The Rooster

Pflueger Trion GX, model 4735GX. It would be a good balance for an Ugly Stik as they are a bit heavy in my opinion. The reel will hold 145 yards of 8 lb. test line. If I had the rod you have, that's the reel I'd be getting. Come to think of it, I have an Ugly Stik Lite Pro 6' rod that I am going to get a reel for and that's the EXACT one I plan to get. Should be very similarl though my rod might be a tad lighter than yours if yours is the Ugly Stik Original.

Just ordered myself 2 more Extreme baitcast reels, last year's models that is, they are on clearance for $49.94 if anyone is interested. I got the 7.1 and the 5.4 ratios since I already had 3 of the 6.4 ratios. That will make 5 of those reels for me now, and I should be well covered for all ratios I may need. 5.4 for crankbaits and any other lures I want to fish slower, 6.4 for a lot of other lures I use, and a 7.1 for fishing heavy cover and quick retrieve of line for a quick hookset. Anyway, I'm covered, and these are a great deal while they last so get in on it. These are the 2008 models, the one with the ITB brakes (inertial transfer braking), not the newer one with only the magnetic brake. That's why I got them,I love that ITB system. GET SOME!!!! And good luck fishing. And by the way, I'm now a new granddad!!!! At only age 34!!!! My stepdaughter is 22 an she gave birth to a 6 pound, 7 ounce little girl just last night so that makes me a pappaw now!!!! That's probably gonna be my largest weight of the year. I'll try to beat that weight while fishing but I won't ever beat that experience. No way, no how. GOOD LUCK Y'ALL, don't know when I'll get back on, no internet at home anymore!!!

I've tried a lot of different stuff over the few years I've been fishing. Quantum, Shimano, Abu Garcia, and many more. Mostly once I find a particular reel or rod that i like then I stick with that until they change the design and I don't like it anymore. Right now it's Shimano for rods, Pflueger for spinning reels and Bass Pro Shops for baitcasters (which are made by Pflueger currently). Once they change their current designs, if I don't like the new ones then I'll go on the hunt again, but otherwise I'm totally satisfied so I won't be looking for anything different for a while. So I'd say I'm not brand loyal, I just like what I like and that's all. I have no problem switching brands if something better comes along. Just at the current time, there's nothing better than a Pflueger reel or Shimano rod.....for me anyway.

Good thing I got my "fire starting material" cause I got some money to burn!!!

Yeah, it's here and prices....went....UP!! Not by much, roughly $10 on a lot of things. Can't say I blame them that much considering all through 2008 they kept the shipping costs down even in the wake of gas prices going sky high. OOoooohh!!! The new Extreme baitcasters are NICE!!! Swept handles and sparkly glittery finishes!!! And the price stayed the same!!! Might need a new one of those, or some of the old ones on clearance maybe!!! Is it too early to start next year's Christmas wish list?? Or I have a birthday coming in April......that'll do!!!

Christmas exchange?? I didn't know about that, what a great idea that is!!! Next year I wanna get involved. That sounds like a lot of fun!!!

SOFT PLASTIC WEIGHTS!!!! OK, my scale weighs in 1/8 increments so in order to get as close to exact weights as possible it was sometimes necessary for me to weigh multiple amounts of these plastics and then divide to get the most accurate number. So when you see 1/16 increments listed, that's how I got them. Example, 1 = 1/4 but 2 = 3/8, then 3 = 5/8 but 4 = 3/4. So by dividing I got that the example bait equalled 3/16. See?? Now the results..... Zoom finesse worm, (5" long??) was 1/8 oz. Add a 1/8 oz. Tru-tungsten Ike Spike shakey head jig and it was precisely 1/4 each time. Zoom U-tale worm about 7" long was 1/8 oz by itself. With a 3/0 hook in it, it still only weighed 1/8 so I'm thinking that the precise weight of this worm is slightly less than 1/8 but more than 1/16. Berkley Power Worm 7" long was 3/16 oz. Roughly about double what the U-tale was. Add a hook and it is about 1/4 oz. A good weightless rigged bait to cast and get a little distance. I like the Zoom U-tale's sinkrate better though. A bit slower. Zoom Lizards 6" long are exactly 1/4 oz. each (no hook). Zoom Flukes are 1/8 oz. each (no hook). Zoom Super Flukes are 1/4 oz. each (no hook). Zoom Tiny Flukes (drop shot baits) are 1/16 oz each (no hook). I had to weigh as many as 6 at once and then divide to get that to make sure it was accurate. 2 = 1/8, 4 = 1/4, 6 = 3/8..... Yum Crawbug 3.5" long is 5/16 oz (no hook). Netbait Baby Paca Craw is 5/16 oz (no hook). Netbait Paca Chunk is 3/16 oz (no hook). These are the only soft plastics I had here to measure. Sorry, no senkos....YET! As I get others in the future I'll make sure to weigh them and post what I find so you will know more about it.

