21farms

i *think* there has been some improvement. my first chrome red eyes would begin flaking after 3-4 casts...it was truly pathetic. my latest ones (with the oval split ring) don't start flaking until after 2-3 dozen casts ;D (i'm serious) that being said, i have some of the new gold sexy shad ones and the finish on those have been holding up much better. on a side note, more than any other lure, i notice differences in catch rate with the red eye shads. some of my red eye shads are amazing fish catchers and somesame color and everythinghardly ever get bit. very frustrating.

i've ordered parts from them numerous times and everyone i've ever dealt with was friendly and helpful and the service, prices and shipping times are very good. however, the fact of the matter is, they don't carry spare parts for BPS reels for length of time that some of the mainline reel companies do. my most recent example is the prolite finesse reels...the only spare parts i could get are pulled off donor reels, if they have any. even the most-recent C version, they never got in parts for that version before it was discontinued. they're still struggling to get parts for the carbonlite which has been out since last december and are pulling parts they need off of returned reels.

i'm confused here...the carbonlite is supposed to weigh 6.7 ounces. i've weighed mine and it does. i'm assuming you got the smoke 100 because you mentioned a fixed ACS braking position. the ACS braking on the smoke 100 is not the same as the catalyst's which is the original 4-position micro ACS. the smoke 100 has micro ACS II which has 9 positions. regardless, it should not matter where you have to set the dial as long as you can get it to do what you want it to do. that being said, my problem with quantum's ACS system is that it's a relatively complicated system with all the pins, springs, weights, actuators, and system housing all mounted on the spool, which adds weight exactly where you don't want it. as for smoothness, i think checking out the reels in the stores is misleading. both cabelas and BPS mount their display reels on very heavy faux handles, the weight of which makes every reel feel smoother than it will on an actual graphite rod. reels, however, do get smoother over time as the main and pinion gears "mesh" together (another reason display reels feel smoother than the new-in-box reels you bring home). now, are you sure the smoke body is the same as the catalyst and tour edition? even from photos, the body looks like a new design to me, although that ungainly bulging palming sideplate profile is still there.

the vendettas feel heavy because they are factory-balanced for the revo SX, an 8.9 ounce reel. that being said, i am not a fan...they feel inordinately heavy for their size and they seem overly stiff for their rated actions (their attempt to increase sensitivity?). i have two of the veritas (the 7'0" M MF and the 7'3" MH F). so far, very impressed. they're light, weighing in at 4.1 and 5.2 ounces respectively. the VRC73-6 feels spot-on for it's rating. the VRC70-5 is much faster than i expected but, as it turns out, i'm actually glad. i've caught a few dozens stripers on it already and fishes like a champ.

hey philip, welcome to the board. i'm a native tucsonan now living in california. when i was a teen and in my early 20s back in the 70s and early 80s, i spent many a hot day and cold night fishing lake patagonia and pena blanca for bass and rose canyon (mt. lemmon) for trout. if you need any fishing advice, PM me. it's been 25 years since i've fished there but i know those waters very well. by the way, z-rays rock! people outside of tucson (where they're made) don't seem to know much about them though.

i picked up the 7'0" MH F a few months ago. i bought it based on the strength of tackletour's review on it. and, admittedly, i thought the green color would look kickin' with a a curado E mounted on it (and it does). however, i have only used it twice and am unsure what to make of it. the guides are so tiny that i literally have to put on my glasses to thread the line through (a big pain in the butt for me). the first time out, i wasn't sure about how well my alberto knot would flow through the guides but the second time out, i found it wasn't a problem. i think because i have so many rods and have started specializing so much that a general purpose 7-foot MH rod just doesn't find any use with me.

i bought two new from cabelas when they first became available, one righty and one lefty. i played around with 'em at home but never fished either. absolutely nothing remarkable about these reels in appearance, build quality or feel, especially at this price point so i returned them. for light lures, get a sol...i regret selling mine.

i'm always amazed when i read stories like this. my local BPS (manteca, CA) isn't like that at all. the trigger on one of my prolite finesse rods broke off 13 months after i bought it and took it in. the clerk said i was SOL so i asked to speak to a manager and he came out and said he was "bending over backward" for me but there was still nothing they could do since it was past the 1-year warranty and the date code on the rod blank itself was even older. another time, i brought back a brand new, unused reel i bought in left hand and changed my mind and wanted right-hand retrieve...they spent about 2 minutes inspecting it and then called up one of the reel guys to come up and look at it before they exchanged it for me. like i said, it was brand new and i barely spun the handle on it! now, i will say that everytime i've called and talked to a BPS rep on the phone, they've been super pleasant and helpful.

i think variety is the spice of life. over the past four years, i must have bought over 40 new reels representing every all the major reel manufacturers and found things to like/dislike about all of them. i've sold many of them off but among my keepers are a bunch of different reels (curados, zillions, revos, etc.)...it's fun for me to see and experience different approaches, philosophies, and implementations.

