The Rooster

Tell 'em you broke it fightin' a biggun in to the boat!!! Nah, just kidding. I say let your conscience lead you also. Nothing good comes from lies and deception (unless you're a politician and it get's you elected ;D).

You betcha!!! Ever since I got mine I've felt that it was under priced for the performance I got from it. I got a President at the same time and felt that it was deserving of the price but not really any more than that. But the Trion for $20 less performed right up there with it too. Only thing I really notice with it is the lack of the 2 bearings on the handle crank. It's not quite as slick feeling without those, but otherwise a very impressive reel. Of course Pflueger makes reels inbetween the two and inbetween the cost too. The Asaro, Maxx, and Maxx XT to name a few, then the Cabela's Prestige as well. So there's plenty of options for still less than $60.

Aaaahh....................I thought not. I guess it won't hurt it too much if I just skip it then, like I always do?? I just add oil to it and that's about all. Mainly I go in to clean out dirt from the gears and apply new gear grease. I normally don't do that until I begin to feel the gears when I crank it and then I know it's time. In the past I've never had a problem with the roller bearing not lasting on any reels I've owned. Some of them I used for nearly 10 years, taking it apart yearly to do just what I know how to only, but not the roller bearing. I guess "if it ain't broke..................leave it the heck alone". ;D

Why not the bearings?? And does anyone here disassemble the clutch bearing to clean it out as well?? It will just come apart if you pull the metal sleeve out of the center of it but I've always been afraid to remove it, afraid I'd ruin it and not reassemble it right or lose a part of it.

I could have them serviced by professionals but this reel is only a $40 reel. I also enjoy doing it myself........ ........except when stuff like this happens : ;D

Oh it works just like new. You wouldn't know the difference if I didn't tell you. Just bothers me knowing it's that way though. I'll probably order a new spring anyway, I already emailed Pflueger to get a price.

Well I took my Pflueger Trion spinning reel apart tonight to clean and relube it up after all summer fishing with it. When I went to remove the pawl gear/bearing assembly I forgot to take the clutch spring off and ended up stretching it out to China and back so it only half works now. It's permanently stretched and allows the reel to have some back play in the anti-reverse after you flip the switch on and off again. Then it will catch and work normally but I didn't want to leave it that way. Fortunately I have an old Shakespeare reel here I'd already retired from service due to problems it had, but the spring was not one of them so I took it out and put it in my Pflueger. It's a perfect fit and fixed it back factory again. So I got lucky there. Only thing I don't like knowing is that it came from a larger sized reel and seems to be a tad longer than the original spring was but the reel doesn't know the difference, it works the same as the other one did before I tore it up. I'm debating ordering one anyway, how much could it be, a few dollars?? But at least it's still fishable until then. I can't believe I did that either, that's never happened before when cleaning reels, I always remembered to take that off. Maybe I shouldn't watch TV while doing this, ya think?? ;D

What cleaners or soap do you recommend to degrease the inside parts of a reel before relubing it again?? I normally just use dish soap but I recently heard that might be too harsh.

:oNow how you gonna beat an offer like that??

I thought hanging them by the tip would damage the guide at the end of the rod. Not true??

I have a buddy who rebuilt a car engine for me once and he had parts left over too. Needless to say, it blew up again in 2 months. :

That is a good deal but when you click on it, it says "not sold online" and to check stores for availabiltiy. I've never seen those in any Wal-Mart where I live. Only the Pro Max, Silver Max, and Black Max. My Wal-Marts around here must suck.

As promised, I did some testing with my BPS Extreme baitcast reel in my back yard to see how light a lure it would throw. Wind was calm sometimes, then others it would be about 5 to 10 MPH. Didn't seem to make much difference with the casts though, only blew the baits off to the side was all. I think the reel did very well considering this rod/reel is not set up for throwing these types of baits. It's spooled with 14# Berkley Transitions fluorocarbon line, reel is on a Quest LS-7 medium rod (fast tip??) 6 feet long, 1/4 to 3/4 lure weight. Keep in mind, I've never had any experience using fluorocarbon line as far as casting goes (3 hours Saturday was the first time ever), and of course I wasn't trying for accuracy, just distance only. My baitcasting skills are just OK only, I'm not an expert at all. I had the ITB brake set at about 9 out of 10. Seems it needs to be there to compensate for my thumb not being experienced enough alone, but at that setting I nearly do not have to touch it with my thumb anyway. I had the spool tention relatively loose, looser than it normally might have been in an effort to get some distance. I done fine casting though, enough that I'm interested in doing some light line and lure fishing with a casting reel. Anyway, here's the results..... 3" grub on 3/0 EWG hook, weightless (hook too large for bait ) -- 35 feet 7" Berkley power worm on 3/0 EWG hook, weightless -- 40 feet 1/8 oz. Strikeking Bitsy Bug jig, no trailer -- 50 feet 1/8 oz. Roostertail 33 feet 1/6 oz. Roostertail 62 feet #9 Rapala floating minnow (don't know weight, 2 trebles only) -- 41 feet #7 Rapala floating minnow (don't know weight, 2 trebles only) -- 35 feet I think the results are pretty fair all things considered, but I'll need a better rod more suited for this, and some lighter line of course, to use it out on the lake much. The rod I used did much better with overhand casts than it did with sidearm casts. All the results above are overhand casts. Almost all of those lures though, I've never done any better than that on a spinning rod with 8# mono Trilene XL, overhand or sidearm either one. I think the baitcaster would hold it's own against them. My primary goal with this was to see if a BPS reel could cast lightweight baits at least as good as a spinning rod. I'm going to go out on a limb though and guess that if I had this reel on a more suited rod with lighter line that it would compete with the higher dollar baitcasters as well doing this same thing. Seems like it would anyway.