Bass Pro Shops Extreme is a wonderful reel and they go for $65 plus shipping right now on sale on their website. I have 3 of these, they're very excellent reels. Smooth, able to cast fairly lightweight baits (for a baitcaster). Aluminum frame. It's hard to find that last one in a reel of this price.

I sure will. Probably be tomorrow. Plastics I have handy to weigh at the moment are Zoom U-tale worms 7" long, Berkley Power worms 7" long, Netbait Baby Paca Craws, and also the Paca chunk trailers. Then some 3 and 4 inch grubs. Zoom 6" lizards, and probably some 4" ones too. Also Zoom 4" finesse worms. Might even find a few more I forgot about owning once I get to looking through my assortment. Sadly, no senkos. Never bought or tried any. I always used Lunker City Slug-go's. I've been meaning to try them though.

A Shimano Compre MH 6'6" rod Money for another Shimano Compre MH 6'6" rod and a few lures too A BPS Extreme baitcasting reel to go on the first rod, along with some fluorocarbon line too A box full of chatterbaits, Rapala X-raps, and 2 Sebile Magic Swimmers 5 T-shirts, 3 pairs of jeans, 2 bags of socks, NICE bedroom slippers, several DVD movies, 3 pairs of flannel pajama pants, 2 new flannel work coats for working outdoors (and FISHING) A Craftsman table saw with stand for my woodshop 3 lottery tickets in a Christmas card, one was a $2 winner. ;D That's it for 2008!!!

That video they mentioned has to be the easiest way I ever saw to do it. The pliers method is a good substitute if you don't have the tool and want to make a skirt RIGHT NOW. Otherwise I'd order that tool, it's cheap!! So is the silicone for making the skirts on that site.

I got four 3/8 oz. Chatterbaits in different colors, 3 Rapala X-rap jerkbaits shallow and deep divers, and two Sebile Magic Swimmers in 3/8 oz. weight. All in the same box. What did you guys get??

I got a Shimano Compre 6'6" MH rod and a BPS Extreme baitcasting reel to go on it, and some Berkley Transitions fluorocarbon line for it. Casts smooth as glass out in the back yard, 60 anf 70 foot casts with just a flip of the wrist, and I KNOW I can hit 130 feet if I put my arm into it from the experimenting I did last fall using the same model reel. Gonna get another Compre rod in a day or so with some cash I got for another gift. Probably another rod identical to the first one, to go with the other Extreme reel I got here as well. What did you guys get??

As far as I know they're supposed to. The Tru-tungsten weights my brother in law uses are a lot smaller than the lead weights that I use in the same weight class. So I'd say they do weigh the same but one is smaller due to being more dense. Also I sort of forgot that there is a wire form inside a crankbait too, not as large as the spinnerbaits have but it's still there for the hooks to attach to. Doesn't seem to add anything to the crankbaits though, they must have allowed for it's weight when they built the ones I was weighing. They sure didn't allow for all the extras on the spinnerbaits though. I was only researching this cause I wanted to know why my new medium heavy Shimano rod would cast a 1/4 oz spinnerbait fairly easily but not the crankbaits I tried. The rod was rated for 3/8 and up lure weights and I wanted to see if it would throw a 1/4 or not. Turns out it will toss a 1/4 spinnerbait also, which is what I planned to use it for (in addition to heavier ones too), but not for crankbaits. So it's all good and I learned something in the process.

