The Rooster

Was that stuff sprayed on as well?

I'd make that a requirement and not date anyone who won't.

That looks great. What do you put on it to keep it from peeling off, or will it?

Don't forget Uncle Homer recently passed as well.

Yes, and I sure do appreciate it, too. PM sent. I have some pressing circumstances at the moment that I explained in the PM that would prevent a call at the moment. I absolutely would like to have you call me on this though, probably in the coming week or two weeks.

Thanks for the reply. You don't sound like a jerk. For someone like me with no experience, it helps to know in absolute terms what works and what is just a bad idea. Toaster oven works for baking them, eh? I will see what I can dig up. On painting them, I need to get it right the first time, as there won't be an opportunity to repaint them later. I'm going to use the worm weights as bodies on spinner lures, so once I put it on the wire and bend it to hold a hook, there's no taking it off again. So, I need to heat and dip in fluffed up paint, then hang on a rack and bake it (350 for 15 - 20 minutes?). I figure the candle will be good enough to heat them, since it's just to get them hot so the paint sticks. I'm assuming the baking process will be where it smooths out and hardens. One more question. I have some color combos in mind where I'll need to apply paint on one side of the weight, and a different color, or even two, on the opposite side. I assume you do one color at a time. How do you heat them enough to put on the second color without messing up the first color?

I want to get into powder painting lead worm weights for use in my lure making. I've read just about everything I can find on doing it, including fluid bed usage, and all. Without just spending a few hundred dollars on getting started, is there a way I can start with just a 2 oz. jar of powder and preheated lead sinkers? I was thinking of opening a paper clip up and using it to hold the lead and just swish it around inside the jar, then use the paper clip to hang it on a wire rack for baking in the oven. For preheating them, I could either use the oven, or I was wondering if a short dunk into boiling water might be enough, or a few passes over a candle flame? Any help is much appreciated.

I'm sure in the future it will, after they dump this one. It isn't just here that people complain about the current model, and it's more than a few. Do you recall reading such complaints about the E model? I read a very few in the beginning concerning it having graphite side plates over aluminum on the D model, but that quickly faded. It's been almost 2 years for this model and stuff like this thread keeps coming up. People aren't as happy with it, that's evident.I'm not saying the public isn't asking for their $150 Curado back (I remember them being $120) but why would they when the Citica that followed the older, lower priced Curado, ended up being better, and costed about the same? Oh, it's the name thing again. Doesn't matter if it's better or not, it isn't a Curado. On that note, I've already talked about the name thing and tier identification that goes with it, but why is there such a hang up on that where people are concerned? I recognize that it's there, but I'm not one of them that does that.

Think what? What's been said here is by people who are supposed to have some kind of inside connection. If you just talked to them as Joe Shmo asking a question, I doubt they'd be forth coming. Remember when Bantam1 was posting here? He went to another site after leaving here and was posting pics of fish he had caught, at that time on the "as yet unreleased" G model then, but he went to the trouble to black out the whole rod and reel to conceal it until it was ready for release. They won't just own up to it.

My best would be the Curado E7 for its casting ability and ultra low profile. But my most fun to use would be my BPS Extremes. Handle bearings are NOT overrated. I know the OP said just post models without reasons why, but that ain't in me.

I'm one of the naysayers who was not bowled over with the G reel. I felt it in the store but I DID NOT use it or buy one. However, I do not feel I have to spend time using one in order to give a fair opinion on it. I'm not giving an opinion on its fishability, I'm giving one on the reel as a viable product that sells well and makes money for the company that made it. That's what they care about, is just how well it sells. They care how well it fishes (as part of their sales strategy) also so people want to buy it, but mostly they just care about how well YOU THINK it fishes so that you do buy it. But if there's something about it that makes people care less for it than some other reel, even unrelated to fishability, then they care about that a whole lot more. Obviously there is something, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. Bottom line, experience with it or not, it's a consumer product first and a fishing reel second, and Shimano's sole aim with it is just to make money....period. In order to sell well, it has to impress people to want to buy it. If it doesn't sell well, regardless of reason, then it is a bad product, no matter how good it actually is on the water. All you guys laughing at those of us who haven't used one but still had something to say about it anyway, I think we'll be the ones laughing in the end. We didn't buy this generation, while a lot of you apparently bought plenty, and spent a lot doing so. But it seems we were the voice that Shimano ultimately listened to in deciding to redesign the reel this early into the current series' run though. When the next generation of reels comes out better than these now, the naysayers will be waiting and not have a boat load of devalued G's to get rid of at that time. And the next one better be all that and more, or the nays will be heard again.

