares a lighter rotor with Vanquish. If you notice on Vanford, the stem or knee of the reel is shorter, placing the reel body and rotor closer to the rod. This is simply Shimano recognizing the limitations of plastic-composite stiffness, and making that choice to give the reel the stiffness they want it to have. Some people have complained about the fit between the rotor or knee bend and their fingers on the rod (three separate threads on BR). Just something to keep in mind - pointing this out will get the standard flurry of detractors, but I don't have a horse in this race, nor a dog in the fight. The other reel example the OP used on his thread Also happens to be Shimano CI4+ composite body. https://www.bassresource.com/bass-fishing-forums/topic/242520-shimano-vanford-questionissue/?do=findComment&comment=2769297

@Revival It gets even easier if you use the marked braids that change color every 10 m

Only JDM refers to the model years. Daiwa US simply uses the model name for the current model they sell. Shimano US adds a model tag, and if you really want to get confused, USM Shimano Stradic 1000HG-FL in the same JDM reel is '19 Stradic C2000SHG. They sell 5 times as many different reel models in Japan as get imported to USM. The best place to search for announcements, articles, and spec tables on JDM reels is JP Fishing Tackle News https://www.jpfishingtacklenews.com/?s=daiwa+zillion

Do not pass go, go to Digitaka and buy a JDM Shimano Stradic for under $150, including express delivery. If fine braid is ever in your sights, no reel manages braid like Shimano worm-drive, and Stradic is entry-level for Shimano worm drive. Calling Stradic entry level is a true hyperbole - the design copies Stella, and all the parts interchange. and nowhere on this thread does @DanielG ask for a passe optional anti-reverse switch. No high-grade reel uses an optional A/R switch, and the very best spinning reels don't have auto-bail close. You use manual bail both to feed line and to retrieve - it prevents every possible line handling problem with spinning reels.

Here's the capacity calculator for stacking two lines of different diameter on a spool. It's pretty accurate. https://www.pattayafishing.net/advanced-fishing-reel-line-capacity-estimator/ When I fish braid on a deep spool, have determined it takes about 20-25 yds 20-lb mono backing to put 80-100 yds 20-lb 832 on top. This makes a lightweight arbor and keeps spool mass low for reliable casting with a linear mag brake In the past, I've also gone the route of backing with cheap braid (YoZuri) on a dual-brake reel to fish good fluoro on top.

State treasuries often have the mind of the governor. They just fixed that in TX a few years ago, allocated funds now have to be used where they were allocated. In the days of Governor Hairdo, before his humorously unsuccessful presidential bid, road taxes went to education, fishing licenses went to roads, etc.

@TnRiver46 GRTU donates $2500 annually to TPWD for endemic Guadalupe Bass Restoration initiative (hatchery). Outside the hatcheries, only two A-strains remain in the wild, one creek headwater isolated by a waterfall, the second by aquifer recharge (the creek disappears into the ground). The very fish endangered by genetic pollution from smallmouth bass stocked by TPWD in the '70s and '80s. The Blanco River strain is extinct. smallie hybrid on the left, the big hen, from the same plunge pool, appears to be all-Guad.

Skipjack herring, redhorse sucker, and black buffalo are all native fish, along with long-nose gar and many species that are a blast to fish and catch. Trash fish is a colloquialism that is less than accurate, and too often promotes myth and random fish kill. State agencies and too often private business have made our native waters their private aquariums, introducing non-native fish that threaten native species with extinction, and gain the more accurate descriptive moniker, feral fish. (e.g., smallmouth bass in the TX hill country, rainbow trout in the Rockies, Rio Grande cichlids in LA bayous, KY bass in nationwide reservoirs) Only in the past decade or so have state agencies considered the long-term effects of stocking non-native fish. In too many instances, damage was already done by over-zealous stocking decades before.

My Vanquish is C2000S, and it's over the top for finesse fishing. Side by side, you can really tell the wind-inertia difference with small-frame Stradic, which is internally the same as Vanford. No resistance to start, doesn't push your hand when you stop. While parts are part of it, it's mostly from parts-matching by Japan bench technicians. For @Turtle Angler description of his wants, don't think you could go wrong with Vanquish C3000MHG, and there's current JDM stock. I'd say don't pass go here. My medium frame is Twin Power C3000MHG, which is a bad boy from frame, rotor and spindle stiffness to drag - also Japan bench-made. This reel is not light weight like Vanquish, and has forged aluminum rotor. Vanquish will be lighter with magnesium frame and CI4+ rotor - otherwise, they're the same, titanium bail, same drive, spindle and drag. Vanford shares the Vanquish CI4+rotor, but not the titanium bail, extra BBs, magnesium frame, and Japan bench assembly.