For me, the only spinning reel out there is a Pflueger. But I want to say that even though Pflueger is owned by Shakespeare, and you can sometimes see a lot of similarities in their products, there is a night and day difference in overall performance. I got some cheap Shakespeares before and liked how they worked but they did not hold up any time at all, handles begin to come apart, reels made noises and actually had the anti-reverse fail in one of them, then the bail started not closing down all the way either. I loved the reel at first but in the end I hated it's performance and how short a time it lasted. So I wanted another one to get back to the way they were when they were new but also wanted to skip another experience like that as it was getting frustrating to repeat. I saw the Pfluegers and how similarly designed the were but was hesitant to pay twice as much for a Pflueger that was so much like the Shakespeare cause I thought it would be wasting money on another reel that would do the same thing all over again. Not so at all!!!!! I finally bit the bullet and got a Pflueger Trion and a Pflueger President the same day, paid $100+ for the two of them. Have caught dozens of fish on each of them and they are holding up extremely well. Solid construction, smooth operation, never fail to work and work tightly!! These might share the same overall design as the Shakespeares did but they are NOT the same. Pfluegers are the only spinning reels I will consider at the current time.......but again, that's just cause of me and not to say that a Shimano or Diawa won't be just as nice. I just like the current Pflueger design the best, that's all.

A while back I had a question on here about the rated weights of spinnerbaits and buzzbaits. I think almost everyone a the time said they believe that it includes the skirt, blades, and all in the total weight. So as an example a 3/8 oz. spinnerbait weighs 3/8 oz. when finished, blades and all. I'm not so sure of that anymore after I did some weighing of my own. Yesterday I got a digital cooking scale and did some measurements of my lures here at home. Here's what I found. For reference I used Booyah spinnerbaits in 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4 sizes. I also threw in some Strikeking 1/4's and 3/8's, and one single non branded 1/4 oz spinnerbait I got from a local tackle shop that they made there at the store. What I saw was that the 1/4's ALL weighed in at 1/2 oz, even the no name lure. The 3/8's weighed at 3/4, without exception. The 1/2's came in at 7/8, and the single 3/4 oz. bait I tried actually weighed 3/4....BUT, it was the only one that had only a single blade. The rest all had 2 blades. So nearly every single one weighed in was nearly double their rated weight on the scale. Then I tried some Booyah and Strikeking buzzbaits, and got the same results again, the 1/4's weighed 1/2 oz. The 1/4 size is the only size I have in either of those so no others to report. So then I tried some jigs thinking that these don't have blades, just skirts and rattles. I have 1/4, 3/8, and 1/2 in these. Without exception they each and every one weighed in at 1/8 oz heavier than they were rated. So 1/4 weighed 3/8, 3/8 weighed 1/2, and so on. I'm thinking it's the skirt and rattles adding the difference. So then I got some 1/4 and 3/8 oz crankbaits and weighted each one of those. I used Bandit baits for this, series 100, 200, and 300. Each one weighed exactly what it was supposed to. The only thing these would add to their weight would be any hooks and splitrings used on them. It had no effect that I could see, they were spot on accurate each time. They don't have silicone skirts, or a large heavy hook with a wire frame on them to add anything more though so I expected to see that. You can also hang a 1/4 oz crankbait and a 1/4 oz spinnerbait from a finger on each hand and feel the difference in weight there, the spinnerbait feels noticably heavier. So then looking at the heads of each one of these spinnerbaits and other skirted lures, it looks like you can visually tell "about" how much lead was used to make the lures. I got some 1/4 oz. lead bullet weight sinkers and a few egg sinkers in 1/4 and 1/2 oz. They visually looks like they might contain about the same amount of lead as what a spinnerbait, buzzbait, or jig might have in the same size. And when I weighed those, they came out exactly what they were supposed to be. So the conclusion I draw is that spinnerbaits, buzzbaits, and jigs are rated at the amount of lead weight that goes into each lure instead of overall weight. I think that with spinnerbaits and buzzbaits the skirts, blades, and wire frames add weight to the total. With jigs, it's rattles and skirts adding to the total, but minus a wire frame they only went up by 1/8 instead of nearly double. Any opinions?? Interestingly though, I tried some Worden's Roostertails as well, and even though those are lead bodied lures with added blades, each and every one of those weighed EXACTLY what they were supposed to. 1/8, 1/4, and 3/8 baits all weighed just that. The only exception was that the 1/6 lures registered as 1/4.....and I'm guessing that's cause the scale is incapable of measuring in anything but 1/8 increments. 1/6 is more than 1/8 but less than 1/4 so it must have just went to the nearest measurement possible. That minor difference though is not enough to me to say the scale isn't accurate measuring all the above lures. I measured dozens of them and they all had identical results each time. Spinnerbaits and buzzbaits were all measuring at almost double their rated weight and jigs added 1/8 oz to their's each time. Now, let the replies..........BEGIN!!!