I use an eye buster on crappie jigs but I don't know what type of paint these are or if its been baked or not. Works well on them though.

I couldn't say whether the G is made as well as the E or others before it, but it seems solid enough. Like someone else said, it just doesn't have the wow factor that I felt with the E. I'd for sure choose a Citica E over a Curado G. A hundred times over.

Woohoo! Looks like I got my weight and blade choice right. Now I'm really stoked to try this thing out and make a thousand more!

Jigfishn10, are those blades free to turn or do they just flap around on the retrieve? The double blade setup looks interesting.

They aren't carrying them, more like forgot they had them. They're behind the glass of the gun case behind the counter. There's a Curado 200 DHSV with a red $200 sticker on it, and several more behind it that I can't see the model numbers on. One of them is a Citica D though. There's at least 4 D boxes there. I've posted before about them and even offered the store location and phone number. 606-929-9510. Cannonsburg, KY, near Ashland. Call them up and remind them what letter Shimano is on now and how many years each one runs, maybe they'll clearance them to near nothing and ship them to you.

I don't think anyone looked at Shimano for a change. People liked the way it was, as evidenced by what a used E model goes for now. I think they did it for cost reasons, irregardless of the reels' popularity. That tells me they don't fully understand this market. A slight price hike on the older models would have been better received. The Curado might have risen beyond my range but I'd have still bought Citica E models at $129, but not G models.

Fish don't know what reel you have but they know if the bait is moving fast enough, or any other movement is right based on how you are able to handle it on your end. I just think its a fact, spinning and casting gear is better designed and once learned to be used properly will outperform spin cast gear. If they designed it better, like the new Extreme, then it might be different, but mostly it isn't.

The supply of new D reels hasn't even dried up yet. My Walmart still has several new in box. No price drop though, can't believe it either.

I don't know what they'll do, but it won't be a return to the E frame. Companies just don't do that. That would be saying they made a mistake publicly. That could actually work, but it still won't happen. It'll be something totally new as far as shape is concerned. I don't know how you guys feel, but here's my take on it. The Curado E was retailing for $180 before being discontinued. That was a real stretch for someone like me to obtain one at that price. But it seemed worth it for the kind of solid reel you would get. Next, they changed it, or invented a whole new one, or whatever, and lowered the price a little bit, and called it by the same name. I'm not saying the new G reel is bad, but since most people are identifying with this reel as still being the Curado, then they see it as downgraded, with a slightly less comfortable to hold shape, which it is on both counts when compared to the old E. That's where a lot of the upset comes from. Some of us see the new Chronarch E and recognize it as just a Curado with a new paint job, and that is what it is, no question. But guys like me see it with the price increase of $20 over the last nearly out of reach retail price and then it's just too much at that point (for me anyway). On the other end, the Citica was not downgraded at all. The new G reel has all the same features as the old Citica E, but the frame shape is worse now, so that's a negative with it, plus it got a mild price increase. Then the Chronarch lovers apparently had a gripe with the new version of it, saying it was a step down from what it was before, price and all! Overall, it seems Shimano did nothing right with this last round of changes, even though all the currently offered reels are good in their own right. I had become a Shimano guy with the purchase of two of the E reels. I really like them more than most others. They lack having 4 handle bearings which I like in reels, even though my Curado actually has two, but my Citica has none. But for what I got in the reels, I can overlook that since the rest of it was so good. But since they changed it and made it less comfortable, upped the prices on the two models I'd have any interest in at all (Citica was changed and price hiked, and what is the Chronarch now was once the Curado, but also price hiked), and they introduced a mid point model to be the Curado that doesn't measure up for what I was able to get before when spending about that much, then I've lost interest in staying with Shimano only, and now other reels are getting my attention. Abu's new design is very palmable, and Lew's seems very good as well, and a lot of those are about the same or less than the Shimanos, and seem to offer more, and there's no denying the BPS PQ is a home run hit for them, a very solid reel, which, by the way, I can add handle bearings to. I think there is a group trying to follow after Shimano much like the ones who follow blindly after Apple and buy everything that comes out with an "i" in front of the name. That's the group most upset by the changes. I had started to be one of them a couple of years ago, but I turned back from that road. I'm starting to love my old BPS Extremes again, and recently upgraded them all to have 9 bearings, and next it will be new drag washers. After first trying to set up all my rods with Shimano reels, I realized their pricing on the models I'd want is just too far out of my range for me to be able to get all the reels I want or need before they up and pull a switcharoo on me, like they did. By the way, I hate the new Symetre. There goes my spinning reel plans. Anyway, like I said, there is a following, and Shimano needs to recognize it and market more towards it. If they understood that market better, they wouldn't have so much heehack every so often when switching things around. People buy into the names on the reels and seem to understand and recognize them as being at certain levels, and won't accept much deviation of that. Some actually see owning certain models as status symbols, hence the Chronarch upset. I actually read from one board member here before that since the reel was no longer $300 that it didn't represent what made someone want to buy a Chronarch in the first place anymore. When there's that kind of recognition, you'd be a fool not to market to it and profit from it. Apple does, and look where they are now. Look where they were 10 years ago. That's what can happen. In the process, they'd be leaving crap alone that people like and finding ways to add to it and get better, not taking it away and pulling a snow job to cover for it.