this exact question was just asked last month: http://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_forums/YaBB.pl?num=1283536335/1#1

i know SO many guys that jumped into the swimbait craze and dumped hundreds and hundreds of dollars on the big rods and reels and baits only to abandon it a few months later. count me as one of them! trust me on this...it's tough on your shoulders and muscles, you don't get many bites and it's no fun for anyone trying to fish conventionally with you. my advice is to buy used...there's tons of it out there cheap if you go to the buy and sell forums at swimbaitnation and tackletour. for hollow bellies of 6" and less, you don't need special gear...a 734 or 744 is more than adequate.

i bought my first glass rod, lamiglas XCF-705R, mail order sight unseen and having never handled it. when it arrived, i thought i hated it...it was like a heavy, wet noodle. it sat in my garage rod rack unused for 4-5 months and i thought i would turn around and try to sell it but i decided to fish it just one time to see what it was like. lo and behold, i loved it. i used to hate fishing cranks because of all the missed strikes and fish that would become unbuttoned on the way to the boat but that all went away with the glass rod and crankin' is now one of my go-to techniques. i have since bought ten more crankin' rods (6 glass and 4 graphite) but have turned around and sold most of them. btw, if you want a glass rod that doesn't feel like a glass rod, get the dobyns 705cb glass.

IMO, unless you just feel like being different, it's tough to beat Sufix Performance braid. i love sufix performance braid but it loses its color rather quickly...the new 832 is supposed to have much better color retention too.

don't worry too much about the number of bearings. it's more about the quality of the bearings than the quantity, as well as overall design and quality of materials. the cabela's prodigy spinning reel looks to be a rebranded daiwa tierra. there's a significant difference in handling and overall feel. the prodigy also has a better line guide, a much better bail, a much nicer handle and a beefier drag system and, with the current sale, there's only $5 difference. http://www.cabelas.com/product/Cabelas-Prodigy174-Spinning-Reel/703415.uts

i have a regal XiA...it works fine. however, i'd recommend the cabela's prodigy right now as it's on sale for $60. if you didn't already know it, the prodigy is actually a daiwa (very close to the daiwa tierra) and is much smoother and it has the airbail too.

*** has the 150-yard spools of 20, 30, and 40 lb. test in stock but not listed on their website yet and you have to call them to order. they hope to have the rest of the spools in stock within the next two weeks.

yeah, basspro.com doesn't always reflect what's really available. a guy on another forum confirmed that lefty CLs were being sold at the phoenix area BPS. also, i've seen three different prolite finesse rod models at the manteca BPS that was never listed in the print catalog or on the BPS website.

keep in mind that, even if the PQ's main and pinion gears fit in the CL, you're trading duralumin gears for heavier brass gears

if you are a cabela's VISA club member, they're even cheaper...only $39.99 for either the standard or wide spool version.

i don't like the electrical tape route because electrical tape leaves a gummy residue behind. plus, it compresses and can lose its grippiness. when i go straight braid, i run the line through two of the holes in the spool and then tie my knot...100% no slippage guaranteed. where that is not possible, i use mono backing and it works great...you only need a couple of feet or so. whatever you do, do something. i've had an instance where i tied braid directly onto a bare spool and i tested it out by pulling and pulling on it and it would not slip. on the water, it was a different situation...the fish wasn't even that big and it was slipping.

i've actually never fished with a PQ before. however, i do have a carbonlite which looks to be almost the same reel but with duralumin (instead of brass) gears and a carbon fiber handle. fwiw, i'm very impressed with the carbonlite...it doesn't zing lures out as far as the caenan but it does feel more substantial. i think you'd be happy with either.

aluminum gears instead of brass, one less bearing, and of course the carbon fiber handle with foam knobs instead of the forged handle.

i received mine a couple of weeks ago but didn't get to fish with it until yesterday. i took it out along with my curado E5 and my zillion crazy cranker on a striper trip. lemme tell ya, the caenan can really zing it...i was very pleasantly surprised by the phenomenal distances i was getting with it. i say surprised because when i spun the caenan's empty spool, it would only spin for 4 seconds (compared to 12-15 seconds on my curado Es). i caught a 12-pound striper on the caenan and the drag was very smooth and consistent. the reel remained smooth and quiet for the entire time i used it (about 3 hours total). the braking was exceptional...not a single backlash and didn't need to adjust the reel even once. i could feel a little bit of looseness in the sideplate in my palm and the spool tension knob feels cheap but those are my only gripes. i also immediately swapped the foam handles with a curado handle which is not really an indictment on the foam knobs as much as an indicator of how much i love those big, fat septon knobs of the curado. bottom line: the caenan is a keeper.

their number is (800) 228-4272. if you order more than $50, you get a 20% discount! shipping is typically between $3.95 and $8.95, depending on the size of your order. i think their customer service is fine but have been frustrated each time i've placed an order because at least one of the items i want will be out of stock and they will not backorder parts for you.

i started out dropshotting with casting gear because i try to avoid spinning gear whenever i can. i got both of the shimano crucial technique-specific dropshot rods in 6'6" (CRC-D66M) and 7'0" (CRC-D70M) and, man, are they sweet rods. paired with a daiwa sol or shimano chronarch 50MG and they feel great. however, the more i dropshotted, the more i found that i actually preferred spinning gear for that technique. since pinpoint accuracy is often NOT an issue, i could get away with spinning gear. plus, working the bait is easier on the wrist when the weight of the reel is hanging under the rod. i also liked the quicker drop getting the bait down to the strikezone faster.