I've always wondered about this..... Every baitcaster I've ever seen, whether it had an aluminum frame or not, has the spool shaft supported with the bearings placed in the sideplates. At no point does it touch the frame. But when hauling back on a big fish there is sometimes a serious pull on the line.....connected to the spool.....riding on a shaft that is solely supported by graphite sideplates. And yet it never gives. Even if a reel has an aluminum frame for the gears to be connected to, the main gear rides on a shaft that only has one end supported by that metal frame while the other end of that shaft rests inside of a clutch bearing that's supported by the graphite sideplate. My point is.....graphite can't be all that bad. But having said that, I now will not buy a reel that doesn't have at least an aluminum frame. I dunno.....something in me just won't let me do it anymore. Never had a problem at all with the single reel I purchased that did have a graphite frame. I do notice that it doesn't cast nearly as smoothly as the rest of my reels but I attributed that to a lack of spool shaft bearings and having a thick heavy aluminum spool that's not perforated like today's reels have (early 90's model Quantum EX250, only $45 retail in 96 when I got it). It only had two bearings in the whole reel and they're not on the spool shaft. Not really for sure what the problem is there, that's just my assumption on it. All I know is that the aluminum framed reels do seam to cast better (from using my old Quantum and casting my buddy's gear also compared to my aluminum framed Extremes), though technically I can't see a single mechanical reason that would be true other than having spool shaft bearings and perforated spools. I never tried one that was all graphite with good spool bearings so as far as I know they might be just as good at casting. But as far as strength of the reel is concerned, I think graphite will hold up very well in most cases for sideplates.....and of course aluminum sideplates would only make it better so I don't knock those either.....except when it's cold outside and then they're pretty hard to keep in your palm. YOW!!! That can be COLD!!!

What are you gonna use the treble hooks you plan to get for?? Also, what sort of swimbaits are you looking at?? You better make sure you don't get one that's too heavy for your rod you have now. I'm getting some Sebile Magic Swimmers for Christmas, in the 3/8 oz size. Those will work with most any medium powered rod and not be too heavy to cast with it. They're the smallest size they make it in, the ones that say they're 95mm long. Roughly about 4 inches that is. My local tackle shop has the Castaic swimbaits in the same length but I think they're heavier than that. I didn't look too much at those though so I don't know what weight they are.

Jigs are pretty cheap being a couple bucks each so you could put $10 or $15 on them and get quite a few and still have money left. I usually get them WITH rattles so I can either leave them on or remove them if I want to use them without them. More economical that way. Otherwise, if you don't have very many good hooks then I'd get some of those. I like to have at least about 20 of each of the ones I use the most such as 3/0 Gamakatsu EWG hooks. I go through a lot of those with 7" worms or lizards. It's one of those things you sort of overlook buying until you nearly run out. I've done it many times, didn't want to spend a few bucks on them since I already had a few so I would get a new spinnerbait instead, but after you have a day where you snag repeatedly and break off, then you're down to having only 3 or 4 left and your buddy is slaying the fish with the same setup as you, you start to sweat wondering if you'll have enough to last the rest of the day. So now I consider the hooks WAY more important than new baits. If you get the bulk pack that has about 25 in it, you'll save a buck on them and you'll never regret having that many of one kind if you use them a lot like me. Don't overlook line either if you have last year's line (from this passed summer) still on cause it might be in need of a change. These purchases of line and hooks aren't as fun a lot of times as the new lures are but they're way more important overall, and once you learn to think about it like I do then it'll never seem unimportant again. To me it is as fun as getting a bunch of new lures cause I can relax knowing I'm ready to go fishing with no worries. And just think, the last time you went fishing you didn't have any of the new lures you're thinking about getting and you probably didn't miss them, but you'll definitely miss not getting new line if you need it or not having enough good hooks for T-rigs, C-rigs, weightless wormin', drop shotting, and a host of other setups. If you really want to get some new lures then check this out. You can make way more lures and do more things, even catch more fish, from a few hooks and a bag of plastics than you can with a single lure costing just as much as them all together. Add some good tungsten sinkers, a few ball head jigs for shakey rigging, maybe some glass 8mm beads for rattling rigs, and you really have a lot of options. And some of that can be bought for $20 or less, plastics and all. Example - 2 bags of Netbait Paca Craws in 2 colors = $6, 3 bags of Gammy 3/0 EWG hooks = $9, and 2 sacks of 1/4 oz bullet weight lead sinkers = $3, total $18 plus tax, and you have 15 complete T-rigs from all that with a few spare craw bodies to replace the torn up ones with as you fish . That's the cost of about 3 decent lures otherwise. I'll take the T-rigs any day!!