Ok, I am going to order some parts to get started but I couldn't wait to start experimenting. So I took a rusty Blue Fox and a bent up old Roostertail and cut them up to cob some parts. I then took a 1/4 oz. lead worm sinker and painted it white, added a 8mm faceted red glass bead, and got....of all things....a paper clip (haha)....and started putting my first spinner together. This was just to experiment on weight vs. blade size, but I wanted to at least have a bait that would look the part so I'd have a desire to throw it. I know when a fish hits this it will bend all to pieces, but I think it's strong enough to land one fish first, and by then I'll have some idea how that weight and blade combo perform. To me, this looks good. I'm already imagining the color combinations I can make in my head, and I just may never buy another Roostertail again (hmm, not likely). Well, darn. You can't tell it in this pic but I did make nice, round bends on my line tie and my hook loop. I bought a pair of wire bending pliers at a tackle shop made for this very thing. It really did well. I'll post another pic.

Man, those are nice. I thought about using actual spinnerbait blades but figured since I never see it done that they might be too light weight compared to French blades? I particularly like the spacer above the body, and the built in swivel. Nice touch. I guess I just need to get some parts and start experimenting with sizes of blades, weights, and configurations to know what works. I'm kind of hung up on matching what's commercially available in Roostertails and Blue Fox shapes. Those baits you made are clearly thinking outside the box. I guess if something doesn't work after I make it, all I'd lose is the wire to cut it apart and get all the parts back and try again.

Anybody here make their own inline spinners? I'm interested in making some and wondered what you use for bodies? None of the brass ones are flipping my switch, and I was thinking of just painting some worm weights or egg sinkers instead.

1/2 oz. spinnerbaits weigh closer to a full oz. with skirt, blades, hook, and wire added to the head weight. It would be 25 full oz. not counting the rig weights themselves. I'd say it would be 2 full pounds and you'd probably need a boat trailer winch to crank it.

Aw, too bad. I was just envisioning three 5 arm A-rigs, each one with 4 baits on the 4 outer arms, and the center arm of each linked to the next rig behind it. The final 5 arm rig would have its center arm hooked to a 3 arm rig in the rear, with 3 baits on it. Every single arm on the whole rig would also have a spinner blade. That's 15 hook points total, and the look of a whole school of "bait"fish (33 minnows counting spinning blades), and rotator cuff surgery waiting to happen. Might have to let that rig out the back of the boat on 80 pound braid and troll it.