Ski, you're in Florida, and Florida Fishing Products is, too. I'm fairly sure their Distance Braid is equivalent to Varivas - it's the first X-braid I tried, and it's still fishing. Here's the skinny on Japanese X-braids - they're all made by Izanas in Japan. They all use Izanas UHS center strand, which is 80% of the line strength. They use extra-fine outer fibers, which are there for toughness and abrasion resistance, and extra-tight weave. The whole thing is fused when an FEP (telfon-base) coating is applied. They've been doing this since 2018, and YGK Oddport was the first X-braid. The Japanese X-braids are made the same, with some differences in fibers (G-Soul adds fluorocarbon outer fibers to increase density), and the FEP coating compositions vary from rubbery to hard. The soft coatings are better for spinning, and the hard coatings better for casting to resist line dig. Photo below borrowed from Izanas Applications web page. Compared to all the braids discussed previously on this thread, X-braid doubles the strength for the same diameter.

Actually, if you put small diameter mono together with large diameter mono, the smaller mono will cut through the larger mono in any single-bend knot. Anyone who says the problem here isn't the knot is polar incorrect. (especially those who tie triple surgeon's knots and know better). Double uni is a good knot to join braid together, or mono together of similar diameter, but the worst choice for braid to mono. If you want to try something simple, different and effective when you're on the water, try loop-to-loop. This works because the braid and mono contact in a line rather than a point. I also loop on micro swivels, which is stronger than uni knot.

Single bend knots are guaranteed to cut through, thinner through thicker, braid through the mono. Try improved Allbright. The trick to tying this knot is remember which way your wrapped the braid, and continue to roll the knot in that direction as you gently tighten the braid tag first. Gradually tighten the mono tag as you're making the braid loops closer together. When you're happy with the braid wrap, last thing is tighten the standing ends.

@TnRiver46 bottom-bouncing a cats whisker for endemic bass in a wide spot on the Pedernales headwaters, I hooked a black buffalo the size of a samsonite. It was on Tonka Queen cane and 1917 Hardy St. George... The samsonite fish porpoised continuously for two trips into the backing before finally coming unhooked, which was a relief. But the 10-minute ride of a lifetime. Bottom bouncing is a special effect with special results - I've seen 5-lb bass on flagstone bottom slamming their head sideways into the bottom 4 and 5 times trying to eat whatever is making the mudballs. We got it on film for KT Diaries. The technique catches everything, big rainbows, stripers, redfish - also how you fill a limit of white bass. ps - here's a finesse inline spinner set up to bottom-bounce, and duplicate the effect of a cats whisker on Teeny line. Road Runner is another good choice for bottom-bouncing.

except we were talking about handle Length, and Digitaka only shows 80 mm carbon handle in stock, which is Short. Hedgehog has it in longer lengths, but you still have to buy knobs. https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/3790

Our tailwater is a trophy redhorse sucker fishery. If you're catching redhorse, you're matching the hatch. We call them Guadalupe redfish. Made Danny smile when we were after rainbows.

Only Hedgehog Studio and Japan Tackle have the lead on Avail parts. Hedgehog has the best deal, with all the parts together in a package. Those big knobs are Avail A. Really light handle with titanium knob spindles. Even long and big knobs, it's lighter than the stock Daiwa. https://www.hedgehog-studio.co.jp/product/4883 Also nice, you can change the trim colors when it's right.

The difference between 7.1 gears and 8.5 gears is 6 inches per turn. When I bought my Zillion SV TW, 8.5 was the only stock I could find. I added a 100 mm Avail handle, which adds cranking torque, and adds lure finesse to your wind. My Steez with 6.3 gears keeps a short handle.

Judging by listings for Pflueger spinning and baitcast reels on e-replacement parts, https://www.ereplacementparts.com/pflueger-spinning-reel-parts-c-186372_186375.html Knobs on Pflueger baitcasters can be replaced, but not spinning reels - you need the complete handle, and many of those are discontinued parts. Here's an ebay example - some others are listed for twice the cost. https://www.ebay.com/itm/165763413531?hash=item269844f61b:g:BZQAAOSwDwZjKDSV

I have a couple of nice centrepins, Speedia and Adcock Stanton, and Brit small-guide spinning rods (i.e., not for fixed spool) to match. The Speedia is the nicest of the two by far. In the 50s, they made Colorado reels, Fre-Line, Humphreys, GoodAll, Johnson 20, which let you steelhead using quill float and mono on a fly rod. https://fiberglassflyrodders.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=71452&p=391962 I just added a Rogue steelhead fly reel I've been looking for years. The free-spool is built into the disc drag. The lever lets you add drag or reduce it to freespool, letting the line trot (steelhead). Release it, and you have preset drag.