I have a cheap IM6 $20 graphite rod from Walmart, the Quantum Torsion, and it fishes like a club with original Stren mono on it but when I put some Berkley Transitions fluorocarbon on it then it got a bit better. So the line made a difference there. The rod still sucks though. I have another rod from Dick's that was also cheap at about $25, an IM7 graphite rod and it's a lot better mainly because it's a lot lighter weight. Put some fluorocarbon line on it and it's wonderfully sensitive. But it was even better with mono on it than the Quantum rod was with fluorocarbon, so I'd say the rod made a big difference there just cause it was so much lighter weight. Then the fluorocarbon improved it again. So for me, so far I've learned that line and the rod's weight add to the sensitivity factor. Not sure about line guides but I'd bet they do too since they directly contact the line itself. How else can it transmit sensations and vibrations from the line to the rod to your hand except through the line guides?? All I know is that I won't buy rods with cheap line guides anymore, but that's mainly cause I don't want to have to worry about them breaking or the inserts falling out of them.

I HAVE!!! Had it happen a few times when I was new to fishing. Always got it back by reeling it in, but the shock of seeing the rod end flying out in the water behind the lure was just as bad as if it had broke the line with it. ;D They were all cheap rods though. Now I jam them together but good when I use a 2 piece, so tightly that it's so much like a one piece that I sometimes can forget that it is two pieces, I never take them apart.

I'm getting one Shimano Compre rod for Christmas already, a 6'6" medium heavy, fast tip action rod. Lure weight is 3/8 to 1 oz. I am also getting money as another gift and I planned to get another one of these rods, 6'6" length, basically just like the first one but it might not be a medium heavy. Instead I was wondering if I ought to get a medium powered rod for the 1/4 oz. range of lures, or do you think the medium heavy rod I listed above would also cover that range even though it says it is for 3/8 and up weights?? If it will then I could focus on some other rod instead like maybe one good spinning rod, or a 6'10" rod for frogging maybe?? So far my plan was to get the one rod I already know I'm getting, the 6'6" medium heavy, and then see how well it will throw 1/4 oz. baits before I buy the second rod. Sorry if I've asked questions along this line already, can't remember. Christmas is right around the corner and soon after I'll be looking for that second rod so I just wanted some quick opinions on what to do. Thanks.

Well really I don't need another rod for spinnerbaits since I had planned to use the new one I got for jigs and T-rigs to also be a spinnerbait rod too. But I was thinking about this today and it seemed like a logical question to ask. But.....just for the sheer fun of it.....if I do decide to get a new rod in the future for any specific use, I think I'll just get the best one I can afford whether I need it or not. So far it's the Shimano Compres that I'm focusing on. At $100 a pop, they're not cheap for me but I like them so I'll probably stick with them.

I don't wish to cause any issues since I appreciate all the advice I get from this forum so I'm going to remove my original post here cause I now think that maybe I don't fully understand it. Sorry to have caused confusion. But here's a link to where I asked about this incase it helps any to understand the differences in one piece and two piece rods. I had to go back about 22 pages in the forum logs to find it......searching it didn't turn up anything. http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1221478689

A while back I asked a question about sensitivity of a rod for T-rigging and jigging. I was getting a new one that I think will be more sensitive and help me when fishing those baits. I also asked what I might use the old rod for that I have here now. Someone here suggested to use the rod I was replacing for some other bait such as spinnerbaits that don't require as much sensitivity. Now that I think about it, I'm sure I could do that since spinnerbaits put out a good bit of vibration making it easier to tell what they are doing and I've never had problems feeling them hit objects underwater, but wouldn't it also be even better if I had the most sensitivity possible for fishing them too?? So maybe I could tell that what I just bumped underwater was either a rock or a stump instead of just "an object"?? After all, I can't see them all the time while using them so I have to rely on feeling what they are doing and even though it's not quite like fishing a T-rig or a shakey worm I think I'd still benefit more from the most sensitive rod possible as opposed to just whatever I already have here. Does this make any sense?? Or am I just trying to justify spending another $100 on another rod?? ;D