Pflueger President for $60 plus tax or shipping either one. Also Pflueger Trion for only $40 if you want to save some money. Only differences between them is the President has 3 extra bearings, 2 in the handle crank and one beneath the spool for when the drag slips. The Trion does not have those 3 bearings. Also the President has an aluminum sideplate with a graphite frame but the Trion is all graphite. The President has 10 bearings total and the Trion has 7. Other than the differences I named, and of course COLOR, they are identical, and both excellent reels. I have one of each and I'm not really sure which one I like best. The 30 or 35 sizes are the better ones in these. 6730X and 6735X for President, and 4730GX or 4735GX for Trion. Of course those are retail prices I mentioned and if you could get a Shimano Symetre for less or equal then that might be a better reel since it is an aluminum frame instead of graphite. I just don't care for Shimano's spinning reels much but I love Pfluegers, that's all.

I'm not surprised....it's Pflueger!!! I'm able to do that same thing with my BPS Extreme and the ITB brake system it has too (made by Pflueger). I hardly touch the spool during cast, only just before the lure hits the water. Gotta love Pflueger!! That Patriarch is loaded with bearings and is ALL aluminum, sideplates and all. If I were to spend $200 on a reel, that would be the one!!!

It might even just be Yatesville Lake on Greenbrier Creek making the difference!!

This has got me thinking about what my reel is capable of doing. I'm going to do an experiment with the reel I already have here. It's the BPS Extreme ETX10HC (5 bearing model, technically inferior to the new 7 bearing version, of which incidentally I just ordered one of, the ETX10HD). I have it spooled up with a fresh roll of Berkley Vanish Transitions fluorocarbon in the 14 lb. test. I'll rig up several lures with it and cast them in my back yard and record what weight lures I'm able to throw and how far they go, windy or not windy, and all that and then post it here. I saw a list a few posts back of some high dollar reels that are supposed to be able to throw very light baits. I'm not expecting great results with heavy line like I have on there but we'll see if there's any chance that my $80 BPS reel can play ball with the big boys in a day or so. It'll take me that long to get time to do it........keep watching for my review!!

Well, since I have a fairly wild baitmonkey then if the money becomes available I'll probably grab one of the finesse model of reels and give it a go. If I end up not liking it, I can just send it back and exchange it for a regular sized one just like it and have one more reel for my arsenal. If I try this, should I get a finesse sized baitcaster or could I just spool up some 8 lb. on a reel that is rated 12 lb./120 yd.?? I'm thinking the smaller spool would be better for smaller line. They have one that holds 10 lb./100 yd. of line, the ETX05HB.

Yeah I've already been thinking about how I'd skip under docks. I don't have any docks on my lakes here but I do fish one with my brother in law that has docks all over the place. It won't be an issue much but it would then. I probably won't do this but it was just a thought.

Cool, I hadn't thought of any of that. The medium light rod I was considering for this says it will handle 1/8 ounce lures, I just didn't know if the reel would throw them. In changing the hooks around like that, doesn't that change the action of the bait?? Like on the Rapala, wouldn't putting a larger hook on the back make it float nose up instead of horizontally??

So I guess I really won't know if I can do this until I just try it. I just wondered cause I'm going to more or less replace all my rods with Shimano Compres for casters and I was going to get at least one Clarus for a spinning rod and put a Pflueger President reel on it but I thought if I could get another casting reel and get a Compre in the medium light then I could skip the Clarus and just use that instead.

I'm a bit closer than that cause I use spinning gear. Probably about 30 to 40 feet but not any closer.

Would it be possible to use nothing but baitcast gear for every lure I use, even just a Zoom U-tale worm on a 3/0 EWG hook, or even on a Rapala 07 floating minnow?? I'm talking some super light weight lures here, even a 1/8 oz. Roostertail. I use the BPS Extreme reel and they offer so many different versions of it, even a finesse model, plus the way it casts it makes me think that I could put any size lure on it and get away with it if the reel was set up properly and had small enough pound test line on it. Like 10# or even 8# (that's as low as I'd go). I'd love it if I could get one of those finesse reels and pair it with a 6' or 6'6" medium light rod and cast 1/8 oz. lures and weightless worms and the like. I'd for sure use it on the shakey head worm rigged on the 1/8 oz. Ikey Head Ike Spike.

Bass Pro Shops Extreme has a wide spool version also. And so does Browning with their Midas, Citori, and Medallion reels. These are 12 lb./230 yd. capacity.

Hmmm.....this was not my experience at all. I was even able to cast mine without having to thumb the reel until just before the lure touched down, just as I was able to do with mono. I have my reel set up the same way as I did with mono, same settings for same lures, just different line now is all. I was even able to cast left handed while throwing a buzzbait which is something I normally never do. I only did that cause it's a right handed reel and I wanted to start cranking as soon as the lure hit water so I swapped hands before the cast instead of after it and then was able to do so. Only had one bird's nest the entire time I was out yesterday and that was my fault for throwing a 1/4 oz. spinnerbait into the wind and not touching the spool with my thumb at all. I did have a couple of very minor overruns where there were 2 or 3 loops of line that came up but that sometimes happens with mono too. All in all I was able to use this line in the same exact way as with the 12 pound mono I previously had on. Just now it's 14 pound and fluoro are the only differences I saw. I give a lot of credit to my reel though, it's just so easy to cast with. I've never owned one I liked better.