bilgerat

Pretty much the same here. There's a group of of about 6 of us guys that go away every June. Most of them golf, I fish 12 hours a day. Then my wife and two daughters go to Wildwood, NJ for a week in August. The beach and boardwalk are within walking distance from the motel. I bring a rod with me but rarely use it. Can't surf fish during the day there, too many people on the beach and they'll stop you immediately. You can sneak on at night, most beach cops don't hassle a 46 year old family guy as long as I promise not to leave any hooks or terminal tackle in the sand. Really no fish worth catching anyhow, occasional spots, kingfish and tons of sand sharks. Night time is for drinking on the balcony and chilling out.

BINGO !! I remember them now. I've fished with them. That was quite a few years ago. Ok you guys, no stealing my idea... We fisherman have to uphold the highest levels of honesty & integrity...

"My engineering staff would have taken a month and 10 meetings to design this." Our company's engineer is nicknamed "Rubber Ruler"...in addition to the above, our version would've weighed about 250 lbs and had 14 revisions.

The first one is set up now, the adhesive is drying. I decided against putting it on the top as I think it would stiffen the top too much and make compressing the body difficult. Gotta have those hook points exposed. Saturday is calling for temps in the 70's and sunny. The pads are starting to come up. Let's see how this works.

Just give me my ulralight and I'll likely get bit by something. Downsized cranks and jigs to start, then some tubes and grubs.

Bait.

I'd say Norman based on the close together eyes.

You're on.

Nah. We had a few rinks around but they never did that. Our last games as a group were in a local elementary school playground. It was about then some towns started building street hockey only rinks. It was about when roller hockey started to kick in. By then we had pretty much fragmented and there wasn't enough interest It's funny, my 14 year old daughter and I were just laughing remembering when she was about 3 years old. I got a set of miniature foam hockey sticks and a foam puck. My wife had rolled her eyes and said "She's not a boy"...we used to smack that puck around the kitchen for hours. She is a rabid hockey fan now....

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.....

Played much pond hockey as a kid, never organized though. Where I grew up, street hockey was king. Enough kids to have complete teams, shifts, backup goalies I'm not kidding. We would play for hours on end until it was too dark to see. This was before a lot of towns built street rinks. We played on the street or schoolyards. If you're old enough to remember street hockey from the 70's, you'll laugh at this. I'm about 11 years old. It's the dead of winter and we're on the lake playing ice hockey using regulation pucks with street hockey gear. I'm in goal with my Mylec pads and my paper thin Tony Esposito goalie mask. I'm Bernie F*in Parent....until this 14 year old kid takes a slapshot. I stop the puck...with my face. Lights out. Call in the backup goalie Those were the days.

You know where I stand.... Hey Jig, check your messages... It's gonna be a barn burner.

I work alone most of the time, so I have lots of time to think of ridiculous ideas. I was thinking of gluing strips of hook and loop (velcro) tape to the top and bottom of one of my frog baits. My reasoning is if I use the soft half of the velcro tape, it will perhaps make the frog that much harder for the bass to reject as it will hang up on the sandpaper like inner surface of the mouth. If it buys me a solid second or two, it may improve the hookup ratio. I don't believe it would affect the action much at all as it would only add several grams of weight. Properly placed I bet I could customize the "at rest" angle. Screw it, I'm doing it. Nothing ventured, nothing gained...

If I'm in my kayak and have to squeeze through where there is someone on the bank, I make it a point to thank them and paddle by as smooth as possible. Often I find broken off bait rigs (bobber, hook and weights)in my travels. I give them to the bank beaters when I go by. You'd think I was Santa Claus by the reactions I get.

I have one of the previous generation which I have caught hundreds of fish on. For what I paid for it I have no complaints. I see now they cheapened up on the guides by going to an all wire guide. Then they have the gall to say they did it to lighten up the rod to make it better. BS. They did it to save money, and they raised the price. It would have been fine had they left it alone, even with a justifiable price increase. Saying in inferior component is an upgrade is an insult to the customer...."don't pee on my leg and tell me it's raining"

.....and back here in Philadelphia it's time for another round of GOALIE ROULETTE !!! Spin the wheel and find out who's in the pipes tonight...

Keep in mind that a lot of the members are way past their teens and twenties and may be intimidated by all of the bells and whistles, or just not that impressed with it. It's second nature to those who have grown up with it, not so with those who didn't. Hell, my 12 year old daughter had to show me how to post pictures. I'm a mechanic, I use computers for diagnostics. Many of you are on them all day at work and then again at night at home. Some of ones we haven't heard from are probably thinking "If it wasn't broke, why did they mess with it ?"

I too went braid several years back, but for a different reason than most. Being I use ultra light for most of my fishing, the small diameter spools found on ul size reels would magnify mono problems. With braid that's all in the past. I liked braid so much on my ul it's on everything I have now. I still fill my spools halfway with old mono and then top off with braid. I run mono leaders for two reasons - for a little bit of shock absortion on reaction type baits like cranks and the fact that with a 6' leader I can tie numerous baits all day and never lose any braid. Let's say a 150 yd spool of braid is $15. Spool two reels (using mono backing) and you're set for a few years for $7.50 per reel. I will add that where I fish there are no rocks to deal with, which I understand to be braid's weakness. You have to consider where you are fishing.

Most reels come way overlubed from the factory. It should be stripped down to the frame for a thorough clean and lube. A "bonus" to this is you will see a big performance improvement. I do my own but Delaware Valley Tackle (board sponser) seems to be a straight up guy. I'm sure he'll put his $.02 in when he sees this post. He even gives a discount to members here.

Just out of curiosity - Did it come new out of the box like that or did you buy it used ? I don't own a Shimano but my Revo was way overlubed when it was new, but even the levelwind didn't look like that.

Two things... First, grease really should not be used on levelwind components. Any dirt or debris will be trapped in the grease and cause accelerated wear or binding. Second, that is way too much grease. It looks like it was applied with a paintbrush. Use a light coating of oil on external levelwind parts.

Man, I'm jealous. I wish we had smallies here Nice fish. It was a long winter indeed, bet you're glad it's over.

PVC pipe cement does the EXACT same thing as Mend It. Just thought you'd like to know. Letting repaired baits sit outside to get rid of the 'chemical' smell is a good idea

Here's my luxury yacht.....

I've heard that one also, but mainly from saltwater fisherman. Sometimes it's CRC 556.